How did you get on?

[John Aston]

Well, after the best winter fishing I have ever had , with lots of big perch and good chub and barbel , I am having a drought. I blame the cold weather but in a number of sessions for tench and trout I have endured more blank days than I dare admit and the only decent fish I have caught since early March was - curses !- out of season - a 1-15 grayling . Things have to improve soon or I will be tempted to tell Joanne that I'm just popping out to the river again - but to omit to tell her it is one in France ...

 

[mikench]

That’s a loaded question Ray to which I do not know the answer.

 

[no-one in particular]

In the new Gladiator remake Russell Crowe fights large fish

 

[seth49]

Back on usual fishery today, had to scrape the windshield before setting of as it was frozen over, and the fields were white with frost on the way over, when I got there the chap before me was sat in is car with the heating on, no rush he said the line is freezing to the rod rings as it was -3 degrees, still by the time I’d set up it was above freezing.

slow start on the pole, although my first fish was a crucian followed by a roach, tried a few baits but two maggots worked best, over groundbait as usual, for the first couple of hours, bites were hard to connect with, I’d feel the fish and then it came off, but that did improve as it warmed up, finished with two crucians, 4 F1s, 2 tench,plus roach and skimmers with a few Ide plus a barbel, 27 fish in total.

Quite warm later in the sun, then it clouded over and cooled down a bit, but pleasant enough in the afternoon, so not a bad day but no carp in the margins later for a change.

 

[seth49]

Back on our other fishery today, I fancied a go for the tench today, as I had 8 of here last week, fished my pole at three sections plus top kit, I raked the swim and then fed chopped worm and groundbait, and fished half a dendrobena over that, caught steadily all morning and had 12 by 12 o clock, plus a crucian, a small carp, an F1, and three skimmers.

After that it was too windy for the pole, so put it away, and rigged my tip rod up, with a cage feeder full of ground bait and first worm which didn’t work so tried maggots and caught 3 more tench plus 2 more skimmers, it then started to go cold and the bites dried up so I called it a day, so a day of two halves morning was good the afternoon not so much, still nice to be out and catching, just wish it would warm up soon.

 

[@Clive]

Two hours out and never got my rod out of the car. The mullet, carp and barbel swim was occupied by two local anglers fishing tennis ball sized balls of bread on a treble hook. There was barely any flow and the mullet were totally disinterested in any free offerings. Never saw the carp or barbel. I drove about 12km to a village where it looked like there could be river access. There was. But only with crampons and a climbing rope. It is a bank holiday weekend so the area is suddenly very busy. It took me ages to get back to the apartment only to discover that my wife had already eaten the sandwiches I had forgotten.

 

[S-Kippy]

Against my better judgement I went trite fishing at Farmoor on Friday. I had a feeling in my water that it might not fish given persistently cold winds and a 12 hour dollop of cold rain on Thursday. So it proved.

I moved around and had my buzzer team working along on the wind quite magnificently.....well I thought so anyway. The trite were completely indifferent. Despite enough buzzers to normally provoke a response I didnt see a single rising fish. I had just the one take...a rather splendid looking brown. I packed early having seen only one other fish caught and back at the lodge I discovered Thursdays returns showed a rod average of 0.5 ie 4 anglers caught 2 fish between them. Had I known that I wouldnt have bothered but there it is.....I think I did well to avoid a blank. I think it was the rain that killed it....12 hours of heavy,cold rain this time of year is the kiss of death in my experience...trite are no different in that respect.

But on a plus note I did hear (and see) my first and very likely only cuckoo of the year. One or two can usually be heard calling around Farmoor but I wonder for how much longer ?

 

[riverman]

went to sunrise lakes at spofforth in between wetherby and harrogate yesterday and fished the middle lake.not one carp showed to the 5 anglers including myself.instead it turned out to be a roach fest with huggings of the red eyes intercepting every bait we used.me and my mate had about 40 of them between us on mussel meat corn and maggots on the pole.missed loads of bites some of them lightening fast.this is as peaceful a venue as youre likely to get right out in the sticks and at the bottom of a very long bumpy track.next visit will be on bottom lake as was told by the owner it had been fishing well.

 

[seth49]

Back on usual fishery today, nice day dry and mild, fishing was a bit slow though think it’s been very busy over the long weekend, fished two swims one out at top kit plus 3 sections, and one down the margin slope at top kit plus 1 section at an angle to the left, nothing out in the water but did catch a few on the close in swim.

fed groundbait and fished 2 maggots on my pole, had a selection of fish 2 carp, 1 crucian, 4F1s, 2 perch, and a mixture of roach and skimmers plus 1 nice tench of about 2lbs, a total of 26 fish, had to pack up early at 2 30 for a match that had been wrongly said to be on the other pond, just as it was improving as well.

 

[Steve Arnold]

A short afternoons fishing in the sun was very pleasant, but the fishing was difficult.

Enough flow to make fishing the opposite bank difficult - there is a spot there where the carp hang out. The flow eased for long enough for me to put a 4 ozs weight and boilie bait the 80 yds to hit the spot, it held there for 10 minutes and the bait was taken. A short run by the fish against a well bent rod and the fish was in the trees!

I had not noticed a "new" tree had come down into the river since my last visit. The hook length was cut a few inches from the hook!

After that the current increased just enough to push my bait out into the main flow. So I gave up on that approach, changed to a 3 ozs weight and fished downstream about mid-river. Quite a few knocks, then a nice chub got the 24 mm boilie into it's mouth far enough to find the hook....

The weather has been good for the fisherman, enough rain to keep the river healthy. The air still has a slight coolness which was appreciated, the sun here is fierce!

Looking good for the next few weeks, but where are the barbel?

 

[hooferinsane]

First time out for a few months and went to a small local fishery, about 10/15 minutes drive, so very convenient. This was only my second visit there. Caught a bream virtually every chuck on red maggot/ worm or a combo of both. Did get covered a lot in slime, at least my left hand due to unhooking . Had three carp, the best as in the pic, which gave an excellent scrap. Also caught a hybrid type fish which another angler told me was a crucian/ goldfish hybrid - was the most striking reddish gold colour, should really have taken a pic of that. All in all a good day.

 

[jon atkinson]

I met up with a mate / former colleague yesterday for a day on the bank - we try to hook up several times a year as & when work schedules, life etc allow - this session had already been rescheduled twice! He lives a good hour north of me so we generally select a day ticket venue somewhere in between. We had the sort of full English that will see you right through the day at a local café then proceeded to the venue which has four ponds to choose from - we opted for the old coarse lake (which I suspect is not actually 'that' old!). This is a mixed water, apparently with a good head of Tench, Bream & silvers plus Carp to about 15lb.

If I'm honest, this is not my kind of venue - far too popular, you can park right by your swim and the fish somewhat too obliging! However, we enjoyed our day despite not seeing any Tench or Bream. The Carp that we caught were in the 5 - 9 lb bracket and all had dodgy mouths although were clearly still feeding - they mostly came on pellet. Maggots yielded numerous small silvers and Perch, but switching to punched meat brought a handfull of better Roach in the 12oz - 1 lb bracket.

View attachment 20230503_134342.jpg
Plenty of Mallards thrashing around with Lapwings and long-tailed Tits aplenty. There was also a pair of rather confident Blackbirds that gratefully helped themselves to maggots presumably to feed their brood - amazing to see how many maggots can be clamped in one small beak!

A pleasant day in good company putting the world to rights and a pint on the way home - not a bad way to spend a day off.

 

[seth49]

Just a short session today, as my wife rang me at 10.15, to say she wasn’t feeling well and would I come home to look after her, so just the few in the photo for today, and the tench had just turned up as well, can’t be helped she wouldn’t ask if she could manage.

fished my pole at 2 sections plus top kit, out in front and left the margins till later, I use the Preston 10m edge monster margin pole, I’ve three top kits as I bought another one plus another one for cupping in, I’ve got Preston Dura Slip elastic in these, in sizes 11, 13 for tench etc, and 15 for the margin carp, I have had the pole at least 2 years and I’ve caught a lot of fish with it up to carp of 16 1/2 lbs, never thought I’d own a pole but I’ve caught a lot of fish with it, and I’m converted to one now.

 

[Notts Michael.]

Had a midweek evening at a local, stocked, day-ticket stretch of dis-used canal with the float rod and 10 quid Ebay purchase centre pin reel, which I like for this type of fishing in the margins. sweetcorn and maggots as bait. Around 7pm the fish seemed to be less cautious and a couple of Tench, the bigger one just over 3lb came to the net followed by a Crucian. A very pleasant couple of hours.

 

[Ray Roberts]

I mentioned previously that I had a trip planned at a lake near Pattaya in Thailand. Well it came to fruition today. I can honestly say that it wasn’t a pleasure. I’ve fished some hot days but this one took the biscuit. The fishery provides a bivvy with a power hook up for an electric fan, because if you stood outside you would most likely end up in a box. Did I say it was hot?

I started at 9am and I had a guide allocated to me. There were no other anglers on the lake and due to the excessive heat the fishing was dire. The guide was sitting behind my bivvy but without a word he buggered off. No tip for him! The guy who replaced him was far better and tried his hardest to put me on fish, but it wasn’t to be today.

It’s very pretty there, in the background are some temples and some kind of religious shrine that looks to be inset into the side of a mountain. There was also a whole stack of wildlife, particularly birds. The most impressive one was a bit like a goldfinch but larger.

It’s funny that I had to pay my deposit in a knocking shop when you see the name of the fishery.

This was the only thing that made the day bearable, lol.

Which the guide phones for and gets delivered to your peg. The provided a menu and the meat and potato pie was passable.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mikench]

You tell a good story Ray. It looks lovely. I can tolerate cold weather when fishing but high heat and humidity are a no no. Love the shirt..

 

[Steve Arnold]

Got done.....AGAIN!!!!

I have been waking up early recently, so to avoid the afternoon heat I was down the river for dawn. Picked the shady side of the river as 29c was forecast for the afternoon and thunderstorms later. Have I ever said the sun is fierce here? Probably a thousand times now, got to plan your summers fishing with shade in mind.

This swim has tall trees upstream which block the morning sun, also a big tree just to my right that hangs over the river. A steady flow and I felt I was in with a chance of bream, I think they spawn in the weedbeds just upstream and opposite downstream. They are a bit late spawning this year but, after a cool spring, the river has just hit 15c so I reckon they will be getting on with it soon. I had intentions of just bream fishing, but.....

Not long after I cast my feeder downstream a good swirl about 30 yds out indicated the carp were moving along this section. Half an hour later another boily swirl upstream so I got the heavy rod out. Size 4 hook, double boilie on a "D" rig, PVA mesh bag with bits and I lumped it upstream about 50 yds.

Half an hour passed then a couple of knocks followed by slack line. No carp, but a decent bream with its belly just starting to swell.....

How can a bream find the hook with a double 18mm boilie bait?

The feeder rod remained motionless, so I cast that upstream as well, nearer the weeds.

I cast the carp bait out again. Ten minutes later a massive swirl a few yards downstream of the bait.....getting a bit excited now!

Several minutes later another slack line bite, this time I tightened into a BIG fish! Across the river it charged, then upstream into clear water. I felt I had a good chance of getting this fish, two runs down now and I was bringing the fish my way. Then it went back out into the river and caught the main flow heading off at speed downriver. I guess a good 100 yds downriver it stopped, I started to gain line. But this is the risky bit, if the carp kites towards my bank there are many snags downstream. So I ease off the pressure, last time it worked for me and the fish went back to open water. This one had other ideas and kept swimming inshore, it knew where the cover was!

I use braid mainline and could feel everything, lumps of wood, bumps of the tail.....grating!!! Amazed the line held but the fish was in solid. So time to slacken off and see what happens........and this carp then swam free. But within seconds of thinking I was in control of things my line fell slack. On reeling in I found everything, weight, hook, bait was still intact. The hook had simply fallen out!

So I checked the hook, trace and line and could find nothing frayed or blunted and cast out again. But that was my lot, no more carp swirls, fish probably all spooked!

My feeder rod remained motionless, even when I swapped the maggots for a small boilie.

Frustrating, but I will be back. This swim is only a 13 minute drive from my home

 

[chevin4]

The fishing since the pike fishing closed on the 31st March has been dire. I only caught a couple of small rudd during April to trouble the scorers. This was largely due to bright sunny days cold nights and easterly winds. The conditions have been the worst possible for tench I have been targeting. Last week hopefully signalled a change in fortune. I went on Wednesday to a 40acre gravel pit after a cold start (2c on arrival at 6am) it turned out to be a pleasant day with cloud cover from mid morning. I elected to fish with 3 rods all the action came on the rod using dedrabenas on the kebab rig fished over dead red maggots which I topped up throughout the session. I finished up with 3 tench from 4lb 5oz to 6lb 10oz plus a bonus perch of 3lb 4oz. The wind was coming from a warmer SE direction which changed to a cold Easterly around 4pm which signalled a halt to the action. I am looking forward in returning next week milder conditions with SW winds are forecast so hopefully the fishing will be good and maybe this will be the season when I finally catch that double figure tench

 

[mikench]

What’s a kebab rig for tench ? Is it the same as for pike like the Fox rage type.?

 

[chevin4]

What’s a kebab rig for tench ? Is it the same as for pike like the Fox rage type.?

Mike its very similar basically it is sections of worm on a hair I also put say two or three maggots on the hook typically a size 10 sometimes the tench prefer the maggots.