How did you get on?

[davebhoy]

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?

I didn’t know that about there. I used to fish for the roach in the pond at Verulamium Park as a kid (when we could get away with it.). There were some big roach and perch in there before a fish kill wiped out almost everything in there. It’s a shallow concrete pond so I think in hot summers it gets very hot and the fish and ducks get badly affected

I wasn’t aware that Verulam AC owned Albans/willow lake or whatever it was called back then. It’s a different place now to when I fished there once 25 years ago on a day ticket, like a lot of fisheries now, I guess

 

[Philip]

Back to my prebaited swim on the river. I have been keeping the bait going in and trying to fish it whenever I can which usually means a snatched hour or two every few days. The back & forth is hard work but I have been consistently catching a very good stamp of fish.

A much smaller head of Bream than on the main river means I am catching@ 10 Roach to every Bream whereas its been the pole opposite on the main river & its given me a very good opportunity to really start to come to grips with the Roach. I have learnt allot in this swim. For one thing I now know that given the right circumstances I can start to single out the bigger Roach by fishing quite large hard baits on a short hair. I’ll let them tug and knock it about till I get a firm pull round on the tip which usually means a bigger one has got the bait right into its mouth. As a test for the first time I put some corn directly on the hook. Result was two of the smallest Roach I have had from the swim.
This was the result of a little over 1 hours fishing.. 8 nice Roach + a solitary Bream. Some of them were as fat as butter and clearly feeding up. Every bite at the moment could potentially be a real whopper and its very exciting fishing. I just wish I had more time.

With the weather set to warm up next week conditions look spot on, hopefully I can get a few casts in.


Its not just the fish that like the prebait, this guy turns up like Pavlovs dog each time ...

 

[peter crabtree]

10 old codgers fished our weekly Tuesday outing yesterday on the GUC at Leighton Buzzard town centre. Quite a journey for me at an hour during rush hour. Despite its location it was pleasant enough and unlike much of the more local canals it had colour.

I started on punch on a light waggler just over the near shelf, a couple of nuggets of liquy fed first got the roach going almost immediately. They were really small, probably less than an ounce each.
I had almost 50 in the first hour..
Around 2 hours in they fizzled out so I changed down from a 20 hook to a 22. Casting across to the far shelf with single white pinkie and spraying squatts .
This produced a slightly better stamp of roach averaging 3-4 oz. Constantly pinging a pouch of squatts kept them interested for the last 3 hours.
Ended up with 5:14:0 but was narrowly beaten into second place by 6:0:8

 

[108831]

Back to my prebaited swim on the river. I have been keeping the bait going in and trying to fish it whenever I can which usually means a snatched hour or two every few days. The back & forth is hard work but I have been consistently catching a very good stamp of fish.

A much smaller head of Bream than on the main river means I am catching@ 10 Roach to every Bream whereas its been the pole opposite on the main river & its given me a very good opportunity to really start to come to grips with the Roach. I have learnt allot in this swim. For one thing I now know that given the right circumstances I can start to single out the bigger Roach by fishing quite large hard baits on a short hair. I’ll let them tug and knock it about till I get a firm pull round on the tip which usually means a bigger one has got the bait right into its mouth. As a test for the first time I put some corn directly on the hook. Result was two of the smallest Roach I have had from the swim.
This was the result of a little over 1 hours fishing.. 8 nice Roach + a solitary Bream. Some of them were as fat as butter and clearly feeding up. Every bite at the moment could potentially be a real whopper and its very exciting fishing. I just wish I had more time.

With the weather set to warm up next week conditions look spot on, hopefully I can get a few casts in.
View attachment 7905

Its not just the fish that like the prebait, this guy turns up like Pavlovs dog each time ...

View attachment 7906

Cracking roach Philip,I take it that animal is a coypu???

 

[john step]

Bitterly cold day in the Wolds today. With the rivers still in the news and roads flooded I headed uphill to a small club fishery that contains lots of small carp to 5/6lb. Not every ones favourite pastime on here but needs must when you want a few bites and conditions are dire.
A fun day on the long rod and centre pin with a pole float.
Worn/prawn/bread saw lots of bites and many carp/rudd/roach and one tiny perch.

I had not seen a jay for ages and now I have seen two on consecutive days. I also saw a dumped mattress in this the most beautiful part of Lincolnshire. Bloody scrotes.

 

[Philip]

Cracking roach Philip,I take it that animal is a coypu???

Thanks Alan, yes it is. ...actually quite handy to have around as he clears up any bait I spill after I go so there is no trace that I am baiting the spot each day

 

[rich66]

Finally managed to get an hour by the river this morning. Still flowing well and a little high. Banked 1 chub, lost another to a snapped hook length. Trotted bread flake on a stick float. Nice hour and a half out

 

[wetthrough]

Managed a day on the Dam Wednesday. Arriving around 10:30 it was cold but the very gentle breeze made it quite tolerable. 13' to 2lb and 20s light hook in 7' at about 10M laying on a few inches. Leaves leaves and more leaves. It's not often I pray for wind fishing the waggler. Not a chance of sinking the line so fished it on top of the leaves trying to cast into the sparse gaps in the leaves. I only got the bait to the bottom somthing like one in five casts but managed to catch. Small Roach but at least there were fish there. Managed to hook one of around 6oz which promptly unhooked itself jiggling around on top of the leaves. The breeze picked up around 2:30 which was good as it was shifting the leaves but bad in that it was taking the line with it. It was about 30min before I could sink the line. There was still a big raft of leaves close in but at least the swim was more or less clear. Hooked another decent Roach, bigger than I like to swing in, around 6oz but did and lost it again. Arrrrrgh, the two best fish and I lose both of them. Bites dies off around 3, coincidental with the leaves clearing? Not a bad day though given the conditions, 18 altogether. Caster favourite.

 

[steve2]

Cracking roach Philip,I take it that animal is a coypu???

I was under the impression that Coypu had been wiped out in this country. I know they were wiped out in East Anglia.

 

[mikench]

I think he is in France where Coypu are quite widespread.

 

[The Runner]

Winds still from E and SE up here so usual North End rock marks still out and went to try somewhere new, on L Greshornish at Arnisort. Had fished about a couple of miles further out on the loch towards Lyndale a few weeks back for not much, but deeper water close in on today's choice (by the look of Google Maps) so decided to give it a go.
Easy ten minute walk in down a grassy if marshy path and nice flat rocks to fish from. Set up light beachcaster for out and lure rod to work the inside (about 15ft right in the edge 90 mins after low tide)
Mackerel strip on a size 2 with a running ledger about 80 yards out, mostly clean ground with the odd patch of weed.
Beautiful day...

but nothing happening. Missed a decent bite second chuck but no other sign of life for ages other than retrieving to find this on the hook

No takes on any lure which I was working along the inside while watching the motionless rod tip, replaced it with light bomb and macky strip down the side but this only produced a couple of crabs and at top of the tide at 3 looked like I was on for a blank. Finally as the ebb started the tip rattled a couple of times and got a little whiting.
As the light went there was a bit more activity and ended up with five of them before packed up at 4 45. Not so much pin whiting as pin-head...

One more thing, just as it got dark missed a bite and was retrieving the strip of mackerel skin that was all that was left on the hook when something hit it twice not far off the surface but didnt hook itself. Very very late for mackerel, no coalies about so suspect it might have been a sea trout which would have added a bit more interest to a quiet day. Still, lovely place to spend a few hours. Quiet for wildlife as well, inevitable ravens about and a small flock of redshank, quite scarce up here .
And finally, didn't fish yesterday but took one of my regular walks around the Scorrybreac circle path just outside the town. Nice little battle going on for air supremacy between some ravens and one of the local sea eagles...

 

[Philip]

I was under the impression that Coypu had been wiped out in this country. I know they were wiped out in East Anglia.

Its a French river. ..& hes getting more & more cocky by the day...

 

[sam vimes]

I reckon that between the weather being terrible and the rivers being a bit full I may not get out for a little while. The weather this morning was pretty miserable, but it hadn't caused the rivers to rise. The wind wasn't too bad and the rain stopped around lunchtime. I was clean out of excuses!

A quick trip to the tackle shop for a pint of maggots and off to a site of significance in Romano-British history. The fishing wasn't exactly gripping, but I enjoyed using some old discontinued floats. However, they reminded me exactly why I've largely moved over to thick bristled Bolo floats for most of my trotting. Both yellow and red being nigh on impossible to see beyond twenty yards unless the light was perfect. The lack of disturbance on the strike was rather impressive though.

Towards the death, a fluff flinger appeared at the top of the run I was fishing. I met him at the car park and found he'd been at it most of the day for two grayling. It made me feel a bit better about struggling for five fish, though I'd expect bait fishing to easily outdo bits of wool, nylon and feather. That's exactly why I don't chuck fluff myself.

Nothing particularly big, but no real tiddlers either. This was probably the biggest.

 

[peter crabtree]

After yet another day of light rain it stopped around 2pm today.
An opportunity to try for a big perch out on the canal wharf behind a supermarket in town. Set up 11’ ultralight, a drennan perch bobber to a 16 B611. First I chopped some worms and dropped them straight down in front of me via a baitdropper. A nice Dendra on the hook was lowered in the same area.

The stern of a moored boat to my right being the only feature. It wasn’t long before my float bobbed then slid away. A swift upward lift and I was in, a good perch. It headed out towards the middle of the cut before turning and making a bee line for the boat. I quickly steered it away and netted it.

With the challenge in mind I weighed it and was disappointed as it was 2lb exactly, not even a dram over my previous best this season.

I carried on hoping for a bigger one as the light began to fade and the rain started again. Loads of bites but all under half a pound for my efforts.
A friend has caught some bigger ones here so I will return next week...

 

[103841]

Friday I had meticulously planned my days fishing on the river at Grove Ferry with no rain in the forecast from 10am onwards. Maggots, hemp, corn, bread and groundbait all prepared with a couple of rods ready to go. After two hours and just one bite I was somewhat disappointed, with rain being released by the ever darkening sky I waved the white flag and went home.

Loads of bait in the fridge and rain is forecast for every day over the coming week so with today being the only dry day I nipped out for a quick session on another part of the river a couple of miles upstream, what a contrast, a fish on the first trot followed by 16 more over the next hour, a mixture of chublet, dace and roach, none of any size but I was happy as Larry just to be catching..............mojo reset.

 

[peter crabtree]

With no scheduled fixture on the list we decided to have a knock up yesterday on the GUC at Marsworth. A dry and mild day with very little wind which was favourable but the water was rather clear.
With limited set up time I opted for pole and 2 topkits. One a positive rig with a .60g float and 16 hook for whole Dendra and one light rig with a .25gr float and 20 for punch or pinkie.
I started by potting in some chopped worm and casters at 11m, roughly two thirds across and some liquy at 8m down the middle. The punch line produced nothing during the first half hour so half a worm went out on the other spot. Almost instantly I had 3 bites, all of which I missed... The 4th time I hooked it, a big crayfish!
Still fishless after 2hours I tried the light rig instead on the 11m line with single pinkie and a small section of worm, this payed off with a skimmer in the net soon afterwards. My nearest angler had prepared groundbait which I told him was probably the kiss of death in clear water but he persisted in piling it in. He didn’t get a single bite and packed up early. I remained frugal with my loose feed and reaped the benefits with 6 more skimmers and 9lb14 in the net at the end which won the match....
Second had 7:15:0 and 3rd 4:6:0.
14 fished.

 

[mikench]

It's good to see an absence of mud.

 

[d.owens]

Have had no free time to go fishing for a long while. I finally managed to get out this morning, but made the wrong decision on how to fish. I opted to head for an urban stretch of the Leeds Liverpool Canal in north Liverpool, I was going in search of some decent perch. I took a small drop shot rod and knew it was a mistake from the outset. I just don't get on with lure fishing but was seduced by lots of YouTube videos! I would have been much happier float fishing a worm next to all the perchy looking spots. I have no confidence fishing drop shot or jigging light lures and cannot bring myself to enjoy it. I have tried.
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I had my first blank for a long time, but got a chance to try out my new boots in the damp Liverpool winter.
More importantly, I announce my retirement from a brief dabble in lure fishing. My drop shot rod will go to one of the kids to fish little ponds with. It's funny, I thought light lure fishing ticked all the boxes for me, but I honestly can't find a way to enjoy it. Will get some nice perch this winter, but I think they will be on juicy lobworm!

 

[steve2]

Stick at lure fishing once you start catching it becomes easier. The way I got the best out of lure fishing was to by not taking any other tackle but lure tackle. A lot of anglers use it as a last resort they haven't caught on the normal methods during the day so stick a lure on for 15 minutes don't catch and say this lure fishing doesn't work. If you hadn't caught on a worm would you say I am not using worms again.

 

[d.owens]

Good points but it's not just the not catching, I really want to enjoy drop shoting and jigging but just can't get on with it.
Genuinely don't enjoy it as much as bait fishing, going to quit while I'm behind!