How did you get on?

[103841]

Killing Eve almost killed my fishing!

After some extensive research I've located a mark which is good for mullet allegedly. I went there yesterday morning only to be confronted with a wall of security and all the usual paraphernalia that goes with a film production. Killing Eve has arrived in Margate, if it was good enough for Only Fools why not? I wasn't best pleased and headed back to Whitstable but returned this morning in the knowledge the circus had moved on a short distance to Dreamland. No mullet just one small schoolie, I won't show the photo I took, (respect to Gary) instead a pic of one of my favourite ladies that a well known Margate photographer took.

Jodie looks far better than any bass anyway.

I wasn't alone today however, constantly overlooked by this chap

 

[hooferinsane]

Well following the thread that I started a couple of days ago dropnets , I went out today to the location, had about 20 roach, and this river carp below who was landed and returned safely (with the really long landing net handle that I purhased.) No weighing scales on me but he was about ten inches long. Got snagged and lost a big chub too later on in the day, I got all my end tackle back and he didn't go off with any of my tackle attached. All caught on a 5ft telescopic pen rod.

 

[103841]

Nice one, thanks for posting.?

 

[108831]

Around 12ozs,looks older than that...

 

[flightliner]

Remember when I posted of doing a recce of a tiny notts river some 10'wide and some 9/12" deep a few weeks ago?
I went back today with some tackle, a rod, landing net and all the other stuff in a pocket, hooks, shot, two floats and a disgorger.
I couldnt believe how much the place had altered since my visit back then , the river was actually hard to see, it was so overgrown, nettles some 4' hi,brambles far longer then expected crossing the almost non existing trail hampering any walking by snatching at trouser legs, new and heavy woodland growth blocking out light (?) making for a cooler experience was a mixed blessing as poking a rod thro it all was almost impossible!
It was still pretty humid and when I finally got to my first swim I realised my bait was still in the car #%"§¶®©#?.
By the time I'd got back I was pretty well worn out but I carried on, rod assembled, landing net readied, a kwik drink and I was ready.
Peering thro the hi bankedge nettles on a set of worn out knees is no joke, and niether was the distinct lack of fish, carefully I bent a few nettle stems for a little more view and ease of using the rod at maybe 15% efficiency, eased myself backwards to a nearby bankside tree to stand against and then began to introduce my bait which was simple bread.
At first I was rolling small pieces between thumb and forefinger and flicked them midstream, nothing, no tiny fish even but undeterred I carried on and ten minutes later was a little surprised to see a Barbel, maybe 3lbs plus appear out of nowhere and right behind it was a nice chub.
I stopped the bits of bread and went over to floating crust, such shallow water it was impossible for it not to be seen and it was, the second one down and a bowaving chub took it 15 metres downstream.
I baited up with a biggish piece and with a little difficulty managed to thread the rod between the nettles and lowered the bread onto the waters surface where it proceeded its way down to the place the chub had struck but it was a blank rundown.
Trying again I hamfistedly found myself hooked up on a small overhanging twig that gave me no option but to reach out to free it, the resulting bowaving of fish beating a hasty retreat was really upsetting and forced me to move some several swims lower thinking I had blown my best chance of a decant fish.
As before the new swim was just like the other--- difficult ?!
There were tho a few tiny chub presant that would maybe give themselves up but not before floating crust was tried again.
Nothing, I was about to try for the small fish but decided a few more trots with the crust would not do any harm, and it didnt, another bowaving chub came out of nowhere and after a good scrap and difficulty manouvering the the rod it came to the net, 3lb max maybe but I was delighted considering the difficult environment ?!
Note to self, go back with a much shorter rod for trotting!!!


.

 

[The Runner]

Back to the mark on Loch Bracadale where I had a couple of nice rays on my last visit,
Damp bike ride over the hill road as the clag/cloud/mist was down to less than 120m this morning and the middle 5 or 6 miles of the route are mostly 130 to 150,,,Thankfully it burned off and fished most of the day in bright sunshine. Got there more or less bang on low tide, usual mackerel strip on a running ledger with a long trace, lobbed it out 60 yards or so and a bite first chuck resulted in a sea scorpion. Not a good sign, they seem to be the saltwater equivalent of ruffe or bullheads in that you only seem to catch them when you don't catch much else.
Also like ruffe and bullheads they're capable of taking a bait as big as themselves...This was on 4" of mackerel on a 1/0

Missed a decent bite about half an hour later, then nothing for a while before the dogfish moved in at about half tide up. Had three in an hour, missed a couple more but even these were a lot smaller than usual.. Dried up again , fished on until an hour into the ebb but no more bites on bait.

While all this was, or wasn't, going on, spent a good bit of time watching the rod top while flinging various spinners and lures around trying to replenish the mackerel supply- managed only one, which took a small dexter wedge on the drop, and an 8 inch pollack. They'd better turn up soon as probably only got enough left in the freezer for half a dozen more sessions. Had a chat with a local crab fisherman on his boat laying his pots close in to my right (and who apologised for disturbing my peace !) who said that he'd hardly seen or heard of any this year yet either.....
Obligatory scenery shot, across the loch to Ardtreck Lighthouse and Fiscavaig

A couple of gannets diving fairly regularly for something about halfway across the loch, and had a cracking line bite from a grey seal which came half out of the water and bellyflopped onto the line about ten yards out. Best of the wildlife though was a Short Eared Owl quartering the rough grassy field on my walk back to the road. First I've seen in many years.

 

[seth49]

Back on the same water as Tuesday, it had fished well and one side was in the shade all day, another decent day with carp coming at intervals through the day, no tench though from my swim, mick had a few including a golden one as well, as did Neil.

Alternated between pole and rod and pin, both caught using either mussel or soft expander pellets left over from Tuesday, did lose three from hook pulls could have been foul hooked, finished with nine carp, which gave me a total of twenty two for the two outings.

It was a pleasant day in the shade, and I avoided the heavy shower which caught mick and Neil out, I did say it looked like rain, but they thought it was staying dry, when you’ve worked outside most of your life you can mostly tell what the weather is going to do.

Yesterday’s swim.

 

[103841]

A short two hour session on the estate this morning, so much cooler now, very pleasant. Fished schoolboy style using a short whip freelining bread flake next to some lily pads.

Had bites from the off with a few plump roach, the obligatory bream and a nice tench that tested the whip to its full extent.

Unwittingly I disturbed a falconry display when Albert, yes it's name is Albert, swooped down and nicked my ziplock bag of bread and had the handler frantically chasing it across the grounds, ten minutes later an out of breath handler returned the bag now punctured from Alberts attempts to open it, the crowd at least found it amusing.

 

[no-one in particular]

Like the Runner, no signs of mackerel here, very strange, good weather, temperatures, clear sea. I don't want to be right that this species is collapsing but they could be. Chatted to a couple on the pier today, one small plaice but interesting conversation with one. he has a diver friend who went down under the pier a couple of days ago and said there were a lot of bass under there. I know they are there but difficult to fish under it or tempt them out but, I have in the past, starting to get the old twitch back..

 

[103841]

Seems the same all around the coast Mark, I'll be glad when and if they arrive, it gets boring on many of my Facebook groups with people keep asking "have the mackerel arrived yet".

Having said that, looking through the HDYGO posts of last year, I didn't catch any until September.

 

[bullet]

Yep, down here they seem to be arriving later and later, and when they do there's masses of small ones not much bigger than Sardines ( fantastic Bass bait)
Going back, I'd have been confident of a few from loads of marks anytime from Mid April onwards, but not these days.

 

[no-one in particular]

Yep, down here they seem to be arriving later and later, and when they do there's masses of small ones not much bigger than Sardines ( fantastic Bass bait)
Going back, I'd have been confident of a few from loads of marks anytime from Mid April onwards, but not these days.

Same here, good and bad years but the general trend has been down, smaller shoals, smaller fish and smaller window when they appear. Losing the mackerel will be a disaster, they are an important part of the food chain. I am beginning to think that when they claim a species is sustainable that spells disaster for it but, that better be a subject for another thread.

 

[108831]

Well having no size or catch limit is pretty catastrophic in my book...especially with massive foreign vessels out there stalking the shoals...

 

[bullet]

Went on one of my Wye trips last week, thankfully just before the heatwave struck and all the fishing closed, which was a blessing, as we had a fair bit of coin invested in the cottage and we had both taken the wives, and sitting around all day listening to them instead of fishing......I'll say no more..!
Anyhow, the plan was to fish a couple of our favourite stretches in the day, get home and have some Tea and a few beers, and have a lob or two in the garden peg at dusk.
First day we were down pretty early and could see the River was very low, but I know the stretch fairly well and suggested to my Mate that we walk down a bit to where there is some faster shallow stuff.
On arrival I fed a few pellets into the fast water and could immediately see Barbel coming up after them in the crease.
On with the float and first or second run through produced a fish, average Wye stamp of about 6 lb.
The Canoes then started coming down in their hoards, plenty capsizing and crashing about in the swim, but it made absolutely no difference to the fish, who continued to feed with enthusiasm regardless.
In a few hours we caught some cracking Barbel, and a couple of nice Chub, but eventually they started backing off so we changed spot and tried on the lead for a couple of hours which produced nothing.
Back to the digs for something to eat and drink and a cast in the garden peg, not expecting much as it looked more like a Canal than a River, but we caught a couple of good Chub just at dusk.
Day two on another stretch, which again we've fished before and its been good to us, but always in good water when wading and float hasn't been an option and it's been lead/ feeder all the way.
My Mate set up in a peg and got the feeder out, and I decided to work my way down the beat wading as much as possible with the float and a pouchfull of various pellets.
I really felt it was going to be tough, bright sunshine and low water...
A big plus was being able to see lots of features for future reference, like slabs of bedrock with gullies....

Wading down I fed and fished a few spots but only had a few Chublets to show for it.
Eventually I got down to about 100 yards above were my Mate was set up and started to wade down through, the water suddenly started to get a bit deeper and push a bit, which turned me back, and there were some Willows overhanging my bank.
I fed a few pellets as I had been in the other spots and gave it a run through....nothing, and 3 ft deep at the most.
Couple more trots and the same result...oh well!
Next run I thought let's try creeping it right along the edge of the Willows, it ran down to a branch in the water and I held it right in front as close as I dared, float buried and I was into a strong fish which just kept digging to get under those willows, I started backing up into a shallower, slack area and eventually netted a nice Barbel after a tough fight.
After a brief rest, did the same again and had another....then another....
Went back to my Mate to have some lunch and see how he was getting on, nothing on the feeder, so we went back up to the spot with the float gear.
The Barbel obviously hadn't read the Script about not liking the Sun or low water, because the swim was now in full sunshine and a bit of time feeding pellets steadily had brought them right out from under the willows and almost to our feet.
Good sport was had by both of us, all fish in the 6 to 8lb bracket and fought like tigers, my thumb is still numb from having to press so hard on the spool of the pin!

Already Looking forward to going back, hopefully in September.

 

[Pete Shears]

A steady southerly breeze on the big reservoir this morning keeping the temperature tolerable. Spodded out some groundbait etc this time round and both method rods were beeping away merrily until things eased off around 9am. Managed to have over 20 bream between 2 & 4lb, 12 or more roach to over a pound, 4 roach/bream hybrids fighting like tench and a hand sized perch,one of a shoal which were hammering the fry.
About 11am it was getting warmer and mixing more groundbait was out of the question so went for a walk. One angler had had two double figure carp and wandering down to the next swim to my left I ended up chatting with Steve Ringer for about 20 minutes.
A pair of small waders were flying up and down all morning,2 oyster catchers flew by, plenty of buzzards dodging crows and driving home saw four red kites.

 

[wetthrough]

Another day on the Dam yesterday. Didn't GB the margin this time but I don't think it made a great deal of difference, maybe it's the weather. Haven't done it for a while on the Dam but used the bait dropper at around 12+M and that's where most of the activity was throughout the day. The margin wasn;t completely devoid of activity just not the stamp of Roach there that I'd had in the past, not bad though. Perfect day weather wise. almost fresh first thing and quite comfortable later on in the shade.

Switched to the 12M mark fishing about 3" over depth (it's about 8' deep) starting with small Roach to caster and oddly a reasonable Perch took a caster.

Had around 25 by midday to around 8oz. It almost invariably quietens down from about 11am, picking up 1.5:2 hours later. From about 2pm some half decent Roach and a couple of hybrids and a single small skimmer.

A total of 44 by the end of the day at 4pm with only two in the afternoon for swinging in.

 

[108831]

That perch seemed thin Gordon,I think you need to feed em,lol

 

[The Runner]

Original plan for the weekend had been to have another overnighter where I caught all the Spurdogs the other week , but thought better of the two hour plus walk each way given the temperatures.
So just had a day after the pollack up at Kilmaluag- knew i wouldn't be at its best with bright sunshine but gave it a go anyway. Big tide so only took lure rod as would likely only get half an hour where could hold bottom with any lead that my heaviest rod is capable of casting far enough to clear the kelp and ledges.
Got there just before half tide down, tide run belting across the edge on the middle section of the rocks (unnamed on any map), had a couple of chucks with a 15gm jighead and a Cannibal Shad but it was getting whipped straight round so changed to a 28gm Dennett Super Sprat. That worked, two decent pollack in the next twenty minutes, here's a very blurry pic of the bigger of the two, no idea what went wrong here...

But then quiet apart from four little pollack of only a few oz each. Decided to move along 400 yards to the end rocks under the cliff at Rubh'an t-Sailleir as the big tide might give me a bit longer on there before had to retreat.

but while there were plenty of fish here, they were all small. 6 or 7 pollack and coalies all this size so rethink time again

Intended to move back a few hundred yards past where I'd started to catch the start of the flood on the gullies at Bun Idein but when it came into sight could see that other anglers had beaten me to it, so just dropped back on the middle rocks again as tide running the wrong way for the alternative of Rubha na Tragha. One pollack about 2lb more or less straightaway, another about a pound and a couple of little coalies to follow but hard work . Every fish I had apart from one of the small coalies was taken very deep, nothing in midwater at all which I put down to the bright sun and flat calm. The other three anglers soon moved along to near me, having had only a couple of small fish from the gullies, one of them quickly getting a three pounder but not a lot else other than the odd small fish again. One of their number was a regular visitor who I'd met in the same place last year so had a good chat and mutual brain-pick about various marks...
Called it a day at about 6 with no sign of things improving with the tide. Pic from the end of the walk back, One of my favourite spots, could wish there'd been a house on the market here when I was looking to move up, but suppose it would have been an awful long way to the nearest pub...

Very little wildlife about in the heat but what there was was impressive- a Peregrine overhead in the afternoon upsetting the local oystercatchers, and a Minke Whale (possibly two) surfacing a few times about 300 yards out.
As expected, fishing wasn't anywhere near as good as it can be here, but a lovely day to be out

 

[108831]

What beautiful coloured fish,kelp I take it???

 

[The Runner]

Yes, heavy kelp close in on the deeper water and solid in the shallower bays. All the small pollack have that lovely colour, less so on most of the bigger fish.
Have seen three decent codling caught from that area (not by myself)- would have expected them to be the classic kelpie / red cod colour too but they weren’t.