How did you get on?

[binka]

I took a run over to see my sis today who’s moored on her narrowboat, it’s always a grueller with piping hot bacon and runny egg cobs steadily coming out throughout the day along with freshly brewed tea on demand.

A tough job, but someone’s got to do it

Took the pike gear with me and in between hopping on and off the boat to be sociable I managed a small jack of around 5lbs along with this nice double…



Starting to see some nicely conditioned fish now we're heading towards winter with that metallic blue tinge to 'em and a bit of depth creeping into the shape, both fish fell to float fished roach with the float practically resting up against the bow of the boat which I’m sure they use to patrol along despite the fact there must barely be eighteen inches of water between the baseplate and the bottom.

Out again later in the week but not sure where or what for, I need something cold and beer'ish now after all that bacon :guinness:

 

[neil1970]

I went out at midday for a bit of drop shotting, in the hope of a half decent perch. GUC, Chess and Colne were covered, but nothing of a reasonable size was caught.

Still good fun though.

 

[greenie62]

That's a big lure - and very life-like too!
Tight Lines!

 

[peter crabtree]

Son of Meldrew and I had a knock up on the GUC near Tring today.
Pole only. I used single maggot or caster over hemp @ 11m about 4ft deep.
SOM similar but stuck with worm over choppie.
After 5hrs we had both caught a fair few fish. Perch to 1lb +, roach, skimmers and gudgeon...
Weighed him in first and I could see he had done me....
The scales revealed SOM 11lb+. I had 7lb:15....

2 fished.....

 

[nicepix]

Tuesday was a perfect fishing day. Overcast, warm and moist southerly wind - perfect. However, Tuesday was also the day when Frank the roofer came to sort out our guttering and shuffle the roof tiles around.

So today with the weather exactly opposite; bright, still, cold and getting colder, I set out after the elusive Vienne barbel. I parked near to where I fished last week and took the dog for a walk downstream to check out this new to me area. We walked down for about a kilometer finding only one swim worth fishing and that would be better on a rainy day when the leaves weren't as crisp and there was some colour in the water to hide behind.

Instead I fished the same swim as last time on a two tier approach. Plan 'A' have an hour or so after the carbel using a large whole maize grain on a 12 or banded 8m pellet wrapped in maize & hemp paste. Three droppers of hemp were introduced and the cage feeder was loaded with a mixture of chopped maize, coarse maize flour, ground hemp and some breadcrumbs to give the required fluffiness. Two hours came and went without a touch and so I swapped to the lighter rod for Plan 'B' Operation Zander.

The plans was to get a couple of small roach or chub to use as dead baits when the sun went off the water. I don't know much about zander except that they feed best in low light levels and there are some in the Vienne.

First cast with an 18 to 1:14 hook length and a squashed sweetcorn skin resulted in a whooshter of a bite nearly taking the rod off the rest and leaving me with a length of straight wire where the hook should have been.

Back to Plan 'A' and half an hour later another storming bite but this time the tackle came back without a lead and the ledger link clip almost straight

And that was it. No more bites on the heavy tackle and nothing more than a couple of rattles on the light outfit.

Down to 4C tonight for the new moon but should be back up to 20C at the weekend.

 

[S-Kippy]

Another shift after the zander at BH this afternoon. Usual old nonsense......not a touch until dusk then simultaneous runs which was a bit of a challenge to say the least. The first fish unsportingly fell off at the net but I was amazed when I picked the other up that the fish was still on. I won that round (about 4lb) and the next which was a schoolie of about 1.5lb. We then had the usual mad half-hour with 3 pick ups (dropped) and two more schoolies which I shook off at the net. If I had been able to stay on I think I'd have had several more but no good fish where I was........just a pack of voracious zanderettes.

They all count but its a bit frustrating when you sit there for what seems like a week and when the rod finally goes its a googly eyed schoolie. Shouldn't grumble though......beats blanking.

 

[neil1970]

Another 2 hour lure session for me on the Colne this morning.

I tried a spinner bait in the first swim I fished and after a few upstream casts I caught a little perch. Then a downstream cast which instantly resulted in a Chub of 4 pounds.

I then decided to take a wander and fished about 10 spots before returning for a final quick go at the original swim with a different lure.
A jack came soon afterwards.

So all in all a good couple of hours and trio of predators.

 

[theartist]

Back from my last mini holiday this time it was a windy Norfolk that was to entertain my five piece travel rod. Another four new rivers to add to the collection all of which had roach as the dominant species with some around the pound mark being the highlight of the trip. Fished the Lark, Wissey, Thet and Little Ouse. The latter two highlighting how different a fishing environment can be within a small town. Thetford is not going on the 'must go back to soon' list despite there being some cracking roach there. No offence intended to the good folk who no doubt do reside there.

 

[sam vimes]

Cracking afternoon on the river. It started fairly slowly, a few runs through produced nothing. Then it burst into life with four trout in successive runs. The last being a 2lb 2oz cock fish that absolutely trashed the swim, or so I thought. The very next drop in resulted in a surprising grayling. Ater that things slowed a little. I still managed to end up with ten trout and four grayling before it died for a while. I wasn't entirely sure whether to stick or twist with the feed. However, as the maggots I had were old, and my reason for going was to use them up, I went for twist. Half an hour of steady feeding every run through saw me start to get fast bites that I failed to connect with. The final straw was retrieving to find the hookbait maggot absolutely smashed. I changed over from nicking the maggot on the hook to threading one up the shank. It paid immediate dividends and resulted in a good dace. After that they came thick and fast with the odd trout interrupting proceedings along the way. A final tally of thirty four dace (all bar one six ounces plus), fifteen trout (five over a pound) and four grayling (only decent one around a pound). Not a bad way to spend an afternoon.

 

[jimlad]

Well done Chris. Good to hear that the Dace are showing in numbers.

I got on the Swale on Sunday, managing one chub of 3.5lb or so. Out this weekend, you'll have to let me know where's fishing


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[flightliner]

Had a day on the Trent-- well a short day in truth as a late start from home had me on the bank at 11 am.
Nice level, nice colour and pace so it was the float for a barbel or two.
Third trott down and the floats gone, a very spirited fight resulted in a fish of some seven lbs or thereabouts-- nice.
It then became a case of maintaini g a constant rythem of carefully managing a sweet run down with carefull feeding, searchi g the swims width and length for a possible barbel but it was clear that persaverance would be the only thin g that may give the desired result.
A break for a kwik bite then back to the task which, after a half hour gave me a bite that resulted in a fish that shed the hook!.
Two more hours and with my limited time running out I had decided another five minutes would see me leaving for home--- almost on the dot the float dissapeared and a very begrudging fish finally hit the net -- it went 9-8 on the scales.
Honour satisfied some few runs down saw me heading north.

 

[stu_the_blank]

Spent a very enjoyable day on the Lake yesterday, three of us down there, reasonable weather but no breeze, water like a mirror. A few fish moving early but that petered out.

I fished for Pike the other two had the carp head on. Not a bite between us! One liner on the carp rods, otherwise nothing but tea, sausages and a good laugh!

Really strange, the lake has really fished well this summer but has completely switched off at the moment. A bit of more seasonable weather might improve matters.

Stu (The Blank!)

 

[littleal]

Managed a day at Blythe Waters yesterday....was looking good for my first ever commercial blank until 6 hours in to the session, where I swapped to a plain hook (no bank or quick stop) and just fished double corn. Rod screamed off and took a fairly hard fighting Common @5lb back up by another at 4lb.
Last time I was there they loved the banded pellet I used, yesterday I barely got a bite. Odd!

No fishing today, got the World B-Boy break dancing finals in Birmingham.

Yes, really.

 

[neil1970]

I went out for an hour and a half after perch.
One jack on a perch patterned hard bait and two perch which took soft rubber baits on the drop.

 

[lambert1]

Blanked, but not in the least bothered. Talked to another club member who also blanked. Loads of nibbly snatching bites, but could not hook anything even with smaller hooks. Wind was a problem and made it feel colder than it actually was. I think I was also a little under dressed too! Deliberately did not take worms and ended up regretting it as I am sure the Perch would have played ball! More than happy with a little solitude and "me" time though. Good luck to all those out today!

 

[S-Kippy]

Zandering again on Friday. 4 landed.3 lost and a few other pick ups/missed runs....that's more action in one afternoon than I had in the last 6 weeks of last year's season ! They are still being a bit cute and I have to rethink a few things as I'm losing fish I shouldn't. Step one is to soften the rods a bit . this is what I like about zander at BH........they keep you honest and you have to get it just right to put fish on the bank. For some reason they want roach heads this week......nothing else. Won't have a roach tail which is as near as it gets to a banker zed bait down there.

Sadly....as punishment for going fishing I've gone down with Manflu so I'm feeling pretty **** today and getting absolutely NO sympathy from MrsS.

 

[peter crabtree]

Back to the Thames at Windsor today. Our 2nd of 2 club matches on the venue. After a win in the first round 2 weeks ago I was hoping to draw in the high numbers but drew no.10. A narrower part of the stretch so a bit faster flowing than downstream. Set up same waggler rig I used last match and a 4m whip with flicktip. Balled it heavily out on the waggler line, about 30yds out.
Started on the wagg with single maggot in 12ft of water. Plenty of bites but small fish. After an hour I tried the whip line that I'd been trickling in hemp and caster and started catching immediately. Again only small roach, dace and gudgeon. Later I tried the wagg line again but the fish were still tiny.
Decided to speed fish the final 2 hours on the whip and maggot.
Weighed in 6lb:8. which won my section..
Back at the car park the other section result appeared and I had won the match again...
Luckily I'd entered the superpools this time, so that and the pools money came to £100... Happy dace....,

 

[The Runner]

Hard work on the Colne at Uxbridge on the first round of our series there. River is still horribly clear and with the weed rapidly going it was always going to be mostly a first hour job before it died. Drew peg 13, which, if it was half as good as it looks would still be twice as good as it is. Said before the start to travelling partner who drew the absolute chub flier two above me that I'd be happy with 3 lb in the conditions. Well, ended up with 3-5, mostly on stick in first 45 minutes after which could only get the odd little perch by feeding tiny quantities of chop into 2 ft of slack water across behind some pennywort. As this put me tenth on the day I think thats my dropped result sorted (series is best 3 results from 4) or if it isn't then I won't be retaining my title !
No big fish caught anywhere which at least made for a more even match. 7-1 mostly perch won it (5 to 6 lb in the first hour), then 6-4, 6-2 and 5-12, all mostly roach and dace. Second place managed to catch pretty much all day from a foot to 15 inches of water as he still had a good bit of streamer weed for cover but his fish were very small.
The three best chub swims produced 1-12, 6oz and 4oz....

 

[S-Kippy]

Looks like Simon has found me an inexhaustible supply of zander bait. I must get my float rod out !

 

[nicepix]

Looks like Simon has found me an inexhaustible supply of zander bait. I must get my float rod out !

Got over the man flu' then?