How did you get on?

[@Clive]

I’ve used a bait dropper to feed punch crumb in that depth and more …. Really need one with a long stalk to release off the bottom. Sadly I think you may be right …

A few years back Flightliner mentioned a dropper that can be set to open at any depth. Two years ago I made my own and it works a treat. I'll try and describe it. The one that I made was designed to have a maximum depth range of 6 foot because that ass the most that I could comfortably cast with my 11 foot telescopic pike rod that doubles as my dropper / spod rod. If you have a longer rod then it can be made longer by adjusting the measurements below.

Start with 14 foot of mono' around 15lb bs. Double it and form a small loop knot at the top end where the line is doubled over. That loop knot is then attached loop to eye with a swivel. Of the two lengths of line, call them A & B for clarification.

On A slide on a substantial ledger stop and then on both lines a large sliding pike float ideally with the lines passing down a tube in the middle of the float.

On B tie a strong link swivel 6 feet from the top swivel. Use that to attach a banjo dropper. Then lay the rig on the ground extended with lines A & B side by side with no slack in them. On line A tie a loop that just fits over the trigger loop of the dropper when the door is in the closed and latched position.

In use the ledger stop on line A can be set anywhere from a few inches below the top swivel to a few inches above the dropper trigger which would be around 6 feet down. Before filling the dropper slip the loop on line A over the latching trigger. When you cast out both lines pass through the sliding float equally until the ledger stop on line A prevents that from giving any more line. Line B however continues to feed through the sliding float as the dropper descends and this causes the dropper to open as the trigger is pulled up effectively suspending the dropper on line A.

There is a bit of fine tuning regards the trigger on the door of the dropper. It has to be tight enough so as not to open on the cast but opens freely as the dropper's weight is taken up by line A.

Between use you can take the dropper off the rig and wind the two llnes in parallel on a large pole winder.

I normally use this in the warmer months to get maggots past the millions of bleak that inhabit the surface layer or when fishing really deep river swims where allowing the bait to start dispersing 6 feet down is better than firing it in with a catapult and gives a tighter baited area.

 

[Skoda]

Just returned from my annual trip to the Mighty River Severn. The plan was to meet up with Micky and his partner: we would fish and the girls would go walking and shopping. The plan changed when I developed double vision (possibly a result of having flu jab and Covid jab on same day and feeling crap all the next day). Long story short - no driving!

On the plus side it was just Micky and me. The river levels were low, the weather was cool but not freezing, light winds, mainly dry but light drizzle in the afternoons. The fishing was hard. We employed the usual tactics, luncheon meat (although my tin of Tulip luncheon meat dated June2029 must have had a tiny puncture and almost half was mouldy and soft!), groundbait feeders or straight lead. Micky caught a small barbel about 5lb on the first day and I managed a small chub around a pound and a half.

Next day I chose a swim with a flat sandy beach, a deep slack inside and the main flow over the far bank. The double vision was giving me problems negotiating getting down to the river safely. It also caused great difficulty threading my 13’ float rod up. Never take your eyesight for granted. Micky tried a few swims without luck whilst I put a sleeper rod out in the faster water and fiddled around the deep slack in front of me on the float. A small worm accounted for a nice dace which saved a blank. I can’t help feeling a pint of maggots would have been handy!

Later that afternoon I chatted to an angler who had been roving with liquidised bread and bread flake bait. He said he’d caught a dozen chub and, wait for it, a barbel on bread in the swim I was now in. It was only the second barbel he’d ever caught on bread. (I’ve only ever caught one barbel on bread, in a match on the River Nidd in the sixties. I had two foot of gin clear water in front of me and had managed two or three 1oz dace all morning. Giving my swim a rest I paused for lunch and lobbed a ¾ oz bomb over to the far bank under a bush, big piece of my sandwich bread on the hook. Drink in one hand Kit-Kat in the other, massive bite, drink and biscuit everywhere. Landed a 6lb 2oz barbel which was huge in those days; the match officials wouldn’t let me weigh it in until the end of the match so there it was taking up most of my 6-ring keepnet for four hours in the sun.)

I tried bread on the hook for a couple of hours but switched back to luncheon meat mid-afternoon. I’d been gradually reducing my line diameter and hook size but, as the light was fading, decided to return to 9lb fluorocarbon hook link and a size 12 which was a stroke of luck really as I had a bite straight away and struck into a decent barbel, eventually landing a 7lb 14oz beauty.

We had to vacate the cottage on the Monday morning but fished on until 12.30 without any luck. On the drive home they were gritting the M6 and the A14 in preparation for the Arctic blast due the next day.

Andy

 

[chevin4]

Last Saturday i joined my fellow Perchfishers for a fish-in on a beautiful stretch of the Gt Ouse near Bedford. Unlike the conditions last year when the event was called off due to flooding the river which awaited us on this occasion was running low and clear.
I decided to fish with two light quiver rods namely Fox 12ft Specialists one was set up with a small running feeder size 16 hook armed with two maggots the other rod was set up with a link leger with a lobworm on a size 8. From the start i was catching plenty of roach on the maggot whilst the lobworm positioned in front of a bush remained inactive but i expected the perch would switch on at dusk. One of our members (Colin) who has had several big perch to over 3lb to his name caught his first 2lb at a fish-in weighing 2lb 12oz i was delughted for him.
Colin caught his perch on a small piece of lobworm on a size 10 hook. This was cue to change tactics the maggot rod was wound in and i would concentrate on one rod as dusk approached. As expected the perch came on the feed i caught a dozen or so in quick succession but unfortunately they were all below a pound.
Soon it was dark and time to pack up we got back to the car before the heavens opened we stayed dry throughout the day which is always a bonus particularly as i left the brollie behind.

 

[@Clive]

I picked Wilf up this morning for a day's lake fishing. I wasn't really in the mood owing to toothache that has caused infection in my lower jaw. Because of that I had only done minimal prep' and there were no live maggots, just dead reds & dendros to use for bait. I had planned to fish a new area of one of the big lakes, but the strong wind put me off. Wilf has constant chest complaints and I didn't fancy risking my poorly jaw in the wind so we went elsewhere.

We both set up feeder rods with small groundbait feeders and fished double maggot, dendros and cocktails without a bite for the first 90 minutes. I had not wanted to over feed the fish so had not introduced too many maggots. After lunch however I catapulted some in and that brought a measured response. The bites were very cagey and eventually by trial and error I worked out that very small pieces of worms on the 16 hook, similar to a kebab rig was the way to go. I had three bream to almost 3lb while Wilf managed a small rudd. I sat him in my place and coached him to strike laterally once, not twice vertically, and to hold the rod tip back under load until he could take control of the reel and maintain pressure on the fish. The way he was doing it involved a lot of slack line that I suspected was allowing fish to shed the hook.

He caught two bream of around 2lb each to make it 3:3. I offered to let him stay and take the lead, but he graciously declined.

 

[terry m]

After couple of recent blanks on the Avon and the river extremely high, I plotted up on a local gravel pit, sat behind 3 deadbait rods. Very slow, and the only two pike would probably have weighed 5 pound’s together! Still it was nice to be out in the sunshine.

 

[Butcherboy]

Went Perch hunting today at a lake I used to fish with my dad. Not sat and float fished for a good few years. Big lobs, chopped worm and laying by 6".

Not a sniff of a Perchbut great fun

 

[@Clive]

Its not just me then. I went after perch using lobworms last year and ended up with 6 barbel and 2 bream

 

[ian g]

Everything loves worms , I've had plenty of barbel , bream, roach ,chub and pike plus a few perch

 

[Steve Arnold]

A sunny but cold afternoon for fishing on the Lot. It was nice in the sun but when the trees cast a shadow over me and I had no bites I decided to move about 100 metres upstream. Back in the sun and I was getting bites from small stuff, the river is alive with small roach!

Fishing buddy Alisitair stuck with the roach and had about a dozen on sweetcorn. I persisted with the feeder for barbel and finally had one as the sun set behind the Causses de Quercy.

A last cast and a small bream hung itself on my hook.....

Some days any fish is appreciated.....and I got to sit in the sun and enjoy the scenery.

 

[Alan Whitty]

A week last Saturday I went to the water where I crucian fished in summer, waggler fished maggot in 6ft plus of water, it was a bit of a struggle, a couple of half tidy roach around 6-8ozs, two hybrids, several skimmers along with one bream around 2lbs, another around 3-8.... I fished yesterday on the small river, first time for ages, turned up around 11.30am with frost still on the ground, the river still had water on so was a little pacey, so I laid on in what looked like a near bank slack, feeding maggot and hemp with a dropper, I had a chub around the pound, before realising the water was way too turbulent and feeling the bait was being washed out too quickly changed the set up to trot it, first run through the float buried and a roach close to a pound came to the net, I thought that I was going to empty it, but unfortunately the fish had other ideas, I had lots of fruitless trots and ended with two roach, six chub all of similar size and a rogue barbel around 5lbs before disaster struck at 3.05pm, I hooked a roach around 8ozs and was about to net it when the hook pulled, leaving the float in the branches behind me, I pulled and it pinged into the reeds next to me, lifted to find no tackle and no sign of the float, so I missed the best time as it was far too late to re-tackle, upon getting my gear up the bank I saw the top three quarters of an inch of my Dave Harrell shallow water stick laying in the rushes... destroyed....

 

[@Clive]

550 acres, 8 miles of bank with no vehicular access. I must be off my trolly.......

I set up a sliding waggler with double red maggot at 18 to 20 yards, full 11 foot depth and shallower and in an hour and a quarter had three bites for one roach.

I swapped to a maggot feeder and had a small roach first cast. Then I had several missed bites before getting the culprit cleanly lip hooked.

That put me right off the feeder so I went back to the float. By now I'd got 2 roach in almost three hours fishing. I got two more roach on the drop so I shallowed up and in the next three hours I had the most extraordinary session that I can remember. Between then and packing up at just before 5pm I was averaging over a roach a minute. The routine of cast, tighten, catapult resulted in the float being submerged or standing proud by the time that I dropped the catapult. I had to change the routine to catapult, cast, tighten to keep up. I kept an eye on my watch and in exactly ten minutes I had hooked 13 roach and landed 12. The one that I didn't land was on its way in when time ran out. At the death with the sun about to disappear I decided to pack up when the hook bait expired. I had 7 roach on the same hook bait, it was little more than a pink rag but still catching.

 

[ian g]

Fished the Severn today , dropping but still fairly high . Fished worm on the float and also on a tip rod . Cold breeze all day made fishing uncomfortable . I was hoping for perch but managed one bream around 2 1/2lb . Had more pleasant days fishing .

 

[chevin4]

After the wild and windy weather at the weekend Monday was looking quite promising. I was up at 5am and looking forward to a pike fishing session on a Cambridgeshire lake. In fact this would be my first pike fishing trip of the autumn.The water concerened featured in one of John Wilsona Go Fishing progammes and from memory he caught a couple of 20lb plus pike. I took with me a good selection of dead bait i set up a float fished mackeral tail and a sunken paternostered roach on the second rod. I enjoyed sitting in a sheltered part of the lake and the sunshine felt warm for the time of year. Unfortunately the nearest i got to catching was a dropped run on a smelt which has replaced the mackeral tail in the afternoon. There was a lot of fry topping so there was either perch in the vacinity or the pike were fry feeding. Despite the blank i thoughly enjoyed the day and gave me the opportunity to try a new rod out.

 

[peterjg]

This month (November) somehow I've managed to go seven times - around doctor appointment (easier to see the Pope?) and other family stuff.

I had a nice trip to a heathland lake and managed 7 rudd and 3 perch on dead maggots - no bites on dendras, sweetcorn or bread?
A trip to a carp lake resulted in a 9lb 13oz pike fairly hooked on sweetcorn! And a few small roach and rudd. The carp (grossly overstocked) drove me potty and were even feeding off the surface - I won't go there again.
Early one morning (pre storm Bert) I started on a local small river and blanked, packed up quickly and moved to a nearby lake and caught 6 crucian cum brown goldfish to 2lbs 10ozs and a small tench but no roach?
Fished the Thames once (saw yet another otter) and soon caught two decent roach on legered bread then it went dead. Moved to a local lake, reversed over a short wooden post and without thinking moved forward a bit and the whole rear bumper pulled off - bugger! After much cursing I got the bumper in the car and started to fish - caught a few average roach, rudd and perch on live maggots. I have a car which I just use for fishing, it's an old banger and I managed to refit the bumper the next day.
Now the water temperatures have dropped I've found that a 4inch helirig is better (with maggots) than my usual running rig. Caught equally on either red or white maggots. The bigger roach are definitely now easier to catch after dark - usually mid January they begin to be more catchable in daylight again. Quivertipping now with lower temperatures showed the bites better than bobbins.

 

[Notts Michael.]

Went Perch hunting today at a lake I used to fish with my dad. Not sat and float fished for a good few years. Big lobs, chopped worm and laying by 6".
View attachment 32333View attachment 32334View attachment 32335View attachment 32336View attachment 32337

Not a sniff of a Perchbut great fun

That first pic is a beauty, worthy of going on a calendar.

 

[Badgerale]

I had a frosty start lure fishing on Thursday. The temperature had plunged during the night, and things were looking very wintery all of a sudden. This temperature drop combined with high water levels made me think I was on to a blank from the start.

The sun came out and after a couple of hours it was actually quite pleasant. The pike weren't convinced though. I had one bite... which I'm not entirely sure wasn't just weed.

 

[Steve Arnold]

Unusual for a Sunday afternoon, but my wife gave me permission to go fishing! I didn't want to question her motives, as the weather was sunny and warm, so it didn't take me long to throw my fishing gear into the car. I'd only been fishing for 20 minutes when a good bite landed me a 4.5 lb barbel. But it wasn't until three hours later that I got another bite, this time a plump barbel weighing 6lb.

Now at home I dine on rabbit stew and sit by a log fire with a glass of good red wine. Winter days couldn't be more beautiful!

 

[terry m]

I ventured out early this morning in search of Esox but despite being out at first light my first 2 swim choices were taken and a couple of others were unfishable due to the floods, so hopped back in the car and drove much further down the estate to a swim that I hadn’t tried yet this winter. Lobbed out a couple of baits as normal, and 45 minutes in the bottom fished Mackerel float wiggled a little then fell flat. I tightened expecting a jack but was pleasantly surprised when a good pike leapt clear and then took me all over the river. The picture describes the exceptional condition better than I can. I was however a little surprised when it only registered 21lb 8oz on the scales as I thought it was an upper 20. Nonetheless I was very pleased, no further action and was back indoors just after midday.

 

[Butcherboy]

The perch hunt continues.........
Lobworms on the hook, maggot for loose feed.
I gave up after 8 jacks and loads of roach, not feeling 100%
I'm determined to break the 2lb Perch barrier

 

[nottskev]

Out twice in the last five days. First was a mis-timed visit to the Soar, where I've renewed an old card thinking the mix of natural and canalised sections might be handy if another wet winter knocks the rivers out for weeks on end. I glanced at the levels and noted that it had dropped a metre in three days and thought it should be ok'ish, then. Wrong - the canal was full to the brim and covered in noxious-looking foam and debris, and the main river a filthy colour and racing through.

I had only one rod, thinking to fish across for chub on bread or perch on worm, but down the side was the only option. I spent an hour watching the tip shake as little fish whittled expensive lobworms down to a stub, and then wrapped up and parked myself behind a bloke fishing the canal section upstream, a local match hot-shot who'd made the same mistake, and the information he gave me about the river, and the good chat, meant it wasn't a complete waste of time.

Today, I thought I'm giving up on coarse fish and drove off into Derbyshire to fish for grayling and trout on the Derwent. Even at 9.30 am I had to scrape ice off the car, but the day got milder as it went on. There was plenty of water in this river, too, and the usually stately deep section had some pace. It's a lovely river to fish, if you can stop wondering where all the coarse fish went, and good to catch something after Saturday's outing. Fishing a 4g balsa slider down the middle in 12' of water, I caught some nice grayling.

That wouldn't get a second glance on your chalk stream, but up here it's a nice fish. And a few nice trout turned up when I swapped maggot on the hook for worm 2' off the bottom

It was all going well until a big mother of a trout, hooked 30 yds down, thought it was a chub and tunnelled its way into the branches trailing into the water below me. The fish slipped the hook, but I was snagged above the hooklength and when I had to pull for a break my precious 30 year old Ultra balsa slider came adrift and floated off towards Derby, a fate I wouldn't wish on anyone. I followed it downstream for 100 yds, but it was always getting further from the bank... Never mind, I'll just have to make a copy.

I started again with chopped worm in a maggot feeder and lobworm on the hook, and discovered that's a much easier way to catch trout, but I'll still set up the float next time. Meanwhile, flocks of tits flitted through the far bank trees, a dabchick, looking small and lonely, fished the peg below, and an otter swam by in a leisurely manner. I drove home by the scenic route through the same heavy mist I drove out through. All this, and beef stew and beer in the fridge and football on tv. It's a hard life.