Another Dave
Well-known member
Time for a very quick session this morning, along with my 6 year old assistant/photographer and some cubes of Plumrose.
How did you get on?
- Thread starter peter crabtree
- Start date
thecrow
Well-known member
Another Dave
Well-known member
State of that stubble!
- Joined
- Aug 31, 2014
- Messages
- 6,172
- Reaction score
- 1,950
I had a plan today.... a plan that went t1ts up.
Fishing the same venue for the same fish using the same method can become a bit of a bore over time.
So I thought I’d spice things up a bit today, one rod, one reel, two lures. A kind of a surf and turf challenge if you like. The aim, catch a chub from the Stour and then drive the ten miles to the sea and catch a bass, changing nothing but the lure.
Two hours on the river produced zilch, plenty of fish showing but not interested in my lure whatsoever. With the second element still to come I drove to the beach with optimism, on arrival it was clear that my optimism was a waste of energy, there was a strong sea breeze causing a choppy surface with plenty of colour, not ideal for lure fishing. Plenty of families out enjoying the sun and not interested in watching England come fourth, I didn’t bother getting the rod out of the car.
Monday I shall make the challenge a bit easier, fish the Seasalter drain for Rudd, roach and tench and if the wind desists walk 100metres to the beach and have another go at the bass.
Fishing the same venue for the same fish using the same method can become a bit of a bore over time.
So I thought I’d spice things up a bit today, one rod, one reel, two lures. A kind of a surf and turf challenge if you like. The aim, catch a chub from the Stour and then drive the ten miles to the sea and catch a bass, changing nothing but the lure.
Two hours on the river produced zilch, plenty of fish showing but not interested in my lure whatsoever. With the second element still to come I drove to the beach with optimism, on arrival it was clear that my optimism was a waste of energy, there was a strong sea breeze causing a choppy surface with plenty of colour, not ideal for lure fishing. Plenty of families out enjoying the sun and not interested in watching England come fourth, I didn’t bother getting the rod out of the car.
Monday I shall make the challenge a bit easier, fish the Seasalter drain for Rudd, roach and tench and if the wind desists walk 100metres to the beach and have another go at the bass.
Roger Johnson 2
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 30, 2003
- Messages
- 213
- Reaction score
- 529
About 8.30 this evening my dear wife suggested I go fishing, ( which is great but it gets better) and half an hour later I’m up to my nadgers in the river attached to a zoo creature and as rod benders have been thin on the ground lately after about 10 minutes I risk getting my phone out whilst standing in 3 feet of strong flowing water and playing the aforementioned zoo creature left handed ask my wife to bring me a bigger landing net......NOW! Bless her she did just that and the result was this immaculate 4 1/2lb barbel, my first from the River Dordogne and first on an artificial bait too, a Berkeley Gulp waxy ( red maggot to us Brits).
I don’t think life gets much better than catching a barbel from the bottom of the garden.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Another Dave
Well-known member
Lovely fish.
O
O.C.F.Disorder
Guest
yesterday I went out with my better half to a lake I found on google maps in the winter and although it was no longer surrounded by boggy marshland it now spat a new challenges at us..
On the long walk there we made a few quick stops at some hot spots (spinning for chub) and just as we are in sight of the area the lake resides in, we find ourselves at a harvester.. We cant resist stopping in for half hour to wet our whistles (I forgot our frozen bottles of water and only had warm tap water from the day before).. we start drinking and chatting and laughing and drinking and 30 mins becomes a 90 mins and two drinks become eight...
We approach (stumble to) the field that holds our little lake..
"No."
"Come on, i'll make a really good path for you. It will be fine."
"No."
"Please?"
"Fine."
I spent about 5 mins finding a stick, sounds dumb but it was worth it. found the perfect stick and started beating at the shoulder high shrubbery whilst simultaneously trying to stomp it all down for Missy and dodge patches of stinging nettles, thistles and nesting spiders. I got in a good rhythm and we eventually got to the edge of the water after about 400 meters of rain forest like vegetation and ducking under some crazy low hanging trees and suffice to say I had f***** up. The weeds continued all the way around the lake and eventually became a wall of brambles and nettles. You wanna know how I know? BECAUSE I UNKNOWINGLY BEAT A TRACK AROUND HALF THE LAKE unknowingly until I got my phone out and checked my coordinates! So I trekked back to Mrs (whom I left at the very start of my conquest around the lake) and she had beaten a tiny track to the water through the weeds and set sticks over the marshy ground. :highly_amused: We go on to catch some beautiful Rudd, Perch, and stupendous amounts of roach on maggots and bread before packing up and making the long trip home (with a "quick" stop for an ultimate mixed grill). Another couple of weeks and ill be able to stop walking like a cripple me thinks.
On the long walk there we made a few quick stops at some hot spots (spinning for chub) and just as we are in sight of the area the lake resides in, we find ourselves at a harvester.. We cant resist stopping in for half hour to wet our whistles (I forgot our frozen bottles of water and only had warm tap water from the day before).. we start drinking and chatting and laughing and drinking and 30 mins becomes a 90 mins and two drinks become eight...
We approach (stumble to) the field that holds our little lake..
"No."
"Come on, i'll make a really good path for you. It will be fine."
"No."
"Please?"
"Fine."
I spent about 5 mins finding a stick, sounds dumb but it was worth it. found the perfect stick and started beating at the shoulder high shrubbery whilst simultaneously trying to stomp it all down for Missy and dodge patches of stinging nettles, thistles and nesting spiders. I got in a good rhythm and we eventually got to the edge of the water after about 400 meters of rain forest like vegetation and ducking under some crazy low hanging trees and suffice to say I had f***** up. The weeds continued all the way around the lake and eventually became a wall of brambles and nettles. You wanna know how I know? BECAUSE I UNKNOWINGLY BEAT A TRACK AROUND HALF THE LAKE unknowingly until I got my phone out and checked my coordinates! So I trekked back to Mrs (whom I left at the very start of my conquest around the lake) and she had beaten a tiny track to the water through the weeds and set sticks over the marshy ground. :highly_amused: We go on to catch some beautiful Rudd, Perch, and stupendous amounts of roach on maggots and bread before packing up and making the long trip home (with a "quick" stop for an ultimate mixed grill). Another couple of weeks and ill be able to stop walking like a cripple me thinks.
Went fishing yesterday(couldn't to another week without a fix),my chosen venues were no-go areas,one had a 24hr match(4 anglers last year,grrr),the other,the river at Bedford had the river festival,so with deep regret I went to Lawn Farm at Cambourne,Cambs,well I ended up with 20 chub to 2.5lb,16 carp to 9lbish and a few skimmers,packing at 3.30pm spit roasted....
Last edited:
no-one in particular
Well-known member
Nothing again, being a Saturday plenty fishing along the jetty with lug-worms, spinning, feathers but zilch. No whitebait or sand-eels along the wall; used to get loads of those and Launce or Greater Sand-eel, used to be able to hook the odd one on tiny hooks and silver paper. Caught a Red Mullet once in the hot weather which I gave to a sea life aquarium. but the times are hard. If they ever introduce a sea license I wont be buying one.
Still, sorted my float system out and tidied my tackle box, no sign of the bloke you would not buy a boat from, shame, I enjoyed that but plenty of have you caught anything, might put a sign up "caught sod all so far so sod off". Only joking, enjoy it really. Nice EE stopped for a chat, said he had caught some mackerel off Dover, tempted to tell him it was illegal and he had to put them back but couldn't be that cruel in the end.
Another day, there's always another day, might have another go today or tomorrow; see what washes up on the jetty.
Still, sorted my float system out and tidied my tackle box, no sign of the bloke you would not buy a boat from, shame, I enjoyed that but plenty of have you caught anything, might put a sign up "caught sod all so far so sod off". Only joking, enjoy it really. Nice EE stopped for a chat, said he had caught some mackerel off Dover, tempted to tell him it was illegal and he had to put them back but couldn't be that cruel in the end.
Another day, there's always another day, might have another go today or tomorrow; see what washes up on the jetty.
Last edited:
sam vimes
Well-known member
Popped down for a look at a spot on the river that has a steep riffle on a bend. It's one of the few spots I'd expect to have some depth and flow with the river so painfully low. I was greeted with the sight of a snotty green mess in any water less than a couple of feet deep. There was a small central channel with a little bit of flow. Sadly, it wasn't enough to tempt me into getting the gear ready. If I can be bothered later, it'll be for the dubious joys of bit bashing (there aren't that many bits to bash) on a deep stillwater. It's all beginning to feel like going for the sake of it. Roll on the predicted rain due in the coming week. A week of work should keep me otherwise engaged after today.
- Joined
- Aug 31, 2014
- Messages
- 6,172
- Reaction score
- 1,950
Why was it illegal, were they under size?
Another Dave
Well-known member
Set off about 1, and my usual first stop off, the cliff swim, didn't have any chub bigger than a few oz, which is highly unusual. The next few spots had shoals of children in them, must be 30 degrees C out there today, and so wearing my trusty legionnaire's cap i crossed the scorched meadow and headed for my parrotcage swim. It was a day to just be.
As well as a few chub there were some nice looking dace milling around so i changed down to a size 12 and clipped a 'strike indicator' on with a match and cocked it with a BB. Soon had a fair dace on a tiny piece of meat but couldn't tempt another after that, they are so finnicky. The chub melted away so i kept a few free offerings going in and just fished on. Soon i could hear a commotion upstream, a man and a woman were wading down with their dog, stirring up the water into cocoa. To their credit they turned around when they saw me. Got a bite straight away, turns out the chub like a bit of colour in the water.
Once again, apologies for my phone having a terrible camera.
There was no way i was moving out of my dappled shade and i could see that all the free offerings had gone under the cover of cocoa so i rebaited the hook and swim, put the float overdepth and had a relaxing smoke and finished the ice cold beer i'd slipped into the old rucksack. After a short wait i embarked upon an adventure. The float slipped away, i struck and the fish TOOK OFF downstream, absolutely no turning it. The only thing i could compare it to was when i fished that commercial in June and carp kept gatecrashing the party. Fish is still hurtling downstream and is soon going to be out of sight if i don't do something drastic so i got in. Thigh deep. The priority now is just to get a look at this fish to see what it is, landing it is secondary. To cut a long fight short it was my old friend the trout that i caught a couple of weeks ago when i caught the eel, only this time i'd just nicked him in the anal fin, hence the steamtrain impersonation.
As well as a few chub there were some nice looking dace milling around so i changed down to a size 12 and clipped a 'strike indicator' on with a match and cocked it with a BB. Soon had a fair dace on a tiny piece of meat but couldn't tempt another after that, they are so finnicky. The chub melted away so i kept a few free offerings going in and just fished on. Soon i could hear a commotion upstream, a man and a woman were wading down with their dog, stirring up the water into cocoa. To their credit they turned around when they saw me. Got a bite straight away, turns out the chub like a bit of colour in the water.
Once again, apologies for my phone having a terrible camera.
There was no way i was moving out of my dappled shade and i could see that all the free offerings had gone under the cover of cocoa so i rebaited the hook and swim, put the float overdepth and had a relaxing smoke and finished the ice cold beer i'd slipped into the old rucksack. After a short wait i embarked upon an adventure. The float slipped away, i struck and the fish TOOK OFF downstream, absolutely no turning it. The only thing i could compare it to was when i fished that commercial in June and carp kept gatecrashing the party. Fish is still hurtling downstream and is soon going to be out of sight if i don't do something drastic so i got in. Thigh deep. The priority now is just to get a look at this fish to see what it is, landing it is secondary. To cut a long fight short it was my old friend the trout that i caught a couple of weeks ago when i caught the eel, only this time i'd just nicked him in the anal fin, hence the steamtrain impersonation.
Last edited:
peter crabtree
AKA Simon, 1953 - 2022 (RIP)
Early start this morning, off down the M4 to the west of Reading. Club fixture on the river Kennet. I imagined it would be low and fairly static but on arrival I was pleasantly surprised to find it pushing along at a fair pace. Drew on the navigable section but the boat traffic was fairly light. Set up 15' rod with a 5BB stickfloat and plumbed up, about 6' depth and a nice crease along my side.
Unfortunately it didn't fish as good as it looked, bites were pretty random, mainly small roach. A big pike grabbed one of them and bent my rod double, I was well impressed with the rod coping with the runs and lunges before the pike eventually let go.
It was very hot in the sun and I had the brolly tilted behind me.
The cattle kept licking it though...
Didn't catch much in the end and on retrieving my keepnet from the rushes the bank gave way and I nearly fell in, got a wet foot though.
Didnt bother weighing in but the winner found some fair sized bream on the maggot feeder for 11lb.
Unfortunately it didn't fish as good as it looked, bites were pretty random, mainly small roach. A big pike grabbed one of them and bent my rod double, I was well impressed with the rod coping with the runs and lunges before the pike eventually let go.
It was very hot in the sun and I had the brolly tilted behind me.
The cattle kept licking it though...
Didn't catch much in the end and on retrieving my keepnet from the rushes the bank gave way and I nearly fell in, got a wet foot though.
Didnt bother weighing in but the winner found some fair sized bream on the maggot feeder for 11lb.
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2009
- Messages
- 9,335
- Reaction score
- 1,696
Just got back from a couple of hours trotting on my lake outlet. Getting there felt like I was cutting my way through the undergrowth in unexplored territory's .
Anyhow I finally got there scratched, nettled and bitten to bu££ery...the nettle stings are smarting and tingling as I post this, prob will be tonight and all.
Obviously no one had been there recently and so it was like a virgin water in front of me - well since I fished it last.
I had lots of fish during my session consisting of dace, chub and a little tiddly bream as big as my hand that looked like a new penny!
I fished several glides on the outlet and on one of them the stream was only 25ft across with lots of balsam and nettles hanging over the water and large grass species growing out from the bank. I had to be careful not to put too much weight down when finding a foothold as the undergrowth gave a false impression of solidness and one wrong move and i'd be in there with the bloody fish!
I did well in that swim catching some nice dace and chub to about a pound.
After moving to another swim and casting upstream my float trotted down and as it got directly in front of me it went under and I struck into something very worthwhile. I have had odd barbel here before but only tiddlers and this fish whatever it was wasn't a tiddler.
Immediately the rod arched right over as i hooked the fish. The fish stayed glued to the bottom for a few seconds just pulsating on the line before moving directly across the river to the opposite bank.
I know my set up was good and that I should be able to catch pretty much anything in that stream with it. I had one thing different to my normal set up though...i'd recently bought some guru feeder hooks to try as a change from my usual kamasan animals and drennan super spades. That was a mistake as when the fish powered across the water the hook pulled out under the pressure. I was gutted as you can imagine as I would love to have known what that fish was. Upon inspection the hook had opened up completely....guru hooks, no thanks!
If i'd had my normal hooks in use I would have landed that fish and it would have been the icing on a decent little trotting session.....effin guru hooks!
Anyhow I finally got there scratched, nettled and bitten to bu££ery...the nettle stings are smarting and tingling as I post this, prob will be tonight and all.
Obviously no one had been there recently and so it was like a virgin water in front of me - well since I fished it last.
I had lots of fish during my session consisting of dace, chub and a little tiddly bream as big as my hand that looked like a new penny!
I fished several glides on the outlet and on one of them the stream was only 25ft across with lots of balsam and nettles hanging over the water and large grass species growing out from the bank. I had to be careful not to put too much weight down when finding a foothold as the undergrowth gave a false impression of solidness and one wrong move and i'd be in there with the bloody fish!
I did well in that swim catching some nice dace and chub to about a pound.
After moving to another swim and casting upstream my float trotted down and as it got directly in front of me it went under and I struck into something very worthwhile. I have had odd barbel here before but only tiddlers and this fish whatever it was wasn't a tiddler.
Immediately the rod arched right over as i hooked the fish. The fish stayed glued to the bottom for a few seconds just pulsating on the line before moving directly across the river to the opposite bank.
I know my set up was good and that I should be able to catch pretty much anything in that stream with it. I had one thing different to my normal set up though...i'd recently bought some guru feeder hooks to try as a change from my usual kamasan animals and drennan super spades. That was a mistake as when the fish powered across the water the hook pulled out under the pressure. I was gutted as you can imagine as I would love to have known what that fish was. Upon inspection the hook had opened up completely....guru hooks, no thanks!
If i'd had my normal hooks in use I would have landed that fish and it would have been the icing on a decent little trotting session.....effin guru hooks!
Last edited:
Thats very interesting. A couple of seasons ago I bought some Guru swivel links. I am not exaggerating when I say they they opened up like Plasticine. Absolutely blooming useless. Puts me off anything with that brand name on it.
chriizpyy
New member
- Joined
- May 17, 2016
- Messages
- 3
- Reaction score
- 0
Strange that fished in France last year was catching barbel for fun on river ance with animal hooks straightend full packet fed up went to fishing shop 10mile away. Got some guru pellet hooks and never looked back not a straight hook in sight
Sent from my FRD-L09 using Tapatalk
Sent from my FRD-L09 using Tapatalk
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2009
- Messages
- 9,335
- Reaction score
- 1,696
Blimey John, that's even worse than theor crappy hooks opening up.
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2009
- Messages
- 9,335
- Reaction score
- 1,696
I've no idea who you are, but I know that your talking nonsense (unless you had a duff pack) as i've been using animal and supersppade hooks for barbel fishing for about 12yrs now and never a one has opened up on a fish.
I got some guru eyed hooks of a thicker wire a couple of years ago and they where very strong, infact I still have some packs left.
Last edited:
no-one in particular
Well-known member
Was meant to be a joke S63, but either he wouldn't have understood the joke or he believed me and went off and told all his mates condemning them to only fishing at night on lonely beaches and I am not that cruel
I am not sure what the size limit is for mackerel, we call small ones joeys, I put them back but keep half a dozen or so a year for a meal. I suppose I should know what the size limits are but I have always relied on my eye and common sense.
I could be wrong but I think mackerel are one of the species that may collapse in the future, been getting rarer and rarer every year my way; quota system not working again.
PS, winds dropped my way and the sea is clearing out nicely, you could be good for a spot of lure bass fishing again.
Last edited: