How did you get on?

[sam vimes]

You are a very strange man. mg:

I can live with that. However, it would be remiss of me not to remind everyone that you started it!:wh

 

[Graham Elliott 1]

Five hours this morning in a slowly rising river.

A nice barbel 7lber after 20 mins then all very quiet for the next couple of hours until a real hard lunge on the rod and a better fish pushed hard into the main flow taking line.
Then the fish decided to rush back and got behind a mangle of tree branches.

Not much hope I thought but sliding down the bank on me now explained rectal twitch machine and burying the rod tip I managed to gain a couple of feet of line, albeit running along the branches.

Three times it released a bit only to go solid. Slackened right off and after a minute the rod lunged and I managed to bully it out.

Into the net it looked longer and deeper than the 10.10 the other day but weighed 9.8. Suprisingly.
Excellent condition.

Next hour spent watching the long tailed tits in the trees and then visited by my pet mallard that came up the bank for a feed as usual.

Clouded over. One last cast. The heavens opened and I got drenched as we all do when we push it with another cast when the sky says....quick......Leave now!!!

Next week a trip to below Bedford hoping for a biggun. Roach or Barbus Barbus. Wish me luck.

 

[thames mudlarker]

Eww Chocolate starfish can we get back to fishing for silver ones

What a difference a day makes.... Thursday I went out for an afternoon session on the river as they said the wind would drop, well they got that wrong as it was blowing well and didn't drop much at all. To make matters worse the river was clear, had no flow and a bright sun overhead. Struggling for bites I did well to get quite a few roach and big dace although I moved swims as I fancied some chub, not a chance, they weren't having it at all as a chat to one of the old boys upstream confirmed. I gave it an hour before deciding to return to the dace and roach only to find the old boy I told had jumped in there, good on him I thought. I walked past not stopping to chat as I was keen to get home following losing a good float in the tree and deciding to call it a day, all windswept after just a few hours. Hope the old fella had a good fish or two.

Highlight of the day was catching probably the longest dace I've ever had. I feel it didn't weigh much but if records were done on length.....well who knows.

View image in gallery​

The very next day I returned with my special float retrieval tool - an old converted pole which I regretted not having yesterday. Managed to get the float back but broke it in the process meaning i'd done that all for three float rubbers, could be one of those days I thought. Thankfully it wasn't and the weather prediction was wrong again, this time they had the wind as staying for the day but it totally dropped and it was still, cloudy and quite warm.

With the water just the right colour following the morning rain it looked perfect and indeed the chub were having it big time. In a swim where I couldn't buy a bite the day before they were throwing themselves in the net. One of those special March days where the fish are under the rod tip and the float doesn't see the end of the swim. They were good ones too for this stretch and were going like stink, a couple getting the beating of my breaking strain but that's the whole contest. As were the two days of stark contrast, I feel I actually run the float through much better on the first day but sometimes it's all just down to the weather.

Jeez, that is one blimmin big dace, that has surly gotta be all of 1 lb, well done Rob, absolute respect :thumbs:

I love love trotting for big dace and is probably me second favourite fish to roach

Good on yer mate,

Speak soon

 

[theartist]

Artist, thats a dace and a half. Got to be a pound had you weighed it.

I kid you not I reckon it was about 10-12 oz!!! caught a fatter one after that felt heavier in the net which 'only' went 13oz That dace was rockin' the long lean look like no other

---------- Post added at 09:06 ---------- Previous post was at 09:04 ----------

Have to agree. Cracking dace, that. Well held, Sir.

Could lie and claim a pound but it really wasn't

---------- Post added at 09:07 ---------- Previous post was at 09:06 ----------

Jeez, that is one blimmin big dace, that has surly gotta be all of 1 lb, well done Rob, absolute respect :thumbs:

Speak soon

Na but i'll take da respec

 

[tigger]

You are a very strange man. mg:

I'll vouch for that...he's a very strange man indeed :w .

 

[maggot_dangler]

Hummmm dunno what it is about certain pike hunters .

They turn up you are fishing away they just start chucking lurs and deadbaits accross and thru your swimwithout even a can we please fish here just bang Hissed or what .

Needless to say a blank for me this afternoon thnks pikers muppets .

PG ...

 

[thames mudlarker]

Hummmm dunno what it is about certain pike hunters .

They turn up you are fishing away they just start chucking lurs and deadbaits accross and thru your swimwithout even a can we please fish here just bang Hissed or what .

Needless to say a blank for me this afternoon thnks pikers muppets .

PG ...

Mmm.....without going into detail " Eastern " comes to mind :wh

 

[maggot_dangler]

Mmm.....without going into detail " Eastern " comes to mind :wh

Strangley enough no they keep clear of me round here no it wa just the part time pikers bloody nussences .

PG ...

 

[S-Kippy]

I can live with that. However, it would be remiss of me not to remind everyone that you started it!:wh

I merely enlightened a few bewildered Northerners as to the meaning of a certain rather splendidly descriptive expression used by a fellow member.

However...there is always one and I accept that its quite often me.

 

[binka]

What a really great day for being out!

The weather forecasters got it wrong but this time for the good with temperatures reaching several degrees higher than predicted and I even spotted a white cherry blossom breaking out during the journey home 

I was in two minds when planning this session yesterday, on the one hand I fancied an all out assault on the perch but on the other, and considering my blank last weekend and a lean session on the lure during mid-week, I also needed some bites and fancied a silvers session.

The river was out of the question being to the top of its banks and so the silvers session it was.

Probably about as basic as you could get really with maggot and groundbait under a 3xNo.4 Canal Antenna, 1.12 bottom to a size 20 spade in six feet of water and I resisted the temptation to attack it too positively from the off, a mistake I often make when I get carried away and I was even quite pleased with my accuracy with the catty considering my usual performance.

The result was well over a hundred fish which consisted of mainly roach, perch and skimmers with no fewer than six bonus, early season tincas thrown in for good measure…





Chuffed to bits with that, I needed a few bites and I got ‘em.

I even brought home leftover bait in the form of half a load of groundbait (which was actually a leftover from last weekend) and around a pint of reds which will both come in handy as feed for the bait fish if I can sneak a crafty perch session in under the radar next week on a different lake.

♫ ♫ Spring is in the air, everywhere I look around ♫ ♫ mg:

:w

 

[peter crabtree]

My club had a predator day down on a local pit today. We met at 8am and I volunteered to supervise 2 young anglers (13yrs) rather than fish myself, mainly because I'm useless at LRFmg:
Despite thrashing many pegs to a foam, no takes from the pike.
One lad's line (20lb bs) was badly spooled and kept birdsnesting so I showed him a quick fix. I held his rod while he held the end of his line and walked 100yds along the bank. I stopped him and told him to drop the line on the path.
I then wound it back, under tension, job done. They both learnt how to tie a Palomar knot and were surprised how easy it was to tie.
Although trying at times I really enjoyed it and feel satisfied they both learnt something despite blanking...

 

[Hugh Bailey]

My 3rd consecutive blank on the Wey. River was up and pushing thru so I feeder fished the slacks. No bites, no sign of a fish. One other angler there sat it out in one swim while I fished about 6 - he'd left by the time I went back to the car, so I guess he didn't do very well either. to top it off it rained heavily at about 4.30 which made the decision to pack up easy. If it hadn't been for the fantastic array of birds I would have considered it a wasted day - lots of buzzards, peregrine, kingfisher, huge flocks of crows, rooks and winter thrushes, gold finches, wrens and a friendly little long-tailed tit who perched on my rod - really very close to me.

 

[flightliner]

Totally agree artist, thats one hell of a dace, never had one that big!.

---------- Post added at 20:20 ---------- Previous post was at 19:04 ----------

Hard decision where to go today after all the rain so another day luring, not really first choice but little else was in the frame.
Two rods used, one with a simple silver spoon, another with a deep diving four inch lure in the firetiger colouring , both of which have prooven themselves a good choice over the years.
Same as last time tuesday gone but no last gasp ten minute suicide squad of tiny pike.
I did my best but somehow knew it would prove fruitless.
Another minor episode with some numpty dog owner had me thinking the season must be my worst ever where dogs are concerned.
I bumped into another pike angler who was blanking just like I was and had a good chat over a coffee thatpassed a good half hour before I made my way back to the last two swims near the car park .
Almost at the first swim when turning a corner and had to smile as I came across a dog owner wiping some dog - - - t off his shoe , quite made my afternoon , there's justice after all.
No takes in last swims as I inferred earlier.
Glad maggot dangler wasnt around .

 

[binka]

Hummmm dunno what it is about certain pike hunters .

They turn up you are fishing away they just start chucking lurs and deadbaits accross and thru your swimwithout even a can we please fish here just bang Hissed or what .

I used to fish with someone like that many years ago, he was oblivious to the etiquettes of space when fishing... Whenever I spotted another angler I would wander off and listen to the ensuing argument from afar mg:

He was a jammy git too much to his fortune, on one occasion I had warned him about overhead power lines behind him and low and behold the next thing I hear was a crackle and a bang just before his lure had hit the river and it turned out that the wires had spat his lure off instead of frying him.

Still, it saved me an awkward conversation with is wife later that day

 

[Hogweed]

My 3rd consecutive blank on the Wey. River was up and pushing thru so I feeder fished the slacks. No bites, no sign of a fish. One other angler there sat it out in one swim while I fished about 6 - he'd left by the time I went back to the car, so I guess he didn't do very well either. to top it off it rained heavily at about 4.30 which made the decision to pack up easy. If it hadn't been for the fantastic array of birds I would have considered it a wasted day - lots of buzzards, peregrine, kingfisher, huge flocks of crows, rooks and winter thrushes, gold finches, wrens and a friendly little long-tailed tit who perched on my rod - really very close to me.

I know how you feel. I've been blanking on the river lee for the last 5 visits. I knew it was tough but not this tough :-(

Unfortunately I didn't have much in the way of wildlife to make the day more interesting, apart from the odd kingfisher.

 

[Hugh Bailey]

It wouldn't be so bad if the swims were poor, but I've fished 3 crease swims straight out of Mr Crabtree. There must have been fish there. Just bad angling on my part, but would be grateful for a suicidal gudgeon right now.

 

[thames mudlarker]

I know how you feel. I've been blanking on the river lee for the last 5 visits. I knew it was tough but not this tough :-(

Unfortunately I didn't have much in the way of wildlife to make the day more interesting, apart from the odd kingfisher.

Yea unfortunately mate the Lea is probably one of the hardest chub rivers in the country to fish, reason being is that it probably has some of the biggest chub in the country aswell, with this you've then got some of the very best river anglers on there in the country.

It sounds like you could be fishing the Kings weir or Fishers green sections of the river,

I've been a member of kings weir on and off for some 28 years and actually took me the best part of 3-4 seasons to crack it,

The best thing that I ever learnt about fishing there for the huge chub was how to touch ledger
Lucky I was shown many years ago by who is regarded as possibly one of the best touch ledger anglers in the country " Bob Buteox " president of the Chub study group when I got invited to his house for the day,

Since the days of learning to touch ledger up on the Lea I've never looked beck on it

Be lucky mate

 

[theartist]

The best thing that I ever learnt about fishing there for the huge chub was how to touch ledger
Lucky I was shown many years ago by who is regarded as possibly one of the best touch ledger anglers in the country " Bob Buteox " president of the Chub study group when I got invited to his house for the day,

Since the days of learning to touch ledger up on the Lea I've never looked beck on it

Be lucky mate

I've had the privilege of drawing Bob Buteux for the cover of Fishing with the famous revisited, the limited edition sepia cover with him holding a barbel. A copy of which has pride of place on my bookshelf.

When Simon does his 'How did you get on - the ten million page epic' or Steve does 'How I got Binka'd' i'm all over those books

 

[mikench]

I packed the car about 8.00 am, prepared some corn and bread and filled a flask. It started to rain about 9.00 just as I was about to set off. I decided to defer departure for half an hour to see if it improved. It is now sleeting and raining heavily and blowing across the garden at an angle of about 45 degrees

It is not fishing weather as far as I am concerned and as I have to be back to pick my wife up from Stockport station early afternoon, I have written off the day! Off to France next week for some sunshine, nice food and some good wine!

 

[peterjg]

Thames Mudlarker: funny that you should mention Kings Weir, I caught my first barbel from there, I used to go there quite often. I can clearly remember the old wooden weir before it was replaced by the concrete sill. I asked the bailiff where should I fish for barbel and he replied, "fish the swim by the first willow", I caught four barbel that day all about 3 or 4lbs each on luncheon meat and 14 chub on lobworms (it's in one of my fishing diaries). For the life of me I can't recall the name of the bailiff, Bill something? Can you remember?