How did you get on?

[riverman]

3 barbel today on the wharfe 6lb 9oz and the other two were around the 3lb mark.all taken on luncheon meat.my brother nearly had his 1st barbel but lost it at the net and said it was a beauty (poor lad).gutted is an understatement.still it hasn't put him off and he said he'll join me on the swale in august.

 

[Pete Shears]

Bird of prey day today at the big reservoir - buzzard,red kite,kestrel and a hobby. Had around 25 bream to 3lb+ and a superb roach of just over a pound that seemd to be nearly bursting with good health/condition. A bit cool though only 8C at 6am but at least dry.

 

[wetthrough]

You can. There are several pegs on the south side

 

[@Clive]

Early start as I had the car booked in for service first thing. Got the keys back at 10:15 and did a quick shop for bait and lunch before arriving at the river by 11:30. I tried a new swim in an area I have fished before. It is one of three channels that carry water from a weir. Two are direct from the weir so run all the time, the other is a boat channel and only runs when the lock gates open. There was a fair flow and I set up two feeder rods, one with a cage feeder with worm bait, the other luncheon meat on a lead. It took ages for the feeder to touch down. 14 feet said the sonar when I checked it. The swim was primed using a bait dropper. Nothing came to the first rod on worm or sweetcorn, but a suicidal bleak took a treble maggot bait. Nothing to luncheon meat or boilie on rod 2. Once the sun got through the trees around 1:30 I packed up and headed downstream.

Swim 2 is in the same pound, that is between the same two weirs and is where an island constricts the flow. Again, new swim in a familiar area. It was 10 foot deep under the rod end so I got the old cane Wizard out and fished a sliding 4g float with worm bait after priming the swim with maggots, pellets and mixed grains using a bait dropper. First cast resulted in a bream of around 3lb. I was feeding maggots in constantly and the swim was alive with bleak. Then I saw 3 or 4 dark shapes shoot upstream and dozens of bleak became airborn. A few swirls amongst the carnage before 5 stripy thugs returned upstream in formation. Then half an hour later something even bigger charged through inches from the bank.

I got another two bream on worm then one on meat and the fifth came to worm. All around 3lb.

 

[nottskev]

Just had time for a short session today. I had to wait in for meds to be delivered, and that didn't happen til mid afternoon. I've only fished for barbel on the river so far this season so I headed to where I caught a few roach while failing to catch many bream. It's nearby and has some armchair swims. The forecast was light winds, but as often happens, what wind there is funnels down the Trent valley and as the river flows west to east til it heads north twenty odd miles further down, the pesky wind is pretty well sure to be a downstreamer, and when I got there it was gusting along. That's not ideal for fishing seed baits for fish darting about in mid-water.

To get some sort of control I set up with a light but long waggler and wiped the line with the sinking agent recommended on here a while back to fish the 15m or so out to the flow. All the colour and pace had gone since I was there on Monday. Some don't like 1000 size reels, but this one is compact but weighs a bit and I think it's ideal on a light float rod

A few casts with maggot and I could see the swim was full of tiny roach, dace and chublets, so I fed hemp and caster and fished tares on the hook. I started off fishing a foot off the bottom in the 8' deep swim and ended up fishing at mid-depth. The wind made it hard going and I missed countless bites. You really could see why the pole, if you can fish it at 14 -16m, which I can't without a hernia or spinal injury, reigns supreme these days in matches that aren't feeder dominated on the river. Anyway, at least the rod only weighs 4 oz, and as time went on some chunky little roach and dace came along

After 4 hours of flogging away I'd collected about 10lbs of roach and dace, 50/50, and I decided to go home and watch the recorded cricket. I'd no sooner taken my float and hook off and chopped the line into 1" bits when the wind dropped. Naturally. The Middle Trent is a bit of a motorway - wide, busy, a little characterless - and I'm more for the A and B roads. But it has its moments when it looks pretty enough.

 

[Ray Roberts]

I took a trip to the Medway near Tonbridge yesterday. The highlight of the day was not meeting the bailiff and having to fork over my tenner. I hope the old boy is okay, as he has never failed to spot me on past visits. I don’t feel too bad as I have joined this club and I’m just waiting for my card to arrive.

I still take far too much gear and it’s a fair old walk. Five minutes into my trek and I realised I had left my phone in the car. It was a toss up whether to leave it there or go back. Fortunately go back was the right decision because I’d left it on the car’s roof!

Anyway, it was a really slow start. I was float fishing with a Drennan Floatmaster rod at 15’ and a 507 reel. After about half an hour the line went behind the release button and jammed solid. God I hate that bloody reel. I only opted to use it as there was a down stream wind. Off with that and on with a Young’s Super Lightweight Weight centrepin. I fed two lines one close in with maggots and one about two rod lengths out with hemp. I couldn’t buy a bite on the hemp line but I persevered and eventually started to pick up the odd fish close in.

Are there a more selfish, self entitled bunch of people than dog owners, they were like a plague of biblical proportions today. Literally miles of river and they just had to let Fido swim next to the bit I’m fishing in. It is a country park but I want to rename it and remove the ry from its name. It is a very pretty place though, but I will give this particular swim a miss in the future.

Eventually I started to pick up some better fish on tares that I was fishing on the hemp line and finished the day with around fifty fish, none of any great size though.

I am putting that reel on the bay of evil. It wasn’t cheap to buy, but is the worst, most unreliable reel I’ve ever owned and It came very close to a watery grave today. I will likely sell it and get an earlier model.

That’s it from me and my Meldrew moments.


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[Alan Whitty]

Went yesterday, had more than a few barbel to 6lbs+, 8 small barbel up to 12ozs, 3 nice chub four chublets and a common carp about 7lbs on the lead....

 

[terry m]

Another evening session, but so far just the one run but a healthy 18lb 7oz. Hopefully more to come as the night draws closer.

 

[nottskev]

Another day when the morning was spent wrangling with medical centre and hospital switchboard and it was after 2pm when I got away. It's an ill wind, and all that, so that dismal weekend must have put some water in the river and I went back to the (allegedly) great bream stretch. I'm starting to have my doubts about it, but with 15" on my armchair swim looked the business. A kink above it kicks the flow out across the river, leaving a big eddy 10m wide and a lovely crease outside that, with the river flying through beyond. Obviously, home to all those bream the bloke who sold me the ticket told me about.

Three hours of depositing feederfull's of tasty groundbait, chopped worm and casters to the edge of the flow, while trying here and there with a bomb, got me the obligatory small perch and one proper fish.

 

[mikench]

Nicely coloured Pike Kev.

 

[Alan Whitty]

A summer specimen,lean and wiry...

 

[seth49]

Back on club fishery again, starting on the narrow stretch case too the island, but not much good just skimmers and small roach, so decided to move to another peg , had a nice crucian and 1tench, plus skimmers as usual.

Started feeding a few mixers in either margin as a lot of carp on the top, After a while the carp arrived so I slid all the stotz up to the float and put a hookable mixer on, and had a try for them, worked well I had 7 plus a couple of F1s, so plenty of sport eventually nothing big best maybe 8lbs but just right for the pole, dry and warm as well and did see a kingfisher which was nice, I believe it landed on someone's pole last week, that would be good to see.

 

[matashidapillow]

Just had time for a short session today. I had to wait in for meds to be delivered, and that didn't happen til mid afternoon. I've only fished for barbel on the river so far this season so I headed to where I caught a few roach while failing to catch many bream. It's nearby and has some armchair swims. The forecast was light winds, but as often happens, what wind there is funnels down the Trent valley and as the river flows west to east til it heads north twenty odd miles further down, the pesky wind is pretty well sure to be a downstreamer, and when I got there it was gusting along. That's not ideal for fishing seed baits for fish darting about in mid-water.

To get some sort of control I set up with a light but long waggler and wiped the line with the sinking agent recommended on here a while back to fish the 15m or so out to the flow. All the colour and pace had gone since I was there on Monday. Some don't like 1000 size reels, but this one is compact but weighs a bit and I think it's ideal on a light float rod

View attachment 27431

A few casts with maggot and I could see the swim was full of tiny roach, dace and chublets, so I fed hemp and caster and fished tares on the hook. I started off fishing a foot off the bottom in the 8' deep swim and ended up fishing at mid-depth. The wind made it hard going and I missed countless bites. You really could see why the pole, if you can fish it at 14 -16m, which I can't without a hernia or spinal injury, reigns supreme these days in matches that aren't feeder dominated on the river. Anyway, at least the rod only weighs 4 oz, and as time went on some chunky little roach and dace came along

View attachment 27432

View attachment 27433

After 4 hours of flogging away I'd collected about 10lbs of roach and dace, 50/50, and I decided to go home and watch the recorded cricket. I'd no sooner taken my float and hook off and chopped the line into 1" bits http://essaypapers.reviews/ when the wind dropped. Naturally. The Middle Trent is a bit of a motorway - wide, busy, a little characterless - and I'm more for the A and B roads. But it has its moments when it looks pretty enough.

View attachment 27434

That was a great day, this post really lifted my mood!

 

[@Clive]

I had an afternoon on the Charente. I set off after lunch, picked up some bait and was fishing for around 2:30. The plan was to put out some bait mid river for the elusive barbel and try and catch a large perch on livebait. I have seen some lovely perch in this area, but not actually fished for them.

First job was to put in three large droppers of maize, hemp and small pellets then lob a 16mm boilie with a pva bag of pellets into the same area using a soft actioned 1.5lb tc rod and Speedia centrepin. Then I got a pole out and caught half a dozen bleak, putting them in a bucket of river water. Once the rig had been changed to something more appropriate a bleak was kept under a 6g float using the length of the pole to keep it where I thought best. I fed pinkies and maggots around the float every minute and groundbait every five minutes. There was soon a shoal of several million bleak around the livebait. After half an hour I gave the bleak the rest of the afternoon off and put a new one on. Meanwhile the feeder rod had accounted for a bream of around 5lb and a sub 2lb chub. I repeated the changing of the livebait every half hour.

By 5pm I hadn't seen any sign of perch. It had crossed my mind that all those maggots and groundbait might not have gone unnoticed by larger fish under the bleak zone. The groundbait contains some anti-bleak components like whole maize and pigeon peas. Another change of rig saw a 3lb bream stretch the elastic. Then the bites became shy and I suspected roach. A change to a smaller hook and single grain of sweetcorn brought a succession of roach up to 12oz plus a slightly larger hybrid.

The ledger rod kept nodding without any positive takes. I don't know where the barbel are. It is really strange.

No photos. I left my phone in the car.

 

[nottskev]

Another day when I couldn't get to the bank much before tea time. I only fished the tench pit a couple of times in the cs and aside from some great barbel fishing the river has been hard work so I thought I'd give it a try. On the positive side, there was nobody there and when I stopped to hand some money to the farmer he waved me away, and for the first twenty minutes it wasn't raining.

Less positively, the top layers were alive with small roach, so you had to somehow bomb your bait through them. And when you did, the weed was 2-3' high from the bottom of the 8'deep swim and your bait disappeared into that. Somewhere in between was a layer where the tench were. I'd prep'ed some expanders, 4 and 6mm's, a brand that's super reliable, but these had all gone to mush this time. Twice fish came off and sent my rig up a tree; after setting up again twice, I found a knot in the line and had to set up a third time. The rain kicked in after twenty minutes and poured for 3 hours. It didn't even pause to let me pack up. which I did in a downpour.

Between the roach stealing the bait, the pellets falling off, the fish netted with their own weight of weed on the line, the re-tackling and the brolly blowing around, I did get a few. The biggest would have weighed a couple of pounds

The rod was one I hadn't used for years, and it was just right for this fishing. A Daiwa Amorphous Whisker 13' Heavy. That was "Heavy" as in 1993, and is a sweet rod, and nothing like some of the power float rods of today. I spent so much time messing around and re-tackling that I was surprised to find there were a few in the net

.

 

[henrysnatch]

Those couple-pounders in the net made it all worthwhile. kudos

 

[mikench]

A great bag of tench which your efforts deserved Kev.

 

[Ray Roberts]

Yesterday was a poor day’s fishing. I took my eldest granddaughter Lexi. She had been asking me to take her in the holidays. The club that I joined her in has a nice lake stocked solely with tench and crucian carp. Unfortunately, that and the larger adjacent lake have been temporarily shut by the committee. As I had taken her lure fishing previously, we decided to go to the Rother in Kent. A couple of days beforehand the club posted they were moving their Wednesday match to this venue, which had been scheduled for the larger closed pond to here.

Best laid plans and all that. I decided we would go there anyway. We arrived and it was baking hot as we unloaded my car. The match organiser arrived and I asked where they would fish and it was pretty well right in the middle of the stretch. We started by the bridge and after a couple of casts Lexi had a take about a metre out from the bank. She was fishing with a small red and white shad and didn’t set the hook. I thought that it was a good omen. I had two rods, one for heavy jerk/glide baits and another lighter set up for spinner baits and smaller lures. Not a touch on anything. We passed the matchmen and got to what I think of as the hotspot. In this hundred or so yards I have had about eighty percent of the pike that I have caught on previous trips here. Not a sniff. We gave it about an hour and fished our way back. The match was still in progress and they said it was hard going. I was retrieving the large jerk bait and as it came towards the marginal weed I spotted a pike easing its way out, with a sudden spurt it took the lure but it was head on and the lure was ejected after a couple of heart stopping seconds. We arrived back where we had started and a bailiff asked to check our cards. He said there were some large perch under the bridge. I usually take info like this with a pinch of salt, but as this was the next spot to where Lexi lost a fish about seven hours earlier I lobbed a large jerk bait about. Lexi was sitting next to me and our legs were dangling over the edge of the bank. Just as the jerk bait came into view I spotted a very large perch close behind. The perch was well over three pounds in weight and followed tight behind the lure I figure of eighted it and we got a better look. I didn’t have much hope of a take, the sixty pound fluorescent yellow braid and forty five pound solid titanium trace may have been off putting. Anyway it didn’t look like eating it but rather seemed as though it was escorting it off of the premises. I had a few casts with a shad but nothing doing. We left for home with nothing to show but our burnt skin and a very pleasant time in each others company.


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[terry m]

A 2 hour wander down the Avon this afternoon was more about getting outdoors, rather than focussed fishing. Nevertheless I grabbed a couple of lure rods and a net. 4 takes resulted in 2 fish banked. Probably weighed less than 8lb, combined!
Still nice to get out, but feel like a storm is brewing.

 

[nottskev]

Another late afternoon start. There was a bloke with three rods out for carp in the armchair/platform swim, so I had a chat with him for a bit before finding a spot downstream. I'd come to fish for roach, but it felt like a mistake. There was a surprising amount of extra water on - the water should be the other side of those reeds - and it was highly coloured. My bait was mainly hemp, tares and wheat. Hmm.

The swims on this bank are all off the flow, extra water turns the slacks into eddies and you have to go out a few rods to get to the pace you expect to find roach in. The further out you go, the more you risk the wrath of the prevailing downstream winds. I set up a light waggler - 3bb with 5 no 8's - at about 6' (the depth is about 8') and had a few runs through with maggot. Not getting a bite was not encouraging, and it crossed my mind to pack up and go elsewhere. But when I put a tare on, I caught a roach first cast so I stayed put.

The float was really a bit too light, and whenever the wind got up for a couple of minutes I couldn't mend the line without moving it too much. But thankfully, it stayed mostly calm and bites kept coming

It turned in to a lovely session. Bites came anywhere from where the float went in to 25m down and at any depth. The carp bloke came and sat with me for a bit and vowed to resurrect his float gear, saying this took him back to 19whatever. My float remained too light, but it was satisfying to study the weird shaped bow in the line when the wind got up and work out how to lift the line and hook a biting fish. Before I came out I found I had no light floating lines, so I loaded an old spool of Genesis Smart Line .17 onto a reel. It floated well, and was very visible, but was getting a bit curly by the end. I shallowed up to 3' towards the end and even had a couple of 6oz chublets - I'd love to see them back in the river.