How did you get on?

[S-Kippy]

Another go for the crucian today and once again I got grebed out ! The lake is full of the damned things at the moment and no matter where you go sooner or later they rock up and drive you nuts.

We fished a different bank this week where we've done well in the past. I got my favourite swim but the Big Feller ended up on a swim known as " The Postage Stamp" which, as you probably worked out, is rather snug. To see the BF fishing it was worth the entrance money alone.

Once again it just didn't fish and hasnt done so for a while. Both of us were pestered by bits and those damned grebes all day long. I managed a few hand sized rudd, two little joey tench and the two smallest crucian I've ever seen let alone caught. The smaller one could not have been much bigger than a 50 p piece at the shoulders so a new " personal worst" for me. Fairly hooked in the mouth too. Phil had rudd, roach and a tiny tench....and grebe when they weren't pestering me. At one point I had 4 grebe, 3 dabchick, 5 duck, 3 coots and what looked like a penguin in front of me. On closer inspection the penguin turned out to be the skankiest juvenile coot I've ever seen.

The bloke between us had 2 proper tench on maple flavoured chickpeas which was interesting. Might have to try those next time if we decide to go again or leave it for a bit and hope the fish turn on. Its very odd....conditions looked cock on with overcast all day, decent temps and a light wind blowing onto our bank you'd think they'd be crawling up the rod. Not today it seems.

Fished its head off during that heatwave apparently but I could not have ventured out in such temperatures. The BF does not like this sort of fishing at the best of times so as you can imagine he was double grumpy all the way home.

 

[Another Dave]

I had a pint and a bit of maggots leftover from the carp holiday that desperately needed using up. Avon rod, 3lb line, size 20 to 2.5lb bottom with a 0.8g Drennan antenna float. Well, the maggots stank and most had decided to turn into mutated casters. For a 2 hour session, i have never fed so much in my life, but it still wasn't enough to satisfy the minnows today.

Dozens of these:


One of these:


A few of these:


And a couple of these:


Plus a few fingerling dace. Was hoping for a perch and a trout to fill out the species rosta a bit but the sun came out, leaving me to compete with the resident kingfisher for the minnows.

 

[john step]

I had a pint and a bit of maggots leftover from the carp holiday that desperately needed using up. Avon rod, 3lb line, size 20 to 2.5lb bottom with a 0.8g Drennan antenna float. Well, the maggots stank and most had decided to turn into mutated casters. For a 2 hour session, i have never fed so much in my life, but it still wasn't enough to satisfy the minnows today.

Dozens of these:
View attachment 5417

One of these:
View attachment 5418

A few of these:
View attachment 5419

And a couple of these:
View attachment 5420

Plus a few fingerling dace. Was hoping for a perch and a trout to fill out the species rosta a bit but the sun came out, leaving me to compete with the resident kingfisher for the minnows.

Dave, if thats from your usual stream it must be in good nick with those species and minnows.

 

[mikench]

Totally snag free by the look of it too John!

 

[Another Dave]

Pete, yes, that's my usual stretch at my 'thorns' swim where the river widens a little before becoming sluggish. The swim is still black with fry of all sizes, and the gaps between the fry are filled with minnows. Never caught so many minnows in a day before.

Mike, the chub gave me a hard time by doing the usual under the nearside vegetation but i could see where it was caught up and managed to get the net under it. Though i would probably step it up a notch next time i try this.

 

[steve2]

Good to see there are still plenty of small fish in the Upper Chelmer/Can. For one reason and another I haven't been fishing for over 2 months, will to give the river a try soon.

 

[theartist]

Had a trip out yesterday with dad on the river, no 2lb roach this time but who cares, the same swim was empty but I try not to fish the same spots twice in a row so let dad have it and found the next available spot further up, if anything the fishing was too easy this time as I caught plenty of chub, dace and barbel despite being in 'fish like an idiot mode', all the stealth and effort from last time was out the window, funny how sometimes you just want to fish 'lazy' well I do sometimes anyway. Cloudy skies plus kids and dogs colouring up the water, you can't fail to catch with that combo.

Went to see dad later to spend the rest of the day with him, didn't mind just watching and talking as I was more or less 'fished out', arrived just in time to catch him being pulled off his seat by a barbel, I grabbed him by the belt for dramatic effect but I think he would have been ok, he's getting wobblier all the time but I can still get him out to catch fish, but not too old that I can't rib him about almost getting pulled in, be remiss of me not to. The commotion saw the chap from the next swim up come down and say "Oh good that you got help this time" turns out he had been keeping an eye on dad. Good to know that as ever the angling community within the club was looking after each other and that I can still leave him on his own on waters like this.

 

[nicholaslukey]

Out at 5;30am for a few hours on the Derwent, aimed to get as many Crayfiash as I could, really looking for that elusive double. Even scaled up the tackle for them, as I know they put up a brutish scrap.

Only maniaged one small one in 3 hours, kept catching nuisance fish had a dozen roach including one over the pound, and a pesky chub. It's about time the EA sorted these fish out as they are becoming a real PITA.

On the other hand the River was beautiful this morning, it was really cool to start with and a little bit of mist formed, time to start thinking about the autumn as its just around the corner.

 

[103841]

1-1 seemed a fair result.

Something of a battle of wits today during a short two hour session on the Stour whilst swmbo did what she does best in town for some much need therapy.

I’m drawn to a particular swim as I know a number of chub spend a lot of their time under a tree and can occasionally be tempted out with a small amount of feed thrown in every cast or so. This is my fourth trotting session in the past week but have yet to find one Canterbury’s fine fighting chub.

It’s a devil of a job getting the float to glide through just under the branches, too short and your just wasting your time, too long and your pulling for a break.

But I’m gradually getting the hang of it and also tried elderberries for the first time today and had a nice dace on the second cast. Swim went quiet for a while so changed to maggot which brought a perch almost instantly. The perch was followed out from under the tree by a pike who then decided to moor up at my feet confident I’d catch more for him to intercept. A couple of dace later another pike joined the party and I now had two on sentry duty.

Time to move onto a swim a few metres upstream but that yielded nothing so I was drawn back the the tree and could no longer see the pike but I’m sure they were there........somewhere.

A few casts and a nice bite produced some proper resistance and a good sized chub was on, busy playing the fish and attempting to keep it out of the tree and out of the streamer weed whilst at the sample time keeping one eye on the surrounding area hoping pike wasn’t about to attack.

Relieved to get it in the net, the usual weight for Canterbury chub, just a tad under four pound.

Nothing after that for twenty minutes but then another tell tale bite as another chub succumbed to a bunch or red maggots, a slightly smaller fish but with a lot more fight!

Kept it out the weed, steered it away from the near side vegetation but couldn’t hold it as it then bolted under the tree parting company with my 2lb hooklength.

It was about that time the heavens opened up so made a dash for the car and got a proper soaking. Picked up her ladyship who seemed to have had a successful session of her own.

Thought about the lost fish on the drive home and think the Matchpro ultralight isn’t quite beefy enough to bully these chub away from the snags on what is ultra thin line for me. Will return tooled up a bit heavier tomorrow maybe.

 

[theartist]

Wow A 2lb hooklength is a bit daring with chub, trees and weed in conjunction. 1-1 is a good result considering

 

[103841]

Wow A 2lb hooklength is a bit daring with chub, trees and weed in conjunction. 1-1 is a good result considering

Daring? Dumb maybe. Sods law innit. The last three sessions which all included a trip to that particular swim yielded nothiing other than dace with a few perch and roach, not forgetting the minnow! I thought by scaling down I’d up my catch rate which didn’t quite turn out as planned with the chub finally getting in on the act.

 

[fishplate42]

Nice chub there John. All that weed must be a pain. Is it thicker than last year, It sure looks like it.

Ralph

 

[mikench]

Anothe uneventful day without even a session of 20 questions with a 9 year old to relieve the boredom! I missed 3 savage takes on the feeder early doors fishing a tiger nut on the hair. I struck on each take and nothing!! It must have been my incompetence! After that nothing for 3 hours and I decided I'd blown it! Then one of these turned up on a boillie!

View attachment 5424

3 more followed! This is one of the recently stocked fish all around 4to 5lb plus F1's. I had one of the latter to slightly improve the day and packed up just as the rain arrived right on cue!

 

[theartist]

Daring? Dumb maybe. Sods law innit. The last three sessions which all included a trip to that particular swim yielded nothiing other than dace with a few perch and roach, not forgetting the minnow! I thought by scaling down I’d up my catch rate which didn’t quite turn out as planned with the chub finally getting in on the act.

Yeah I was being polite lol, tell you what that weed on the Stour there is just gorgeous, comparable to some of the finest rivers in the country, it's quite mesmerizing standing in the gin clear water watching the ranunculus waving in the current, can see why the chub like it, your photo's capture it well

 

[103841]

Nice chub there John. All that weed must be a pain. Is it thicker than last year, It sure looks like it.

Ralph

I don’t think so Ralph, infact the weed that was growing on top of the ranunculus weed that looked like cows parsley has now all gone. The river is still hard to fish in places but very doable.

Plus, the EA haven’t been along (yet) with their death machines ripping out everything in sight, still time though!

 

[Hugh Bailey]

On the other hand the River was beautiful this morning, it was really cool to start with and a little bit of mist formed, time to start thinking about the autumn as its just around the corner.IMG_3057 copy.jpg

Fantastic photos again Nicholas!

 

[Jelster]

Well I managed to get 90 minutes at my local again today, so I thought I'd have a quick session for the baby Carp that seem to love my sweetcorn. Had a few then landed a Tench of around 12oz, first Tench for years, and I was pleased.

Bumped in to the lady from the council that is responsible for the lake. I was keen to find out how many of these young Carp were stocked. "None, we don't have any money to buy new stock fish" she replied. They have bred so well since we put in all the aerators (there's about 10-12 all across the lake).

Even better I thought. To round it off, I had a little Mirror too, beautiful fish.

That's me done until next week now.

 

[mikench]

Wow what a day and I'm talking about the weather! Nearly didn't go and nearly turned back on arrival! I started out at a local river but just didn't fancy it in appalling weather! I then went to a local lake where I knew I could set up a brolly properly which I did! The predicted light rain and gentle breeze became regular deluges with strong winds! Oh what about the fishing I hear you cry! 19 bream all over 3.5 lb and 3 carp around 10lb! I also caught a 2.5lb perch on corn!!!!

No photos as my phone which was 100% charged at 7.00 am was virtually flat at 3.00 pm for reasons I cannot fathom! I took a photo of the new lake being excavated and to be stocked with various species but NO carp!

View attachment 5427

Always useful to have a good idea of the topography of the bottom!!

 

[john step]

and to be stocked with various species but NO CARP

That won't last long Mike.:nightmare:

 

[thecrow]

Chilly morning, the wind had an autumnal feel about it so I settled in a swim with the wind at my back.

A margin Carp on my pin was once again the target, its exiting fishing so close to the bank in 2ft of gin clear water where the bait can be clearly seen.

Cubes of meat were the bait with 4/5 alongside it, line was pined down with shot and a korum size 8s finished the rig, for some reason that I am yet to fathom out I had carp spook from the area 4 times before I made contact with one, not big at possibly 15/16 lbs but it was on a pin which is something I have been trying to do for a while, it took me on a merry dance for 6/7 minutes before it was netted.

I have been thinking since I returned about why those fish spooked, couldn't have been off the line as it was pinned for a good 6 ft maybe the bait although they were feeding on it prior to spooking and I am sure they hadn't seen me as I wasn't skylining and I had positioned my landing net as cover between myself and the fish maybe they were just nervous being in such clear shallow water? I did have one that had picked the bait up spook but wasn't hooked, blunt hook I thought so changed it not enough weight to pull the hook home was I think the most likely answer.

I shall be back to have another go with modified tackle, didn't see the large common today (different area) but did have a large mirror come in that had very big scales so that will be the target, I am finding doing this better than the Tench fishing I have been doing, I cant fish the same way for the same species all the time it becomes boring, a lot can be learned from watching fish feeding close up.