How did you get on?
- Thread starter peter crabtree
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O
O.C.F.Disorder
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Its 3am so I cba to upload pictures or go to in depth but caught a beautiful little tench on a stick float today from the Avon and it blew my mind 
I've been doing really well lately (by my standards anyway) and have been catching ok. Yesterday, up at 3am, started on a slow reach of the Thames - not a bite on either float or leger. Saw another otter, second one in two weeks, the first was on the Kennet. Still too early in the season, the roach shoals will move to the slower reaches later.
Soon moved to a big Thames weirpool, started trotting hemp and urid beans in an eddy. I ended up with lots of roach to just over the pound mark, several smallish chub and a few dace. For a short while I tried dead maggots but caught only tiddlers and bleak.
It was obvious though that the bigger roach wanted hemp instead of the urid beans and that the urid beans were more acceptable to the chub than hemp. Food for yet more thought?
Soon moved to a big Thames weirpool, started trotting hemp and urid beans in an eddy. I ended up with lots of roach to just over the pound mark, several smallish chub and a few dace. For a short while I tried dead maggots but caught only tiddlers and bleak.
It was obvious though that the bigger roach wanted hemp instead of the urid beans and that the urid beans were more acceptable to the chub than hemp. Food for yet more thought?
Tee-Cee
Senior Member
I haven't been out this past week, but prior to that I caught well over 150 roach in a 10 day period, 90% of which fell to hemp either standard size or the giant stuff. Up to a bit more than a pound mostly with almost all the better fish falling to tares fished singly or better yet, as doubles. This is on still waters btw so interesting flowing water roach of a better size seemingly prefer hemp.
I do try beans of different types hoping to bag really good roach (without much major success I might add) and apart from the odd fish they tend to be hard work. By far the most successful bait for me (again on still waters) has been tinned chick peas bought from Indian grocer shops under the name Curried Chickpeas. Any attempt to mimic this bait at home has failed miserably!
Not an easy bait to use by any means and they need to soften up (in and out of the freezer a few times) and then hooking them can also be an issue,BUT when I get it right they can be devisating...
Hope to try them them tomorrow IF I am capable of reaching the bank!!!
I do try beans of different types hoping to bag really good roach (without much major success I might add) and apart from the odd fish they tend to be hard work. By far the most successful bait for me (again on still waters) has been tinned chick peas bought from Indian grocer shops under the name Curried Chickpeas. Any attempt to mimic this bait at home has failed miserably!
Not an easy bait to use by any means and they need to soften up (in and out of the freezer a few times) and then hooking them can also be an issue,BUT when I get it right they can be devisating...
Hope to try them them tomorrow IF I am capable of reaching the bank!!!
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With a list of domestic chores I was just able to squeeze in an early morning trip to the estate and fish from 5am til 9.
The lake is looking rather sorry for itself at the moment and not looking at all healthy, definitely couldn’t fish this end of the lake.
The other end of the lake was clear of algae and surface scum but bites were hard to come by and those that did were pesky skimmers and the odd bream. Fed up with seeing the float constantly on the move with the nuisance fish I stripped off the float and freelined a large chunk of meat, held the line between my fingers and had a few zzzzz’s. The nap didn’t last long as a nice hard tug indicated a nice tench which over the final hour was followed by a further two est going just over 4lb.
With chores all done I’m going to head down to the beach and see if the bass have moved in on the high tide. I’d like to report back today with my first fish from the sea, I doubt it though.
The lake is looking rather sorry for itself at the moment and not looking at all healthy, definitely couldn’t fish this end of the lake.
The other end of the lake was clear of algae and surface scum but bites were hard to come by and those that did were pesky skimmers and the odd bream. Fed up with seeing the float constantly on the move with the nuisance fish I stripped off the float and freelined a large chunk of meat, held the line between my fingers and had a few zzzzz’s. The nap didn’t last long as a nice hard tug indicated a nice tench which over the final hour was followed by a further two est going just over 4lb.
With chores all done I’m going to head down to the beach and see if the bass have moved in on the high tide. I’d like to report back today with my first fish from the sea, I doubt it though.
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peter crabtree
AKA Simon, 1953 - 2022 (RIP)
Evening series match last night on the Aylesbury arm of the GUC. Out in the sticks here and a generally hard venue during the day. Once the sun dipped around 7pm after an hour it came alive. Roach/bream hybrids were most prominent and were taking most baits. This was my peg looking down on the slightly low level of water with big clumps of weed in the shallow margins.
I soon found that to induce a bite, a ball of liquy dropped in over the float brought almost immediate bites. The trouble was I soon ran out.
By 9pm and the all out I had 7 hybrids and a roach. I'm sure I would have fared better had I taken enough liquy...
Winner had a slab of 5:2 plus bits for 7lb:2.
2nd 4lb and 3rd 3:2.
Having led the league table for the last 5 matches I am now on equal points at the top with the bloke who won, but down to 2nd on total weight by a few ounces..
I soon found that to induce a bite, a ball of liquy dropped in over the float brought almost immediate bites. The trouble was I soon ran out.
By 9pm and the all out I had 7 hybrids and a roach. I'm sure I would have fared better had I taken enough liquy...
Winner had a slab of 5:2 plus bits for 7lb:2.
2nd 4lb and 3rd 3:2.
Having led the league table for the last 5 matches I am now on equal points at the top with the bloke who won, but down to 2nd on total weight by a few ounces..
Another Dave
Well-known member
s63, were you fishing the braid straight through or was there a leader/hooklength?
Tee-Cee
Senior Member
I was in Mr Crabtree territory this morning as I has an appointment at Stoke Mandaville hospital so the wife and I went for a tootle around Tring beforehand including a trip to the Natural History museum. Nice enough little town with bags of water what with all those 'arms' off the main GU canal. Spoilt for choice....
Ended up at Marston/Startops Res for a walk around where fish were nosing around in the heat of the day and I thought of Walker making a cast as per the cover photo graph of his book, Still Water Angling. Just had time for a quick sarnie at the Bluebird(?) cafe then an hour wait at the hospital.................Nice.
Ended up at Marston/Startops Res for a walk around where fish were nosing around in the heat of the day and I thought of Walker making a cast as per the cover photo graph of his book, Still Water Angling. Just had time for a quick sarnie at the Bluebird(?) cafe then an hour wait at the hospital.................Nice.
mikench
Well-known member
I returned to the venue which affords shade from 10am onwards and had the brolly up for the first couple of hours! The lake surface had a lot of scum on it including lily pad leaves which seemed unusually attracted to my line! This was my first fish after about an hour on meat!
View attachment 5101
A beautiful tench of just less than 4lb! After this the day could only go downhill but was I bothered ? I had another slightly smaller , a couple of bream about 5lb, an F1 of at least 3lb and a stunning dark scaled common which I wish I had photographed!
An enjoyable cool day with some interesting chats with fellow club members on the works of Graham Greene!
View attachment 5101
A beautiful tench of just less than 4lb! After this the day could only go downhill but was I bothered ? I had another slightly smaller , a couple of bream about 5lb, an F1 of at least 3lb and a stunning dark scaled common which I wish I had photographed!
An enjoyable cool day with some interesting chats with fellow club members on the works of Graham Greene!
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I assume you’re referring to my last river outing. I fished braid straight through, green power pro braid, looks like streamer weed (a tip picked up from a member here), glad I did, I’m not sure I could have dragged the chub onto the bank away from the jaws of a pike in hot pursuit.
O
O.C.F.Disorder
Guest
Here is the pic of the little tench I caught the other day.
Imgur: The magic of the Internet
I normally catch and release straight away but had to get out the collapsible bucket to get a snap of this little fella.
Imgur: The magic of the Internet
I normally catch and release straight away but had to get out the collapsible bucket to get a snap of this little fella.
mikench
Well-known member
Small baby tench are the cutest of fish!
Me and the lad went to Barlow today, it has 5 coarse lakes/ponds, and we had in mind the tench pond. The best two pegs were taken by coffin dodgers from another county so we settled for what we could get.
I'd taken my cheese paste for a try and some of the peanut butter which never made an appearance. I also had corn, pellets and the lad had spam as well.
Both started off on float and paste and all we did was get mithered by fry of various sizes. lots of floats dipping but nothing on the hook when striking.
After a bit I got cheesed (pardon the pun) off and switched to pellet feeder. Skrettings micros with a 6mm pellet banded on a 14 hook and off we go. not quite hook a chuck but pretty good all the same.
Had a number of nice crucians to about 1.5lb, three tench, 2 green and one golden so orange I thought it was a goldfish and quite a number of decent roach were being obliging along with a particularly nice rudd.
The resident carp were just cruising and laughing at us but we were getting some action.
The lad was frustrated at only getting roach and he swore blind he caught the same fish 5 times but at least he was catching and he got some on cage feeder and 3 free-lining corn.
Towards the end I decided not to make anymore micro pellets up and switched to cage feeder with groundbait holding the remains of a tin of corn and aforementioned pellet and the fish still kept coming.
Apart from the blistering heat so bad I had to put the brolly up it was all gravy!
I'd taken my cheese paste for a try and some of the peanut butter which never made an appearance. I also had corn, pellets and the lad had spam as well.
Both started off on float and paste and all we did was get mithered by fry of various sizes. lots of floats dipping but nothing on the hook when striking.
After a bit I got cheesed (pardon the pun) off and switched to pellet feeder. Skrettings micros with a 6mm pellet banded on a 14 hook and off we go. not quite hook a chuck but pretty good all the same.
Had a number of nice crucians to about 1.5lb, three tench, 2 green and one golden so orange I thought it was a goldfish and quite a number of decent roach were being obliging along with a particularly nice rudd.
The resident carp were just cruising and laughing at us but we were getting some action.
The lad was frustrated at only getting roach and he swore blind he caught the same fish 5 times but at least he was catching and he got some on cage feeder and 3 free-lining corn.
Towards the end I decided not to make anymore micro pellets up and switched to cage feeder with groundbait holding the remains of a tin of corn and aforementioned pellet and the fish still kept coming.
Apart from the blistering heat so bad I had to put the brolly up it was all gravy!
neil1970
Well-known member
I managed to get out for a quick half hour before dark.
One tiny, shiny Chub.
One tiny, shiny Chub.
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mikench
Well-known member
I decided to try my local Mere which is a mile away!
View attachment 5102
This was my left hand view from my chosen peg with a clump of water lilies hiding, I hoped some nice roach and tench!
View attachment 5103
The above was my peg and my view to the right and across the lake! My first cast was a drop in of a meat bait on the hybrid feeder at my feet to a largish common hoovering up goodies ! It took the bait and shot off! I brought it to the net and it shed the hook! That was an omen of things to come! I had about 6 lovely roach around the 3/4lb Mark and several tiny skimmers! I lost many many more fish after the tip swung round and I connected only for the hook to be pulled near the net! All were roach and I had by this time changed the hook dropping down to a 16 banded 4mm pellet. Meat, corn and larger pellets produced nothing! I cannot understand why! I was also plagued by tiny fish, skimmers, perch And gudgeon which produced lots of twitches and quivers on the tip! It was very hot and humid and I was glad to get home to watch the footie! Allez les bleus!
View attachment 5102
This was my left hand view from my chosen peg with a clump of water lilies hiding, I hoped some nice roach and tench!
View attachment 5103
The above was my peg and my view to the right and across the lake! My first cast was a drop in of a meat bait on the hybrid feeder at my feet to a largish common hoovering up goodies ! It took the bait and shot off! I brought it to the net and it shed the hook! That was an omen of things to come! I had about 6 lovely roach around the 3/4lb Mark and several tiny skimmers! I lost many many more fish after the tip swung round and I connected only for the hook to be pulled near the net! All were roach and I had by this time changed the hook dropping down to a 16 banded 4mm pellet. Meat, corn and larger pellets produced nothing! I cannot understand why! I was also plagued by tiny fish, skimmers, perch And gudgeon which produced lots of twitches and quivers on the tip! It was very hot and humid and I was glad to get home to watch the footie! Allez les bleus!
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O
O.C.F.Disorder
Guest
Another member, myself and my better half went for a session on the grand union canal in the middle of a beautiful little village. We didnt catch an awful lot but it was such a beautiful day, I cant complain. Not alot beats sitting in a shaded spot with friends and watching the float dip away while talking **** and eating sandwiches.
mikench
Well-known member
It is indeed John! It's very picturesque and in the middle of nowhere but not far from the town centre! It's close to an SSSi and to where Lindow Man was discovered. It's not an easy water however as I well know but it's beauty makes up for the blanks it produces! My biggest fish to date( a common of 24lb) came from here!
I might just go again soon!!!!
I might just go again soon!!!!
Tee-Cee
Senior Member
My shortened session this morning produce around 15 roach, but none of any real size. I intended fishing on the drop but the hemp bait rarely reached a foot below the surface as the roach hit the seed almost as soon as it hit the water! Vicious bites even had the rod tip jagging from time to time!!
Good to be out and probably Monday before I make another attempt at a short session. Better than nothing, though..
Good to be out and probably Monday before I make another attempt at a short session. Better than nothing, though..
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Had a great couple of hours swimming the stream with my m8 Pete this evening. He took me to a stretch of river on one of my clubs books that i've never got round to fishing.
Anyhow we fished some lovely little rapids and I had about 40 or so small chub and dace and ten little barbel ranging in size from about 8 ounces to about 2 1/2lb. I know Pete had plenty small chub and dace but I honestly don't know if he had any of those small barbel as we split up for a spell and ever even discussed our catch after, we where to busy chattin about other irrelivent stuff as you do when enjoying yourselves.
Anyhow we fished some lovely little rapids and I had about 40 or so small chub and dace and ten little barbel ranging in size from about 8 ounces to about 2 1/2lb. I know Pete had plenty small chub and dace but I honestly don't know if he had any of those small barbel as we split up for a spell and ever even discussed our catch after, we where to busy chattin about other irrelivent stuff as you do when enjoying yourselves
.