How did you get on?

[Ray Roberts]

Well that wasn’t too bad at all. First time on a new water for roach and as that was my target the day was quite successful. I had 27 fish in total. One chub, two small perch and the rest were roach and some reasonable ones too.

The swim that I opted for was a point that was on a fork in the river. When I looked at the river a week ago it was flowing nicely, but the flow today was almost non existent. The wind picked up as I started setting up and was veering all over the place. I was surprised at how deep it was and I had about 10 ft from just in front of the rod tip. I caught steadily all day but it was hard going with a pin and after getting tangled I swopped to a closed face reel.

I caught the majority of the fish on tares and punched bread. Worms only caught me a couple of small perch and maggots only produced small roach. A hoard of canoeists came through and stayed the other side of the river, but on the way back managed to trash my swim, Grrr, it took about an hour to get them back feeding and sport had slowed down. I had two young hooligan magpies trying to steal my bait all day. I have never seen them so brazen. There is a cafe in the country park and I would guess they get fed there frequently and they have become very tame.

 

[S-Kippy]

A last ( probably) hurrah for me on the trite. I had an evening on Farmoor which was nice but the trite were uncooperative…too bright. I was fortunate to get a brace from my only two takes. Ironically the trite were finally starting to rise just as I was walking off around half nine. Typical

 

[terry m]

An afternoon/evening session on a local lake threw up one very tentative run which resulted in this 32lb 2oz common. First real success of the new season.

 

[riverman]

well todays 1st river outing didnt quite go according to plan.went to helperby on the river swale and fished peg 56,not one touch on the leger rod.tried luncheon meat and halibut pellets but to no avail.but plenty of silvers on the stick with a mixed bag of roach gudgeon dace bleak and chublets on maggots.weather was fine river looked great but the barbel and chub not playing ball today.

 

[no-one in particular]

Had a look at this river today, see if any mullet have moved up. hemp and maggots for bait and it did get me 5 fish, 3 feisty small bream and two small roach, streuwth forgotten territory for me; couldn't keep up
Transferred this reel to a lighter rod, the other one was a bit much and I like the reel, a bit battered but functions like me, well arguable that one. but going to get a lot of use so looking for an ideal rod for it.
I did see one tell tail flash of silver just under the surface and a small shoal of what looked liked small thin lips moved through, so mullet will be back on the agenda next time. Sun very hot but a cool breeze in this open space; its all sheep and flat grass behind me.

 

[Islandbear]

Lil morning session on to start with me centrepin. 1 nice Tench and 3 rudd then after a operator error back to usual reel . Tench Crucians and more rudd. Good session.

 

[terry m]

An evening session yesterday started with the first run resulting in a rather large carp taking me into snags and transferring the hook onto a very large underwater branch. How do they manage to do that. Traps reset and 30 minutes later another run and a 20lb 2oz common was banked. On the point of packing up and the rod rattled off again. A very hard fighting 6lb 12oz female tinca was the prize.

 

[@Clive]

A blank today on the Vienne. The river hadn't quite run off after two days of torrential rain and obviously the fish didn't want to be where I was fishing. Tried meat, pellets and sweetcorn on both float and ledger without getting a single bite. I only expect one or two fish from the swim in a session so I stayed put hoping the fish would arrive. To be honest, I would have been better going to the Charente.

 

[nottskev]

I thought I'd leave the barbel gear at home and try for perch. I just took a pellet waggler rod, a pin with 5lb line and maggots. I can't complain about the variety - first five casts produced a roach, a perch, a dace, a chub and a bleak. The bigger perch didn't show, and this was the best of them

More bits and a couple of hybrids of uncertain parentage followed

But the highlights of the afternoon were a couple of pike which grabbed little roach and managed to get themselves hooked. I mentioned in another thread that Drennan Wide Gape hooks had got some surprisingly big barbel out, and today size 12's in that pattern were up to the challenge of these gatecrashers

They certainly check you've tied your knots properly. And they look great. But I have to say I'm happier catching things with fewer teeth.

 

[Islandbear]

Hard work today bankside "just" the four landed.
Had an interesting chat with, I guess ex now , carper who has refound his love for fishing with a float, rather than sat watching electric alarms.
Perhaps a bit of that and the carp tax prices, we may see more returning to fishing rather than carping
Anyway piccies and big bream just topped the 5lb mark.

 

[Ray Roberts]

What a weird day. Firstly for some strange reason I thought the England game was on Thursday. So I thought I would get an afternoon on the Eden near Penshurst in the hope of some chub and possibly barbel. I sorted through my gear and I was off. Bait was no problem as I had loads in my bait fridge. I decided to watch the match on ITV X when I returned home.

I took two FreeSpirit twin tip river tamer rods and small bait runners, or I thought I did. I have the rods in sleeves but hadn’t used them since late autumn. First rod out of the sleeve and no reel, what a muppet, also no quiver top. Second rod had a reel but no quiver top with that one either. Then I remembered that I put the quiver tops in a rod tube for safe keeping. I set up one barbel top rod with a feeder and chunk of raw king prawn. The float rod was a FreeSpirit specimen float rod which is fine for barbel or chub. I had nothing on the feeder rod at all but four chub close in on the float. I’ve had a few barbel from the same swim in the past but it wasn’t to be today. I packed up just after nine. On the way home I occasionally stop for a pint, but the pub that was on my route shut down during Covid and never reopened, so that was a non starter. Near where the pub was there was a sign for a pub called the White Rock Inn. I was gasping so took a detour, the bloody sign didn’t say it was about three miles away or that the pub was shut. I had to make do with a few cans of Stella when I got in. Then to finish off the day the flaming ITV X app wasn’t working on my TV or Freeview box. I downloaded it to my firestick and I’ve got to see the match but it’s been dire so far.

 

[maggot_dangler]

Hi folks hoping you are all ok been a while having more than my fair share of medical issues BUT I actually managed to get out this evening got to one of the club canal sections about 18:00 with some iffy maggots from a while ago amazingly they were still live with those and a selection of leftover groundbait had a very nice session nothing real big a lot of perch 1lb or so gave up counting a few skimmers 1 decent bream and a few roach finished just before 21:00 so not bad the warm weather at least allows me to get out a bit futher walking is down to 20 maybe 30 meters at a push . stillwaiting for MRI results cheers folks hope to get back a bit more often now .

 

[maggot_dangler]

Well that wasn’t too bad at all. First time on a new water for roach and as that was my target the day was quite successful. I had 27 fish in total. One chub, two small perch and the rest were roach and some reasonable ones too.

The swim that I opted for was a point that was on a fork in the river. When I looked at the river a week ago it was flowing nicely, but the flow today was almost non existent. The wind picked up as I started setting up and was veering all over the place. I was surprised at how deep it was and I had about 10 ft from just in front of the rod tip. I caught steadily all day but it was hard going with a pin and after getting tangled I swopped to a closed face reel.

I caught the majority of the fish on tares and punched bread. Worms only caught me a couple of small perch and maggots only produced small roach. A hoard of canoeists came through and stayed the other side of the river, but on the way back managed to trash my swim, Grrr, it took about an hour to get them back feeding and sport had slowed down. I had two young hooligan magpies trying to steal my bait all day. I have never seen them so brazen. There is a cafe in the country park and I would guess they get fed there frequently and they have become very tame.

View attachment 30550View attachment 30551View attachment 30552View attachment 30553

It is hoolighan Jackdaws i get at the bird feeders they try to take i out of my hands pity about the canoist

 

[Ray Roberts]

It is hoolighan Jackdaws i get at the bird feeders they try to take i out of my hands pity about the canoist

To be truthful I didn’t really mind the magpies. They were so brazen it was quite funny. I know some people don’t like corvids but they are the most intelligent of birds and I like the antics they get up to. I saw a couple of crows dragging a squirrel that hadn’t observed the green cross code to the verge so they could eat it safely a while back, I pointed it out to my wife and she’s not a person who is easily impressed, but she was by that.

 

[no-one in particular]

Thought I would try something a bit different today, chuck all my ground bait in and sit on it, so a 1/4 pint of maggots, 3/4 a bag of garlic hemp, about 1/2 a loaf of white bread, thought about a tin of sweetcorn but decided that was enough. I always feed little and often and usually change swims at least once but I was early today so thought give this a go, I wouldnt do it on a lake but this deserted river OK. I thought it might just attract a lot of fish but the downside, will they pick my bait out of it, I sprayed it a bit all over the river. What I really was hoping for was to get some mullet feeding. So, 3 small roach, one bream about 1lb but did put a bend in the rod and one big eel about 2-4 lb, this got into the margin weed and broke my line, saved me having to un hook it, no mullet, no sign of them. However did see three fish jumping, only caught sight of one of them which looked like a small sea trout. Some sort of work going on, piles been driven in, not sure what for yet, but the mullet and sea trout should still be able to run up.
Enjoyed my day even with the lack of anything exciting, nice cool breeze and something to ponder for next time.

 

[mikench]

Well what a contrast today was to yesterday. I came over all Gloria Gaynor.Gordon and I met up at our chosen water in temperatures at least 15c less than yesterday and with an increasing stiff(and cold) breeze. Here is the master in his favoured peg and on his way to a total of 40 fish- 38 respectable roach and 2 carp.

Itvwas nice to be out and the cool weather was more pleasant than the sweltering heat of the last few days. I felt distinctly chilly facing the stiff breeze and whilst I fished ineptly on the feeder, I managed 6 carp to 4lb and thoroughly enjoyed the day. We chatted about various things and had at least 4 other anglers on a water we often have to ourselves. Work is ongoing to clear some of the pegs from the undergrowth which has grown like topsy in the last year or so. Good to see you again Gordon. You comfortably outfished everyone on the float( nothing new there) and most caught a few . A lovely day . You choose next week .

 

[no-one in particular]

Well what a contrast today was to yesterday. I came over all Gloria Gaynor.Gordon and I met up at our chosen water in temperatures at least 15c less than yesterday and with an increasing stiff(and cold) breeze. Here is the master in his favoured peg and on his way to a total of 40 fish- 38 respectable roach and 2 carp.

View attachment 30643
Itvwas nice to be out and the cool weather was more pleasant than the sweltering heat of the last few days. I felt distinctly chilly facing the stiff breeze and whilst I fished ineptly on the feeder, I managed 6 carp to 4lb and thoroughly enjoyed the day. We chatted about various things and had at least 4 other anglers on a water we often have to ourselves. Work is ongoing to clear some of the pegs from the undergrowth which has grown like topsy in the last year or so. Good to see you again Gordon. You comfortably outfished everyone on the float( nothing new there) and most caught a few . A lovely day . You choose next week .

Not strangled him yet then, I wouldnt let him get past 20 fish myself......

 

[mikench]

Nah He never rubs it in.

 

[nottskev]

I nearly went on the river out of early season habit, but it was dropping and clearing a week ago, and today the wind was gusting and swirling too, so I swapped to the tench pit. I got there about 4pm. My idea of a 4 o'clock start these days. I'd put the trolley in the boot thinking I'd hack through the undergrowth to the unfished swims on the far side. But I settled for fishing 20 yards from the car

I set up with a pin and a 30 year old rod, a Daiwa Amorphous Whisker Heavy 13'. It came out in the days when a million newly-stocked carp in the nation's recently dug fisheries were getting above pasty size, and it's just right, with its subtle blend of a fine tip and a stronger middle section, for tench like this

There are a few big old carp in the pit, and I've yet to get one out. Today's carp took the bait on the drop, ran out left, ran out ahead and then realised (or just did it) that if it ran to the right my .16 hooklength was not going to stop it getting in the mass of fallen trees 20 yards away. Disappointing, but at least I caught a few more tench.

 

[Islandbear]

Little session today bankside. Just 2 of the green beauties, but 2 of the big bream were knocking on my pb.
First 2 out on centrepin till an mmm unforced user error stopped play. (I will improve lol) But all on an old edgar seeley 11ft float.