How did you get on?

[theartist]

Fantastic ! That sort of fishing would get even me off my backside and out.

Just going through a purple patch right now with the warm weather helping, the hardest bit is uploading the photos

 

[Graham Elliott 1]

Hear hear. A red letter day. Well Done.


The fish this way are just not on the feed. Hearing of lots of blanks. Had a session on the Wye on a new bit to me. A pike of about 9lb on the inside slack and then 3 hours for a couple of nice chub as light faded.

A group of 12 on another stretch nearby yesterday had one chub of 2.5 between them. Not heard of any barbel for couple of weeks......strange.
The silver moons to blame its nearer Hereford than Nottingham/Lincoln obviously!

 

[maggot_dangler]

Pool for me today .

Turned out to be a decent choice into fish from the first cast .

Lots of perch from sardine tin fillers to fish just over 1 lb also Roach similar sizes plus a lot of very annoying maggot strippers dont know what it was but not float indication no bite wind in no maggot that happened way too many times i hope we have not been invaded by Ronni & Regie .

Decent day all in all darn cold packed up about 14:30 out of warm tea so off home .


PG ...

 

[binka]

Had a few hours into the evening tonight after getting to the river just before mid-afternoon.

All nicely set up on one of the first planned zander trips of the campaign, I was feeling reasonably confident with good bait which I caught just last week but once darkness fell I couldn’t get a sniff in almost five hours.

I say darkness but I’m pretty sure it had a lot to do with this…





I can’t ever remember being out on such a light night, in fairness it was a pleasure to be there on the riverbank and whatever the bright moon did to put the zander off it also provided a real spectacle.

Fortunately though I took a fish on a small piece of roach following the first drop in which christened the night bobber float which I made last week and a good hour and a half before I cracked the starlight into action.

Not a huge fish at around 5lbs but just as prehistoric looking and very welcome indeed…





I had an open mind on the length of the session, if the zander were having it I would have been happy to stay all night but as things were I was away by half nine and still had a result.

Thoroughly enjoyed it… :w

 

[skov]

Thought I'd spend an hour or two on a nearby brook this evening.
With the recent rain I was hoping it might have a little extra depth. No such luck - still only 12 inches deep...
I started off trotting maggots in the areas where I've previously spotted shoals of dace. Not a single bite
Was getting close to giving up, but thought I'd try a snaggy hole between some bushes. Still nothing.
Then accidentally put my head torch on full beam and saw a flash of silver right under my rod tip!
Swapped the maggot for a flake of bread, dropped it in front of me and the float immediately disappeared
Turned out to be about a pound of chub.
Next cast was greeted by a slightly smaller sibling.
Had a few more casts, but couldn't tempt anything else.
Very happy with my brace of small chub though - it's ended a nasty little run of blanks I've been having recently!

 

[mikench]

I packed the car last night and sat down with a glass of wine and the Angling Times planning for today. The crumb was ready plus some defrosted maggots and the wife is away! Bliss you might think. I got up for a refill and felt a sharp pain in my lower back and was in agony. I had done nothing but get out of a chair!

No worse this morning but doubt I would be able to set up chair and brolly without significant discomfort and the prospect of being stuck alone in a remote location with only the maggots for company!

À demain !

 

[S-Kippy]

I got up for a refill and felt a sharp pain in my lower back and was in agony. I had done nothing but get out of a chair!

That's happened to me....but oddly it only ever happens when Mrs S wants something doing round the house.

 

[john step]

No fishingfor a few days. I have been down avoiding Skippys favourite road the M25. I was VERY VERY lucky yesterday as I went via M11 and Ongar( to visit and reminisce on an old haunt The Roding) and as I drove under the said motorway it was stationary. Solid.

Makes you appreciate Gods County.

 

[rayner]

No fishing for a couple of weeks after I had my other cataract removed yesterday.
I'm really not too bothered at the moment with yesterdays and todays rain.

 

[mikench]

My back is the same but with the current weather I doubt I am missing much!

John did you receive my reply?

Good luck Rayner but I am sure you will be delighted in a couple of weeks and as the roach will have missed you, it will be a bite a chuck!!!

 

[rayner]

I won't be needing any luck Mike, my sight is as sharp as a tack now.
I do however need all the luck going with my fishing. A bite a chuck is a rare event.
Hope your back soon recovers mate.

 

[barbelboi]

A day with bright sunshine, a very cold wind and uncooperative fish. Arrived at the river around 10.30 for a trotting session and it was very hard work – with the lack of bites you tend to be more aware of your fingers getting colder and colder. I lasted until 1.30 when the simple art of hooking a maggot was getting tricky – five roach and two dace.

 

[tigger]

A day with bright sunshine, a very cold wind and uncooperative fish. Arrived at the river around 10.30 for a trotting session and it was very hard work – with the lack of bites you tend to be more aware of your fingers getting colder and colder. I lasted until 1.30 when the simple art of hooking a maggot was getting tricky – five roach and two dace.
[/IMG]

Mmm....lack of bites....if you'd used a well known daiwa line (made in JAPAN) you would have had lots of bites :wh
Fools gold don't fool fish mg:

 

[barbelboi]

Mmm....lack of bites....if you'd used a well known daiwa line (made in JAPAN) you would have had lots of bites :wh
Fools gold don't fool fish mg:

Drennan FF if you please - and I'm far too polite to take the pi$$ out of that cr@p you use...........................

 

[tigger]

I'm far too polite to take the pi$$ out of that cr@p you use...........................

Yeah, i've noticed

 

[Tee-Cee]

This past weeks fishing has really been a mixed bag with no set tactic working consistently which, it's fair to say, was probably down to the inconsistent weather. On the three occasions I ventured out I had a lovely mild day when I could remove my main jacket, followed by one of sitting in squally, part sunny but mild conditions and then to yesterday when I sat in 'hard', cold conditions with a NW wind blowing.

Only Tuesdays mild session produced roach of any number and size and these to hemp fished mid water, which took me by surprise as I couldn't get a touch on it last week! I also had some roach on single red maggot fished deep so it was hard work to keep fish coming intermittently.
Thursdays session was just the opposite when hemp, apart from the odd fish failed to produce, but reds fished well out at 3' did very well. We are not talking huge fish here (mainly in the 10oz bracket with the odd one a tad bigger) but it was very interesting, busy fishing that mad the session so enjoyable.
Yesterday, as I've said, was very cold and not at all pleasant so to keep the hands workable I needed to use gloves and fished close in over depth with the rod in the rest. Interestingly, I had a very nice bite first cast on a double red dropped into a number of freebies which, on the strike turned out to be a rather large carp. I couldn't take liberties with my 12' Ultralight and 18 hook so for 15 minutes it was a case of ' I'm off to the other side of the lake' and me replying 'Oh no you're not' but in the end the fish, which I never did see, came off and my mangled hook length came back for renewal.

The tea supply went down at a rate of knots as the wind increased and conditions became much colder with the chill factor, so I gave up the waiting for a bite and (sort of) went searching for fish at different levels in different parts of the swim just to keep warmish and to take my mind off the discomfort.
I'd broken the swim area into three parts with my heady mix of groundbait in one, lots of maggots only in another and a third bit close to an overhanging bush where I fished on the drop in 6' of water. Over the 6hour+ session I caught from all three on a single red to a 20, but none of them really came up trumps in terms of numbers. Still, it was 'busy' fishing which served its purpose......

Fishing is now curtailed until Wednesday due to other pressing matters, so I shall be totally bored and gagging to get out again come Sunday evening..................I shall use the time to rethink options and how else I can approach this particular water, but prevailing conditions will always have the last word, if this week is anything to go by...................Not much I can do about that!!

 

[lakhyaman]

A Hardy Marksman Supero 11ft feeder rod has made its way from the UK to Bangladesh.

A flatbed method feeder baited with sweetcorn was soon cast out some ten yards from the bank. A violent hooping over of the 1 1/2 oz. tip followed by a lightning fast run saw a 5 pound mahseer end up in the net as the first fish for the rod. I thought it was quite appropriate as Hardy's have been the go to manufacturer of tackle for mahseer fishermen in the Indian subcontinent since the late 1800s.

Mahseer on a Hardy 11ft Feeder rod.

It was soon followed by a wonderfully gleaming mrigal (Cirhinnus mrigala) of about 4 pounds. The mrigal is known as the angler's fish in Bangladesh. It is bold biting, hard fighting, salmon coloured finned beauty always ready to give sport if around.

Mrigal

I have to say that I think it is a fabulous rod to play fish of this size light and responsive, with the perfect through action and enough beef lower down to handle hard fighting fish.

All the best

Lakhyaman

 

[mikench]

I knew dogs and pigeons had a homing instinct but not fishing rods!

Enjoy it and those marvellous fish!

 

[binka]

A very nice social on the river with a mate today and a bit of a rarity of late as he’s in the wholesale meat trade, the run up to Christmas starts early and is frantic but with a Saturday off, my turn to drive and the promise of some top bankside cuisine how could he refuse?

We sherpa’d the gear a good way up the river around dawn with a view to targeting some predators and found a likely looking run where we could double peg and shortly after 7am we had both put in and were soon enjoying a busy two hours.

I was off first with a gentle take on a float fished roach section which meandered out towards the flow but my strike was met with nothing having struck out of the bait without feeling a thing.

Zander!

How the hell do they manage to do that?

Shortly afterwards and my nearside float, which was practically touching the bankside reeds below the rod tip, bobbed and began to slowly move out and I struck into what felt like a decent fish.

After a short but respectable fight it turned out to be a modest pike which looked to have suffered a recent cormorant attack, bearing a peck mark on top of its head and damage to an eye.

I’ve seen this before but further down the line when the fish have had chance to adapt and they have come on well, this certainly seemed lean in comparison to the size of its head but hopefully it’s in that transitional stage and it too will adapt given time…





My mate then lost a fish on a whole sardine following a screaming run and then my furthest rod (a whole fifteen feet from the bank) was off with a pike which turned out to be a snip of a fish at around 3lbs.

I was then in again on the nearside 'reed brusher' and this time the pike went a whole 2lb before my mate then lost what, on sight, was a good upper double as it boiled before the net which I was waiting with.

It was barely 9am by this time but it then dropped deftly quiet and gave us time for a good catch up, a few fresh brews and some good, hot food before I then had a very gentle but quickly dropped pick up around 2-15pm.

Zander again?

As mid-afternoon approached the light levels also dropped and everything, including the atmosphere, was set for a last golden hour before dusk but we never had another touch.

Inexplicable really, given that this time of the year usually sees the last hour as being the best.

A great day all in all, I would have liked to see my mate bank a fish and myself a zander , which is what I was really targeting, but we both came away smiling having enjoyed one of those days that gives you far more than just banking a fish.

This little fella kept us amused for the best part of the day having semi-tamed him with copious offerings of grated mature cheddar which he readily tucked into before taking, with a hop skip and a jump, a good stockpile back to his nest in repeated trips, to a tree stump close by…





I’m keeping an eye on the weather for Monday with a view to having another few hours after dark in search of a zed.

Here’s to…. :w

 

[mikench]

Oh i do enjoy a bit of Binkas banter( forgive the alliteration) ! you write as well as the experts in the comics Steve!