How did you get on?

[@Clive]

Another afternoon on la belle Charente. King Francois said that the Charente between his birth place at Angouleme and his palace at Cognac was the most beautiful river in his kingdom. He knew a thing or two about beauty being a patron of the arts, a fan of the Italian Renaisance and when he wanted his palace sprucing up he called in that well known painter and decorator Michelangelo to do the ceilings. He was also a friend of Leonardo da Vinci who spent the last few years of his life in Cognac as a guest of the King. The Charente is a lovely river.

So, after putting in three droppers of maggots and hemp I baited with half a lobworm and fished laying on using a sliding float in nearly 4 metres of water. Nothing troubled the worm or sweetcorn and maggots brought sharp unhittable bites and stripped maggots. I changed to a trotting rig and caught bleak so went back to laying on using the other half of the lob worm. After an hour I started tidying up in preparation for a move only to see the float disappear. It was the inevitable bream. Next cast brought a small chub to then it dried up.

Second swim, another 3 loads of hemp and maggots put in then fished half a lob worm laying on in just over 3 metres of water. After about an hour the float slid under and another bream came to the net.

I added more bait and rebaited with the other half of the worm. Next bite was hit and the fish ra 10 metres downstream before kiting across the current. It was a thug of a bream! It kited, slammed its head and refused to come off the bottom. I only had a 3.1lb hook link so couldn't boss it, but eventually it graced the net.

Then that swim died and still no sign of les barbeaux. With the water temp' at just over 20C I think they will be in the weirpools spawning.

 

[The Sogster]

Had a few hours this afternoon on the same small pond as last week. The same gear as last time out light float rod and lightish lines 2lb to 1 3/4lb.
Instead of fishing over groundbait today I decided to try fishing corn over 4mm and a few 6mm robin red pellets, others on here seem to like them so on that recommendation I decided to give 'em a try.
The target species were the small tench and crucians which inhabit the pond.

My swim today.

The day started slowly with barely a knock for the first hour before a tiny 2oz tench obligingly swallowed the bait.
The bites were still slow and infrequent but over the next two hours I managed 6 crucians all of which were over a pound, the biggest going 1lb 5oz reminding me why I love this type of fishing and my 11ft ultralight.

That was it really then with little activity apart from a few pristine 6 to 8oz roach.
But I am well chuffed with the crucians.

 

[Philip]

A few days away in the sun for me and I packed a sneaky rod or two. This was holiday fishing so nothing too serious.
I spent a few mornings spinning little lures from out in a Kayak or from the beach and and got amongst some of the reef fish.

Not so easy to hold a fish, rod, phone, take a photo and not capsize the Kayak....

I managed a couple of mini Barracuda on little plugs from the beach they really smashed the lures and gave a terrific scrap on light gear...

Highlight was while out snorkling I decided to have a quick look under one of the boats moored up only a few yards from the beach and swam literally eye to eye into a monster Barracuda, it gave me quite a shock I can tell you. I went back out with a camera and managed to get a couple of shots.

...difficult to give scale but the boat is a 20 footer. I accidently swam head first into the fish ...have you ever tried shouting "WTF!" in a snorkel ?

 

[xenon]

blimey....

 

[nottskev]

Decided to give the tench pit a go this afternoon. I seem to have progressed from going fishing before breakfast to going after breakfast, to going after breakfast and lunch. I didn't like the look of things at first. Nobody else there. First swims I looked into were overgrown and not fished this year. There was a cold easterly putting a bit of a chop on the water and a coating all over of this

I like to fish here with rod and pin, and if the fish aren't on yet, as I suspected, a little feeder 20m out into the deeps is the best idea, but running line is out with the seed fluff on the water so I set up to fish the pole about 9m out in 8', but not too optimistically.

I Maggot is usually the best bait when the waters still cool, but when I potted in a bit of groundbait and a few maggots I was getting bites from little roach and perch - another bad sign as the tench are the dominant species here and the bits don't get a look in when they're feeding. By chance I had a tub of 4 and 6mm expanders I'd soaked for the canal last week but never used. They looked and smelled fine and were still firm (Preston Pro Expanders) so I tried feeding balls of micro's with pellet on the hook, and I was surprised to catch the first tench of the year within a minute

The afternoon took a turn for the better. The sun came out, the wind dropped, mother duck led her ducklings around the pit, the grebes came fishing on the next peg and the tench kept taking last week's bait.

 

[Alan Whitty]

I bloody hate it when the water is covered with willow crud,the water with very large tench I like to fish gets a line out from the bank up 8-10m of it on the windward bank,which is exactly where you need to be,doh...

 

[Steve Arnold]

Nothing much to report from the Lot, my last two sessions I have been cold and fishless!

Of course I need an excuse for not catching. Today I shall blame it on the weather - my old favourite excuse!

Europe has been affected by unseasonably cold north winds, we have not escaped it even here in the south of France. An interesting article here explains the situation "goutte froide" or cold drop https://www.ladepeche.fr/2023/05/15...actuellement-le-sud-de-la-france-11197604.php Most browsers will have a translate feature if you are interested enough.

Even the river temperature has dropped about 1.5 c this last week. Heavy rain and hail higher up the Lot has coloured the river and a very cold northerly wind has been persistent for about a week.

When I do a fishing excuse I do look for the evidence to back it up!

No bites for me yesterday but Alistair fished next to me and suddenly his rod was being dragged in. I rushed to grab it and shouted for him, he had been there a minute ago. But he had got bored and wandered off to take photos, had not set his baitrunner but fortunately his drag was set very loose. By the time I had adjusted the drag a weighty fish had slipped the hook!

So when we returned early to my home I set up his reel (again!) and also sorted him out with a proper hook and rigged it up with a knotless boilie arrangement that would actually function. His setup would have gone sideways into a fishes mouth, and it was a long shank hook with an upturned eye!

By the time we had sorted that and I felt Alistair understood Sally was putting a nice roast chicken dinner on the table. Suddenly the day seemed brighter!

 

[mikench]

Well done Kev. A netful of tench must be every man's dream, certainly mine.

 

[nottskev]

Well done Kev. A netful of tench must be every man's dream, certainly mine.

You're always welcome to come down and join me, Mike.

 

[seth49]

Usual fishery yesterday with mick , it felt cold in the morning before warming up a bit later, quite a strong breeze as well, usual pole tactics for the tench etc, been using some of the small cold water prawns for bait and they are working well for the tench etc, but for some reason the skimmers don’t like them, only had a few instead of them being the majority catch. so a good result there.

had my light tip rod in with a method feeder on an alarm in the margin for carp etc, which worked well yesterday I had a 17lb 2oz common carp on it plus four more smaller ones, had a good day with the tench with 13 in total, with 1 crucian, seven nice roach, 1 perch, and two skimmers, on the prawns over groundbait, so another good day, I’m doing well so far this year.plus four F1s as well.

 

[S-Kippy]

Early start for me today and my first coarse trip for about 9 months. Fortunately, as I now have a blue badge, I was able to park very close to my swim instead of having to barrow all my gear miles. The weather was a lot hotter and brighter than forecast and I was seriously out of touch but I did manage 3 nice crucian and 3 tench though I lost 4 tench in the pads. Those 0.75lb tc Darent Valley rods are fantastic open water rods but no good at all if a tench decides it’s going back into the lilies. I’m knackered now but at least I’ve done it and caught some fish. This is the best crucian at 2lb 6oz. Note the orange fins…a good indicator that his mum wasn’t startled by a goldfish

 

[Skoda]

Re-visited an old favourite venue yesterday with Micky. We hadn’t been there for a couple of years but it’s roughly halfway for us to meet up, so we thought we’d give it a go. It’s a group of three, well established, small, deep lakes; not particularly densely stocked. I’ve only ever caught carp (commons, mirrors), bream, roach, and perch there, but the fishery info claims:

“Carp to 30lbs, Crucian to 3lbs, Tench 5lbs, Bream 8lbs, Barbel 4lbs, Chub 6lbs, Eels 5lb, Perch 5lbs, F1 Carp 6lbs”

Upon arriving I immediately notice a sign saying, “Lake 1 Online Booking Only”, which is new and immediately set alarm bells ringing. It so happened that last year they netted the lakes and transferred all the big carp from the three waters into Lake 1 and put the smaller fish into the other two lakes. Lake 1 then became a day/night venue for £25, with twelve new sculpted pegs big enough to pitch bivvies; one double swim you could park a London bus!

We chose a couple of the swims on one of the other ponds, but I didn’t think it really mattered. Micky is a decent angler but favours carp and pike fishing; sitting behind bite alarms is his thing. I like to get the float out a bit, but this lake is a bit deep for that going ten foot at your rod end and fifteen three rod lengths out. I set up a Greys 1¾tc rod, baitrunner loaded with 8lb mono, a method feeder to 6lb hook link and an 8mm Robin Red pellet lobbed out 15 yards. I sat back and started my usual train of thought about how soon I would get my float rod out! After about ten minutes I was shocked when the bite alarm screamed off and I struck into a nice fish which Micky helped me land. It was a tench of about 4lb. I haven’t caught a tench for, probably, ten years. I reckon that I’ve only caught twenty tench in fifty-five years of fishing. I was really, really chuffed.

Three quarters of an hour later another run resulted in a fair scrap and an 11lb 1oz common, which is pretty good for me.

I had to nip back to the car park for some more pellets. Several vans had turned up after we had arrived, and I couldn’t help noticing they seemed to be all trades people: plumbers, electricians, general builders, landscape gardeners and solar and heating installers. No wonder you can’t find a tradesperson these days for love nor money… they’re all out fishing!

Later in the afternoon a strange thing then happened, I had a bite and hooked a good fish which I had on for ten or fifteen seconds which before everything went slack and on close inspection noted that the brand-new hook link, a Drennan size 16, to 6lb line had broken at the loop knot. I attached a new Guru method feeder hook size 14 to 9lb line via a quick-change bead (I know, 8lb mainline, 9lb hook link - tut tut!). Ten minutes later another good run resulted in hooking a nice fish which was on for about ten seconds before all went slack. This time the knot attaching the mainline to the quick-change bead had slipped. Extremely cheesed off; this was certainly my fault. Bad fishing: relying on made-up rods that rarely get new rigs attached. Hopefully, lesson learned.

In the last hour I hooked and landed four more carp in fairly quick succession, all about 5 or 6 pounds. An interesting and enjoyable day’s fishing; first tench for ten years and a lesson learned the hard way but will be remembered.



Andy

 

[seth49]

Different venue today, which I’m keeping quiet about as it’s got potential for a big tench, just me mick didn’t fancy it, so float fishing with sweetcorn as I stupidly forgot the prawns, over groundbait, now for a good few years my personal best tench has been several at 3 lb 8ozs, mainly because I don’t fish where the tench are much bigger.

that’s now changed as the first one today weighed 4lb 7ozs, and the next one 4lb 15ozs which is my new PB, plus two more over 4lb, plus one did me in the reeds, and another came of, I love it when a plan comes together.

 

[The Sogster]

Decided to go to the estate lake for a few hours this afternoon as I wanted to try out my new aero xr4000 reel.
Opted to try for tench on the float with 5lb mainline and 4.75lb hooklength to a size 14.
Baits were pellets, corn, meat and some bandum sinkers.
The day started badly when on arrival I realised I'd left my unhooking mat and scales at home, fortunately mats aren't compulsory on this water.

My swim for the afternoon.

Introduced some bait and tackled up while having a cuppa.
Plumbed the depth and baited up the hook.
First cast and the float dives under, I lift into the bite and an area of water round the float about 3' in circumference boils at the first thrashing of a very large and angry carp only for the hooklength to part milliseconds later.
Retied a new hooklength and cast again for a repeat performance, snapped again by a carp. Grrŕr....
... and then unbelievably for a 3rd time.
OK thinks I, I'll get the feeder rod out and use that, that reel is loaded with 8lb line. Only to realise I'd left the reel at home. Doh.

I persevered with the float and thought about fishing 5lb straight through but I don't like doing that.
Luckily the next few bites were from a couple of decent sized bream around 3 to 4lb, and some nice 12oz roach.
Then I had a powerful fish take the bait again, a couple of good runs and this pale beauty graced my net.

After that the nuisance carp piled in again, I managed two at around 5 pounds, before being smashed twice again by monsters. The carp go to mid twenties.
I packed up after 4 hours, but I'm not happy with losing fish to inadequate tackle. My fault and bad angling really.
On a plus side the reel is fantastic, a serious step up from my old Japanese shimano power aero 4000RE in terms of lightness.

 

[mikench]

That looks a very picturesque location. Add in fishing and it’s nigh on perfect. Size of hook,strength/diameter of line and hook length are always a compromise depending on your quarry.

 

[The Runner]

Spent more time last year over the West side of the island concentrating on the spurdogs so it had been two years since I last fished down at the Aird at Gedintailor: not one of the best pollack marks here but usually consistent enough and certainly one of the most picturesque

Arrived about 90 minutes before low tide , only took lure rod with me and set up with the old favourite Dennett Super Sprat. Very deep water here, takes a 22gm lure about 35 seconds to reach the bottom thirty yards out and that’s with no tide run…anyway , second chuck and got this after only a couple of yards of the retrieve: only the second half decent codling I’ve had from Skye in nearly five years ( had more on the mainland from Kyle to Loch Duich)

And that was a bit of a false dawn. Never had another touch, worked my way back and forward along the 100 yards or so that’s fishable here with various lures, had put a few frozen prawns in the bag as an afterthought and spent an hour float fishing these next to the kelp in the side where it’s about 20 ft deep but nothing around, thought it could be good for a wrasse or two.

Gave it until two and a bit hours before high, was originally intending to stay a bit longer but seemed to be flogging a dead horse so walked back towards another lovely view

and had a recce of a potential new spot a mile further down the road on Loch Sligachan. Looks good but much of the east side here seems a struggle to find better fish . Will give it a go though.

Good wildlife day, had a Golden Eagle come over low as I walked across the beach on the way in followed by a White Tailed Eagle going the other way a few minutes later. Lots of oystercatchers about, and a good number of common terms ( not at all common here) and kittiwakes with a dozen shags and cormorants feeding in the afternoon a few hundred yards offshore. Presumably the pollack were out there too feeding on the same baitfish the birds were after….

 

[jon atkinson]

I had a work party yesterday morning so stayed on afterwards to fish one of the ponds on what we refer to as the main group. May & June is a mixed water with a good head of fish including quite a few carp to mid doubles which you need to allow for in your set up. I fished the waggler, starting on sweetcorn on a #14 hook. Caught a few Ide and a small Roach after which things quietened down, so I switched to punched meat which brought plenty more Ide, all of 1 lb or more, a brace of Brown Goldfish, a Perch of about 1 lb, a Tench that leaped from the water as a played it and a couple of small Carp including a pretty little mirror. I was snapped off by a larger Carp and had hook pulls on a couple of others but that didn't detract from an enjoyable, peaceful afternoon session.

 

[@Clive]

Managed a session on the Charente today. My car is in for some work so I borrowed my wife's car on the understanding that I had to stick to tarmac, no off roading. That cut down my options. First swim was abandoned after two casts as it was full of carpet weed. Second swim was more promising until my line snapped at the knot between braid and leader. Closer examination revealed the quiver tip had a shard with the remains of the knot in it. As I only had the one rod and no spare quiver tips I made a repair using hook link braid and Super Glue Repair Gel. I let that go off while I walked back to the car to get my cool box for lunch. A new leader and rig were fashioned before I started lunch and I was into a fish before I had finished my dessert. It wasn't the inevitable bream, but a cheeky carassin. That was followed by the inevitable bream, another two carassin and another bream. All on sweetcorn.

The swim died and I was preparing to go home early. I had released the bream, photographed the carassins and put the keepnet to dry in the strong breeze when I spotted a large lobworm next to my seat box. There is an old saying; Never look a gift worm in the mouth!

I broke it in two and used the back half. Nothing for half an hour then the tip twitched and curled. The culprit was another carassin, the largest of the day. The front half of the lobworm brought me the best bream of the day.

 

[seth49]

Not much happened yesterday, arrived to find the carp where busy spawning on one side of the pond, so tried for tench on the other side, but just a few small roach, most of the fish were probably busy eating carp spawn, so decided to finish early after a couple of hours, and leave them in peace.

 

[mikench]

Gordon and I returned to one of our favourite venues in the hope of catching a few tench.

Gordon set up on the float rod( Cadence 15”) just for a change and I stuck to my Browning 13’ feeder rod with a hybrid feeder and a rich variety of pellets, chorizo, bread and corn. We both wanted tench and they obliged. I had 7 with this being representative.

I had 7 tench plus a hybrid, a small chub and roach plus this chunky crucian.

I was pleased for Gordon who had two lovely tench on the float,one to punch and the other to maggots.

I finished up with 11 fish and Gordon had similar if not a few more. It was a lovely day being warm and sunny if a little breezy and we enjoyed our catch up on life, politics and health. My leg felt a lot better and we both revelled in good company doing what we like best. I even remembered what to do. Cheers Gordon and here’s to next week.