Brown bomber catches some rays

If you don't like fishing and didnt read the fishing post but think Chico is gorgeous here's the very short video on its own...
The fishing was a bust but weather was great so came home and flew the bomber.

A blank..

After a slow start as I slept in till 7.15am, yes I know, but that is late for me, I decided I might wet a line. Fairly windless day it seemed so I thought I'd give float fishing a go on my new water.
I picked up a Mitchell 300a, a Shimano perfection 3500 and a centrepin. Rod wise I selected my Darent valley Specialist, lovely little Avon rod, it has a .75 test curve I believe, however is comparable to a modern version of a John Wilson Avon at 1.25 test curve but is a lot lighter and slimmer. A joy to use either with Leger or float. I also picked up my new Warwickshire Avon retro fishing rod from Roger Surgay's tackle exchange. Haven't used it yet so was hoping to put a bend in it today.
So I got to water and found several regulars in place with the pike rods all reporting fish picking baits up but dropping them with no fish on the bank yet, this was about 9.30am.
I selected a likely swim away from the others, set up two float rods, one using a waggler to probe the swim, another laying on.
An hour and a half passed and no luck, so walked further along and found a reedy bay. There seemed to be small silver fish activity so thought it was worth a punt so moved further down.

Plenty of room in this swim to fully practice the Nottingham cast, I changed the waggler to a perch bobber really just to up the weight to let me practice as I'm new to centrepins. I switched the other rod over to a cage feeder and fished 2mm pellets in it with various baits on the hook from jellets to pop up fake maggots. The float rod did nothing again. However, this strange yellow thing appeared in the sky over head, I believe it's called the sun locally, and the feeder rod burst into life with bangs and knocks as the fish were pounding on the feeder. Four hours of this and not one take or proper bite. Very frustrating. A visit by the chap who runs the site said the pikers had all but packed up with five fish on the bank for the days efforts, and carp showing.
I left with nothing at 2.30pm, it was so warm though so I don't know if this and air pressure have caused a lull. I also had a poor selection of bait in all honesty. Maggot is apparently king on this water for coarse fishing and I only had dead ones.
I went home and flew Chico for an hour instead! He enjoyed himself!

Chico's back on the block

I had to go abroad for a couple of days, but due to logistics and times etc young Chico found himself boarding at the brilliant phoenix bird of prey centre near Hingham for 11 days!!  Jo did a fabulous job of looking after him and it turns out is a little bit impressed with my cheeky little chap. Complimented me on his manners, behaviour and general level of training. My mentor would be pleased. She also got his weight down towards the end of his stay for him to be at flying weight when I got back, and I put him straight on it Saturday and again today once the rain stopped. Everywhere else is on the grip of jack frost and has three feet of snow, we just got more rain!  Anyway, flew today at a weight of 1.3.7 which is as low as he’s been in a while, he didn’t shut up telling me about it either! He screamed all the way round. When he wasn’t gripping on to the glove in the wind he was flying bloody well. Very happy. He’s deffo got it. However, not interested in hunting. So I have a rabbit carcass thawed out to try on a drag line again Wednesday so will update you then. For now, here’s a nice winter selfie we took. He’s the good looking one, I’m the one in the hat. Keep following for reviews on kit and equipment that’s both new and very old!

Restoration of a tackle box part 2

I've done some more fettling of the old wooden tackle box I got for Christmas as a new project.  The box has a two double float storage compartments, then a main tackle storage with an interesting lift out split shot compartment.

During the prep stage of the box it was rubbed down inside and out, next stage was to order some jewellery box style metal corners to protect the tired slightly damaged corners. Unfortunately...I've ordered them on eBay and didn't notice they were coming from China, so I am still waiting for my ship to come in in more ways than one!

I ordered new float box foam as the nearest tackle shop though well stocked didn't have any. They had wooden float boxes with foam but no spare foam. Just shows how much home building tackle is dying out.

The foam comes with a strip of double sided tape already attached. Now I'd stained the inside of the box and was worried the tape wouldn't stick, however it stuck like a good'n to the box but foam wouldn't stick to the tape. So I spread PVA wood glue along the tape and stuck the foam to it and this seems to have done the trick.  I've set each layer out for short floats, long floats short floats and then long floats. In the photo it shows a couple of floats in place just as an example.

Next section to tackle (!) was the small bits storage section. When I stripped the box down there was section of very thin, aged and brittle foam over the split shot storage. This was removed and replaced. I May do this again as it's not the neatest but will trial it before making a final decision.  This covers the lift out shot tray.  Now I'm making a slightly informed guess here as to what this tray is for. At first I thought it was storage for legers and bombs etc. This was what I was going to use it for. Still might. However I have seen the compartments labelled up on another example of an almost identical box for split shot. This would make sense if you didn't want lots of tins of shot in the box or couldn't fit a multi dispenser in there. My box did indeed have one of these rebates covered in lead dust that would indicate that it has been used for this. I'm not 100% convinced. I will see how it goes in use. I decided to leave the lift out tray blonde as opposed to the dark of the rest of the box as it visually popped well, but also I thought if storing small dark shots or swivels it would be harder to see them possibly. I'm happy I've done this. I think it looks lovely. This section I thought could do with extra lacquer, so once dried  thoroughly I sprayed clear varnish in all the compartments and over the lift out tray to protect it.

 Tray lifted out..

Next will be the outside. I've decided to do a rolling stone and paint it black. It already is black, it will most likely be a better finish, I don't want the box thick with paint that will take forever to cure and will snag and skin. So fresh black, new catches and brass corners is the next stage. The original hinges were fine and have been refitted.

Part 3 to follow. 

Looks a lot better than how it started.

Restoration of a tackle box

I picked up this wooden box off of eBay a few weeks ago for the other half to give to me for Xmas. I had only seen the photos which weren't brilliant and had found similar on Roger Surgay's tackle exchange so had a reasonable idea what the score was. I wanted a traditional wooden box that allowed safe storage of floats as well as other terminal tackle. This fit the bill with a double float box section as I enjoy what seems to be dying art of float fishing. I also liked the removable section originally designed for split shot, though I think it will most likely be used for legers or little bits like swivels and so forth.  Anyway, on inspection it was very sound, a little tired in places, particularly the corners.
So, plan, strip the box down, rub down, re-paint the outside, stain the inside. Add a new section of foam that seals the small split shot section, and insert new float foam in the float storage section. New catches if required, one is not catching but I think it's just it's position as it seems ok. Also would like some brass corners to reinforce the box.
The box is made by PREDATOR brand, no idea if it's a collector's item, my Google Fu hasn't turned anything up on it so time to customise to my liking without feeling like a villain.
I've stripped it down, no issues until the last hinge where two screws sheared inside the wood so will have to either move the hinges along or try and extract the broken parts.
A complete rub down of all the surfaces followed. Now, I was going to nitromors the outside but the stuff is very aggressive, stinky, messy and not always effective. I have elected for a rub down to key the surface, I would like to do the box in Burgundy or dark green, so I will update you in the next part how that goes. May have to go back to black yet.
Inside the box while rubbing down I found that every different grade, finish and quality of ply wood had been used in the construction. I was hoping to light stain it but on inspection I decided for a darker finish. The floats will certainly pop against that colour! The only piece I'm keeping light is the lift out section, I think it will contrast nicely and is made out of the nicest piece of ply in the whole box.
A first coat of dark wood sheen suitable for external woods has been painted on and went on mostly ok.
Letting it dry which is fairly quick with this stuff and I will then do the other side of the trays. Below are some pics up to this point.

William Lennon boot review

I’ve always been a fan of military footwear due to its robustness and no frills construction. In fact my go to boot for most of my activities is the US army jungle boot.  However, I did want to move away from big old army black boots and so a couple of years ago I started a search for a new boot.  The reason I like army boots, is the amount of options you have available in an UN-LINED boot. Now lining is fine and very comfortable and lots of variations exist such as unlined desert boots, lined desert boots, thermal boots, goretex lined boots etc. Years ago I had a pair of unlined German para boots and they were the toughest boot I’ve ever used, no matter what abuse they had, they remained water proof and odour free. With proper care an all leather boot can be kept water tight and the absence of the lining means no man made materials are absorbing sweaty foot odours!  I’d got myself some brasher boots and they still get used a lot being nice and light, they’ve never leaked, however, they smell. It’s the lining! So, criteria was simple, all leather construction, no lining, not in black. Well it turned into quite the quest, nobody makes them, I struggled for a long time to find anything that fit the bill, I was after something a bit like the old British army DMS boots but well built and not the card board leaky affair that afflicted our troops for so many years! After a lot of searching I found a company called William Lennon. They still make boots the old way, from a stone built factory by hand. I had to send an outline of my foot and discuss sizing with them. They then used a traditional last to model the boot I had chosen. It was an ankle boot with a stitched toe cap, in brown, unlined, and with a vibram sole. I did a lot of digging around for reviews and all were complimentary on the standards of construction.

They took about 8 weeks to arrive and when they did I was blown away. Sturdy, faultlessly constructed boots made of excellent leather. They are very much in the style of the hobnail army DMS boots.  Put them to work. They have trudged across fields, through woods, and have been cleaned up and worn around town. I’ve had them  for a year now, and I can report no leaks, no blisters, and no signs of significant wear! Now I haven’t set out to abuse them, I want them to put in some work yet. What I have found is the boots are quite generous in the last and a little slippage inside the boot is experienced, an extra pair of socks solves that. And the screws at the front of the sole scrape on the floor when an enthusiastic stride is employed. I’ve used an oil to treat initially. They are a robust boot with some weight, easily heavier than a high leg army boot, but fatigue is minimal and I have enjoyed using them so far. These are my go to winter field boot. I can say without a doubt I would order with confidence another pair from William Lennon.

First cast of 2018

First day on the new syndicate today, had the short window of around an hour and a half before I was instructed to return home and cook the pancakes.  Got on site and met a couple of the regulars who discussed the topography and fish, I then set to with a drop shot rod. The water is exceptionally shallow but in the absence of any bait in the house to coarse fish with I had grabbed the drop shot gear. I gave a couple of swims forty minutes or so. No joy, very tricky with the drop shot in two feet of water with lots of leaf litter on the lake bed.

I was after perch, I know the place is alive with small roach and pike are doing well, stands to reason the perch are as well yet no-one I have spoken to is fishing for them so into the unknown with that one.

So the drop shot was proving problematic, and seeing several pike topping I decided to try a rubber lure on a moderate retrieve.

First cast produced a nice jack pike. Heart pumping I played the fish in on the light drop shot rod. The green paddle tail soft rubber on a fluorescent green jig head on a short wire trace did the business. The retrieve was tricky as the depth meant that I was retrieving the lure a bit too quickly to get a bite but had to keep it off the bottom. However a fish was caught, well happy!

The pike was safely returned and I re-cast twice and then had a second fish a little bit bigger but was hooked awkwardly, and it took me a bit longer to unhook. I wanted him back as quick as possible so I could steady and recover the fish before release so I didn’t bother with a photo. Fish welfare is always more important.

After this the swim died and I couldn’t get any more bites, I moved next door but this was the same.

Really happy with the short session, and will gather more suitable tackle for my next visit