How did you get on?

[peter crabtree]

Fished the weekly open at Willows near St Albans today.
A silvers only match. The pit is around 26 acres so plenty of room.
Skimmers and proper bream are the usual target but today they were thin
on the ground in the area we were pegged. Set up pole and feeder rod.
I chucked a method feeder with double dead red and watched a static tip for 30 mins, reeled in and went out with the pole @13m with caster on a medium 50g float to a 22. Decent roach and a few skimmers found my groundbait and I was catching steadily. After a while the roach got smaller and shipping in and out for 2oz a chuck got too tiring. Broke down to top 2 + 3 and fished a light rig shallow with caster and it was quality roach and hybrids a chuck.
Stayed on this line for the rest of the time and weighed in 15lb 9oz.
30lb won (mainly skimmers) 25lb of roach took second.
3rd had 24lb of roach.
The two anglers who beat me with roach were fishing short to hand and I realise now they were catching twice as many fish as me due to the time lapse between shipping my pole etc. Roll on next week...

 

[chefster]

Fished a Thursday match at Barby Banks a slow start,but it picked up ,i managed to put 61-8-0 on the scales for 3rd of mostly carp and odd silvers on maggot,meat and paste@5m..1st place went to "Whiskas" Wilson with an 85-0-0 mixed net,and 2nd was John"Crafty Cockney"Waples with 73-8-0,which contained some right beasts!!!...Me and my fishing partner managed 2nd in the pairs match as well,Bad H adding a level 50-0-0......14 fished...Cheers Gaz

 

[andreagrispi]

Blanked today - not a bite

 

[denzinho]

Not a bad day today. Explored a new area of the Bristol Avon and found a brook just off the Avon. There I was walking over a Bridge and spotted them!, lots of small Chub. My alarm bells rang because I do love the species, I decided to stop in and observe the small guys around 1-8oz in size. I even threw them corn which was just for observation purposes and not catching. After a around a minute a rather large one came out from a snag, I saw the whole thing its brilliant watching.



Anyhow I decided to break my rig down and freeline with a single AA around 10 inches from the hook and the bait was obviously corn.

What a take and a very visual battle, never forget that moment of luck. around 2lb in weight and one thrilled angler.

 

[barbelboi]

Met up with a good regular fishing buddy of mine (for the last 50 odd years) today for a session on the river - hard work, even after the torrential rain on Monday it was running clear and a mostly sunny very hot day wasn't ideal. We arrived early, about 8.30am, fished 'til 3pm, and struggled for 6 chub between us - still the conversation was good...................

 

[bennygesserit]

Fished Beckets pool at coppice lane , put the feeder out to the island , caught a few carp , got bored , fished the pole closer in using maggots , started catching crucians - lovely fish , caught quite a few once I got the shotting right and the depth spot on.

broke for lunch , chatted to sausage Dave , who runs the cafe and has been round the world a few times, switched to the carp pool where the big ones are , had quite a few out even had some of the method feeder in the margins , then it smashed it down which washed all my insect repellent off ( see what I'm doing here ).

Biggest fish circa 15 pound , biggest fly 0.001g.

Enjoyed it today was lovely this morning fishing the pole on maggots , everything nice and light.

 

[S-Kippy]

No fishing for me today. 3 line whip Work conference at Stamford Bridge.Listening to the suits spouting the usual corporate nonsense was bad enough but I had all this plus John Terry's ugly mug everywhere. If he was chocolate he'd eat himself

I lasted until lunchtime before my second yellow.

 

[peter crabtree]

It was a bit cooler today so Jerry and I had a relaxing few hours trotting stick
floats on the Colne. Both of us caught plenty of fish but mainly small.
Roach, perch, gudgeon, skimmers and hybrids all on maggot.
Happy days...

 

[nicepix]

We went off on Monday in the camper van for a few days down the Charente Valley in the Cognac region. The Charente as a small stream flows out of a large lake near to where we live, flows roughly north-west for about 40km then veers south-west towards the coast near to Royan. We crossed the infant river and caught up with the adult version about an hour and a half later as it flows through the vineyards that specialise in pineau and Cognac.

We parked in a picnic site at the side of the river just downstream of a weir. The French are far more relaxed about overnight parking. The river was crystal clear and with bright blue skies there was barely a fish to be seen in open water. They were all hugging weed beds and hiding under overhanging branches. I spotted a good 4lb+ chub under a weed raft and set about trying to stalk it. This involved a steady descent down a steep loose bank so I could drop a free lined grain of sweetcorn into the river a few metres upstream of it. I hadn't allowed for the two smaller out riders though and they spooked my fish. A few trots down various swims resulted in nothing and so I ventured into one of the canal arms that allow boats to by-pass the weirs.

The canal part is basically a clear channel of around 1 to 2 metres either side of a central weed bed. These channels are around a metre or more deep and full of roach, chub and a few perch. I worked out that the best way to fish it was sideways, casting under a tree from about a rod length and a half upstream of it. That resulted in a few roach of around 4 to 8oz and I lost what I thought was a crucian carp that buried itself in the weeds and my 1-14 bottom didn't hold.



Next day we parked alongside a lock and spent a leisurely lunch watching other people work I tried a different part of the river for much the same result as the previous day. All roach to sweetcorn fishing a 2BB waggler under a tree on the far bank in a more weed free area. The last boat went through around 8pm and the first boat the next day arrived after 10am. In that 14 hours we never saw a soul



I had lots of opportunity to watch fish and their reactions to bait. Sweetcorn wasn't readily accepted. Most roach and chub totally ignored it. Micro pellets drew a crowd of roach, but they would only take them on the drop. No grubbing about on the bottom for left overs. Bread was universally accepted but a lot of French bread is unsuitable for hook bait which is a real pain (Sorry, couldn't resist it )

On the third evening I thought that I'd try a spot of this drop shotting malarkey that everyone is raving about. With appropriate knot tied onto Drennan 3lb trout leader and wag-tail jelly lure threaded onto hook I dropped the end bit into the clear waters of the canal where I could keep my eye on it. And what an eye opener it was mg: Roach clustered around with interest and then after discussing the matter melted away. Perch rushed up then stood off bristling like a guard dog before losing interest. No matter how much or indeed how I waggled the lure the only fish out of about two hundred casual observers that actually mouthed the lure was a small sun perch or pumpkinseed fish of around 3 oz. That gave the jelly tail a quick little kiss that I felt down the rod before hurrying away. Makes me wonder whether this drop shotting is going to be like bolt rigging whereby the number of fish actually caught is a fraction of those that show interest and the angler has no idea of the failure rate? Still, it is early days. I'll try it again nearer home.

Perhaps the best part of the trip was just after I'd spotted a pair of zander sunning themselves close to the edge of the canal and just over the other side, blissfully unaware was a young lad of around 10 years old plugging with a 2 metre rod and tiny perch plug. I called him over and introduced him to the fish. It was hilarious watching him pi$$ those two zander off and chase them all over the 200 metre arm from lock gates to bridge over the confluence of lock arm and main river. I hope that he managed to catch one, but I doubt it.

Little Wife, dog and cat all seemed to enjoy themselves............

 

[bennygesserit]

Very Nice write up , Nicepix , thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

[slaphead]

Arrived home yesterday after a week in Swindon.

Managed to get a mornings fishing in on a lake at Cotswold Water Park, until I gave up because of the heat (26c or above).

One small roach foul-hooked in a fin was all I got for my very sore sun-tanned slaphead bonce.

 

[stu_the_blank]

my very sore sun-tanned slaphead bonce.

As a fellow slaphead of an older vintage, take some advice, wear a hat! Having to have the skin treated for sun damage is not to be recomended! Chemotherapy was not pleasant.

I did an evening today, last week my eldest son moved house so couldn't get out, so suffering from mild withdrawal symptoms out I went!

Had a wonderful time. Dry, warm, a bit overcast with a southerly breeze. Set up on one of the islands on my syndicate water. Fished for tench for a while, had two both just over 4lbs. Put the kettle on and the Carp rods out for the final few hours into darkness, had four, smallest 14lbs, biggest 22-04. Went home a very happy angler. Sipping a very good Pinotage as I write this. Life could be lot worse!

Stu

 

[binka]

...........

 

[flightliner]

Good zander baits bleak binka.

 

[binka]

Good zander baits bleak binka.

It did cross my mind Flight, if I had any room in the freezer I might just have nabbed a few

Lots of activity from the Z's yesterday, I thought they might have been big perch until one all but chased a fish out of the water and up the bank right beside me.

 

[cal_sutt]

Tried to fish the River Idle on Monday but with the water levels being so low and the temperature being so high, all of the bigger fish in the swim were more happy just sitting back. The (full) day resulted in a 3lb barbel along with about 50 small chub, roach, gudgeon and a few bonus dace. God knows what I would've weighed in at but that could've been a winning bag on any day on the Idle, went home very happy although the barbel was the only fish above a pound.

Thought I'd go down the day after but the water was even lower, had a go for a few hours.but nothing. Decided to go home about 1pm and got the lure gear out - fished Tuesday and Wednesday with the lures and had about 15 pike over the two (ish) days with the biggest about 12lb. More success once again!

Whilst roving up and down the canal after pike, found a few swims I fancied fishing so I spent Thursday, Friday and Saturday doing a bit of coarse fishing up and down the canal,
Thursday and Friday's sessions together probably resulted in well over 50lb of roach, perch and small chub. On Saturday I trotted floating bread down the stream off of the end of a flush by a lock, I fished for three hours and had 6 roach all between 3/4 lb and 1lb as well as 4 chub of about 3lb each.

Good week!

 

[nicepix]

I was intending going on Tuesday. However Little Wife accepted a luncheon offer while I was out so that is that. We are going to our friend's in Dordogneshire instead.

Still, I was allowed out this afternoon. Once I'd finished undercoating the porch canopy that is. I took the dog and my new highly inexpensive reel down to the local river. It was almost 30C and sunny most of the time. The water was low and you can see where I'm going can't you? Yes. Almost buffer all to be had.

I started with the little River Don Special quiver tip rod and micro pellets banded onto the hook. First cast I noticed the line going tight and slack without registering a bite. Now this little rod is so sensitive if I hold onto it while it is on the rod rest the tip registers my heartbeat. I kid you not. But this wasn't registering so I struck anyway and brought in a large signal crayfish that had managed to get the hook stuck in its claw.

Nothing more so I put up my cane Avon and the new Lidl reel and ran a red worm through the swim under a waggler. Nothing! Nowt! Zilch! I swapped the float for a ledger, put on the screw-in quiver tip and worked my way around the river from far bank to nearside trees. Nothing on the pellet, but I managed three fish on the worm; a perch, ruffe and roach in order of size. Altogether they would have weighed 6 oz including the bloomin' crayfish which was the biggest of them all.

I packed up an hour early and took the dog for a walk through the woods instead.

The only consolation is that I've received an e-mail from a mate who I used to fish with on the Dearne and they are struggling too.

 

[dangermouse]

Fished the 1st Annual SY Navigational Charity Match. It was organised by a friend of mine with all proceeds going to the Weston Park Hospital Cancer Charity.

We met at 8am on the bridge leading to the train station, drew pegs and kicked off the match at 9am. The fishing proved difficult but only one of the fifteen participants blanked. No one really minded though, fun was had by all and it was a lovely day.

The winner weighed in just over 4lbs with the majority of that coming from 2 perch weighing in at 1lb 13oz and 1lb 9oz.

Yours truly took equal 5th with a whopping 1lb 6oz, again coming from 2 perch, one at just over a lb.

The total raised was approx £170

 

[peter crabtree]

Today we (URACS) fished our annual tidal match on the Thames just downstream of Kew bridge in west London. I arrived at 7:30 and the tide was still racing in. Around 8:30 we drew and the tide turned. Once the beach was exposed we climbed down. One of our members was setting up his keepnet and saw a bloke walking off with his made up rod. Luckily 2 fit blokes jogged past and matey shouted to them to chase the thief. Luckily they caught him and the wan*** threw the rod into the river. The joggers got it back in the end. Anyway, I started off on waggler and maggot as it was black with dace before we started. Not a touch. Chucked out a cage feeder with maggot and had a clonking bite, a dace which would have been a goer 40 years ago...
I had one bream around 5lb and a few more dace before my platform blew over in a massive gust of wind. Lost all my groundbait, and most of my other baits. Worst of all it knocked my keepnet over and all but 3 small dace remained. It didn't make much odds really as the angler next to me had 10 or so bream and bits for 38lb. 2nd ( the one who's rod was nicked ) had 2 fish for 28lb. One was a bream, the other a 24lb Mirror carp. Was a bit of a battle on match gear, at one point his spool was down to the backing....
3rd 24lb all bream.. 13 fished...
Great day out..

 

[binka]

this little rod is so sensitive if I hold onto it while it is on the rod rest the tip registers my heartbeat

I had a bed headboard that used to do that against the wall... quite unnerving when you're trying to drop off and subconsciously listening to it, as I lived in a semi (steady!) at the time the neighbours probably thought I was a bit of a bounder

Is it the same with the fishing?

Y'know... you're getting quite relaxed and then suddenly you realised you died five minutes ago