How did you get on?

[peter crabtree]

Very early start this morning, set off for Cambridge at 6:30 for an 8:30 draw.
My third visit to this day ticket venue for a silvers only league match.
Happy with my draw on a spit with plenty of scope I set up 2 pole lines and a 10' bomb rod.

After a very cold night and barely 4degrees at 10am when we started I wasn't expecting to bag up. Cupped in one small ball of Fishmeal GB on my 13m line which was 9' deep and one ball of dark roach on my 6m line which was 6' deep.
Started on a 1/2 oz bomb with double maggot out into the gap between the islands, lots of pulls and tweaks but couldn't connect with them until a 8oz roach hung itself and was safely landed.
Once wet my hands started numbing so I decided to try the pole in the vain hope of warming them up with some action. Gently lowered the 13m rig in with red maggot pinkie cocktail and after a few seconds the float lifted then buried, I lifted in and a decent fish was taking my elastic (4 hydro) for an airing before falling off. Rebaited and dropped in again and a positive bite sunk the bristle, fish on again, more elastic ripping out, I was hoping it wasn't a carp when it finally surfaced.
It wasn't, it was a big perch which put up a spirited tussle, especially when it spotted my landing net. Once landed and secure in my keepnet I felt slightly warmer, but only slightly..
The following 4 hours were pretty uneventfull bar getting smacked up by a big lump which I didn't get to see. Small roach and perch mainly, a solitary skimmer on the bomb and zilch on the 6m line..
Had 4lb dead on the scales, (the perch weighed 2:4) and came a surprising 5th considering the formidable opposition..
12lb romped it with 7lb second.
15 fished..

 

[tonybull]

Well done Simon

It was an hard day I finished up with 4lb 11

Did you catch on your rod and line with your centre pin

 

[mikench]

Nice perch Simon! Out of idle curiosity why are perch silver fish when they are not silver?

 

[tonybull]

Nice perch Simon! Out of idle curiosity why are perch silver fish when they are not silver?

Tench are not silver in colour but count in a silvers only match.

Silvers only matches normally excludes: Carp, F1's, Cat's, Pike

 

[mikench]

The tench I catch are silver! They are called Abyssinian tench but can be easily confused with bream!

 

[Another Dave]

I blanked.

 

[john step]

I blanked.

It has been hard lately.

 

[Another Dave]

Nice to get out though, i feel better for the exercise.

 

[mikench]

Never mind Dave ! I find it reassuring that others blank like me! I blame the fish!

 

[peter crabtree]

Had a nice lay in this morning and once up the mild day meant one thing.
Fishing. Car packed by 10:30 I was off downtown to action a plan I've been thinking about for a few days. There's a stretch of river Colne which I rarely fish because it's usually difficult and a short while ago large trees were felled and one fell in the river. I noticed the other day it had been pulled out and how nice it now looked for a long trotting session.

The flow was fairly sluggish and the depth was around 4', the surface was mottled with dark and white patches of light so I picked an old Daiwa 0:80g bolo float with a fairly thick bristle...a bulk of 4 no6 shot then 8's 10's and an 11 dropper attached shirt button stylee to a 20 B911 to 0:09. Rod today was my 15' ultralite..

During the first hour I located the snags and hooked out a few small branches, but with no bites I started to wonder if I might be flogging a dead horse. Single red maggot, caster or double pinkie all failed to find a mouth until I found a stray white maggot in amongst the Reds. Trotted that down and bosh, a proper tug and I was in. The way it was fighting I imagined it was a chub but once it finally showed it was a flipping spotty thing!

I rested the swim for a while and kept up pinging 6 or so loose maggots, once I resumed fishing I was inundated with bites, perch, roach and unusually some pretty little rudd...

I'd been expecting to catch some dace but they were conspicuous by their absence today.
Around 3:30 the light began to fail and I couldn't see my float properly so I called it a day.

 

[nottskev]

First time out for a week or more, but I think I'm going to have to pad this out to distract from the lack of fish.

I was struck by all the cars parked around the commercial next to the dual carriageway as I drove by. By contrast, as I passed the night shift coming off the Deep Lake in the car park (no carp were caught last night, apparently) and looked round, I found I had it to myself. Well, I usually pick a nice place to fish over the more fish-filled options, and I was happy enough to set up in this peg.

With 10' plus at 11m, you usually have a chance of catching, even in or after a cold spell, and I set about finding places left and right with the same depth, so I can feed two spots differently but fish with the same rig. At 10.30 with a few dead maggots potted in one, and the same with a little ball of groundbait in the other, I waited for a bite. At 12.00 (yes ,12.00!), having gone through the dead/live/ red/white/yellow/ single/double maggot card, I got one. The fish was small and snotty but welcome.

A couple of little roach and one better fish followed

And a chunky little perch a bit later.

No more skimmers and no more roach, so I decided it was perch or nothing. I scrapped the groundbait and the dead maggots, and started to feed red maggots with a catapult. If you waited for a bite, nothing happened, but if you lifted your float 2 feet and let it fall slowly, you could sometimes induce a bite from a perch, and a few more came along. By now I was down to a size 20, and 3 decent perch came off the hook, bless their bony little mouths. In one case, it came off at the net, and with no fewer than 4 no12 stotz trimming my float tip down into the surface film, the resulting tangle was a beauty. When I undid it all, I threw the hook into my keepnet. I got it out of there. And dropped it in my landing net. Is it just me, or does anyone else do this kind of comedy turn? I wasn't filling any keepnets, but I enjoyed trying to scratch a few bites.

Here's the heaviest thing I caught. I doubt if even Binka could fashion this into an angling objet d'art

 

[The Runner]

Club match today on the R Colne at Uxbridge and predictably a grueller for most of us with the river over a foot down and all the weed cover gone.
Drew peg 59 aka The Railings aka The Grille. Not too enticing these days, used to be a good, if unreliable, chub swim but haven't heard of a chub off it other than in summer for about three years now and the last two times I've drawn it I've blanked. Nice steady trot down to a grille where the river runs into a tunnel under an old mill, only about 20 inches deep at the moment though, with the extra option of fishing into an overflow from the canal and trotting back towards you. Or usually an option anyway- canal is even further below normal than the river and not even a trickle coming in.
Set up 3BB waggler with a no10 down and a 20 to 0.09, and a bomb rod. Started optimistically on the latter with a lump of flake on a 10 with a handful of mashed going in. Sure enough, optimism was misplaced, so after half an hour picked up waggler rod. Only two little perch in an hour, neither of them anywhere near where the loosefeed was so reckoned that as was getting no response to the feed it was time for the wandering worm. Nine more perch in the next hour by plopping a little bomb with half an inch of worm on an 18 here there and everywhere. Couldn't get two in the same place, tried a mini blockend with a three or four chopped dendras in it to see if could concentrate a few. Nope.
Dried right up until had three perch in quick succession up towards the overflow with an hour and a half to go, by which time was feeding for a chub down to the grille. Spent the last hour looking for one with the hooklength on the wag up to 0.12, no joy,
Fourteen perch went 2-4 and nowhere.
Winner had a lovely net of roach with a bonus 3 lb chub, all on punch, for 14-12, then it dropped off to 5-3, 4-6 and 3 -3

 

[Graham Elliott 1]

Took my passport and had a wonderful day on a new river for me The Taff.
About 80 grayling, far bigger average than LIF with most over the lb up to just short of 2lb.

Great fun wading out and trots of 50-60 yards putting a lovely bend in the 14ft Hardy. Few spotties up to 3lb.


If you get a chance give it a go.

 

[ian g]

Met up with my mate a 9 am we had a look at another spot I wanted to try but it was a good bit shallower than I'd hoped and so we headed to a familiar stretch of the Severn I hadn't fished for a while. This is a stretch I'd fished regularly when I first started on the Severn .I headed upstream and fished the big slack . First put in on the float and I hook a decent perch 1 lb 13 oz . Fished a 2 nd rod , tip with lob worm which was getting battered by small stuff . After a quick start things slowed down with only a couple of small chub on the float . I had a dabble with the whip for some live bait under my feet and caught a stream of dace all to big and also a 6 oz roach , finally managed a small dace which was probably a bit big but went out on the tip for a swim around for a bit . One or two possible bits of interest but nowt to show. Around 2 .30 I moved down stream to the middle peg as I was peed off with little fish nicking my worm , put a stop to that as there was no more action to report . Nice day to be out though I'd hoped for more after a bright start.

 

[maggot_dangler]

Headed out this morning to a part of the river Tame i have never been to before that runs thru a large Park this piece is very rarley fished according to the park keeper and the gardner .

The out come was a couple fo Chub biggest just shy of 2 lbs and a decent perch of around the 1lb mark .

I shall be going back there soon thats for sure althou if the river is up it could be a bit more difficult .

I WAS going to include a photo but it aint werkin our kid it used to be great upload no problems since the changes what a pile of poontang can i have the OLD RELIABLE upload back please it actually worked unlike now total failure ..

PG ...

 

[tigger]

I haven't been out fishing for a spell due to being hit with a car again whilst out cycling....second time in six months !
I had a couple of hours out yesterday to do a bit of physio on my leg and to try out a new rod as much as anything else. I knew the fish weren't going to be climbing up my line as the river was up about 18 inches and had a horrible colour. I had to do a decent amount of walking and climbing up and down steep banks so the physio side of it worked out ok . I had five glides in mind in which to trot the float which where spread out over about a mile. First stop which usually produced a decent chub was a blank. Second spot produced one chub of about a pound, so a little better than the first stop. Third spot produced three chub of about a pound and a bit. Fourth spot was a blank. Fifth spot was a little better producing one chub of a couple of pounds and six more just over a pound....all just estimations of course, no point weighing little fish like that. On my way back I had another three chub in one swim and then the light had faded away making it impossible to see the float, plus my back and hip where giving me gyp so it was home time.
The new rod is a power float rod but felt ok catching smaller fish which is good but i'm sure it will come into it's own with something larger pulling back. It did feel a bit on the heavy side but that's probably because i'm used to using lighter ones.

 

[mikench]

Glad you got out Ian and are back in business!

 

[tigger]

Glad you got out Ian and are back in business!

Thank's for that Mike .

 

[Another Dave]

It really is good physio. My gouty foot hasn't bothered me once since i took up fishing again in the summer. Also had some issue which went from my back all down my left leg after pulling a back muscle in August 2016, again this has vastly improved since i took up a variety of exercises such as limbo-ing under branches and falling over on slippery mud.

 

[sam vimes]

It didn't seem especially cold last night and it wasn't due to be overly cold today. Stillwater roach were calling. Imagine my surprise when I got to my target water to find it had a lid on. the three or four clearer pegs either had anglers in them or were in places I had no intention of fishing.

I did stay to fish, but only after breaking ice as far out as my landing net handle allowed. As I couldn't fish far out for the ice, I set up with a pole float on rod and line. For a good couple of hours, I may as well have been sat at home. Just as I was starting to get despondent, a tiny flicker of the float resulted in the hooking of a reasonably big roach, which I promptly lost beneath the ice. I was then made to wait for the next bite. It came eventually and resulted in a nice fat roach easily beyond the pound mark. It was downhill all the way after that. I struggled to catch another seven decent roach, but only one came close to the size of the first.