How did you get on?

[no-one in particular]

s63-I walked the pier yesterday, the wind is up a bit and the sea was slightly choppy but still clear apart from the tide line about 20 yds. The deeper water at the end of the pier was very clear and some mackeral had been caught. The sea is still 18c apparently so I expect the mackeral to be about for a bit longer.
I have seeen them in November though, a mild calm spell a few years ago brought hundreds of them inshore alongside huge shoals of Shad which people where collecting in buckets of the beach just a few yards in the sea, the sea was black with them and they where just dipping thier buckets in and picking them up.

 

[103841]

Thanks Mark, I’ll let you know later if they’re still inshore at Hythe.

 

[bullet]

Been funny with them the last few years. There were loads about down here last year in January.

 

[seth49]

Early start again yesterday,we were first on fishery again,so back to same swims as Tuesday, just swapping with one and other,so I had the best swim today, beside the out of bounds area, feeding small amounts of pellets draws them out.

Slow to start with, no bites for well over an hour, fishing method feeder as usual, cockles didn’t work today, but the robin red pellets did,had a run of four fish in a row, which made me think I was going to have a good catch today, then it went quiet again, back to the odd bite, half an hour to an hour apart.
A couple of today’s carp.

Now I been loosing a good few fish to the hook lengths breaking, as it’s hit and hold fishing to stop them getting into snags,
Four inch hook lengths were breaking to easily, not enough give in them perhaps, even stepping up to twelve pound breaking stain line didn’t work,so last time in the tackle shop I bought a spool of good old maxima in twelve pounds bs, there’s more stretch in this than more modern lines.

Must say it worked a treat, hooked ten fish and landed eight, none lost to line breaking just hook pulls, so hopefully that’s that problem sorted,I always used maxima when I used to salmon fish, it was always strong reliable line.

Just have to tie my method hook lengths in this now for the carp.

 

[108831]

Went yesterday to the deep lake and after shenanigans(see bait box)ended up with 14 roach and 2 skimmers both about a pound and a half,a real yukky day spent coughing my heart out and feeling sh1t at the end of a cold,the fish are obviously feeling autumn coming,even though it was warm and as evening approached,I looked across the lake at the Norfolk reeds and it looked like a winters dusk....

 

[theartist]

I couldn't resist a last minute dash up the Severn yesterday, the flow levels looked perfect like last time but instead of going for chub and barbel it was an opportunity for big roach. I was armed with pellets and a bucket load of confidence even if the big girls had been elusive for me up there aside from one good day early season, conditions seemed right this time unlike on many previous trips.

On arrival my heart sank as I was greeted with a dark brown peaty river with about a foot or so of visiblilty, even the barbel guys struggle when it's like this, cold dark coloured water released from the reservoirs in wales. Trotting pellets in this colour would prove futile however I gave it a go, but with no success, I had something big on briefly but i'm dead certain it was foulhooked, so they were down there. Luckily I had taken a few maggots so caught plenty on them and It says something about a river to catch 7-8lb of dace and roach to 10oz and call it your worst day on that stretch, really needed three times the amount of bait I had though.

The scenery was as stunning as ever though, this photo doesn't show the true colour of the water



The only noise to be heard was the steam train opposite and the many splashes of heavy weights breaking the silence from the busy opposite bank, at once stage looking downriver I could see a dozen lines glistening in the sun all cast to my bank all motionless. All the features were on their bank and If they only knew they were casting into rocks and weeds my side in a foot of water. Bdoosh! every couple of minutes - the fish must feel pretty pressurised when it's like that. The only guy to catch was the one who turned up opposite me and cast to where I was feeding pellets mid river when I left, he had a barbel as soon as I got up the bank. I will always wonder why anglers on the lead don't feed like float anglers do on rivers, if they only knew how much it gets them feeding. I was happy for the guy though as he respected my side whilst I was fishing there and almost fell in at one stage.

I took the long drive home thinking of coloured water and taking up legering, those thoughts didn't last to long though and I'll be running a float through again somewhere else soon

 

[rayner]

A change from Carp to skimmers, not my choice it was all down to the fish.
Method with pellet hook bait, only had nine fish to around 2lb, most barely a pound.
Loads of liners, proper bites were hard to come.
Far too hot for my liking, it seems the bigger fish were all up in the water. I just refused to fish up. Spent most of the day enjoying a look around, watching other anglers.

 

[mikench]

Gordon (wetthrough) and I met up this morning for a day on a club water which I visited many times a few years ago but one which was new to him. I feel it is my duty to show him the club waters I have been to particularly when they can be tricky to find.

On balance i wish we hadn't bothered. It's a picturesque little water in a lovely location.

View attachment 7610

We had caught nearly a dozen fish within the first hour mainly perch to 8oz and roach of a similar stamp. I concluded, prematurely that we were in for a good day. I hadn't fished the water for 2 years or so and in that time trees had become overgrown and intrusive and the Lilly beds and reeds and bull rushes had tripled in size making a number of pegs unfishable.

View attachment 7609

Gordon can be seen probably frustrated by this time at the sudden switching off of the fish. I suspect the water hadn't been fished much and the landowner has changed. Those early fish probably sent a message to all the others that the barstewards were back and to give all unusual food items a wide berth. They certainly complied. We only managed a few more fish in the hours before we packed up. The sun shone, the à blew and we had helicopters for company. A lovely day though and thanks again Gordon for your company.

View attachment 7611

The water has some good roach, bream and tench but they were conspicuous by their absence today.

 

[peter crabtree]

5 of us fished at Runnymede today, our last practice session before Sunday’s club fixture. Bright sun, a parky east wind on my back and very little flow on the river.

Once again I set up a slider on my 15’ rod, a 12” waggler with a b611 size 16. Balled it with gb and got going.

Fished from 9:3 to 2:30, mostly roach 5 to 6oz took my double caster with one on tare.

 

[wetthrough]

An enjoyable day thanks Mike despite the fishing not being up to expectations.

 

[sam vimes]

Yesterday I was treated to an afternoon of clay shooting and a bite to eat by the company I tend to work for when they need me. It gave me enough of a break from the dace to tempt me into going back to the same river stretch again. It's a fair length, so I set out to fish somewhere I hadn't already

With the river now being as low as I've seen it for the past few weeks, I thought it might be a cunning plan to get on the end of a riffle. However, I knew that it would mean fishing shallow. However, as the spots that look deep on this river don't tend to be, what did it matter?

I barely had two feet of water directly in front of me. It got fractionally deeper if I let the float run down twenty yards or so. However, I rarely managed to trot that far without a bite. In about six hours of fishing, I managed 200 dace, 6 grayling, 6 chublets, 5 perch and 4 roach. Happily, the stamp of fish was a bit better than it's been over recent trips. Even if I went for an excessively pessimistic 1oz average, that's just shy of 14lb of fish. The reality will have been well in excess of 20lb.

 

[Molehill]

In reply to artist:
On arrival my heart sank as I was greeted with a dark brown peaty river with about a foot or so of visiblilty, even the barbel guys struggle when it's like this, cold dark coloured water released from the reservoirs in wales.

I was also out this week and it was very murky, yuk, also failed on the roach bar the odd fish, best an optimistic lb on ledgered bread in evening.

I am not sure why the water was like that, I have never been entirely convinced by the "cold water from reservoir" theory. I lived near Severn headwaters and anglers downstream would be blaming the cold water release and I am seeing only bare minimum flow coming down the clywedog and Vyrnwy. The water out the bottom of the reservoirs is cold but also gin clear and a hell of a lot of tributaries come in before it reaches Shrewsbury.

Looked like another algal bloom to me, but why in the autumn I don't know, probably the hot weather and maybe more fertilizer leached in off the fields?

Anyway, started my perch lure fishing also, had a 2lb2 and 1lb13, but used a very bright jig

 

[theartist]

I am not sure why the water was like that, I have never been entirely convinced by the "cold water from reservoir" theory.

Me neither to be honest, I can't explain it and I know many Severn regulars cant either. I've fished a fair few rivers and never seen any go that colour, maybe there's a Guinness factory upstream

 

[sam vimes]

Me neither to be honest, I can't explain it and I know many Severn regulars cant either. I've fished a fair few rivers and never seen any go that colour, maybe there's a Guinness factory upstream

How many of those other rivers you've fished have headwaters in moorland areas?

The river Tees is notorious for it. Even after very little recent rain, it's been running like stewed tea. That's despite it being as low as it has been for weeks. It's the reason why it keeps fooling me about being deeper than it is. Water much over a foot deep looks almost black. Fortunately, the fish in the Tees seem well used to it.

The nearby Swale, which has no reservoirs on its headwaters, will also run like stewed tea. However, it only does so for a short duration when it's running off after a good slug of water. Once it's fined down enough, the river runs pretty clear. Generally, the stewed tea colour is considered to be the kiss of death for the fishing.

I've seen similar water colouration on the likes of the Ure, Nidd, Wear, Tyne, Rye, (Yorkshire) Derwent, and Ribble. All rivers that rise, or have tributaries that come from, upland areas of peat.

 

[mikench]

As it promised to be a lovely day and as my duties to await carpet fitters failed to materialise ,I set off for a favoured venue close to home and set up in warm sunshine. I alternated throughout the day between the float and the feeder. My first seven fish were a perch, a roach, a gudgeon, a common,a bream , a crucian and a tiny F1. To me that is very satisfying . All were small but several more commons followed all around the 6lb mark like this and in perfect condition.

View attachment 7618

I tried floating bread in the heat of the day but no joy.

View attachment 7619

I had 29 all told and the last 5 common were all caught on Robin red pellet. It was a lovely day for mid September and alas probably our last summers day.

 

[Pete Shears]

8C the car dashboard informed me at quarter past six this morning in the lay-by at the local reservoir - the windchill off a brisk SE brreze made it feel colder than Tuesday when it was only 4C.
Set up two method feeders rods ,cast out and waited whilst watching a buzzard,red kite,kestrel, two kingfishers and three cormorants.
Had two real bream 3lb ish and three skimmers ,no tench but happy to see ,eventually after 10am,draonflies and red admirals and other butterflies but the warmth also woke up the wasps.Saw a falcon being chased by two jackdaws and then a crow joined in,from its shape,a giant swift, it could only be a hobby.Back on the canal on Monday to practise light lure/drop shotting for perch - the best to date 1lb 3oz.

 

[103841]

I did say the last time I fished the estate that I would be lurking over to the dark side, such was my frustrations this Summer catching little else than skimmers float fishing close in.

So today I did it, leaders, safe clips and 1oz weights, 42” landing net are all a bit alien to me and didn’t have high expectations for a short two hour session. The first hour passed quietly as I watched squirrels releasing nuts from trees that sadly for them mainly landed in the drink.

I had blown off the cobwebs from my unused bite alarm that resisted a bleep.



I was nodding off when woken by the shrill of the alarm and struck into a solid moving object, a few minutes later a beast of a carp weighing just over 16lb was on the mat, a linear I think?





It was my hope to go back to Hythe and catch more mackerel but looking at various webcams I was put off by the strong winds blowing, here at the estate all was calm, beautiful and serene.




Sort of satisfying but not really my cup of tea.

 

[mikench]

It's all good John, variety that is. I like to see a float sail away or a tip swing round but I also like to hear a buzzer chirruping to me particularly when I'm daydreaming or checking my phone. It's all part of fishing and variety is the spice of life.

 

[Roger Johnson 2]

The weather is starting to break down here in SW France after a week of 30+ degrees ( my cycling computer gave me a max of 39 for both temp and mph on one ride this week!). I’m pleased to report that barbel have returned to the bottom of the garden ( better than fairies) hadn’t caught one for months now I’m on 5 over 4 “last hour of the day” sessions. I really miss my old technium specialist, the rod currently being used doesn’t “feel alive” when there’s a fish on, it casts and bends ok,just misses something.
Picture shows this evening’s Barbeau, quite a small one, I doubt if he scraped 5lb, but a feisty fella that tested the clutch a fair bit.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[sam vimes]

As it seems that today may well be summer's last hurrah, I went back to the river. I ended up wandering down a significant chunk of river the that I'd not fished yet. The significant chunk that lies between two access points that are furthest apart. Sadly, there was nothing much that I liked the look of. I can see why the upper and lower bits are fished most, and it's not just because of the long walk. My walking for the day ended up being somewhere around two miles.

I doubt it was really worth it either. The river seemed to have dropped several inches overnight and the fish weren't playing quite as well as recently. The stronger than expected wind didn't help much either.

However, I was mainly interested in trying to wheedle out a few more grayling with bigger hooks and multiple maggots. If anything even bigger turned up, so much the better. That worked reasonably well, but the dace made it very frustrating at times.

Seven grayling, a shed load of dace and one solitary perch. Here's hoping that the weather cools down soon enough. I'm itching to get onto the big roach pond, but light line fishing is inadvisable when the carp are still very active.