How did you get on?

[edsurf]

A nice but very cold day on the Test, Rod rings froze up but caught six Grayling and ten trout the biggest trout about 4lb,lost a decent grayling right at the net, ******, The river did look beautiful this morning, it was good to be on the bank.

 

[Tee-Cee]

Neil....Might not flake or crust, fished on the tip, over a bit of light mash bread feed, work on your river ?
It's been more years than I can remember since I fished it, but memory tells me it used to be a good winter bait for roach and chub....

Just a thought................................................



ps It's what I'll be trying on the not dissimilar Loddon over the next few days..........Probably end up wishing I'd bought maggots instead !!

 

[sam vimes]

Another nine grayling from a tough going Swale. It's painfully low and clear now, needs a drop of rain. Give it a few more days and I'm sure it'll be too full. Such is life on a spate river. Thoroughly enjoying the extra control that the 17' rod gives. I'm quite sure that I winkled out a few bonus fish that I'd not have got using 15' or less.

 

[lambert1]

SAVED BY A SPOTTY
Finally got my much delayed trip out to the banks today. Morning was cold and way too bright and despite trying several swims with trotted maggots, I could not get any interest other than from a hungry Robin, who thought much more of the maggots than the fish did I moved to another swim and gave up on the maggots and tried a last roll of the dice with a lump of garlic sausage and some cheese paste, hoping to snare a Chub. Instead a Brown Trout decided to grab it and went a little mad when it felt the hook. Not massive, a little over a pound I would guess, but in perfect nick and very welcome, as it was the only fish of the day. Still, lovely to be out again after being laid low with a post Christmas stomach bug. It really is beautiful this time of year with the frosts. Tight lines and Happy New Year for later on, to one and all on FM.

 

[denzinho]

Had a great day to kick start 2015, trotting for grayling and caught 3 all roughly the same size.

Brown trout turned up and I had quite a few at around a pound. I caught so many I couldn't keep count to be honest. I did again bump fish off and good one's at that. I hooked up a real good fish that kited across the river looking for a snag on the far bank but didn't get there before it pinged off.

 

[Tee-Cee]

It came in at a ' park trot ' rather than a gallop, but at least I caught a few fish on the first day of the New Year, and I have to be happy with that !
I didn't really know what to expect after several hard overnight frosts and temperatures hovering around freezing for most of the daylight hours and to arrive on the bank in what can only be described as balmy conditions felt quite strange, having registered minus temps on my gauge only 12 hours previously.
I'd finished some trial floats the day before - a very light bird feather type - so I started with one of these fished top and bottom and a string of no 6 shot down the line hoping to entice some roach 'on the drop'. The float stood vertically with only five shot so it was a pretty light setup, but perfectly adequate as I was fishing under the rod tip...
Bait was double red maggot on an 18 (511 with flattened barb) tied to a 1,5lb bottom with the bottom shot 6" above the hook. Second cast and the float shot away, only to produce a pretty, perfectly formed 6" specimen. Several missed bites caused me to move the bottom shot further from the hook and this, seemingly slowed down the takes to 'slow' sinks rather than quick jabs as the bait reached bottom ( very little on the way down though !)

I cannot say fish flowed from this point on, but at least I caught and I was kept on my toes with bait changes to keep them coming. Red maggot ceased to be ' plat du jour ' after an hour, but a change to double caster and a bit of very light ground bait started them feeding again with fish of 3/4lb and then one nearly a pound coming to the net. Needless to say it didn't last as a couple of 6" fish followed, but it was nice sport on a lovely overcast day.

I finished with 12 roach and a couple of perch and went home well satisfied.

Busy today, but hope to be out Sunday again !

Happy New Year to all on FM. Let's hope it's a great year for us all !!

 

[Pete Shears]

Set out to fish on the River Wreake - no chance - very high in full flood, return home load up the pike gear instead, result : a 19lb pike from the local reservoir on a sprat using a single hook rig - a pretty good start to a New Year . . . . it can only go downhill now . . . .

 

[peter crabtree]

View image in gallery​

Today I fished a silvers only match on a horseshoe type lake in rural Essex. Bright sun and a chilly NW . Drew the windy side of the spit which runs up the middle. 4m banded red pellet on a mini pellet feeder on my bomb rod and 2 decent skimmers within 30mins. Then nothing..... Struggled for the rest of the day on whip and pinkie/punch, waggler etc catching swinger roach.
Funnily enough I drew golden peg for the 2nd time running on this annual fixture. The pot standing at £700+ today! So another rollover on that...
Weighed in 4:8mg:
Winner had 45lb and there were some good back up weights too.
There were some DNW's too??? so I didn't come last
24 fished...

 

[Tee-Cee]

As things turned out, I was able to go again yesterday. ' Our ' plans didn't involve the morning and early afternoon so my wife suggested a few hours on the bank.....I didn't need to be asked twice !!
Something of a different day weatherwise with more breeze and broken sunshine but pleasant nonetheless...
I headed for the same swim as the previous day, but for reasons I don't understand, I ended up dropping my gear in one I normally pass by and one I haven't fished for some time. I just fancied it...............
Tactics were much the same as before although I did choose a slightly heavier ( just made ) float as I knew I had at least 8' of water in front of me and I wanted the bait down quickly and sitting in the ( shop bought ) light feed.
I ended up with 8/9 roach of nice size, the biggest around 1,25lbs on double caster. I missed countless bites with the caster coming back with the end nipped off as clean as a whistle. ( how do they do that? ) and yet these misses were intermingled with fish, so the setup was pretty good.....
A pal of mine turned up mid morning and although he was only 25' or so along from me, fishing with similar baits, including one of my float creations, he failed to get a single bite !I even gave him some feed, but to no avail...

I intended fishing until 3pm, but another ' angler ' turned up, clattering around for an age before switching on his radio. Nothing worse than music at any time which can only just be heard, but manages to drift across the lake and spoil the atmosphere. He Pole fished for 30mins before more clattering accompanied a change of swim..........

I packed up around this time......................Grrrrrrr...


ps As it happens, I'm quite pleased I didn't plan going today as it is tipping down in south Bucks and damned miserable it looks too !!

 

[robertroach]

Went to my current favourite swim on the Hants Avon yesterday. Having caught 3 big chub the previous time and a massive barbel the time before that I was full of expectation. However I sat for 4 hours without a fish, although missed a couple of bites on maggot feeder but they may have been small fish.
However it was still a pleasant afternoon and I had the place to myself.
Just as I had finished packing up a big fish rolled right in front of me, the only sign of a fish all afternoon.

 

[sam vimes]

Got something drastically wrong today, even if it was just going at all. The extra water I wished for the other day certainly arrived. Yesterday the river rose a few metres in no time at all and then ran off nearly as quickly. Today it left a river running fairly hard but no more than 30cm or so up and with a bit of peaty colour.

I hooked something well down the swim on one of my early runs through. Played it for what seemed like an age without making much of an impression. It was mostly just hanging or kiting across the flow. I still hadn't really budged it when I suffered a hook pull. A totally unmarked maggot would often suggest to me that a trout was the culprit.

Eventually I did manage to extract a couple of grayling, but it was too much like hard work. The bigger of the two was around the pound mark and put up a hell of a fight in the strong flow.

Rather than waste bait and time further, I took myself off for a wander round my local gravel pit.

 

[edsurf]

Had a couple of chub out the Stour at Throop about 3 and 3.5 lb but good fun. Was tricky on the pin today a bit to windy but the river was looking good
.

 

[maceo]

Had a nice day out at my regular upper Thames spot on Friday. First for a long time - I could judge how long by the amount of fur on the mouldering cling-film wrapped sandwich I found in one of the pockets of my rucksack.

Sun was shining and temperatures were up to around 6c, so a really nice day for it. Got a pint of whites and headed down there. It's a bit exposed and the wind was blowing harder than I'd like. The river was also hammering through fairly fast - especially out in the middle.

Went for a maggot feeder with 2/3 of the holes taped closed and cast in close - around the edge of the main flow.

I've had a lot of blanks in the winter months down there, especially when the water's moving fast and I wasn't too optimistic for this time. First hour or so - nothing except for a big branch hooked off the bottom. That's the problem with fishing so close in - there's a lot of tree branches and muck and what have you on the bottom.

Eventually though a great bite and hauled in a lovely winter roach about 1.25 pounds I suppose. I was delighted to have caught something.

A while later I had another tremendous bite, struck and felt something big on the end pulling back. There were two big tugs and then it locked up solid. Eventually, with a bit of manouvering around, it slowly came up and was.....another bloody branch. That's the other problem with fishing in close - it's easy for them to dive into the assorted branches and stuff that's around. Not sure what it was - but judging from those two big tugs, it wasn't a roach. Chub? Perch? Don't know.

A while later I had another roach a touch larger than the first and then two smaller roach and finally a little perch.

Satisfying day out altogether.

 

[peter crabtree]

Up at 6 this morning and on the M1 north to Newport pagnell, minus 4 degrees and thick fog.. Arrived at the venue on the Ouse and there was 1 car in the field.
I began to think it was a blowout. Then a convoy pulled into the field, a few went straight home again and 11 stayed.
Drew a high peg and going home looked tempting to me too but after driving 50miles and a tenner in the pools, I decided to have a go.. A long walk across the frozen muddy field with my barrow warmed me up a bit and I arrived at my peg. The level was right up and milky coffee coloured, strewn with clumps of dead reeds and assorted debris speeding past me. Once again I was tempted to go home. Set up a 15ft rod and fished as close to the reeds to my left as I could with a flat float which I had to overshot to get the bait down. I had 10 foot of water at my rod tip and I was getting false bites from leaves and weed. After 3 hours I'd had enough and walked downstream to find my mates, one had caught a small roach and dropped it while unhooking itmg: One of the locals had two roach which I expect he won the match with.
I walked back and packed up. Walking back upstream everyone was blanking except one who had a bleak.

 

[law]

I had a rubbish day.
Turned up at the lake Id baited last night to find a match on.
Decided to enter, got all my gear out, went to draw and realised Id left my wallet at home. I didnt know anyone, so couldnt even borrow a tenner.
So went to one of my other club waters.

Its not one I really like and I didnt have the right gear for it, but it can produce in the winter. Its also a right long walk from the car park and as I didnrt have my barrow, took ages to get to the swim.
Set up, first 2 casts were onto the island, snapped up on both, then spent the next 2 hours without a bite.
So packed up and went home.

Maybe next weekend will be better!

 

[binka]

There’s been some extremely cold mornings just lately and -5 for the start of this session, there was ice forming in the rod rings well into late morning.

Still… What’s not to like?








Some nice grub, plenty of fresh brews and I got my reward just before dusk with the only run of the day…




Happy days

 

[itsfishingnotcatching]

there was ice forming in the rod rings well into late morning.

Similar scenario, had 4 small skimmers, 3 Roach and 2 Carp including an almost certain 14lb PB which without scales will have to remain a decent fish. Glad to get back to a warm pub

 

[nicepix]

First free day since before Christmas and luckily the weather was kind. 10C, cloudy and no wind to speak of. I fished 'Jerry Hours' and was on my way around 10am driving to the River Charente just to the west of us. The river in this area is in its infancy and runs between pasture land out towards the huge plains of Deux-Sevres and Charente Maritime where it enters the Atlantic as a substantial waterway. Where I fished today it is barely 20 metres wide and less than a metre deep. But today, it had a welcome touch of colour following light overnight rain.

I found a small white van parked where I was intending to fish and my heart sank. Luckily when i got closer I could see that it was a shed and therefore was a 'Voiture de la Chasse' rather than an angler's vehicle. The empty gun cases confirmed it

So, I roamed about half a kilometer of bank before the cows in the pasture noticed my presence and began to get a bit frisky. I hadn't got the dog today and thought that I'd be OK, but they weren't happy. I hadn't had a bite so it wasn't too bad.

Then I drove to another area and started getting bites to a small red worm on an 18. I was using a 6' "River Don Special" quiver rod with a very soft tip and the bites were still quite tentative. First fish was a tiny gudgeon and then a roach not much bigger. I tried paste without success and decided to try a third area that turned out to have been roped off as though out of bounds. So, another new area and immediate bites resulted. I was fishing with a 1/4oz bomb fished upstream with some line out to balance it. I'd changed to a larger hook to try and avoid the little stuff. That worked........



Then another drop back bite.........



Another few roach around half the size of the one in the photo and then the little 'uns made a come back. I put one and a half worms on the 14 hook to deter them and got a roach the size of a tadpole But there were a few more bigger ones caught before bad light stopped play around 5:30pm. I had over-run 'Jerry Time'.

 

[barbelboi]

I really feel for all those out this morning - took an early morning stroll to the village for the (news)paper around 10.30 and the pavements were quite slippy............

---------- Post added at 20:11 ---------- Previous post was at 20:09 ----------

Similar scenario, had 4 small skimmers, 3 Roach and 2 Carp including an almost certain 14lb PB which without scales will have to remain a decent fish. Glad to get back to a warm pub

I'd have given you a 'like' Ian if it wasn't for admitting to the snotties.....

 

[dorsetandchub]

There’s been some extremely cold mornings just lately and -5 for the start of this session, there was ice forming in the rod rings well into late morning.

Still… What’s not to like?








Some nice grub, plenty of fresh brews and I got my reward just before dusk with the only run of the day…




Happy days

Steve,


I'm just curious but do passers-by ever ask you why you appear to be photographing your breakfast....??

Phil.