How did you get on?

[jasonbean1]

For someone like me who tends to just look in its a great up lifting thread, not been doing much lately so have to make the effort

Keep up the good fishing lads!

 

[neil1970]

Is it just me, Neil, or are they getting bigger?

Not sure rob, I think its just that my hands are getting smaller

Todays efforts - Little & Larg(er)

 

[Neil Maidment]

Day two (continued):
Although I blanked, several of our group found some barbel including 9 for "our leader" ?so all in all a good day.

Day three and the river had dropped a few inches and I managed to find 3 barbel and 1 chub, also lost a barbel and retrieved a scale from another! All on the float with caster, feeding hemp & caster.

River is still dropping slowly and temperature dropping as well.

View image in gallery​

 

[rubio]

Well a slightly disappointing day that failed to produce any 2lb roach. Despite baiting up last night they didn't wanna join the party. Maybe already full, or fed up with bread and hemp. Eventually a switch to worm brought a few perch, including a nice one at a pound and a half for todays fishing buddy. My best was a roach of less than a pound but another great day in the sun.

 

[neil1970]

Goundhog Day

 

[binka]

It’s been a lovely day for being out on the bank, the fish certainly didn’t think so though and stayed mainly in the river.

Had a good day at it today from dawn until dusk, I chose a deep part of the river where I had just over eleven foot off the rod tip with the thinking being that the extra depth might just provide a bit of cover for the fish in the bright, clear conditions.

The intention was to catch a few silvers for lives and it was a struggle to do that at first although the bucket eventually began to fill up, I did have three runs towards late afternoon which all failed to hook up and I think I have realised my fatal error on that score but will post in the “Circle hooks for perch” thread for any interested parties rather than boring everyone to tears with the details in this one.

So I guess it was technically a blank in respect of my target species which was a big perch but I can’t grumble given the last few days fishing and I feel like I have come away having learned something.

In lieu of anything of interest in the fishy department here’s a pic of a cheeky chappy that kept me company for most of the day, or at least until the maggots ran out…




:w

 

[tigger]

I had a few hours on the river today targetting "long carp" ;-) ...river was up about 8 inches on my last session, cloudy skies and a decent temp of 16 degrees, according to the car thermometer. I spoke to a couple of chaps fishing with rods in rests pointing skyward and they'd just had a couple of dace and trout. I set up the float rod seventy yards above 'em and I got a long carp straight off . I had seven long carps, pulled out of two more and one snapped me off on a snag just above my hook... :text-dratdrat: , I hate leaving hooks in fish !

 

[S-Kippy]

I was all set for a spot of roach fishing today when the Big Feller rang and suggested a few hours trouting instead. Foolishly I fell for it and i could have written the script on the way. Neither he nor I had a pull. Not a touch. Nada.

So I'm still blanking and now I've got to find a way to bunk off during the week to scratch the roach itch.

And the bloody Welsh beat us. All in all a fairly **** day.

 

[Harvey]

I spent a wonderful friday afternoon in a pool in a small river I've never fished before. I used two rods, trying to catch roach on sweetcorn on the one rod, and bream on worms on the other. I caught small ide on sweetcorn, but nothing on the worms. But suddenly things changed, and worms were suddenly in demand. I hooked a hard fighting fish on the worm, and was very pleased when it proved not to be bream, but perch. New PB, 1140 gram, 40 cm.

 

[Lark]

Had a lovely session on the Thames...... Eventually!
It started off really hard-going. Cold overnight (6C) clear blue sky and bright sunshine.
Very cold, downstream to in-your-face wind buggered the waggler plan. Decided to ball in and go with a small groundbait feeder with worm and caster, which worked after a short while.
Started to get skimmers and bream to about 2lb+ then it all went quiet. Normally I would have expected the bigger lads to move in along with some good size chub once the swim had settled down.
Flow was virtually non-existent again, even 400 metres below the weir. A few twitches indicated that there was action to be had.
Decided to go very light for the roach and dace so I set up a tiny Kamasan Black Cap maggot feeder on a light wand with a short (250mm) 0.11mm hooklength to a size 20 B611.
Instant result. Started to get small roach and dace and managed to keep the swim going for about 4 hours. About an hour into this period I changed from bronze to caster and hemp and opened the holes of the same feeder to let a slow trickle of bait out.
The quality of the fish improved quite drastically and came at one a chuck.
Lovely to see these 'typical' Thames sardines and roach to about 12oz in lovely condition.
I packed up, reluctantly, at about 6:30pm. A very enjoyable and rewarding session.

 

[neil1970]

Yesterday evening a young lad from our club messaged me asking for lure fishing tips. I offered to take him out on the river and show him the ropes.

9am, met up with him and his mum and offered my rod and kit for him to use.

By 12pm I was getting a bit desperate, having tried loads of lures and pretty much every swim in the river with only a small Perch and couple of missed jacks to show for his efforts.

The last swim was a weir and we stayed there for about 15 minutes.

Four lure changes later and with a shout of 'I'm in!' I swiftly netted a nice Perch for him - he went a bit pale when the scale registered 3lb - what a brilliant result and a very satisfying morning!

 

[wa1115]

Yesterday evening a young lad from our club messaged me asking for lure fishing tips. I offered to take him out on the river and show him the rope.

9am, met up with him and his mum and offered my rod and kit for him to use.

By 12pm I was getting a bit desperate, having tried loads of lures and pretty much every swim in the river with only a small Perch and couple of missed jacks to show for his efforts.

The last swim was a weir and we stayed there for about 15 minutes.

Four lure changes later and with a shout of 'I'm in!' I swiftly netted a nice Perch for him - he went a bit pale when the scale registered 3lb - what a brilliant result and a very satisfying morning!

Like to hear of youngsters getting involved in fishing. (better than hanging round causing trouble) and I'm jealous of his 3lb perch I can't seem to get past around a pound. Well done for giving up your time to help someone out!

 

[neil1970]

Cheers....I'm just a touch jealous too - my biggest is only 1lb 12oz

 

[Pete Shears]

On the reservoir yesterday - cold to start with - 0.5C,but wonderfully clear, nothing on the feeder but nice roach on floatfished sweetcorn.An osprey turned up around 9am and continued fishing until about 1pm perching in the tree the cormorants usually use to eat its catch.Kingfishers,buzzards,ravens and some very late swallows & house martens made the early start worth it.

 

[peter crabtree]

TFished the river Thame teams of four match today. Draw was 8am in an old hotel in Thame town centre. Not sure but I think there were 14 teams of four.
I drew the Wheatley bridge section.. Unfortunately mine was the furthest peg...
A stile to start with from the lay-by then a further 2stiles was painfull after rattling across a rough field, unload the barrow, lift it all over stile then repack twice. This is the downstream view of the peg....


This is upstream


Set up 13ft light float rod with a 1gr pole float and strung out shotting pattern to a 20 Drennan red maggot hook to 0:08. At the off I hooked 2 maggots on, one red and one white. Bite first run through and it was the White maggot which was sucked. Single white maggot for the rest of the match. Dace, roach and chublets but no bonus fish.
Weighed in 2lb:3oz.

Back to the Hotel for the results and a pint...
My team came 4th and we won an envelope... £100

 

[tigger]

Had a couple of hours on my local stream tiddler taming today, it was a tiddler a trott (dace and chub) in most of the spots where I dropped in.
I kept ten minuites worth from one glide in the net to see how many I got.....



That wasn't all of 'em as they kept jumping out the net lol.

 

[jimlad]

Few hours on the stick float this morning, plenty of casters. First swim just didnt produce at all, so I upped and moved after a couple of hours. Managed to hook four chub but landed two in the new swim; one straightened the hook (changed to a slight tougher pattern after that), the other just touched the far bank snags. A nice change from the pike fishing ive been doing the last few weeks. Had to come home as my back is killing me for some reason

The 14ft Drennan acolyte plus is a superb chub rod....

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Tee-Cee]

Either standing still, or sitting down for long periods for that matter, will do for your back....Just about the worst thing for the spine so one needs to move occasionally, if only to walk up and down for a while. I tend to walk up and down for a 100m or so ( which also helps circulation ) every so often and if I've been standing I'll sit for a while and vice versa. Works for me at 72 years.

Either way, if back pain is ignored it can have long term problems as one get's older - and I speak from experience !

NOT to say this is the reason for your aches though, as I knew a chap where excessive sex did for his back, but that's another story !!


ps Agree on the rod and very nice fish !

 

[greenie62]

.... Had to come home as my back is killing me for some reason
The 14ft Drennan acolyte plus is a superb chub rod....

I know what the back problem is, Jim,
It's acolytis - chronic, possibly fatal!
To save you, I'll take it off your hands for a fiver! mg:
( - What a hero! )

 

[no-one in particular]

Went back to the canal yesterday in hope of one or more of that nice Rudd I caught last time. Not to be but about 10 really nice roach. Nothing fast and furious just a nice pleasing fish every now and then, Since going back to bread from maggots I have been getting a better stamp of fish if not the quantity, good old bread. No tench or bream though, water temperature 58f so not too cold for them yet, just not around for some reason.
I found hooking the roach a bit difficult, the best way was rolling a sliver of bread around the line and hook and squeezing it on the line and leaving the hook inside the fluffy bit, I call it the swiss roll. After trying several ways I found this was hooking them the best but always difficult with roach.
Lots of birds, kingfisher, kestrel, Buzzards, not common in this neck of the woods and even a sparrow hawk over my roof when I got home.
Then a nice beer/curry and slipped into a coma watching Dull Factor and get a life Boredom/Abbey.
Still I came round to write this, small mercies.

---------- Post added at 08:02 ---------- Previous post was at 08:00 ----------

I know what the back problem is, Jim,
It's acolytis - chronic, possibly fatal!
To save you, I'll take it off your hands for a fiver! mg:
( - What a hero! )

I blame the berk who decided to walk upright about 3 million years ago. Should have got trampled on a bit quick before it was too late.