How did you get on?

[John Aston]

A slow but enjoyable session on the river today - after a completely uneventful blank on Friday afternoon. The river was the lowest and clearest it has been since November but despite the fairly high atmospheric pressure a cool, nithering wind made it feel colder than the balmy 8C the car recorded en route. Spring was in the air , with blackbirds chinking in the trees , great tits audible and the resident kites and buzzards showing off their moves above .

Nowt over 400 yards and 90 minutes, then a slashing take on a pink creature lure on a Cheb rig produced a very pretty pike of 5 or 6lbs . I was glad I was using wire - the brilliant , if expensive , knottable Surflon in 11lb bs .

Another 250 yards and an hour later a really solid hit on dropshot lobworm , fishing 25 yards out in open water , but near a crease , and a lumpy , powerful fight from a perch which refused to register 3lbs , but I am more than happy enough with 2-15 . They look absolutely gorgeous this time of year, and unlike the washed out colours of commercial caught perch , the greens , orange and black light up a winter afternoon. Another hour without a take , and coffee running low , time for an early bath .

 

[Pete Shears]

Continuing with the 'only one bite' per trip,another visit to the upper Soar on Friday I managed a brown trout at 1lb 9oz and yesterday on the Wreake the only bite resulted in a chub of 4lb 1oz.
I did notice a lot more wildlife activity due to the lack of frosts - common egret,heron,buzzard,two red kites and a pair of jays.

 

[Ray Roberts]

A trip to the Rother in Kent today. It will probably take as much time cleaning my gear as I spent fishing.

Did I say it was muddy? Soon after I arrived a bailiff paid me a visit. The river there is owned by three clubs and he bailiff’s for them all. It was a worth while chat. It’s a fairly long, 110 miles miles round trip He gave me his phone number, as he lives nearby and does his rounds every day. He said to call him if it looked a bit iffy and he would put me right on the local conditions. Which was nice of him.

The fishing was not too terrible considering the visibility was about three feet. I ended up with five jacks up to about seven pounds. I caught on a variety of lures. I fished; spinnerbaits, jerks, shads and hybrids. The pike were fairly catholic in their tastes and I caught on all apart from the jerk baits.

I left all the gear and clothes except rods and reels in the car to sort out tomorrow. I will have to strip the reels to clean them properly, that can wait until tomorrow too.


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[Steve King]

This morning I started off on the Birmingham- Worcs canal near Stoke Prior, but I didn’t feel comfortable with the narrow towpath and people and bikes passing me and although the folk were friendly enough I decided to change venue.

I settled on Woodland View which is just a few miles up the road. When I paid for the ticket I was given a choice of either Arles or High Pool. Both pool were completely unoccupied and I chose Arles purely because it has an island!

A friendly robin sung to me from a bush just a few feet away and as I reached down to the bait box for a few maggots, the float dipped and the rod arched around. It was a pasty sized carp and was quickly followed by some decent roach plus some assorted carp up to 6lb or so.

Although I am recovering well from my recent surgery, I can’t carry heavy loads and decided to restrict myself to two float rods, and the bare minimum of gear. When sorting through my float rods I came across a rod that I had forgotten about! It is a Badger Dyna Lite 13’ rod and it was a freebie with a subscription to Coarse
Fisherman! I think originally the magazine was going to give a cheaper rod, but because of supply issues a more expensive model was issued; I don’t remember if we had to pay extra for this or not! Badger are long defunct and their reputation for truly cr@p gear was well deserved! The Dyna Lite, however has a lovely action! I guess even the worst manufacturers get it right sometimes!!I used it with an ancient Abu 505 which balanced it perfectly!

 

[Philip]

With conditions very cold but stable I was back down to a little stream after Roach. Levels still looked good and my confidence was sky high. You have to get your timing spot on here so when conditions are right you have to make the most of it. Tactics were a tiny link ledger flicked out to any likley spot.

Small and overgrown, a short rod comes in handy on tiny venues like this..

I didn’t have to wait long & second cast there was a real yank on my finger and the little 8 foot rod hooped round into what felt a very good fish. There were snags everywhere & it was doing its best to find all of them but after a some hair raising moments a clonking great Roach popped up in the edge & slid into the net. Peering down I knew this was going to be close to a special mark. The scales settled at just over the magic 2 pounds, re-weighed and it was bang on the mark so I settled for the lower reading & was absolutely chuffed.

Immaculate 2 pounder .

Although I have had bigger ones from other rivers this was a very special fish from such a tiny water. I had been after a “2” from this little river for a long time but feared the chance was gone. Although its not far from civilization it’s a little oasis tucked away in dense woodland with Kingfishers whizzing around, Herons squawking & even the odd wild boar still roaming about. However urbanism is slowly closing in & time is running out so it was nice to achieve this ambition before its lost for good.

Wild boar tracks & Roach but I fear time is running out.

I fished on for another couple of hours, more going through the motions & caught half a dozen or so more -all good sized fish- then headed for home with a smile but also strangely a little sad. I wonder if the draw to go back will be as strong now I have caught the fish I was after ? I hope so, time will tell I guess.

 

[mikench]

Well done Philip ; a cracking fish.

 

[Peter Jacobs]

Those are lovely conditioned roach and a two pound fish is still very special. Well done.

 

[Ray Roberts]

That’s a great catch Philip, I bought exactly the same rod for exactly the same reasons.


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[terry m]

Still a struggle to get close to the Hampshire Avon because of floods, but found a slack and got the first run on the river since before Christmas when my paternostered Rudd sailed away. A healthy specimen the right side of 15lb was the reward. Nice to be out where the sunshine created a bit of warmth.

 

[Alan Whitty]

Fished the Gt. Ouse today,the river had cleared,visibility of 4-5ft,I had 9-10ft of fairly quick water,never had a sniff,yet know it has a good head of fish on the stretch,I saw fair concentrations of red kites,some buzzards,three green woodpeckers chasing each other and quite a few,in the main unidentifiable small birds,on a sadder note one of last years cygnets was swimming around unwell,from what I've read probably avian flu

 

[hooferinsane]

Haven’t been out fishing due to various factors in about a year, but returned today to a small brook/stream which is free fishing. I walked the length of it a while back before the snow, and fish were still visible, especially the chub which look a decent size. Hadn’t got my hopes up due to the colder weather, hardly a single fish could be seen (it’s gin clear). Was thinking of calling it a day when four maggots on a size 10 hook tempted this chub for my only bite of the day, probably 8/9 inches in length.Stayed another hour longer, but to no avail. It’s about four degrees warmer here this coming Friday, so will give it another shot most likely.

 

[nottskev]

First time out since mid-December. I wasn't expecting to catch much with the river low and clear - there was another 5' on before Christmas when I was last here - but the combination of a short walk and a comfortable bank suited me fine today. When the river's up and coloured you can attack it with groundbait and plenty of casters, but days like today need light feeding and patience. Starting at about 10.30, I'd only had about 2lb of small roach by 1pm or so, fishing a 10' deep swim with a small slider, a 15' rod and pin, and things weren't looking good. But after that things perked up with some better roach and perch and I was happy enough when I packed up after 3pm to miss the traffic. Is there an explosion of perch lure anglers these days? I had no fewer than 8 coming and going on the 30m stretch of bank I was on. I'm used to sharing here with pike anglers, whose approach smacks less of ADHD, so I found these blokes casting closer than I'd like to my swim a bit of a trial.

 

[jon atkinson]

I was on a work party yesterday morning so had decided to try drop shotting on the back ponds afterwards. I'm still finding my feet with this technique and in truth is was way too blustery coupled with too much detritus on the bottom to do any good. Our club also has a no braid policy & I'm coming to the conclusion that I don't think that lure / drop shotting with mono is the way to go. I persevered on a couple of ponds to no avail before deciding to retreat to the Shroppie at Cheshire Oaks for the last hour of daylight where I could lob in something heavier on braid to counteract the wind. I had 4 takes - landed 2 Jacks both 4 - 5lb in a little under an hour - I was happy enough with that.

 

[john step]

I was on a work party yesterday morning so had decided to try drop shotting on the back ponds afterwards. I'm still finding my feet with this technique and in truth is was way too blustery coupled with too much detritus on the bottom to do any good. Our club also has a no braid policy & I'm coming to the conclusion that I don't think that lure / drop shotting with mono is the way to go. I persevered on a couple of ponds to no avail before deciding to retreat to the Shroppie at Cheshire Oaks for the last hour of daylight where I could lob in something heavier on braid to counteract the wind. I had 4 takes - landed 2 Jacks both 4 - 5lb in a little under an hour - I was happy enough with that.

Funny enough I have changed from braid when using light lures to a clear mono call Amnesia. I just got so frustrated with wind knots.
I dont have that problem with the thicker braids for piking though.

 

[mikench]

What a fabulous net full Kev. Well done.

 

[jon atkinson]

Funny enough I have changed from braid when using light lures to a clear mono call Amnesia. I just got so frustrated with wind knots.
I dont have that problem with the thicker braids for piking though.

More by luck than judgement I'm sure, I haven't had any major tangles on braid... yet! I opted for Preston Reflo Power being pre-stretched (and available) but it's not behaving terribly well - I suspect loaded too hurriedly onto a small spool

 

[Ray Roberts]

More by luck than judgement I'm sure, I haven't had any major tangles on braid... yet! I opted for Preston Reflo Power being pre-stretched (and available) but it's not behaving terribly well - I suspect loaded too hurriedly onto a small spool

Many people use fluorocarbon lines for both drop-shotting and BFS. I have no experience of using it as a mainline for lure fishing, but use about two meters as a leader with braid for perch. It works fine for that. I think it’s tougher than mono and I’ve had some pike over double figures when after perch on it. Not that I would deliberately fish for pike without a wire trace.


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[Pete Shears]

Another deadbaiting blank at the big reservoir today with a good mate who managed to avoid a blank with a pike of 8lb. Not much else doing apart from sheltering behind his large oval brolly from the very cold wind. Mid morning the temperature lifted and amazingly a red admiral fluttered by. Fascinating to watch a kestrel at quite close quarters hovering over the rough grass. On the way home a redkite nearly landed on my car bonnet as it swooped down to inspect roadkill, a badger cub on the verge.

 

[flightliner]

I managed to get to the tidal Trent today for a zander session after a friend gave me a half dozen small roach that had secumbed during a netting session.
Up at 6-30 am, off at 7-30 and arrived at 8-15am to face a river that looked really inviting.
I was set up in an hour with a sunken float paternostered roach and settled down with a coffee wait for events to unfurl.
I lifted into a positive run at eleven o-clock hoping it was'nt a pike and the head shaking sort of confirmed it was my target fish, it was, not big but I think any of these tricky fish that I manage to land are a success.
On the matt only one small treble had a very small purchese on its bottom lip, how it held in its struggle I dont know but thankfully it did.
That was it for the rest of the day when I started packing away at 4-30 to be home for 6pm after a quick chat to another nearby angler.

 

[Philip]

but I think any of these tricky fish that I manage to land are a success.

Absolutly ! I recon any Zander is a succsess and even more so when your intentionally targeting them from a big river like the Trent. Nice one.