How did you get on?

[tigger]

Peter, I want one of those floats, where did you get it?


Back to the fishing, I went back to the length I fished last week where I had such a good time catching barbel. The river had been up the best part of 10ft between last friday and today, and even now was still about 10 inches higher than the last time I fished there. That would have been ok but the water temp had dropped right off and it felt icy cold when I put my hands in it. Anyhow, there was already someone legering in the swim i'd wanted, so I carried on downstream to some other swims . I struggled and only caught a trout, I say only but I was happy to see it as I think i've only caught one or two all summer! I then hooked something that felt quite powerful in a fast part of the river, and so proceeded to play it with caution....but even using caution didn't prevent it coming off.....darn it!
I walked back upstream and had a chat with the gent in the swim I'd planned on dropping in, he was actually casting above where I would have trotted and he told me to go ahead and try it. I did just that and had minnows . After about quarter of an hour I got a nice chub and then a great little grayling of about a pound and a half. By then i'd had enough and it was blatantly obvious the drop in temp's had put the barbel off the feed so I came home for a warm drink and some grub .

 

[The Runner]

Back up to Staffin today for a few hours lure fishing. Got there about an hour after low tide to find a 3 to 4 ft swell running in at about 45 degrees to the rocks with a heavy backwash over the lower ledges which rather limited the number of places to stand to have a good chance of landing anything and avoiding a soaking.
View attachment 5789

Usual 10gm jighead to start, not massively deep here, and worked my way back and forward between three reasonably comfortable stances. The inevitable roach paddletail was the most effective, accounting for four pollack with the only other one taking a fluorescent yellow and green thing fished sink and draw on a 25gm a lot further out
As last week, no bigger fish showed , all the size of these two (cramped pictures from a cramped ledge)
View attachment 5790

View attachment 5791

Chilly wind got up towards the top of the tide and could see some unpleasant weather approaching so called it a day a bit earlier than planned.

Another decent day for wildlife, usual ravens about here, a couple of young gannets out to sea and had a flock of 7 Brent Geese passing on their way south followed an hour later by 18 Whooper Swans, 17 in perfect V formation and one off to one side and behind. Oddly, had a dipper fly past about five yards out. They're quite common here and regularly see them on the two little rivers in Portree just above the shoreline but never seen one over the sea before.

 

[theartist]

Keep your rods close chaps

Took dad out today and the river was low and clear which turned out to be a blessing. After a spell on the matchstick where I couldn't get through the roach a change to conventional float brought less bites but better fish including chub and barbel and I was getting the swim going well on hemp and maggot

Then I get a call from dad who I left downstream, this usually means one of two things - he's caught something good or one or the banker swims was available, win win or so I thought but how wrong could I be " My rod's been pulled in the river" So i'm back off downstream with all the gear to try and see whats up

Yep he's had his rod ripped off the rest and into the drink, he said he had his bait runner on and was getting lunch at the time and was sheepishly prodding about in the margins where it went in when I turned up having done the meadow in under 60 seconds. We had no joy prodding about in margins which are a lot deeper than they look, so I went downstream to the shallows where I could wade in and lo and behold there's his rod tip bobbing about in six inches of water, this is a good 70 yards down from where it went in.

Wading in to get it was surreal as the tip started to do a 360 slowly back up to the deeper water so I'm legging it, water splashing everywhere over the boots as seeing that rod disappear would not be good, there's a fish on still and it's not impressed. I grab it in time to reel in what must be a good barbel, left handed of course as dad has to be awkward, Is it a massive barbel? Noooo it's a 2lb chub, I look like I've wet myself and whats worse is I recognise it's actually my rod which dad for some reason decided to use today.

He will be getting plenty of stick for this, oh yes!

 

[O.C.F.Disorder]

Went to Coome Abbey for a session and was absolutely blown away by how large it is. I started the session lure fishing, managed one pike (7lbish) on a savage gear 3D line thru roach lure and missed 3 takes on spinner, spoon and a large fox swim bait. 3 of the takes were in the shallows by peg 1 so I decided to try live baiting near there... problem is... Getting live bait.

It was FAR too weedy for any type of feeder fishing (learned the hard way) so I used my quiver tip as a float rod and fished in a reedy patch near the weir. Took a while to get the swim going but once they started biting they didnt stop! I decided to put pike fishing on hold and lap up roach after roach. I can never drag myself away from feeding fish.. However that wasn't a problem for long as suddenly the swim went dead.. I assumed the pike had moved in so I got my pike rod out and waited... and waited.. and waited.. NOTHING! It turns out staying in that swim was where I fluffed up.

I made the arduous journey back the peg 1 and chucked out a bait, asked my lady to watch it and set up my secondary rod and no sooner does my 2nd bait hit the water she screams GUUYYY!!! I drop my rod to the floor and set the hook, she had a couple of very strong runs but ended up in my net fairly quickly. I didn't weight him but I would guess 11lbish. Less than a cigarette after watching that pike swim off, my other float disappeared, It went under and out of sight so incredibly quickly! If I blinked I would have missed it. I was truly shocked and suspected a monster. I set the hooks and it felt like a good hook hold on a good fish but as soon as it got to the reeds the hooks popped out. I got the 2nd pike back out the net for a snap but the other half said she had taken it so I began walking it back to the water resulting in this travesty of photography

I wish my story ended there.

One of the trebles had set its self into one of the reeds and guess what was dangling on the other end? A small half dead roach. There are a number of reasons it couldn't be left there, as I am sure you are all aware, so I stripped and did what had to be done.

 

[markcw]

Well done guy for doing the water spaniel act and retrieving hooked dead bait, :clap:

 

[seth49]

Anyone else got the post new thread box covered by the thread page numbers. Had to use the reply option to post.

Anyway a loverly sunny day yesterday, frost first thing at home but none at the fishery when I arrived at seven thirty, decided to fish the first lake which contains some decent barbel up to twelve pounds or so, they must like this spring fed lake as they were only three or four ounce when stocked.

Put carp rod out first with a large pellet hair rigged to the hook, has to be hard baits because of the hordes of small Rudd they strip softer baits in no time, Chuck a handfull of two mm pellets in and they swarm in and clear the lot in seconds.

Then rigged my new margin pole up to fish the left hand margin for small carp and barbel, had a run before I’d got the pole ready, small carp of about four pounds, which was a good start.

Started to fish with the pole, and as I was watching a kingfisher diving for the Rudd, and thinking it wants to bring friends lots of friends, and the pole pulled round and I had another carp of similar size, which was my fiftieth carp of this year, from off this fishery, not bad considering I didn’t fish much in the really hot weather.

I got another bite on the pole which was a three pound barbel gave a good scrap as well, finished up with two carp and four barbel three of the barbel on the carp rod, including a new PB Stillwater barbel of seven pounds eleven ounces, picture below.
View attachment 5798

Good day out fished till sunset and it soon goes dark after that, nearly dark by the time I’d packed up and loaded the car, picture of the margin swim below, mick should be back fishing next week so back to normal, he’s ordered the same pole as me, Steve at tackle shops loves it, if one of gets something new the other gets the same, good for business I guess, he reminds me of Arkwright from open all hours, always seem to come home with something I didn’t go in for.
View attachment 5799

 

[108831]

Can't say the barbel there don't look healthy,said it before,lots of Stillwater barbel look like that....

 

[seth49]

It looked even better in the flesh, one of the nicest barbel I’ve ever seen, absolute mint condition.

 

[peter crabtree]

After a frosty start this morning the sun shone brightly all day. Not ideal for fishing so I decided to try and get a bite on a notoriously hard stretch of the GUC.
Canalised river Colne here and on arrival I winced as I peered into the margin, tap water clear....
20 years ago this was one of the best canal venues in the valley but a major pollution incident and cormorants wrecked it in recent years.

6' deep and flowing nicely it was perfect for trotting a stick float, I started fishing around 10:30. Predictably I couldn't buy a bite, even on single maggot. Around 1pm another angler showed up, I asked if he'd caught much here recently. He claimed to have caught a big dace and some big bream recently but had to wait until the light began to fade around 4pm. I began to think about going elsewhere but the long walk back to the car put me off. I kept trotting and feeding maggots, determined to get a bite. By 4:30 I was still biteless, matey was packing up which was probably what I should have done but I kept going.
Eventually the float dithered before burying, fish on!

Mission accomplished....

 

[nottskev]

Hello HYDGO'ers. I haven't posted anything on here since.... well, I can't remember. But it's not as if I've been fishing and keeping it to myself. Thanks to a virus and subsequent chest infection that went on and on, I haven't fished since the start of August. So it's been nice to get out. Keen as I was to go and catch something, I find just now - I'm sure I'll get back to normal - I've got no patience with the paraphernalia of it all. So whatever I was going to do, it wasn't going to involve all he stuff I usually enjoy using - hundreds of floats, scores of pole rigs, the tackle boxes full of little bits and pieces. I wanted to go fishing without the fuss. So when Binka posted a report about catching barbel on free-lined blobs of cheese, I thought hmm sounds appealing.

A rare spot of rain put a bit of colour in the river, so I ventured out with the ingredients for a cheese sandwich, intending to fish with them, freelined or light legered, not eat them. I hadn't caught a barbel for 2 years, so I'd forgotten what a treat it is. The first one was no monster. But look at the size of its fins! You can see where they get the propulsion.



Fishing with a small bag and a bucket for your bait proved enjoyable. I also enjoyed tackling up with a rig so basic, I didn't need glasses: a big hook on some strong line. Having tasted the power of Sainsbury's Mild Cheddar, I went back for more, and touch-legering down the side turned up a few more barbel



and a couple of chub



I've no doubt I'll get back into squinting at dotted floats and fishing for all-comers, but just now I'm finding I like fishing for things that are up for a square meal and are prepared to pull your rod in to get it.

 

[tigger]

Glad to see you back alive and kicking Kev!

 

[103841]

Ditto from me too, I wondered what happened to the Tinka catcher in recent times.

I didn’t need a bout of ill health , I’m the lazy angler and love going for a rove along the river with as little kit as possible, takes a moment to organise and throw in the car and the same apon the return. If you’re short of a lump of cheese Kev try a lure, another quick fix way to fish.

 

[peter crabtree]

Yet another beautiful Autumn day today, this morning I visited the tackle shop to buy fresh bait for tomorrow on the Thames.
After lunch I couldn't resist the temptation to wet a line.
Nothing else to do so off I went down town to the river Colne.
It was gin clear in the margin so I picked a deep swim...

Set up 13' rod, stick float and began trotting double maggot down the middle. Bite a chuck for the first 15 minutes, all perch of no great size.
After that I struggled for bites, just the odd chublet if I trotted a long way down.
As the witching hour approached I felt sure a big chub would turn up, despite fishing until I could no longer see my float properly it didn't happen...

 

[mikench]

I was going to ring you today Kev but glad to see you back posting and , more importantly, fishing! I will give you a call!!

 

[Pete Shears]

Piking again on the reservoir this morning hoping to see a few mates who only get out on Saturdays.
Much quieter that two days ago although something did pull the line out of the drop off clip,no marks on the mackerel tail so whatever it was must have swum into the line.A couple of fellow pikers turned up
and one had two smallish pike,I reckon he had caught the same one twice.So it it turned into a wildlife watching trip - great white egret,buzzards,a jackdaw mobbing a lone cormorant,a flock about 30 lapwing and crows dropping swan mussels from height in an effort to crack open the shells.

 

[markcw]

I was going to ring you today Kev but glad to see you back posting and , more importantly, fishing! I will give you a call!!

Seeing as he is back to basics fishing, and not using his diaflash pole and seatboxes. put an offer in for them when you phone him Mike, You will look good at Dunham sat on a seatbox and fishing a pole, the float in a small gap between the rushes on the island, Carp, crucians and ide taking your bait, p.s if you don't want them, put a word in for me :wh Glad to hear you are back fishing Kev, :thumbs::thumbs:

 

[markcw]

@nottskev it is a HDYGO thread in a way,because I have gone and sourced 2 of the Black & Gold "BOSS" box stickers, I only need one for mine because originally they only had one on them. If you want the other for yours if you still have it let me know.

 

[mikench]

The only pole for me would be one of their blonde beauties if er indoors left me!! Shimano diaflash now there's a thought ; rod that is!!

 

[jon atkinson]

Headed up to the Ribble with a work mate - the trip that we were originally going to make last Sunday until the rain pushed the levels up over 200%. Unfortunately, the guest pass hadn't come through from RADAC so we couldn't fish our usual stretch so we fished the day ticket section at the back of the Tickled Trout - suffice to say that we've had better days! 4 rods out between us & not so much as a nibble

Although the levels had dropped back dramatically & were actually slightly lower than normal, the flooding from last week had left the bank pretty sodden / muddy & when the rain arrived shortly after midday it soon became uncomfortably slippery underfoot. We stuck it out 'til about 14:00 at which point the lure of the pub got the better of us!

 

[nottskev]

Thought I'd have an afternoon after barbel again - the conditions couldn't really be less favourable with low, clear water and bright sun, but at least it would be pleasant to sit out in. But it was well past 3pm and I was on my third venue (that's venue, not swim) before I was fishing with any hope. Number one choice had too many people; number 2 - I fished for an hour - had that "dead" feel. At number three I dropped a bait under a nearside bush in a swim where the river was fairly ripping through, and was soon hanging on as this made off with the cheese



I'm a lightweight at the best of times, and I lost some of that lately, so I'm in danger of having sand kicked in my face by these super-fit fish. I had both hands on the rod to keep this medium-size specimen my side of the bushes. One more followed, and that was it. I ate the rest of the cheese - this is a win-win bait - and called it a day. I think more Weetabix is called for.