How did you get on?

[dorsetandchub]

A fun thing happened on the way to (Blandford) Forum


The story I'm about to relate is solely because it put a huge smile on my face that only a (camel) mother could love.

Groceries were needed and I decided to have a drive out to Blandford as they have a Morrison's, a half decent tackle shop and a glut of places dishing up a passable brekkie.

I pulled up into Morrison's car park (right next to the River Stour) and got out the car. As I did so, a boy of maybe 12 or so had just been dropped off by his Mum and trudged towards the river, carrying a rod and net, rucksack, etc.

I noted the rod was a Leeda Blue Diamond feeder rod and, as I used to have one (bomb / light feeder, smashin bit of kit) I complimented his choice. He mentioned he'd only been fishing for a few months and didn't know much about his rod, he'd been given it.

I pointed out which swim I liked the look of and, seeing it from the car park, noted it was free. I asked him about his plans and it seemed he was trying to teach himself as neither his family or friends fished.

I got him to set his rod up and I rummaged in my car boot, finding some 14s to nylon, a rod rest and a couple of spare feeders, a tin of hemp and a tin of meat. I showed him how to loop-loop the 14 on and that the meat should be cubed about half an inch or a tad more.

I went and had breakfast, had a leisurely mooch along the High Street and then spent far too much in Morrison's. I packed the UN Airlift into the car (back seats as the boot looks like a tackle rep's shed). I got in and then suddenly thought about the young fella. I walked to the edge of the car park and could see he was still there so I had a walk over.

I got to within maybe twenty feet of him when he got up and ran towards me, shouting "Mister, look at this". He handed me his phone now containing a pic of our new hero with a chub of around a couple of pounds. "It's massive, far bigger than anything I've caught so far. Can't wait to show me Mum and Dad."

I told him it was a chub and told him to keep the bits I'd given him and not to be afraid to pepper them with questions in Conyer's (tackle shop).

As I left him, he had a big smile on his face but you know what? It weren't half as big as mine!!

Just thought I'd share as it really did make my day.

 

[fruitowl]

Hats off to you dorsetandchub from the sounds of it you got more satisfaction than catching the fish yourself. :w:w

 

[dorsetandchub]

Thanks very much indeed. Exactly right, mate. Spot on. It was great, actually. I imagine he's still telling his folks and friends about it, even now!! I hope so, anyway.....

 

[tigger]

I half-heartedly set out for a trotting session today and as I got a few miles up the motorway the signs were flashing long delays between several of the junctions ahead! That was it, I had to get off the motorway at the next exit, turn round and go home.
Unfortunately, I hit the traffic jam before I got to the next exit and spent, what felt like forever, stop-starting. Eventually I got to the next exit but rather than get back on the motorway and head back home as i'd planned to I bit the bullet and carried on to the river. I had to use the sat nav as I didn't know how the hell to get there from this area.
What seemed like 100yrs later I arrived at the river. When I got out of the car the wind was blowing really quite strong and the river didn't look inviting at all with the chop on the surface making the river appear to be flowing upstream ! I walked the length of the beat and dropped into any likely looking runs but despite my best efforts I only caught a trout of about a pound. I walked back to the car intending to wrap up and fire off but after having a drink of water I forced myself to walk back upstream to one of the spots I liked the look of. There where several large trees in the river in this swim and to fish it meant casting 20yards to particular spot at the head of one of the trees root ball (I think that's what it's called) and then trott down the side of the tree as close as possible. The reason for this was because I suspected that there might be barbel lurking in the tangled mass of roots and under the large trunk. At first I had no joy with bunches of maggots so I put two or three on the hook to see if there was anything smaller feeding on my freebies. First trott with three maggots on produced a fingerling chub. The next dozen trotts through produced a small chub each time. I decided to keep feeding a few large handfuls of corn and a couple of catapult pouches full of maggots every 10 minutes hoping to entice any barbel out of the tree roots. After a few more chubletts on several maggots I decided to fill the hook with corn and trotted right up to the roots. The float buried and I struck into something very powerfull.
I gave it no line at all but it got into some of that fluffy green weed on the bottom and I got my hook back embedded in a cloth ! Next trott through the float went under and bang, another powerfull fish was on the hook. Because of the situation with the roots etc I had to strike really hard and carry on pulling in one movement so as to get the fish as far away from the roots as possible because even though I gave no line the rod bent round a few feet. Most people wouldn't belive you if you told them that you can hit and hold barbel up to eight or more pounds with a 14's hook, 6lb mono amd a match style rod but that was what I was doing and it realy was serious fun and excitment.
Anyhow, i'll stop going on boring you all to death. I finished up landing 14 barbel and pulling the hook out of about four and leaving the hooks in two. I think the two hooks snapped off at the hook because my line was so goosed for the first 10 or 12ft. If I was going to carry on fishing I would have pulled 20ft off cut it off and re-tackled on the fresher line.
Unfortunatly I forgto to take the camera so no pic's...darn it :text-dratdrat: .

What started out as a disaster of a fishing session turned out to be one of the most enjoyable exciting ones of my life !

 

[lambert1]

http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130318114617/logopedia/images/0/04/BlanketyBlankTitleCard.jpg

 

[tincatim]

I couldn't resist another crack at the river Dearne this morning so I got up with the missus at 6am and as she got ready for work I packed my rod and a flask in to the car. The river is very low and clear at the moment but still looked in beautiful condition as I walked down to pick out a suitable swim. I love being out on a summers morning, it's so peaceful and relaxing. Just the odd interested dog walker to chat to and the various array of birds to keep you company.

First swim produced a bream of just over 4lb, timed to perfection as a chap had just stopped to see if I'd caught anything. Nothing more in this swim so I wandered on.

Swim 2 looked good, a row of trees lined the far bank and I managed to cast my legered pellet right underneath them. Perfect I thought as I settled down for a coffee. As it does when your sat waiting for a bite, my thoughts wandered and I decided to get my phone out for a little read of FM, I'd just got halfway through Tigger's excellent write up when my rod hopped over and my reel started giving line. I dropped my phone (not in the water) and leant into what felt like a good fish. A good fish it was too weighing in at 6lb and giving me a great fight.

With the river being so low I didn't think I'd catch any more from the same swim so I walked on down stream for a look about. About half way back up I bumped into the local barbel expert Bob Roberts! I've watched his Barbel DVDs and read many articles by him so it was nice to stop and chat about the river, a very nice chap indeed.

One last cast before I headed home found this little monster snaffling my bait.

That's surely a good sign for the future of the river.

A lovely morning capped of by being home for 10:30 and a nice bacon sandwich

 

[The Runner]

Club match at Royal Berkshire today, turnout of 16 was just about right as any more than that and things get a bit tight near the corners. A couple of the lads got there early to sort the pegging and reckoned that all the fish moving were down the right hand side and far end bank of the lake which ended up as pegs 7 to 14.
Oh well. peg 4. Set up method and pellet feeder rigs, the latter to double as pellet waggler rod, one heavy pole rig for anywhere really as no variation in depth at all that I could find, and a couple of light caster rigs, one shallow and one at dead depth for the roach.
Started on method and pellet tight over and soon noticed that no sign of the usual tip rattles from the roach knocking the hard pellet. No sign of anything in fact, Lee on my right had two quick carp then nothing and we could hear that 12 and 13 on the opposite bank were already catching well. After an hour and a half got my first carp, about 4lb, on a prawn and then quiet again so had a quick look at 5m where I'd been flicking a few casters from the start but quickly realised that the roach were too small and too slow to be a worthwhile option. Spent the rest of the match alternating feeder rigs tight across, too much drift for the pellet waggler and a couple of looks on long pole and pellet produced nothing. Lee was picking up occasional carp but not enough and Lyle and John on my left were both really struggling with just the odd skimmer. Finally, and too late, with 45 minutes to go started to get a few indications and added another three carp on pellet, all around the 7lb mark, and a good roach, ending up with 28-8 for 7th. Lee's 39 was best from our bank.
113-2 won it from peg 13 with an 80 ,75 and 44 making up the frame. As usual here in match conditions, most of us needed to be within a few inches of the far bank to catch. I say most because, also as usual, Ian who came second had all his fish on paste straight down the middle. None of the rest of us can ever get this to work ...
Slough Arm next week, depending on midweek pitch inspection as apparently our usual matchlength is a mass of blanket weed at the moment. Fingers crossed, it will be nice to do something other than wait for a 2ft pullround

 

[binka]

A very nice session today out on the river and very much the better for having the privilege and pleasure of a certain Mr S. Vimes Esquire for the day.

We had been planning this for a few weeks and last week things looked in doubt due to my work commitments changing but fortunately we were able to rearrange and we were once again back on.

Having met riverside at just before 8am we then made our way to the stretch where we would be fishing and having walked past a couple of very nice looking swims we eventually settled on one that allowed us the social aspect of being able to fish together.

Shortly afterwards and we were both tackled up and side by side in the river and both into silvers on the stick and maggot before I had a decent chub of around two and a half pounds… I think I crabbed it to be honest and maybe so did Mr Vimes but, either out of sheer sporting spirit or the fact that he knew full well he’d never get a confession out of me, nothing of the sort was ever suggested.

My companion and I then continued to bag the silvers and I had a fish snatched by a decent pike which decided it was going to hang on and at one point appeared to be making tracks straight towards Mr Vimes' submerged legs before realising it was no place to look for a snag and so it then turned and ran back downriver and as they so often do it tricked me into thinking I might have pulled out of the bait fish and snared it in the scissors with a decent chance of landing it before it finally got some mono between its gnashers and bit me off!

On we fished, taking many more silvers comprising of chub, dace, perch and roach along with my seemingly baffling ability to find a fair few gudgeon and we also took six small barbel between us which is my roundabout way of saying that he had four and I had two… And he had the biggest too!

At one point during the afternoon I went ashore to take a break and at the precise moment I had my back turned Mr Vimes had cunningly rumbled my secret gudgeon lair and was plundering ‘em like a Viking from beneath an overhanging tree where they were holed up and in retaliation I decided to knock up an improvised link ledger and fished it with a bunch of maggots for the last half hour in the hope of a bigger barbel but it didn’t materialise.

Despite the rain our spirits were never dampened but I do think my companion may have suffered a bit of damp to the circuits as, in a moment of sheer madness and complete lack of discretion, he allowed me a go with his Hardy Conquest ‘pin and even more shocking was what happened next and you really couldn’t make this up…

































He got it back unscathed!

But not after I had set my heart on one and it might just have been a perfectly innocent but costly exercise for me.

Slightly bedraggled but by no means defeated after a good days fishing and banter we then retired back to the riverside pub where we had met some ten hours earlier to sink a couple of well earned pints.

No pictures as we were wading and I wasn't risking another phone incident... Sometimes you just have to quit whilst your ahead

Amongst all the negativity that there's been on FM just lately it was a real reminder of the values and another friendship forged directly from it and so...

Thanks for the pleasure Sam, I hope you had a safe journey home and I look forward to doing it all again when you’re next down this way :w :w :w

 

[sam vimes]

Thanks for the pleasure Sam, I hope you had a safe journey home and I look forward to doing it all again when you’re next down this way :w :w :w

Not at all, thank you very much. Been back about an hour now. Three pints of soggy maggots riddled off, fresh bran and into the fridge. Gear unpacked and my gaff looking vaguely like a fairly specialist Chinese laundry.
Thanks again, it was a cracking day.

 

[wes79]

2 Chub (around the 4lb mark) and three Barbel (4lb,5lb&6lb) missed one to a hook pull after most of the fight was over and never even got to see it, it felt ok

Nice to have a bit of fresh water pushing through the river today.

 

[denzinho]

I had a wicked 2 hours as that is all I have been able to do this year. Bait was sweet corn and I know from experience that the roach respond well to this bait. On a ledger rig I caught 2 dace are and the 10oz mark which I was very happy with buy I know some 2lb chub knock about in this area. I didn't get as many bites as I would of liked but when the tip shot round they were decent fish on light gear. I did the "last cast" thing on the inside margin after baiting lightly for over 20 minutes.

this was the result, this roach is easily my pb and I know personally they go bigger than this as every roach I catch at this venue are extremely large on corn. Its been a while since I posted last but my fishing hasn't been that great recently. I'm still learning as we all are and I think my best time to fish is late autumn through to late winter.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

 

[fruitowl]

After seeing weather forecast yesterday and a break in the rain decided I would have a session.
3.30am alarm goes off ummed and arrrrrrd about getting out of bed eventually did left house at 4am after a coffee hit riverbank by 4.45am and in peg at 5am path along bank was quoggy and slippery cast out after 20mins got a number of rattles then a slight pull on rod so struck in fish on fight felt a bit strange but it was a fish got it to within 15ft of bank and rod flew back and a 4oz feeder heading my was, missed otherwise that would of hurt.
cast back out 30 mins later rod bends round fish on felt good then went solid snagged released line hoping fish would move off but nothing went up and down bank to release feeder but no joy another lost feeder.
re-tackled cast out 10 mins later fish on this time got rod tip high into air 5 mins later fish landed.
at about 6.50am clouds turned really dark wind picked up temp dropped decided that not worth the risk of getting soaked and as said path was concerning packed up started walk back to car next thing I know am lying on ground is mud luckily got my waterproofs on.
Now back home sitting on sofa with painful hip (one that was replaced in January) thinking was it really worth it ?
ANSWER YES LANDED THIS BEAUTY SCALE SAID 71/2LB

def bigger than my previous ones from swim only concern is now I am home and checked scales low battery symbol is on checked against a 2kg bag of sugar and scales are reading under.
my barbel pb is 8lb how close was that.
SORRY ABOUT PICTURE QUALITY

 

[Tee-Cee]

fruitowl...Love the effort, doggedness and persistence. The painful hip will eventually fade, but the memory of that fish never will, so many congratulations !

Just the 'double ' to come, then ??

 

[fruitowl]

fruitowl...Love the effort, doggedness and persistence. The painful hip will eventually fade, but the memory of that fish never will, so many congratulations !

Just the 'double ' to come, then ??

yeah really want the double my pb has stood for 10 yrs although I haven't fished for most of that time.
it's no so much the pain just the high risk of dislocation following the total joint replacement if that happens major surgery, hence my questions regarding swims and access sometimes.

 

[luke615]

Went for a session on the Great Ouse in Little Paxton. First visit to the venue, but the swim i would've fished ideally was taken by the weirpool. So moved 150 yards down to a swim with great bush cover which I thought looked like it may have a few fish lurking.

Went for spicy pepperoni on one rod, and a feeder rod with groundbait and a slither of the pepperoni on the hook.

However, it had been raining pretty persistantly the day before so the only thing i hooked in my 4 hours there was drifting weed from the current.

I need to learn how to tackle these weedy swims. My club membership website says there are double figure barbel in this section of the river, I've just got no experience to use to help me find my first barbel to start with.

Luckily I've got a week off work to gain some.

 

[Aussie Bob]

Spent a couple of hours on the lake spinning with a rapala jointed lure . Was very cold and windy wouldn't have got much over 3 degrees c , and to top it off some nice squalls passed through with some horizontal hail. Fished off a little jetty for a while but when the waves started breaking over it and my hands were going numb decided to cut my losses and head home.
Had another go last weekend watched a float for 3 hours without a touch and got colder and colder , the black swans and ducks were annoying enough but when a flock of seagulls decided to move in and start diving bombing my float when i was casting decided to call it quits.
I am away this weekend on a bowls trip think when i get back i am going to plan my fishing a lot more and keep a diary of some sort. Because i am 2 minutes walking distance away from the lake i think i am not really thinking enough about my fishing and just repeating the same techniques without much success....

 

[john step]

Ausie Bob....its not always hot downunder thenmg:

 

[Aussie Bob]

Ballarat is about 400m above sea level cool wet winters normally but we have had a good few frosts this year...supposed to snow on monday!

 

[no-one in particular]

Loads of small stuff on the yeasty maggots. This time I put about 2 inches of warm water in a jar with a little sugar and left it to ferment, "if you try this do not screw the lid down tight". I poured it over the maggots when I bought them. Hell of a beery whiff developed; if you have ever walked pass a brewery it smelt like that. Also the maggots went sticky but not enough that they could crawl out of the box-just. And it attracted a few flies !
First visit was back at the canal but, the lower end which is shallower and weedier than where i fished last week. A bit more depth though with the recent rain, nice color.
Fishing small gaps in the weed, one with hemp and red corn, no maggots and the other with hemp and the maggots. they were not having the corn at all.
Caught a few roach and then the Rudd moved in, small but OK. After catching 10/12 of these I felt it was all I was going to catch so moved to a nearby river.
Very deep swim about 10ft, slow moving. Could have caught roach all afternoon 30/40+, plus a nice dace when I went a bit shallow and two perch, one fairly good size. However it was all small stuff, nothing really decent all on the maggot, the corn was not working..
Still, a very enjoyable day, just a quill, 14 hook and a couple of BB's. Sun was out and pleasantly warm and plenty to keep me interested, not a lot wrong with a bagful of roach on a sunny afternoon.

Verdict on the yeasty maggots-well who knows, would I have caught just as many without it! However, happy with my last two sessions, a lot more fish than I usually catch and a lot more from these waters albeit small with the odd good roach. I think I over did it with the yeast maybe a teaspoon instead of a tablespoon; it was a very strong beery smell but, the fish seemed to like it or at least they were not put off - for sure. A bit like finding some scrumpy in your maggots instead of finding some maggots in your scrumpy, those were the days.
Next time something different, try for something bigger, maybe some yeasty pastes over hemp, we will see. My gut feeling is this is a good enhancer and it does work with maggots. Certainly a different scent to them and one I think fish like. Whether barbel, chub and other species will attract I don't know.

 

[S-Kippy]

Finally popped my River Wey Barbel cherry yesterday with a 6 pounder. Not a big fish by any means but my first barbel for a long time as I've not fished for them since I caught Zanderitis. Quite the prettiest barbel I think I've ever caught...stunning deep golden flanks. Lovely ! I was hopeful of another but it didn't happen.

What did happen was a big old barrel chested chub that went 5-5 and which I was dead chuffed with. It all went downhill from there as the next fish was a sublimely disappointing 4lb snottie that made a right mess of my landing net.

2 pairs of kingfishers scrapping over the fishing rights, buzzards mewing overhead and the resident barn owl working the far bank right in front of me.

All in all a quite satisfying & thoroughly enjoyable evening.