Davis Tackle

Hello and welcome once again to the Davis Tackle Website.

Let me start by saying well done to Paul Piper, who captured a stunning common river carp of 20lb 12oz on the 17-6-10, the reason I am saying well done again, is not because of his capture because we have already done that last week, its because he has had problems downloading the photo, but he has now succeeded, and here it is.

This week the conditions on the river are very much the same, low and weedy, despite a small amount rain, which did nothing to the river except make the pathway weeds grow a bit quicker. There have been a few more swims cut by Chris, Simon and Nick, many thanks and it's looking good.

Simon had a bit of a relax after his hard work and was rewarded with a chub 5lb+, but he did remark that the going was tough. Chris Amos, was also on the banks this Monday, and as they say when the going gets tough, the tough get going, and a nice bag of fish was taken by Chris, a chub of 5lb 8oz, plus a bream of 5lb 13oz and a nice barbel of 6lb 2oz. Chris was also rewarded with some of the splendors of the great wildlife that can be seen at Throop, firstly was the great sight of a deer swimming across the river, he also watched a badger going about his business, all that in one day, can't be bad. Many thanks for the report, it was nice to read.

On Tuesday, local angler Dave the Merc, was bagging up on bream to 6lb, as I have said before they have been showing in great numbers, it makes me wonder if something is not afoot, as the Royalty bream seemed to have gone missing. [Ed's note: You're welcome to hang onto them at Throop Brian]

Local angler Alan Paget has again connected with a nice barbel of 11lb 6oz, bringing his total to 5 barbel so far this season, but not content on catching such a nice fish, he then caught one of the famous Throop chub, well done Alan. Sid Thomson had a couple of chub to 5lb.

Wednesday and another double figure barbel has been caught, it fell to the rod of Darrel Hughes and weighed 11lb 5oz, well done Darrel and thanks for the report. It's nice to see Kenny Parsons back on the banks for a three day trip, but what happened on his first day, well it was tough but he did manage to save having a blank, by catching an old friend that I know as Quasimodo, it's a chub of 5lb which has a big hump and is ugly as sin.

Along the river it was a tough day, but there were a few reports of chub and bream being caught along with the dreaded eels.

Thursday and I managed to have a few hours fishing with my wife Tina, yes you know her, she's the one that always beats me, don't forget she had a good teacher, well anyway, I tried very hard to steer away from the bream and eels, I did manage to catch a chub of 5lb 12oz, but was unlucky to have one of my favourite species sneak it's way onto my hook, the eel. Now wait for it, yes Tina does it again, she finished with 7 bream to 6lb plus 3 eels that doesn't seem to bother her at all, but it was muggings that had to spend ages washing the landing net. Sid Thomson had a long session, but only managed to capture one eel.

The best reported catch was that of Chris Allport with a carp of 20lb, plus two chub to 6lb. Kenny Parson was back for his second day of his three day trip and succeeded in catching a nice bag of chub, which included specimens of 4lb 2oz, 5lb 6oz, and two crackers over six pounds, a 6lb 2oz and a 6lb 6oz monster, and if this wasn't enough, he followed it up with a barbel of 8lb 6oz. Well done Kenny.

Friday and today saw the return of the two lads from Bracknell, and that is Chris and Steve, Chris done ok, finishing the day with three chub to 5lb 12oz, so he went home happy, but as for Steve, oh dear oh dear, the last time he was at Throop, he was proud and showing off his new Hardy rod, I said that he should replace the manky old reel with something new, well he took my advice and bought a nice new Shimano, well it made no difference, poor old Steve blanked, so he went home fruitless, never mind Steve at least, Chris proved that there are fish in the river. Many thanks lads, it was nice to see you both again.

Rick Willson (yes, my little lad) also blanked, he blamed the two otters that were swimming past in his swim, I told him to stop moaning as it was better than working. Further downstream I only had one bite in my two hour session, and that came just as local lad Keith Humpherys phoned me to tell me how he bagged the barbel on the River Wye, CHEERS KEITH. There were quite a few chub coming out along the river, along with the bream, many of these fish were around the 5lb mark. Kenny Parsons finished his week with a nice chub of 5lb 6oz. It was nice to meet up with you again, and many thanks for your report and photos. Kenny would also like to thank Steve and Andy and Irish George for taking the photos.

Saturday and its my turn to brag, an evening session brought me 4 chub to 4lb, plus a barbel of 9lb 14oz, they were all caught from a weedy swim and returned safely to the water, all this despite being in the vicinity of two recently seen otters. An unknown angler had the misfortune to lose a rather large barbel. There were again a lot of average size chub caught along the stretch.

My Saturdays are never going to be the same again, my son has bought a holiday home in the area and this will see me fishing with him during the evenings, as most of you know, I did not fish much at the weekend.

Sunday was my day off from the river, I did get a few reports of chub and bream being caught, but I did not know of any barbel being captured. There was however a very strong wind that was playing havoc with the fishing. The weather for the coming week is great for sun worshippers with temperatures reaching 30 by the weekend.

To close, I have just received a last minute report from Ken Thompson that he landed an 11lb 10oz barbel on Friday which is pictured below.

If you would like to report any catches, we would appreciate it very much, last year the E.A. fishery officer used a lot of this information for his data base, but it is quite disappointing when a lot of local anglers keep their catches to themselves, I do respect this, but as you know, I do not reveal where the fish are being caught, so if you would be so kind to send me your reports, then e-mail me on hutch29@btinternet .com or you can phone me on 07740777967.

Please mark your e-mail reports, subject THROOP.