Go One Step Further and Increase Your Results

I've just had a couple of interesting days on the River Kennet Wasing Fishery where I was also able to help one the members catch a few barbel. Member Andy King was fishing on the Brimpton beat when I met up with him for a chat, after discussing weather and water conditions I explained to Andy my way of catching barbel in the current conditions, suggesting several things such as where to fish and to choose the right bait under given water and weather conditions, also how important it was to fish bait that looked different from what other anglers were using. For instance if your fishing bolies why not fish a different shape. I reckon Pallatrax squabs works so well is the designed. They also stay on the bed of the river longer than a boily which will continue to roll outside your area of fishing. Andy ended his short session with 3 barbel best at 8lb 2 ounces. A good result under the conditions where the day before we had snow in the water.

Twisted Ankle Cuts Short Fishing Trip


Sadly my friend Frank Price of Warwickshire had a bad fall, twisting his ankle, though he fished on he was in a lot of pain. Later that evening and during the night I put ice packs around the ankle to try and get the swelling down. The next day I insisted we should return home. Though he complained he could see the reason, after packing the car and getting him comfortable we made the long journey home.

A Great Team



Early in the day I had some great company with writer Tony Miles, angling tutor Trevor West, Lone Angler MD Mike O’Neill, and Editor of Total Coarse Fishing Steve Phillips who was there to interview and shoot some pics of Trefor and Tony reference their involvement with Lone Angler Company. Originally the dynamic duo “Double T” team.
Simon Pomeroy MD of Pallatrax and tackle shop manager Paul Smyth all first class anglers, there was no way I couldn’t learn something new from this team.

I certainly enjoyed time with Tony and Trefor discussing our fishing in the past especially when we all fished the River Wensum which at the time was one of the great river fishing venues.
Apart from recording interviews with this talented group for my weekly BBC Radio Lancashire programme At the Water’s Edge I also arranged the food, coffee and tea for the team. The day can only be rated a success for all who attended.

Sausage Sizzle


As many readers know for much of my lifetime as an angler I have used sausage meat paste as a bait for most coarse fish, though most people reckon its just a barbel bait, it not true. It’s been very successful for chub, bream, tench and carp, even big roach have fallen to this bait on a size 12 hook. For many years I added some sausage sizzle powder to the bait, which I reckon gave it a bit of an edge over the standard mix. Sadly I used up my last jar of powdered sizzle sometime ago. Today it’s been resurrected in a spray form by Lone Angler Company, also Pallatrax have come up with sausage sizzle bait in boily and paste form, and they even have a glug. Just before everyone departed for home I got given some sausage sizzle paste to field test.

Great Result


I decided to have a couple of hours fishing, One rod baited with the new sausage sizzle the other baited with sausage meat slightly flavoured with sizzle. Fishing the short handle Trevor West 12 foot barbel rod, fixed spool reel with braid to which I attached a few feet of 10lb fluorocarbon then tied on a size 4 pallatrax hook with 5 LG shot fifteen inches from the hook. I chose a swim around six feet deep over clean gravel, fishing about one rod length out from the bank, one bait was fished fifteen feet upstream the other rod about twenty feet down stream. Baiting one rod with sausage sizzle paste, the other rod with my normal sausage meat mix. I cast them out and sat back to wait events. Ten minutes later I had a classic drop back bite. On striking and hooking the fish I quickly realised it was a good fish. A few minutes later I netted a barbel of 9lbs. (See pic) It’s probably the first fish caught on sausage sizzle. After a quick picture the fish was released, soon another bait was in position, but as I set the rod in the rest, the tip pulled round. I soon had a barbel about 6lbs. I then baited the down stream rod with sausage sizzle and the upstream rod with my standard sausage meat. Fifteen minutes later the downstream rod indicated a bite, another barbel about 8lbs. In about one and a half hours fishing I caught five barbel losing two fish, one in a snag, the other by a hook pull. All on the sausage sizzle. I missed three bites. All but one of the bites was on the new bait.

Of course you can’t tell how good bait is after just one short session, but I reckon the company might be on a winner. You too should soon have the chance of fishing this bait from the Pallatrax stable where it should be in some tackle shop in a few weeks time or through Pallatrax on line. I must make it clear I have received no fee for writing this item; it has been written to help you my listener and reader to hopefully catch more fish.
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