How did you get on?

[Redeemed]

Me and the lad went to Bleak Hills Fishery at Mansfield today. It's a "natural" fishery and not a hook a chuck venue so you have to work for your fish. The fishery is under new ownership since April and was apparently very rundown so it is still a work in progress.
Re-stocking is going ahead on a sensible scale, a good head of crucian are being introduced in one pond along with tench and barbel in another.

We started on the first pond, Polo, but due to poor peg choice by the pair of us I soon swapped to the next one along, Barbel pond (no barbel - yet).
I was fishing the cage feeder with an array of baits - paste, 8mm carp pellet, 8mm wafter, worm, bread and nothing was stirring although the water was still getting up to temperature.
Groundbait was Bait-Tech Envy method with a scattering of 2mm screttings for particles.

I decided to change over to the method feeder for better bait presentation and soon hooked into a nice bream at 3 1/2 pounds just off a bed of lilies. Bream 3lb 8oz Bleakhills.JPG
I also got bitten through twice - apparently a lady pike resides and has a taste for 8mm carp pellets!


Whilst casting to the lilies I was seeding the right hand side margin with simple 2mm screttings and the odd 8mm.

With the sun moving behind trees and casting impeded by rogue lilies I moved left to the next peg, cast towards the right hand side margin and hooked into a nice one.
Eventually got it in the net, these fish are not used to being caught and fight hard, snapped my **** Dinsmores landing net handle in the process and weighed in convinced it was a double figure at last.
Nope. Despite his stockiness it came in at my current best weight of 8lb 4oz.


Soon after the lad joined me on barbel pond and took the peg I had been fishing in. yet to break his blank today I told him to cast into the margin where I had been seeding and within 10 minutes he hooked a fighter that came in at 12lb 5oz, a pb for him and the biggest either of us have caught so far.

After that not much happened, I scored another bream of about 2 1/2 pounds and we called it a day. Not many fish but good action when they came.
Definitely a fishery to re-visit as it develops,

 

[markcw]

Myself and Collin my fishing mate went to Wrightington Fishery today on the canal section. I only tagged along because the weather forecast said sunny with a 5mph southerly breeze. That bloke doing the weather is a lying sod. It was part cloudy and he missed a 2 off the front of the 5 and it felt easterly. Collin has a match there on Saturday, so he decided to go and see what baits are working and which are not, and con me in the process of going with him. Anyway muggins here pays his fiver, good job I get concession rate. and goes on an end peg with the "breeze" blowing left to right. On a decent day this peg is good for 70lb, I had purposely left float and feeder rods at home, bad mistake.. I set 3 topkits up, a margin rig with 17h elastic, and 2 other catch anything that swims rigs, 1 on double No6 the other on solid 10 elastic, these were set at 5' deep in 6' swims. Collin set similar rigs up. My bait consisted of a couple of slices of bread, meat, corn and half pint of maggots. Collin had pellets, worms and casters. I baited the margin to my right with meat and also at 11 metres to the tins at the end of the water, Corn went to the margin on my left. maggots went out in front on a top 5 with a few grains of corn. As for seeing what worked ,that was easy.. maggot... for the usual silvers from blades to 4oz. Nothing doing on meat, only a couple of knocks on corn, same with Collin a few knocks and a couple of small roach on pellet. I ended up trying 3 8mm discs of bread on my margin rig up against the tins, the float set a foot overdepth to hold steady against the chop on the surface, after a while a slight dink on the float and 17h elastic is streaming out from my topkit, After playing it for a few minutes and it not wanting to be netted, I ended up using side puller to slow it down and soon an 8lb carp was in the net. Collin had managed a few smaller carp on double worm and a few more roach on pellet, The margin swims did not produce, I tried bread against the tins again, but nothing doing.We think if we had taken feeder rods we would have caught more by casting to the central island 15 metres across, we normally use the pole to fish across to it, but the wind made going across there unpleasant. I caught the majority of my silvers on a top 5, Collin went out to around 8 metres into deeper water. When the wind blows either right to left or left to right on there you get a scum line along the tins,and the carp are usually feeding in it.Today there was no scum line, just the chop on the surface slapping against the tins, I think it will be back to normal next week.. worrying a few fish on other waters now that the series of matches we both are in will have ended. So it may be a trip to Dunham if Gordon and Mike can make it.

 

[103841]

Had a short session on the estate, went with a whip and nothing more than sweet corn in the hope of locating one of the golden tench that were introduced to the lake earlier in the Summer.

The weather was glorious, blue sky, a gentle breeze and warm sunshine, better infact that just about any days during the heat wave. The estate looking impressive as always.

No golden tench, no tench at all sadly but a number of skimmers,roach and a few very welcome crucians kept me busy for three hours. Used a 6m Daiwa Harrier whip with 4lb mainline, 2lb hooklength, size 18 hook.

 

[mikench]

Worth going to that venue John just for the view and the wonderful colours!

 

[103841]

It most definitely is Mike.

 

[john step]

Dusted down my old Trudex pin and light float rod and went to target crucian. Used wheat,punch expanders and had 15..... Biggest 10.5lb........Biggest crucians I have ever had.mg:mg::wh

View attachment 5656

 

[thecrow]

Fished yesterday with a later than usual start, the ice on my windscreen at 08-00 didn't fill me with confidence but as I planned to fish a swim that catches the sun and would be out of the direction that the wind was forecast to come from I set off.

Fishing hemp and tares for the quality Roach that are reputed to be in the pool I was comfortable if not exactly warm, I had some Roach of around 6/8 inches and was enjoying myself chasing the fish up and down the water column until the wind started, it was the opposite of what was forecast and was blowing left to right quite strongly, the fish didn't want a bait on the deck and it was impossible to keep the tackle where it needed to be when it was off it so that was that, packed up and left vowing never to believe weather forecasters again.

 

[108831]

Returned to the deep lake chasing the roach on the slider,had 24 roach between 6-14 ozs,I foul hooked a catfish,which came off after seven or eight minutes,it left slime from the hook to a point some 2.5 ft up the line,a couple of hours later I thought I'd hooked another but after several minutes a carp appeared,when I eventually landed it,God knows how I got it in my net,it weighed 23-10,not bad on 4lb line,16 hook and a match rod...

 

[Philip]

Its funny how things turn out sometimes. I went out for a couple of hours down to the river to try and catch a Barbel. Two rods out and I sat back in my chair to wait.

With 14 foot of water right at my feet and dusk drawing in I got the nagging feeling there might be a predator about. I had a made up lure rod in the back of the car & decided I had nothing to lose to jig a little lure while I waited for a Barbel to wrap the rod round. I fetched the other rod and dropped a little lure directly down and started to jig it near the bottom from my chair as I watched the Barbel rods. Barely 5mins later the rod tugged round and after a surprisingly spirited fight I netted this nice Zander. They are such prehistoric looking fish that it makes any capture memorable. Very delicate too. This one didn’t go back well and I nursed it for almost an hour before it swam away.

 

[Redeemed]

Me and the lad went to Aston fisheries for a session and recon for MD jolly boys outings.

Decided to try the Split lake, apparently, allegedly it has Barbel in there but all anyone was catching were skimmers or carp of varying sizes.

Started off on cage feeder with worm - nothing

Moved to method feeder with wafters and still nothing - using own groundbait which I decided was dodgy.



eventually went to fishery shop and bought some 2mm and 6mm pellets, lobbed them up on the method and we started to see some action with both wafter (had to be pink) or plain 6mm pellet.



The lad had pulled in another double figure carp at just under 11lbs (little swine) and I started to catch fishing mainly the far margin.



Ended up with 6 fish from about 6-8 1/2 pounds and the lad was stalled on one, although it was a lump.



Despite not being mahoosive the fish put up a right good scrap and took a bit of landing, even when netted they were just plain angry!



Not a bad day all in all.

 

[wetthrough]

Fished Dunham again today. Planned to fish into the wind at the top end which was forecast SW'ish last night. This morning it's forecast NW so change of plan to fish the bottom end. Get dropped of to find the bottom end is cordoned off, they're trimming trees away from the pylons. So endeth a peaceful days fishing. Ended up fishing a cross wind which to start with wasn't too strong but it didn't stay that way picking up quite a pace later on - c'est la vie. Loose feeding maggots and hemp and trying various baits but as before bread scored most fish. Three Commons from 1lb to about 3lb. Two Mirrors around 3:4lb.



32 fish all told one small Roach one Rudd the rest about 60:40 Crucians/Skimmers.

Suprisingly little tow given a 10:17mph crosswind around 3pm. 4BB Glow Tip Antenna just stayed where it was put although not always put in the right place!

Another good day apart from the racket from the tree surgeons.

 

[Roger Johnson 2]

Had a few days back in England last week, with high winds torrential rain and single figure temperatures, I wasn’t impressed. However we managed some shopping, a lot of stuff is cheaper in U.K. than France, bed linen, expanding foam, paint, and......... maggots. So came back with 6 pints of reds, chilled and bagged up,I’m going to take this river apart, yeh right. 1st day back and Mrs J insists on a trip to the DIY store 25 miles away, so that evening was a write off, but yesterday I knocked off early to get a good couple of hours on the river, 1 st off one box of mags had a loose lid so I now have escapee reds in the bait fridge, I’ve not told her yet but she might get suspicious in a couple of weeks time(gulp!). Picked a swim 100 yards downstream of my garden, beautiful steady glide about 6 feet deep got to be packed with fish... 90 minutes later and I’ve had one bite resulting in a beautifully marked brownie, great where was it when I was fluff chucking! Decided to upsticks and move to the swimming pool swim at the bottom of my garden ( So called because the water in that swim is deep enough for swimming) after 15 minutes feeding whilst up to my nadgers in the river I took a step to the right stumbled and fell over, trying to stand up in water filled chesties in a good current and hang onto your rod and realising your phone is in your pocket unprotected is not funny, nor is seeing 2 pints of precious reds being washed out of your bait bucket, oh well I tried to convince myself of the value of prebaiting whilst I pondered over the cost of a new phone. Fast forward to today and Mrs J insists on cooking tea just when I was about to go fishing, ( steak is cheaper than chicken here!) so a later start giving me just over an hour to play, straight to the swimming pool and 2 nd trot provided my daily bream of 4-5lb still nice to catch on the float and pin , followed by 2 perch, 2 roach and a bleak, not quite taking it apart I would have liked to have seen a chub or barbel, but at least the float went under and I didn’t and miraculously the phone still works. Living the dream? Nah just trying to survive the nightmare like everyone else!


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[Tee-Cee]

It really wasn't my day yesterday. It started well enough; up just before the alarm was due to go off, decent cup of tea watching the first light in the sky at around 6am, and a good trip down the A4 to Reading with minimal traffic......

Not at all cold as I tackled up with my 12' Ultralight the choice of the day, and all going well up to this point. I carried out my normal check by holding the rod up to the light, pulling the tip round to ensure I hadn't missed a ring. I walked to the next swim to find an area of water without tree reflection to check the shotting applied was giving me the required 10mm of float above the surface (I would be fishing in tree reflection so dotting down not possible, at least with my eyes!) and all seemed well..............

Back to the swim, a fingernail ball of liccy gently lobbed in, a fresh punch of bread on the hook and I was ready to go. First cast the float settled nicely and within a minute or two it dipped and sailed away, not, I might add by a decent roach, but by a little tinker some 4" long. A good start, though.
One or two further cast (this is where things started to go awry) and I was looking up the rod to see if the line was caught up around the tip but as I concentrated on the top joint I could see, to my horror, that although I hadn't actually missed a ring, I had managed to thread the line through the gap above the ring and thus the reason for odd casting.
No matter, though and although cross, a few minutes later the fault was remedied and I was ready to cast again. Float settled and almost at once a stuttering bite found me attached to a nice fish with the rod (sort of) arched over with tip close to the water in the shallowish swim. Unfortunately, before I could bring the rod sideways to draw the fish from the swim, the rod straightened and the line, float, shot and hook length had wound itself into a ball around the rod top.

Now I'm not one to get too excited around such happenings particularly at my time of life (I tend to take things easy and in my stride) so I don't go stamping up and down or throw the rod in the trees, but I do allow myself a short sentence or two of Anglo Saxon to relieve pressure........

Ten minutes later and I was ready to go again. It was now light so I decided to cast to the edge of some rotting pads just as I've done countless times in the past in the swim. Fishing on the drop the float disappeared almost at once and a very pretty roach of about 8ozs slid into the net. Well pleased.

Next cast to the self same spot - nothing. Another cast (I was 'on the drop' fishing) didn't actually materialise as I now found myself firmly attached to said rotting pads. For a moment I just sat still and stared at the ground with what I know to be, pursed lips. I closed my eyes, opened them, and stared skyward asking at the same time (to whoever might be listening in the universe) if I had done something wrong, but no reply, came the answer.......

To gather my senses I had a cup of hot tea and did nothing else but sit and watch the carp causing major disruption in the margins which had me thinking I should be fishing for them. Huge bow waves ran through my swim and then all was quiet. Okay, thought I, lets change the float (obviously an unlucky one) get myself reorganised, move the chair slightly (for no apparent reason) bring the hemp out and fish into open water where I could do little damage and also get myself into some sort of rhythm.

Not to labour the point, but in the next two hours I manage to land (in fact, swing in) 15 roach which suggested the rig was working well BUT, come the time a nice fish was hooked, and on no less than four occasions, I lost very single one, NOT consecutively, but interspersed with smaller fish (so seemingly nothing wrong with the hook) of some 5" long!! Yes, I changed the hook and even resorted to sharpening the new one, all to no avail.

In the end, with the best part of the morning gone and sun covering much of the water, I extracted near to 30 roach so I cannot complain and all things considered it was a fair catch, but one tends to thing of opportunities lost and what might have been. Perhaps I had become too complacent and even a little cocky.................

Perhaps I should have gone home at 7am........................................


ps The wife is otherwise engaged this weekend, my brother is heading off home to Tenerife, so with new line loaded and one or two new trial float in the tackle box I shall, once again, head off to that self same swim to rid it of demons introduced yesterday. I NEED to do it......................................

ps Gawd, I do prattle on sometimes (make that all the time!!)

 

[no-one in particular]

New beach, new rod and new rig tryout the other day and a gorden bennet fish because I said gorden bennet when I caught it; its only been 4 months. Actually a flounder and it pulled the rod round and started to drag it towards the sea (I forgot my rod rest so it was laying on the beach over the ridge) and my heart missed about 10 beats, pestered by pin whiting that stripped my bait so it didn't last long. I was watching a video about drop shotting the other day, not sure I got it right but thought I could attach my hooks like that, makes a simple end tackle and very streamlined so better for casting however, was not sure about hooking power. It worked out fine but no tag on knot to keep the lugworm from bunching up on the hook, still - with threading the worm on very tightly it seemed OK. Rod was a 2.75 carp rod with a 2oz weight which worked out good but not for rought conditions. My old telescopic carp rod is a bit fine in the tip for casting, alright for float work but this rod was better for beach casting and I picked it up dead cheap.
Sparrow hawk sitting on the beach but missed a picture, very strange, a kestrel sitting on the railings, strange as well, wheatears, turnstones, unidentified waders, curlews at the back of me and cormorants, nice to see them in their proper place.
And what a pristine beach, talk about a bit of exclusive fishing and weather just blissful. A very nice day, I will try going back over the weekend

 

[103841]

Nice looking stretch of beach Mark, Hythe area?

 

[108831]

I love flounder fishing,haven't done any for more years than I care to remember,it's just nice to fish with relatively small hooks and not too heavy a line,just pleasant,though I can remember catching cod 6lbs or more when flattie fishing.

 

[neil1970]

I was lucky to be sent some new colours in a lure I tested with good results a couple of years ago. Vid here -
YouTube

A day off on Wednesday saw me hitting 2 rivers and a mill stream.
Just about made it to 50 fish before the school run

 

[103841]

Quality Neil!

 

[no-one in particular]

I love flounder fishing,haven't done any for more years than I care to remember,it's just nice to fish with relatively small hooks and not too heavy a line,just pleasant,though I can remember catching cod 6lbs or more when flattie fishing.

I have caught very few before but it gave a good rattling bite and a fair pull on the rod. Chance of anything off the beach but I enjoyed catching it and I was thinking I might get a few more as I believe they are a shoal fish but that was the only one and the little Whiting were a pest which didn't help. But I got to the stage of happy just seeing the rod tip move.

 

[theartist]

I was on this train yesterday with someone who was going up to London for cancer treatment so it was good to be on the other side of the glass in the fresh air today, what I caught today was irrelevant all things considered. There is a tiny river down there somewhere, honest.

Took a while to get going as had to clean up a bit of mess from the school holidays, the usual bottles, cans and crisp packets plus a bit of line - A triple bag job bagged up for collection on the way back. Fair play to World of Water for allowing me to put it in their dumpster when I stopped off to get some bits on the way home, it did leak a bit in the boot of the car though so note to self - get thicker bin bags




I suppose I should mention how I got on, well I just set up real light and was happy getting decent dace and roach even though the river shrinks in size year on year. So imagine my surprise when I get a pb chub for the stretch and I've only been fishing there three decades, hairy stuff on an old size 18 i'd bent back in to shape and a swim two foot wide, funny how things go when your just grateful to be out, but that's fishing for you.