How did you get on?

[Another Dave]

Father Christmas got my 6 year old a new setup of her very own.


The above was taken Christmas Day, we tried trotting half a lobworm in my usual spots and also tried a bit of lure fishing, but alas, to no avail. Three days later saw us going on a lure excursion that took us down to almost the town centre. This also proved to be a lesson in blanking, but also in casting and retrieving:



You can imagine how i was feeling by today. The only slot we had started at about 3.40PM, and with sunset pencilled in for 3.57PM, time was running out, so we did the same. Had time for two swims, float went under in the first but she forgot what to do. With the light fading rapidly, we moved down a swim for once last crack and lo and behold:

 

[wetthrough]

Your little girls smile could light up the dark side of the moon. Makes me smile every time I see her.

 

[103841]

Your little girls smile could light up the dark side of the moon. Makes me smile every time I see her.

A rising star of HDYGO for sure!

 

[maggot_dangler]

Headed out to the pool again today .

water was mirror smooth no signs of any life at all , my normal method waggler 4lb Maxima 18 hook white maggots first few casts saw a procession of small roach and bream of a few ounces each a few perch maybe 8 to 10 oz then the float burried and almost caugth me out it was off like an express train result Perch i would put at a good 3lb fighting fit and not happy at being extracted from the water .
that was followed by various Roach closing on the 1lb a shot and a few snotties maybe 2lb each still no Crucians showing up .
A decent day fished from 10:30 till 14:45 ...then it started cooling down thats my signal to pack and run ..

PG ...

 

[peter crabtree]

I was up early yesterday and on the river Colne at 8:30. I chose one of the deeper runs which has a slow flow and is about 4’ deep. Set up was 15’ ultralight, 2lb mainline, a Daiwa bolo float taking 3no6 bulk and 2no11 droppers to an 18 b511 hook with 2lb bottom.
All set up and itching to start, a group of cygnets decided to splash about grooming themselves in front of me.

When they eventually dispersed I started trotting punch bread and was into small roach from the off.
They gradually got bigger as the first half hour went by.

The bridge in the photo is on the canal towpath, the river actually crosses the canal at that point.
The boat traffic and lock movements help add colour to the river. It is also a magnet for the waterfowl as people often gather there and feed them.

The roach kept coming on the punch with some in the 6 to 8oz bracket, occasionally a skimmer turned up too.
By lunchtime I reckoned I had 5-6lb in the net. A change to maggots made little difference although some of the roach were a bit bigger.

A chublet, some gudgeon and a small dace along with 50 odd roach made up the final tally which I estimated at around 10lbs.

Itch scratched, I went home happy.

 

[mikench]

My first foray to the bank for nearly 3 weeks is hardly worth a mention in despatches! I just wanted to get out and back in the groove! I was late arriving at the venue but in 4 hours of mixed but dry weather i had 22 roach non of which required a net and a bream of about 3lb which did!

All caught on maggot using my matchpro and pin! I hadn't forgotten how to fish on the float to my relief!

 

[tigger]

I arrived at the river at 1.15pm and left at 3.15pm and the two hours inbetween where hectic, I really hope the rest of 2019 is as good as those 2hrs !
I had loads of nice chub and a few barbel of a very good size, maybe a double or two. I don't think I could have asked for a better new years day....well, I could, but to have a better session mid winter would be a hard act to follow.....

 

[nottskev]

After a day on the river on Sunday for one bite - enjoyable but a bit frustrating - I felt like something easier. A half hour drive - there was no traffic about today - and I was in Lincolnshire at the 1980's commercial I tried a while back. I set up at one end of the lake to get the cold breeze behind me, but plumbing around I found about 18", so I lugged everything down to the other end - surely the end facing the prevailing wind had to be a bit deeper? There were certainly plenty of features with three islands in view and dead reedbeds left and right




Last time I came, I was told that there were some big roach to be caught close in, so the plan was to fish feeder for an hour while I dripped bait in left and right with a view to fishing pole later. I don't often use method feeders etc , but when I set up today with a mini hybrid feeder and moulded some pellets on with my new Guru mould (what did you get for Christmas?) I had to admire the ingenuity of the method and its follow-up inventions.

As it happened, the pole fishing bit failed dismally. I dropped in after a couple of hours expecting roach to be lined up on one side or the other, and found there was nothing there but hordes of small perch. Oh well. At least I had a few bites on the feeder - a bite, on this method, being signalled by your rod threatening to leave the rest. The hookbait was some weird creation like a scopex flavoured tic-tac, but the pellets on the feeder deserve a mention. They were Marukyu 2mm sticky pellets, and it just took a spray with an atomiser, rather than soaking, and they stuck like the proverbial.




It could have been worse, and it was nice to have another mid-winter session and never feel cold, as the wind died down and the sun came out.

 

[mikench]

I knew I should have joined you Ian!

Mind you if I had you might have blanked!!!!

 

[tigger]

I knew I should have joine you Ian!

Mind you if I had you might have blanked!!!!

Your always welcome Mike ....you know that!

 

[seth49]

Back on normal fishery today, first time out for several weeks, didn’t expect much but it turned out ok, started on maggot feeder, first bite after ten minutes or so was this three pound bream, which saved a blank I thought, then realised I had forgot to bring a towel, which took the edge of a bit.
View attachment 6189View attachment 6190
The only bream of the day, then started to catch some roach.
Like the one above, but very slow on the feeder, so I thought I’d try my pole, it was around six feet deep at five metres so started fishing maggots there, loose feeding a few over the top, apart from the small perch which I didn’t count I finished with seventeen roach, most about six or eight ounces, but some better ones, this was the best.View attachment 6191

A nice roach of one pound four ounces, they were all in good condition, looked well in the winter sunshine.
But at two o clock they just switched off, fished for another half hour, but no more bites, so I packed and made my way back to the car, good day out enjoyed it, nice to catch some roach.

 

[Pete Shears]

Another trip to the Wreake this morning,trying to drizzle most of the morning but managed eight chub between 4oz and a pound,all on trotted flake.All the fish were in perfect condition and had dark,almost black backs and golden flanks as the level had dropped and it was easy to count pebbles on the bottom in 2ft+ depth.Last week in higher coloured water the fish had lost most of their colours.Two white egrets working around my roaming along the banks.

 

[Tee-Cee]

I went yesterday morning (sort of ) expecting to catch a few fish to see in the New Year without too much trouble, but 'few' became to operative word over the space of the first 3 hours. In fact I didn't have a bite!!
Conditions seemed okay when I arrived as it was mild with little breeze and I could see (small?) fish topping in the middle of the gravel pit, but they didn't venture into my swim and I just didn't have the gear with me to cast to them.

At 11am and after changing the set up to one offering a very slow drop in an 8' deep swim (how long did it take me to fix No 10 shot to the line!!) I managed to catch a 10" roach on a single red to a 22 but this success was short lived as I didn't get another fish until midday, despite making numerous changes to shotting/depth etc. I worked really hard for the last hour and I did start to get more bites (if silly dips of the float can be called a bite!) but nothing I could hit with confidence.......

Unfortunately, I'd made my wife a a solemn promise that i would be home for the special New Year's Day lunch at 2pm so reluctantly I had to leave just as things looked promising........................Oh really!

(Once home I did check the float drawer and found a couple of old Zoomer type floats from yesteryear that might just reach those topping fish, but that would mean raking out the fixed spool reels as well - something I haven't done for yonks. Still, it might be worth the effort..)


Have a great New Year everybody!!


ps 41/2 hours for two roach. Grrrrr

 

[Notts Michael.]

Happy New Year to all, firstly
After a rubbish week off over Xmas with a bad cold prevented any fishing plans, I managed a few great hours today float fishing for Chub (or whatever came) on the river Erewash near Langley Mill, a first for me, both the river and trying to target chub. managed a couple of very nice if smallish chub, both on size 16 barbless/double red maggot, biggest was 13oz, but both perfect, great condition fish, very pleased with the session which was a learning curve! keen to get back and try other swims, other baits, and get a few more out

 

[sam vimes]

After suffering a horrible period of working for a living, being closely followed by a bad bout of CBA, I finally got my backside to the river. Despite my usual measuring station suggesting that there would be a touch of extra water, there wasn't. It was running low and clear, not what I was hoping for.

The first run through produced a small grayling inside ten yards. This had me rather more optimistic. After an hour for three more grayling, I was a fair bit less enthused. Another hour produced nothing but minnows, so I knocked it on the head and came home to a nice warm house.

 

[nottskev]

I wasn't planning to fish today - I couldn't think where to go in the promised cold snap and I didn't fancy sitting out freezing hoping for a bite somewhere. But I saw Notts Michael's post on a little Trent tributary and realised I hadn't fished it for a year. At least there would be a chance of a bite from a chub, and little tackle or bait needed, so I waited til after lunch and, armed with a rod and a few slices of bread, headed out to one of the local beauty spots



Actually, that's unfair to the river which can be as pretty as any, as you'll see in a minute. But chub like features of all kinds.... A swan shot on a link, a piece of breadflake and 6lb line and the first chub was on before I'd put the rod in the rest.



I din't expect to get another - the river's narrow and shallow, and you have to get fish out quickly which involves a bit of commotion. But the next bite came almost as quickly, and this one looked like one of the rivers's older residents



The swim was seriously trashed now, so I took a walk a few hundred yards along the river, past unfishable shallows, and found a swim that hadn't been vandalised by morons with shopping trolleys and plastic funiture. I was sure it would hold more chub. It looked like an illustration from a chub textbook




I sneaked into the swim and fed in a few small pieces of bread mash mixed with liquidised bread, and didn't cast in for 15 minutes. I got just one bite - and that was a roach that hadn't read the textbook.
It was the biggest I've caught from this little river; I think it might have been the first, as I can't remember another.

 

[peter crabtree]

Didn’t fancy pushing a barrow today so I drove up to Tring to a spot where the car park is on the towpath.

Choosing this spot wasn’t through laziness, it was because it was so cold I wanted a quick getaway should I freeze up.
To my left was a carp angler who fishes 2 rods, he was walking his terminal tackle under the bridge and throwing it in on the other side...I wondered what would happen if a boat appeared under the bridge, I asked him and he was using backleads so the boats were no problem. He’s there nearly every day and has caught some big carp but today he had just one skimmer..
I fished pole with maggots hoping for a big perch for the BPC but the biggest I managed was about 6oz..

I was kept fairly busy and caught a good few perch along with a few gudgeon and a ruff.

 

[103841]

Some serious topiary going on there Peter.

 

[bullet]

Nice day out Grayling fishing with a mate today, chilly but the fish were coming steadily.
All was going well until I got snagged, and a bit too much welly caused the matchpro to snap just above the cork!
Luckily I had a bit of insulation tape, so a hazel stick stuffed up the ends and a couple of disgorgers taped to the sides made an acceptable makeshift repair.
Wasn't looking too clever after a decent one in heavy flow....



New section ordered...

 

[mikench]

I didn't really like the post for obvious reasons! I would be most upset if I snapped a rod like that particularly my matchpro! Out of interest what is the cost of a replacement butt section ? I assume that is the most expensive section to replace !