How did you get on?

[no-one in particular]

Like Mark I too could not find the Bass yesterday, a morning trip to Westgate followed by a gorgeous hot evening visit to Seasalter yielded nothing. Did have a moment though.

Standing on the end of a jetty were a group of six people, two elderly the others middle aged. They were looking at an object floating in the water and remarking how the tide was taking it out to sea. I thought I was doing the decent thing in asking if they would like me to cast out and retrieve the item.

“No thank you, it’s my fathers ashes”

mg:

I have heard of fishing being a bit dead, but that takes a medal.

 

[stillwater blue]

At first light this morning I was at the river for a couple of hours float fishing. I was fishing a lovely swim for the waggler as it's a flat snag free bottom with a fairly even pace making presenting a bait over-depth child's play. I had maggots, corn and hemp as bait and was hoping for roach.



The roach didn't want breakfast but the chub where, as ever, very obliging. I guess I managed around 20lb of chub including quite a few chublets which I rarely see on this stretch of river, so that bodes well for the future.



Best of the bunch.

 

[sam vimes]

Last night's effort at a bit of river a bit further than my usual haunts. Painfully shallow bits of water just downstream of a riffle is where they want to be at the moment. Fishing a top and bottom float and a centrepin at range in about eighteen inches of water and a gusty downstreamer is not the most sensible choice. Control and presentation was undoubtedly compromised and I certainly regretted leaving my waders at home. Fortunately, I did manage a few dace and chublets before the proper chub turned up. The first went 4lb 1oz and second 3lb 13oz.

 

[Tee-Cee]

I actually managed to go this morning and felt pretty good as I left the house. I didn't intend going far, but which ever way I go I inevitably end up passing over Marlow Bridge. As I usually do I have a quick peek to my left (toward the weir) and this morning I'm almost sure someone was fishing from a punt just below the rougher water. I couldn't make out much in the early gloom but I thought to myself what a lovely cool place to fish. Probably after barbel/chub, likely as not.....

Anyway, I had a reasonable five hour session with the roach and as the bites dropped away I stuck on a curried chickpea and as I was already sitting well back (2' of rod over the water) I lowered the bait partially under a tree and sat back and waited. Supping a cup of coffee I watched to float start to dither (I pinched that from a book) and as it sank I struck - into fresh air!
Anglo Saxon mutterings followed by another cast. Similar dithering again, but this time I struck into what I hoped would be a crucian carp but ended being a tench of some 3,5lbs. Fought like a mad dog but the Match Pro was up to the job...

Over the next hour I had another tench, slightly bigger, plus a couple of roach around 10" or so.

A session on this water wouldn't be complete without connecting with one of the feisty carp and may well have said out loud "Here we go again" as the float literally screamed away into the depths. No strike necessary and only the lightest finger pressure on the 'pin as it headed of to pastures new. It was absolutely solid in movement and no doubt of some size. I was pleased I didn't actually lose my float...

Eventually I was driven from the water by discomfort but I didn't really mind as I'd had a lovely morning with not another angler in sight - how bad is that!!

Hot as hell this coming week but my minds eye is set on another outing come the middle part.......

 

[peter crabtree]

Myself and 3 other canal aficionados had an impromptu knock up today on the GUC at Berkhamstead in the town centre. One advantage at this spot is you can fish the opposite bank to the towpath. The disadvantage is you're in a park which on a Sunday is full of kids, dogs etc. The footbridge which leads to a supermarket has constant human traffic and can be quite noisy at times.

However, we started at 10am just as the sun burnt through the cloud cover. All of us on the pole. I started by chopping some lobs and dropping them in via bait dropper just off the near shelf. With lobworm tail on a 14 hook fished dead depth I hoped to find one of the big perch that frequent this place...
I caught quite a few but only up to around 8oz. Then the boats started moving in earnest and being a short pound the water was soon bouncing to and fro, so I changed to a light punch rig down the middle. From then until the end at 4pm I caught roach after roach on punch, all around 2-4oz size.

6 hours in searing heat, shipping pole back and forth and staring at a fine bristle float took its toll on us, I felt like a wreck with sunburnt forearms and an aching back, packing up was a slow painful affair.
Predictably the angler to my left won the day with 9lb:9oz, he is extremely hard to beat..
I came 2nd with 7:8 and 3rd had 7:0.
Having watched the forecast for the week ahead, 30+degrees every day I'm not too keen on a repeat of today. The evening series Tuesday should be ok but the codgers on Thursday !
Watch this space.....

 

[thecrow]

After a sticky night (not that sort of sticky ) and not much sleep I was glad to leave the house at 5am, it was still warm though with the car thermometer showing 16 degrees.

I had been thinking about some of the suggestions in the "how do I" thread and decided that if lowering a bait to a margin fish was something to try there was only one swim on the lake where I thought this might work, on getting to the lake I loaded my scooter with my tackle and trundled off to the swim.

There were already carp cruising on the surface and although I waited for a while none were coming from beneath the overhanging trees that are each side of the swim close enough for me to be able to lower a bait so I decided to fish fairly close in and feed the margins spasmodically both sides of the swim.

There is quite a bit of weed in this swim, there are clear patches but for some reason the fish only wanted the bait when it was in the weed, I finished up with 16 of these.




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After midday I started to see tail patterns and swirls in the left margin, I waited until I thought the fish had left before putting a bait there along with a few freebies, rod in the rest baitrunner on and away it went, it weeded me up, I did get it and the weed back in front of me but when I tried to get the net under it I touched the fish it bolted and was gone still next time eh

 

[stillwater blue]

Thought I nip to the river for a couple of hours lure fishing this evening, lucky most of the river is heavily shaded but it was still hot and I decided not to fish into dusk as I had planned.



Started off by an overflow pipe that had slightly coloured the water, the lure of choice was a chartreuse 1" kopyto shad on a 1.5g jig head. First cast produced a little perch



I headed up stream and all the swims with shade seemed to hold perch and they where in an aggressive mood but seemed to be getting smaller and smaller. Even the pike where tiny



Still a PB pike, it's the smallest I've ever caught :thumbs:

 

[sam vimes]

Back to the slightly more distant stretch of the local river that's available to me. Had a look at a bit of the river that has a good riffle into a relatively narrow channel with overhanging far bank trees. There were masses of minnows in the shallows with numerous chublets harassing them. In the main flow, there were a few decent chub ghosting out from under the trees. Unfortunately, the swim in question is about fifty yards downstream of a road bridge and a few hundred yards from a village. When the kids arrived for a splash about, the chub disappeared. I never even managed to get my gear out of the car.

I pushed off and went a mile or two upstream to another access point and schlepped a fair way downstream to loops of the river that would give me a favourable wind direction and the absolute requirement of a decent riffle. In the first likely spot, I saw a couple of decent chub lurking. However, it was a little shallow for my liking so I carried on a hundred yards or so to an alternative spot. I knew the lack of cover would mean that it was a win or bust kind of swim. After an hour of minnows with one solitary trout, bust it was. I shuffled off to the place I spotted the chub. In this swim it was wall to wall minnows with a decent smattering of chublets up to 12oz and small dace. Sadly, there was no sign of the decent chub.

 

[mikench]

Super tench Graham and that tiny pike is cute!

 

[lakhyaman]

I had ordered a Maver 15-18 ft 4 piece match rod (A795) on e-bay but what turned up was a 13 ft three piece (A775) rod. Since it had come all the way to Bangladesh and would be a nuisance to send back it has remained with me.

I took it up to the lake to try out. Given that the monsoon is in full flow the lake itself was brimming and everything was an almost overwhelming lush green, right down to the water.



When I did hook a fish it leapt four feet out of the water almost into my lap, revealing itself to be a reasonable Rohu (Labeo rohita). It certainly put the rod through its paces but the rod coped well enough with what turned out to be a 6lb 6oz fish.



While I am disappointed that it is not the rod I ordered I am not displeased with the rod itself and it will see some use.

I am still on the look out for a 15-18ft or similar rod and would be delighted to get some suggestions (Will start another thread for that).

All the best

Lakhyaman

 

[Another Dave]

Stunning picture of the fish, Lakhyaman.

Bit of dusk fishing on Sunday,



And an hour out in the punishing heat this morning with a tiny plug.

 

[Another Dave]

I was granted a 30 minute window. Lure rod was ready to go with a finnesse lure that we've seen before, the 1.8" Polaris. Pair of forceps in my pocket, and my phone and absolutely nothing else.

In my cliff swim 4 minutes later where i nearly had a small perch then a cast downstream - amazing how far you can cast a 0.5g jig - was taken by a chub of about 3/4. This fish buried its head into the near bank and when i'd descended to the water level it had gone, having transferred the hook to the bank, they way they do. Oh well, main thing is my lure work is getting better.

The descent always kills that swim for a while and i just had enough time left to pop into the 'drain swim' next door. Not really a swim, less than a foot of water, and an outlet culvert than leaks stinky water into the river. Luckily only a bit.

A large chub cruises by and hasn't seen me. I've learned not to cast at them so i just worked the swim with the lure, real slow like spoonminnow told me. The fish appears behind the lure, keep it moving slow and YES.

While i played the fish i managed to scoop water onto the bank and pick some willow herb and water mint to make a makeshift mat. The chub turned out to be an absolute beast, far far bigger than anything i've ever laid eyes on before.



Measured with the rod it's just nudging 21 inches, fork to snout. As this is a clear PB could people please have a stab at estimating the weight.

 

[103841]

Looks a similar size to the chub I catch in the Canterbury Stour which range between 3and 4lb, well done, a cracking fish, especially lure caught.:thumbs:

 

[Another Dave]

Another pic, very wide across the shoulders



found an old thread: chub weight to length

 

[stillwater blue]

Measured with the rod it's just nudging 21 inches, fork to snout. As this is a clear PB could people please have a stab at estimating the weight.

I don't know if you've seen this Chub Study Group . There's a massive range in weight for a 21" fish.

Lovely fish though

 

[Another Dave]

Good grief, i'm going to have to catch him again, aren't i?

 

[iain t]

Dawn being slightly cooling this morning due to cloud cover. How the hell can it be 67f at 4 am?. Anyway, i made my way to the river Arun for a session. Settling in with the reeds surounding me i set up my 15 ft rod and attached a Dave Harrell 3g alloy stick float to the 3lb line. Setting the float at the usual depth it didnt move. After a good few times changing the depth it turned out to be 2 to 3 feet shallower. Without hardly any water movement i had to change to the lightest float i had in the bag. A DH 2No4 shallow stick. This still trotted very slowly. Size 16 hook with a Caster or two Maggots brought in a nice brace of Roach. The biggest was my PB of 2.4lb. A single Caster seemed to work best. The next few runs i trotted a little longer toward the other bank. After the second trot, the line was peeling off at a good rate of knots. Whatever i had it was going here, there everywhere and then straight towards me. Landed a lovely 5.6lb Bream. Casting to the same area produced another 8 Bream, ranging from a couple of oz to the 5.6lber. In all i had landed 15 Roach, 4 Dace and 9 Bream.
By 10 am my flask was empty of Tea and it was getting a bit too hot for me (76f). So i packed up and headed for my local Hungry Horse for Breakfast.

 

[john step]

Dave I don't know if this would work with lures but it certainly does with slug or lobs. In that shallow water when the chub cruise by drop the bait loudly BEHIND the fish. They will invariably whip round and take it pronto.

Edited..... I was referring to chub of course.

 

[Another Dave]

Interesting, will try that.

 

[Hugh Bailey]

Smashing fish Dave - I’d give it more than 4. The 3rd photo of your earlier post just sums up a proper British summer for me - lovely!