Dan Picksley - Fishing

25/05/2026

Little bit of lure action.
Caught on the Rapal Countdown Elite mini Trout. Spiny little creatures 🤣
Video shot with DJI Action4 with a polarised filter.

25/05/2026

Club match at Retford yesterday and knew it was gonna be a tough one with Carp splashing all over the place spawning. As expected it’s fished rock hard and only a handful of people caught. I’ve fished up to a Lilly bed and lost 3 in the Lillie’s and managed to get just two in the net. I’ve weighed around 16lb for 3rd place with just 18lb winning, so those lost fish have cost me.

Got home packed car and travelled down to Cornwall for a bit of family time and a little Bass fishing. I’ll see if I can get some lure action going once beach camp is sorted.

10/05/2026

Today has been a trip to Shireoaks. I’ve gone and drawn peg 32 again that I messed up a few weeks ago but I prepped a rod specifically for that peg last night.

I’ve setup a method on the NuFish 10ft Affinium, 2oz tip, 10lb detexion no messing about chucking to an island with over hanging trees.

I’ve thrown 10meters past the stickup trees into the danger zone. It’s been a difficult start trying to get the fish to come out into the open where the cold NE wind has been blowing. I’ve started with micros with a second skin of Super Crush expander that should explode on impact. It’s done the job and drawn a few fish out.

I’ve then moved onto a mix of micros and GB, then as the afternoon has gone on ended up on just micros double skinned.

I’ve had a good run of fish and then the last half hour gone short and had a further 4 fish.

I’ve ended up winning with a weight of 104lb-7oz which has been a better result from that peg. The setup has been right today and the Drennan Carp Circle hooks have been superb with the method.

09/05/2026

Last year I had some huge Bass chasing my small spinners but they never hit them.

This year I’m going prepared, softbaits, sandworms, sand eels.

03/05/2026

I’ve been on a club match today, sporting the new NuFish Affinium 10ft feeder rods, these have performed faultlessly and been broken in nicely. 😆

The first half of the match I’ve fished method with micros and groundbait close up to a Lilly bed catching bream with the NuFish silo, I’ve lost 3 carp in the Lillie’s which give you little chance of getting them out.

Whilst catching bream I’ve primed a short method line down the margin and dropped on that for the last 2 hours, catching 60lb of carp.

At the weigh in I’ve done 91lb 4oz which has been enough to win today. The rods are fantastic, a really nice progressive action and power where needed, I’m very impressed.

These were paired with Shimano XR 4000 reels loaded with 8lb NuFish Detexion for a really nice setup. Rod action can been seen in the video.

25/04/2026

Nice warm day today and it woke the Cats up, I’ve setup a FreeSpirit Cat Tamer with 30lb Berkeley Pro main line and 100lb Catfish Pro hook link and hook, bait of the day a 24mm Catfish pellet soaked in Salmon oil for 6 months.

Put down a bed of Krill boilies and dropped the rig on top. The tell tail liners were followed by a run which has resulted in a small cat for Arlow.

A further 2 runs we didn’t manage to get hooked up but it was exciting all the same.

22/04/2026

Mequinenza Day 4
First run of the day, Dan lands 27lb big rudder common and the best fight of the week.

Update:
Nick lands a common of 33lb. Dan is back on the rods.

Update:14:35
Dan land a 33lb common, lovely condition torpedo.

Update: 16:00
Nick lands a 23lb common. Dan is back in the game.

The sleeper rod is off and a 23lb common closes the week.

We’ve ended with 18 fish between 20-39lb and lost 6 so it’s been a successful few days.

Whilst on the boat there’s been a cancellation for August, so we’ve booked again and will be bringing Arlow to get his PB raised and with this the catfish will be in full swing.

21/04/2026

Mequinenza Day 3
Having fed the swim before leaving last night I expected a quick response, it didn’t disappoint.

The first rod has set off and whilst playing that, one of the others has gone off. We’ve ended up with a double in the first chuck.

Fish weighing 27lb and 39lb.

Update: 11:28
Dan lands another fish of 18.5lb

Update:12:38
Nick lands a young male common of 17.5lb

Update: 15:25
Dan lands an 18lb common.

The take it in turns for fish has now got an added twist, he who catches the last fish has the power to nominate a rod of choice to the other angler, obviously this would be the rod of least chance, but it means all anglers are fishing and have the opportunity of a fish, just that one angler will have 3 rods versus the other angler with one rod.

Update: 17:10
Nick loses another one

Update: 17:40
Nick lands a 20lb male common.

Dan is on the rods.

Update: 18:15
Agreed to pack up at 18:15, guide calls time and the rod screams off. Fish runs down river and pings off. Ffs gutted.

Thats day 3 over, last day tomorrow so hoping to finish on a good one.

20/04/2026

20/04/2026

Mequinenza Day 2

Later start today having fished into the night last night. The Cats are moving up river to spawn so it’s going to be difficult to catch one.

We going to focus on Carp but you still have a chance of catching Cats on the carp lines.

Gonna be a hot one today, they’ve also opened the dam down Riba Roca so there’s a good flow on it this morning.

We’re up and running, only a small fish of 20lb but we’ve got another in the boat and it put up a great fight.

Update:
Nick just landed one at 37lb lovely looking Common.

Update:
Dan just landed one at 33.5lb, long fish with growth potential.

Update:
Nick just lost an unknown that ran down river and snagged up.

Update:
Nick just landed a cod from Tony’s (15lb Common)

Update:
Dan just landed a 21lb long common.

Update:
Nick lands a 23lb common

Well that’s another day wrapped.

We’ve ended up with 6 fish and two losses, one unstoppable.

Baited the swim ready for tomorrow’s session with a grubby bucket of corn and beans.

19/04/2026

The rods are out!
First day on the river, hoping to have a few runs.

We’ve split the day into two sessions, a morning session 7:00 - 13:00, then back to the bar for food and a beer, then back in the boat at 17:00 - 23:00.

The morning session ended with the loss of a big fish then session 2 started with a 20lb common.

X2 Cat lines out now and x2 Carp.

It’s dinner time on the Ebro.