How did you get on?

[Steve Arnold]

Very quiet on the Lot recently! No rain and low flow means tough fishing!

Today was typical of recent outings, had to try a variety of baits and end rigs to scratch a few fish out. Looked good at first as within a few minutes of casting out I had a small barbel....

The day had started frosty but by mid-day the sun was warming.....

I was getting a bite a cast on 16mm boilies but the fish were not hanging on. Eventually I got one of the suspected culprits......

A decent bream of 4lbs. Not had many this year so quite pleasing!

Fished on through the afternoon with biggish baits, always hopeful for a better barbel. But with low flow I knew there was little chance.

Eventually I had another small barbel, just as I intended to pack up and retire to the warmth of a wood burning stove and a large whisky. So I stayed on into darkness in the hope of that mythical French double figure barbel.....

No luck! But worth the cold feet just to be in such a magnificent environment - and not another angler seen all day! ?

 

[nottskev]

Fished 11am -3pm on the Old Lake. It was pretty chilly and I had the place to myself. The bailiff usually fishes from his waterside pavilion, but even he'd gone by midday, and the light had an evening feel all day.

As usual I set about it with two swims, two rigs and two baits, hemp and maggots, and liquidised/punched bread. I didn't get so much as a bite on the bread, despite trying throughout the session, and the maggot fish were, as last time, pathetically small for the first two hours. But things looked up after that, and even though I only finished with 10lb or so, the fish in the second half were a lovely stamp with roach like this

And some super perch

I'd had to scale right down - 20 hook, .08 line, no 3 elastic, so fish of this stamp were satisfying enough, and it was probably just as well the tench and carp weren't feeding in this cold snap.

 

[john step]

An extremely frustrating day on the river. I went out with my light lure rod and a generous selection of lures.
To say the pike were active is an understatement. There appeared to be several herding fry and attacking them up and down in front of me all day long.
I tried everything without a single hit. Small silver lures at various depths to "match the hatch" , sinkers, spinners, soft rubbers you name it.
They were so preoccupied nothing I did mattered. Thats fishing.

 

[Pete Shears]

Another lure fishing trip to the large reservoir this morning with a cool NW breeze blowing on to the dam but at least it kept the rough stonework
facing dry and not too treacherous to walk on.
Casting out and immediately had a perch about 12oz followed by one of exactly one pound when weighed then a shoal of perch started boiling on the surface about 20 yards out. Twenty perch later they had drifted away and in to deeper water - time to move.
Had a few tentative knocks on long range casts as i worked along the dam but did not connect with anything.
Stopped for a chat with a fellow angler who was feeder fishing and connecting with bream to over 3lb.
Returned to my start position and managed another four perch, one just avoided being food for a pike of about 15lb.
The shoal moved even further out way out of range - 50 yards plus so it to rest my arms and go home.

 

[flightliner]

I've been fancying a decant chub of late, so with some lovely looking steak and mince I headed to the Trent this morning to an area where a friend had tried last year with a modest degree of success.
The river was at the end of its run to sea and about to turn when I finally had my rod baited and in position.
To be honest the clear water, low level and flat calm low light level day was'nt inspiring.
Some half hour into my day I thought my feeder had begun to trundle along the bottom but some few seconds of it and there was a definate single "rap", nothing else, then it stopped.
"false alarm" I thought but the rap had me curious so I struck to find no resistance —— then there was!
It was'nt a lot. By any means but something was weakly pulling back and when it finally broke the surface it turned out to be a flounder!
A first for me when using steak, had plenty in the past but not for a few years now as it seems the the hermit crabs have taken over in the "sea creature" " stakes just now.
That was it, not so much as a tap, no chub, no nothing except a chat with two not seen for a long time aquintances.
The light levels started to drop pretty fast but I persavered into dark with nothing to show for my efforts so headed home back up the A1.

 

[bracket]

My Lady decided to wrap all the Christmas presents this morning so I had two and a half hours on the river. Got there about eight, 2C temperature, bright sun shine, but a biting north wind. I have had a lot of fish on the float recently, so for a change I fished the feeder. I opted for a peg I've always fancied but never really had much success:

second put in I had a massive rap and got this:

that's unusual, I must have dropped it straight on its nose. Contemplated my navel for the next 40 minutes then got this.

that seemed to set the pattern for the session. I finished up with a total of five face savers and chilled to the bone by the wind. Still not got topside of this peg, so at 1045 I said "That ul do me" and left it for another day. Pete

 

[silvers]

well, after yesterday I’m considering packing it in ...

another Wednesday trip to the Belmont stretch of the River Wye for some bagging of chub, dace, roach, perch or even bleak ...
or not!!!
I drew a peg upstream on the ash path, but bad news that with a cooling and very clear river the upstream sections can become very hard. At the weekend pairs event, the whole section above had been pretty much blank and we’d had three more days of cold and clear. I said to the organiser, who’d drawn the next peg ... that it would be chub or bust (and sadly I was correct).
i elected to feed two lines ... inside at the bottom of the marginal shelf with some ground bait and then maggots, and a bolo line down the middle - where I made the mistake of just loose feeding ... making the error of judgement that this would be more successful in the cold and clear conditions.
it was a lovely windless day and quite mild ... topping out around 8c. so I could control my floats perfectly ... they just refused to go under. I managed just 5 little chub, same number of roach and two dace for a paltry 7 pounds and eight ounces.
The organiser above me had a dozen slightly better chub for 21 pounds ... all caught in the second hour. And then below me it started to get better ... although again they caught majority of their fish in the first hour and a half.
The only anglers That I beat were the two slightly further upstream.

70 chub for just shy of 100 pounds won the match , followed by and 80, a 70 and 66 pounds that included over 50 pounds of perch. So most anglers had a good day ?

 

[bracket]

well, after yesterday I’m considering packing it in ...

silvers. Don't even contemplate it. Back in my halcyon match fishing days, I had a period where no way could I put my hand in the bag right. So much so that I earned the nickname "Cyanide Pete". After the draw people would rush over to find out where I'd drawn, hoping and praying they weren't with in a mile of me. Eventually the curse was broken (I slaughtered a Cockell, and said a prayer to Odin) and a stream of brown envelopes began to come my way again. Something you have to live through. So grit your teeth and persevere. Pete.

 

[silvers]

silvers. Don't even contemplate it. Back in my halcyon match fishing days, I had a period where no way could I put my hand in the bag right. So much so that I earned the nickname "Cyanide Pete". After the draw people would rush over to find out where I'd drawn, hoping and praying they weren't with in a mile of me. Eventually the curse was broken (I slaughtered a Cockell, and said a prayer to Odin) and a stream of brown envelopes began to come my way again. Something you have to live through. So grit your teeth and persevere. Pete.

It was only joking really ... just felt very disheartened With everyone else bagging up ... been there two weeks running and have drawn in the worst area both weeks ... which is very unlike me ?

i’m much more likely to feel that way after Sunday’s winter league match on the Nene!

 

[108831]

Yes a good days hauling on the Nene might equate too less than your 7lbs...

 

[silvers]

Yes a good days hauling on the Nene might equate too less than your 7lbs...

Well Alan ... despite the hard frost and bright conditions ... the Nene fished very well (6 pound average per angler).
unfortunately for me ... I was one of the worst weights in the best section ... five pounds seven ounces.
Rob (again) did rather better ... 20 pounds of prime roach and a 5 pound bream on the whistle.

there were definitely nests of fish ... as next peg to him was a good angler who had just 4:12 !!

(don’t mention that I was two pegs down ....)

basically caught a few stamp roach in the second hour on pinkies at 7m ... and not a lot else!

 

[peterjg]

I haven't noticed any posts from Peter Crabtree recently - I hope he's ok?

 

[mikench]

I'm sure he is. He is probably fishing despite the weather .

 

[108831]

I went yesterday for a days trotting,started very difficult,probably due to slowly melting snow,river was gin clear and low,had 11 decent chub to well over 4lbs,8 or 9 chublets between 4 and 10ozs,2 smallish roach,a perch about 12ozs and a dace around 6 or 7ozs,there were lots of rats about so obviously the cold weather had forced them to the river,and the same weather had forced the swims resident robin to be more brazen than usual as from the moment it was light enough till I packed up he came at twenty minute or so intervals onto my bird table,I mean side tray,to feast on my offerings,unusually he preferred hemp to my maggots(only ate two all day),something ive never seen before,he landed on the rim of the box,twittered at me and looked up,waiting for me to say go on before taking several seeds before scooting off,this 'conversation' happened every visit...lovely.

 

[108831]

Well,I was going fishing this morning,with -1.5° forecast I wasnt sure where,upon getting out of the pit what I saw made my mind up,a layer of snow plus the frost,stuff that...

 

[john step]

Just changed my mind looking out the window. Snow settling. I wont be going the 20 miles to The Witham. Roads not safe. I must be getting old and sensible.
I am going to my very local water instead and chucking out deadbaits and snuggling down under a my brolly.
Infinitely better than sitting around with sandwich maker scurrying about doing the washing and the place smelling of damp!


Edited............
After the snow stopped falling the sun came out and it was a glorious day. Shame I blanked with just one dropped run for excitement.
However a couple of the members came round for a walk and a chat. Quite a pleasant day in the end.
There is no point in having all the warm winter clothing and not using it.

 

[108831]

I have no waters that close to warrant the effort...

 

[Pete Shears]

First trip of the autumn/winter to the Wreake this morning and avoiding rush hour meant a later start than normal. Overcast with the car showing 4.5C and the river being low but coloured.
Had bites straight away using legered crust, four chub between 1lb 1oz and 2lb 5oz, then another with a fish shaking its head hard - a roach of 14oz. Next cast another roach of 1lb 3oz which very nearly became breakfast for a pike of around ten pounds.
That killed the swim, together with the brightening skies bites stopped altogether.
Ater packing up I was watching what I thought was a juvenile moorhen paddling towards the next pool downstream fifty yards away, then it dived and disappeared - a little grebe ? - if it was the first I have ever seen on the Wreake. Moorhens , in my experience, only dive when threatened usually by sparrowhawks etc.

 

[108831]

Watch them little beggars,they love diving on your bait,sneakily diving from a vantage point out of view to grab some morsels then scooting back to its starting point,continually repeating until nothing is left,ive watched this happen for the last two,maybe three years in clear water,sods....?

 

[chevin4]

I decided on a change last week and for the first time in a year went pike fishing. I elected to fish my syndicate lake and call in on an old friend on the way home. Unfortunately the conditions where far from ideal their was a strong NW on arrival and the temperature dropped in the afternoon. Despite my best efforts in using 3 rods a d ringing the changes the indicators refused to drop not so much as a jack troubling the scorers. The strong cold wind was at least behind me and it was actually quite pleasant sitting in the winter sunshine.