How did you get on?

[no-one in particular]

Another fruitless couple of hours on Saturday, time to pack up light summer float sea fishing and start lobbing out a big bait for an autumn bass, or is it! Had a wander round a harbour yesterday to see how the other half live and spotted some mullet in a bay right opposite where the cafes are. One of them was the biggest I have ever seen, must of been 7-8lb. Of course "no fishing", the man who invented that should have been put down. Wandered onto the beach and 3 blokes feathering and a few mackerel caught so, still around.
However, a nice bass surf running yesterday so might go into autumn mode with some big baits and big gear and maybe a visit to a commercial, there is lake with just green tipped tench or something like that and loads of rudd and I never get past the rudd and never caught one of these tench. Reading some tips about dealing with that I might give it a go.
Here's some pics of the last of the summer and that big mullet right under those railings, got me slavering that did., so did the yachts, difficult choice, poach the mullet or nick a yacht and head off to France.

 

[103841]

Frustration and fascination in equal measures.

My quest to catch a carp from the Canterbury Stour continues, becoming a bit of an obsession but one that will be short lived as the gin clear water begins to colour with the onset of Autumn culminating in a Cappuccino look by Winter.

I met up with the local expert who kindly gave me good advice on exactly where and how to fish for these elusive creatures, he had a nice common himself just a few days ago from this swim.

The swim is a shallow bay tucked into the far margin, without weed and little if any current in the sheltered slack. You can sit right above the swim with a tree behind for cover, a need to sit still and quietly is a given, felt a bit like one of those fishing garden gnomes!

The fish is there in that photo but without a polarising filter you can’t see it, come on Apple, there’s a market for me to spend more money with you!

With the advice of using a smaller hook with a single grain of corn and nothing more than a swan shot on the line I carefully placed the bait in the sweet spot with half a dozen kernels of corn spread around.

There’s something about this swim, the shoal of bream just a few metres away don’t venture into it whereas the inquisitive and greedier carp will. It wasn’t long before a mirror carp arrived, I’m getting to know each and everyone by sight now, it won’t be long before I start naming them.mg:

They are so wary and cautious, the mirror knew there was food waiting but shyed away inches from the spot, but he kept returning and finally started feeding getting his head down, every piece of corn barring the all important one!

He left without leaving a tip and I threw in another round of freebies, must have been twenty minutes before he arrived back only to repeat exactly the same again.

I’m down to a size 14 hook and am loathe to scale down on the line with so many snags in the area, but I may have to.

The other angler caught his when there were three carp together competing for food and I guess slightly less cautious, Mirror boy needs to return with some mates.

PS which harbour is that Mark?

 

[108831]

Mullet are my handwriting and I find the gauntlet impossible to refuse,a fish that challenges and fights like crazy is brilliant,also they don't sit and pig out, just rather mooch about picking,bu**ers.

 

[no-one in particular]

Mullet are my handwriting and I find the gauntlet impossible to refuse,a fish that challenges and fights like crazy is brilliant,also they don't sit and pig out, just rather mooch about picking,bu**ers.

Note the tail on it Whit, that gives them the power plus their stamina, hardest fighting fish per lb I have encountered, but bu**ers for sure.
I was told by an angler standing there watching them, don't fish for them, keep dropping in bread until they start feeding then have a go. I sort of knew that but worth repeating. These seemed to be dropping down and sucking in mud in about 3ft of clear water. I caught one of them once in a river and its guts was full of it and tasted horrible, sea caught ones nicer though.

 

[swizzle]

Feeling a bit rough I thought a dose of sea air would do me good and with a sunny morning and very light breeze a bit of lure fishing was a distinct possibility.

Arriving at Westgate some 15 miles from my home it was clear that conditions were slightly different, it wasn’t just me that was a bit rough!

Needless to say the rod stayed in the car. Unless I decide to fish with bait I think that my sea fishing adventures are over til next Summer along my North Sea coastline.

Had a nice walk though.

Perfect bassing conditions there. Especially with a big smelly bait.

 

[103841]

Yep plenty being caught on bait.

 

[theartist]

An overnighter on the Severn Sunday saw a couple of windy days and the thing with pre planned trips is that you end up fishing on days you wouldn't normally choose. The first day saw me hunting calm water as even though I had chosen the sheltered bank the wind still found it's way into a downstream direction, the fishing was hard and to make matters worse my left wader was taking on water and the landing net handle was trying to escape as the butt end was cracked. It was only chub that were saving the day, mind you I did have around a dozen around 2 lb so I was taking them a bit for granted in my search for barbel and big roach, you cant win all the time I tried to tell myself but the wind was making everything a lot of work and I had walked miles.

A bit of cloud came to the rescue in the evening and I found a really fast run above some rocks where it was 3 feet deep and slinging it through, perfect were it not for the downstream wind. Trotting pellet I was soon getting quick bites so I knew it was game on and it wasn't long before everything locked up and the line was singing, a nice barbel was in the net and this was followed by a few more along with some better chub, the day was saved. One of the barbel, a 4-5lb fish with a kinky dorsal was so vividly coloured compared to the others it's a shame the photo doesn't do it justice.



Things could have been much worse as at one stage a gust of wind had swept my landing net and stool into the fast water and both were racing to where it dropped off too deep, I just happened to have a chub on so it was a one hand rescue job over the stones to save my gear. The strange thing was the chub had turned into a roach with the traditional roll on the surface and my blase 'just a chub save the gear' moment was met with 'sod the gear this is what you came for' as my wet broken net slid under a cracking roach whilst holding a stool in the other hand, with a boot full of water on slippery stones. Surprisingly everything went well all things considered.



It wasn't the biggest roach I've had this season but was a good lump and more importantly it signalled the redfins were in town, it was followed with the thud of a few more crackers with the odd brutal barbel in a swim that was perfect for trotting aside from that wind, I think I was still mending my line in my sleep that night and my legs sure ached from the long squelch back to the car.

The next day I was confined to land as I just didn't fancy a cold wet boot and couldn't afford new ones, but I was just 'chillin' after yesterday, It was nice to be at the river so early and strange to see the sun over the opposite bank to where I usually see it. Even the chub weren't taken for granted and a succession of 3lb'ers made for a nice morning along with some large dace and not a roach in sight. The wind however had not abated and thoughts went to repairing gear, work and watching the cricket so I headed off home in daylight for a change.

If that's the last adventure up the Severn this year I'll take it and all the special memories of another great summer up there.

 

[peter crabtree]

11 codgers fished the GUC near Tring today. Overcast, very windy but comfortably mild weatherwise.
I went with a plan of attack and although it was tempting to err, I stuck with it.
One rod set up with a 3bb Stillwater blue waggler, 20b511 to 0:06 and punch bread. Simply swinging the rig out whip fashion on my 13' SuperG to the edge of the near marginal shelf it was full on roach after roach.
Not one single gudgeon today for a welcome change, the only other fish I had were 3 small skimbobs ...
The roach were anything but big, the biggest probably 5oz with most around 3oz.
It's good when a plan comes to fruition, and it did, giving me 2nd in the frame with 9lb exactly. The winner beat me by 10oz.

 

[mikench]

Nice fish Rob! When you catch beautiful fish like that do you ever feel a painting coming on? I am home and plan a day fishing tomorrow on my pretty local Mere with both float and feeder rods!

You never know my plan might just merit a post on this thread! I have missed my course fishing despite sunshine , snorkelling, fine wine .....................! Oh la la!

 

[103841]

However the plan pans out, HDYGO will be all the richer from a contribution from a well fed, well wined sun kissed returnee.?

 

[theartist]

Nice fish Rob! When you catch beautiful fish like that do you ever feel a painting coming on? I am home and plan a day fishing tomorrow on my pretty local Mere with both float and feeder rods!

You never know my plan might just merit a post on this thread! I have missed my course fishing despite sunshine , snorkelling, fine wine .....................! Oh la la!

Sadly my painting days are behind me for a life of monochrome, but yeah do like a bit of colour on such a dull day

 

[O.C.F.Disorder]

Went fishing yesterday on one of my usual stretches on the Avon. I turn up at about 8:30 to see 20 caravans of gypsies pulling into the field the river runs through, chickens coups and all! I was in hysterics watching them hold up morning traffic for a good ten mins while they all pull in! People were F'ing and blinding and beeping. I had some nice chub, roach, perch and dace all on single maggot fished a few inches over depth. I saw a monster chub but every time I got in a swim near him, he spooked. The pikeys did bother me a bit but they were friendly enough, they asked if they could eat my fish at one point but I politely refused.

 

[flightliner]

I fished along a dam wall yesterday.
It was very slow in the morning but around two pm I had a couple of line bites and maybe ten minutes later my reel began to smoke with a screamer of a run.
After a hard fight in fourteen feet of clear water I slipped my net under a Tench that was 8lb on the nose.
Well pleased!

 

[maggot_dangler]

Well got up this morning with the intention of heading off to the Stour Yea right .

By the time i had sorted things out here it was way too late to be heading to the river so had another cuppa and round the corner to the cut .

No a very good day it was the M25 of the canal world today never seen so many dang boats head all 3 directions so no escape , i fished on for a good while had a few reasonable roach best probably 3/4 lb and a few perch of 1/2 lb ish ... then had a dang boatee do the typical jerkof move of arriving close to me slowly then smaking the throtlle wide open it is a dang good job i had no pinkies else the back of his tub would have recieved a good few cattys full , why do some of these idiots behave just like that Raving brain dead idiots after 3 like that i thought S*D it and came home and these were not holiday boats pity i was not ready i would have made a note of the vessle name and number and had a good old go at some official .

PG ...

...

 

[maggot_dangler]

Nice tench ...

PG ...

 

[tigger]

There's not a lot to say about my short session on the river today, other than it was up a meter and the colour of coffee. I knew it was up and coloured but decided to give the leger rod a couple of hours. I had lots of fast pulls on the rod tip straight away, obviously chub being chub. I shortened the hooklength and banded the pellet to the hook and rough chops was caught out! It gave a good scrap for a chub, it was long and thin and a guestimated weight was about 5lb.
Another couple of casts and the top whipped over producing a barbel of about 6lb. Lots more chub pulls after that and there was a very good chance of more catches but my stomach overuled me and I had to go home and feed it .

 

[Another Dave]

I got a 1lb chub on a little curly-tail grub from the same narrow run i got the trout the other day. Missed a whole load of near-takes in lots of spots before and after though.

I'm not even bothering with a net for these short sessions, just the magic x-ray specs, a few spares in my pocket and some forceps.

 

[Hugh Bailey]

Have had another couple of sessions in Florida . Yesterday had trouble catching bait but in the end got plenty of live pilchards. Unfortunately, got bitten off 4 times by very powerful fish - drag went mad. Last one was a barracuda which I saw but not sure what others were.

Today picked up some wire traces and live shrimp. Loads of snapper and small stuff on the shrimp but didn’t really get chance on the big fish rig as slipped on the concrete bank and cut my hand and Jarred my wrist. Will try again tomorrow ir Friday.

 

[O.C.F.Disorder]

I always bring a net, not worth losing a fish of a lifetime.

 

[108831]

I got a 1lb chub on a little curly-tail grub from the same narrow run i got the trout the other day. Missed a whole load of near-takes in lots of spots before and after though.

I'm not even bothering with a net for these short sessions, just the magic x-ray specs, a few spares in my pocket and some forceps.

You sound like an eu citizen Dave...

Cracking tench that mick ,especially this time of year.