How did you get on?

[peter crabtree]

Thames at Windsor today for a clubby. Lovely place but hell of a walk to the pegs...The flow on the river was quite pacy after the recent rain.

I set up on the bank as there was just enough water for the keepnet. 15’ rod and slider (as usual).
Mixed some gb and prepared my initial bombardment...

Small roach first chuck followed by a proper one.
Double red maggot on an 18 wide gape was doing the biz, the quality roach showed well for most of the 6 hours. At one point the water level dropped by about 2’ and my net was looking perilous. I had to dismantle my box and move it down to the gravel. An hour later it had risen and was almost touching the bank again, I dismantled it again and moved back after donning my waders..

After 6 hours the whistle blew phew! I was knackered but happy with my efforts.
I thought I had about 13lb as the scalesmen arrived but I was surprised when he called 19lb 4oz.
That was enough to win, 13lb 5 was second and 7lb third.

12 fished...

 

[sam vimes]

Nice to see some pics of decent weather. It started raining in my location at tea time last night. It hasn't stopped since. The rivers that were just about returning to a sensible level have shot back up. At this rate I'll be having another day on a stillwater, if the rain ever lets up.

 

[neil1970]

I felt like a change today so I went down to the Colne in town.
Low chair, and rucksack instead of 4 wheels and a pile of gear..
Started off in this swim....
Then someone started chucking a big lure in the next peg up, of course it was Neil 1970.
Had a good chat and a cuppa back at his....
Happy day..

thanks for the lift home mate, much appreciated, and lovely to see you

 

[john step]

Nice to see some pics of decent weather. It started raining in my location at tea time last night. It hasn't stopped since. The rivers that were just about returning to a sensible level have shot back up. At this rate I'll be having another day on a stillwater, if the rain ever lets up.

I very nearly booked a week in a cabin this last week to fish the river up there. Things happened domestically and I am glad I didn't regarding the amount of levels I have been watching on the website!!

 

[sam vimes]

I very nearly booked a week in a cabin this last week to fish the river up there. Things happened domestically and I am glad I didn't regarding the amount of levels I have been watching on the website!!

You missed the window of opportunity in the middle weeks of September. I was out fishing on the river nearly every day for two weeks. Since then, the river has been up and down (or up a lot more), like the knickers of the proverbial lady of negotiable affection. Just as it drops to a reasonably sensible level, it chucks it down again. On the bright side, I'm saving a small fortune in bait.

 

[no-one in particular]

This is just a footnote really, nothing much to say about yesterday, just a short couple of hours on my free stretch and it was as dead as a dodo. However, I had a good little session last week and I have concluded it was the bait, some left over frozen hemp and sweetcorn mix. The sweetcorn had gone very soft and the hemp must have palyed a factor so, I will do that again next time, yesterday I was using bread.

 

[mikench]

As today was likely to be my last chance for some course fishing until mid November, I decided to chance the weather and go. The trouble with getting to know a venue owner on a personal and professional footing is that one feels guilty about not going. Today I went.

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This lake, one of 4, had a good head of bream, Rudd and quality roach to 2lb and some perch over 4lb. Sadly the pollution caused by fertiliser run off in march killed them all or most of them. The carp survived however because of a different gill metabolism apparently. I hadn't been because of this and told the owner so. He plans to restock but doesn't know when.

I set up with the Amorphous Whisker at thirteen feet and a hybrid feeder with RR pellets and meat. I only caught three but this was a real bruiser of a mirror weighing just over seventeen pounds. My net was too small.

View attachment 7711

I enjoyed the battle and the rod was excellent. I have decided to stick with the original reel seat fittings rather than having a Fuji reel seat fitted , one to maintain originality and two I like them once fitted correctly and in line with the armalock handle. They say nostalgia isn't what it used to be; I disagree.

 

[Neil Maidment]

Last week I was faced with a raging flooded river Wye. Never mind, the local Indian restaurant in Ross provided a very suitable place to adjust our plans.

We had arrived on Monday evening to see nothing but water well into the fields and flooding the riverside pubs. Ross looked like an island amid a brown ocean, massive chunks of tree whistled past at a rate of knots together with the odd dead cow. But on a positive note not a canoe to be seen!

The following morning revealed the river had dropped by several metres and almost fishable (if you closed your eyes and thought positive thoughts).

But second cast to roughly two rod lengths out, upstream with a 3oz feeder and a massive bow in the line, produced a nice little barbel.





Not a lot happened for me after that but others did find a few, others didn't!

The river rose again during the day, then dropped, then rose again. So, the following day, after a leisurely breakfast, we reconvened on the river bank. Dodged a few showers and cowered under our brollies during a violent thunder storm and repeated the process of the previous day.



Several barbel for some, the occasional long distance catch and release for me and blanks for others.





All in all a superb couple of days in the best of company, can't wait to do it all again!

 

[Hertsbloke]

After my recent blank at the Moat, I decided to go and fish Alders Pines lake today.

Slow start,sunny turning to quite heavy rain.

After the rain stopped, the swim picked up quite well. Think I landed about 10 and lost one.

Using my Feeder rod and method feeder, with a 10mm pellet on a band.

This guy was about the best of the bunch, certainly did not want to come and join me bank side lol...

 

[Pete Shears]

Wandering about on the canal again this morning at Foxton hoping to catch something lure fishing,ended up chatting with a couple from New Zealand who had picked up their narrowboat yesterday in Market Harborough and moored with two other couples doing the same narrowboat holiday,one from the US,the other couple from Australia.Twenty minutes later another narrowboat turned up with three very polite Chinese or Japanese men on board.Time to leg it away from the locks to quieter waters where I had a perch of 15oz on a 2" minnow jig.Spent a few minutes watching a kestrel quartering a field on the far bank and on returning to the basin,the boat traffic had died down and had a second perch smaller than the first,then a coach load of children turned up - time to go.

 

[Philip]

Back in my prebaited spot on the river (see previous post).
As I was waiting for the two Carp rods to go off I decided to touch ledger with a third rod to one side. On went a 18mm Pellet and I flicked it out. Pointing the rod at the lead I tightened up and put the line across my index finger then rested the rod across my knee and settled back. Maybe 20mins went by when I felt the line slacken on my finger followed by a sharp tug. A few more seconds and a second stronger tug which continued pulling…I struck and was in. A quick splashy fight and this fine Roach was nestling in the bottom of the net. Its the second decent Roach I have had from the spot. I really should go back with some more suitable Roach tackle and see whats about.

The Carp rods stayed silent this time and when a second tug on the touch ledger rod resulted in a Bream I took that as a signal to call it a day.

 

[no-one in particular]

Hope no one minds, a sort of how have others got on but might be of interest to sea anglers.
My south-east mag covering North Kent to Brighton has reported lots of bass being caught which seem to be on the increase including a 7 and a 9lb fish. Dover Soles have been all over the place up to 2lb. plenty of mackerel in that calm spell which have also been more abundant it seems to me than previous years. Cod have been showing as well, small ones but more than usual so hoping we get a bit better showing this winter. Plenty of other fish as well, dogs eels whiting of course which are now getting too much again, the pin whiting as we call them, huge shoals are showing up. Big pouting have been reported as well along with some good sea bream in numbers from the boats October looks to stay warm so maybe the fishing will continue and any calm spell might still see mackerel about but my bet is on the continued Dover Sole being around for a bit longer. And the autumnal bass which are often bigger specimens might be good.
Amongst the doom and gloom of sea angling for quite a few years there just might be a bit of improvement going on despite the big trawlers from afar.
One good month doesn't make a summer but nice to see anyway.

 

[103841]

I do hope we get at least one more calm spell before October is out, I’d like to thrash out a few lures in search of a bass before putting the rod away til next Summer.

 

[bullet]

I do hope we get at least one more calm spell before October is out, I’d like to thrash out a few lures in search of a bass before putting the rod away til next Summer.

Couldn't agree more...especially as I only really like fishing topwaters.

I might end up having to get the bait out, though....shudder!

 

[nottskev]

I went back to the same water at lunchtime today. I say the same, but things were a bit different; last time I was here the water was at the top of the concrete wall behind me and I was fishing from the road



All those pics of beautiful float collections had shamed me into sprucing mine up a bit, so here's one of my favourites with the two stem fractures splinted with sections of drinking straw, and a fresh coat of paint on the tip. I have actually made some replacements for this long discontinued Drennan model, but there's life in it yet.



With the usual light slider set-up, I fed 4 balls of groundbait about 9m out in 10' of water and waited for the shoals of roach to home in. 20 minutes later I was still waiting, and when I did get a bite, a pike ran off with the first roach of the day. I'm getting the idea the pike here wait near the groundbait; a re-think may be needed.

The roach weren't playing, so I had to fish maggot in a different spot to get any bites, and the first 20 or so fish were perch, with this one the highlight of the afternoon. I don't know why the pic came out so badly.



The original spot never produced another roach, but I managed to catch a few here and there. The pike were relentless, though, and after a couple had spat the roach out, another got itself hooked. A bloke working in the boatyard came over to watch proceedings, and I explained the problem of netting the flipping thing. I gave him my car keys, and he fetched the big net from the boot, attached it to the spare handle in my holdall, and we both looked forward to seeing this pike on the bank. At which point the pike - a mid double by the look of it - ploughed its way into the weedy corner and broke the .10 hooklength. Ho hum.

After that, it was back to ringing the changes to get a few bites here and there.

 

[john step]

Without a shadow of doubt in my mind Kev, pike do learn to sit off an angler waiting for a freebie. We always tell newbies on our club lake to never ever never rinse groundbait off their fingers in the edge after a member ended in casualty doing just that and therefore imitating a struggling returned fish with his fingers.

 

[mikench]

I think those pike need a talking to Kev.

 

[Pete Shears]

Had a few hours this morning on the river Wreake,still up a little and coloured with the big deep pool resembling washing machines with swirling eddys with very little calm water but fish of all sizes flipping over.Cage feeder with crust on the hook and the quivertip never stayed still,fish hitting the feeder.Had five small chub to 1lb 8oz but the activity virtually stopped when the sun broke through the high cloud about 8am.Switching to worms brought the surprise of the morning with a dace of 8oz and a smaller one of about 4oz.Had a little wren for company in the rushes,saw a lone swallow,a kingfisher flashed past whilst a white egret worked shallower water downstream.

 

[rich66]

Wet and windy today here in not so sunny Leicestershire, however the fishing was decent.
Decided to fish with the method feeder and 4mm sticky bait bloodworm pellets and 8mm pellet as bait lost 6 fish and landed 5. Arrived about 9:15 & gave up about 12:30 as the heavens had started to open and the brolly just wouldn’t anchor.
I think I lost my first few because my hook size (14) was too small for the 8mm pellet, upped it to 12. Still lost a couple afterwards no idea why just one of those thing I suppose.

Prettiest fish of the day was this one, all around this size.

Getting a desire to catch something different for a change so next time I’ll be looking at the Soar for a few roach, or at least trying a different lake here at Frisby.

 

[john step]

A failed attempt at a big perch again. They seem to have disappeared from the pool. Might be something to do with a couple of cormorants that have taken up residence on an island in the adjacent lake.
Just this whipersnapper at 1lb 10oz.
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