How did you get on?

[ian g]

Thanks Mark ,

I heard the same myself . I had a Severn & canal ticket but hardly used it . I liked Grindley Brook and it's only 15 minutes from my house . I caught some lovely perch , roach and bream from there. I did a few WP's on the Severn with Mr O'Callaghan but never really fished their stretches as I bailiff for PA and my fishing mate wasn't a Lymm member . Don't go to any trouble about Grindley Brook , I just thought you might know the form . I'm happy blanking near to home until we can travel.

 

[Pete Shears]

On the upper soar this morning, looked good,steady even pace,nice greeny colour and a decent depth in most swims but struggled to get a bite.
A kingfisher whistled by about three feet from me - fantastic.
Moved twice before I had any action on the quivertip and then landed a bloody great signal crayfish which didn't want to let go of my hook until my size 9 persuaded it to release it. Another move resulted in a 1lb 9oz brown trout on trotted flake and moving again saw another brown trout on legered crust weighing in at 1lb 14oz. Nothing doing on a usually productive trotting swim and it started spitting with rain so home to finish painting a fence - yippee.

 

[Rod McG]

Tough weekend on the Wey Navigation.
Fished liquidised bread balled in and bread punch on a size 20....absolutely nothing.
Fed loose maggots and hemp for the afternoon and ended up with 1 roach on single maggot.
Same story on Sunday but without the one roach.
One passerby suggested bloodworm when it's fishing hard and another said pinkie, haven't tried either before.

 

[markcw]

Tough weekend on the Wey Navigation.
Fished liquidised bread balled in and bread punch on a size 20....absolutely nothing.
Fed loose maggots and hemp for the afternoon and ended up with 1 roach on single maggot.
Same story on Sunday but without the one roach.
One passerby suggested bloodworm when it's fishing hard and another said pinkie, haven't tried either before.

I would say your first mistake was balling in Liquidized bread, it can be very filling for fish,
At this time of year anything from a grape size to walnut size ball of liquidized is enough to try and start a swim, and once you have put a small ball in you are fishing for bites,
You could mix a few grains of hemp in with it if you wanted to.
As for not fishing bloodworm ,I would go with someone who has and get them to show you.
A single pinkie would be a better bet, fished the same as maggot, but on smaller hooks, Again feed just a few pinkies say around half a dozen and fish for bites, top up with a couple of pinkies around every 15 minutes until fish start to show, then up it to 5 pinkies , You are mainly fishing for bites in the cold weather.Fine your tackle down right down to light lines and small hooks .
Remember, you can put bait in but not take it out

 

[peter crabtree]

A beautiful morning on the GUC at Bourne end, took some vintage (1995) gear for an airing. 12’ Silstar light line special canal rod and a Ryobi reel. It felt quite heavy, being used to lighter modern rods. A 2BB canal grey float with 5 no10 shot to a 20 B511.
Usually a punch/roach peg but not today, had just 3 bites after changing to single fluoro pinkie, all small perch.

 

[theartist]

I was at a busy stretch down the road from Simon, managed to stalk two chub off the top fishing about a foot and a half deep from my secret swim, both pearlers in tip top condition, was going to give myself 4lb for the larger one and slip it back unweighed but the towpath went quiet so dug out the scales - 5lb 10oz lol

 

[mikench]

What a cracking pair Rob. Well done!

 

[theartist]

You always see a cracking pair down the canal in this weather, sometimes there's some fish too

 

[barbelboi]

I got in a couple more trotting sessions yesterday and today and managed to locate the dace for the first time in any number this year. Usually I know where to locate them when the new season starts and can virtually guarantee they will stay put ‘til November – then they go missing.....

The weather was dry and a mixture of cloud and sunshine, the armoury was the old Microlite2000, pin, bag and net. Fished for a couple of hours
each afternoon for a average of 20+ each session.....................

 

[S-Kippy]

Wish I'd joined Simon or Rob on the cut today.

I was in several minds as to whether I could even be bothered to go at all today given that the forecast said bright sun and little wind all day.I was up a little later than usual and after I'd ummed and ahhed and finally decided to go it was getting on a bit which meant I didn't get down the aquadrome until about 1030.

Unfortunately every ***** and his uncle had also decided to go there and every single spot in the car park was taken....and some that weren't spots were taken too. Add to this the fact that I was about 25th in the line of cars waiting to get in and I gave it up. I rang Phil who hadn't left home yet and told him not to bother....we half heartedly tried to think of somewhere else to go but there wasn't anywhere local that we fancied. I suppose that's what to expect on a nice day when you get there late and its public parking. I expected it to be busy but not that busy.

So.....I guess that's technically a blank even though I never actually unloaded the car. The forecast is filthy for the next few days so it will be next week before I even think about going again......and then I will have the double hump because there are two places I always fish this time of year and neither of them is even remotely local.

 

[Steve King]

Like Simon/Peter I gave some vintage gear an airing today.

I fished Arles Lake at Woodland View with an Abu 505 on a Normark Titan 13’ match rod.

I initially used a leger tight against the island, but after 4 decent carp the line inexplicably broke without a noise as it left the spool! I decided to change the line before using that reel again and so switched to the float. As I was the only person on the lake I thought the margins worth a try.

I had about thirty five carp of various kinds, but nothing huge, but great fun!

 

[Pete Shears]

Another piking trip to the local reservoir this morning,flat calm when I arrived and kept warm lugging the tackle to the 'Jungle swim'.
Settled in with three deadbait rods and began counting bloody cormorants,only five . . . .
Had a short scrappy fight with a pike of around 7lb, unhooking in the water as the single had took hold in the edge of its mouth.
Was watching a skylark high above the field when three buzzards drifted into view followed by a kite, then a raven flew past.Turning back to look over the water, two great white egrets seemed to be exploring treetops on the island.
A colleague two swims away had a run and banked a good looking pike weighing in at exactly twenty pounds.
A while later there was a kestrel over the field and very high was another raptor - a peregrine ?
Back to the rivers monsoons, horizontal rain and floods permitting.

 

[seth49]

Back on usual pond today with Neil and Mick, wanted to fish today before the weather breaks tomorrow, sleeper rod in right hand margin, which did nothing all day.
Rigged my pole up with one top kit for silvers, and one for carp in the left hand margin if I saw any carp come over the handful of micro pellets I threw in at the start.
Very slow start while fishing maggots over a small amount of groundbait, had a few small roach and skimmers, before hooking an F1 carp, which pulled back a bit, carried on catching small silvers but not many.

Around two pm I saw a carps tail over the pellets to my left, so swapped top kits for heavier elastic and placed a mussel in the bait band in the hair behind a size ten QM1 hook, and dropped it in the margin near the carp, it had it within a minute, it was a slow fight in the cold water, it just cruised up and down for a while till I could net it, a mirror carp of ten pounds one ozs.

Saw another one same place later, gave a good scrap too, a nice fourteen lb ten oz common in good condition too, and that was it, packed up at four pm.

 

[rubio]

Short try at end of today hoping to take advantage of witching hour.
A single small perch the only thing to take advantage of my maggot.
Maybe a nice flush of warmer rain will see a weekend to seal the season in style.

 

[Keep]

several hours a the canal, totally dead, no bites no signs of life, moved upstream twice trying to find them, horrible end to a horrible season

 

[rubio]

It ain't over yet!

 

[markcw]

Thanks Mark ,

I heard the same myself . I had a Severn & canal ticket but hardly used it . I liked Grindley Brook and it's only 15 minutes from my house . I caught some lovely perch , roach and bream from there. I did a few WP's on the Severn with Mr O'Callaghan but never really fished their stretches as I bailiff for PA and my fishing mate wasn't a Lymm member . Don't go to any trouble about Grindley Brook , I just thought you might know the form . I'm happy blanking near to home until we can travel.

Hi Ian, I made enquiries, messaged Christie the bailiff on the Severn, a couple of members and Jason the website admin.
No one has heard how its fishing

 

[ian g]

Thanks Mark . I did enjoy fishing there in the winter in the past.

 

[markcw]

Ian, I would just turn up and give it a go. Its day ticket.

 

[rubio]

Trying to make most of river but still finding roach elusive. Only one today among many small dace and chub. A few of the dace were roughed up, ready for spawning. Bites even from chub tricky to read on both bread and maggot.