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Tag Archives: allcocks

Chub bag – end of season.

16 Friday Mar 2018

Posted by The tuesday swim in General fishing, Tackle

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

allcocks, bag., bait, chub, fishing, handle, london, millican, rolling, roving, worm

nick the messenger bag millican

On Wednesday my bag referred to  as my ‘chub’ bag was finally laid to rest for a few months. It offers everything that I like about my angling, it’s lightweight, compact,  keeps me mobile and it can only fit the bare essentials, my angling  is lean, my approach is simple. On my last trip  of the season I took to the River Wandle (for the very first time) with friends Garrett and Tony. The technique was thus;- rolling a worm down some fast runs with aid of two swan shot and a no 1 next to the hook to keep the bait down. The result? Well Garrett sums up the trip perfectly in his own words here.

 

Advent in spoons 2014

24 Wednesday Dec 2014

Posted by The tuesday swim in Tackle

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

allcocks, fishing, Hardy, lure, mahseer, old, pike, salmon, spoons, tradition, vintage

 












Spoons 23:12:14Toby 24-12-14text

 

Tackle boxes part twelve. The split shot tin.

08 Thursday Nov 2012

Posted by The tuesday swim in Tackle

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

allcocks, fishing, Hardy, Henry, milbro, opsprey, PDQ, shot, split, tackle, tin, tins, wilco, wilkes

I’m not a collector of these little tins but more an accumulator of such items. These tins tend to turn up in job lots of tackle bought, found at the bottom of larger old tackle boxes or bags. I’m too young to remember them being available in tackle shops but I’m quite familiar with them being used by more elderly fishermen when I was fishing club matches on the Sussex Ouse, along the Lindfield stretch in the early eighties. I still use these tins for small items of tackle such as swivels and beads, more for nostalgia than for any other reason, as the sliding lid does tend to stick, especially in cold weather!



The Wye in autumn & a barbel.

08 Monday Oct 2012

Posted by The tuesday swim in Barbel

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Aerial, allcocks, barbel, fishing, wye

Just over a year ago I started this blog after returning from my annual pilgrimage to the river Wye. I’m still not too clear why I write this blog as I generally find anglers writing about their catches uninspiring. There are a few that paint an interesting picture on such outings through words, but with the Tuesday Swim I guess I wanted to write about the little things in angling that I found to be interesting and any related items, whether it was tackle, places, anglers, some history, a song or indeed an interesting capture. I have in fact been on a  few trips this year and caught some good fish but fail to record them here as I felt there was no point in turning the Tuesday Swim into a diary. So I will tell you this now, the catch for the Wye for 2012 was one barbel around the 7lb mark caught in the dark and in the pouring rain, only one blurred image was taken as the camera failed to respond in the wet! The catch was a little disappointing but there is still a tale to be told…

So rather than words below is my photo story for my three days on the Wye.





A pair of Allcocks Aerial C 815 3 & 3/4″ centrepins.

01 Monday Oct 2012

Posted by The tuesday swim in Tackle

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

3 3/4", Aerial, allcocks, angling, auctions, C815, centre, Centrepin, pin

I have always fancied owning an Allcocks Aerial, some models do command a very high price amongst collectors which has put me off but many are quite reasonably priced especially the post war models which are excellent users.

This weekend was an early start as I was working at the Angling Auctions in Chiswick, while browsing through the cabinets on the friday I spotted an Aerial C 815 which was a good ‘user’ and I had a thought that it may just pass by the bidders who seem more focused on Speedias (currently very much the reel of choice amongst traditional users) or the more elite centre pins like the Coxon and the earlier Allcocks that the collectors favour.

Lot 192 came up, a starting bid of one hundred was announced and the room fell silent, my hand raised and the hammer fell, Neil at Angling Auctions does not like to hang about when the room becomes a little sleepy, a few quick lots normally wake the hall. It happened a little later on with a pristine Mark IV thats also fell at the hammer for a £100!

Coincidently, this weekend I had my eye on a EBay lot marked down as a selection of sea tackle, pick up only. Within the single group photograph lay what suspiciously looked  like another Allcocks Aerial. I contacted the seller and my suspicions were correct after two new images were sent. Sunday night, a last-minute bid with a few seconds to go and another Aerial was in my possession for £30, plus a fishing bag, cardinal reel, some sea rods, a fly waistcoat and a fly box! The lot was up in the west Midlands somewhere but this is where my cunning plan came together, I’m heading there this thursday to fish the Wye at Hereford for my annual week after barbus maximus, and possibly a Wye pike to celebrate the start of the pike season. In the meantime the reel pictured will be loaded with 8 or 10 lb line (I can’t decide yet) and hopefully the other Aerial when picked up will get the same treatment as I take it down to the Wye.

Cane’d on the Wye and a juicy plum!

13 Saturday Aug 2011

Posted by The tuesday swim in Barbel

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

410, allcocks, barbel, cane, carp, fishing, mitchell, pellets, reel, river, rod, split, superb, wye

Sometimes the summer slips by too soon or just never seems to really heat up, this year it seems to be a case of both. So when a fellow piscator friend of mine invited me for three days on the Wye, I grabbed the opportunity for a late summer session.

I’m lucky, as the spot on the Wye near Hereford belongs to my friend’s parents. I spent a week there last year so I knew what to expect and more importantly I knew this stretch of the Wye.

A Georgian house sits one hundred meters back from the river, where a large sloping garden meanders down through an orchard and then through some over-grown shrubbery to the river bank. This makes fishing very comfortable, a cast or two for a few hours then back up to the house for diner, a glass of wine (or two) and then returning to the river, grabbing a few plums along the way and back to our quarry, barbel.

My approach to fishing is simple, anything held in the hand is traditional  the rest i.e the terminal end is completely modern, for me it makes sense.

Rods were held high using very long bank sticks, bites are so severe that the bend in the rod or a ‘churner’ from the reel is enough to tell you a fish is hooked, at night Starlites were attached to the rod tip. No bite alarms, simple.

Traditionalist look away now! The terminal end consists of PVA bags, hair rigs, pellets, boillies, braided hook links and chemically edged wide gape hooks when presenting a bait. The general technique on the Wye was to use two small 8mm pellets, hair rigged with a PVA mesh bag attached containing 4mm pellets, this was cast out on most occasions.

Traditionalist, you can look back now!

Rod and reel consisted of an Allcocks Carp Superb and a Mitchel 410. Cane rods fit well in a natural environment and performs just how I need them to, soft on the strike but as the cane loads with pressure it comes to a stop and then becomes a powerful tool to land bigger fish, this is certainly true on the Wye and the barbel.

Fishing for three days undisturbed, allows you to approach the whole experience in a different light, as you have time on your side.

Firstly, building up a swim can be done methodically adding ground bait in certain areas, resting them for half a day. The theory is that smaller fish arrive instantly and hoover up the smaller ‘cloud’ of ground bait, the activlty from the smaller fish attract the larger fish which move in and start feeding on the bigger offerings in the ground bait mix. At this point after allowing the swim to ‘rest’ another bombardment of ground bait is delivered along with a hook bait. This baiting technique leaves the barbel competing for food and then it’s just a case of waiting…

Also, a three day session can allow you to really get to know the river as the day progresses, observing patterns with the fauna, a peregrine hovers at dusk over the opposite bank for small mammals or possibly a chance sighting of a fish. Salmon were leaping at night although at times it was hard to distinguish between salmon or a carp, either way the splashes created were immense. On one occasion we saw a salmon leap in the late afternoon, it’s silver and pink flanks defining it’s status.Understanding the feeding patterns of the barbel was our priority and it seemed on this trip the evenings were most productive. At night we had some success with the barbel but generally it did tail off and the chub moved in. Fishing during the day was slower but still resulted in a few barbel including one I had on the last morning, I had a hunch to get up and have a final go and literally on the last cast caught a lovely seven pound specimen, a nice ending to the trip.

Three days resulted in some great fish all in pristine condition and all hard fighting, no rods were lost although it was close on a few occasions. The Wye is a great river to fish, in summer it generally glides past but as the autumn rains start it can quickly become quite a brown torrent of fast flowing water, my return to the Wye will hopefully be in October when the river becomes a little more angry…

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Quiet
I find it difficult writing about the process of catching a fish, but this story had another layer worth sharing. Fallons Angler issue 26 out now - in the company of Britains finest angling writers #fallonsangler #tench #tenchfishing #sevenpoundtench
Pond Life
Back to the hammock
Oh joy! Seeing an old friend is great but after Adam just discovered he won Best Show Garden at RHS Chelsea 2022 was priceless. Adam looked down at the artificial stream in the Rewilding British Landscape Garden and said ‘so good, you could cast a fly into it.’ It was. Adam I hope we cast a fly soon, lovely to see an old Sussex boy.
Can never pass Ditchling Beacon without taking a stroll. #ditchlingbeacon
Another film done - Gritstone and Galena link in bio
Fallons’s Angler have promised to do a film up north, delayed over the last two years we finally met up with Graham Vasey on the Tees and soaked up the atmosphere while Graham trotted for the grayling. @will_memotone dropped the perfect notes over the top. The film will be out tomorrow at 4.00pm (25th march) on the Fallons’s Angler YouTube channel
Another Fallon’s Angler trip done, the epic Tees, a unique pub with the atmosphere of a forgotten front room and good fishing. Our new northern adventure coming soon… #kirkhead #teesgrayling #fishingfilm #fallonsangler #teesdale #canonc100 #trottingthefloat #traditionalangling #wadingtheriver #durhamfishing
Finally made it to the Tees, filming starts in an hour #fallonsangler #fishingfilms #grayling
Packing the camera kit for the Pennines - A Fallon’s Angler film coming next month. Waterproofs, waders and binoculars at the ready. #anglingfilms #fallonsangler #graylingfishing #rivertees #pennines #fishingfilms
It’s hard clearing the last few items from my parents house, some items I’m familiar with like the tobacco tin full of drills, others are not so, like the stamped coat hangers found in my father’s wardrobe, coat hangers ‘pinched’ over a lifetime, London, Bristol, Scotland - stories now lost.
Goodbye 2021, it has been one to remember #neighbourhood
The sun did return in spectacular fashion #wintersolstice
Snuck out Friday for a pre lockdown chub, the healing qualities of a fish is fathomless #chubfishing #mentalhealth

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