How did you get on?

[theartist]

Ah,the picture wasnt you out yesterday then???

A couple of years ago on the Severn I was in the middle of nowhere when two rather large ladies got in the water opposite and proceeded to float through my swim all the way out of sight. God knows where they came from but it improved the fishing as I had a couple of 2lb roach soon after, it must have been the pheremones however that's smelt! I mean spelt

Never underestimate where a woman can appear in your swim, there was no pink unicorns though

 

[markcw]

It's not how I got on as such, I am going to elasticate the topkits on my main pole, I have a total of 16 kits for it, 12 power kits, 4 match kits , so these will be split into 2 groups of 8, two match six power.
Solid plastics in one, hollow or hybrid in the other group. Any recommendations on hybrid plastics, ?

 

[peter crabtree]

Having sat at home all day yesterday bored stiff I was itching to get out. The wind had dropped to a slight breeze,it was raining but very mild.
Chucked the gear in the car and headed over to Kings Langley where the canal is canalised river Gade. It was flowing nicely and coloured, looked good.

Stuck the brolly up and set up a stick float rig.
Trotted down the middle for an hour feeding maggots sparingly but there were no takers.
Shallowed up a bit and tried laying on in the near shelf a rod length out. Bite straight away, a skimmer. Fed some chopped worm via dropper and laid on a single bronze maggot over it.
Had 4 or 5 skimmers which is unusual for this venue, these were followed by some roach and a hard fighting hybrid.

By 3pm the rain had stopped and the sun came out. Bites stopped too so I went home.

 

[rich66]

Tuesday is my only day off this week so thought I’d spend the morning fishing. After a detour around some floods, I spent a couple of hours fishing the match lake again. Tucked myself into the corner where the wind was not quite hitting the water and the sun was catching the centre island.
With not much going on and most people reporting no bites. My 2 carp seem a good result. First one was around 4lb and the second half that. Both were a bit parrot beaked obviously been caught a lot, I always think it’s a shame to see it.
I’d had a second line in fishing the waggler with half a lob worm in the hopes of picking up some of the better perch I occasionally see chasing fry. But not a nibble all morning.

One of the highlights of the day was me sitting down forgetting I’d not locked out my rear legs on my seat and ending up with my feet in the air entertaining the chap opposite !

I’d call the first picture a ghost carp not sure if I’m right, but it was quite an attractive fish in the water. It was also the larger of the two and quite determined not to be landed

 

[Golden Eagle]

Yeah certainly a ghostie!

 

[Golden Eagle]

What did you go for?

I have twelve top kits and I’m looking at 4, 1.4mm hybrid. 0.09 to 0.11 fine wire.
4, 1.8mm hybrid, 0.13 to 0.15 general hooks and
4, 2.2 hybrid. 0.17 to 0.20 heavy hooks.

Respectively:
silvers / F1s light and shallow

General / carp

Edge / paste

How do you compare?

 

[markcw]

@Golden Eagle I will reply on general fishing forum ,save clogging this one up.

 

[peter crabtree]

10 codgers fished yesterday on the GUC at Boxmoor, a very windy day but dry at least. With the lock drained for maintenance there were no boats on the towpath side and no traffic.

As usual I fished waggler and maggot,but found it hard going, controlling the float in the wind and surface skim was quite challenging. Didn’t catch much either..Weighed in just 2:7:0..

My friend and fishing companion of 50 years, Son of Meldrew, made a rare appearance on the match.
Fishing waggler and maggot between 2 boats down by the lock to my right he showed he hadn’t forgotten much. He took chub after chub for 21:12:0 and a convincing victory ..

Wow!

 

[theartist]

Son of Meldrew got it going on!

 

[theartist]

You know sometimes you have the nagging feeling you've forgotten something, well I made the mistake of leaving my maggots in the garden for a good few days, my idea of a romantic gesture is NOT to have maggots in the fridge on valentines, you know make her feel special Trouble was despite being under a table storm Dennis had still got the them and I was greeted with this yesterday



Riddling them was taking ages so using an old potting tray I left them to dry and drop into the bait tub whilst I had a cuppa, even with it vertical they were sticking to the goo which was a mixture of maize and turmeric, it looked like it would make a good paste bait but there was no way I was putting that in my bait bib.



I dusted them with a good bit of fresh maize and left them in the garden under a bucket and decided if they looked ok next day I'd go get rid of them down the river, they did so off I went with my marinaded maggots this morning

Things then got weirder as there was only one guy fishing meaning I'd get in a flyer swim for a change so I said hello, dropped in above him and had two in two, fun sized, like I said flyer swim and the river was spot on





Chatted some more to the chap who was also doing well, before putting two and two together and realising it was Alan (Whitty) who had just joined the club, small world.

We spent the next hour having a good old chin wag and a laugh, he was excited about all the new waters he was going to fish and I can't blame him for having that new club book feeling.

Went back to fishing after putting Alan off his for far too long and had a few more barbel, it was clear the roach weren't going to get a look in so with the rain coming I called it a day after one that just went double figures, it was hooked in the pectoral fin but I'm certain it was hooked top lip when I landed it, resting in the net before lifting out may have dislodged my size18 barbless hook who knows, who cares.

It's nice to see the fish so healthy with the extra water that's been coming down recently, despite this I rested it upright in the net for a while just in case and chatted some more to Alan.



With the rain coming and two anglers joining us I gave up for an early exit, funny enough one of them was Alan Tyler along with his friend Petrol splitter who I gave my swim to. I left the two Alans in good spirits with the revelation that one of them had groped a Lumpsucker under Swanage pier, now that's not something you hear every day down the river

I hope those guys are keeping dry and catching a few

 

[sylvanillo]

On a single page I see impressive chub and impressive barbel! Well done guys!

 

[john step]

Not much to photo recently so this chub and one mirror was welcome. Both from an inlet stream to a club lake. worm on my old Shakey wand.
I was trying to work out how old the wand is. Must be 40 ish. Only needs a fish to burp on the bait to register a bite!

pic sharing

 

[108831]

It was great to meet Rob and Alan and great to have such luck as to turn up and find nobody there,in spite of not being particularly early,i fished one of,if not the best barbel pegs on the river,i had lots,i will not put the number on FM,but it was a fair few,fish that averaged between 4-6lbs,biggest 7.14,only weighed out of interest,the next time i go there i will fish lower down for chub on the float,a great day with good company,is there anything better....

P.S. This is the next morning and feeling my age,arthritis is making my wrists and shoulders ache after battling loads of beards,great though,i'd be there today if my missus would give me a pass out.....

 

[Alan Tyler]

It was good to meet Rob and Alan and put faces to the names, a random FM mini fish-in!
Petrol-Splitter and I ended up with just three barbel each, all of mine being in the last hour. Couldn't buy a bite on float-fished bread; my idea of what a roach swim looks like is obviously not the roaches'.
One of those vexing days when prepping and then drying out the kit added up to more time than the actual fishing, and I still managed to fish like a gnome.Hey, ho, better planning next time (Yeah, right).

 

[peterjg]

Peter Crabtree: please, please do not put photos of PK on this forum - just too frightening! Seriously though, please give him my regards. Thanks.

 

[108831]

10 codgers fished yesterday on the GUC at Boxmoor, a very windy day but dry at least. With the lock drained for maintenance there were no boats on the towpath side and no traffic.

As usual I fished waggler and maggot,but found it hard going, controlling the float in the wind and surface skim was quite challenging. Didn’t catch much either..Weighed in just 2:7:0..

My friend and fishing companion of 50 years, Son of Meldrew, made a rare appearance on the match.
Fishing waggler and maggot between 2 boats down by the lock to my right he showed he hadn’t forgotten much. He took chub after chub for 21:12:0 and a convincing victory ..

Wow!

Photos are deceiving Simon,your catch looks more than 2lb 7ozs,they look like quality fish,but the chub must be 6ozs or so???

 

[peter crabtree]

Alan, those were small chublets, more like 3oz each.

 

[108831]

Crikey,i want your camera for my trophy shots,not....lol.

 

[mikench]

My iPad is playing up so this might be my last post for a while. Gordon and I braved the elements and met up at a local lake in the rain which never stopped.



But for Gordon I wouldn't have unpacked the car!

It was wet and windy but not very cold. Gordon caught regularly with a carp , over a dozen roach and a few missed carp. I caught several trees and lost 2 floats. I did manage 2 carp, about 6 roach and a perch all on maggot. Nothing else worked. We packed up around 3.00 because the rain became heavier and in accordance with the forecast. It was good to be out.

Thanks Gordon and let's hope we get some better weather next time.

 

[Mark Wintle]

I thought about the Stour today but with it inching up again after yesterday's rain and the strong wind I too the easy option on my local commercial. It was slow going with mainly little roach but a foul-hooked crucian, a 2-8 tench and a couple of decent roach around 12oz were enough to keep me interested, fishing a littel waggler with a 22 to 0.08. The tench bite was subtle, I was making a cup of teawhen I felt the rod pull round.....