How did you get on?

[tigger]

Peter, why did no one step up their gear rather than leave hooks in fish?

 

[peter crabtree]

Who said they didn’t?

 

[tigger]

Who said they didn’t?

Nobody said they did either and by the way you wrote your post it gave a feeling that there was a few lost.
Ok, maybe there wasn't many lost with break offs, but it's just how it read to me is all.

 

[108831]

Had a day on the upstream end of the Ivel on Tuesday,the wind was horrendous and made float control an absolute swine,as it blew downstream and slightly at me,anyway I had 5 dace,a roach,a chublet,a gudgeon and a nice wild brownie of around 3lbs which led me a merry dance on my 12ft titan 2000.

 

[john step]

What a disappointment today. The forecast was high winds so I packed the car for a day carping sat behind a high bank on my club lake.

I pulled off the drive and the car stopped. Something seized in a back brake drum. I couldn't leave the car stuck in the middle of the road so I forced the issue by driving it to a squealing sound to a spot I could stop. Something freed itself but the tyre is now flattened. It is now in the garage and I await an expensive diagnosis.

So no blooming fishing for a bit. Grrrrrr.

 

[mikench]

Sorry Pete. I just couldn't click the like button.

 

[Keith M]

It’s surprising that such a featureless pound on the GUC should be a chub Mecca.

8 codgers fished yesterday’s fixture at Boxmoor, the water was clear and the sun bright, not exactly ideal but we persevered.

We all opted for waggler tactics and on my 3rd cast I hooked something which pulled back hard.
Expecting roach and dace I’d set up a 1lb4oz hook link and I expected it to fail but luckily it didn’t.
A nice chub on punch was netted and gave me an early lead.
This wasn’t to last though, end peg up by the lock was getting a few and won the day with an all chub net of 5lb. Bigger specimens were hooked but not landed.

I was pipped into 3rd place with 1lb13 beating my 1lb10.

My chublets and the only roach caught all day.

That’s similar to what it used to be like at the ‘Lady Capels’ stretch of the canal between Watford and Kings Langley before the commercial fisheries came on the scene and when Watford Tackle Carrier used to run its regular open matches there.

You used to have had at least around 11lb or more to figure in the leading few with the occasional much larger weight being caught if you were lucky enough to land on one of the larger bream shoals; which were usually at the top end near the motorway link road bridge.

There were Large Chub feeding tight up to the far bank all along the stretch but you usually had to be able to cast your float to within a foot of the far bank to get the Chub, there were quality Roach feeding down the far shelf and under the trees on the wides, and Perch shoals moving along the near shelf feeding on the hoards of gudgeon and minnows, and there were bream shoals in the middle of the wides and near the motorway link road bridge.

The Lady Capels stretch was featured in the ‘Anglers Mail Coarse Fishing Year’ book in 1990 with Dave Coster fishing it in the November.

But I don’t think it’s fished much today so maybe the fish have now moved on (to Boxmoor?).
I intend to have a few days down at the Lady Capels stretch once the weather starts to improve, so watch this space

Keith

 

[103841]

What a disappointment today. The forecast was high winds so I packed the car for a day carping sat behind a high bank on my club lake.

I pulled off the drive and the car stopped. Something seized in a back brake drum. I couldn't leave the car stuck in the middle of the road so I forced the issue by driving it to a squealing sound to a spot I could stop. Something freed itself but the tyre is now flattened. It is now in the garage and I await an expensive diagnosis.

So no blooming fishing for a bit. Grrrrrr.

I won’t hit the like button, there needs to be an “oh dear” button

 

[peter crabtree]

Keith, I will be having a go at Lady C’s fairly soon. I’ll let you know how it goes..
Today, although it was wet and windy, I went down the Colne in town. Fancied it for some chub or maybe a barbel.
It had a tinge of colour and a nice flow so looked promising.
Tried Neil’s favourite weir pool first. A 3:6gr loafer float to a 12 Drennan super specialist on 3:8 fluorocarbon hooklink.
No bites on my bread flake..

I moved downstream to one of my banker swims, a 50yd straight trotting swim where I’ve caught some big chub in the past.

I could just make out the gravel bottom in 3’ of water, no chair today so I stood feeling a bit like I was sky lining my own swim...
Once again it was a big lump of flake on the hook after feeding some bread slop.
After a while I had my first bite, a fine roach.

It always amazes me how big a bait a roach can take. A few trots later another bite, almost right in front of me, this felt like a better fish, possibly a chub?
No, a superb roach.

What a beautiful, clean fish. Probably never been caught before and well worth the walk.
Got soaked in the process but at least I was out of the blustery wind...

 

[Hugh Bailey]

Two smashing fish!

 

[peterjg]

Keith M, re your post. I expect that the chub are still at Lady Chapels? I used to fish there as well in the 70s, lots of chub and decent roach on hemp.

I also enjoy reading Peter Crabtree's exploits. I recognise many of his venues from his photos. Nice to know that the chub are still on the GU at Boxmoor - I used to catch them on lobworms and slugs, the bites especially on slugs were very slow and deliberate and unmissable.

 

[john step]

Keith M, re your post. I expect that the chub are still at Lady Chapels? I used to fish there as well in the 70s, lots of chub and decent roach on hemp.

I also enjoy reading Peter Crabtree's exploits. I recognise many of his venues from his photos. Nice to know that the chub are still on the GU at Boxmoor - I used to catch them on lobworms and slugs, the bites especially on slugs were very slow and deliberate and unmissable.

Me too. I recognise many venues from his photos. I used to fish the LAA sections up to The Ovaltine a lot.

 

[peterjg]

John Step, I also fished the Ovaltine stretch. The factory has been demolished, I used to fish there for the carp.

Out of interest (being nosy) are you related to Edward Step the author of several excellent nature books from the 1920s (a different world!)?

 

[nottskev]

I was thinking of a trip to a barbel stretch, with a bit of rain lately. When I checked the levels this morning I was surprised to see how much the river had come up; so much that the track along the low bank could be waterlogged. So I mooched around for a bit thinking I'd leave it til another day until it occurred to me that the marina would be a good option. My bait wasn't up to much - some second division maggots the size of pinkies, some tares frozen last summer and a bit of hemp, but it would be better than staying home.




I started fishing at 11.30 on a slider at 12m or so. The level was well up, so the depth was 13'. Not a bite by 11.50, but a couple of balls of groundbait led to bites from tiny fish and a few better ones started to get interested.





After a couple of hours I was enjoying the luxury of getting bites from roach on tares in the "far" swim, or from perch where I'd been feeding maggots down the edge. I've been bemoaning the fact they you can only get one bite from the chub swims on my local little river, but I couldn't complain of any bite shortage today. With the fish in a cooperative mood, it would have been nice to stay on longer, but steady rain set in at about 4pm, so I called it a day. The fish were all roach and perch, with a couple of rare skimmers.

 

[mikench]

Well done Kev! I recognise the spot; it's looks good for pike. I'd be delighted if I started to catch within 20 minutes

 

[peter crabtree]

Yet another damp afternoon down the Colne today, this time I took maggots as well as bread. I also took a low chair..
The flow was a little faster than yesterday although the colour was the same.

Started off trotting this run but couldn’t get a bite.

Moved downstream to yesterday’s peg.

First trot down close in on double maggot found this rather battered roach. Looked like something had got its mouth round it at some recent point.

Switching between bread and maggot I had 5 roach all told.

At one point I slid the float up and tried stret pegging which resulted in this little fellow...

All in all a satisfactory afternoon on a lovely stretch of river, the trees budding and daffodils out made it even more pleasant.

 

[john step]

John Step, I also fished the Ovaltine stretch. The factory has been demolished, I used to fish there for the carp.

Out of interest (being nosy) are you related to Edward Step the author of several excellent nature books from the 1920s (a different world!)?

OH! Very sorry but my name is no more genuine that Peter Crabrees or Sam Vimes.mg:

 

[stillwater blue]

I finished all my jobs early so I defrosted a wee bag of hemp, grabbed a tin of corn, picked up a float rod and headed to the river for the last hour or so of daylight. The strong downstream wind made trotting a stick float difficult and I was regretting not bringing some wagglers with me but I persevered and was grateful to manage three bites and to catch my first barbel of the year.

 

[Pete Shears]

A kingfisher flashed by as I was setting up on the upper Soar this morning.Level was up but had been higher and it had more colour that earlier this week but it turned out just as hard to get a bite on quivertip or float.Eventually managed to land a crazy brown trout of about 12oz,tearing up and down the swim which meant moving upstream to the next bend,Just a few rattles on the tip and the hookbait still on so moved again upstream to repeat the exercise of having no bites.On the next swim I managed to get a chub of 2lb 6oz on legered crust and then nothing.Trotting a float on a straight even paced glide resulted in another chub of 1lb 3oz before heading home.

 

[108831]

Again went on the deep lake,slider fishing,what a slow day,10 roach,all bar three caught after 5pm and 2 tiny perch,also late visitors,I foul hooked a very big fish mid-afternoon which I believe to be a catfish,if so that might explain the slow nature of the fishing,especially on such a blowy day,creating a lovely tow,fishing eh???I

To anyone rereading the above,you will notice changes,that is down to my bloody tablet auto 'correcting' things that didn't need correcting,AGAIN!