How did you get on?

[dorsetandchub]

Tee Cee,


Gaz would be over the moon if he drew the peg I put myself on, a nice reed fringed island at 12m on a lake that's crawling with carp.

A ton twenty might sound good but ten of the fish were in the 6 - 9lb ballpark and three touching or on double figures.

It was one of those days when they just kept coming and the secret is nothing more than small cubes of meat, they just love it.

I used to love match fishing when I was a kid but only on canals. I don't have the time or the inclination these days but, that said, I am hoping to explore Somerset's canals in the near future.

As Clint Eastwood one said, a good man knows his limitations and Gaz and his mates would beat my ar5e with a banjo at match fishing. I just fish because I enjoy it - never found a better reason, truth be told.

But carp, carp and more carp? Much prefer the mixed bag kind of day...

And the barbel you catch? Now there's wonderful.........

 

[robtherake]

Open match at TBF today was on High Pool,i drew peg 2 first in the line on road bank,started over,and had a few f1,s and then a few down the edge,then went on my shallow caster line,fishing a banded maggot on the hook,to finish with 165 F1,s and a few silvers for a total weight of 162-10-0,and the win
2nd was John Johnson on peg 5 ,with 100-8-0,and 3rd was Dave Callaghan with 94-0-0 from peg 15...Jennies and Club pools for the open tomorrow,i,m hoping for a repeat!!!!,Tight lines,Gazza

A crushing win! Nice one, Gaz.

 

[Chefster]

A crushing win! Nice one, Gaz.

Cheers mate,just made the right decisions on the day,my across line and my edge swims on pellet, went iffy very quickly ,which told me that the fish wanted to be as shallow as possible,i only fed a small amount of caster all day to keep them there though!i fished a 3x8 small bristle TBF cult float,with just 3 x 11 stotz,10 inches deep,and an 18 B911 with micro band,0.10 h/l and banded a maggotcheers Gazza

 

[dorsetandchub]

Apologies, Gaz - I meant to add my congratulations of a heck of a result. Great going. Nice when a plan comes together...

 

[Tee-Cee]

I watched a bit of the Angling Championships ( 1 of 4 to be shown ) on BT last night and although it had rather too much chat for my liking, it did show just how much effort is needed to produce these huge weights in match fishing. It was won with something like 62kg of fish....
One chap was fishing something like Chefster fished yesterday ( as far as I could see ) and whipping out carp of very good size.

Not a match fisherman myself, but always interesting to listen to the tactics employed and how they can be of use in pleasure fishing, for want of a better term !

£1000 first prize - not too bad at all............

 

[dorsetandchub]

Totally agree, I have no problem nicking and tweaking match tactics, innovations, etc. So many commonplace items have started put that way, haven't they?

 

[barbelboi]

That'll teach you to disregard the Predictor Plus Phil - last time I give you good advice......................

 

[peter crabtree]

Every now and then if it's nice weather I dig out my carp stuff.
Did just that today on a local pit..



Had one half hearted run on one rod early on which came to nothing, then a steady blank for the rest of the day. Neil1970 was around lure fishing on the canal behind me and came round for a chat...

 

[Chefster]

Open TBF today,40 on it,so fished over club,canal and Jennys...i drew club 5,nothing special,ive caught a mix of Mirrors,f1,s,barbel and skimmers,on caster shallow,nothing down edge and nothing over,weighed 67-7-0 for 2nd on lake and 3rd overall...Steve Johnson won club with 79-0-0,there was a 99lb on canal,from peg 1!!52lb was 2nd on canal..Jennys was won with 47-0-0,so its still fishing poor...It wasnt proper shallow fishing as we know it, basically,it was keep throwing 6 casters contantly at float,and wait for odd fish to come by and hang theirself!!,i couldnt make any other lines work ,so stuck to it,and did the jobtight lines,Gazza

 

[neil1970]

I popped down the canal for a fruitless, but pleasant hour earlier today.
Then met Simon on the lake and had a few casts for 20 minutes.
The result of the session was two quite nice photos

 

[flightliner]

Iast weeks crucians had got to me so, along with a fellow angler nearby I was set up to fish around ten thirty this morning. I deliberately fished a swim that would be in the shade by noon as I didnt fancy going home looking like Buster Bloodvessel as it was hotter than predicted on tv last night., good choice too as my very first cast had me playing a nice ccrucian of a pound plus. Tho nowhere near the size of any that I had last week it was reasuring nontheless.
Ten minutes later I had another, a good one too that was followed by a nice male Tench, nice as in fit, not size but no matter.
That was it, nothing for a further three hours no matter how hard I tried but my neighbour angler fishing the pole had a lengthy tussle with a pig of a common carp that tho not weighed must have been near to double figures, a big well done on such fine tackle tho I have seen bigger ones caught in the past in similar circumstances by others.
I decided to fill the swim in with hemp and go for a walk around for an hour to let thing settle . On returning my neighbour nearby had taken three decant bream on pellet and was to lose another carp that mugged him close to a weed bed which ended play for him till days end.
My hemp n rest tactic seemed to have worked as i took several more fish, Bream, tench and three more superb crucians , one I weighed went two pounds exactly, not the days biggest either.
No more by design now but I may just have one last trip with the heavy gear, rods, boillies, optonics and such for one of the big carp that kept cruising thro my swim from time to time before the rivers open.

 

[rayner]

I really hate fishing I don't know why I bother, got there at 8.30 am home for 10 am after falling in and tipping two pints of casters with a pint of hemp in the edge.
Wet suit for Monday and try again.

 

[Alan Tyler]

Oddly dejected. Thistledowny scum gone; three bar'o'soap tench, three or four bream, and twelve carp to nine pounds - exhilarating stuff on the ancient bamboo, but oh, dear, the trouble I had unhooking some of them.
I hadn't got my usual Drennan specialists, so broke out some Preston eyed hooks, offset, barbless, and with an in-turned point. Even with fingers on the shank or a disgorger, they were a real struggle to extract, and in my mind, a suspect for the cause of mouth damage. They seemed fine for smaller fish, but with carp, that keep twisting and turning, they seemed to work their way in via an unpredictable path.
Yuk.
Am I just being a daft old fossil and overlooking something obvious?
By the way, I was float-fishing, using 10 lb line and a fairly beefy Rodrill all-built cane rod during the troubled spell ( the last nine carp and a few of the others). Should in-turned points only be used with legers/feeders?

 

[Tee-Cee]

Rayner....You are a brave man to come on here and say you fell in..You might be lucky and suffer not the mirth of those who think this extremely funny, or worse still those who will never let you forget it...
You're relatively new to FM so you might get away with it - let's hope so !!

All I can think of is so much roach bait going to waste - shame on you. Are you sure you made every effort to at least save the casters ??


Good luck for Monday !!

 

[S-Kippy]

Falling in is an occupational hazard. I bet we've all done it at one time or another. Never not funny when someone else does it....especially if they are a mate.

Big Phil went in once and the Tsunami warning sounded ! I honestly thought I was going to die laughing !

 

[peterjg]

Alan Tyler: re your comments about barbless hooks - you are spot on. Without doubt, barbless hooks cause more damage than standard micro barbed hooks.

I used to belong to a club where a barbless hook rule was brought in - this resulted in the mouths of the carp being damaged due to the actual hooks themselves and also due to some anglers playing the carp too hard because of the barbless hooks. When this rule was reversed the problem was solved.

Years ago hooks unnecessarily had barbs which were far too big, modern hook design has improved enormously.

 

[Alan Tyler]

The thing is, I've never had this problem with the straight "J" type Drennan Super Spec or Kamasan B981; only these recurved jobs, and only with carp. (By the way, the Rodrill has about a one-pound test-curve, beyond which I wasn't forcing the issue - this is a dodgy hooking problem, not a tearing one.

I once winced reading a review of a hook which had " a fantastic hook-hold - in up to the eye"; shortly afterwards I made my first experiment with a bolt rig, and there was my ordinary hook, in up to the eye, and a reet beggar to remove. Since when I only use running leads for carp.

I don't think it's barbless hooks that are the problem, I think it's carp! I'm starting to wonder if they aren't just too big and strong to to catch without harm.

Chub and barbel, however, seem to be the gods' way of telling us to let off steam by going fishing...they hang around where the free nosh goes in, seem quite resigned to spending every other Sunday afternoon in a keepnet if they make the slightest mistake, and have rubbery chops which retain a hook with excellent reversibility.

I might have to try microbarbs, but I doubt my ability to get them out smoothly; I might end up avoiding all carp waters. Vexing.

 

[robtherake]

I really hate fishing I don't know why I bother, got there at 8.30 am home for 10 am after falling in and tipping two pints of casters with a pint of hemp in the edge.
Wet suit for Monday and try again.

Sorry to hear you lost all that bait.

 

[barbelboi]

I set off for another crucian session on the remote pond in the woods and arrived at around 10.30am to brilliant sunshine that soon became varied white cloud and sunny intervals. With the 14’ rod set up once again tight to the marginal reeds and loaded with a 4x14 pole float and 2lb line under the tip I plumbed up and introduced some loose feed then poured a cup of tea and went for a wander .

About half an hour later I started fishing and within a couple of minutes was in to my first crucian of the day. I ended up with well over 20, (including this ‘blind pew old warrior crue’ – no witty comments about any self respecting crue that could actually see would never go near my bait presentation please) but more important had a couple of the tiny tincas that tend to hide in the reeds with the crues , one must surely take the lead in the ‘tiny Binca tinca’ competition.

Packed up about 3.30pm for the short drive back through the lanes – can’t beat the peace and quiet of sharing the water with just a swan, a heron, a kingfisher, a buzzard and a few other feathered flyers that I couldn’t identify.................

 

[itsfishingnotcatching]

Three hour session on a small council pool after work, caught on red maggot from the first cast, finished up with fifty plus fish, 30 odd Perch from about 3-8oz, twenty plus Rudd to about 6oz and a solitary Tench that was about 3" too big to enter in Jerry and Binka's private contest