One for Judith rixon,s days out

I have been asked to write a bit about about fishing from the female prospective. I am not really into match fishing, or at least not to serious about catching the most, (unless it means doing better than Tony), I just enjoy being outdoors and with my husband.
I have done quite a bit of fishing over the years, with my first love being boat fishing, now closely followed by barbel fishing .
Tony and I used to go boat fishing quite a lot before the kids arrived. Then I had to find a hobby I could do and take the little monsters with me if necessary.
So when I got my third munsterlander the breeder asked me if I would show him and try and qualify for crufts, which we did and I won best puppy dog with him, I was bitten and enjoyed showing for many years, with varying amounts of success, but always managing to qualify for crufts.

Unfortunately last year I hurt myself and am no longer able to show, as everybody seems to think I should have a hobby I asked Tony if I could start fishing again, and he was only to happy to oblige, mainly going with him to matches and watching, but also when able having a go after the match, also we began doing a bit of drop shotting and lrf fishing which is great fun, which is very affordable and great fun for young and old.

Also there is no groundbait or dirt involved  so nothing to get under my nails lol.

Then we started doing a bit of boat fishing mainly in the self drives off beer beach ,great fun being out on the sea with Tony, plus I normally manage to out fish him, which he says he doesn't mind but I now better, I can't believe how competitive I have become, I don't even mind putting my own bait on even if it is trying to savage your fingers when you do(ragworm), and you can eat what you catch.
For a change Tony took me to Huntstrete to try and catch some carp, Tony showed me how to use the bander etc for the pellets , all was ok but I still need a bit of practice with my knots, fairplay to Tony he seems to have endless patience, I had several nice carp between 5 and 14lb

 ,
 catching more than Tony again. We've done this a few times during the summer and the time just seems to fly.
Not long after this I saw Shaun kitteridge had been to the river wye and had some barbel, we had tried to catch some a few years ago but only managed to get a few chub. So Tony had a word with Shaun and jon in the shop (veals) and they suggested a place called aramstone fishery which is run by a river keeper called Stan, so a day was sorted and we soon found ourselves on the bank in a swim reserved for us by Stan, after a few more lessons from Tony in the use of bait drills and chrochet hook, (bait needle) it took me about 45 minutes to get a bite which resulted in a nice 5lb barbel, my first and I was made up and wouldn't care if I never had another  bite, but I did and had another one shortly after, Tony was now sulking , but it all came good in the end as we had 4 each, but mine was the biggest being 7,10, which was 1oz bigger than Tony,s best .
I needed another fix of this so we found ourselves driving over to the Wye again on 10th of November for another crack at the river, after a 4.9 brekkie in the premier inn just north of Gloucester, (that score as they did buttermilk pancakes with maple syrup).
 As there were no other anglers there on the day we had the whole stretch to ourselves, so after getting stuck in the mud up by the old bridge, Tony managed to push us out, we decided on a swim just below where we fished last time, as Stan said the area had been producing a few in recent days, and as the temperature had dropped significantly since our last trip, we heeded his advice, I was a bit more confident about getting sorted and tackling up so we were soon ready and fishing, with large cage feeders with a halibut groundbait with 6mm pellets mixed in and double hair rigged 8,s on the hair.

It was always going to be a struggle due the to cold wind and lower water temperature,s, but it doesn't help when I look around at the wildlife , namely swans and kingfishers both of which came really close today,
I missed a bite which Tony reckoned on being a chub as it was just a bit of a rattle, then Tony connected with a fish that turned out to be a nice chub of over 3lb.

Soon after that I had another bite which thus time I connected with and also had a nice chub of about 3lb.

About 1,30 Tony said we ought to have a move so we upsticks and went about 300 mtrs further down, again its a bit hard with no bites , so at about 3.45 tony says we will give it another 15 minutes then pack up, a few minutes later and my rod goes over and I'm attached to a nice little barbel of about 5 lb, so at least I had one.

 Back out again for "one last  cast ", and the tip soon goes over again, this time it all goes solid mid river in a snag, Tony told me to put the rod in the rest and give it some slack line as this sometimes works with the fish pulling the tackle free from the snag, and luckily it did and I soon had a nice chub in the net, it was a nice fish which Tony weighed, and it went a level 4lb which is 1/2 oz bigger than tonys best, then I get a lesson with scales and ask for a reweigh, never ask for a second go as it now went 3.15, 1/2 oz smaller than Tony,s  best , lesson learnt. I'm sure Tony did a little dance to celebrate.

But at least I did better than him again with 2 chub and a barbel to his single chub, without a doubt we will be back on this lovely river , probably towards the end of the season, unless we get a nice mild spell in the weather.
I have been asked if I am ever going to fish a match, but I'm not sure I couldn't sit still for that long ,there are a few women in the area who match fish, but I'm still learning to be honest so we  will have to wait and see,
I'm surprised more wives and girlfriends don't have a go, they May be pleasantly surprised.
And of course none of these days would be at all possible without the help of our daughter who helps out with the dogs, so lots of love to Lauren rixon x .