How did you get on?

[Pete Shears]

Disturbed a female kestrel walking up the field side of the local reservoir this morning with another piking trip to look forward to,very mild with hardly any wind and quite a few fish of various sizes rolling.
Set up the three deadbait rods and about 8am had run ,managing to land a pike of 13lb 2oz - first one on the bank for me since the 8th January.Sat back with a coffee having recast with the tail of a large sardine about five yards out in eight feet or so of water.As the sun broke through saw up to five buzzards trying for thermals and one red kite quartering the field opposite.had another stuttery run on the sradine and lifted into the fish and felt it surge away,started to give it some side strain when everything went slack,wound in and found the bait still on with no marks at all on it.Must have been an old pike that had lost its dentures.Had to shed two layers to cart everything back to the car,blackthorn blossom and pussy willow breaking through,nearly time to start blanking for tench.

 

[peter crabtree]

13 codgers turned out yesterday on the GUC near Berkhamsted.
A mild and still day compared to last Tuesday.
I set up my Microlight with my light waggler rig which has been very effective recently and started on bread punch.
It wasn’t long before I was into roach, feeding liquy little and often.
At 12 o’clock a boat came through and the roach vanished.
A change to single red maggot produced gudgeon after gudgeon including some one ounce clonkers.
Pinging half a dozen loose maggots every chuck kept them coming, then it went quiet. Next bite a decent perch.
The gudgeon then resumed feeding until the same thing happened again and another perch was netted.

My hard work paid off notching up another win with 8lb:1oz. 2nd 6:8 3rd 5:4.

 

[steve2]

Just got back from a few hours lure fishing for Pike. Lost a good double not long after starting and then had another around the 8lb mark. This fish was taken on the way in and judging by the bite marks it must have been a very big 20 or 30 lb fish. I know this lake as produced pike over 30lbs in the past but none have been caught for at least 20 years but I now know there is still one in there to be caught.
Pike fishing on here is now closed till November.
This is the same lake where when Tench fishing early last year I had a 4lb Tench taken.

 

[mikench]

Good to see you are fishing again!

 

[john step]

What a lovely warm 1st day of Spring. No jumper. Plenty of sun screen here in sub tropical Lincolnshire. Apparently today is National Happiness Day. Certainly is.

A buzzard was being mobbed by crows over the reservoir and a barn owl was hunting in broad daylight. I wonder if she had chicks this early?

Like Mr Kipling makes exceedingly good cakes so Mr Dynamite makes exceedingly good boilies.
I had this at 17.9. My first from the water this year. Good things to come. Its a syndicate water we have been developing. I believe this one went in at about 10 ounces .

View attachment 6507

 

[peterjg]

Today I started on the K&A canal. Caught a roach/bream hybrid, a roach, a decent perch and a gudgeon.

Now the never seen before weird bit .......

At midday I moved to a nearby club lake and continued roach fishing. A fellow member asked me if I had caught anything. I replied "no - I am absolutely useless, not a bite". Next I saw him à few yards along the bank bent over with his sleeve rolled up. He was bent over digging around in the edge in a reed bed - next thing he stands up and walks up to me with a roach in his hand and says "that's how to catch roach, who needs fishing tackle!"

I was absolutely amazed! Never seen anything like it! Though I think I'll stick with rod and line!

 

[flightliner]

A day after some roach on a carp runs water.
Bolt rigged maggot feeder with two red maggots.
I sat all day in the hot , sunny, and almost windless day and never had a bite but lucky me found a large "Spomb" in some nearby weeds.
That'll do me nice this coming summer.

 

[john step]

Today I started on the K&A canal. Caught a roach/bream hybrid, a roach, a decent perch and a gudgeon.

Now the never seen before weird bit .......

At midday I moved to a nearby club lake and continued roach fishing. A fellow member asked me if I had caught anything. I replied "no - I am absolutely useless, not a bite". Next I saw him à few yards along the bank bent over with his sleeve rolled up. He was bent over digging around in the edge in a reed bed - next thing he stands up and walks up to me with a roach in his hand and says "that's how to catch roach, who needs fishing tackle!"

I was absolutely amazed! Never seen anything like it! Though I think I'll stick with rod and line!

I have seen people trapping fish for livebaits in similar fashion. They quickly dunk a large triangular net into the edge about a yard out so that it touches the bottom and then in one swift movement draw it back to trap silvers against the undercut bank.

 

[mikench]

A lovely common Pete( John Step) ! Today was cooler, cloudier but dry! I returned to a lake badly affected by the drought last summer and was pleased to see the levels had almost risen to normal!





I fished a small feeder with meat and caught 10 carp mostly around 4 lb or so and one double that.

I used my Hardy Marksman bomb rod paired with a recently acquired Aero 4000 feeder reel and it was a very good match and a pleasure to use! The much missed Binka raved about this rod and described it as a peach of a rod. I wouldn't disagree. It felt, well, bombproof.

 

[peter crabtree]

4 of us fished the Aylesbury arm of the GUC today, I chose to fish the turning bay as I’d never tried it before.

I potted in 3 balls of dark fishmeal gb laced with dead pinkies over by the willow and left it to settle.
Started a punch line closer in and took some quality roach and Rudd. Meanwhile 2 swans hoovered my groundbait.

Re-fed and went straight on it with double maggot, the pole deterring the swans from a repeat performance.
1st bite a perch, 2nd bite and the fish tore off giving my 4-6 hydro a good stretch before the hook pulled. Probably a foul hooked bream.
Then I landed 5 big slabs followed by a big perch,
An hour later another slab then nothing.
Back on the punch line I had a beautiful Rudd and some more roach.
Reckon I had 25lb by the weight of the net.

We all had a nice day’s fishing with plenty of big perch landed down by the road bridge.

 

[john step]

That bungalow looks like an anglers dream.

 

[neil1970]

I haven't been getting out as much as I'd like to, but managed a few hours on the GUC last Sunday.
Nothing much to report, but managed a few tiny fish , which were great fun on the Ultra light setup

 

[Another Dave]

Fluro trace on that spinner?

 

[mikench]

I made it out again today but lulled by the calm and pleasantly warm conditions yesterday, I skipped the parka and the thermal vest. Oh dear despite the mercury saying 12c it felt like 2c in a cold unforgiving wind! I set up with the wind to my back and side and hoped for the best! At least the daffs looked nice!




Bites were hard to come by and no pics in deference to a couple of our regular contributors. After 6 Abyssinian tench my landing net looked like it had been dipped in wallpaper paste and exhausted with the excitement I came home early.

I had planned to float fish but it was too windy for that so fished on the feeder with the Darent Valley rod which lives in the car just in case.

 

[neil1970]

yes Dave - its a 1.5g 25mm metal wedge.

 

[mikench]

Aren't jack pike cute?

 

[peter crabtree]

Today a mate and I went bream fishing at a pit near London colney. Cage feeder with gb, corn and worm impaled on a 14 was my chosen method. Used my Abu Suveran 12’ quiver tip rod which rarely sees action these days, a shame as it’s a real quality item.

As mentioned above, that wind was damn cold and I was also underdressed. Took 2 hours to get my first bite which I missed...
During the next hour I landed 5 big slabs, all put up a good fight..
My mate unfortunately blanked...

 

[john step]

A day picking for bites on pinkies on a difficult brick pit. Plenty of tiny roach and perch. You wouldn't think perch could give bites as delicate as todays.
My excuse is the cold wind. The cross drag was difficult but it was interesting to work shotting and overdepth out.
I have not waggled for silvers for some time.

 

[108831]

Lol,well Simon I've been on the canal for the first time in at least 15 years,probably longer,fished for 3-4 hours,had 26 small roach to 4ozs,5 skimmers the same stamp,6 gudgeon,a tiny perch and a 4oz rudd,best fish cake off at the net,a skimmer about 1-4. Made a change.

 

[peter crabtree]

Nobody likes losing a fish cake Alan...

Luton AC control some very good canal venues, we used to fish them on interclub matches, unfortunately they don't have any matches any more...