How did you get on?

[robtherake]

Hello Raynor,this is what a lot of the lads use for lassoing pellets,and banding casters.....MAP Lasso Tool | eBay

Oh, look, something else I didn't know I needed.

 

[rayner]

Hello Raynor,this is what a lot of the lads use for lassoing pellets,and banding casters.....MAP Lasso Tool | eBay

That looks interesting, I shall have to investigate. The ends of that tool resemble my altered tweezers.

 

[barbelboi]

I had another trip to the little stream down the road for a few hours either side of midday today. This time I wondered further downstream and the dense bank side vegetation was somewhat more accessible and I managed to find a few ‘comfortable’ trotting swims without jumping into the chesties (which I forgotten anyway).

I took a lot of roach about this size so the population appears quite healthy and hopefully will be able to locate their seniors in future visits. Also a few ‘lets but no ‘proper’ chub this time although I had a pleasant surprise when this lively little barbel surfaced – I wasn’t expecting any barbel in residence so it would be nice to get a slightly larger specimen from the stream.

Anyway, back to the tench challenge next week to try and improve on my late March efforts from the 15acre pit...................

 

[dorsetandchub]

What is it about brollies? If I'm doing anything else and the rain arrives, I'll reach for the nearest available shelter but if I'm fishing? Cats and dogs? Noah could empty his entire Ark on me and I wouldn't flinch a muscle.

That said, today I actually took the brolly I purchased a few days ago, a Korum model and a spike point, as recommended by the Barbel King and destruction meister himself.

A quick bait raid at the shop and from home and I was tooled up with meat, small prawns and tutti fruitti corn.

After the slow speed of the previous session, I opted to start on a single grain of tutti corn, on a Drennan rig, 6.9lb main to 6.1 trace and a small dibber float to a wide gape 14 finishing in a spike hair set up.

A bigger grain went on and I pushed the rig out to the edge of an island, a totally different swim and lake this time, I just fancied a change. The complex wasn't too busy and, again, just the swims nearest the main car park were occupied. None too fussy holiday anglers probably, bless em.

Anyways, after striking at what was probably a liner, the float dipped dramatically, neigh shot under and the strike hit into something powerful but not massive - turning out to be a very pleasing tench around the 2lb mark.

Back out with corn and three quick carp, 1 - 2lbs, followed by twenty minutes of quiet. The bird life more than made up for it though and, much as I was enjoying it, I switched to a small prawn. It brought a carp around the pound mark and, after a wait, a skimmer around 12oz.

As per earlier in the week, it felt a lot like it was going to be another slower session even though it was warm (very, at times) and overcast. I began to suspect that the bigger carp had their minds on other things and the twitches among nearby reeds only hardened my conclusions.

I reached for the 8mm cubed meat in the hope it might kick start proceedings and, to be fair, it did to an extent.

Another tench, around 1lb and four more carp (three around a pound and a half and one around 4lbs) and two small skimmers over the next hour.

I potted in more loose and chilli hemp but began to feel that they just "weren't having it" today.

A sprinkling more of small carp, a handful of roach, a solitary small perch and a couple more skimmers. And that was it. Very similar to a couple of days back. Double figures if I was lucky.

Back out again tomorrow so no complaints from me. Beats a good day at work, any day.

I gave up a bit early and went and did my bit for democracy then treated myself to one of Pizza Hut's finest which, by chance, looked like someone had pot dropped sweetcorn and small cubes on it - but which tasted and is tasting awesome.

Atil the morrow, good Sirs - when, regardless of the debate, my policy will be for this common man to spend the day at the fishery. I could get used to this slice of post-lottery winning life. Not sure if I'd want to own my own fishery, have to think about that one.....

 

[seth49]

Well I had an early start today,my mate a hospital appointment so I was up at four, loaded the car and away at half past got to the fishery at five o clock.
Enjoyed the drive only saw one more car.

Went on the bottom lake as there are some big fish in there, set the carp rod up with a piece of peperami on the hair, and dropped it under the bush on my right, threw some hemp and pellets over it and placed it on the alarm.

Then got my ten ft float rod and pin out of the hold-all already set up just had to put a little drennan glow tip float in the adaptor and plumb up, fished close in by the irises, had a couple of bream and a lovely Rudd about half a pound, on six mm expander pellets.

Then the float shot under and I had a carp about five pounds, gave me a good scrap too, so going alright so far thought I'd try a couple of maggots as I had seen the fry scattering from the perch,had a few small perch, nothing big and then a decent sized carp decided it wanted a couple of maggots, gave me a real scrap till it came off.

Then the alarm went on the sleeper rod, and I got a bigger carp at thirteen pounds thirteen ozs,put that rod back out and never had another touch on it for rest of day,

Carried on catching on the float, had Bream to four pounds or so, two nice crucians about a pound a piece,some nice roach too about a pound, so that was six different species, only needed a tench and I'd have caught all the species in this lake.

Managed another ten and a half pound carp on dog biscuits later on of the top but they were very wary of the floaters, packed up at two o clock as it had gone very quite, a lovely day to be out, apart from the midges, they were a pain hate the little sods, have to get some more repellant, this seems to have stopped working.

 

[Graham Elliott 1]

First WA day on BAA water. New stretch. Beautiful bit of river and every swim down the bottom end looked fish holding.
Disappointed the top end (weir) was packed with anglers...not my scene.

Fished 10mm pellet as hookbait with maggot feeder with minis. Fished far bank

Not much for first two hours then small chub followed by series of small 2" jabs soon after each put in.

Thought.......roach/dace? Confirmed with a nice one over the lb and in stunning condition. Tightened up the banded hair so next to hook.
Then a series of chub between 2 and 3+ followed by a really manky brim around 4lb.

More jabs and I should have changed hook size to say a 12 instead of the size 9 however one jab resulted in a pristine 1.11 roach that didn't test my 1.75 torrix.

Ended with 8 chubs. But seeing those roach.....I have a plan!

 

[flightliner]

A day by a lake was ruined by three dogs launching themselves into my swim and knocking one of my carefully placed rod n reel off their perches.
A word to the two owners was met by loads of abuse so I packed all my gear away and moved elsewhere.
everything reset after an hour and the last thing to do before casting my baits out was to lead the bottom for weed or some noticable contour, first couple of casts seemed unsuitable andI was just about to make a third when I noticed a large amount of bubbles some thirty yards out to my left.
Thinking "fish" I cast to the area and drew back my feeder to feel if it was clear. About a yard back all came to a halt so I pulled a little harder with no success so pulled again even harder, to my surprise something started to pull back and after a short but very spirited struggle I landed a pike that tho I couldnt be bothered weighing I estimated to be around twelve lbs.!
That the third time I,ve caught pike on a feeder being retrieved.
This coming winter I think instead of using expensive lures all I will do is attach a treble hook to one of the feeders in my rucksack.
Fished on with no other result!.

 

[robtherake]

A day by a lake was ruined by three dogs launching themselves into my swim and knocking one of my carefully placed rod n reel off their perches.
A word to the two owners was met by loads of abuse so I packed all my gear away and moved elsewhere.
everything reset after an hour and the last thing to do before casting my baits out was to lead the bottom for weed or some noticable contour, first couple of casts seemed unsuitable andI was just about to make a third when I noticed a large amount of bubbles some thirty yards out to my left.
Thinking "fish" I cast to the area and drew back my feeder to feel if it was clear. About a yard back all came to a halt so I pulled a little harder with no success so pulled again even harder, to my surprise something started to pull back and after a short but very spirited struggle I landed a pike that tho I couldnt be bothered weighing I estimated to be around twelve lbs.!
That the third time I,ve caught pike on a feeder being retrieved.
This coming winter I think instead of using expensive lures all I will do is attach a treble hook to one of the feeders in my rucksack.
fished on with no other result!.

Is this part one of your usual 2-part accounts, Mick?

 

[maggot_dangler]

I had another trip to the little stream down the road for a few hours either side of midday today. This time I wondered further downstream and the dense bank side vegetation was somewhat more accessible and I managed to find a few ‘comfortable’ trotting swims without jumping into the chesties (which I forgotten anyway).

I took a lot of roach about this size so the population appears quite healthy and hopefully will be able to locate their seniors in future visits. Also a few ‘lets but no ‘proper’ chub this time although I had a pleasant surprise when this lively little barbel surfaced – I wasn’t expecting any barbel in residence so it would be nice to get a slightly larger specimen from the stream.

Anyway, back to the tench challenge next week to try and improve on my late March efforts from the 15acre pit...................

Nice looking water wish i had something like that round here just canals and pools Oh and the stour that is next to impossible to get at most times ..

PG ...

 

[Pete Shears]

Up at the local reservoir yesterday & today hoping for tench - yesterday,clammy,overcast,
drizzly rain - managed to get 3 skimmers about a pound each & 4 roach around 12oz.
Today - clear & sunny ,breeze had gone from north to southwest overnight, water very clear & eventually had 2 beautiful tench,both females of 5lb 3oz & 4lb 10oz. Might try the rivers again soon now the monssons have appeared to have stopped.

 

[dorsetandchub]

I'll keep it short and sweet today. I got saved by a five in Fergie time.

Back in one of my favourite swims and the usual approach of pole, prawns, meat and corn.

It started off slow and got, somehow, slower. Started off over the far side and couldn't buy a bite. The carp just didn't look interested and certainly gave that impression. Nothing. The fishery and its finned inhabitants almost made me feel someone had brought the referendum result to their attention and noboby knew what to say, do - or eat.

After a complete blank hour when not even the magic meat could do the business, I slipped on the smallest prawn I could find in the pack, broke down to my top four and poured a coffee. It worked!! A four ounce roach gratefully swung to hand to avoid the dreaded blank which had begun to feel a very real possibility.

Within a very few minutes, the same combination produced an angry common around three and a half pounds and I began to wonder whether my malaise may be misplaced but no, that was it, for a while at least.

Back out to the far side, and the prawns were whittled to a mush by, presumably, tiny roach and rudd but no bites I could actually hit. Switching to meat produced a half pound mirror and a succession of roach between 4 and 7oz and a skimmer also around 7oz.

That was it for a good few hours until a late string of roach and rudd, sizes as before, and I began to think of ways of explaining that somewhere near 7lbs was all I could pick up.

The rain returned and I broke down to my top 4 and started to pack bits and bobs away, allowing myself till 5.15pm to fish. The meat was drawing no response bar the very odd 4oz or so roach so I switched to a single grain of tutti corn on the 14. The float dipped and I hit something solid but unspectacular, it plodded up and down, no charging about. As I hit the bite, I caught sight of my watch, it was 5.20pm, well into Fergie time.

I knew this fish would push me into double figures so I told myself I had to land it, which I duly did. It was, most fortunately, a mirror of 5lbs.

I packed up straight away and headed for home, not the best day's result ever but I did at least feel like I had earned my double figures.

The number of anglers leaving at times between 1pm and 3pm convinced me that it had been a grueller all round.

I made my way home to a country where, it would appear, it would be perfectly legal to request a pint of maggots to catch a 2lb roach and, as I sit here, I've just poured a pint of a fine looking Porter with which I'm toasting the evening of a most interesting, historic day.

Here's to the future, everybody - whatever it is and brings.

 

[binka]

At last...

More than a week after the river season began I have scratched the itch which was to run a float down it.

It was a brief session and I made my entrance in fine style, namely feet first on my backside straight through some Jurassic looking (and feeling!) nettles and on, otherwise uninterrupted, into the river via the slippery mud left by the recent high water mg:

All I needed now was a few fireworks going off in the background whilst a huge banner unfurled as dancing girls did high kicks in front of it, what better way to announce your arrival eh?

I wanted a few bites from the silvers and on the third run through on the lighter of the two rods I had set up, I had my first bite which turned out to be a small but stocky barbel of around 3lbs…



Following that I ran the heavy rig through on and off regularly during the session but no more barbel, after landing that one things went fairly quiet for a while but a constant trickle of maggots eventually had the river black with chublets, dace and the occasional small roach which I fully made the most of back on the light set up.

A funny thing with the heavier set up in that I could run it through with a dozen maggots on a size 12 hook and literally count the bobs on the float as it went through, if it bobbed five times there would be seven maggots left on the hook and so on, as the smaller fish plucked 'em off one by one.

Looking forward to tomorrow, very untypically for me I have no set plan so I’m going to have a look around with enough gear and different baits to cover a few options and see what takes my fancy.

It may well be a late start as I will be indulging in my annual habit of staying up tonight to watch Glastonbury with a few cold beers... :w

 

[tigger]

I had several hours out trotting on a small river later this afternoon, unlike the larger rivers I fish this small overgrown one is deserted. The river had dropped off from my last visit and lost a lot of the suspended silt so my bait must have been more visible. I had taken the drennan acolyte 12ft carp waggler to give it a go on running water and boy was I glad I did, what a trotting rod!
I had a chub of about 8 ounce first trott down a long glide and hit the fish at 70yds plus (I strode it out as I walked to another swim further down stream a little later in the session) and continued to catch small chub, dace and hybrid choach's for an hour or so until I hooked a betterr sized chub of about 3lb. After the larger chub I caried on catching the smaller stuff again but there where some large dace amongst them. I got a little bored and moved downstream several hundred yards and dropped in another glide, the move proved a wise decission and I started catching chub of between 2 1/2 and 3 1/2lb. There must have been a shoal of them hanging about in that swim but they either shyed off or i'd caught 'em all as they vanished after about half an hour and I started catching some more quality dace and small chub.
No big fish but I wasn't expecting any, I did have a nice enjoyable little session though and am well pleased with the carp waggler, it was perfect for trotting!

 

[Neil Maidment]

Several late afternoon into dark sessions this week dominated at least numerically by bream and chub. Even had bream on the float on tares which is a first for me!

Highlight was a fine 12lbs barbel taken right at the end of a session on a big torn off lump of meat (well, multiple lumps on a hair actually). Very pleased to have encountered that one!

View image in gallery​

 

[edsurf]

Had a nice session trotting the Hants Avon this morning, plenty of small chub ,dace and half dozen Grayling. Decided to have a bit of a wade and lost a very big Chub at the net, managed this one last trot of the day

View image in gallery​

 

[fruitowl]

First time out this season fished the arrow with itsfishingnotcatching.
arrived nice and early spent a couple hours trotting a float in very strange water float went up stream quicker than it went down stream due to the swirl from the wear few dace and minnows changed to the feeder set up with 12 mil pellet within 20 mins a 4lb plus chub my first ever always a fish I struggled to catch although I never really target them.

itsfishingnotcatching trotted for slightly longer but even he got the feeder out had some nice dace and minnows a pleasant 3 to 4 hour session on a nice little river.

sorry no picture but fish was not in best condition think it had a few run ins with pike as a youngster.

 

[barbelboi]

Ian always gets the feeder out when he runs out of floats Steve.............

 

[Graham Elliott 1]

We better start saving up floats for the Wye trip Jerry.

 

[dorsetandchub]

My first river session of the new season and I'd opted for the Stour at Sturminster Newton on a favourite swim, a wooden platform in an area with trees both banks but, fortunately, only needing a light, underarm lob to get the feeder into the combat zone.

Given its truncated nature, I'd packed an 11ft Drennan Ultralight float teamed with a Daiwa 125 closed face for trotting and for the pig, an MAP bomb / light feeder, with a Preston PXR 4000 to a 1oz Kamasan black cap. Hooks were Kamasan B520s in size 18 and 20.

I started off trotting with a Drake domed stick, a 5 no. 4 size, to an 18 and two red maggots.

I can't honestly say they were queuing up but there were fish there from the start and I picked up a few roach, from 1oz to 4oz, quite quickly along with a sprinkling of dace, 2 to 3oz and a solitary perch of a similar size.

After around 2hrs, I hit my first fish of any size, a chub around a pound and a half, not massive but fun on the 3lb Maxima and 18 to a 2lb trace.

It was the first real run out for the Drennan and it was a lovely piece of kit for the job, light enough to hold comfortably but with enough spine to tame said chub and it gave me confidence it would cope comfortably with double that size. In short, it ticked all the boxes.

Back to the roach, by far the majority of my fish, I had one around half a pound which stood out among its 2 - 4oz comrades. The odd dace, small, again happened along and lucky me, a modest ounce gudgeon. Two in two trips, I'm getting spoiled!!

Three hours in and although it was steady, not spectacular, I reached for the feeder rod and, single red on a 20, I launched a small feeder to the edge of a very inviting looking crease, resulting in an instant bite, a real rattle which I'm ashamed to say I missed - and by a country mile.

Getting towards the end of a big plastic container of Dynamite chilli hemp, I packed the feeder and tried to put down a carpet of hemp in the hope it might interest the bigger sized roach I've seen in this section.

No such luck, small roach and a single small trout. Disaster preparation in the form of a flask of coffee. Pondering life and the universe half way through my second cup and the tip rapped with a definite better response on the end, in the shape of a chub around the pound mark. Again, modest but most enjoyable.

Five and a half hours and my time was up. I tackled down after a modest day, at a guess somewhere around five to five and a half pounds in total but one I'd enjoyed.

Home to a lamb dinner and a big mug of tea.

Cheers, all.

 

[barbelboi]

We better start saving up floats for the Wye trip Jerry.

Yep, we don't want Ian trying to trot feeders through our swims..........................