How did you get on?

[Neil Maidment]

1st November saw the opening of parts of the River Frome to coarse anglers. Just one of the reasons we've relocated to this part of Dorset!

A couple of short exploratory trips have been really enjoyable with some fine grayling and a few too many spotted tourists, a couple of which I've actually got to the net.

At least 3 or 4 other areas to explore but so far, so very good. I'd happily pay the annual club fee just for the bit of river I've seen so far!

View image in gallery​

View image in gallery​

View image in gallery​

 

[neil1970]

A quick 1 hour stroll around today.

A tiny jack came first to a 3" kopyto shad.

A lure change and the first cast to the far bank slack of a weirpool and a 2 1/2lb perch hit the spinnerbait almost instantly

 

[wa1115]

Wasn't going to bother this morning but after sitting down with a coffee and looking outside decided that once I had dropped the kids off at school I would have a few hours.

The approach started off with soft plastics targeting Perch, two casts saw two fish, I moved further down and decided to try my newly self tied Pike Jig-Flies and clipped a Roach pattern one on in anticipation.

Well first cast and on the retrieve I could see it's action and quietly said to myself (I'm not to happy with that) then bang from nowhere a Jack slammed onto it.

I continued my roving approach all the way down with a further 2 landed and 2 lost, my walk back towards the car had started and again I hit every peg I passed with nothing until about half way down, I couldn't believe it when I had an almighty take in the margins. After a short fight it produced my new PB Pike at 9lb 7oz.

The thrill of catching a personal best on a self made lure I can't describe, I was almost dancing on the bank.

 

[flightliner]

Wa1115-- great stuff, your smile says it all.Amazing how the grin gets bigger with each pb.

---------- Post added at 21:26 ---------- Previous post was at 20:38 ----------

My club water today for a hoped for barbel. Some of the members were doing ok in the lake with some nice bream n the odd carp but the river is a bigger draw for me so, polaroids on I was legging it downstream with the minimum of gear.
Two foot of gin clear water and a sandy bottom is easy to check out and it didnt look promising, still, needs must, so I settled in a swim that was overhung with large willows where any barbel could be hanging around out of sight.
I had a little under a pint of casters that I had turned over the eekend and after twenty minutes of 'pulting a few freebies in I let the float chase after them with four casters below that were just dragging on the bottom.
The response was delightfully quick as a fourpound (ish) fish fell to the offering , wellcome indeed onsidering the seemingly empty nature of the water.
All very quite afterwards but no real surprise so another walking lunch with all my gear but all to no avail.
So, back in the original swim having had a good hours rest anothe barbel took the bait, initially it came upstream pretty easily but after a struggle was just approaching the net when it woke up and went ballistic and ploughed its way thro some long grass growing into the river margins. I dont know how it happened but on the other side it had wrapped itself up with my line and when It finally calmed down I found it coming backwards to the landing net, nothing I havent experienced before on the Trent with the odd fish but not on this little river, anyway fate intervened and the hook came free.
I was glad really.
light was fading fast and I had decided to call it a day in a few minutes and a few last runs thro, I dropped the float for maybe the last time, the same place my freebies had been going in most of the afternoon and it had travelled no more than a yard and its gone, that fish could have been under my feet all afternoon just taking the casters at will but this time my bait must have landed right on the button.
Not a big fish by barbel standards-- a long lean fish of some seven pounds or so but a devilishly hard fighting specimen.
All in all a better result than I expected which is always a bonus.

 

[edsurf]

Neil is that the Wareham and District winter ticket, I was thinking of giving it a go my self this year.

Ed

 

[sam vimes]

Only a couple of hours and less than a pint of maggots to play with, so I headed off to a beck that I've rarely fished since I was still in school. The last time I tried it I was rather disappointed. However, I have a new light, short rod that I need to justify buying! This is its secondary use, so it was nice to see how it would perform.

Happily, it got a surprisingly decent workout. When I was a lad, this beck was the place to go, not that many did, for decent grayling, and plenty of them. That hasn't really been the case for a while though, so expectations weren't great. However, on arrival I was greeted by a touch of extra water and colour, which gave me hope.

Fishing along about a mile of bank gave very few realistic fishing spots. I'll have fished only four different marks. The beck is painfully shallow these days and needs a good flush through to clear the summer weed. However, fishing little more than two feet of water still brought me twelve grayling. Most were pretty small, but I had one around the pound mark and a cracker at 1lb 10oz.

 

[john step]

I had my first pike outing today. Just a rove around a club lake twitching a deadbait. ( I like to call it TWERKING when my daughter is listening, just to get her going)
I had 6 . 4 Were jacks but I had a 10 and a 16 which made up for standing in the continuous rain.
Must investigate a 100% waterproof jacket.

 

[Neil Maidment]

Neil is that the Wareham and District winter ticket, I was thinking of giving it a go my self this year.

Ed

Yes, although I'm a full member. Sections above Wareham at Worgret and Holme. Well worth it although only available from 1st November. I've also joined Dorchester which has part of the opposite bank on the Holme stretch plus more further up at Wool.

So far I've had a couple just over 2 and a few more of all sizes from ounces and above. Clearly popular at the moment but I would imagine (I hope) the anglers will thin out once the real winter arrives ?

 

[maggot_dangler]

Well after a late start due to waiting for people to turn up do their biit and scram again nipped round the corner to my local Cut with a few maggots and not a bad afternoon it has to be said nothing big but almost 30 fish between 14:30 and 17:00 .

Plus finding a pile of dog C**P in the grass just too late . one day we will have instant DNA testing & Identification test the pile in question get the address round it up and post it theu the letter box maybe they will then clean up after their mutts . Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.


PG ...

 

[iannate]

30 fish between 14:30 and 17:00 .

Is that Kilos

Plus finding a pile of dog C**P in the grass just too late . one day we will have instant DNA testing & Identification test the pile in question get the address round it up and post it through the letter box maybe they will then clean up after their mutts . Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Couldn't agree more, luckily, I've spotted the mines first hew:

 

[S-Kippy]

That's another reason why I hate autumn. Hard to spot the ginger mud in among the fallen leaves.

 

[edsurf]

Thanks for that Neil will give it a go this winter

 

[sumtime]

I had my first pike outing today. Just a rove around a club lake twitching a deadbait. ( I like to call it TWERKING when my daughter is listening, just to get her going)
I had 6 . 4 Were jacks but I had a 10 and a 16 which made up for standing in the continuous rain.
Must investigate a 100% waterproof jacket.

....and a camera, John.

 

[maggot_dangler]

Is that Kilos



Couldn't agree more, luckily, I've spotted the mines first hew:

Yea i normally spot the mines miles off but this was under long grass and i was trying to get my hook out of a tangle so was more bothered about loosing a hook and well nuff said needless to say a spent a few mins thrashing footware in clean grass to dispose of the vile poontang ...

PG ...

 

[john step]

....and a camera, John.

I have a poor photo (wet lens) and I am VERY frustrated as I managed to get a photo on here a month or two ago but try as I might the list of instructions I have just won't seem to work. Age thing????

 

[robtherake]

I haven't been out for a while - my lady wife's recovering from a foot op - so it was very pleasant to get away from the house and put a bend in my new Nash rod - a 10ft, 2.25lb Dwarf.

With just the last couple of hours of daylight left, I literally just plonked in a reliable margin peg and dropped a 2oz inline lead with spicy sausage bait and pva stocking bag of pellets just over the shelf. The first fish pulled the line out of my hands before it was in the clip and bingo, I was off!

I won't waffle on too much about the rod. It's cheap, most will hate the full duplon butt (although I couldn't care less) but it's far better than the price would suggest, is tippy enough for accurate casting, yet has a nice progressive action when something pulls back. A few longer casts at the end of the session saw the 2oz lead fly out effortlessly past 70yds with minimal effort. What I really liked though was how easy it is to be accurate, cast after cast; something that I struggle to do with a 12ft, 2.75lb rod. But then, I'm something of a dwarf myself!

Anyway, back to the fishing. The carp liked my presentation today and I had eight to around double figures and rarely had to give line - the rod just soaked up the pressure. So impressed was I that I returned to the shop yesterday and got its identical twin brother!

As the light faded, the resident crazy duck-feeding lady joined me while I packed away - I have time for most people as long as they aren't aggressive, noisy or overly boastful - and we listened to the birds settling down for the night and mused on the slipperiness of goose poo on wet grass, of all things! Time and money well spent, all in all.

 

[peter crabtree]

I have a poor photo (wet lens) and I am VERY frustrated as I managed to get a photo on here a month or two ago but try as I might the list of instructions I have just won't seem to work. Age thing????

John has emailed the pics to me but they are too big.
Anyone any good at resizing? PM me your email addy and I'll send them...

 

[binka]

John has emailed the pics to me but they are too big.
Anyone any good at resizing? PM me your email addy and I'll send them...

I think you already have mine Simon, i'll resize 'em for you if need be.

 

[S-Kippy]

I have a poor photo (wet lens) and I am VERY frustrated as I managed to get a photo on here a month or two ago but try as I might the list of instructions I have just won't seem to work. Age thing????

Tell me about it ! Flushed with the success and ease of uploading a photo I tried again the other night and failed miserably. I uploaded a photo somewhere but it wasn't here. It's this poxy tablet thing I think....give me a computer the size of a suitcase any day. You know where you are with them.

 

[john step]

Tell me about it ! Flushed with the success and ease of uploading a photo I tried again the other night and failed miserably. I uploaded a photo somewhere but it wasn't here. It's this poxy tablet thing I think....give me a computer the size of a suitcase any day. You know where you are with them.

I am quite embarrassed by all this attention. I think I will have to stay clear of how did you get in futuremg: