How did you get on?

[sam vimes]

Back to the roach pool with something different to try in an attempt to alleviate some of the bumped fish. I have what was called a "power whip" by Abu. It dates from the times when a 14 elastic was pretty strong and poles were for fishing for silver fish. At a maximum of 7 metres, I guess it's probably a light forerunner of a margin pole. I have top sets with 5, 8 and 12 elastics fitted. I plumped for the 8 and God help me if a carp turned up!

Feeding tiny pots of hemp with a few maggots and fishing maggot on the hook, it wasn't exactly all action. I didn't manage a bite for the best part of an hour. Luckily, they did turn up eventually and I managed a few fish around the pound mark, topped by one of 1lb 3oz.

 

[john step]

Nice perch Neil. Lovely markings.

Today I had my 3rd blank in a row for the barbel on the Trent. I think the water from my taps have more colour than the Tidal at the moment. Thats my excuse anyway:wh

 

[S-Kippy]

Autumn. Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.......and lakes carpeted with leaves and acorns bouncing off your head. I hate Autumn !

I was supposed to be decorating today but Mrs S foolishly went out to lunch with an old friend. I spun her some yarn about having to wait for the filler to dry ( which was half true) and put on my really cheesed off because I want to get on with the papering look. " See you later then" she says. Right....well she didn't specify a time so Ho ! For Bury Hill and another go at the zander.

It was mobbed out ! For once the M25 behaved itself but I was faced with bloke in all my favourite spots. Good opportunity to try round the back of the island which is a bloody long walk but NO.....wall to wall leaf. I'm stuffed !

I will not sit in the middle of a line of anglers. Either end is tolerable but I like a bit of room. I'm not sitting in the middle of 16 lines and baits. The zander are way too cute to fall for that so I ended up in an area with decent form but in a swim I've never really done any good from and just could not settle...especially when 3 men in a tub rowed right over my baits. For tub read punt....or something ending in unt anyway. Inconsiderate swine ! With not even a bleep to suggest there were fish in the area I moved before dusk to get further up the bank and way from my Jonah swim.

Last week it started at 1845.....by 1900 I was beginning to panic. Nothing...and it was now well dark. Perhaps I should have stayed where I was. This was not looking good. Then the lh rod was away and I missed it. Bolloxx ! Rebait and recast. 10 mins later and the rh rod is away and I'm in. As I'm playing the fish damn me the lh rod is off. I struck that,knocked the reel into free spool and landed the other fish leaving it in the net. Pickd up the other rod and its still on ! So.....I'm fishless at 7-15 and by half past I'm 2 up. 15 mins later I'm away again....that's 3 and this is starting to look good. Then the moon came out !

Bury Hill zander do not like moon. I have never had a fish in moonlight there....little moon is OK but anything bigger and they either switch off completely or start messing about with your bait...1 or 2 inch lifts,picck up and drops,single bleeps etc. They never give you anything you can hit. That's what happened tonight. The fish were obviously to my right as it was the rh rod that saw most action with only a single bleep bleep on the lh rod after the fish I had. Meanwhile I had an indication of some sort on every cast on the rh rod but not one was hittable. The closest I got was a half way up...no I've dropped it just as I was packing up. After the first 2 fish i thought I was on for half a dozen but I ended up with just the 3..all between 3-4 lb so the schoolies are certainly on the munch at the moment. I am always happy to get a fish there but tonight I did feel a bit cheated. Nothing I could do about it......when they are like that they are virtually uncatchable. I'm convinced it was that verdamnt moon that did for me.

The carpers were reasonably well behaved too...except when one of them broke a rod having put his bait in the trees on the island. He did not sound at all happy....seems to be blaming it on a duck or something.?

Resurfacing work in Dorking is done so no 30 mile diversion but the coffee machine at the petrol station was out off order so it turned out to be a funny old day really. Promised much but never really delivered.

Bit like me and the decorating I suppose.....and now. I have the wrath of Mrs S to face in the morning too. I doubt I'll be allowed out at the weekend !

 

[tigger]

Nipped over to the river for the last half of the afternoon to do a spot of trotting. The river was up on my previous visits and looked spot on, all be it a lttle on the coloured side. I tried a spot i've not fished since last year, all was quiet for the first few trotts through then the float dipped and I had a barbel. Another few trotts through and away went the float again and I struck into another barbel, not a big fish but great fun on the float rod and hamster wheel .
Next few trotts produced dace and small chub and after i'd had a dozen or so the party was gate crashed by one of those toothy critters. I had a rod in the quiver with a jelly lure attatched ready after having had a pike in my swim last time out !
I had a few casts and then the toothy critter could resist no longer and latched on, unfortunatly it was quite a bit smaller than the one that tormented my swim the other day but it did put a good bend in the rod at least....

 

[swizzle]

I was hoping to have a crack at the Avon today, woke up at 5am with a stonking head ache, so I told myself that I would go once the headache had cleared up. Still got the headache now, so it will have to wait until Sunday. Both the Stour and Avon are in dire need of tomorrow's Rain.

 

[Hogweed]

I had a session on the river lea yesterday. It was my 4th visit and I was yet to catch anything. Before I was after the Chub and Barbel so went armed with pellets, boilies and Cheese Paste. I blanked on all 3 occasions so this time I took maggots just to see if there on any fish to catch.

I decided on a bait and wait approach. As the river was low and clear and I would be fishing into darkness I figured a roving approach would not be practical. Still not sure which would be best if the water was coloured. Well, to say things were slow would be an understatement. My only success was two finger sized roach.

I am going to try the relief channel next time. Hopefully that will be a bit more productive.

 

[peter crabtree]

Unusual for me but I fished a commie today with 17 others from another forum.
A silvers only do which is why I went. I used to fish this place with my club but since avoiding vermin matches had not been there for a while.
Drew a peg I'd fished before and struggled, and struggle I did..


Pole all day mainly at 9m, very light set ups with 0:06 bottom to size 20 Gamma green hooks, with maggot or caster. Hooked 3 carp during the day which made short work of my hook links. All of us found it unusually hard going with the predicted winning weight of 20 to 30lbs but just 8lb:12 won it. The better weights all caught decent skimmers along with small roach. I had small roach only for 2lb:10. and nowhere....

 

[itsfishingnotcatching]

Having got confused between parables, analogies, market forces and scriptures in the Bait Box, the deluge finally halted around 12.30 p.m. so I went fishing. Commercial in SW Wales that has had Carp over 39lb caught (not by me). Fished bread and maggots for about forty Roach and Rudd, none of which went more than 4oz and three Carp around the 6-7lb mark (lost two more one of which felt a big fish) Packed in around 4 p.m. to meet the good lady at our favourite hostelry on the beach.

 

[binka]

It was a bit like being stuck between a rock and a hard place on the choice of days to fish this weekend, it was either the heavy rain and brisk winds of today or the low overnight temperatures and possible ground frost tomorrow.

I opted for today and with the forecast being bang on I was able to get set up on the river and hunkered down under the brolly just before dawn, to await the wet stuff that was to sweep in later and boy did it!

Again this was meant to be a perch session and I did take quite a few albeit nothing of note and the barbel stole the show.

With a couple of inches extra coming down the river I opted for a slightly larger Bolo than last time at 3grm which took a bulk of 3 x AAA two thirds the way down and a BB dropper halfway between that and the hook which just left a nice length of tip showing for the worm…





The extra length in the tip also came in handy later in the day when the rain swept in, talk about downpours galore…





Anyway, the initial feed was three large Seymo droppers of chopped krilled maggot and worm with a few whole ones thrown in for good measure and it was then time to sit back whilst the lobworm on the sixe 8 Drennan Specimen did its job right off the rod tip and I reckon it was fending ‘em off for most of the morning as things were a bit slow with only a handful of small perch to around 10ozs to show for it.

Around late morning and shortly after a bombardment of groundbait to liven things up a bit I then had a bite which instantly took up the few inches of slack between the rod tip and the float and along with a whizzing drag it was clear that the barbel had moved onto the feed and this was confirmed a few minutes later when I put the net under a very well fed fish of 11lbs 2ozs…





At this point I was pleased I was fishing fairly heavy with the Specimen float rod, 8lb Pro Gold mainline and a 7lb Fulling Mill fluorocarbon hooklink, this might seem a tad excessive for perch fishing but believe me if I got into another of the size of beast which opened the gape of my hook a week or so ago then I would need every ounce of it.

And every ounce of it came in rather handy once again on the very next put in when the float sailed away and I was into a very nicely conditioned fish which came in at 10lb 5ozs…





Add a few more small perch along with a third float caught, worm snaffling double late in the afternoon which came in at 10lb 7ozs and it felt like I’d had a good day, despite the lack of big perch…





I did suffer a welly full of water after a footing misdemeanor whilst netting the first fish but it only dampened my socks and not my spirits!

All things being equal I’m off out armed with nothing other than a tin of Spam next week and fully expecting to land some clonking perch… :w

 

[thecrow]

Looks like they have really started to feed up for the winter, 3 fatties

 

[binka]

Looks like they have really started to feed up for the winter, 3 fatties

Four if you include me

 

[pf0x]

Thank you to everyone who contributes to this thread. I haven't been fishing for ages for various reasons but it's great seeing the reports and photos.

Keep up the good work everyone :w

 

[peter crabtree]

Club fixture on the river Colne today. Handy because it's 5 mins drive from home. Drew top end peg which was quite wide and thankfully a constant 5ft deep as it comes off the canal 100 yds upstream. The flow was right across so a heavyish stick float 5bb and maggot casting right over.

The first two hours were OK and I had 12 roach then it died and just 3 more roach in the last 4 hours...A heavy frost this morning and bright sun didn't help. Weighed in 1lb 8 for nowhere again.
Winner managed to land an 18lb carp on the pole and a smaller one as well for 29lb....2nd had some big perch in the last hour for 8lb..... 3rd had 7lb mainly chub + bits.

 

[The Runner]

Might be a shorter post than usual as not sure if I can spin today out into anything approaching a report...
First round of our series on the Colne at Uxbridge, river a foot down, as clear as it possibly could be, and weed cover virtually gone. And just to cap it nicely, a bright day. Everyone was expecting a real grueller with perch the likely banker fish so the most fancied pegs if you'd asked around would probably have been 42 44 47 and 58, all deeper than average and all with a good bit of cover (42 is actually known as the "Perch Hole") and all with a decent chance of a chub.
Drew 32 in the weirpool, never as good as it looks and very rarely frames but still thought not too bad as should be a decent number of perch with the off chance of a chub tight over to the wall. The series is decided on points and there were certainly plenty of swims I fancied less today.
No real flow so set up 2BB stick, a waggler for tight over and a straight bomb, to possibly switch to feeder later. Decided against pole due to water clarity and finally set up heavy rig on another bomb rod for a big bait under the sill although the chance of a barbel in match times in these conditions is vanishingly small here.
Droppered in a few chopped dendras and went over it on bomb to see if there were a couple of early perch, nothing in ten minutes so went onto stick. First chuck, and a tiny roach which fell off as I swung it . Then minnow, minnow, minnow...
After an hour was up to 25 minnows and one very small perch. Kept feeding across to the wall as well but an absolute snagpit over there and even worse up against the weir sill, couldn't get a bite in either.
Still nothing on worm but kept picking up minnows on maggot and it even crossed my mind to quickly set up the old minnowhanger rig to see if could get them quickly as didn't look as if there was anything else present and wanted to save far line for the last two hours when the light got off it. Didn't set it up though as they weren't really close enough and they gradually moved further and further out before disappearing completely at around half time.
And basically that was that. Spent the last two hours looking for a chub across without a sign and a few drops under the sill resulted in a lost hook and/or bomb every time.
End result 73 minnows and two microperch for 12 ounces.

Lyle had a lovely days sport on the backstream with 16-6 of roach and dace on waggler in less than 2 ft of water, then a big gap to 5-9, 5-4 and 4-10 which included the days only chub. Only one other weight over 2 lb with most of us between 8 oz and 1-2. Very few perch caught and only one of the four deeper pegs I noted earlier broke the pound, and only just.

Lots of rain please....

 

[hammer_jamie]

Not the biggest but don't it have big eyes and nice colouring

 

[tigger]

I had the last couple of hours trotting on the river today, the fishing wasn't exaclty fast and furious though. I had a few dace with a couple of them being quite chunky, a few few little chubletts and a couple of chub of around a pound and a half so nothing to brag about. The wind felt bitter and I could clearly see my breath. After being stood in the mud and water my feet still haven't warmed up, infact they're like blocks of freekin' ice!...and before anyone comes out with any smart remarks, I did have me wellies on LOL.
The clocks going back still confuses me...I can't weigh up why they have to keep messin' with them it twice a year !...imo things would be much better if they just left them the same year round.

 

[neil1970]

Along with Simon, I fished the club match (my first match).

It must have been beginners luck, or something because I took the place apart!!!

 

[Lark]

It must have been beginners luck, or something because I took the place apart!!!

I love it when I draw a 'flyer' like that!!

 

[john step]

I went back to try for a big perch today. I had 3 the biggest 2lb 8ozs on small perch livebait. I know a couple have come out well over three pounds in the past but try as I do, 2lb 15ozs is still my best(last years perch challenge).
I know its not all about numbers as they are lovely fish but a three really would be nice.
Its getting colder so its time soon to target Mr. Pike.

 

[peter crabtree]

Another nice day on the canal locally. Fished 12 to 4:30 in warm sunshine. The boat traffic was fairly busy so the lock movements were frequent, which made my light waggler set up tricky. 30 odd roach and few perch made up the net when I packed it in due to the failing light. Not a great pic using the flash but you get the idea...