How did you get on?

Hogweed

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Really pleased for you Hogweed, well done mate!

Funnily enough i was just now looking at the Chelmer on google maps. There's a couple of little weirs that are only a 20 minute walk from here, and i was fantasizing about taking my light lure rod out.

Thanks AD.

One thing that surprised me was that at dusk I saw no roach or bream topping. Would that be because of the cold water temperature? Makes me think that it is chub or nothing on that stretch at the moment.
 

108831

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Went trotting yesterday,an unusual day for me,I lost three chub off the hook,had three,one over three,one 4-2,the other 4-15,a perch 2-5 and 30 or more roach and dace.
 

Another Dave

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Thanks AD.

One thing that surprised me was that at dusk I saw no roach or bream topping. Would that be because of the cold water temperature? Makes me think that it is chub or nothing on that stretch at the moment.

I don't know which stretch you were on. Feel free to PM if you'd rather not say here.
 

Hogweed

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I don't know which stretch you were on. Feel free to PM if you'd rather not say here.

I don't think it will cause a stampede :)

I was downstream of Paper Mill Lock. And I ended up just past the weir.

Are you familiar with that section?
 
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steve2

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You must have had a fair walk Hogweed. The only weirs I know on that section are Rushy and Hoe Mill quite a walk from Paper Mill.
Do you still fish the Roding?
 

Another Dave

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I don't think it will cause a stampede :)

I was downstream of Paper Mill Lock. And I ended up just past the weir.

Are you familiar with that section?

Not fished it since i was young, mate, but i know where you mean.
 

Another Dave

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You must have had a fair walk Hogweed. The only weirs I know on that section are Rushy and Hoe Mill quite a walk from Paper Mill.
Do you still fish the Roding?

Rushes Lock is the next one down, and yes it's quite a way on foot.
 

fishplate42

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At last, I get the chance to join in here! After several months of not being able to go fishing, I eventually made it out yesterday with the intention of bothering a few perch. Saturday is a good day for me as far as driving is concerned. Living where I do, just inside London's South Circular road, it can be a nightmare to get out of London any time after 06:00, during the week. On a Saturday, it is not until later in the day that the traffic builds up. I left just after 07:00 and got to Beaver in under an hour, even after a stop to fill the van with fuel.

I had every intention of fishing Eden Pond which is a nice small, natural looking pond with a good stock of perch. I decided not to when I discovered there were several people fishing it already. It is only a small pond, and it is best fished when nobody else is there. My second choice had been Tuscany Lake. This is the catfish lake, but during the winter months, while the moggies are asleep, it is open for fishing silvers. Having never fished it before I made some enquiries only to be advised that it is very deep in places and is more suited to feeder fishing, so that is for another day.

I ended up back in what is rapidly becoming my default swim at the shallow end of The Major's Lake. I had fished there back in September and caught a good number of perch, so I know it can deliver. It is full of features and has good 'perchy' looking areas both along the margins and near the reed beds. The only problem at this time of year is the mass of submerged lily pads. Know the water; I have a good idea of exactly where they are.

I decided to play it safe and fish in the near margin. I had made some red paste that I intended to try, once I had located the fish, but to start with I was fishing with known bait; worm. I set up my old float rod with 4lb main line and a similar hooklength sporting a No.6 hook. On to this, I impaled a lobworm and a single red Maggot used to help prevent the worm wriggling off.

I dropped the baited hook into the margin an no sooner had I done so, the float disappeared, and I had a fish on. It was then that it all kicked off. This was no perch. I saw a flash of something big, and it was off. At this point I thought I had chanced upon a carp cursing the margin. It did not take me too long to realise this was no carp. I had hooked a decent sized pike.

Now I am kicking myself for taking the minimal gear approach. For the first time in years, I only had one landing net with me, a 20 inch spoon. I had no intention of landing anything over a couple of pounds if that. The pike put up a good fight, and I had to be careful as I was only using light line. Eventually, it was on the bank with help from Andy, who just happened to be passing by on his rounds. He also managed to get a picture of it.

me_pike.jpg


This was something special for me. I have been talking about going pikeing over the past few months but had decided to wait until I could get back to the Great Stour in Canterbury with fill carp gear. I have not caught a pike before of any size, let alone one that Andy estimated to be around 8lb!

After all that excitement, I blanked for the rest of the day, but went home happy and thinking about how I am going to approach my next session at Beaver in this cold weather...

Ralph.
 

103841

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Well done again!

PS you don't need "full carp gear" to fish for pike along Canterbury, a medium lure rod would do fine.
 

The Runner

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Another weekend having to work yesterday and this morning.

Just a quiet word for the self employed and company owner managers on here- have a think before you leave it till the last minute before sorting out all your tax and accounts stuff.
You could be preventing your accountant from going fishing...
 

108831

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Another weekend having to work yesterday and this morning.

Just a quiet word for the self employed and company owner managers on here- have a think before you leave it till the last minute before sorting out all your tax and accounts stuff.
You could be preventing your accountant from going fishing...

Get a proper job....sorted.:D
If my boss wants me to work weekends he can FRO I'm afraid,those days are long,long gone,luckily.
 
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nottskev

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There's a hint of deja vu here, as I went back to the Old Lake which I fished on Tuesday. There isn't really a local river option worth fishing just now, and although I heard in the week of a Soar stretch fishing well for roach, I'll need to recce the access and see if the walk is feasible first. So, back to the same swim – a lazy option avoiding the need to plumb up. More because at 5'6 -6' it's the deepest spot on the dam side, actually. Being Sunday, I thought I'd have to settle for fishing where I could, but again the lake was completely deserted. That's another fiver I owe the bailiff.

jan6.jpg


I left out the chopped worm today, but the roach were still at the smaller end of the lake's size range . Someone on here was asking about what perch eat. In this lake, the answer is anything they can get in their mouths,

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The roach fishing was plodding along a bit, so I was pleased when another lucky January tench turned up

jan2.jpg


And shortly afterwards I had another bite which wasn't a roach. I didn't see the float again for a good ten minutes, and I didn't think the tackle was going to be up to it - an 18 B560, .10 Silstar line and a doubled no4 elastic – but eventually this brute was shuffled into the landing net. In warmer weather I'm sure he'd have waved cheerio from the other side of the lake.

jan7.jpg


The better roach usually show in the last hour of daylight, but a thin wind had got up and my fingers were going numb, so I settled for what had shown up so far, and at 2.30 I wrapped up. I've been lucky to have had two sessions with a bite every put in in the middle of January, with a few spring fish thrown in. I've no illusions that will continue for long. I treated the ducks, geese, coots and moorhens and a couple of robins to all the bait I had left over.

jan1.jpg
 
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peter crabtree

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Club fixture today on a day ticket lake near Heathrow. Felt confident when I drew a corner peg......

image.jpg


Having watched others fish here on previous occasions I knew the carps would be tight in amongst the marginal reeds to my right. In fact the reeds were knocking as I set up, they were there ok. Needed 14m of pole to get there and on plumbing up I found around 4' of water. At the off I dropped in tight with a big lump of flake which attracted the attention of the small roach and rudd, they were making short work of it every time. I switched to 4 maggots on my 12 hook and that attracted the perch.. I persevered, switching between bunches of maggots and big flake but the carps remained hidden in the reeds. After a couple of hours frustration and discomfort from holding the long pole I changed tack and went on the short whip, roach and Rudd a chuck on single maggot, but all swingers.
Although I was catching plenty of small fish I knew I wasn't going to get enough to frame, I began to beat myself up for trying 2 different methods, god knows I've done it many times before and should have known better.. Grrr!
In these hard winter matches it's got to be one or the other. If I had stayed on the whip I could have doubled or even trebled my weight in the 6 hours, alternatively if I'd stuck to the pole in the reeds I may have picked up some carps? One day I'll learn:eek:mg:

In the end I had 6lb12oz of bits and surprisingly came second in my section of 8.

image.jpg
 

Hogweed

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You must have had a fair walk Hogweed. The only weirs I know on that section are Rushy and Hoe Mill quite a walk from Paper Mill.
Do you still fish the Roding?

I did a rough check on google earth and it worked out to be about 2.2km. A good bit of much needed exercise ;-)

I've not fished the Roding for a 3 or 4 years now. And my favourite stretch is closed off while the club negotiates with the new landowner. They are taking so long to sort it I'm worried that it might not happen at all.
 

fishing4luckies

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Today I got out for the first time since mid-October. Work has been ridiculously hectic and as a self employed joiner/cabinet maker I have to make the most of the busy spells. Several trips were planned but every time something came up.

BUT NOT TODAY!!

Paid a visit to one of the lesser fished club lakes which I had all to myself and decided to try out my new Carp gear. Although the water was EXTREMELY cold I managed to entice one little six pounder into my net - a bunch of turmeric dusted maggots on a bay maggot clip did the business.

Never have I been so pleased to see a fish on my mat. Indeed I was so chuffed with the first fish of the year and after such a long break that I actually weighed it (6lb 3oz) and took a piccy (which I won't try and upload 'cos it's the most frustrating thing in all christendom).

I'll be paying the lake another visit next week to see if I can get a January Tinca to trip up. They are known to go to over 10lb in this particular pond.
 

Pete Shears

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Another trip to Sywell pike fishing,this time along the right hand bank - five cormorants on the reservoir all day,I fear the Tenchfishers re-stocking program will only feed these bloody pests.
Water very clear and still an incredible amount of canadian pondweed - no runs whatsoever.
I have not seen any fish roll,splash or do anything in six trips this autumn/winter,perhaps try again in March when it might be a bit warmer.
 

tigger

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I squeezed an hours trotting in today and it was a fish on my first trott, then it was a fish on virtually every trott after that. No large fish but plenty roach up to around 8 ounces and chub around a pound up to two pound, but mostly the pound sized fish. One poor chub of about a pound and a half was snatched by esox as I was bringing it in and had some serious war wounds...poor sod, but knowing how well fish can heal up I reckon it will have a fighting chance of recovery. It was 5 degrees so you might say not too cold but the wind was seriously biting and I soon thought about FJT 's saying "i'll be glad when i've had enough of this" and after an hour i'd had more than enough and was happy to get it the car out of that bonechiiling wind.
I didn't bother taking any pic's as I still couldn't post the ones from last time out due to postimage no working. It was a relief not to faff about taking any pic's to be honest!

Oh, I forgot to say I used a 12ft drennan acolyte carp waggler today and it was spot on for trotting incase anyone is looking for a shorter rod for the purpose. The 11 footer is spot on also if a shorter rod still is required.
 
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