How did you get on?

[ian g]

I had something similar yesterday on my local canal . I found a spot out of the way fished worms and never had a bite . Topped off by a guy telling me all about a guy catching some nice roach from the same spot the day before.

 

[peter crabtree]

The only bait doing the biz on my local canals is breadpunch...

 

[wetthrough]

There's hope for us all if you blank Mark. . Canals are frustrating places hence my reluctance to fish them. Gordon may have other ideas. There's always the next time.

We'll get out there some time Mike. No shortage of fish at the right time. Hopefully the foot traffic will ease off over the next few weeks.

 

[markcw]

There's hope for us all if you blank Mark. . Canals are frustrating places hence my reluctance to fish them. Gordon may have other ideas. There's always the next time.

Thanks Mike, I like canals, but today wasnt to be, will be on again in the week on a different stretch.

 

[markcw]

Tried single and double maggot, bread punch, chopped worm soaked in predator plus, all in different swims, due to leaves , had 3 tentative bites ,and that was it.

 

[ian g]

I sort of fished to be a little bit socially distanced as I didn't fancy sitting on the tow path , though to be fair I'd caught well in the past.

 

[sylvanillo]

At last I went fishing. Call it passion first or a dictating heart, since my mood wasn't on going out anywhere near anyone

The feeder rod just took that decision for me

I fished the oxford canal between wytham and summerton (oxford). Before lunchtime I had a short walk and could observe a busy life underwater. The walk was short because there were too many people around.

Late afternoon i was back with the Ms Range and bread.
I know a few roach hotspots and that was my only purpose. Used a different path to avoid moored boats.

Near my first destination, I saw a few dead large bream floating at the surface.

Well after 90 minutes I had no bite at all. Not even the slightest of tip's tremor

Perhaps the lack of water movement combined to the temperature and too much light, but I don't know - the typical angler's "perhaps that was because..."

I'd love to be back at dusk however. This sort if things happened on the Meuse... no bite in the afternoon and then real sport from dusk.

 

[nottskev]

Second time out in 6 months. And the same water, since the woodland ponds, tucked away in an obscure corner of the grounds of a stately home, fit the bill these days, when getting away from other people is the name of the game. With one half of the pond covered in seed from the trees and bushes, where to fish was decided for you



Although I wondered, at the end of a few hours, whether most of the fish weren't gathered under the scum.

Steve came along a bit after I arrived, and we had a chat in the new style - about 5m apart, with an eye on the wind direction - before he went off to fish selectively for the bigger fish, and I set about indiscriminately trying to get a bite. With two light rigs at about 10m, one on the bottom and one a foot or more off, feeding a few micros to one side and a few maggots the other, I managed the grand total of 9 bites in nearly 5 hours.

First fish was an ide



but I couldn't catch another, and the other 4 decent fish were all bream



three of the remaining bites were little perch, with one bite missed.

Nice to be out, even if the fishing was a bit slow, and it's always nice to catch decent fish on light gear. I'm told there are crucians and tench in there, and I've caught barbel and chub on other occasions, so it's an interesting as well as a pretty place.

 

[Krang]

Got on nicely.

Size 1000 reel, 5ft ultralight rod, 4lb ultra green.

Was a good fight! Awesome day.

 

[markcw]

I had something similar yesterday on my local canal . I found a spot out of the way fished worms and never had a bite . Topped off by a guy telling me all about a guy catching some nice roach from the same spot the day before.

Ian, parts of this canal made the clarity on Grindley Brook and other parts of the Llangollen Canal look like a murky puddle, I had around 3'6" tops down the centre track, could see near side and far side as walked along it, past a few fish for the pot merchants, I was tempted to go back to my car and get Lymm Bailiff badge with photo on it and Bailiff number in nice sized letters and crack on I was a bailiff of the local club and tell them to pack up and go. They would have been none the wiser.

 

[markcw]

Second time out in 6 months. And the same water, since the woodland ponds, tucked away in an obscure corner of the grounds of a stately home, fit the bill these days, when getting away from other people is the name of the game. With one half of the pond covered in seed from the trees and bushes, where to fish was decided for you



Although I wondered, at the end of a few hours, whether most of the fish weren't gathered under the scum.

Steve came along a bit after I arrived, and we had a chat in the new style - about 5m apart, with an eye on the wind direction - before he went off to fish selectively for the bigger fish, and I set about indiscriminately trying to get a bite. With two light rigs at about 10m, one on the bottom and one a foot or more off, feeding a few micros to one side and a few maggots the other, I managed the grand total of 9 bites in nearly 5 hours.

First fish was an ide



but I couldn't catch another, and the other 4 decent fish were all bream



three of the remaining bites were little perch, with one bite missed.

Nice to be out, even if the fishing was a bit slow, and it's always nice to catch decent fish on light gear. I'm told there are crucians and tench in there, and I've caught barbel and chub on other occasions, so it's an interesting as well as a pretty place.

Nice fish Kev, I see the Diaflash is still going strong.

 

[neil1970]

I've managed a couple of trips out.
1st one on Sunday; had a few little perch from the local pit and then a better one from the canal.
I went out again last night to the canal and had a couple of jacks and a little perch.
Nice to be back! :w

 

[103841]

Good to see you posting again Neil.

During my illness the Lure book entertained me for a few good hours, I knew I was saving it for a special moment, just didn’t expect it to be the virus moment!

 

[Paste paul]

Been back to Lowfield lakes today peg 20 on riverside......
Bought one bag of micro pellets and one tin of corn......
Fished pole to island and method feeder into the channel

Caught steady all day had some beautiful skimmers and some big Hyde which ran to 2lb ..... plenty of plump roach and loads of carp



My biggest carp was about 10lb I had two on the trot on a top kit from my feet



Had about 120lb believe me this isn’t normal for me i usually struggle



Really chuffed

 

[seth49]

Not the best of days, steady drizzle most of the time, just enough to wet everything not covered, was on the pond with all the weed, it’s up to the surface now and spreading, started by raking the swim started close in and gradually moved out, shifted quite a lot as well, did see what looked like tench bubbles soon after I’d finished.

Started on feeder rod with pellet feeder, using mussel for bait, took a while to catch my first fish, an F1 which fought well for its size, but after that it was quiet no one else was catching much either.

Then later on disaster, I was sat in my chair watching the tip, and suddenly felt myself leaning to the left as my chair slipped of the narrow platform, next thing I’m in the water up to my thighs, wellingtons filling with water, all my bait in as well, and bent my side tray out of level, the large bait box on my tray went in and that was full of disgorgers, fish clicker, baiting needles, stotz pliers, and other baiting accessories.

After that pantomime I decided I’d had enough, luckily I retrieved most things that had gone in the water, packed up and went home, to dry everything and have a shower.

Photo of the lodge showing some of the weed.

 

[S-Kippy]

Well....the BF talked me into it so Ho for Farmoor today and a freemans over Swinford Toll Bridge. Hurrah !

Nice bit of socially distanced parking going on when we arrived ( separate cars) ....until some nob went and parked right next to me. Checked in with Mark the ranger and then we were off ! With no boats available everybody was on the bank so it seemed like there was 10 times the usual number of anglers there. Quite breezy so which bank we fished was dictated by the wind but we were happy with where we ended up. Though it was only just gone 10 am it was already very bright and I thought it might be a bit of a grueller. Still...after 15 mins or so I'm in and after a spectacular fight landed a lump of a rainbow well over 6lbs. I added one more an hour later but by 1pm that's all I'd had. Phil had hooked 2 but lost them both. It wasnt really happening on No 1 where we were so we decided to try the No 2 reservoir. At this point one of the rangers trucks came round and who was driving it but Will Barnard who the senior members on here may remember. Will runs the fishing for Thames water and is a top bloke as well as a bloody good angler.

" Get yourself round the far side of No 2, Skippy...loads of fish there" said Will and he ought to know so off we went.

He wasn't wrong either. It was never going to be easy fishing through the hottest part of the day but a static buzzer fished fairly close in seemed to provoke a bit of interest. I had another 6 fish and Phil had 2 though he lost another 2 and basically had a bit of a mare. I missed a couple of good takes and one fish ripped my top dropper clean off.

We fished till Phil's knee started to give him gyp...abour 4-30 then back over the unmanned toll bridge and home in time for tea. It was a little bit harder than I would have liked but I can't really complain about 8 fish on a hot bright day.....and,the icing on the cake, a cuckoo calling all morning from the copse on the Thames Bank. I'd have taken a brace plus the cuckoo this morning so all in all not a bad day.

Everybody fishing was very well behaved, social distancing is quite easy to do on a reservoir and the rangers had things very well organised. I didn't feel at particular risk at all and ,Migod, it was good to be out again.

 

[nottskev]

I went back to the woodland pond. It had been a bit slow yesterday, but surely it would be better today? We all know what happens on water surrounded by trees at this time of year, and how hard it is to get those solidified blobs of cotton off your line so you can reel in. Yesterday's steady breeze had gathered it all over one side of the pond. Today, a listless, occasional breath had just enough energy to spread it all out evenly and send it back and to through your swim. While more seeds drifted down like snow.

It started off quite well. I thought I'd try something different today, after flogging away with the pole yesterday so it stayed in the bag and I fished a little homemade peacock float with rod and pin. I'd found some dead krilled maggots in the freezer, so I fed some of these and put a grain of corn and a red maggot on a 16 to a .12 bottom. First cast, the little float cocked and went down, and this barbel - a long way from home but certainly fit and looking well - was giving me the run-around



I thought it had come off at one point. It swam towards me so much faster than I could take up line with the pin. I was lucky I hooked it before all the seeds moved into my swim - with the line jammed in the rings, I'd have had to play it on a fixed line, and I don't think that would have ended well.



Anyway, that was the end of a short session, as it soon became impossible to sink the line, reel in, keep the bait clean etc, and I gave up, ate my sandwiches, lay on the grass and listened to the birdsong.

 

[sam vimes]

I've been watching with envy over the last couple of days. While those south of the Humber appear to have had some decent weather, I was blanking in cloudy, drizzly and occasionally quite windy conditions. I hoped some much needed sun might rectify the issue. So it proved, though they made me wait until the death.

5lb 12oz.

4lb 8oz.

 

[mikench]

I met up with Ian for my overdue tutorial at a picturesque venue.



It doesn't look it but there was lots of flotsam and jetsam on the water which followed me round to where I had set up because of a tow on the water. It was also clear that there was loads of blanket weed just below the surface making, retrieving and presenting difficult if not impossible. After an hour before the Master arrived I hadn't had a nudge.

Ian wandered round and didn't even take his tackle from the car. He didn't fancy it and so amidst humming and harring on my part, I packed up and we set off to another venue 30 miles away. So far not so good. I'm very poor at restarting and tend to just stick it out. I must learn.

On arrival at my favoured venue we discovered a full car park and a dozen cars on the road . It was packed. We waited for two codgers to make their way to the car park, pack their car and move off so we could park and then got to some pegs about 3.30.



I won't go into detail but idiots were paying no attention to social distancing nor club rules and 5 adults and 4 kids using multiple rods( one rod rule) were not amused by the error of their ways being pointed out by Ian, a club bailiff. He was a model of restraint even when one of 3 women became hysterical and started to cry whilst her kids ran around bored.

We fished bread on a float léger basis and had 4 or 5 carp each like this one.



We had a conversation going with a couple of other anglers on the opposite bank and amid jokes and banter we fished till 8.00 pm. Fishing with Ian is always fun and informative and yesterday was no exception. Cheers Ian.

Bailiffs by the way justify fully the free membership as it's a thankless task which they do with no reward just aggravation. I won't be applying any time soon. Hats off to bailiffs.

 

[peter crabtree]

Fished the big pit in town yesterday, started at 9am. An hour later had my first bite on the method with maggots. Winding down I was in, a good fish. Lost it along with the feeder et al!

The willows soon started shedding their seeds, I overheard a passing infant tell her mother “it’s snowing.” By midday a menacing raft of fluff started drifting towards me from across the lake and it was soon sticking to my rod tips. The bloody stuff was up my nose and my eyes were getting itchy so I wound in, huge lumps of fluff on my reels and locking up in the tip rings.
I decided to call it a day.

Nice to see Neil1970 and his Romanian rescue dog on a walk around.