How did you get on?

[Alan Whitty]

Having looked on Google to find out the legality of bird lime trapping,it is an illegal but what seems common practice around the country to catch goldfinches for aviaries and cages......

Sorry Simon,for being off piste....

 

[Alan Whitty]

I've rang the rspb incident number and apart from being aghast at what had happened all they could offer was to ring 999 as a multitude of wildlife offences were being made...

 

[Notts Michael.]

Really shocking, I thought keeping caged birds had died out, where is the market for them, maybe they get sent abroad.

 

[Alan Whitty]

Apparently they are often sold to captive breed them,I'm fed up with having the threat of these people on my fishing venues,there is no access other than by locked gate,so they climb over,or damage property,then whilst your sitting there,an old man with some nice kit,you become the something for nothing target,they are awful creatures and no mistake....

 

[riverman]

just got back from a session on the swale in north yorkshire and ended up with 1 barbel and 1 clonking chub hitting the scales at 6lb 2oz and just 4oz short of my pb.the barbel was around the 3lb mark and both fell to robin red luncheon meat on the leger.left float rod at home for once and just went for the chub and barbel.i did lose another fish early doors which shot off down the river and spit the hook.so 3 takes and 2 fish but it was so nice to get back on the rivers and with a few more downpours the swale will fish a bit better in the coming weeks and months.

 

[Notts Michael.]

Alan Whitty...... 'Apparently they are often sold to captive breed them,I'm fed up with having the threat of these people on my fishing venues,there is no access other than by locked gate,so they climb over,or damage property,then whilst your sitting there,an old man with some nice kit,you become the something for nothing target,they are awful creatures and no mistake....'

On youtube there is a video from around 5 yrs ago of 18 captive Goldfinches in small cages at the residence of a UK 20 yr old, RSPCA inspectors and a police officer checking their condition. he was fined apparently. should have had his baws ripped off!
Absolutely love to see these birds on the feeders at work and on rare occasions at my sister's place where they are less of a frequent visitor to the feeders.

 

[@Clive]

I had a session on the Charente today to try out new swims I have located using google earth. The weather forecast was awful and it rained heavily on my way there. By the time I had stopped off for something to eat and bait it was just after 11am when I got to the first swim. It is outside of a bend with overhanging branches leaving about 10 metres to cast into. The water was a rod length deep a rod length out and gently shelved down a bit more. There was room for a brolly and by did I need one. It poured down non stop for three hours and all I had to show was a bleak and a small roach on trotted maggots. Nothing on the other rod fishing prawn.

After the rain stopped I loaded the car and headed for another swim. It was deeper, slower flow and more open. The sun came out which was a blessing. I had two hours without so much as a bite. A French angler came down the bank hoping to cadge some fish to use. He'd been there when I arrived unsuccessfully trying to catch some live bait. I couldn't help him. Eventually I got a couple of bleak. The other angler had gone so I used one on the second rod. A perch chased small fry through the swim so I changed my double maggot for a worm and got it while I was retrieving to re-bait. Another few bleak came to the worm and then nothing. Not even the inevitable bream.

When I got home I discovered the lid had come off the maggot box Fortunately they only got as far as the net and bait bag so they were tipped onto the grass in the garden for the blackbirds to find.

 

[Alan Whitty]

Went yesterday to my old haunt,a deep pit,where I've had several 2lb plus roach,bream to 9lb,carp to 27lb,tench 7lbs plus and catfish to 30lbs 8ozs,I rejoined after a three year absence,turned up finding the lake very high compared to my last visits,decided to fish the margins,but was surprised to find nearly 8ft of water 9ft from the bank,fed a few pellets,fished an 8mm pellet on the band,after several minutes the float sailed away,nothing,liner,so out again,a similar time passed and down it went,whoa,off it charged and I landed a mirror of around 12-14lb,then some while later I had a bream 3.8ish,then I had a spate of smallish roach up to 8ozs and a 12oz skimmer before catching a 5lb plus bream which I returned before taking a picture for this thread,doh.

 

[maggot_dangler]

Yaaa Finally Today got onto the river Tern not the club stretch the walk involed in that is a bit much still for me but the public part in the town just setting up bare hook adjust the rig dropped it in bang away it went Very nice brown trout almost 1lb i would say quickly followed by 3 more on maggots i had actually seen some very nice looking roach but the trout were like move i want that not complaining mind cant do tomorrow waiting for the postie then got the Air gun to rebuild with the parts . but Sunday i hope .

 

[Pete Shears]

First tench of the year this morning from the local reservoir - fought like hell, a male at 3lb 13oz. This water switched off completely in the constant N/NE/E winds in April and May with everyone struggling to get a bite from anything regardless of bait or fishing style, here's hoping it stays switched on but it was the only bite in six hours.
Have a heard a cuckoo there, first time in years with red kites,kestrels,buzzards and ospreys as well as the usual smaller birds.

 

[peterjg]

Since the start of the season I've fished the Kennet and the Thames without much success to be honest. On the Thames I very quickly caught six bream between about 5 to 7lbs very early one morning then struggled for rest of the day for a few tiny dace, gudgeon and bleak - not one roach. The day on the Kennet was disappointing, one roach and two bream early on.

Yesterday my wife and I fished a lake. The boss caught a 19lbs 3oz carp on swingtipped cheese and another of about 15lbs on prawn plus a few rudd. I floatfished, caught four carp averaging around 8lbs, a few roach (one decent one), and quite a lot of decent sized rudd. We were fortunately sitting under some oak trees in the shade and didn't realise how hot it was. It was obvious that the rudd fed better in the hot conditions than the roach, we were surprised that the fish were confidently taking such big sections of king prawn on size 10 hooks. Another enjoyable, fun day fishing with 'er indoors' - long my it continue!

 

[markcw]

Went to Cotswold Water Park for a practice ready for next Sunday . Never fished the place before.
Took my pole pellet waggler rod and feeder rod .
Paid my £10 day ticket
and had a look where I would fish .
Found a peg that had lilies to my right and rushes too my left and if I wanted to an easy cast to the island .
Decide to use the pole but at shorter length .
I set four rigs up all the same float a 4x14 PI shallow , don't be fooled by the name these are good in 6' of water . The only difference being the hooks , I changed two of them that came with the rig (ready made shop bought) to tubertini 808 in an 18.
Plumbed up 3 places either side of lilies and rushes ata depth of 5'6" , I thought it would have been shallower than that , the other one was at 8 metres in o the left of me at an angle of 10 o clock .
Baited up with corn at the lilies and maggots at the rushes with some overwetted 2mm pellets in both swims
A good pot of maggots and some overwetted pellets went in the ,10 o clock swim .
I noticed a few swirls near that swim so I set one of the rigs at 2',6" .
Elastic was 17h for the lilies , 15h for the rushes ,
Slip 6 for the 10 o clock swim and Daiwa Hybrid 6 for the shallow swim .
I caught a few roach and perch from 10 o clock swim and kept noticing swirls when I cad potted a few maggots and 2mms in . I let that swim rest while I went onto the margin swims . Not much from the rushes swim, The lilies produce some decent perch even on corn ,plus various sized roach and some good Rudd . Plus a couple of tench around 3,lb apiece that wanted to do a tour of the pool when hooked , hence the 17h on a side puller , soon had them under control .
I had been pinging a few maggots ove the ten o clock swim and after I left the margins I set up the shallow rig .
Cad potted a dozen maggots in and watched the swirls then lowered baited hook in .
Instant success , I missed a few bites ,they were taking the bait as soon as it was about 6" deep .
I let the bat settle and twitched it to one side ,this produced a response in a Rudd of around 10oz.
I caught a few this size and some roach of a similar size ,by putting a grain of corn on the hook a tubertini 808. Still fed maggots but catch rate improved .
At the end of my session I reckon on about 35lb of silvers and the 2 tench ,so not bad going for four hours of fishing .
I was there over five hours but spent some time later walking round the pool and asking what had been caught and what method used . This came in handy as info for the match .
So I will be there next Sunday for breakfast ,collect my packed lunch ,fish the match , presentation and food after the match ,all for £7 .will cost me more for my bait .
Can't knock that .

 

[Alan Whitty]

Nice Mark...

 

[markcw]

Thanks Al .

 

[riverman]

just got back from a session on the island lake at brafferton in north yorkshire.32 fish in total including a species ive not caught in many a year.fished mussel and bread flake and ended up with 20 carp 9 f1's 2 roach and a very slippery unexpected eel.(the last time i caught an eel was donkeys years ago on the river nidd at knaresborough when fishing chopped worm).the biggest carp was around the 5lb mark.when the owner came round to collect money on bank he told me there were some much bigger eels in than the one i caught.i was so surprised to see this particular eel fall to mussel fished on the bottom.still a fish is a fish at the end of the day as they say.back on the rivers next week as i'm on the wharfe at tadcaster.

 

[Pete Shears]

An early start at the local reservoir paid off this morning with a 4lb 8oz male tench at twenty to six. Had to wait for a couple of hours for another,this time a female tench at 4lb exactly. A roach of about 8oz was also the first of this summer, it does seem the water has woken up now the freezing N & E winds have gone. Another male tench at 3lb 2oz rounded off the trip. Only a light but persistent rain from near nonexistent clouds was the only downside as it did need the brolly.
Buzzards, red kites and swifts provided the wildlife interest.

 

[riverman]

yesterdays trotting session at knaresborough didnt exactly go to plan.had 3 brownies in the first hour or so and then 2 idiots turned up in a canoe and completely destroyed the swim.i could have strangled the pair of them there and then but after a short argument they buggered off
and then the swim went dead.thought about moving pegs but thought better of it and joined the wife in pub and drowned my sorrows with a pint of coke (as i was driving)

 

[nottskev]

I bought a new rod yesterday - the local ts manager was selling a set of used rods for a regular - for a bit of a niche purpose, fishing for bigger stuff under trees and around snags. I'd tried using a light version of one of these retractable butt carp rods, but life's too short to fish with rods you don't like and I snapped up a little beauty built in minimalist style on a 10' 2lb'ish Torrix blank. I've already tested it out twice.

Yesterday evening I took it to the river. Things are still to settle down from the big storms at the start of the season, and it's hard going, but I got two bites bouncing banded mussels down a fast swim. One came off and this was the other, smaller one

This afternoon I decided the river was too hard just now so I took the new rod to the irrigation res. This is the place where the rules remind me of my Catholic school - if it's not forbidden it's compulsory - but there are ways to resist going down the bivvies, buzzers, bolt rigs route, and free-line touch-legering is not yet illegal.

First fish was a sad-looking parrot-mouthed under-weight tench. It must be tough finding food in a res full of carp and barbel. Then the barbel found the hemp and chopped meat I'd fed. These were the nicest looking of the 7 or 8 I caught

While this went on, an old, slightly battered ide of about 6lb (they've been caught in this res to a freakish 8lb) kept coming to the spot under my feet where I dropped some feed in from time to time. I didn't have the heart to catch him - he looked like he would in fine to an FM "Ailments" thread - so I let him come and go without offering him a bait with a hook in. But there was a reason why I kept dropping bait at my feet into two feet of water. Eventually a decent size carp turned up. We looked at each other for a sec, then the carp turned and swam back out. That was my cue to drop into the other spot I'd been baiting to my right, and this got itself hooked within two minutes

The rod's a treat, with a sweet fish-playing action and I'm so pleased I haven't bought another one I don't like.

 

[Alan Whitty]

Carp looks as though the barbel are getting his share lol,Torrix's are nice rods Kev.

Funny I've seen videos of Trent barbel(if that's where you used them)being caught on mussel,on our waters although odd ones are caught on them,there are better baits...

 

[nottskev]

Carp looks as though the barbel are getting his share lol,Torrix's are nice rods Kev.

Funny I've seen videos of Trent barbel(if that's where you used them)being caught on mussel,on our waters although odd ones are caught on them,there are better baits...

Yes, it was an odd shape, like a giant tadpole. Mussels work well fished anyhow early in the season, and through the summer will often get bites on the float when other baits are ignored.