How did you get on?

[peter crabtree]

A dry day with sunshine meant one thing for me. Fishing.

I took a mate to a local stretch of the GUC which he'd never seen before. Once again it fished it's nuts off, loads of prime roach and dace..

Once again punch was the bait they wanted but later on in the day caster accounted for a few too...

My mate's net was bulging after 5 hours and he really enjoyed it...

 

[steve2]

Finally got out for the first time yesterday only to be called back home after a couple of hours, the hospital wanted a word with us about the Mother in Law.
Caught nothing in the first hour on the first lake so I switched to the smaller lake and had 4 jacks best around 4lbs. Tried many different lures before finally catching on a 6” red head curly tail soft lure bounced slowly along the bottom of the lake.

 

[jasonbean1]

managed to get back the stream last night. the level had dropped about a foot and the colour was dropping out and it was looking bang on for a fish or 2.

baited 2 deep pools with a few broken boilies, pellets and paste in the bait dropper and got set up. switched the radio on and rolled a fag as I set up in the first swim only to realise I had left the lighter in the car, strolled back to get it and 15 minutes later swinging the bait out into the first swim. straight away it twitched and then went round, struck nothing there. dropped in again, straight the way another twitch followed by a positive pull, struck...into a fish, spirited but short fight and a nice chub around 4lb in the net. great start and not even dark yet.

changed from the bomb to a little feeder to keep bait going in and continued to get knocks and taps over the next 90mins but no proper bites so moved to the other pool.

very dark now and managed to split my britches on the barbed wire getting over the fencemg:

first drop in tip flew round and struck at thin air...another hour passed without a bite so fed both the swims and will go back this evening with slightly different rigs to hopefully avoid missed bites.

 

[jasonbean1]

A dry day with sunshine meant one thing for me. Fishing.

I took a mate to a local stretch of the GUC which he'd never seen before. Once again it fished it's nuts off, loads of prime roach and dace..

Once again punch was the bait they wanted but later on in the day caster accounted for a few too...

My mate's net was bulging after 5 hours and he really enjoyed it...

eye on the roach looks like it has bubbles in it?

 

[mikench]

It would have been easier not to have bothered with my exploits today and save some embarrassment but if it helps others to know that I can still be a plonker then I am agreeable to telling all. There are no fish involved in this tale because despite best efforts I blanked.



The above was pristine grass albeit waterlogged until I decided to park on it. I got well and truly stuck and the car was sliding sideways down the incline towards the lake. I rang the farmer and his son came to my rescue but it took an hour before I was free. A Four by four is useless with low profile tyres as I discovered. I couldn't find the towing eye to insert in the space in the front bumper and emptied the car looking for it. A google search revealed that it could be found underneath the front passenger seat! How was I supposed to know that!

I could not bring myself to photo the car as it would have offended my sensibilities and it has taken me an hour with the jet wash to remove the mud Not a nibble on the feeder and I tried all kinds of bait. The barometric pressure was around 1015 so that might explain it.

In conclusion I wish I hadn't bothered! Steve are memberships available at your club?

It isn't obvious but the grass is on a steep incline leading down to the water probably a 1: 5. Gulp!

 

[peter crabtree]

This week I've been saying to myself ' I must try fishing that little bit of the river Gade that I've looked at numerous times and never fished'. A while back I mentioned it to Rob (artist) and he said he'd caught a few bits there and that it was uncannily deep. So off I went this afternoon, travelling light I arrived to find it very coloured and indeed about 5' deep.

Just to the left is the canal which is canalised river and this spot is where the river resumes. To the right it splits and goes over 2 separate weirs where an old mill used to be.

With my 11' rod and 3bb stickfloat it was a gentle flick to get as close to the overhanging vegetation opposite and trot down to the right. I was feeding a pinch of maggots every chuck.

First bite a small, but welcome, dace.

Then a roach.

A chublet and a flurry of small gudgeon all took my single maggot but nothing of any size.

I tried leaving the rig in the slack directly in front of me, more gudgeon until on one cast the float moved very slowly under, I thought it had snagged up and lifted it a bit, felt like a branch or something until it kicked into action.

Happy days...

 

[john step]

It would have been easier not to have bothered with my exploits today and save some embarrassment but if it helps others to know that I can still be a plonker then I am agreeable to telling all. There are no fish involved in this tale because despite best efforts I blanked.



The above was pristine grass albeit waterlogged until I decided to park on it. I got well and truly stuck and the car was sliding sideways down the incline towards the lake. I rang the farmer and his son came to my rescue but it took an hour before I was free. A Four by four is useless with low profile tyres as I discovered. I couldn't find the towing eye to insert in the space in the front bumper and emptied the car looking for it. A google search revealed that it could be found underneath the front passenger seat! How was I supposed to know that!

I could not bring myself to photo the car as it would have offended my sensibilities and it has taken me an hour with the jet wash to remove the mud Not a nibble on the feeder and I tried all kinds of bait. The barometric pressure was around 1015 so that might explain it.

In conclusion I wish I hadn't bothered! Steve are memberships available at your club?

It isn't obvious but the grass is on a steep incline leading down to the water probably a 1: 5. Gulp!

Now you know how feel from owning a very competent but expensive to run 4X4 to now a small Skoda....reliable and cheap to run but useless on wet grassmg:

 

[103841]

That's a gimme for a PC award surely?

That ain't no 4 X 4, it's a Chelsea tractor.

 

[mikench]

Far be it from me to comment!

 

[Pete Shears]

A trip to the river Wreake this morning,beautiful winters dawn,just a little frost on the grass and a slight mist in the air but no wind.Walking across the field startled a hare which went bounding away and then a white egret flew up out of the river margins and continued to keep me company until I left.The level was up but below my usual swim it widened and had a large slow moving back eddy which soon saw a cage feeder filled with liquidised bread and a lump of crust on the hook gently cast into it.The tip was bouncing and rattling from the off -
crayfish,roach,dace ? - dunno but eventually started to connect with chub totalling seven to 1lb 11oz - no biggies but well worth the effort.Activity slowed from 9am & at 1030 I headed for home to the grim task of finding out why the bathroom sink would not empty.

 

[108831]

eye on the roach looks like it has bubbles in it?

Tears Jason...

 

[jasonbean1]

Yep sad day for the roach being caught by Crabtree and co

 

[rubio]

At the very time I look forward to the years best roach fishing period on my local river I managed to catch a single chub of nearly a pound. The river is flowing and coloured. usually enough to reward even my modest capabilities but 5 blanks in a row is something I haven't done in a while.
I'm not looking for extra excuses (honest) but does anyone else think that spawning is imminent?

 

[108831]

Don't think spawning is in their heads for a fair while yet.

I went this morning,the usual trotting,pin and maggot,two roach and two chub,biggest 5-13,packed at 12.30 as the rain reared its ugly head,that along with a strong gusty downstream wind made it impossible to control the float(even a biggun).

 

[jasonbean1]

Finished work yesterday and was feeling a bit groggy so gave the stream a miss last night and had an early one.

Woke up feeling great so got down there first light for a couple of hours before the rain started. The stream was almost down to normal winter trim with a nice colour to it. Dropped 4 paste wrapped boilies in each pool and started off in the up per pool where I missed a bit e last time. Within a couple of mins the tip rattled but nothing came of it. Had another 20 mins there and was just about to move and I thought I would drop it further down the swim. Straight the way it moved round slowly and held just as if it was a clump of weed on the line. Decided to strike just in case and good job I did as lively chub tried to bury his head under the far bank tree, once I got from there he was mine and in the net, didn't weigh him but not far off 5lb.....good start, another cast and nothing so dropped into the lower pool. Missed a tentative bite straight off then nothing for 30 mins . Started to rain so headed off home watch Leicester beat peterbourogh. Good start to the day.

Canal club match tomorrow so we'll see how that goes.

 

[flightliner]

A complete fun day this Friday gone at Lincolnshires Toft Newton near Market Rasen when it staged its any method day.
An early start , cool and damp thatgave way to a white over frost as I approached the venue had me fearing it may be iced over but gladly it wasn't.
It's about as isolated a venue I fish which is for me one of its big attractions that I've enjoyed since the year it first opened back in the seventies when I first enjoyed its fly fishing,
Rods prepped the night before had me casting in just has a big red sun was popping itself over the horizon behind me.
It was seconds before the rod tip bounced and I was playing the first trout of the day, a nice brown that was followed by a succession of its cousins in the following hour.
The wind picked up and was in my face so another wrap up in my goretex overcoat and I was off again but this time with my float rod fished midwater that threw up fish at a much slower rate but the fish were all of a bigger size with both rainbows and browns going to the three pound plus size.
It rained around noon so I retreated to the car nearby and had a bite to eat and a cuppa and finished just as the rain ended so back to the task where things continued as before.
The wind tho never abated and the back of my hands were freezing so I went back on the quiver so to give me the odd minute or so to put my hands in my pockets between fish.
The red arrows put on a nice display mid afternoon that was nice as usual-- boy, can those guys fly !
Not just them however , time goes much faster when we enjoy ourselves and friday was no exception so wanting to be past Gainsborough before nightfall I packed away the gear and left.

 

[bullet]

Cabin fever really setting in now so had to get out today, river high and coloured, but ok for a few swims.
First put in and 30 seconds later a good bite rewarded me with a nice Chub 4lb ish.
Sadly that was it, usual 'banker' swims produced nothing.
Great to get out again, though, haven't been for around 4 weeks.

 

[Graham Elliott 1]

4 hours on the Wye this morning. My two banker swims taken. Blanked.

Note to self. Don't go on a Sunday.

 

[maggot_dangler]

Fished a new poool today small place but reasonable thou about 6 to 8 feet deep at best up to 2.5 at the edges .

Only took Bread ( should have known better ) 3 others fishing and the only one catching was on maggots so blanked had a few nibbles and one bite that i missed .

I will be back there in the spring hopefully better armed to fish the place .

First time out in 2018 so not a good start for the years fishing .

PG ...

 

[mikench]

Don't worry although it is frustrating! The barometer is saying 1017 so not good!