Bleaking...

[108831]

I watched Clive Branson's vlog on you tube,he fished a league match on the Wye on Sunday,the river was fining down,though still above summer level,he fished for bleak on 3 or 4m whips,I timed him at odd times and he was catching 5 or 6 bleak a minute later he slowed to around 4,at the end he weighed 29lbs 8ozs of bleak,he was around halfway down his section with that,the match was won with 71lbs of bleak,guess who,Hadrian Whittle,bleak maestro,how anyone can catch 70lbs+ of bleak is incredible to me,no matter how big they are....

 

[rob48]

I watched Clive Branson's vlog on you tube,he fished a league match on the Wye on Sunday,the river was fining down,though still above summer level,he fished for bleak on 3 or 4m whips,I timed him at odd times and he was catching 5 or 6 bleak a minute later he slowed to around 4,at the end he weighed 29lbs 8ozs of bleak,he was around halfway down his section with that,the match was won with 71lbs of bleak,guess who,Hadrian Whittle,bleak maestro,how anyone can catch 70lbs+ of bleak is incredible to me,no matter how big they are....

Heard about that Monday night, couldn't believe it at first.
It's amazing how so many fish congregate in Hereford on the Belmont stretch in autumn/winter. Guess they're doing bleak weights at the moment until the dace and roach start to arrive in numbers.

 

[peter crabtree]

Thames anywhere, 3 m whip and slow sinking maggot, bleakfest,,,,,!

 

[Peter Jacobs]

With the advent of Carp commercials the art (and it is an art) of whip fishing and making a frame weight has been lost.

Once you have got the rhythm of feed, cast, strike, swing in, unhook recast then put the fish in the keepnet, and repeat . . . then 4, 5, and 6 fish a minute is quite achievable . . . I've not seen the video but I am pretty sure it looks more like rhythm fishing than speed fishing.

 

[Philip]

While i can admire the skill , concentration and disipline required to put together big weights of tiny fish (71lb of bleak is just unreal) i cant help but think how i would be chucking out some perch rigs after all the match guys have gone.

With that many bait fish i bet there are some whopper stripeys about.

 

[ian g]

I was thinking exactly the same

 

[108831]

Trouble is the river would be heaving with other fish,trouble is with that number of bleak present you will be faffing around trying to get a bait down,thus slowly your catch rate of bigger fish,the colour and water temperature is the turn on for bleak,congregating in steadier water in obviously enormous amounts..

 

[markcw]

Thames anywhere, 3 m whip and slow sinking maggot, bleakfest,,,,,!

Plenty at Sanford ,then the seem to disappear for some reason and you can struggle to even catch small roach.

 

[markcw]

With the advent of Carp commercials the art (and it is an art) of whip fishing and making a frame weight has been lost.

Once you have got the rhythm of feed, cast, strike, swing in, unhook recast then put the fish in the keepnet, and repeat . . . then 4, 5, and 6 fish a minute is quite achievable . . . I've not seen the video but I am pretty sure it looks more like rhythm fishing than speed fishing.

I have fished matches on mixed fisheries and a couple of times I have won by fishing a 4 metre whip and maggot, because I knew the peg and it was always full of small fish .weighing in over 20lb of small roach and rudd.sometimes catching half a dozen fish before changing the maggot.
I got beat right at the end in one match, a lad a couple of pegs away went for the small F1,s in there, these averaged a few ounces each but never stayed in the swim for long. He caught an F1 of a couple of pounds at the end of the match.
My keepnet at the end sounded like a trawl net coming up from the water.

 

[peter crabtree]

Mark, anywhere on the Thames is bleak city. Sanford no exception? Do you ever fish the river anywhere else in Oxford?

 

[markcw]

Mark, anywhere on the Thames is bleak city. Sanford no exception? Do you ever fish the river anywhere else in Oxford?

I am going to give Donnington Bridge a try once all the rowers have stopped using it like the M6.
I had a look at the Tadpole stretch a few months ago, it was in flood and the wind was howling. I may give that a try, I know a lad who has a spare ticket for it. At the moment some good hemp roach are being caught there.
Sandford and Donnington are less tha 10 minutes from where I live, so basically they are my local stretches.
Plus there is a good pub at Sandford next to lock. ?
I want to give the Abingdon stretch a try but not sure if parts are a residents only permit.

 

[108831]

There is no chance of 25lbs of bleak on the Thames,too small,plus they back off,all they are is a pain in the bum imo...

 

[markcw]

There is no chance of 25lbs of bleak on the Thames,too small,plus they back off,all they are is a pain in the bum imo...

Not sure if 25lb of roach is on the cards either.
Going to take my whips and a couple of pints of maggots to a pool at Lodge Farm.
Will be like Zorro all day.

 

[silvers]

Trouble is the river would be heaving with other fish,trouble is with that number of bleak present you will be faffing around trying to get a bait down,thus slowly your catch rate of bigger fish,the colour and water temperature is the turn on for bleak,congregating in steadier water in obviously enormous amounts..

in last year’s Wye champs I had a peg that was c. 15ft deep just beyond my rod tip (after rising 3ft early on). After wasting a couple of hours after Barbel I reverted to try to catch some dace and roach. There were loads there, but a 5g rig was only getting through the bleak one time in four perhaps? This year I’ll be packing 12 and 8g rigs as well ... probably won’t draw Belmont this time!!

definitely bait dropper territory ...

 

[markcw]

in last year’s Wye champs I had a peg that was c. 15ft deep just beyond my rod tip (after rising 3ft early on). After wasting a couple of hours after Barbel I reverted to try to catch some dace and roach. There were loads there, but a 5g rig was only getting through the bleak one time in four perhaps? This year I’ll be packing 12 and 8g rigs as well ... probably won’t draw Belmont this time!!

definitely bait dropper territory ...

I suppose it's a decision you have to make more or less straight away,?
Go for individual bigger fish with a wait between bites or go for the smaller fish and build a decent weight up.

 

[peter crabtree]

The stretches at Sanford are good.
You have the lock channel and the meadows which is a wide slow moving stretch ,and the back channel which is narrower and slightly faster.
The lock channel is ideal for when the back channel is up and over the banks.

I think like most dead baits they would work for pike certainly it would be offering something different where the fish have been hammered. Since the waters I fish for pike are very weedy I find a pollen works well as it is a naturally buoyant bait so there is need to use balsa or similar materials to pop them up

Thanks for all the replies. Tomorrow I will take tinned sweetcorn, but also what I am going to try is marrow fat tinned peas. Never tried them before, but heard of them catching too. I did try fake sweetcorn a session or so back, but whilst taken natural sweetcorn, they refused the fake one!

I like your thinking..... imitation peas! ?

?

Plenty at Sanford ,then the seem to disappear for some reason and you can str

There is no chance of 25lbs of bleak on the Thames,too small,plus they back off,all they are is a pain in the bum imo...

Of course 25lb of bleak is possible in 5 hours if you go at from the off, Alan. Come and watch a Windsor match !! One a minute for 5 hours = 350 bleak @ half an ounce each = 25lb..!

if you can’t get 20lb of roach from the Thames you’re doing it wrong????

 

[silvers]

While i can admire the skill , concentration and disipline required to put together big weights of tiny fish (71lb of bleak is just unreal) i cant help but think how i would be chucking out some perch rigs after all the match guys have gone.

With that many bait fish i bet there are some whopper stripeys about.

They are caught up to (at least) 3 pounds on lobworms.

 

[markcw]

Of course 25lb of bleak is possible in 5 hours if you go at from the off, Alan. Come and watch a Windsor match !! One a minute for 5 hours = 350 bleak @ half an ounce each = 25lb..!

if you can’t get 20lb of roach from the Thames you’re doing it wrong????

The average at the moment is around 10lb from what I heard,
My mate who fished a peg on the Tadpole stretch had around 8lb.
A match there two days later produced 2lb, from the same peg. the fish seemed to have disappeared for the match. Some pike action on various stretches.

 

[peter crabtree]

They have thinned out now, yes. But 2 weeks ago it was possible..

 

[mikench]

It all sounds like hard work.