How did you get on?

[sam vimes]

I needed to go to the river for a hazel stick. I needed to clear a couple of paths of encroaching trees. It was a decent day. I still had half a pint of maggots slowly shrinking to nothing. Despite it being a bit higher than I'd like, it would be rude not to.

Not a great start when two cormorants popped up in my chosen swim while I was setting up. I wasn't sure which way they came from, so I had to hope for the best. Struggled for an hour for two grayling and one of my pet trout. Decided to move on after losing a suspected second trout. Hard to be sure at range in heavy water.

The second swim is another of my high water bankers. Unfortunately, I couldn't buy a bite for love nor money. I tried hard enough, but just couldn't find them anywhere. Made me wonder whether the cormorants had been having fun in the swim before I got there.

 

[steve2]

What centre pin are you using haven't seen one with 3 handles before.

 

[sam vimes]

What centre pin are you using haven't seen one with 3 handles before.

It's a (modern) Hardy Conquest.

 

[103841]

What centre pin are you using haven't seen one with 3 handles before.

Got to handle it to you, I hadn’t spotted that!

 

[mikench]

It's a stunning reel imo.

 

[wetthrough]

Fished the peg on the opposite side far right here How did you get on? yesterday. With gusts up to 32mph and highs of 6.8C I wasn't anticipating great results. Fortunately the big Rhododendron and some trees to the left (winds NE, North to the right in the pic) gave some shelter, casting wasn't too difficult. Arrived about 10:30. 5bb glow tip antenna to 2lb fluorocarbon and 20s hook, 10'6" Toreon. Decided to put all the groundbait, about 150g wet spread around, laced with pinkies in at the start. I've a suspicion that on these seldom fished waters fish don't like bait crashing in on top of them. Firing two or three maggots and casters in every few minutes and nothing after an hour. Bites started to come but all small Roach, nothing bigger than 3oz but at least I was getting bites and nearly all to maggot. Not much interest in caster, no interest whatsoever in corn or bread. Picked a nice Rudd up of around 4+oz. Fishing about 18" off bottom in 82" seemed to work best. It went dead early afternoon, stuck with it and started to get bites again but very difficult to hit. I've often wondered how much fish are affected but the feel of the line so switched to some sewing thread which breaks at about 1.6lb and should be quite reliable as it's made for machine sewing. It's exteremely soft and I'd guess being cotton like might feel a bit less alien than nylon or fluorocarbon. Not sure it made much difference but I did pick a few more up and another nice slightly bigger Rudd but still hard to hit so decided to fish laying on about 3". Nothing there until about 3pm. Put two maggots on in the hope of something bigger when the float went under and I struck into something a bit more solid. Just my luck, fishing with cotton and the lump of the lake takes a fancy to my bait. After a farly short albeit a rather one sided fight I managed to coax it in, a nice 2:8 Common



Nothing after that packing up at 4pm, 18 all told. A rather satisfying day and at least no rain

 

[john step]

A stiff bitterly cold NE wind off the North Sea was never going to make the fish switch on today.
The lake was crystal clear and full of leaves. No bites until 2pm then 2carp at 8+ on quickstop worm on the bomb.
Unfortunately no perch which were the target. No chance of river fishing in these parts for a while.

PS> on my way in I inadvertently brought a load of mud in. I am keeping my head down at the moment from SWMBO.

 

[peter crabtree]

This weekend I’ll be competing in a two day, two lake fixture.
One of the lakes I have fished a couple of times in the last year, the other, a 22 acre pit, I haven’t for a few years.
In the past I have had some 20lb+ bags of roach and hybrids from it, so with that in mind, and despite the challenging weather, off I set.
Started on waggler and maggot 4 rod lengths out but after an hour I was still biteless. I set up a 10’ Forcemaster tip rod with a 25gr method feeder and mixed some gb. Size 14 QM1 with 3 maggots with the intention to catch some bream and skimmers which are plentiful in the pit.

The brisk east wind was coming broadside and was damn cold too but I soldiered on. First chuck and as I was tightening up the line to the feeder it ripped round. This was no skimmer. As I battled with it I realised my landing net was only small, could be a problem?

Somehow I managed to get it in head first and nearly broke the feeble little net. A mid double which once unhooked was reluctant to leave the net. Every time I got it halfway out of the net in the water it swam back in!
The next two consecutive casts produced another two of them, at least they warmed me up....
I honestly didn’t think the carp would feed in the bitterly cold conditions, how wrong can one be?

 

[Hertsbloke]

Where was that?

 

[peter crabtree]

Albans lakes ( formerly Willows lakes) in Tyttenhanger green near London Colney.

Albans Lakes | Albans Lakes – Hertfordshire’s Ultimate Angling Experience

 

[john step]

I am pretty sure looking at the website that this started off as a Verulum water. The roach fishing was superb, the stock coming from Verulum Park lake. After a couple of years of stocking they were done the dirty on and kicked out.

The water looks low? They couldn't have had the rain like the North and Midlands?

 

[pratty117]

After last weekends blank at the tench pond, I was desperate to get a bend in the rod. As winter has begun to take hold the tincas as expected are in hibernation mode, however I can't grumble too much. I've had my best year to date for tench, catching 43 in total since early march. My techniques and baiting skills have vastly improved on this lake and i always arrive now with renewed confidence. Roll on the spring!
Winter time I switch to perch and trying to better my pb which at present stands at just under 2lb. The lakes in question are a bit further afield (40 mile round trip) but in comparison to the tench pond will often give a winter bite or two in even the harshest of conditions. So armed with some left over worms and half a pint of maggots I made the trip on Saturday. With the lake to myself I chose the tree swim which has an overhanging willow to my right and a 'perchy' looking margin to my left. Tactics were a simple 2bb waggler, 16 hook and double maggot. I trickled in maggots under the tree and started catching roach straight away. Gudgeon followed interspersed with tiny perch. A couple of carp gate crashed through the day but I did catch 3 nice perch up to 1 1/2lb. A switch to worm in the afternoon brought another carp but oddly no perch. The left margin remained dead despite the trickle of maggots and the odd bit of chopped worm. However with the water really clear and with the bright conditions maybe the perch were cagey in feeding. It was a great day though! Weather fine and crisp, no rain and i remembered my mug this week so could enjoy a warming cuppa on the bank! A chat with the owner revealed the perch go up to 4lb so the chance of beating my pb remains a realistic target for the coming months. It will be good to get out before the bedlam of Christmas so here's hoping for a milder cloudier day in the coming weeks.

 

[The Runner]

Not been able to get out on Skye after bagging a couple of weeks ago due to winds being persistently in the wrong direction, back in London for a few days work last week and decided to stay on an extra day so that could fish club match on the Colne at Uxbridge.
Amazingly (or not, if you know the Colne ) even after all the recent rain the river was running gin clear, just above normal level at the start and dropped about 7 inches over the course of the day. A knock up here last weekend had found the river seemed to have gone into winter mode a bit earlier than usual so it was going to be small fish on the backstream and sluice and sit it out for lumps on the main river.
Happy enough to draw 55 right next to the Elliot Bridge, not the best swim on the backstream as the fish always seem to be a lot smaller here but nearly always gives a decent days fishing. A lot more pace on it than usual and boiling up quite a bit so could be awkward with barely 2 ft of water at the deepest. Odd swim in that you're given the choice of which bank to fish it from after the contractors who did the enhancement scheme got a bit overenthusiastic with the flow deflector, so decided to fish it from the gravel bank side rather than the platform so could get behind the deflector if need be .

Set up sawn off waggler, and pole rig with dibber for if the fish decided to sit right under the feed, both with a 20 to 0.10. Had a few small dace straight away but flow and boil increased as the level started to drop and waggler wasn't going through right, so time for the mini-topper to get a rare outing

This went through a lot better and catch rate increased rapidly, after two hours had 60 fish for around 4lb, nothing any size, a mixture of dace, roach and chublets, red maggot proving best, but then cloud cover thinned and as soon as the sun hit the water things got a lot harder. Fish slowly dropped down the swim (had had very little close to me anyway) and next two hours only gave me another 28 fish. Had gone down to .08 to see if it made a difference but none discernible, fifth hour was a bit grim with just the odd fish but last hour a bit better with another 22 including some slightly better dace and chublets, still nothing remotely needing a landing net though.
Ended up with 117 fish for I reckoned about 8-8, not too far off, scales came round and had 8-15 (sorry no pic, scalesman tipped back before could get my phone out). Knew I'd beaten Ian on 54, the only other peg I could see but had heard that Bob on 53 had been getting quality roach as had Richard on 58 after a slow start.
Bob won it with 16-6, Richard 15-0 including a lump of a chub late on, and the only big fish action on the main river coming from Paul who had two barbel (small for the Colne here) for 9-13
So, fourth again (for I think the 4th match in succession on the Colne) and a nice busy day's fishing.
Glad I avoided the main river, next best from it was 11oz....

 

[peter crabtree]

Yesterday was day one of the 2 day, 2 gravel pits fixture.
Drew on the big 22acre pit roughly opposite where I was Friday. No cold wind either.

2 rods set up with cage and method. Sweet fishmeal gb and maggots on the QM1 14. First 2 hours nothing, not even a liner.. Then out of the blue my tip went round and a bream 4:8ish. My next bite was 2 hours later and another slab. 2 more and a 5lb carp I had 25lb+ for 4th in section of 6.

Today I was on the small, deep pit. Again not a breath of wind and bright sunshine.. About 14’ deep generally with shallower margins across on the far bank. A fair old chuck to reach those margins and that’s where I caught. First bite at midday after 2 hours getting dazzled by the sun’s reflection bang in front of me...A bream again followed by 2 more and a 12’ roach. These came around 2pm. In the 5th and last hour I was 2 fish behind 2 of the 6 section. Those 2 fish eluded me unfortunately so I was 3rd in section. Angler to my left blanked and to my right just one bream.

36 fished both days..

 

[neil1970]

I fished the river with a mate at dusk yesterday.
Didn't have a sniff, so thought I'd go on the lake.
First cast produced this porker

 

[peter crabtree]

I fished the river with a mate at dusk yesterday.
Didn't have a stiff, so thought I'd go on the lake.

Did the lake give you a stiff?

 

[neil1970]

mg: edited!

I fished the river with a mate at dusk yesterday.
Didn't have a stiff, so thought I'd go on the lake.

Did the lake give you a stiff?

 

[Another Dave]

A bream again followed by 2 more and a 12’ roach.

Now that is a big roach, how did you get it in your keepnet?

 

[103841]

Now that is a big roach, how did you get it in your keepnet?

I reckon a 4m net, no problem. however, as for the landing net mg:

 

[flightliner]

Three trips out for a total of one hours fishing!
Enough I thought, so this morning Car loaded I set off to have a look at the Trent, not to fish, just look and believe me-- it's bad.
I had a run round and looked in at a couple of commies in the hope of finding a nice perch or two.
Anyway second look and I decided to stay as I was just getting further away from home and the days are so short this time of year.
I set up two rods, both with simple running lever rigs to fish bunches of red maggots and prawns respectively.
One to the nearby margin the other to a corner some ten metres away.
Ten minutes in and the prawn rod is away and a quick strike pricks the whatever fish it is and all that's left to see is a big bow wave-- hmmm, carp perhaps!
An hour later my right hand rods indicator jumps spasmodically skywards and striking a put my net under a lively perch of a pound or so. Result!
Two hours later and the same rod gives me another perch but this time some 5 maybe 6oz heavier.
My optimism was high at that point for a bigger perch but Sod's law reversed things and a little later I brought a 6ox striped to hand.
The sun set behind the ubiquitous leylandii hedgerow and the prawn baited rod finally stuttered to life but no perch, a fully scaled mirror carp came grudgingly to my landing net.
After that the temperature dropped like a stone and it was almost dark so I was away home.