V2V ANGLING PRODUCTIONS

I have never been shy to embrace new technology, or join in with much of what goes on these days on the Internet. I enjoy using Facebook, I have some great banter on there with many friends and it has allowed me to get back in contact with friends from the past. Recently I got back in contact with Brian Gay who many of you will know as a regular contributor to Anglers Mail and he also runs V2V Angling Productions.

I first met Brian many years ago when I had my first sojourn with Thatchers. Brian had just left the police force and was looking for another job, he wrote a couple of articles for Match Fishing magazine and they really liked them, I suppose it was all down to his years of writing up reports as a copper! I was lucky enough to do a couple of articles with Brian back in the late 90's (following my ATWL final win), one of which got me on the front cover of Match Fishing magazine with some decent chub (and I still have a copy of that mag cos I look young, lol). However, when Brian moved away from Bristol we lost touch, only bumping into each other if we were both at a big match, me fishing and Brian taking pictures for Anglers Mail.

Fast forward to today and through Facebook Brian asked if he could come up and fish the Bristol Avon with me for an Anglers Mail feature. However, due to the constant flooding we could not do this and with his deadline fast approaching Brian suggested a visit to Newton Park lake, a venue I had not fished for probably 10 years. The session followed a very hard frost and with lots of water still pouring into the lake things were looking tough, tougher even than the walk to the venue!!! Brian fished with two carp rods in the hope of a lump, and this also allowed him to set up his camera equipment and wander up to me without fear of missing a bite. I had to fish for silvers and covered my bases with a caster swim in close and also at 11m (also fed with some micro pellet), a chopped worm swim at 16m to my left and gbait to my right. To begin with bites were very hard to get and when I did get one I caught a roach of less than 1/2 ounce! This pattern continued for most of the morning and with no sun on me I was flaming cold!!! I was getting worried that I was not going to produce enough fish for a photo when Brian had a run and caught a very pretty 12lb common carp that you can see below, that was to be his only fish of the day. I finally managed one decent roach on a worm, but all hook baits were snaffled by blades, or a big bait resulted in no bites at all. I ended up thrashing on a top set for the last hour to end with just over 80 small fish and Brian used his "artistic" skills to get a photo out of it.

The result of Brian's one and only run.

A nice bag of bits kept me warm..ish!

I thoroughly enjoyed the day, catching up with Brian and listening to his angling experiences and tips, we both parted agreeing we must not leave it so long to meet up again and hopefully next time get on a river.

For those that don't know Brian has a wealth of talents in not only writing, but also photography and filming. Brian works with Will Raison to produce high quality films (DVD's and an e-magazine) where Will passes on some fantastic tips and techniques and he catches some great bags of fish. I would recommend you take a look at Brian's website which is http://www.v2vangling.co.uk/