How did you get on?

[binka]

still, a little thing like low levels, clear water, little flow, bright sunlight, etc. won't keep me off the rivers......

I've started taking water in my flask and pouring it in each time I go...

 

[barbelboi]

Met up with Simon on the river yesterday at about 10.30am (fished 'til 3.45pm) for a mainly 'trotting the stick' session. Took a barbel early on a running lead and then moved upstream and set up for trotting. Many perch and dace, also roach, chub and three gobios. One of the gudgeon was taken by a larger fish, probably a perch as there was no visible damage to the fish, which unfortunately let go after about a minute and before revealing itself.

Then I got beaten up by a one clawed Reggie - it was foul hooked up the nether regions so I took hold of the shank to turn the hook while it was hanging upside down before disposing of the pest and, with a lighting fast movement, the little b@stard arched upwards and drew blood from my finger in the two places the pincer grabbed. It won't be doing that again.........................:wh

 

[theartist]

I spent last week down in Somerset where i fished four new rivers - The Tone, The Chew and Two different Yeos catching a new pb brown trout in the process that powered up an natural weir during the fight. A beautiful fish that fought like a devil. Prior to returning it i rested it in my net whilst i had my lunch when a heron worked its way upstream into my swim without even noticing my presence, stalking the small dace and trout in the shallows with a poise i could only dream about. Does fishing get much better than this i thought ?! Also had a nice mix of grayling, trout, dace, roach,chub and perch in these low but enjoyable rivers.

 

[binka]

.............

 

[littleal]

Ventured do down to Blythe Waters near Knowledge this afternoon for the first time. Fished the Willow pool on the advice of the bailiff (Gail - whom despite what the Internet says was very pleasant, very helpful and actually cracked a smile or two).
It was heaving with carp in the high singles to mid doubles - all cruising around quite happily. Especially when the sun came out (I set up just as the rain stopped).
Fished the waggler with double corn, had a great take early on but got off the hook then landed a nice 4 1/2lb Mirror just as my colleague/fishing buddy arrived.
I continued with the waggler, using banded pellet and took a small Common followed my a nice take down the edge late on. Played close in for a few minutes then suddenly took off like a rocket and pulled from the hook. I have a large scale in my box to show for it
Leigh, my colleague, fished a method feeder close to an island and took a couple of small carp and tench then right at the end bagged a stunning 9 1/2lb Common. Git.

Alvechurch tomorrow morning, hopefully won't be too cold!!

 

[denzinho]

Good long session today with a mate.

I baited up with hemp and meat and was fishing by 5.30am.

There was not a sign of fish until daybreak, when I switched to a maggot feeder.

I had a tiny perch, then a half pounder.

Then I hooked into something decent, which snapped my 8lb hook length with one shake of its head.
Half an hour later the same thing happened to my matemg:

Then the baby barbel moved in; I think we had 10 between us until 2.30pm, and a little trout.

So nothing big but lots of fun.

I have never had the luxury of battling a barbel as of yet. I bet the small one's go as well as the trout which can give a good account of themselves. I will be targeting them next year at around the 4lb mark. No specimen by any means but to catch the species that is so rare in my parts would be a thrill. by the way well done even though he was a little fella.....I would be proud of that because I imagine the fight is awesome.

 

[littleal]

Went to Alvechurch as planned 8am to 3:30ish on my favoured peg on House pool - bunch of small F1's and a random Bream that happened to be attached to my hook when I went to re-bait?! Bizarre.
Fish not feeding today, usually get a lot more action on there but the temperature drop has clearly hit hard.

Guess I need to learn how to fish in the cold now

 

[law]

Woke up to a frozen van today so didn't think I'd have much luck targeting late season tench.
I arrived a little later than planned, but was the only person there.

Out went the sleeper rod on the buzzer with 3 bits of corn over a bed of corn, followed by the float rod, with size 14 and bit of corn. Loose feed was 4-5 4mm pellet every few minutes and 3-4 bits of corn every 15 mins.
I must have had 30 odd rudd up to a pound (the lake has thousands of them) when the swim started fizzing like a jaccuzi. Regardless of what I tired, I had no joy.
I switched to worm and had this beasty.

The fizzing continued but had another load of rudd before the bites dried up.
The half hour with nothing and the float dipped to be rewarded with this

The sleeper rod continued to sleep, and the rudd slowed till I packed up.

Not a bad day all in all, considering how cold it was last night!

 

[peter crabtree]

The clear skies and hard frost on my car didn't bode well for our club match on the river Colne today. Already rather low but a bit of colour in it, the river was at least flowing ok. Drew a favoured peg on a wide bit which has in the past produced 120lb of bream in a match. First chuck on cage feeder, gb and double maggot the tip rattled and a bream came to the net. Looked good for 3lb odd. Then lots of small perch on both feeder and pole @13.5m with a cralusso 1gr flat float. Spent the last hour on 4m whip and had some small roach and gudgeon.
Ended up with 4lb:11:8. for 3rd place.
Winner in next peg had 2 bream and bits for 9lb 8.
2nd had 5lb from the weirpool. Most struggled for bits.
22 fished.....

 

[chub_on_the_block]

Grabbed 3 hrs trotting till dark on the Ouse in St Neots. Lots of bleak, a few nice Roach (but none bigger than 5oz) and what should have been a brace of 1Ib+ Perch, except I managed to lose both before the net. At least i got to see what they were and thoughts of losing a 1Ib+ Roach could be put to bed.

 

[binka]

.................

 

[nicepix]

I ventured out on Thursday evening for a few hours. I'd got to the lake a lot earlier but the clear blue skies and lack of cloud cover didn't bode well for my planned catfish session. So I parked the camper up (Little Wife had bagged the car) and took the dog for a walk then had a snooze, fed the dog, brewed a cuppa and finally managed to get myself fishing for around 5pm after walking about 400 metres from the camper. The swim was on one of the three smaller arms of a large lake where there is a small, 30 metre by 50 metre rectangle cut out from the main lake. I think it might have been a quarry as the water is significantly deeper and there are cliff surrounding the edges. It is tree lined, unfished and a perfect spot for cats to lie up in the day time.

I settled on the corner where the main lake meets the little quarry bay put two baits out; a half mackerel on the bottom of the drop off of the far side of the quarry bay and a string of large pellets on my side, again laid on the edge of the drop off. I had plumbed the area previously and had a mental layout of the bottom. The sun was just dropping behind the trees on the far bank and I really fancied my chances of a moggie.

After putting out some groundbait; ground Vitalin type stuff and chopped sandeels lobbed towards the far bait and a mixture of pellets over the near bait, I got my carp rod out with the other Trent centrepin and started casting towards the bubbles that were coming up in the shallower main lake area.

Apart from a few times where the float on the catfish / pellet set up twitched and dipped I never got a sniff on those two rods. I fished until dark. So dark I ended up cutting the tackle off and dropping it in the bait bucket rather than mess about putting it away properly. The carp however were more generous and I landed three mid-teens, one common and two mirrors on sweetcorn, and surprisingly avoided hooking any bream

 

[cg74]

After putting out some groundbait; ground Vitalin type stuff and chopped sandeels lobbed towards the far bait and a mixture of pellets over the near bait, I got my carp rod out with the other Trent centrepin and started casting towards the bubbles that were coming up in the shallower main lake area.

Well 'chum' that sounds a little like a 'rubby dubby' concoction, have you been stealing ideas from 3FT Twatch Baits?

 

[itsfishingnotcatching]

Slow start on the Salwarpe, smallest Chublet I've ever caught followed by numerous Gudgeon and an obligatory Minnow. Switched to worm and caught half a dozen Perch to around 12oz (plus some more Gobos) before landing a Chub of about 2.5lb. My solitary presence was ended by the arrival of an otter which surfaced less than a metre from the bank directly in front of me, not sure who was the most surprised, I jumped, he dived, first one I've ever seen in the wild Unsurprisingly, the swim went a little quiet (one Daddy Ruffe!) so moved upstream for the last half hour and in consecutive casts had a Chub just under 3lb and a Bream about 1.5lb (what lovely fish they are

All in all a good day and the biggest fish I've had from this river.

 

[nicepix]

Well 'chum' that sounds a little like a 'rubby dubby' concoction, have you been stealing ideas from 3FT Twatch Baits?

No! I get all my ideas from watching cooking programs on the telly. The Vitalin and chopped sandeels recipe is in Masterchef terms a deconstructed boilie.

 

[neil1970]

Down the river from 9.15am-1.15pm.

I thought I had dressed for the weather, but spent most of the time shivering.

Maggot feeder first, for one bleak and a small perch.

Then I switched to pellet for an hour, with no signs of life,
so back to maggots.

I was beginning to think that today was a lost cause when the rod bent over.

A very welcome chub was soon in the net.

 

[nicepix]

Had another evening up at the big lake. This time the weather was more like it; overcast with a blustery south-west wind and rising temperatures. I had been torn as to where to go but the heavy rain last night and strong winds today would men a lot of leaves coming down the river so I put my Fox Stalker and Okuma Trent outfit in the car along with an assortment of baits and went a stalking.

Fishing was quite simple; a loaded zoomer carrying 2xSSG+ stopped by a float stop so I could adjust the depth quickly to suit and I started off with double sweetcorn on a 12. It was just a case of spotting the bubblers, catapulting some corn and hemp at the bubbles then casting the float past the bubbles and drawing it back.

The first place I tried resulted in me being mugged by bream before the carp could get to the bait. It was quite a good one for the location, around 4lb but luckily it slipped the hook and so I didn't have to soil my net.

Then I located a loose pod of fish in a shallow weedy bay of around 3 acres. It was a case of casting into gaps in the weeds and try and draw the carp towards the bait using the loose feed. Didn't get much interest and so changed to Frolic dog biscuits hair rigged and they did the trick. Hooked three, landed two, best of the pair around 18lb and the other around 12lb.

 

[Tee-Cee]

nicepix.....' a shallow weedy bay of about 3 acres'. Gawd, that's about the maimum size of most waters I fish with 'bays' about 20 metres square !

Good post though with some proper lateral thinking, rewarded by decent fish....

 

[nicepix]

nicepix.....' a shallow weedy bay of about 3 acres'. Gawd, that's about the maimum size of most waters I fish with 'bays' about 20 metres square !

Good post though with some proper lateral thinking, rewarded by decent fish....

Thanks.

There are two lakes nearby. Both over 200 hectares and split into several sections. The main basin of each lake is split from the two or three other parts of each so that when they abstract water from the main basins the smaller arms are not affected. These smaller arms are larger than most waters I used to fish and there are many quiet bays and other areas that don't get fished except by me.

 

[jon atkinson]

A bit late posting this from Sunday before last (was away last week). My second trip of the year, & 3rd all told, to Ribchester on the mighty Ribble with my considerably more experienced mate Simon in search of the whiskered ones - would it be 3rd time lucky? I think partially inspired by Phil's (Dorset & Chub) beautifully written account of loosing his Barbel hoodoo a few months back, I felt that today could be the day! From where we park, it's a bit of hike to the stretch we were fishing so I went fairly light (very light, by my usual standards ).

A beautifully warm day with a sky filled with 'unthreatening' white cloud meant that we both went short sleeved the whole day. The river was as low as I've seen it & flowing at a lazy pace but it still looked superb. It's a beautifully tranquil spot with plenty of bird life to enjoy as we hiked around the bend - Kingfisher, Herons, Buzzards, (we think) a peregrine, not to mention several bl**dy cormorants & numerous others that were heard but not seen, even a few owls that had stayed up past bed time!

The only negative was the bankside which was covered in Balsam pretty much the entire length that we walked, but we found a couple of suitable swims & set up. My 'plan' was to fish a maggot feeder on my quiver tip with a 6lb 12 Reflo hook length to a 14 hook and an open ended feeder stuffed with a mixture of 4mm pellet, cooked hemp with a little frenzied hemp on my Duolite with a 12lb mainline & 8lb hook length pre-tied to a size 8 with hair rig.

I set up the maggot feeder first & lobbed it out & whilst I was focusing on setting up my second rig, the tip went & the bait runner kicked into life so I dropped the Barbel rig I was working on & struck - it didn't feel massive but I was conscious that I was using a pre-stretched hook length so was working with plenty of give in the drag, which the fish seemed happy to take, but never excessively. After 4 or 5 minutes playing it very gently, constantly telling myself to take my time & not blow it, it came to the surface - a Barbel not a monster, 5lb 3 as it transpired, but that'll do for me! There were a couple of late surges as it came towards the net but nothing too heart stopping then it came over the net & bingo! The feeling reminded me of catching my first ever fish, probably aged about 9!

As it transpired, that was the one & only bite on the maggot feeder, and while setting up my Barbel rod I discovered that my pellets (which were obviously a little long in the tooth) just started to crumble when attacked with the baiting needle so I just snipped off the hair & impaled a bait band instead. A short while later I thought that I had a bite on the maggot line, but it was actually a fish on the pellet swimming across the line! I had struck on the feeder so Si grabbed the Barbel rod & when it became apparent what had happened, very sportingly handed it over :w

Now that's what I'm talkin' about, an altogether more serious scrap & not at all willing to come to the net! As it finally came up Si suggested a '9' and once landed & weighed it was indeed 9lb 3 - I was happy as a pig in sh1t!

Half an hour later & my tip went again - fish on! This one felt similar perhaps a bit smaller to the previous but after about a minute it found a snag (of which there are many ) & holed up. It wasn't budging so I released the bail arm & put the rod back in the rest to see if it would swim free. 5 minutes later I reeled in without any difficulty only to find that the hook link was severed? I attached another pre-tied hook length, re-baited & cast out again.

We had clocked a Salmon of about 5lb jumping near the far bank on a fairly regular basis. Simon's first love is for fluff chucking for these beasties & he is seldom without a fly rod so he tied up & went for it, however the steep bank behind us made casting very difficult & having persevered for 20 minutes he decided to knock it on the head. Just as well really as one of his Barbel rods went a short while later. He had meat on one & pellet on the other - this one went for the latter - clearly pellets were doing the business. A decent scrap resulted in a Barbel somewhere in between my two & we were both on the board.

Half an hour later my tip jolted, I struck & then watched in disbelief as line was stripped from my reel as easily as if the baitrunner was engaged! This 'thing' surged upstream for about 25 - 30 yards and then everything went slack a hook pull? Nope, a hook trashed!

Si looked more disappointed than I felt - how could I possibly be disappointed after such a day I reasoned? But in truth, after some time had passed I knew that this was really going to bug me. However, lesson learned - having a decent rod & reel is fine, but don't overlook your terminal tackle - the point of contact with Mr fish after all.

That was the last bite that either of us had & after another hour or so we decided to call it a day, a very good day from my POV. The long walk back to the van seemed a lot shorter than the walk out! I was officially up & running on the Barbel chart & I can't wait for my next encounter