How did you get on?

[maggot_dangler]

Well out mid morning on the local cut looking for pike not a thing so will be trying again for tomorrow see if I can do better, never have much luck with pike the so keep on plugging away away

PG...

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[thecrow]

Aaah…

Another traditional Christmas Day session safely under the belt!

A chilly start in these parts too which only added to the festive feel with good patches of white ground frost in the ditches that I was crossing whilst loaded up like a pack horse and on my way up the river at daybreak , not a sound to be heard other than the delightful dawn chorus.

As expected the river was well up and nicely coloured and I had a cunning plan (which failed miserably in respect of the target species) to catch a few lives on the ultra-light bomb rod and feed them onto the heavy Avon which was all plumbed up and waiting with a float paternoster set just on the top edge of a sharp drop off literally under the rod tip with a big perch or a zander the intended target.

To that effect I had rigged up on the fine side but with a bit of insurance in the not unlikely event of a pike turning up, this entailed a short Drennan Soft Strand 10lb trace of around eight inches to a size 2 single hook, the same wire for the eighteen inch up trace and a two foot rotten bottom of 5lb to a 1oz lead which all seemed to balance rather well.

A tiny cage feeder on the bomb rod with maggot and groundbait to a single maggot on the hook and I reckon the job’s a fish!

Except that, after two hours, all I could muster was the slightest tremor even on a ½ oz glass tip and the whole place was beginning to resemble the Somme.

Still, we soldiered on and eventually along came a gudgeon which had record perch written all over it so without further ado he was out on the paternoster rig whilst I capitalised on my good run and added two more perch of an ounce each.

I have to confess that despite the other rod being on an alarm just for extra insurance I couldn’t help but keep looking at the float bobbing around out of the corner of my eye, not ideal whilst quivertipping on the other rod but the nature of the beast all the same and I was fortunate enough to have had my eye on it when the float just screamed away without warning, setting the alarm going as it did.

I didn’t waste any time getting on it and struck immediately, my first thoughts were that it was definitely no perch and moments later it was definitely no zander either!

True to the mild winter we’ve enjoyed so far this year the fish gave it everything and despite me being able to give it some real teddy in return it still caused an anxious minute or so knowing that it was just a single hook rig but eventually the fish surfaced and I knew she was a good ‘un.

I just about managed with the net I had taken and I have to say that despite mat pictures never really doing good 3D justice she was one of the deepest, broadest and nicely proportioned river fish I had ever taken.

And,

In keeping with the festive spirit absolutely no expense has been spared in providing a particularly festive picture or two for you…





21lb 10oz, my first twenty of the winter on a lip hooked gudgeaon!

Cheers Santa, good call

What d’ya reckon though, did I overdo the decs with that second bauble?

Back out tomorrow and I can enjoy a bloody good drink tonight as my mates driving :w :w :w

Merry Christmas everyone!

Well done on a lovely fish and also on sticking it out in conditions that would have seen others me included running (well not quite running) for the car.

Baubles? I thought that was another idea you had thought of to tempt the Perch into the swim

 

[binka]

Baubles? I thought that was another idea you had thought of to tempt the Perch into the swim

Cheers Graham, I'm using 'em as slider floats

 

[Tee-Cee]

I’m still pondering my final pre – Christmas roach session on Wednesday last, and although I’d pushed it, and all its frustrations to the back of my mind since that time, it is back with me this morning with a vengance ! Actually that’s not quite true, as I allowed parts of it to drift through my mind as I sat enjoying yesterday’s pre - lunch drink and a couple of chapters of William Caine’s ‘ An angler At Large ‘ and although a wonderful book it had nothing to offer by way of advice to solve my dilemma…..
I went on Wednesday despite the early morning clear skies producing a sudden drop in temperature compared to the previous few days which had been up around a balmy 12 / 14 degrees, although 7 / 8 degrees wasn’t too bad considering the time of year. ( As an aside, the clear skies at 6am produced something very unusual ( for me anyway ) in that checking for early morning light on the Eastern horizon with a cup of tea I was able to see a very, very bright Saturn ( I think that’s correct.. ) together with Jupiter in the South, but I only know this after checking via Google ! )

Anyway, back to the fishing ; I reached the water at around 07.45 and due to the brightness I was able to tackle up pretty quickly in a protected swim although with something of an annoying side breeze from time to time which had become apparent as I loaded the car. I know the water very well so I had already worked out which float I would slide up the line to cope with the conditions and although I took a minute or two to decide size I eventually went for a medium Drennan Glo Tip Antenna. I rarely use shop bought floats but these little beauties are a joy to use, offering sensitivity in spades.

Not that this was a totally standard off the shelf float, as I have a set of them with tiny glo orange painted, oval polystyrene ‘ sighter ‘ fixed to the top, which, with the bright yellow bands found on the antenna section would offer me maximum visibility when fishing against a background of now bare tree branches opposite, and to aid my ever failing eyesight ! To this end I shotted the float to leave both yellow bands above the water ( knowing a no 3 shot would take it under anyway ) and set the hook just off bottom as a starter. Hook bait was hemp, with a few grains every cast as feed…
Presentation was just about perfect and after a quick cuppa I settled down to fish a rod length out. Almost at once the float dipped and then stopped. This happened again so I moved the bottom shot further from the hook and on the next cast, with the float sliding away beautifully I hooked a 9” roach, which for its size fought like something a little bigger. Another cast bought me a second fish of similar size and with yet another following I began to think of a bumper day ! All three bites had been similar with the float allowing time for the ‘ lift’ into the fish so I thought I had things dead right………………….

Unfortunately, this was somewhat premature on my part as things did not go according to plan over the next hour as the float, in precisely the same manner as before, slid below the surface at least a dozen times, produced nothing whatever – not even a pricked or lost fish ! It goes without saying that I did not allow this to continue unabated for all dozen bites, in that I tried striking quicker, slower, sideways etc. none of which made the slightest difference….
……….and this is where the pondering comes in because having paused for a tea break and a rethink and deciding to persevere with the same set – up, the next cast produced a lovely roach of 1lb or so and this followed by several others of varying sizes. One may think one should be happy with this situation, but I am not given to accepting such happenings with a shrug of the shoulders and tend to think not of fish caught but of those missed and why in the space of a few hours this should happen not once, but twice. Yes, I had to experience the pain of further missed bites a second time before finishing with a couple of very pretty fish around 12oz or so.

Without doubt it was a lovely mornings fishing and I was very pleased with my catch, made even better because I’d made the effort to get to the bank, when it would’ve been so easy to settle into a prolonged period of booze and food. I’d sat by the water without seeing another soul for 5 hours and caught fish so I should be happy…… and I am, I really am………………

Of course, we all ponder form time to time in the hope that answers will come from the mist, but in this case I’m having trouble formulating any form of alternative method which might turn those missed bites into fish on the bank as I don’t believe it’s anything to do with how I fish unless they are going for the shot instead of the seed………………………Yes, that could be it, so back to the bank tomorrow with renewed confidence!!

Happy New year to one and all !

ps I cannot go any sooner as much food and booze remains to be consumed – to hell with the roach anyway !!!

pps Sorry, but another snippet....My wife found an old Fulkus & Buller book ' Freshwater fishing ' in a Charity shop and thumbing through this I found a bit on hemp fishing which suggests trying to pinch the seed onto the SHANK of the hook rather than the bend. Not easy, but a seed can be ' opened ' by squeezing the ends and this might give the clamping motion desired....I'll give it a try, oh and olivettes as well !!!

 

[tigger]

I had an hours trotting mid week and caught a couple of chub but since then the rivers round here have been up quite high so not really fishable and today "they all" broke their all time highs....yet again !!
So no fishing locally for me for a spell .

 

[maggot_dangler]

Well spent the day down my normal small pool started very slowly not a sniff for 2 hours or so then a string of snatch and run off with maggot leaving an empty hook.

Then it woke up with vengeance 9 nice roach all 1lb plus on the trot then it went to sleep again till the light started to fade, when it came streaming back to life roach and decent perch almost jumping onto the hook in the end I had to pack up it was almost pitch black.

PG...


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[Tee-Cee]

Maggot dangler....more detail, more detail !!

Nice catch, though...



tigger... Judging by what I've seen on TV it seems like very river in the North of England has broken its bank - you have my sincere sympathies as do all of those who have been flooded time and time again - just dreadful..

 

[maggot_dangler]

Maggot dangler....more detail, more detail !!

Nice catch, though...



tigger... Judging by what I've seen on TV it seems like very river in the North of England has broken its bank - you have my sincere sympathies as do all of those who have been flooded time and time again - just dreadful..

Well what more can I say it's a small private pool with about 100 members.
Size wise it's about 3 the same as 3 tennis courts, holds roach perch crucian carp wild card tench chub no pike oh and a few goldfish.

Oh and i forgot to add a good head of decent sized Snotties ......

I love the place be a use you can fish away all day and not be disturbed, with around 15 pegs to choose from.

PG...


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[lakhyaman]

Hi
Ist post on this thread and not sure it is relevant, but here goes!

Extreme puddle fishing - the "pond" is barely two thirds of an acre and drying out as winter is the dry season in Bangladesh, where I live.

The two of us fished half a rod length out from our rod tips with a slidng length of peacock quill (6") a size 8 owner bait hook, and my rod was a Drennan Acolyte Ultra with a Hardy Ultralight fly reel loaded with mono of 0.24mm thickness.

We did catch!

Mrigal (Cirhinnus Mrigala)

Catla (Catla catla)

Rohu (Labeo rohita) held aloft by the ghillie.

Mrigal exceed 25 lbs., Rohu exceed 50 and Catla will grow to a hundred so these are small fish indeed. They fought hard though and it was fun.

I hope everyone had a great Christmass and wishing all a Happy New Year.

All the best

Lakhyaman

P.S. The photos are from my phone and are not the best and are probably too many and too large. My apologies and will improve in the future.

 

[maggot_dangler]

Well fished a new place for me today .


The Donkey pool on Wrens Nest Nature reserve .
HAd a look at it a couple of weeks ago looked ok but with all the recent rain talk about FULL or WHAT! nearly every peg was under water i managed to find a spot that was almost dry .

A constant stream of nibbles and knocks but very hard to actually hook anything difficult place to find the bottom of as well it appears to be fairly deep in places with very steep sides that start a few feet out .

Perseverance paid off in the long run with 6 nice roach landed as the light was fading once again , Definately a return visit under better conditions there are big fish in there but not for me today .

A reasonable afternoon only ruined by the D***HEADS on dirt bikes tearing the place up called to fuzz 2 hours later still no attending occifers ... Ho Hummmm


PG ...

 

[binka]

I’ve just had the day I’ve been promising myself for a while on a local ex-club lake of around seven natural acres and completely free of a thirty minute yomp or inches of mud, a very nice day it’s been too.

Two things decided it for me, firstly I had half a bucket of leftover groundbait which was mixed back on Christmas Eve and has been stood in the garage with a damp towel over it since bringing it back home from the Christmas Day session along with a pint of reds in a bucket beside it, the second factor was that the weather forecast had indicated a strengthening southerly which would be blowing right down the lake and into a small bay very close to the car park although a wind of any reasonable strength never materialised but I was more than happy with a twenty yard walk for once which saw me nestled nicely between two trees.

All set up for daybreak and the world’s your oyster, as they say…



I took the long float rod for the bit of extra reach, this was to be fished with a tiny crystal, black tipped dibber against a mirror like surface to a 1.7 hooklink and size eighteen barbless spade end with single or double red maggot on the hook…



Groundbait went in "spray style" over the top without even squeezing along with a pinch of maggots every five minutes or so and it really couldn’t have been simpler or more enjoyable with a steady stream of perch in all sizes of small soon providing plenty of bites.

Small/small…



Small/medium…



Small/large…



Come mid-afternoon I reckon I’d taken around seventy of the lovely little blighters along with a handful of blade roach and a few gudgeon so I decided to pack away the float rod and for the last hour put a single hook float paternoster out over the line I had been feeding all day with a small roach on whilst I sat back taking in the surroundings in the fading light…



Not too long to wait before I had a run which I missed but I then had two more both of which resulted in a couple of small jacks around 3lbs apiece, good for getting the adrenaline going when the float first sailed away and it also gave me time to snap a couple of synchronised swan gestures which probably summed up what they thought of the show…



And up yours too!

A quick snap of an idyllic sunset and that was me off and feeling very satisfied and relaxed for it…



All in all a very nice day for the sake of using up some old bait, I’m off all week and feel that my session today has prepared me well for my old friend Mistress Mud so I might just be back out on the river later in the week.

If Carlsberg did Mondays... :w

 

[Pete Shears]

Reservoir piking again today as the local small rivers are trying to get into the fields- 3 white grets greeted me sitting the low willow branches at the end of the arm out of the cool SE breeze. Again only one bite, a pike @ 11lb 9oz on a lump of mackerel. Another member just down the bank in Dead Dog Swim ( long story ) banked one @ 16lb 9oz. Stayed to around 2pm when as I packed up the local hunt came through with all the followers etc snarling up the single track road.

 

[neil1970]

I fished a small farm lake today with a few friends.

Most deadbaited and most caught; fish to 13lb ish.

I lure fished and caught a minature specimen.

A nice social day with a lot of laughs and some ginger wine!

Oh and my silly white polaroids now rest in a watery grave (which I'm not that unhappy about)

 

[edsurf]

View image in gallery​

Had a couple of hours trotting on the Frome today with a pin and cane rod, levels were up and pushing , had a few grayling and trout out, nothing of any size but was a nice morning to be out on the bank.

 

[sam vimes]

The river still has a touch too much water for my liking. Tomorrow might have been feasible, depending on storm Frank. Rather than chance it, I took advantage of the lull between storms. I decided to make one of my very irregular visits to one of the big local commies (well known nationally). I only go to such places in winter and believe that it's three years since I last gave it a go. Just getting there was a little interesting. My usual route was a no go due to flooding, so I got there a little later than planned.

I was lured there by the reports of decent nets of rather lumpy perch from the oldest pond on the complex. Unfortunately, I hadn't counted on anyone booking the entire pond for a fish in overnighter, so that was a non-starter. After a bit of local advice, I plumped for a peg on one of the many other ponds. Besides, it's a commie, the starving fish would be crawling up my rods regardless!

I went for perch, and had two. I could almost see through them. I also had a smattering of gonks. The bulk of the fish I had were roach, around twenty of them, with just one token F1 putting in an appearance. Every fish caught was a little minter. However, if I'd known that roach would be the mainstay, I'd have gone to my usual roach pool instead.

Now I'll happily admit that I'm not a venue expert or regular. Nor do I claim to be the greatest angler in the world. However, it reinforces my experience of winter commies. Those that believe that you can't fail, all the fish are starving etc, etc, are usually talking complete tosh. Venue regulars and match types are often pretty good at what they do. Certainly those that get consistently good weights on such venues are.
I'm also painfully aware that I really should have given my pole its annual airing. I'm sure I'd have caught more if I had. However, I suspect that I'd have actually enjoyed it marginally less.

 

[Keith M]

My son and I had a few hours on the waggler this afternoon at one of our clubs match lakes.
We went so that my son Stuart could try out his new float rod which he got for Xmas from the wife and I.

I had a few slabs and hooked a Carp which ran through Stuart's swim before smashing my 3lb hooklength as I tried to get it out of his swim; and poor old Stuart's float didn't move an inch no matter what size hooks and hooklengths he used.

So Stuart still hasn't christened his new rod LOL.. It makes a change though as Stuart can usually hold his own against his old man LOL.

Keith

 

[dann]

We were due to visit some family in Hampshire today but rather than join them for a pub lunch, the kids and I had 4 odd hours on a local lake before catching up with the family.

I wasn't expecting much as it is a small lake and I found no information online about it.

Almost first cast we got a small perch on double red maggot. This was followed by about 30 more perch on maggots, some just over a lb. We also had about 10 roach, again nothing to write home about size wise but welcome all the same.

All in, it was a great and mild winter day out with the boys. Great to see how they continue to enjoy angling and are really listening and picking things up.

.

 

[robtherake]

My son and I had a few hours on the waggler this afternoon at one of our clubs match lakes.
We went so that my son Stuart could try out his new float rod which he got for Xmas from the wife and I.

I had a few slabs and hooked a Carp which ran through Stuart's swim before smashing my 3lb hooklength as I tried to get it out of his swim; and poor old Stuart's float didn't move an inch no matter what size hooks and hooklengths he used.

So Stuart still hasn't christened his new rod LOL.. It makes a change though as Stuart can usually hold his own against his old man LOL.

Keith

Some days are like that, Keith. I once had tench after tench the whole night through while my mate sat fishless. We exchanged rods, bait and even swims (although we were only six feet apart) and his betalite didn't move a millimetre. How do you explain that? My insistence that maybe he stank didn't go down well at all.

BTW, expect to get waterlicked next time out - that's how it goes.

 

[tincatim]

Finally made it on to the bank after two months of generally being too busy. I considered a roving session on the local river Dearne but after breaking my toe two weeks ago, I decided a day sat down would be more sensible.

Ferryboat Farm was my choice, a lovely little natural lake of around two acres that's commercially stocked but doesn't look like your typical mud hole.

I fancied a day on the waggler so set up a 3g Drennan crystal, 6ft deep at about 20 metres or so out. 4lb maxima through to 2.5lb hooklength and a size 18 kamasan B911. I shorted with strung out no 8s for a slow fall. Hookbait was double white maggot and within minutes I was swinging in my first pristine roach of the day. Another ten or so followed as the swim built nicely. Followed by a nice golden common of around 3lb, then a skimmer, some more roach and then a surprise tench. The warm weather must have confused it.

I fished on catching roach up to around 10oz every cast, interspersed with a couple of perch and the odd skimmer. One more carp, another common and the session wound to its end.

Probably 50 or so roach and some nice bonus fish to put a bend in the rod made for a very enjoyable four hours. All on a half a pint of maggots too.

So good to be back!

 

[binka]

Well that’s it, the last chuck of the year.

As mentioned yesterday I took to the river in the expectation of it rising again and I wasn’t disappointed given twelve hours of solid rainfall yesterday, I just hadn’t anticipated how quickly and by how much it would rise in such a short period of time.

Still, on the positive side the colour was there and it was this that I needed in order to have any confidence in bagging the desired zander.

Rigged up and ready to go at daybreak and around fifty minutes in to my first chuck (well, more of a “lower” really as I was fishing right off the rod tip as usual but in 10’ of water up to a steep edge) and I had interest on the bream tail which was just on the bottom below a mini Drennan Crystal Zeppler set as a sliding rig…



I had intended to fish open bale on both rods but this right hand rod was causing me problems in that it was catching the edge of an eddy which meant I had to go for a very loose baitrunner instead and despite this it still got me rumbled!

In the couple of seconds it took me to get up and on it the very short distance of slack line had been taken up and with three or four clicks on the baitrunner the fish had felt the resistance, dropped the bait and the float popped back up.

Damn it, that would likely be my one chance blown!

It was early days and so I checked the bait before putting out again and something like an hour and a half later the float very slowly sank and just held below the surface and this time I wasn’t giving it the opportunity and struck into a very satisfying thump coming from down below.

There was never going to be any doubt about the outcome with such strong gear but the usual apprehensions about the fish throwing the hook were ever present and fortunately everything held as the fish gave a spirited and respectable account of itself before gracing the net…



Cracking!

Not a huge fish at 6lbs – 7lbs but the difficult one I had come for to round off the year!

I also managed a pike of around low double figures to a roach section on the left hand rod an hour or so later which was a nice bonus…



By now the rapidly rising river was beginning to take on a completely different personality altogether and an unfriendly one at that with strong back currents and large pieces of debris eddying around and so, with what would normally be the favourite final hour still to come, I decided to cut and run before the heavy rain swept in and I’m pleased I did as I just managed to get home and get the gear unloaded into the garage as it hammered it down.

All in all a great end to what has been a great year :w

And on that note…

The very best of wishes to one and all for a great 2016, tight lines :w :w