How did you get on?

[jimlad]

Indeed!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[peter crabtree]

Top bombing, Swizzle and Jimlad.

Club fixture today on the Thames at Runnymede , home of the Magna Carta and the Kennedy memorial. Warm and a slight breeze on my back. Drew end peg 13 unlucky for some....


15' Tricast rod with 2500 size reel and 4lb sensor. 12" Drennan peacock reverse taper waggler on a slider set up at 12'.


Size 20 Drennan red maggot hook to 0.08 trace. Casting around 25/30yds out in the meagre flow it was a bite a chuck on single maggot. The float was taking about 4seconds to cock and bites were virtually instant.. Either hold ups or simply buried I was catching quality roach and dace to 5oz. Boat traffic was fairly busy and at one point 3 Swedish boats rowed past....

Bites lasted all 6hours and I was chuffed with my 9lb 9oz of roach and dace (below) for 4th overall.

Winner had 19lb:12 on the pole..
13 fished.....

 

[john step]

Just back from a few days down South on Britford section of the Avon.
Chub, dace,pike,perch,loads of beautiful wild spotties and grayling but NO ROACH. Must try harder next time.

 

[tigger]

I had several hours trotting after tea today, the river was as low and clear as I can remember seeing it all summer! I had gone with the intentions of catching a barbel or two but they either weren't there or they weren't interested in my offerings, most likely the latter. They do seem to be going off a moving bait, maybe it's down to a dip in temperatures, who knows. So rather than blank I decided to target the easy stuff, dace, small chub, trout, and had my fill of them, especially dace! As dissapointed as I was at not catching a barbel I did have one nice little surprise, a lovely loooking grayling, I reckon it was about 2lb, give or take an ounce or two. The grayling put up an outstanding fight for a small fish using it's dorsal fin to kite back and forth across the flow. It was such a lovely looking fish I was gonn'a take a quick snap of it but as I was stood mid river I thought better of it than stress it out carting it to the bank and I released it where I stood.
With the nights drawing in, the temp's on the drop and having caught that grayling it made me realise how close the grayling season is... .

 

[The bad one]

It's that man bag you call a bait carrier that put them off. The 3 I had were still laughing at you when I landed them

 

[itsfishingnotcatching]

In terms of quality fish, a pretty average day for the Salwarpe, 18 Perch, nothing bigger than 6 oz, a solitary Roach, 11 Gudgeon , four Chublets and a Chub of around 2lb. Their were some unusual features to this session though, I caught 7 Ruffe, perhaps nothing special to the rest of you but I'd only ever caught one in my previous five years fishing and but for the appearance of a Jack which plagued me on and off throughout the session, I suspect I may have caught more.

Wildlife watch produced the neighbourhood Buzzards, Kingfishers and a Heron I've not seen before, though with Otters the river doesn't need an increase in predators.

I also learnt a lesson about my fishing, having failed to tempt any fish of a decent size in five hours, I hooked into what felt a decent fish in what would have been the last few casts of the session. Guessed it was a Chub as it veered straight for the overhanging trees on the far bank as I put some pressure on, the hook parted company with the hooklength (Kamasan Animal 18 to 2.5lb). Now, as anyone who's fished with me knows, I'm not the most "driven" of anglers :wh . If I'm catching, avoiding tangles and the surroundings are picturesque then I'm happy enough. I don't fish competitions per se and I'm not bothered about specimens as long as I improve my mediocre PBs occasionally. Yesterday I was surprised to find the loss of this fish had a dramatic effect, instead of packing up and retiring to my local to enjoy the late game on Sky and a couple of beers, I decided to go after this fish. I began to cast as close as I could get to the overhanging trees and firing in more maggots than I had in the previous six hours of my session. After twenty minutes I connected with a Chub, not the one that broke me but for this river a reasonable fish which came to the net after a fight of about three minutes.

Now this may seem a pretty average session, but has taught me that, perhaps if I want to enjoy my fishing more, there are times I need to put more into it.

 

[arthur2sheds]

Stambridge lakes, Rochford (apologies.. no pics, left me phone in the car)

Well... close pegging was the issue here.... a bare 5 yards between pegs, meant that it's pretty damn tight... still, I drew peg 4 and wobbled the barrow round and set up shop... I had open water in front of me, and I set up a 6x10 Mark Pollard float rig, size 18 hook and single maggot with micro's over the top, and set about the Roach on a top two... I was going at it hammer and tongs when my neighbour Phil latched into a lump... Phil was on the Golden Peg and I swear I heard his old Jam Tart hammering away as he tried to wrestle the beast into his net.... it went close to 10lbs...

"Well that's me bu@@ered" I thought.. "I have to catch a shedload of bits to match that"... The Carp were fairly reticent to put in an appearance despite potting in pellet, corn and meat close in... because of the tight pegging, fishing down the margins was out of the question, so a top 2 about a meter out was as good as it got... but my cunning plan didn't work despite several look-ins over it during the day....

I concentrated my efforts on the Roach and as I'd fished here before, I knew that Bream would show over micro pellet... And sure enough they moved in.... Problem was they were about 3-5 inches long... and that's how it stayed for the rest of the day with micro Roach and Bream coming to the net... at one point the bites slowed down and I dared hope that the Carp had moved in, but no... they had just backed off the feed, so on with another section and the fish started coming on again... once again, about 12:30-ish the bites slowed and being forewarned is fore-armed, so I put another section on and carried on catching...

The scuttlebutt round the bank walkers, was that Paul, and Kenny were hammering small carp.. (@rse) so I got my head down and upped the feed (**** or bust) and my catch rate rose for the last couple of hours (albeit silvers only) so I knew I was only fishing for points rather than coin... I thought that I'd maybe got about 12-15lbs for the day and was pleasantly surprised when the scales plopped down to 19lb even

My neighbours Phil and Barry fared better than me, Barry to my right, had a lily bed to target and scored a couple of carp and a few good sized Bream and bits for 20lb-12oz, whilst Phil on the Golden Peg managed 26lb-4oz with his lump of a Carp... Top weight was 60lb, (so I believe) so we were all out of the running, but the day was warm and sunny and everyone caught, and as per usual the banter was on top form....

Pluck's Gutter on the Kentish Stour Next.... Might have to dig out my Ariel for a bit of trotting

Till next time...
Tight lines

 

[tigger]

It's that man bag you call a bait carrier that put them off. The 3 I had were still laughing at you when I landed them

Phil, those laughing fishy faces where your reflection on the water (barbel don't have any teeth either lol )
Being honest throwing out a lead/feeder and baited hook is just to easy for me, I like a challenge and so choose the more difficult method .
I do need to christen those new rods I told you about, i've had them for weeks now and still haven't used them ... Just need a decent made up bag to carry 'em in which is proving difficult to find!

 

[The bad one]

Phil
I do need to christen those new rods I told you about, i've had them for weeks now and still haven't used them ... Just need a decent made up bag to carry 'em in which is proving difficult to find!

Get them in a rod sleeve without the reels attached you Tackle Tart.

 

[S-Kippy]

Didn't fish this weekend but I was interested in Simon's experiences at Runnymede. Big Phil was [dog walking] at Windsor yesterday and there was a match on the Home Park stretch below the railway bridge and they were bagging up too. Looks like the Thames is "on" at the moment. Dace & roach mainly and on all baits...maggot,caster & hemp/tares.

Maybe even I could catch there ?

 

[tigger]

Get them in a rod sleeve without the reels attached you Tackle Tart.

Might as well keep 'em in their bags and take them in tubes as do that Phil.
I think lookin' like it'll be a couple of drennan made up rod sleeves (possibly a double rod version, it might be cheaper than two singles) so I can take them assembled. I don't leave them like that, just set 'em up at home and then put them back in their bags when I get back....tackle tart!...ok, guilty as charged LOL. Seriously though, I just like looking after me tackle .

How did your nephew and his m8 go on ?

 

[The bad one]

Mart had 6 chub, 1 trout and an eel.
Wayne bagged up on the dace, getting one a cast and 12 trout.

 

[no-one in particular]

Top bombing, Swizzle and Jimlad.

Club fixture today on the Thames at Runnymede , home of the Magna Carta and the Kennedy memorial. Warm and a slight breeze on my back. Drew end peg 13 unlucky for some....
.

Lovely that Peter, pictures bring back a few memories-probably not far from where I caught my first fish, my old mans wooden old roach pole, weighed more than a telegraph pole, a tiny old string keep net, a big red cork float and a half pint of sweaty old maggots, not a bit of plastic in sight; How times change. River looks the same though.

 

[neil1970]

I managed to get out for a couple of hours today after the rain had stopped.

I fished a variety of hardbaits on the walk upstream and managed 2 jacks.
Switched to jigheads on the walk back and caught another.

 

[flightliner]

Trent again today, lower than the other day when barbel fishing. I took all my old trotting gear along with hemp n tares and, just in case things wer'nt ok a pint and a half of red maggots.
The wind was perfect, a northerly giving an upstreamer for perfect float control but what was'nt good was the water clarity, it was definately needing a little more than todays "bottled springwater appearance".
It didnt bode well and so it prooved after a solid ninety minutes of hard at it trotting, altering shotting, depth , feed rates and so on. My rig, a john dean five number four shot was strung out starting at the hook with tens, nines, eights, sixes and fours to an eighteen wide gape hook tied to a one point five bottom just couldnt deceive any roach that may have been in my swim, maybe my hope of a tare bag of roach was a little to optimistic with the recant cold nights and recant rain that gave the water a slightly cold edge so very reluctantly I decided to change over to red maggot.
The change of bait was pretty instant, a perch the second run dowm followed by several more was nice but small perch trotting on rivers isnt my cup of tea-- big ones maybe- nnot today.
Fortunately I had brought along some fine brown crumb that I fed in as slop and straight away my fortunes changed from perch to dace, lovely lovely dace, and boy did they oblige in that clear pacey eight feet of water, so obliging that if I had had a whip I reckon my catch could have been bigger but when the tide finally turned about three o-clock I had a quite sizeable net of pure river silver.
One last bonus before the river finally turned was a solid, slow bite that at first I thought I had nailed a big stripey but it turned out to be the days biggest fish-- a chub of some three plus pounds.
Massive tides next week, bring em on !!!!

 

[tigger]

Mart had 6 chub, 1 trout and an eel.
Wayne bagged up on the dace, getting one a cast and 12 trout.

Oh well they'll be happy .

I had a quick session today but things seem to be slowing down on the barbel front when float fishing for them. I had two bites and got two fish, short and sweet lol.





Anyone notice 'ewt missin' from one of the barbel ?

 

[sam vimes]

An afternoon on a different river. A change being as good as a rest.
Most of the stretch concerned is unfamiliar to me, though I have fished a couple of pegs before. I plumped for a peg that I'd ignored previously. Relatively deep, at over six feet, compared to my usual fishing. Unfortunately, one tiny perch in amongst a horde of minnows was all I managed in about two hours. Gave up the ghost on that peg and had a wander downstream. The next peg started slowly too. Minnows with the odd perch, dace, trout and grayling. All of a sudden, for no obvious reason, the dace switched on with a vengeance. I had a bite a chuck for about three hours. A few decent perch, a couple of grayling, three gudgeon and one chublet added a bit of variety to a bag that I'd conservatively guesstimate at over twenty pounds.

 

[neil1970]

I met up with Simon today at a venue I had never fished before.

I started on the lake and caught a small Perch, we then moved over to the river which was very hard going. I manged another even smaller Perch and lost a Pike later in the day.

Not much in the way of fish, but still good to catch up in such nice surroundings, complimented by pleasant weather.

 

[binka]

Had a great day on the river today looking for that elusive big perch although it wasn’t the perch which provided the entertainment.

First and foremost I’ve come home with 100% total confidence in the circle hooks after trying them for the first time today, I didn’t bank anything big but the principle would have been the same and four pike to around 8lb and a zander around 6lb meant five out of five hooks ups and all pretty much text book examples…



Winding down gently into the fish was about as easy as it gets and the same for removing the hook, I didn’t use the forceps all day!

The largest of the pike gave a nice tail walking display with the drag screwed down and the zander might have been small but it was a really impressive specimen…



I had a screamer of a run early afternoon which was dropped, I suspect a zander had felt the build up of the 1 1/2oz fixed lead on the paternoster rig and spooked.

A single maggot trotted off the end of the rod tip was straight forward enough for the bait fish although a bream of around 3lb didn’t help much and neither did four barbel which all had my trousers down on a 1.7lb bottom… Why do they always gate crash when you least want ‘em to?

That’s it really, my predator season has inadvertently kicked off a week early before getting home around seven this evening and a quick turnaround of gear and bait ready to meet Crow at just after six tomorrow morning for a barbel session where I’m sure they will turn out to be the most elusive thing on this planet being as we’re targeting ‘em!

Chuffed to bits with the circle hooks though and far kinder on the fish, I'm converted… :w

 

[thecrow]

Not having to use forceps to unhook Pike and Zander is something I thought I would never see, I think I shall be looking at those circles myself, not before those Barbel have been sorted out though

---------- Post added at 21:19 ---------- Previous post was at 21:15 ----------

Anyone notice 'ewt missin' from one of the barbel ?

A fin although it looks as if it might have been there at one time as there is a definite bump where it should be.