How did you get on?

[peterjg]

Y

Over the years I’ve had many comments from skippy concerning my passion, canal fishing. Often slightly derogatory comments about gudgeon and snotty skimmers. After his success on the supermarket swim yesterday he was up for trying another canal venue today.
I suggested we try the pound where Rob and I fished Thursday.

I caught 2 roach, a ruff, a skimmer and some perch including one of 1:15:0 and loads of gudgeon.

Ironically, skippy caught gudgeon after gudgeon, then to his abject horror, a skimmer....

Peter Crabtree has it right! Yes, canal fishing can be a pain. It can be just so difficult, putting up with the dopey selfish boaters BUT there are some fantastic fish in our canals - real surprises! There are big unknown fish out there of most species.

 

[wetthrough]

After Thursday's blank on the Bridgwater I needed to get out and catch something. Had a few maggots, casters and pinkies left over so set off Saturday morning on the long drive to my social club pool, all 500M from my house Expectations weren't high with temperatures set for a high of 9C and winds of 15mph, it was fresh. I should have had better footware. Concrete pegs aren't a lot of fun for your feet at those temperatures. Loose feeding a few maggot and caster laying on a few inches brought me the odd small Roach and a couple of small Perch, no interest in caster or pinkie on the hook. Bites were fast when they did come but I had to cast around to get them until the float started dithering, eventually going under to find something a little bigger jagging about on the end. A small Crucian which I definitely wasn't expecting although there are plenty in the pool.



Bites died off around 1:30 so packed up at two as I had a few things to do. Came away with 16 altogether with Roach from 1 1/2" to about 4oz, one small skimmer, two tiny Perch and 7 Crucians - I needed that

 

[markcw]

@wethrough, Gordon, next time you go to a place with concrete pegs take a square piece of cut off carpet or a couple of rear car mats, put your feet on these the mats/carpet keep most of the cold out.Another way is to get a pair of "heatholder" socks, these have a tog rating and are very warm.

 

[S-Kippy]

29 roach with 5 around the pound is not such a bad day.....I'd be more than happy with that.

And I've only ever been teasing Simon about his cut fishing. I did nothing else for years and loved it but my fishing moved on so I rarely hit the cut now.....but its fine for the odd session for a change. There were never that many gudjin where I fished though. There must be billions of the little buqqers in the stretch we fished yesterday. Next time I'll have one out under a bob for those stripeys.

 

[john step]

I had 4 foot of water in front of me....2 and a half foot of it being gudgeon. Simon's perch was a cracker....cant understand why we didn't have more. Apart from the pongos ( which must have gone about 100 to the pound) and the skimmer I had one perch and a micro roach. Interesting day but the gudgeon did get very tedious after a while.

Skippy. Nice to see that positive smile of satisfaction upon your bream catch!

 

[Hertsbloke]

Following a couple of recent blanks in dire weather, I went to Alders Farm today. I d already phones ahead to make sure there was nothing going on for Pines lake, which there wasnt. Myself and another angler had the place to ourselves!

Had a pint of Reds and planned on using the maggot feeder. Balled some bait around the first, smaller Island, as thats where I had seen fish movement.

Second cast, and Ive lost my maggot feeder to the tress - ****** !

Rummage in my feeder box and find a small cage feeder. So, using this is a maggot feeder with ground bait plugging the ends.

2 smallish Carp within an hour, both fighting well above there size (probably irish lol)...

Then the reel starts singing line off and its halfway across the lake for the first decent fish of the day.

Bit quiet after that, they kept moving around and it wasnt always easy to spot them . A small Bream fell victim as well.

Final fling and this must have hit the hook on the drop as I didnt even get to sit down.....

Niace to catch something and have a bit of sport in the depth of winter.....

 

[103841]

Looking at the last couple of posts you’d think it was Summer, global warming?..........another thread.

 

[108831]

Friday i had to make a trip to the optician in the morning and when i got back decided to make a small flask and nip over to the crucian lake,none of those,but 27 perch,10 over 6 ozs to around 12ozs,17 roach to around half a pound and a beautiful looking tench around 2lb 8ozs which wasnt bad as i started around noon.On Saturday i went to Bedford and came back to earth catching 12 roach to 4ozs and 5 dace,on return to the car i stood watching an otter diving just downstream of a bridge bringing up large areas of bubbles,i can only think it was after crayfish,which although i havent had them there i know they are present.

 

[sam vimes]

29 roach with 5 around the pound is not such a bad day.....I'd be more than happy with that.

On most waters I'd be over the moon with that. It's not terrible regardless, but it is slightly disappointing for the water in question.

 

[mikench]

@wethrough, Gordon, next time you go to a place with concrete pegs take a square piece of cut off carpet or a couple of rear car mats, put your feet on these the mats/carpet keep most of the cold out.Another way is to get a pair of "heatholder" socks, these have a tog rating and are very warm.

Whoa Mark, who's always telling me to take less gear not more? it's possible to get heated socks you know.

 

[peter crabtree]

14 turned up for a club fixture on the GUC at Marsworth yesterday. I drew an unfancied peg on the wrong side of the bridge.

Pole at 11m in 3’ of water on the far shelf. 2 rigs, one positive with a 16 red maggot hook for whole Dendra and one light rig with 20 b511 for punch/ pinkie.

Potted in a small ball of gb and some chopped worm. Sat for 2 hours with whole Dendra hoping for a big perch or bream. Eventually I had a bite which I missed.. Then another also missed so I imagined these were small fish. Tried the light rig with single pinkie and had my first fish, a tiny perch.
Then a roach of 3oz and more small perch and gudgeon.
The last 2 hours I gave both rigs a try but remained biteless until 3pm..
Weighed in 6oz for 5th place!
As predicted the match was won with 13:15:0 of bream from the out and out bream flyer peg...
Runner up weights were no more than 2lb.
Only 7 actually weighed in anything!
Good job it wasn’t too cold or raining....

 

[no-one in particular]

Not much to say but I need to get off that global warming thread before I end it all so here I am.
A walk up the pier yesterday and only one angler despite it being a fairly nice day. All he had caught were a few small whiting, no surprises there but he did say the pier warden told him a couple of cod had been caught of the end a few days ago. But I did wonder if he would say that to everyone!!
Had a chat with my local tackle shop bloke and he said he fished off Dungeness in a boat and did not catch one cod but did have some flatties and spurdogs, no cod off Dungeness in a boat is pretty dire for this time of year however, he said some friends of his were catching plenty of cod off the NW coast so perhaps its a geographic thing.
There you go, sorry a bit boring but it's nice to write something fishing.

 

[theartist]

There's a Peter Crabtree Old codger match report imminent, how do I know? Well I turned up the stretch where we had some cracking Perch last week only to find nowhere to park and Simon's motley crew in the process of setting up as I drove across the bridge. Third time in a week he's been there, I dunno, and there was me just wanting a sheltered spot out of the wind

I carried on into the town centre where the water for some reason is clearer, the spot where I wanted to fish had a houseboat bellowing out thick smoke so I went in an open spot knowing there was a lot of shopping trolleys in the water offering cover as you could see them from the footbridge. It was quite bitter facing the wind despite it feeling pretty warm out of it and the fish fed well, nothing big but plenty of roach, skimmers and many half decent perch to 10oz casting as close as I dare to Waitrose's finest. I fed plenty as there was also bleak about much to my annoyance but it kept me warm, firing out maggots regularly, needing a catapult to hit the middle as the wind got up, sometimes even hitting the spot. I packed up after one cast too close to the snags but three hours was enough time to get plenty of bites

One fished

 

[103841]

I also know a report from PC is imminent, he normally fishes on days that end with an”y”.

I had a quick session myself this morning returning to what is becoming a regular spot on the river at Fordwich. Trotted maggots for a busy ninety minutes catching dace, micro roach and four very handsome chub going between 2 and 4lb. The wind was a pain, getting me into a few tangles, (should have opted for a closed face reel) but I knew it was time to go when a pike muscled into my swim for some free snacks.



This one wasn’t quite so handsome with an ugly growth.

 

[john step]

Not fishing but fishing related. Went to the Pike Anglers last night for a talk by Neville Fickling on guess what.
A good talk with slides. More of a catalogue of the pikey characters past and present. Quite humerous with tales of antics.
I and most others were absolutely miles off this time with the guess the weight photo.
My prowess on the raffle resulted in one lonely small pike bung.

 

[rich66]

Had a few hours on the lakes this morning, windy followed by rain.
Had about 20 little roach on bread punch and liquidised bread. Gave my new waterproof suit a try out. Kept me dry and warm didn’t even have to zip up the jacket I was that warm. Wasn’t until I looked at my tackle bag I’d realised how heavy it had rained everything was soaked except me.

 

[peter crabtree]

12 codgers fished today at the venue where Skippy and Rob joined me last week.

With those big perch in mind I fished worm on the waggler. Fishing close in over the near shelf I fed chopped worm via dropper..

First bite was a good perch of 1:14:0 followed by 2 smaller ones, no other bites in 5 hours.. weighed in 2:3:0 for joint 5th.

Winner had 9:14:0 mixed net, runner up 5:6:0 including a 1:6:0 roach taken on punch!

 

[theartist]

Winner had 9:14:0 mixed net, runner up 5:6:0 including a 1:6:0 roach taken on punch!

Does my catch count from down the cut in town? It would have made top 3 easy. All I need now is to qualify for codger status

 

[S-Kippy]

Where the hell did the 5 billion gudgeon that were in front of me on Sat get to ?

This afternoon I had a couple of hours on the Colne at Ricky on a swim that had it been on the Kennet 25 years ago people would have been fighting over. I had 2 small perch and packed up early as I didnt really want to be there and wasn't enjoying it. Phil had had a couple of chub when I left...it wouldn't surprise me if he had more.

I woke up in a strange mood today and it hasn't left me all day. I shouldn't have gone. I'm supposed to be going tomorrow too but if I wake up feeling like I did today I wont bother.

 

[peter crabtree]

You will be most welcome to join us once you turn 55 Rob. We will probably need some new blood as a good percentage of the regulars are over 70 and some 80.