How did you get on?

[seth49]

Back on our club water yesterday, as our syndicate water has matches on a Tuesday night, so it means having to leave early, it wasn’t very good either, the recent cold weather seems to have put the tench of the feed, I didn’t get one and mick only had a couple as well.

did get a couple of crucians which was nice, and a couple of F1s as well, the rest of the catch was skimmers and roach plus 1 perch, tried for a carp or two of the surface but they didn’t want to know either, paste worked for the crucians and skimmers, corn for the rest.

 

[@Clive]

Had a day on the Vienne. Nice to see it back to normal after 7 months of near continual rain. I settled in a swim that seems to be jinxed. Every time I come here I suffer some mis-fortune.

I started with a JJS Walker, Bampton outfit. The rod is around 100 years old +/- 5 years and the reel is from 1914. Ledgering two grains of maize hair-rigged got me a lot of tentative pulls without any real takes. The bobbin never really rose properly. I suspected carassins, the near identical cousin of the crucian. Changing to a 'modern' 1950's Allcocks Wizard and Aerial reel with a sliding float confirmed my suspicions.

With the situation clear it was back to the ledger rod and a large soft pellet hook bait brought two bite offs on good fish. The jinx remains! In between though I managed to get one to stick using an old shelf life Monster Crab Boilie that has been in my bait bag for at least 18 months. .

Just before packing up I brought in a couple of clams that had tangled on the ledger link. I think they were possibly the cause of the line being cut on the strike as the line was cut too cleanly than in normal bite offs.

 

[Hugh Bailey]

Changing to a 'modern' 1950's Allcocks Wizard and Aerial reel with a sliding float confirmed my suspicions.

That Aerial reel is a thing of absolute beauty. Is it a modern reel? I don't "need" one but...

 

[@Clive]

That Aerial reel is a thing of absolute beauty. Is it a modern reel? I don't "need" one but...

Yes, it is a JW Young Heritage 'John Wilson' Aerial. From memory the paperwork is dated 2006 or thereabouts.I always lusted after the Match Aerial from being a teenager. When I finally got one I found the check switch is a nuisance. This one can easily be operated one handed.

 

[mikench]

Gordon had the pick of where we went and chose the Willy Wonka lake. It is a favourite but can be moody and the chocolate brown colour cannot help fishing. It’s now 6 weeks since the inundation and it looks little better.

A mucky looking scum appeared from nowhere and settled in our corner. It looked like slurry but wasn’t. Our floats soon became Muckywags rather than Visiwags. I set up my Torrix on a buzzer and fed gb and corn with corn as hookbait. I varied the offerings but apart from a few runs I missed and fish coming off, I needn’t have bothered. The rod looked resplendent with its Daiwa GS reel but was wasted. There were 3 other anglers on the feeder and they didn’t appear to catch much if anything.
Gordon finally had a small roach after an hour but fish were few and far between. Gordon had a lovely bronze bream and 3 tench to 2.5lb plus at least 10 roach so it wasn’t a bad day and it wasn’t wet or cold. I fished my acolyte and tried a variety of baits but only caught on prawn. I had 2 lovely tench over 5lb with this one going over 6lb.

A couple of roach also succumbed to prawn. We both enjoyed being out despite the difficult conditions . A large flock of oyster catchers were around all day and if you didn’t see them you certainly heard them. Cheers Gordon and thanks for your company as usual. See you in a couple of weeks.

 

[Alan Whitty]

Been today to the new water I joined this year, a deep lake, I decided to fish the feeder today, first cast a 17lbs 12oz common, then a bit quiet before the bream arrived, 13 of them between just below 5lbs up to 8lbs 13ozs, then it poured on me, so a drowned rat sits in the bath, it was horrible....

 

[Alan Whitty]

My two previous trips since my ticket became active on June 1st I slider fished it in 12-13ft of water feeding 6mm pellets fishing 6-8mm hard pellets, but have found sweetcorn feeding a few grains alongside the pellet worked best, catching mainly skimmers to 2lbs, odd decent bream, nice roach between 8ozs and a pound (this water produces roach to 3lbs) and a carp 12lbs ...

 

[Islandbear]

Well early start and dodged the rain for a few hours and had a great short session. As im starting back, might as well start the weighing again. So 2 pb's
I lovely Tench 4lb 6 followed by another half pound lighter. 3rd tench banked but was about 2lbs.
Bream moved in then and 2nd pb with a Bream 5lb 5oz. 3 other Bream landed 2 photos as last one it was as the heavens really opened.
Wind got up, rain fell hard and called it a day.
Made me self go fish a different swim to try me out as such.
All on float.

Pb 4.6lbs

 

[no-one in particular]

Last gasp on my lake quest, two roach on sweetcorn with low salt added. Funny the bailiff came round and I asked him if there were any tench and bream (new-ish water to me) and he said some very big bream and tench, I asked about roach, he said very few as the cormorants got most of them, I gave him my £5 and he walked off and I caught two small roach . had a few nibbles after that but no more fish and no tench or bream. A carp water, lots of carp anglers here. I had fished it before years ago and the best fishing came either over or just below a ridge about 3 rods out but I was having trouble watching the float with the ripples and glare even when I changed it for a bigger red job, so settled to fish close in. It was nice fishing on a swim that had all been carved out for carp anglers I must say, two layers, one for a bivvy, gravel, sheltered from the wind with a gap in the trees for casting.
That's two bream and about 5 roach since March 15th, I wasn't doing much better on the canal either, one roach until I caught a nice tench last time.
Not sure if it is me, the venues or the tackle and bait, probably a bit of all three, I think the river should be better, I will come into my own then, famous last words

 

[mikench]

I have those same thoughts regularly.

 

[no-one in particular]

I have those same thoughts regularly.

We will have to have a match sometime, I think you will win but don't bring Flight liner, we might have to strangle him.

 

[chevin4]

I have spent the last couple of weeks on a club water targeting Crucians. After sitting behind 3 rods it was nice to get the float rod out and fish at short range. Alas I didn't catch any monsters but had some nice fish on 6mm pellets and small pieces of meat. On Monday I returned to my syndicate lake with a guest fishing into Thursday. It was a slow start. Although we arrived at 7am we sat in our cars for a good hour owing to the heavy rain. I fished the usual 3 rods but confidence was low owing to the NE wind and cold conditions. At 3pm I had a belting run on the maggot feeder which resulted in a nice bream of 11lb 3oz. The fish gave a very good account of itself on the Chimera 2 my first impressions were it was a good tench which had taken the bait. Monday night was cold so much so that I had to close the door of the bivvy. This was the first time I have had to do this in June. Despite Tuesday being a drier day and slightly warmer day Tim and I had no further action.

 

[Alan Whitty]

Went yesterday, fished the waggler closer in than previously fished on the slider in around 9ft of water, hoped to catch on breadline, bit struggled, so reverted to corn and had two decent bream, biggest over 4lbs,14 skimmers and 8 roach, every fish a netter, so a nice day apart from the April showers in June, about as warm as April too...

 

[Islandbear]

Well early doors at the lil minnow pond today. Battled the winds for couple hours and then moved swims. Not too bad, had a nice playathon with a 9.1 carp (only too find no picture no idea why.) Next cast summit bigger got me and after 5 mins up n down the pond, slipped the hook. Hey ho. 3 lively tench 3 carp n about 10 rudd.

 

[nottskev]

I drove over to the river, re-modelled by the winter floods. Two feet up and coloured, float fishing for the barbel was out and several of my go-to swims were barely recognisable. I walked around a bit, then spotted a new swim that looked just right for today - a narrow, deep slack on the edge of a canopy of trees. First drop in with banded mussel and I'm snagged solid. Keeping my half ounce bomb a few yards above the snag, I get a couple of small barbel in the next two casts




Next cast - I say cast, but my bait was about 5 yards from my feet - I'm into a bigger fish that powers down the steep slope and cuts me off on something sharp. The line is not abraded but is cleanly cut. I thought I had the answer to this, and I rigged up with a long hooklength of a specialist braid, Kryston Quicksilver. This stuff claims to be made from the world's toughest fibres. It's been in my box for about 20 years, since I bought it to get some barbel out of a Soar swim full of rocks. As you might guess, next cast I'm attached to something unstoppable. Standing up with rod held high, the fish nonetheless manages to saw the mono above the one metre hooklength across whatever is in the swim, and now I've lost two fish. That's two too many for me, so I wander off and try a few more swims. But not a bite in any. The only barbel feeding appear to be in a swim I can't get them out of. It can only get better.

 

[no-one in particular]

The banker swim is no longer the banker swim, first time in about 2 years I didn't get a fish in it, its bad when even my banker swim failed to get me over my bad run. float never moved for about 2 hours, I can only think this part of the river has not recovered from all the flooding yet or the fish may be spawning somewhere else; hopefully it will get back as the summer wears on. I then moved and stopped over the road bridge to throw a few a pieces of bread in, no sign of fish, usually a few roach or chub-lets but nothing. Moved swims to one just by the railway bridge hoping for a bit of shade, I had to beat a swim out of the vegetation which has overgrown a lot; started to have a few nibbles, probably small roach. I had my only fish when I got my line tangled around the rod, I had dropped the float right in the edge to keep it out of the vegetation while I untangled it and the float disappeared and I caught a nice plump roach about 8 inches. Just about saved the blank and a lesson, bigger roach hugging the bank; but the river looked all a bit dead to me and after this the heat was getting a bit much; sun right overhead and couldnt get under the bridge with this long rod so packed up. Baits were brown bread and sweetcorn but thinking hemp and maggots next time.
Trying out this perfection flick-em center pin, nice reel but me getting used to a pin on the heavy rod was not easy, I think I will have to put it on my lighter rod, but like the reel.

 

[Ray Roberts]

I’m off for a bit of roach fishing later this morning. It’s the stretch of the Medway I scoped out last week. I’ve boiled some tares, liquidised a couple of loaves and the gear is all ready to go. I have respooled my reel with new lighter line and I can’t wait.

 

[Steve Arnold]

Quite quickly the river Lot has gone from full on flow to just a sluggish trickle, a belated summer has finally arrived and so have the mosquitoes!

Alistair and myself headed down the valley and decided to try a swim we had looked at before but never fished. The carp anglers usually hog this little haven but today it was empty. As it turned out the fish were absent as well!

But it is such a scenic spot so we enjoyed the view anyway......

A couple of carp did show under the shade of the opposite bank trees. Occasionally a barbel rolled mid-river, but only one took my bait.....

The mozzies were far worse than I have ever seen (felt!) them on this river. I hope it's just that a stream enters the river here but was dried out now it's summer, leaving puddles in the gully between trees. Perfect breeding ground the the little vampires!

The plan was to fish into evening when the shadow from the high cliffs would extend across the river, then the fish should feed.

But the blood-suckers beat us and we retreated home, we shall not return to this swim until the cooler weather returns!

Today I shall tend my "wounds" with cortisone cream Perhaps my usual choices of swims will be relatively free of these horrors.

 

[flightliner]

Tidal Trent yesterday, the swim I picked had been almost been worn smooth of any grass over the previous two days but hey ho the rivers a Barbel mecca these days so I took my time setting up my gear, baited up with my dropper comprising of pellets, hemp(giant),luncheon meat, all with a dark groundbait mix.
That done i made my first casts of the season then sat back to await any results.
Forty minutes later my lunchceon baited hook was away with what felt like a good Barbel, only for it to find a snag close to midriver, with all my efforts eshausted I had. No choice but to pull for a hoped for release but sadly only my lead and swivel returned.
I waited over three hours for my next bite, again on meat, it felt smaller and was coming towards me when i suffered a hook pull, #¿™×er!
I was slowly putting a few items in my rucksack prior to leaving at five pm when the rod bent double, so leaning into the fish i played it hard as i dared as the bite/fish was three or four yards below the the snag where I lost my first Barbel earlier.
It felt bigger than the first, hard to lift off the bottom but it was coming forward but moving closer to the snag close to midriver, I put on even more pressure to prevent it gaining ground but it just pulled back harder and found its safety in the snag, knowing from my previous efforts i knew any efforts now would end in despair and so it transpired.
Maybe it was all the winter floods that had pushed the "new" snag into position, it was'nt there last season when i fished the swim?
Anyway, i made my way home a somewhat crestfallen angler!

 

[seth49]

Club water yesterday, and it’s still not fishing as well as usual, no tench just skimmers and roach plus 3 F1s, it was hard work not a lot of bites at all, same for the other anglers as well, apart from one chap fishing a pellet waggler for the carp and F1s, he was doing ok.