How did you get on?

[john step]

Strange day. I went to a pool with a spring inflow that always produces a few roach and perch even when the rest of it is frozen...like today.

No roach. No perch just a bream which I didn't know were in there and FOUR BLOOMING RAINBOW TROUT to about 2lb. which must be escapees from a stock pond further up.

The frost never cleared all day. Looking forward to Spring.

 

[Graham Elliott 1]

The Wye is low clear and very cold.

Decided to see if the chub would be interested, although a chap fishing maggots yesterday had a 4 hour blank so not too hopeful.

Cage feeder and mashed bread attack and the first hour yielded not a single tap.

Walked the bank looking for a deeper bit of water and moved 100 yards (brexit) upstream where it dropped down to about 5 feet half way across.

Changed down to a size 10 hook.
Two casts and pulling out the crumb as soon as touching bottom followed by a baited hook cast.

Immediately a nudge and a pull....missed!
......next cast same result.

Finally on the third cast a hookup and a good fight from a chub around 3 and a half.

One more tap in the next hour had me thinking about packing up. As I put the bag and seat at the top of the bank another bite and the first bit of surface movement seen mid river.

Chair back in place, bum in place and another cast met with a quick bite and another smaller chub.
Four more followed in the next hour until a cast with the line behind the double reel handle ( Skips take note) parted the feeder from the rod!!!!!

Home for tea, thoroughly enjoyable day getting caked in mud and not expecting much made it even better.

 

[103841]

My short session started off very much like Grahams. The Stour in Canterbury is incredibly low and still gin clear, now of course extremely cold too. Trying to find a fish visually is like looking for a needle in a haystack, anyway I persevered trying a few swims without as much as a knock. After a couple of fruitless hours and with failing light decided to call it a day......................not quite though!

Stopped off at Sainsburys to use there loo and couldn't resist just having a quick look at the river which flows just passed the supermarket car park, there is a footbridge and from it I could tantalisingly see a couple of chub, one of a good size, rushed back to the car and returned with the kit, dropped in a free lined piece of cheesepaste and over the next twenty minutes the chub were picking up the bait and dropping it immediately, on the third attempt that nice feeling when the rod bends significantly, sadly the smaller of the two fish in the area but at about 3lb I was very happy to see it in the net.

Perching on Thursday and see if I can get on that leaderboard.

 

[bullet]

Got out for a couple of sessions over the weekend.
First trotting for Grayling with a friend.They were very cooperative with pretty much a fish hooked every cast in a couple of spots.lost count of how many we ended up with,but certainly a good few. The better ones were going about 14 inches.Interestingly,we were getting a lot of fish out off very fast knee deep runs.

View image in gallery​

Then a chub session,bread on the quiver on another river, pleased with this one that was in a tricky spot under a load of willows,hit and hold territory. Probably about 3 and a half.

View image in gallery​

 

[Chefster]

Back on High Pool today for the TBF open,22 on it today,ive drawn peg 19,this peg only produced 3lb yesterday,so i wasnt overly optomistic
Ive started long at 14.5m on maggot in 4ft,against reeds,but had no signs,ive then tried dobbing bread all along the reeds,for 30 mins,ive then spent another 45 mins at 6 sections,on pellet,still not a touch,
after 2 hours ive changed the 6 section line to maggot,and had a few silvers,and a few F1,s,then swapped between this line and the long line,ended up with 13 F1,s,and some roach and skimmers for 24-11-0,which was good enough to win the section,and 4th overall.....Barrie Carr(Rugby) won with 45-0-0,from peg 48...Chris Constable 2nd with 35lb from peg 15(Flyer),and Dave Chapman 3rd from peg 30(double flyer!!),with 26lb.......I couldnt believe others moaning about their pegs,before theyd even set-up ,based on yesterdays results!!!the way i look at it, is that fish swim about,and move,fish the peg hard for 5 hours,then moan about it!!!!!tight lines,GazzaWinter league round 5,this saturday!!

 

[Pete Shears]

On the River Wreake again this morning - cold & grey with no wind,water level had dropped and was very clear. Legering flake with a small cage feeder stuffed with liquidised bread proved to be the method today - 2 chub from the deep pool - 2lb 11oz & 2lb 6oz,could see them 5ft down in the pool,twisting & turning as they fought.Trotting a float in some shallower faster water didn't get a bite at all.Had the company of a kingfisher on that stretch of the river,not really scared of me being there at all.Moved to a different run and managed one more chub of 1lb but managed to miss the equivalent of a barbel 3ft twitch,striking fresh air !

 

[flightliner]

I opted out of a longish journey today, preferring to keep near local on south yorkshires river Don, once a toxic cocktail from a hundred plus years of severe pollution.
I left the house at eleven am and was running a "blob" downstream around noon.
It took maybe five minutes for my first bite --- a nice greyling of a half lb or so, a good start that carried on for the next two hours where The bites finally petered out after another twelve fish with two that came adrift and several missed bites. Great stuff, the best around twelve/fourteen inches long and a super example of how nature can revive itself after decades of man made madness that was most likely going on not much more than twenty feet behind me in a bankside establishment but other than saying " anything else sir" nuff said!!!.
Light fading I made my way back towards the car where my last swim was waiting and inside thirty minutes I had six more perfect little greyling.

 

[binka]

Great stuff, the best around twelve/fourteen inches long and a super example of how nature can revive itself after decades of man made madness

Great stuff indeed Mick, lovely looking fish!

Here are a couple of pics from Flight's day...

 

[barbelboi]

I met a friend at 10 o’clock for a short walk across the fields for a bit of stream hopping. The conditions were far from perfect and would not obviously produce the quality of fish I posted earlier in the year – very shallow and clear with a few slightly deeper runs. A most enjoyable day though just having fun stalking a couple of miles of stream for a few dozen small roach/dace/ chub. In the end darkness started to creep up on us as the sun set just before 4pm – hence the inferior quality of the pics of the stream that I forgot to take earlier in the session.

Sometimes it’s just good to get out and see what these small, unspoiled waters are going to produce on any given day – and once again a friendly robin joined us for lunch.........

 

[103841]

After finally locating the chub yesterday I was eager to return today and see if I could tempt any more. Like yesterday I only spent an hour in this swim today in which time I landed three nice chub and lost twomg: Also managed to up my pb with a 4:4

With the gin clear water it was both exciting and fascinating to watch the fish take the bait, on each occasion a small shoal would nose up to the cheese-paste, investigate it and one by one pick it up only to reject it a second later, fortunately by the third or fourth take it was game on! Changing to hair rigging the paste seemed to help rather than directly on the hook.

The arrival of warmer temperatures certainly seems to have whetted their appetite.

The 4:4

 

[theartist]

Great stuff indeed Mick, lovely looking fish!

Here are a couple of pics from Flight's day...

Some nice photos of the ladies there, also a good tip worth noting is that a really good photo of them can be taken in the net as they don't always like posing for photos

 

[Pete Shears]

Set out on the upper Soar near Narborough in Leics this morning - plain to see how high the water had been,dead vegetation & reeds strewn in the overhanging branches,even a car tyre 200 yards from the river.Settled down on a slow bend where I have caught before & eventually had a small brown trout of around 12oz on trotted flake.
A flash a dazzling blue streaked by 3ft away as a kingfisher flew upstream.
Went wandering upstream and settled above a raft of rubbish caught in willow branches - cast a feeder & liquidised bread with flake on the hook very,very close to it - surprised myself with that,usually catch the branches or fall short - absolutely nothing,trotting bread had the same result.
Back to the cage feeder & flake etc flicked 15yds upstream on a straight glide with no visible features : 6 chub to 3lb 5oz & another brown trout of a pound all from the same spot.Moved again upstream and had another chub of 1lb 5oz - all the fish were fin & scale perfect - think I might go back on Friday.

 

[seth49]

Well weather forecast was wrong again, supposed to stop raining at nine o clock, it was one o clock when it finally stopped then it went foggy, miserable dark day never got light properly, not bad fishing though the roach weighed one and a quarter pounds as shown above, had about six more all about half a pound, plus lost two more, one of which felt like a good one too, never know though never saw it.

Had four bream as well, all about three pounds,all taken on quiver rod to a maggot feeder on a helicopter rig,I made the rig up with about a foot of lead core, i spliced a link swivel at one end, to attach the feeder, then spliced a loop at the other end,then I put the gate needle through the side of a rubber bead, so that it fitted tightly to the lead core, slid that on then a swivel, and then another bead the same.hooklenghth to swivel and main line tied to top loop.

Seemed to work well, just needs a small tail rubber onto the swivel to kick the hook length away from the lead core.
Just got to dry everything out now, put the dehumidifier in my room so that should sort that out together with the heating.

I'll be back here again, hope it's a bit dryer next time.

 

[john step]

Had this one at 13lb 4ozs today on a blustery Witham. They do seem to like the Lamprey I bought.

 

[Tee-Cee]

That song of yesteryear "What a difference a day makes" came to mind as I sat on the bank today......

Yesterday I enjoyed some great fishing in lovely weather. In conditions that resembled late spring I had more than dozen roach of which four were just over and just under the 1lb mark. Not spectacular in general terms but very good for the water, so I was very pleased. I missed many bites but it mattered not a jot when I recall the sight of those wonderful fish in my landing net.

Today, thinking of a repeat perfomance and perhaps something bigger on the cards, I was at the water in the heavy, leaded cloud gloom just as it became light enough to see. I really thought the weather would be similar to the previous day, and it was in temperature, but totally different in every other way. The breeze came from every direction and within an a hour of arriving, a constant drizzle swept the water.

Needless to say the fishing suffered and I headed home after 6 hours with only two roach of average size to my name..................
I tried every tactic I could think of and I fished my socks off - all to no avail.

I'm going back again tomorrow, just because I won't be beaten...............

(Tactics on the 'good day' were as previously described in recent posts)


Onward and upward............................

 

[tigger]

I had the last hour of daylight on the bank yesterday, I had to with the temp's going over twelve degrees and the weather behaving nicely...i'm glad I did as it was virtually a chub a trott from start too finish, pity they weren't any bigger but they pulled back seriously hard for their size! I counted 27 before I couldn't see the float, a couple of pic's....












Oh, forgot to mention the 6lb sensor .

 

[flightliner]

Good line is that tigger, been using it all summer!

 

[mikench]

If I could I would go back tomorrow and use Sensor! At the moment I can and will do the former . I just hope if there is any wind it stays blowing just in the one direction. I will keep with the maggots as I have loads!

 

[barbelboi]

Good line is that tigger, been using it all summer!

For your washing Mick?

 

[thecrow]

Temp showing on the car was 13 degrees when I left home at 06-00 this morning and was still showing the same when I got to where I was to rendezvous with Binka, all looked good for a few zander and it was with these in mind that we cast out from the same swim, fishing the same swim had nothing to do with the excellent sausage, bacon and huge eggs that binka has brought with him

Fishing for around 09-00 from under the brollies as we were getting a bit of rain it was around an hour or maybe a bit longer that my float was away but the resulting strike met with nothing I am sure that a z had taken my half roach but their famous fickleness won again and that was the end of the action for the day. Left at around 16-30 and by that time although the temp in binka's car was saying 11 with the wind chill it felt more like zero.

Superb breakfast prepared by binka followed by an equally superb dinner and a great day of stories and laughs and a fabulous gift form binka made it a very enjoyable day, looking forward to our next trip which will hopefully be a threesome

Cheers Steve.