How did you get on?

[arthur2sheds]

Well... As it’s been a while since I gave my lure rod a work out, I thought that I’d head down to my club lake and try lashing the water to a foam for a change....!
I decided on a bit of Drop Shotting in the hope of winkling out a Perch or several, so with that in mind I headed off to the lake, I started off with a small Salt and pepper soft bait fry pattern on a size 2 hook twinned with a single swan shot to balance it out. I began by dropping the rig into a few likely looking weed holes...
A little info on my setup... I was using a 7’ Sonik LRF Rockchamp-Spin with a 3-13 grm range. Mated with a Shimano 1000 Alivio reel spooled with 5kg braid with a 7lb Fluoro leader... (there are a couple of Pike in the water but not enough to warrant using a wire trace.)

After wending my way round half the lake I was beginning to think that the fish were not interested in the Salt & Pepper fry pattern, so I swapped over for a very small (1.5”) Perch fry lure and tried a few more likely looking holes... I had one enquiry but my strike bore no fruit, so I carried on regardless. As I got to the top of the lake I noticed that the shallow end of the lake was so low you could see the bottom in places, but the water was black with Carp, despite the cool weather, (worth noting for when I use bait) However I digress...
I carried on with the Perch fry pattern and I spied a likely looking hole in the weed...! No sooner had the lure hit the water, when the line tightened and the top of the rod hooped over.... I’d love to tell a tale of a frantic battle with a monster stripey, but in this instance, it was a juvenile perch with more attitude than weight...

still a fish is a fish and I carried on round the 3.5 acre water casting into promising looking spots... alas, to no avail.... I then had an idea...
I took a walk along the banks of the Roding which runs alongside the water.... however after four meadows worth of walking, I only got into 3 swims as it was so overgrown. Again nothing, nada, zip, not a sausage, ****** all, despite trying various soft lures in the swims that I could get into.
I also found out that my waterproof boots weren’t, and my cargo pants were not nettle proof, so arrived back at the car with my legs stung to blazes and my feet soaking
Here's a selection of the lures that I used in case anyone wants to avoid them

Oh well onwards and upwards... Tight lines

 

[neil1970]

Nice one Arthur!

27 little Perch and a jack from the river in just less than 2 hours. Good fun.

 

[arthur2sheds]

A goodly haul Neil... I'm going to have to try some of the other local rivers... The Can, Ter, Wid, Lea, or Chelmer... trouble is they are all either not much more than streams, devoid of fish, or on club books...

 

[neil1970]

Cheers Arthur.

I've got to say that I struggle on canals and lakes when lure fishing...and will probably be struggling on the river in a couple of months time, if last years efforts are to go by.

 

[soft plastic]

Those Berkley minnows are great, especially the perch pattern.

 

[tigger]

I had several hours on the river later today but spent most of it chin-waggin with other anglers whilst checking their membership books. The river was carrying a few inches of water, just a good flow to be honest but the water felt cold so I think the sudden drop off in temp may have put the barbel off a moving bait, all I caught was this solitary chub....

 

[no-one in particular]

Some good pointers yesterday- back to the river after the Thin Lipped Mullet I saw last time. Not a sign of them so using hemp and yeast flavored maggots I caught fish all day, all small, some very small. The nice thing is this was the declining river I have mentioned a few times; the variety of species was special, chub, roach, bream, rudd, about 5 perch and 1 mullet. That was the last fish, I was about to pack up and thought this is a bit tastier and up it came, small, less than a 1lb but very welcome. I decided to stay another hour after that hoping they might come on but that was it, just more roach etc. Must have been 50+ fish in all.
Looking better for the future for this river and I am sure the yeast flavored maggots helped, I have a lot of faith in them now although still to catch anything big on them.
One bloke came down in his boat with his son and shouted he had a big perch on lob worm, 2lb+ he reckoned.
A satisfying day; even the smirking frog never made a guest appearance, probably because he got a clout round the ear with my landing net last time. Frog Git-http://www.fishingmagic.com/photos/data/500/frog_friend.jpg
His days are numbered.
Poor pic of mullet (I have resubmitted this as it did not come right before and failed to come up)

http://www.fishingmagic.com/photos/data/500/mullet.jpg

By the By-Sparrow Hawk flew right in front of me, maybe why frog git was laying low and a kingfisher. On QI Stephen Fry said they are only called kingfishers because they catch fish in this country. In all the other parts of the world they do not live near water. Termite nest are frequented more often.
I had mixed colored maggots and the green ones, hardly a bite, all on the red and white-odd.
Toodaloo. Au revoir and all that.

 

[Tee-Cee]

Didn't actually fish yesterday, but I did go on a recce to check out a couple of stretches of the Loddon near Twyford, plus a still water close by. The Loddon looked okay for level and colour, but not much seen via the polaroids. Weed level looked reasonable....The still water, a pretty big area, was 50% covered in fine weed and the worst it's been for many years according to folk fishing.

Managed to collect a dozen good quality feathers of various types for float making, followed by a spot of lunch at the Lands End pub, although it was very risky crossing the Ford close by. Trouble is, once you've committed you just have to go for it, but it was deeper than expected !!

I sat with my beer, staring at the cased 4lb 3oz roach hanging behind the bar and just thought, if only..................Drat !


ps If anyone is in the area the pub also has cased specimens of 17lb bream, chub etc etc so always worth a look. Many will know the pub from ' book ' launches et al..

 

[arthur2sheds]

A few weeks ago I started fishing after a six week layoff due to an elbow tendon problem... here's an account of my first day back in the saddle...

Well... 4 sessions of physiotherapy, a bucket of anti-inflammatories and wearing a brace for six weeks see's my arm ready for a bit of casting practice...
Moreton pit was the venue of choice, and it being a nice day was absolutely chocca block with chaps of a certain age and inclination.

Oddly enough the "Goer" swim was vacant, so I dropped my gear in and set up my Sealey Match rod with a Youngs Rapidex II, 4lb line a small onion float, and a size 16 hook to a 2.8lb link... Bait was maggots.
There is a huge head of Roach in this lake so a gentle start was what I wanted, rather than a dour battle with an angry carp on my first day back in the saddle as it were.

I started strongly with small Roach coming one a chuck, not big but a leisurely reintroduction to casting and striking after an enforced lay off, then I hit paydirt....

A chunky little gudgeon that put up such a scrap, I thought I had hooked something much larger.... Then I had a fright... the float slowly buried and I struck gently and the rod bucked and took on an alarming curve then sprang straight again... on inspecting the hook this is what I found

Seems that Drennan hooks are no match for the Moreton Carp. I put on another hook length and set about the Roach once more, then a few Perch took an interest in my offerings... Again, nothing of any size, but enough to keep me busy.

I did have a sour note at one point in the day, as a chap started wandering round asking how folk got on.... I have no issue with this, but the "Gentleman" concerned walked straight into my swim and nearly trod on my new net, then proceeded to walk right up to the waters edge for a look see. Do these people have no concept of watercraft or etiquette...? Oooh, it makes my blood boil....!

I took a little break to surround a gentle repast of a sarnie or two and a glug of orange juice on a warm morning and noticed that Moreton was looking particularly pretty in her late summer guise...

Once my break was over, I set about the Roach again and plundered them for an hour or so... I did see a few larger Roach lurking in the upper layers darting about as I loose-fed and I tried shallowing up to see if I could snaffle one or two, but to no avail.
I had started to get into the sort of auto-pilot mode of feed, cast, catch, release, when I had a bite from something that put a bend into the Sealey... a small skimmer, not too large but welcome nevertheless...

At least it was big enough to christen my new net, recently purchased from a TFF member and the Sealey was a joy to use after it's extensive rebuild... (cheers Phil)

Anyway, about 2pm it started to cloud over and it looked like it was going to rain, I also had a pressing engagement with the stove as it's my turn to cook dinner.. Garlic and ginger chicken tonight, with baby new potatoes, French beans and Courgettes... I digress.... I took my leave of Moreton and will return on a quieter day.. Oh and the Arm is fine after a bit of "Special Therapy"

Tight lines

 

[rubio]

Had a stroll along the upper reaches of our local river in the company of a young lad keen to connect with a chub. Don't get the wrong picture when I say 'upper reaches' this is east anglia and there are no tumbling waterfalls and rapids. In fact the flow was very poor and there had been recent weed cutting. The process appears to be driving a boat down our narrow waterway removing all cover and vegetation in contact with the water.On a stretch that at times holds large shoals of roach nothing could be seen topping for a mile and a half. Clarity was also very high and hopes and expectations were gradually lowered to praying for anything to bite. Eventually a deeper swim that has been reliable for me in the past delivered again. My companion, who is a very accomplished match angler with a winning bag of over 100lbs the day before, was not hugely impressed by my tracking skills that lead us to half a dozen dace fry. We could have had more but they really struggled to get a whole maggot in their gobs and kept dropping off. One roach of 6oz took pity but he was very much a loner. Two pike anglers had explored further still than us and seen not one sign of a fish.Clearly a move was in order.
We spotted chub under a bridge and spent a frustrating hour watching them ignore our baits. A short way downstream in the riffles we finally had a few better dace and a couple of roach about a pound. Their comparative strength to size in the flow was a surprise to the river newbie and he looked chuffed with his best roach. I was equally chuffed. In part cos I'd regained a little belief in my own skills and particularly as the pristine colourations were fully appreciated by someone more used to seeing washed out pale versions of roach that steal a pellet or two aimed at carp in a commercial.
I occasionally notice a comment or two, here and elsewhere, about youngsters new to the game who have little sense of what us 'olds' consider the true nature of our sport.
If you are one of those concerned that the ancient dark arts of tiddler bashing in streams and ponds holds no interest to the yoof be rest assured some take to it very well. They need guidance tho. Yesterdays 4 oz dace, equates to a 15lbs carp, I suggested, "caught thousands of them" but doesn't ask for his photo to be taken holding 'em. The dace however was examined and admired then, carefully lowered back into the water.
Still no chub tho, and as they were order of the day, we moved again. Light was failing steadily and conditions now were better than at any other time. I crossed my fingers chevin would be at home and pointed to a spot downstream and across below some willow. The underarm cast was effected with impressive control to plopped gently in the perfect place. For someone more at home with a strategically laid out seatbox with all manner of pole roosts, arms and attachments this lad was looking right at home sitting on a bucket behind the reeds and nettles with only 6 inches of carbon quiver visible from the water. The half slice I'd roughly crumbled and lobbed in had done it's job alerting the resident chub to a feed had done it's job, and the flake on the hook was gently hoovered up within seconds. "Do the bites always come this quick?". Well, no. And yes, sometimes. "They're Chub" I said, "who the hell knows what they will do!"
There is a special kind of fishing joy that can be found in a car ride back from a session. For someone like me, who generally fishes alone, it was something to revel in. I'd created a monster tho.
"Are you going again tomorrow?"

 

[dorsetandchub]

The gudgeon is worth a like on its own - splendid.

We really should have a caught gudgeon photography contest for us specimen tench and perch duffers and non runners. Nice one, Arthur. Big smile here

 

[S-Kippy]

The urge to go a-barbelling came over me again yesterday. I tried lying down in a darkened room but it would not go away so Ho! For the M25 on a Friday afternoon again. Deep and utter joy !

It was the usual Friday afternoon bunfght round the Heathrow stretch. Despite this I was doing OK until I got caught in a tractor beam around the A30 and it took me almost until my exit to break free. Arriving at the river it looked cock on, up a bit and coloured so I began to think it might be worth the effort.. First and second choice swims were occupied so I tried one I'd not fished before and I put a 2nd rod up too which I never do on rivers. Why I did this I don't know....it proved to be my undoing.

As usual nothing at all until darkness fell and I'm not one for moving a bait when I've got it where I want it so both baits had been out for an hour or so until I felt the need to freshen them up. This is where things started to go pear shaped. In line with Skippy's 1st Law ( If it can go wrong it probably will) I'm rebaiting the LH margin rod when I glance up to see the RH rod bent double. I'm away !

Or rather I'm not. I grab the rod and Captain Barbel thumps once and the line goes slack. Reeling in I find the knot on the hooklink swivel has pulled. Bollox ! The irony being that I wasn't entirely happy with that knot when I tied it but I gave it a good pull and it seemed OK so I didn't retie it when I really should have. I knew it at the time too.

Never mind. Plenty of time for another except that it proved to be my only bite of the session. Not even the squirrel that fell out of the tree opposite into a mighty bramble patch showing off to his mate could cheer me up......and going home they'd shut the slip road on the A3 so I had to detour via places I've never heard of to get onto the 25. Despite all this I was home in double quick time and any knots I'm not happy with will get retied in future. Lesson learned the hard way. Any barbel at all off this stretch is hard won which makes this all the more annoying. But when all said & done it's only a fish and the sun still came up again this morning.

I think i'll save Simon the trouble and award myself a Crabtree Bad Angling Award. Thoroughly deserved too you Muppet !

 

[S-Kippy]

Its just occurred to me that this is the latest in a long line of bankside calamities that have a common underlying theme....me ! I really am having a truly rubbish season. My winter zander campaign will be starting shortly and as I am again involved what could possibly go wrong ???mg:

 

[lambert1]

Managed to finish work early yesterday, so I hurried home and dashed off to the rivers for a few hours. I had created a rather smelly paste in my garage on the rainy bank holiday Monday, which I rapidly froze in my part of the freezer, to cut short any interrogation as to what the hell I was up to. If I said that Bechalan and Squid and Crab, were just part of it's make up, I am sure I will get a few knowing nods from others guilty of creating strange and not very pleasant aromas in pursuit of our art. I had high hopes for this creation and was eager to try it out. I started float fishing with this pungent paste wrapped around some soft hooker pellets I bought but received only marginal interest and lost one unknown fish, which did not feel to be large in any way. I changed to the bigger set up with a hair rigged half boilie wrapped in paste and hurrah the blank was banished! A first for me, a feisty Gudgeon on a hair-rigged half boilie! With the 8lb mainline it was touch and go, but I managed to bank him After that, plenty of bites (someone liked my paste!), but nothing to connect with. However, after a slightly gloomy assessment of the Gudgeon population earlier in the season, I am pleased to say that after talking last week, to a guy that re-locates Crays for us (for the table that is!) and actually witnessing him emptying the nets and seeing the nets holding Gudgeon as well as the horrid Crays, my much loved little fish is still there and hopefully growing in numbers as some of them were very small It was actually quite cold last night and I must confess to being a little under dressed, but I was still happy to sit there shivering a little watching the Bats come out from under the bridge in pursuit of insects. God knows where the Summer went to. This has been a poor season so far for all the club members I have spoken to, for whatever reason and some of them are way more experienced than me, so I am not too worried about my own lack of success so far. I love the rivers that I fish for their charm and constant change and I would never abandon them in a huff, as it is a privilege to be allowed to fish them. Good luck to all those out over the weekend.

 

[dorsetandchub]

Its just occurred to me that this is the latest in a long line of bankside calamities that have a common underlying theme....me ! I really am having a truly rubbish season. My winter zander campaign will be starting shortly and as I am again involved what could possibly go wrong ???mg:

Have to start calling you Napoleon

 

[dorsetandchub]

Had someone viewing the flat this afternoon so, with a view to making the Estate Agents earn their money, I did what any sensible bloke would do - I went fishing.

I detest Estate Agents at the best of times and people coming round tut tutting, insulting my taste and furniture then putting in an offer that's an even thinner veiled insult isn't to my Saturday afternoon taste whereas a few hours at Longham? A much better proposition.

Arriving at Longham for a three hour session I plonked myself in an interesting looking swim well before the weir, there being only three other anglers on the stretch. My now much vaunted (and enjoyed) combination of Drennan Duo Super Specialist rod, this time I thought I'd test drive the Avon tip along with the usual Preston PXR 5000 and ounce and a half feeder culminating in a Middy carp feeder size 14 with, this week, two grains of corn. I hoped for an appearance from some chub - that and some peace and quiet. Sadly, I was to be most grievously disappointed and that on both fronts.

Bournemouth Hurn Airport is just over the back of Longham and, seemingly this Saturday, Hurn became Heathrow. A succession of aircraft from small Lear Jets to a Boeing 757 crashed through the peace.

The river was still full of weed and, although I had the odd genuine nibble and rattle, the green stuff accompanied most incoming rigs.

The planes were then added to by a guy surveying and photographing the river with a drone that sounded like a swarm of angry wasps. Added to that, somebody nearby put a large vehicle into reverse with the accompanying warning tones. Total chaos.

That said, my day was made so much better by the kingfishers that inhabit this stretch, flashing as they went, arrow like, inches above the river.

It was after a couple of hours that the stretch gave up a mighty leviathan in the kicking, thrashing shape of a 3oz dace. Against the one and a half test curve, the 6lb line and the worm drive reel that could crank in a sunken destroyer, well, such is life, I suppose - it saved a blank and I was grateful.

Within in an hour, I had another - so much a carbon copy I wondered if it were the same fish. I sat and dripped the odd grain of corn to the hordes of minnows at my feet. Life felt good and relaxed, no estate agents - however, I was beginning to develop a hankering for a big mug of coffee and the white chocolate chip cookies that accidentally fell into my shopping trolley the day before.

So, home to my treat and the Daily Telegraph crossword. As a bonus, I flicked on Film 4 and found I was just in time to liberate the Normandy beaches, no way the Germans were gonna win this one on penalties.

Not all bad, then.

 

[Tee-Cee]

Thank goodness someone said " It's not only about catching fish "...........................

 

[dorsetandchub]

Just as well in my case.......

 

[john step]

Just back from grandad duties. I took my 3 young grandaughters to Henlow Bridge lakes in Bedfordshire. On the purpose build kiddies pond with 3 meter whips to 6lb direct we had rudd, roach and mirrors to 1lb.
I was kept busy with re-baiting and tangles.
Absolute magic.

 

[tigger]

I had a few hours trotting on the river later today, the water felt cold and the air temp's dropped off quite early in the evening. I was only wearing a t-shirt and I was looking forward to putting on the car heater ! It wasn't a prolific session, I caught a few nice dace, a chub/roach hybrid that looked like a large roach as I wound it in and two barbel. I was surprised I didn't catch any chub. A chap was legering for barbel at the end of my trott and he didn't catch anything which did surprise me as I would have thought the barbel would have been more willing to take a static bait with the drop off in temp's.


Oh, just ignore the cow turd under the fish gent's lol