How did you get on?

[wetthrough]

Fished the Dam Thursday. Colder start at 7am than I'm comfortable with. It took a while for my fingers to start following instructions. Chucked in some loose GB followed bay a fairly solid ball to hopefully get to the bottom. Got a bit first cast but lost it. Not a frantic day but ok. Ended up with 25 Roach to about 5oz, this being the biggest.

3.3lb Fluro to 16s taken on sweetcorn. I'd have taken more if I'd stuck with maggot but was hoping for something bigger. Ended the 25 Roach and one small thing of dubious parentage. No sign of anything bigger about as far as I could see. Warmed up around 2pm and by 3pm when I was set to leave but felt like fishing on but duty calls.

 

[Steve Arnold]

On the recent subject of "carp anglers territory".....

Although I have the river Lot to myself most times we are now coming into the season that I may come across the dedicated carp anglers appearing. On this river use of the "washing-line" technique seems common with them....and sometimes they can be totally selfish!

A few years back, just after the last Covid lockdown period, I went to three different stretches of the river with a view to fish. At the first I found two swims cleared along about 100 metres of bankside, neither could be fished due to a line strung above the surface about 30 metres out. I wandered upstream to find a boat anchored with these washing lines going upstream, across and downstream. All the work some anglers had done to clear some bank swims and no way another angler could get a line in off the bank. Just how selfish can one angler get, just how much of this river became his private domain?

A couple of days later my wife and I decided to explore the river on our inflatable canoe. Not very far from the slipway we spotted anglers waving their arms at us, these carp fishermen had at least four washing lines strung across the river. There are navigation buoys along this stretch and they had effectively set traps for boaters!

Finally my temper was truly tested when I tried fishing from a landing stage. I cast out and then noticed a line right under my rod tip, it was another washing line going from upstream to a tree just downstream of the landing stage. I pulled the washing line in and placed it behind a rope cleat, my action must have tweaked a bait alarm somewhere.

Then a paddle boarder appeared coming towards the landing stage, he had to pass another washing line over his head to reach his destination safely.

Finally the carp angler appeared from where his bivvy was hidden on a tiny island, paddled his inflatable down to retrieve the washing line I had pulled behind the cleat. Not too much conversation between us but my french consisted to pointing at my watch, his line and my saying "interdite maintenant".

Three trips to the river and I was properly P'd with carp anglers thinking, for them, the rules did not apply. On this river the "washing line" method is not allowed until after dusk, that is when river boats should not be operating.

Common sense and courtesy should be enough, without rules, but so many seem absolutely obsessed with THEIR personal quest to catch a carp. For them it does not seem to matter about other river users safety, let alone their access rights to use this common resource.

I can see the washing line technique has legitimate uses, but it's used in so many places where it creates hazards to other people. Often it is used due to a lack of skill on the anglers part......learn to cast, learn to "read the river", learn through observation where the fish are, learn through experience how to predict seasonal changes. Then catch the fish with just one line!

Still "miffed"!

 

[nottskev]

I was waiting on the bridge for a friend to arrive at the canal the other day, peering into the water as you do. A group of fair-sized carp were nosing about right under the bank in the scummy far-bank corner. There's a pool adjacent where you can catch carp all day. It's way too popular with too many pegs too close together for me, but I fancied trying to catch one from the canal.

Naturally, there wasn't a fish to be seen from the bridge. I'd mashed up some bread as Alan described and chucked a couple of handful's in from the bridge as it's too far to throw from where I sat, and flicked a big piece of flake over. I like to have a float to watch, so I double-rubbered an inch of peacock set at twice the depth with a couple of BB shot on a link. This nailed the bait and sat there looking pretty.

It's surprising how small fish will take a big lump of bread on a size 10 to .26 line, and I caught a few ide and a 2lb F1 before a carp came along. It turned out to be smaller than the ones I'd seen, but at least I'd caught one, and I'd had enough of the blazing sun by then.

 

[@Clive]

Ray, totally agree. It seems that too many carp anglers (for some weird reason) seem to have the totally misplaced idea that they have priority over other 'lesser' anglers? As an ex carp angler (of 38 years) all I can say is this: catching big carp is easy - all you need is lots of time, a reasonable bait and a sharp hook - no skill required!

Not here they don't Peter. They also need a bivvie, another tent for their tackle, a boat, a trailer, a spomb rod, baby bath type unhooking thing and a landing net big enough for a whale.

 

[mikench]

Warford , Mike . My fishing mate lives in Holmes Chapel so it's handy for him . Unfortunately it is work party only until Monday and he doesn't have one . He came for a chat for a couple of hours . I fished the old pool . I've done a couple of work parties at Horseshoe lakes but never fished them yet.

I go there a lot as it’s 10 minutes from home but I always fish the newer lake as the old lake lost a lot of its chub when the peg near the farm was removed. It’s nice water.

 

[ian g]

I've only fished it 3 times ,always the old lake . Last time I went in December we both caught chub and carp , while targeting roach on maggots

 

[Philip]

Ever had one of those days ?

With a rare half day free and lovely blue skies I thought it would be a good opportunity to get the Kayak out for the first time in ages. Kayak fishing is tailor made for lure fishing so I spent an hour in blazing sun dragging the Kayak out from behind the shed, gave it a brush down, fitted the backrest, dug out the life jacket and put together a pouch of lures & tackle to carry with me. I was at the point of heaving the kayak up onto the car roof rack when I suddenly remembered the predator season didn’t open until the 26th April ..Doh !

Dragged the Kayak back behind the shed put all the life jackets, backrests, bags and lures back into their places and sat down to cool off for a moment and contemplate how I could salvage the day. I decided best option was to do a bit of trotting down the big river ..nice and simple single rod, waders, couple of loaves of bread, I was sure a Chub or two would be up for it. So I grabbed the required bits and pieces and raced off down the river, with luck I still had time for 2 or 3 hours fishing. Usually I have all my rods made up but I had snapped off on my last session so the float rod needed to be setup, no problem I would do it when I got to the river.

On arrival my chosen spot involved a bit of a clamber down a very steep bank, not easy in waders. I started to thread the line at the same time feeding mashed bread into the swim, the river looked really good and I was gagging to get started. Reaching for my float tube I realized my larger floats where back in the car…I clambered back up the steep bank got the required float and returned back down again. Sliding on a large avon float I tied on a hook & took out my box of shot and saw I didn’t have enough large shot left to cock it. Back up the steep bank, got a slightly smaller float and clambered back down again and retackled. I was dangerously low on shot but just about had enough to cock it as I wanted. Wading out I made my first cast. I was using a centerpin and tried a wallis cast & immediately suffered a huge birds nest of epic proportions. Not to worry, I stood there for 10mins untangling it and was just freeing the last bit of line caught behind the spool when it snapped at the reel. I waded back to the bank and started the whole process of tackling up again…14 foot float rod too so loads of tiny rings to rethread.

I completed that & waded back out ready to make my second “first cast”, however the hook and shot had somehow become snagged under a rock at my feet. Fumbling round in thigh deep water I tried to free it with my fingers however it had become totally wedged and I had no option but to snap the line. It also meant I had now lost the last of my bulk shot. Mightly p*****d off now I considered packing up there and then but given the continually stream of mashed bread I had been feeding throughout this saga I decided out of sheer bloody mindedness I was determined to make at least one trot down the swim ! I tied on a new hook for the 4th time and then dug out all the shot I had left to try and cock the float, the float stuck far too much out of the water but it would have to do. Finally, I was ready to make my “first cast”.

I waded out taking great care not to tangle up on anything and flicked the float out under arm to start its cruise down the river. I was finally fishing ! The float got to about 5 meters from me then came to an abrupt halt, looking down I saw I had run out of line on the centerpin and it was being stopped by the bit of tape attaching it to the spool. With no line, no shot and no will power left I clambered back up the steep bank (slipping in the process) and drove home.

Hopefully the fishing gods will be kinder to me next trip.

 

[peterjg]

Don't worry, we have all had days like that. I won't bore you with details but once it took me 6 hours before I actually started fishing! Thankfully it doesn't happen very often.