How did you get on?

[seth49]

Felt cold yesterday morning, we was at the fishery before dawn, to get a good peg, first there so had first choice, loaded our Korum barrows up and went to the best pegs, there were two more arrived just after us, so worth going early, had to wait for daylight so had a natter and catch up with the other two.

Started fishing at six thirty, usual method feeder set up, and fed some two mm pellets to start with, soon had carp in the margin feeding, but not picking the baits up, the cockles which worked well last week were ignored, as well as pellets,wafters,mussels,and paste.

Tried some bacon grill and got some interest, caught one carp and had a few bites but didn’t connect with these, they seemed to be spooking of either the line, or the feeder, so thought I’d try my pole, used a top kit plus two sections, with strong elastic, red hydro, to strong as it’s hit and hold to stop them reaching the willow branches lower down.

First proper bite after some liners, I hooked one which took of for these, applied full side strain which resulted in a large crack and the sound of splintered carbon as my number four section shattered, a cheer went up as the others heard this, not funny though, tried to hold the fish on what was left and the line snapped.

So back to the barbel rod, and changed to a bomb instead of feeder, did manage two more carp on bacon grill, but missed or lost a good few more, this peg has probably been fished every day since April so there getting wise to most methods now.

Called at the tackle shop on way home, and ordered a new section, £25 delivered from drennan, should have it by the end of the week, so not to expensive at least.
No photos today, not really a day to remember.

 

[peter crabtree]

16 codgers turned up yesterday at Bulbourne near Tring for our weekly fixture. We haven’t been able to fish here for a year or so due to cheapskate commuters forcing the local pub to close it’s carpark in the mornings. It is undergoing a refit so the new manager allowed us to park there.

A popular Venue with the club which obviously swelled the ranks of codgers fishing.
I drew on the turning circle so it was 4bb waggler and a long chuck across.

I catapulted small balls of gb across to the target area and baited my 16 B611 with worm section and maggot.
It wasn’t long before I got my first bite, a skimmer.
More skimmers and the odd roach kept me busy while I hoped and prayed the passing boats weren’t going to turn around in it and stir it up to chocolate...
As usual it went quiet around lunchtime with just the odd skimmer. I’d been pinging hemp close in all morning so tried double caster over that in hope of some roach. The only bite I got was another small skimmer..
Weighed in 4:1:0 which put me 6th overall.

8lb 12 won it with 6lb second.

Can’t beat a bit of canal skimmer fishing in my book..

 

[wetthrough]

Fished the Dam again yesterday, a bit of relaxation therapy after the river session. Out quite early arriving at about 6:30 just as dawn was breaking. Not a breath of wind despite the forecast ~10mph. Couple of loose balls of GB, couple for the bottom, nothing special, just black crumb, crushed cooked hemp, crushed/chopped corn, dead maggots, a few micro pellets and whatever reddish gb I have around at about 1:4 with the crumb. It's mostly sandstone round here so I just mix it til it looks something like I think the bottom is. Two rods one for the margin, one for around 12M to a 16, 2.75g and 4bb to 18 antennas. 4bb is a bit big for the margin but I use it for fishing on the top at 12M as well and the margins aren't shallow. Very slow start. Nothing til about 8:30 which is unusual. You can usually guarantee to pick something up with a maggot albeit small. Quite cold in the shade of a high bank and began to wish I'd fished the West side but soldiered on.



It slowly picked up, most going to maggot but some nice Roach to 6oz and no sign of Mr Pike, maggot being the favourite. Everything caught, bread, caster even Tare. Saw some rising to the loose fed maggots so fished the margin rod and picked a few nice ones up. The wind picked up late morning and it was all over the place. One of those days when the wind briefly stops and you realize your casting isn't as bad as you thought it was. Despite the wind being quite strong at times the float was pretty much staying put. It went quiet sporadically so switched to fishing about 2M from the margin, it's about 4', mostly picked up on the drop but a nice stamp of fish and it continued like that throughout the day, switching between the margin and 12M either on the bottom or up top. Packed up around 5pm relaxed and happy with 45 Roach and one small Perch.

 

[stillwater blue]

I took the dog out for an early morning walk down by the river and to my surprise he managed to spook a group of carp out of an incredibly shallow section of river when he went for a drink. After dinner and a quick visit to the supermarket, to buy a loaf of bread and tin of corn, I was back on the river bank hoping the carp where still around.

In the crystal clear water it didn't take me long to find the carp. There was a group of three fish, two small commons and a better mirror. They where patrolling a small section of river only moving 20 yards at best. Taking care to stay hidden I watched them for a good hour until I thought I'd figured out there movements. When they'd just drifted out of sight around a bend I introduced a handful of corn and went back to watching and waiting. The commons where back first and circled the bait, they where interested but wary. The mirror showed no wariness and straight away started feeding on the corn. I watched the fish picking up single grains of corn until there was none left, they must have spent a good ten minutes looking for more when all the corn was gone.



When the carp drifted around the bend I got my rod and dropped it onto a clear patch. I had just sat down when the mirror drifted back into the swim, the carp must have watched the corn drop as he made a B-line for the hook-bait and picked it up straight away, the line slowly started to lift and I struck. The fight in the clear shallow water was heart in the mouth stuff as the carp plowed for one set of snags and then another with me just managing to turn the carp at the last minute every time. Slowly I got the better of him and in the end I had to jump into the river to net the fish.



Extra rations for the carp spotting dog tonight!

 

[d.owens]

Had four hours free, so headed to the pond at 9.20am.
Bait came from my little stash at the back of a kitchen cupboard. Bacon Grill, Sweetcorn, Bread and a few worms I dug out the garden.
Plan was to use a tiny crystal waggler, fished over depth, with a BB shot holding the bottom.
Punched pellet of Bacon Grill was first on the hook and soon had a nice Roach in the net.

View attachment 7596

Had 11 fish in just under 4 hours. Some really nice hard fighting Tench were the highlight, also a few Carp made an appearance. Chopping and changing bait kept the bites coming, the last few fish took a cocktail of worm and corn.
A very enjoyable few hours.

View attachment 7597

View attachment 7598

 

[mikench]

Nice fish and an especially nice Boxer. I do like Boxers with a docked tail.

 

[Hertsbloke]

I know exactly where that is.....on my list of canal spots to try.

Ddint realise GJ was closed.

 

[john step]

Lots of silvers and a couple of pristine accidental mirrors on my reservoir today. Still loving the Acy ultra.
See my post in Bait Box re senior moment.:wh

 

[sam vimes]

Today's light winds tempted me out this afternoon. Went a little further down the river stretch in the hope of some roach, or at least a few more of them amongst the hordes of dace. Having never seen the water before, I plumped for a slow glide. Something a bit different from my usual pacey water choices. It also looked a lot deeper.

With the main flow just to my side of the centre of the river, I started on the waggler. On plumbing up, and a few test runs through, I was dismayed to find little more than three feet of water. Not quite the Stygian depths I expected.

Having set the waggler up, I gave it a go until I was sick of it, before swapping over to my favoured long rod and centrepin set up. First chuck (on the waggler) was a roach, which pleased me immensely. Then the dace turned up with a vengeance. Ended up with 70 dace, 13 roach and 2 chublets.

Now I've found a few more roach, I may have to break out the hemp and tares.

 

[108831]

Dace like a tare,a lot...

 

[steve2]

Unable to fish at the moment due to broken fingers I took a bird-spotting walk round the lakes the water level is still dropping. I know some of you have had plenty of rain but it seem that the near drought in Essex is continuing.
Not a bad day spotting the usual ****, woodpeckers, buzzards, herons, egrets. Egret numbers have been rising year on year. The best spot was a pair of ravens that I have never seen in this area.
Worst spot of the day was some old bloke striped off and parading around in a pair of budgie smugglers.

 

[mikench]

Not a bad day spotting the usual ****,

One man's usual **** is another man's usual ****. Water levels here remain high so rain is unwanted. Hope the fingers mend quickly Steve.

 

[DeanoJ]

Unable to fish at the moment due to broken fingers I took a bird-spotting walk round the lakes the water level is still dropping. I know some of you have had plenty of rain but it seem that the near drought in Essex is continuing.
Not a bad day spotting the usual ****, woodpeckers, buzzards, herons, egrets. Egret numbers have been rising year on year. The best spot was a pair of ravens that I have never seen in this area.
Worst spot of the day was some old bloke striped off and parading around in a pair of budgie smugglers.

Nobody needs to see anyone in budgie smugglers!

Sent from my EML-L09 using Tapatalk

 

[steve2]

**** Censored? I assume I should have used the words blue, great **** and not just ****.

 

[103841]

A pleasant few hours spent at Grove Ferry, an early start and it was a tad chilly, woolly hat out for the first time since before Summer.

I have always opted for the same swim but feel the need to explore whilst the banks are hard and doable before they become mud slides.



I liked this swim as you can sit facing downstream and can watch your float through a long trot.

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Roach were the usual target with hemp and caster being loose fed little and often but it was a day for stripeys with the perch outnumbering the roach by at least 5 to 1, some going over a pound giving a good account of themselves. An even better scrap with a cheeky Jack that tested my novice skills using a size 20 hook to 2lb line.



Packed up at lunchtime with a decent net full and headed home to prepare for a trip tomorrow, back again to Hythe in hope of catching the last of the mackerel before they head to warmer waters.

 

[bullet]

Probably, although I did see Scunthorpe censored as S****horpe the other day reading some older posts here!

 

[mikench]

Mad, the world has gone mad.

 

[peter crabtree]

Went back to the pound where the big roach were caught in a recent codgers match. As a change from waggler I took my pole.

Started at 10am with caster on a light rig. Gudgeon every bite until a nice perch joined in.
It remained steady until 4pm when the roach finally appeared, no big ones though. Changed to tares and immediately picked off some better ones...

I know they’re in there those big roach, maybe the easterly wind put them off.

 

[Another Dave]

Apart from the occasional excursion to the rudd pond, and last week's micro session on the Chelmer, nearly all of my fishing consists of sessions on my very local small river. Chub dominate, dace are plentiful and the river always flows fast enough to support a few brownies, as it makes it's way over the last riffles and migrating bends before it changes into a different zone. The main difference being that the rest of my river, as we make our way downstream, has been fiddled with.

The next section is something of an intermediate stage. You could still easily walk across in the summer, and as the river widens to a couple of rodlengths, a couple of bends look promising but usually disappoint. Then we come to cabbage patches, slime and the start of the duckweed. It gets a bit deeper by the road bridge but i don't go fishing to listen to traffic so we move on.

The plan was to take my 15g spinning rod with the same lures that worked so quickly on my Chelmer session, with a back up plan of some decent worms quickly gathered from the garden for when i'd run out of spots to spin and needed a sit down and a smoke. Well the extensive vegetation was enjoying what we used to call an Indian Summer and the first clear spot looked like this:



Clear-ish. I'd already lost my lucky spinner so i went straight for the fag break option here. To the little link swivel at the end of my 6lb braid i clipped on the only hook-to-nylon i had, a size 10 carp something, juicy worm. Strike indicator as a float to keep the line over the duckweed, surely there's something lurking under the duckweed shade. Plumbing up revealed a surprisingly deep 5ft. The bright sun in my face made it hard to see my homemade 'float' so i stuck a broken bit on top, which didn't help much. A passerby outs himself as a fellow angler and wishes me luck as he skylines the bejesus out of my swim. Two smokes and a few casts later and i'm starting to wish i was back up in the chub zone. And next we have some passing druggers, i move my possessions closer and weigh the benefits of deeper water versus dealing with people.

My missus walks by with her friend - their lunch date made this session possible so i wave and answer 'i only just got here' to the question 'are you walking back with us?'

The next swim down has an immense weeping willow just set back from our bank, and some interesting fallen trees just upstream opposite, with young roach bouncing out as something harries them. The tree blocks so much light there wasn't any weed so out with the rig, not easy to cast with a 7ft rod and the float was still hard to see but the spot did look good.

Eventually i got the float somewhere i could see it and a sailaway bite resulted in a nice perch somewhere around a pound on the first cast that i felt happy with. Amazing how much 'feel' has to do with it. It came off as i fumbled for my almost forgotten net but i knew i was doing something right. Bumped off another one. Gave the next bite a bit longer - love the way a bobber knocks out rings to warn you - and finally:



Less than a pound but very promising stuff. Unfortunately had to cut the hook as the best option, circle hook next time maybe, hope it shifts the barbless. It was my only hook so i put a trace and spinner on and caught a smaller perch first cast and a pike about 2lb the cast after that, spinning champ i was for a while. Even managed another quarter pound perch from the dull intermediate stretch on the way back home. Best stipes i've seen but it flicked off my knee while i piddled about with my phone.

Well that post took me longer than i thought, thanks for sticking with me on my exciting new adventure of finding more than 3ft of water in an Essex river.

 

[rich66]

Trying to put into words how I felt this morning as I put my kit in the car, best I can get is grumpy tired middle aged bloke syndrome. Half way down the street I’m back to being a kid again full of anticipation of a days fishing.
Started about 9:30 went for the match lake as strangely today it was deserted normally it’s the most popular lake on the complex. The day kicked off with small roach followed by a decent common, wish I’d taken a pic nice plump solid carp about 6lb or so. I was using 3-4 dead red maggots on a waggler with a size 16 hook. Had a stoncker of a run and just couldn’t hold whatever I hooked. In fact the hook had opened up which I’ve never experienced before.
After that a few trembles on the float and slow dips I landed a crayfish !
Decided after a few more of these trembling bites I’d change to a cage feeder and cast tighter to the middle island. You could see the clouding of the fish feeding. Swapped baits to double sweetcorn on a hair rig, used the dead’s in my groundbait. Plenty of bites and fish after that.
One in particular was very pretty I sat it in my landing net to rest and get another picture.
Last fish of the day was a bream, while unhooking it I dropped my empty cage feeder with baitless hook into the margins. Returned the bream collapsed my landing net and my feeder tip went flying round! Some mad carp had decided to take my baitless hook managed to get it close in and unhooked it in the water as my landing net was neatly packed away.
Sun was out and that glorious late summer colour that never fails to please.
A selection of fish from today and the swim I was in.