How did you get on?

[Butcherboy]

Thick frost, thick mud and a strong wind.
First time on a box with a footplate, glad i got it.
Only small fish but a good mornings fishing

 

[ian g]

Headed to a stretch of the Severn where the parking is under a big road bridge , it's a decent enough stretch and the bridge offers shelter when getting changed . I started fishing at noon and was huddled under my brolly throughout the afternoon . All this talk of blanks had me fearing the worse but after a couple of hours my tip went around and I was connected to a reasonable sizes fish , not always glad to see a bream but on a cold blustery afternoon with the Severn being a bit too coloured for perch I was glad of anything . Another long biteless wait which made me switch to a maggot feeder and landed a half inch Ruffe , the smallest I can ever remember catching. Gave it until 4.30 for nothing else fish wise.

 

[Alan Whitty]

I remember fishing, once....

 

[Steve Arnold]

Even in the south of France the January weather is cold enough to kill the fishing!

After managing to catch a barbel at the end of December and then another on January 2nd I felt confident I had cracked this winter fishing. I was very wrong!

After some heavy frosts the fishing died

Then it turned cold and dreary, with rain that felt like sleet. But I have fished at least four times since catching that last barbel and have had two bites, hooked one,,,,,but my ecstasy was but a fleeting moment as a good fish was "décroché", as they say here with the customary expletive "merde!"

So some fishless photos, the usual advice during these dour winter periods is to keep moving and you will find the fish shoaled up. So I have tried many swims with a variety of features that usually hold a few fish in better times....

......and there were several more swims, all showing little sign of fishy life!

Apart from getting cold feet it has still been good to be by the river Lot. At this time of year I am unlikely to bump into another angler, maybe the French are not so daft!

Heavy rain this morning, if it continues for a couple of days I know where some fish hole up in the floods. You have to be an optimist to stick at this winter fishing

 

[mikench]

It must be worth a blank Steve just enjoying the view with a degree of anticipation .

 

[Steve Arnold]

It must be worth a blank Steve just enjoying the view with a degree of anticipation .

Yes Mike, so many wonderful "wilderness" stretches of river, just minutes from my home!

I sit looking at those wonderful views, usually with the background sounds of a nearby weir. The memories of battles with powerful fish fire my imagination, the next twitch on my rod tip may not be a leaf pushed down the line by the rivers current......there really do be "Monsters" here!

Oh yes, there is an almost overwhelming sense of anticipation, even on such dour days. It only does need the one bite! .......

and if leviathan does not oblige.....always grateful for a nice chub!

 

[terry m]

My river piking has been hard going of late, with plenty of blanks and nothing bigger than ~9lb since mid December, so a flooded Avon didn’t bode well this morning. But a paternostered smelt chugged off after about 40 minutes and a 16lb 10oz Esox was the result. The damage to the gill cover makes it easy to identify. If nothing else, it restores some confidence.

 

[ian g]

My mate who comes up in his van to fish the Severn had a 20 ,a 15 and a couple of 2 lb perch the other day on his favourite stretch , He stayed 3 days and never had a bite over the next 2 days , that's fishing

 

[Steve Arnold]

Perseverance January - well that is winter fishing!

So, it did rain heavily and the river did rise and colour. An opportunity for me to fish a flood river swim where hopefully a few fish would shelter.

Today the forecast was for sunshine and temperatures of 13c - not bad for January! I decided an afternoon fishing was a good plan, my instincts told me the fish might bite and my fishing ego needed satisfied, January had been a difficult month!

The main river was running hard and even this back-eddy had considerable flow. But this swim can hold all species in these conditions, so I put the 2.25lb rod out with a double boilie on a size 6 spinner rig for carp. That bait was cast close to the bank in the slackest water and forgotten about.

My 1.75lb rod was for feeder fishing using a variety of baits, bread, paste, maggots and boilies. This rod I fished hard and concentrated on, but after two hours no bites, then the heavier rod doubled over and instantly I realised it actually was a carp........

........after a dogged fight in the muddy waters I netted this 28 lb common carp, a really solid, deep bodied fish.

After releasing the carp I fished on, but that was the only bite. No complaints from me, a good carp in January makes up for a lot of blank sessions!

Perseverance!

 

[peterjg]

This month (January) I've managed to go fishing five times, what with the crappy weather, two doctor appointments, one hospital appointment and visit to the dentist - oh what fun!

Had a day on the Thames piking, legered dead baits in the edge using a pair of Century Armalite rods that I bought new (from Simpsons of Turnford) in 1991 and a pair of ABU 66 reels one of which I bought new (£27) in 1975. Managed one pike (covered in leeches) of about 5lbs.
Another trip was on the Kennet legering maggots for roach - a 4lb 3oz brown trout saved me from a blank.
Three trips on club lakes, managed lots of small rudd and a few roach to about 16ozs. On one trip I caught by accident while after roach a common carp of maybe 5lbs, it didn't fight much in the cold water. I caught my first carp in 1975, never thought I'd be catching carp 50 years later!

Trying a small river tomorrow.

 

[ian g]

Funny day for me today , I was targeting perch though the Severn was a little coloured and high . I went to favourite spot a long walk to a deep slack . Unfortunately the level was a little high and I struggled with presantation . After a couple of hours I decided on a move down near Actcham Bridge a big slack forms in higher levels , usually it's shallow but there was around 5 foot depth under my float. First cast and the float is away and I'm connected to something decent which shoots about all over the place . I was hanging on as the fish shook its head a few times and the hook pinged out , gutted it felt like a good perch . Ten miuntes later another bite I missed . At least I was getting bites though I missed the next one and bumped the one after that . I also had a tip rod out which I was casting around but getting no action . I finally hooked another perch on the float , playing it gently but again I lost it , getting seriously pee'd off now. After a while I got a bite on the tip rod and finally landed a chub around 2lb . As the light faded I hooked a bream around 3 lb on the tip rod. Nice to find a new spot just wish I'd landed the perch.

 

[John Aston]

A short dropshot session on a club semi commercial produced one lost perch , and a good one by the thumps I was getting on the rod, a missed take and an unusual capture I've only had once before, and on the same method - a large swan mussel ! Not snagged but caught by the 3g lead touching the open shell and triggering closure . All I could see after landing the creature - poor fight BTW- was the line disappearing into a very firmly closed shell . Some minor surgery prised the shell open and it was released to fight another day.

 

[nottskev]

Not once but twice bitten by the Trent last week, I shied away from it this afternoon and drove up into Derbyshire. The level was ok, bit the pace on the river was fierce so I started with chopped worm in a maggot feeder and worm on the hook. Just to get a bite felt like a welcome back to fishing, and the small trout were queuing up.

I'd found a bottle of some long-forgotten gloop at the back of the bait cupboard. It was years past it's best by date (surprised it even had one on the bottle) but it did seem to pull in young and impressionable trout, as I had around a dozen like that.

I wondered what the Plus was. I guess it's plus red dye as I came home looking like Diggory Venn from The Return of the Native. (He traded in dye for marking sheep, in case you're not a Thomas Hardy fan).

After an hour or so, the pace of the river relented a bit. You get pulses of reservoir water released into the river, and the pace doesn't necessarily match the weather, rain etc. So I set up a float rod with a 4g balsa slider and found that, like all the best anglers, the bigger trout preferred the float, and a couple of fish like this made the day feel a nice way to emerge from a grim period of blanking

 

[markcw]

Not once but twice bitten by the Trent last week, I shied away from it this afternoon and drove up into Derbyshire. The level was ok, bit the pace on the river was fierce so I started with chopped worm in a maggot feeder and worm on the hook. Just to get a bite felt like a welcome back to fishing, and the small trout were queuing up.

View attachment 32880

I'd found a bottle of some long-forgotten gloop at the back of the bait cupboard. It was years past it's best by date (surprised it even had one on the bottle) but it did seem to pull in young and impressionable trout, as I had around a dozen like that.

View attachment 32881

I wondered what the Plus was. I guess it's plus red dye as I came home looking like Diggory Venn from The Return of the Native. (He traded in dye for marking sheep, in case you're not a Thomas Hardy fan).

After an hour or so, the pace of the river relented a bit. You get pulses of reservoir water released into the river, and the pace doesn't necessarily match the weather, rain etc. So I set up a float rod with a 4g balsa slider and found that, like all the best anglers, the bigger trout preferred the float, and a couple of fish like this made the day feel a nice way to emerge from a grim period of blanking

View attachment 32882

I always use predator plus when fishing worm , and liquid worm for a change of flavour .
Some nice fish there kev

 

[ian g]

Back to the same spot this afternoon . Levels a little lower and not a bite all afternoon . Funny game.

 

[nottskev]

The local river is still too up and dirty to fish. It really does add up to a 6 month closed season. So, it was the marina this afternoon. The weather changed by the minute. Looking idyllic one minute .....

But then squalls of wind that had me turning up the heated waistcoat and struggling to stop the line pulling the float all over. As usual, I started with maggot while I fed the main swim with hemp and tares, and a couple of nice perch came along

Btw, I wonder if anyone else uses 1000 size reels. I've seen them dismissed as too light to balance a rod, too small to cast etc, but I find they balance a very light rod perfectly, and these ones will cast a light float further than I can see it

The fishing conformed to a typical seed fishing timetable, ie you fish for 4 hours and most of the fish turn up in the last hour.

 

[markcw]

I have used an old Mitchell 3310z on canal wands with tips that fine a gudgeon bite seems like a carp wrap around .
Also used it on my 12' Drennan Crystallite .
Both rods and the reel are over 35 years old

 

[@Clive]

I waited until the sun had cleared the frost off the windscreen before setting off. It was forecast to reach 6C by 10am and 12C in the afternooon. I arrived on the River Vienne around 10am and it still had 7 degrees to go to reach 6C. The stretch has no features of note, but is a good mixed fishery. Today it was about two feet up and powering through so much a 3oz feeder wouldn't hold in 10 foot of water. I had two casts and put the tackle back in the car. I drove down the valley to where I knew that I could fish slower water.

Swim number two had a nice crease with faster water about five rod lengths out and slower water around seven feet deep closer in. Surface water temperature was showing at 6.5C on Lucky Ducky. It is predominantly a barbel swim, but I have had around six other species too over the years. The sun was making it feel warmer than it was and there were flies hatching, a carpenter bee working and a grey wagtail hawking the newly hatched sedges. I started and finished using worm bait with maggots, sweetcorn and soft pellets in between. A 2oz feeder loaded with groundbait and loose feed held well with just a slight curve on the quiver tip.

Not a bite!