How did you get on?

[nottskev]

Some really great barbel you had there Kev, top Angling :thumbs:



Are you sure you didn’t mean ‘Photobucket’ Kev?

Postimage is free and I moved over to it because PhotoBucket started to charge. (https://postimages.org/)

Keith

Definitely Postimage, Keith - I just logged in for the first time since.....I can't even remember, and found all my old pics. If only I could remember how to use it!

 

[john step]

A day on the lake tucked under the brolly. It never stopped all day although it appears that there are no rain drops on the lake the moment the picture was taken.

Just one pike at 17 plus on float fished dead roach. Funny..last couple of years lamprey was the magic bait. This year I can't get a run on it.
I have been using singles again as a comparison to the circle hooks I had been trying and missing too many runs


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[The Runner]

Back down in London for a weeks work- hadn't fished on Skye in the last week I was there as took advantage of the unseasonal sunny weather to do a few mountains.
Came down via a long weekend with old friends in Doncaster and managed to sneak in a days fishing with mate on the R Torne at Belton. River had a nice pace and colour to it, three pike anglers already present when we got there so set up on two nice flat swims above them
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A bit deeper than it looked at nearly 6ft, set up one (borrowed) rod with a 4no 4 stick with a small bulk of 8s and two droppers to start with, 20 Silverfish Match to .07. Mate set up more or less the same but also a pike rod for roach deadbaits as he generally does, to make up for all his years as a serious (and very very good) matchman when he never got the chance.
Fed just over half a pint of hemp to start , "line down" from straight in front to about 8 yards down the swim and loosefed caster over the top. Into fish straightaway alternating caster and maggot, mostly silver bream to begin with but gradually more and more roach. No real size and had to keep changing depth and shotting all the time to stay in contact but steadily put fish in the net all day. Had a few around 6-7 oz but mostly a good bit smaller, most of better fish came just over half depth on caster right under the feed but they wouldn't settle there. Mate was catching as well but with a few quieter spells likely due to pike activity but pike rod fished a quarter over remained runless until about 2 30 when the flow slowed a bit
View attachment 6088
And he had two more the same size and a couple of dropped runs in the next hour and a bit. Trashed my rig swinging a fish that I should have netted so called it a day as the light went at about 4; not a bad five and a half hours catch, mid teens I would say; one perch, one rudd, one chublet, one hybrid and the rest about 80% roach and 20% silver bream
View attachment 6089
As we packed in, mate, who'd had probably a couple of pounds less than me, dropped pike rod into my swim for about 30 seconds and straight in to fish no 4- weird as I hadn't had a single pike strike all day
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Not much in the way of wildlife to report other than a water rail going through its whole repertoire of grunts , wheezes and squeaks in the undergrowth opposite

Rather like where Simon was on the Thame (and that swim seems an awful lot narrower than I remember it) looks like it was a bit too early in the year for the bigger roach, and with them the bigger pike, to have arrived. Still a lovely day out.

 

[flightliner]

At last, a few hours fishing.
It's been several weeks since I was last out on account of a stubborn viral infection.
Only a few hours br the water on account of a visit to my bank so I thought my best option was a few hours luring a local water.
I started at 1-30 and in a few casts lost a silver spinner on a hidden snag that I felt again on my newly rigged up shad so I moved a swim down and duly hit another unseen snag with the same result.... dammit !
Another shad , another swim and this time two hits in two casts that gave me two small jacks, lovely fin perfect things that should do well in this water with its hordes of fry.
Another swim, another snag--- no prizes for the result so I went back to the snag free swim and gave it more attention but with nothing to show I decided that a long walk to another area wasn't quite what I wanted I decided to rest my position , have a cup of tea and a bikky and hope for a fish as it went dark.
It worked, two more little jacks that ended my short day out.
Really nice to be back in harness.
Hope to get out later in the week.
Sorry no foto's.

 

[PH]

I snuck off for a couple of hours at lunchtime, it was cold, calm and deadly still. No movement and no sign of any fish. 2 hours just got me 2 frozen feet.



Even the ducks thought the water was too cold.

 

[Tee-Cee]

Wasn't sure what to expect this morning as it was considerably colder at 1 degree when I left home. Needed to remove heavy frost from the windscreen for the first time this winter..

I'd already made the decision to continue the up in the water roach fishing at least for the first hour or so, with a back up plan to fish deep water. As it turned out it was the right decision and I caught fish from the off with most in the 8oz class, so I stuck with the method for the whole session.

By 12.30 I'd amassed 25/30 fish of which 3/4 were in the 12oz class plus one belter of 1lb 1oz which I thought would go at least 1,5lbs during the fight. It pumped away for an age and gave me a few anxious moments as it plunged again just prior to netting. Still, a great looking fish in prime condition and I was very pleased with it.

Not out again until Thursday when I will try a different water...


ps My wife has just reminded me I have an MRI scan booked for 6.35 this evening so I shall spend the time in the machine thinking of today's fishing and hope I'm not too stiff to move at the end of it !!

pps All fish took single white maggot fished handle bar fashion on a 20 hook....Reds? Not a touch...

 

[mikench]

I managed a few hours this afternoon and looking at the forecast for the rest of the week, I'm glad I did despite the cold! My extremities were soon very cold indeed!!

I fished the matchpro with a red maggot hook size 18 on 2lb hooklength! I managed around a dozen small perch and roach on maggot! None needed the net! I also had 2 takes from carp which broke the hooklength! Gearing up with a larger hook, stronger hooklength and multiple maggots produced nothing! C'est la vie!

It was nice to be out but it became dark by 4.00 so I packed up and came home to defrost!

 

[peter crabtree]

8 codgers turned up this cold and frosty morning at the same venue as last week due to the good fishing it provided. Today however it was not the same. Temps ranging from 3degrees to 6 during the day but no wind at all made it just bearable.
The C&RT were working on the dodgy lock which caused last week's dewatering of the pound above. This meant no boat traffic to contend with for a change.

I fished the same area as last week, pinkie on the waggler across on the far shelf. Once again I had a steady run of small roach, and I mean small!
At the end I'd amassed 50 odd fish for 2:3:8 which surprisingly clinched victory for me.

4 codgers DNW, 2nd had 2:1:0 and 3rd 1:12:0

 

[108831]

Been on the deep lake again,slider and maggot,first fish after an hour was a 19-2 mirror,on an 18 and 4lb hooklink,then went on to catch 21 roach to 12ozs,a pleasant day,where you have to work to catch...

 

[Tee-Cee]

I didn't change venues this morning, just the swim, which offered a little more variation in depth including an area running up to 3/4 ' or so. This meant my up-in-the-water rig was virtually on the bottom when casting to that area.

It was another ideal morning for roach fishing but for the first hour or so the fish thought otherwise, and I was just on the point of moving when the single white was snatched viciously. Turned out to be a fish of 10oz or so and proved to be the start of irregular feeding which saw another dozen fish of similar size (some a lot smaller) in the following hour.

After that bites became spasmodic and when I did get some I managed to miss most as it was a case of 'there one second and gone the next' with fish felt at the tip end of the rod before I could strike. I tried changing the shotting to slow the bites down and even delayed the strike but I still missed more than I hit.

Around 11am it started to rain and this (sort of) induced the fish to feed a little more freely with some better specimens around the 12/14oz mark capped by one of just on the lb, and this from the shallow area what I had fed sparingly through the morning. It was the only fish from that area, though...

Hoped to get out tomorrow again, BUT I have just noticed it is likely to be VERY heavy rain from 6am or so in my area, which I don't really mind, but not when I have to set up in it!

We will see.........................

Oh yes, I finished with something in excess of 30 roach, and happy as Larry with that!

 

[Roger Johnson 2]

I know I’m incredibly lucky being able to fish nearly everyday from my own garden, but even then there are some days when you know you’ve GOT to fish. today was one of them, the weather has been mild all week sunny 16c yesterday and a wet drizzly 14c today. Yesterday, I actually went off site to a lake about 30 minutes away that I’m scouting out for a tench and carp assault next year, for the grand total of 1 perch on worm and 1 missed bite on sweetcorn, but with bright sunshine it didn’t feel right. Today’s weather though felt right so at tea break I took 10 mins off from fitting door frames and went down to the swimming pool swim and sent out half a dozen feeders full of 6mm halibuts mixed with hemp and halibut groundbait to prime the swim ready for an assault in the witching hour. 4pm came around and she who should be ( but very rarely is) obeyed gave me permission to knock off and grab my rod. Feeder out with with a dendra and 8mm pellet on the hair and the first hour being plagued by minnows knicking the worm then the little twitches stopped and I sat in anticipation waiting for the 3 foot twitch, BANG and an apparent monster headed out to mid river, I always tell Mrs J I’ll call her when I get that 10lber, and actually started to fumble for my phone but thought it best to concentrate on the job in hand. After a great fight I had the culprit in the net all 5 1/2lb of him!

Oh well it was at least beautiful, a dramatic bronze coloration and not a scale out of place. I decided to stop on for a while longer and fish in the dark ( very illegal on this stretch) as it still felt right for another fish however sadly rain stopped play.


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[john step]

Another day on my club lake. I went after the rain stopped at 10ish. Ha Ha got away with no wet gear until s*ds law kicked in at 4.30 Pm and the lot got soaked.

I had one pike, the same 17+ I caught Monday so no photo. S*ds law again kicked in as the only other run resulted in a goodly pike on the end which duly came adrift.mg:

Must try harder.

 

[john step]

I know I’m incredibly lucky being able to fish nearly everyday from my own garden, but even then there are some days when you know you’ve GOT to fish. today was one of them, the weather has been mild all week sunny 16c yesterday and a wet drizzly 14c today. Yesterday, I actually went off site to a lake about 30 minutes away that I’m scouting out for a tench and carp assault next year, for the grand total of 1 perch on worm and 1 missed bite on sweetcorn, but with bright sunshine it didn’t feel right. Today’s weather though felt right so at tea break I took 10 mins off from fitting door frames and went down to the swimming pool swim and sent out half a dozen feeders full of 6mm halibuts mixed with hemp and halibut groundbait to prime the swim ready for an assault in the witching hour. 4pm came around and she who should be ( but very rarely is) obeyed gave me permission to knock off and grab my rod. Feeder out with with a dendra and 8mm pellet on the hair and the first hour being plagued by minnows knicking the worm then the little twitches stopped and I sat in anticipation waiting for the 3 foot twitch, BANG and an apparent monster headed out to mid river, I always tell Mrs J I’ll call her when I get that 10lber, and actually started to fumble for my phone but thought it best to concentrate on the job in hand. After a great fight I had the culprit in the net all 5 1/2lb of him!

Oh well it was at least beautiful, a dramatic bronze coloration and not a scale out of place. I decided to stop on for a while longer and fish in the dark ( very illegal on this stretch) as it still felt right for another fish however sadly rain stopped play.


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From memory I think you are in France?? Is that the same species of Barbel as the UK? It may just be the photo but the mouth seems a different shape??

 

[Roger Johnson 2]

From memory I think you are in France?? Is that the same species of Barbel as the UK? It may just be the photo but the mouth seems a different shape??

Hi John, yes I’m based in SW France on the Dordogne river, as far as I’m aware it’s the same species of barbel, I see what you mean about the mouth, but it’s either the photo or that individual fish and looking at photos of other barbel I’ve caught their mouths look ok to me, although I only caught one U.K. barbel(!) but I’ve seen thousands of pictures over the years. I’ll look out in the future and follow up your suggestion with some research.
Regards Rog


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[peter crabtree]

It was raining hard when I set off north on the M25 to London Colney this morning.. Went to meet a mate to fish part of the upper Colne, very near its source. A new venue for both of us which we can fish on our Tring memberships due to an affiliation with Barnet AC.
It was still raining when I arrived so being a bit early I went for a look at the water with my umbrella..
More like a lake than a river, it started narrow before opening up into a wide lagoon. It was very coloured and fish were topping. We started fishing around 11 o’clock and were both surprised at the depth, nearly 11’ deep a couple of rod lengths out.

I spent the first hour fishing waggler and punch a foot off bottom, difficult with the brolly up. Small roach soon moved in followed by some better ones once I started feeding small balls of hemp based groundbait.
After a while the rain stopped and the sun appeared, the wind strengthened however and the temperature plummeted. It was bloody freezing...

We fished on until 2:30 when I was too cold to continue. Plenty of roach and a couple of skimmers for my efforts, slightly better fish when I changed to single red maggot.

My mate fared similarly but had a decent perch too. We both said we’d return another day, but tackle it a bit differently.

 

[Hugh Bailey]

After a great fight I had the culprit in the net all 5 1/2lb of him! //uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...c8d1bf8d74.jpgOh well it was at least beautiful, a dramatic bronze coloration and not a scale out of place. I decided to stop on for a while longer and fish in the dark ( very illegal on this stretch) as it still felt right for another fish however sadly rain stopped play.

Smashing fish! have fished on the river (and the Vezere) on holidays. You are a lucky man (apart from the renovation business).

 

[john step]

Hi John, yes I’m based in SW France on the Dordogne river, as far as I’m aware it’s the same species of barbel, I see what you mean about the mouth, but it’s either the photo or that individual fish and looking at photos of other barbel I’ve caught their mouths look ok to me, although I only caught one U.K. barbel(!) but I’ve seen thousands of pictures over the years. I’ll look out in the future and follow up your suggestion with some research.
Regards Rog


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Just looked at my reference books. Its the same species apparently. I think what was in the back of my mind was the Mediterranean barbel. A lot smaller.

 

[Roger Johnson 2]

Smashing fish! have fished on the river (and the Vezere) on holidays. You are a lucky man (apart from the renovation business).

Hi Hugh, thanks for the sympathy on the renovation, it’s not all living the dream, there has been large chunks of just trying to survive the nightmare! But winning overall now, we’ll have both BnB and a gîte available this summer, if you’d like another trip to this beautiful area, drop me a line.
Regards Rog
PS. Had a carbon copy of that fish the next evening using the “dog on the lap” technique!


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[peter crabtree]

My neighbour didn’t show this morning, he always said it wasn’t any good if you go to the right on the towpath at our Saturday venue. So today I went to the right.
Pretty featureless compared to the left but I thought I’d give it a go.

After a while I started to believe his wise words, it took at least an hour before I got a bite.
Eventually I started catching but these were very small roach and chublets. I caught most on single pinkie while feeding squatts down the middle, my stickfloat shotted down to a barely visible pimple.
After a while it went quiet and I couldn’t get a bite, as I looked down at my bait I noticed a solitary caster in the maggots. I impaled it on my 20 b511 and ran it through, my thoughts were if there’s a better roach sitting there I may tempt it. Sure enough my float buried and a good fish was on, it stayed deep and even took some line. I was relieved when it surfaced as I imagined it may be a pike, not a roach either but a bristling angry perch.

After that it was back to the bit bashing again...

 

[mikench]

Are there any days when you don't go fishing Peter? I admire your tenacity!