How did you get on?

[mikench]

Nah it's got no chance.

 

[peter crabtree]

Needs to be weighed accurately...

 

[mikench]

I agree and I didn't weigh it at all so I won't enter it .

 

[no-one in particular]

On the pier today, reported catches, 1 thornback, 2 bass, 1 conger, several dover soles and whiting. My catch one crab-even that had a leg missing, couldn't catch a whole one; I am the kiss of death for sure, I might have to see someone about this, its beginning to irk me..
I could only get some frozen lug and while in the shop I was looking at some artificial baits called Capti Baits. The lady said she had them for ages so I could have them for a quid (should have taken note), not one to turn away from a bargain I bought 4; crab, squid, and 2 sand eels. The blurb said they were infused with scent which would be diffused into the water to attract fish. This was true as they smelt of crab and squid when I opened them. I tried the red eel first but not being confident with this type of bait I thread it right through the hook and attached some frozen lug as well. My thinking was the red would attract and the scent would enhance the frozen lug which is always a poor substitute for fresh. Had a good old knock withing ten minutes, think I had a fish on but it got off. I reeled it in and the lug was still there but the red eel dropped off when I pulled it out of the water. I was a bit confused about this but to cut a long story short, this kept happening or the eel was just not there when I reeled it in. It dawned on me they not only diffused scent they bloody well melted. By now I had used all the red eels and tried one of the crabs but watched it on top for a while, first the legs drifted off and then the body started to disintegrate. I then put one of the blue eels on and timed it, it took 3 minutes for it drift off the hook. About as much use as a ..... however, I did have two good knocks on them and nothing on the frozen lug!!
I thought I had seen enough of adventure swimmers, why do they choose to swim along the pier where all the anglers lines are, there is miles of empty water and they choose to swim here!! these looked like serious adults as well.
One conversation with a passer by. "do you know that Farage bloke" "yes" "he caught 40 bass off Dungerness beach last month" "do you mean the politician" "yes he fishes with his son on my mates boat with his son as well" "is he looking for immigrants" " no but my mate has stopped picking up life jackets off the beach-they land and just throw their life jackets down on the beach and leave them there and he has hundreds now so if you want one..." You couldn't make it up but fishing; always interesting if nothing else. However, might just try for some roach next time for a bit of light relief.
Nice day in the weak sunshine, one Turnstone flew by but not much else, not many seagulls for a change , must be off on their holls, they usually circle above me like vultures, I have something to feed them now, hope they are not poisonous. All in all the usual surreal day but still fun.
.

 

[tigger]

I popped over to the river this avvey, arrived at 2.30 and just in time to get a soaking off a nasty rain shower being blown directly into my face by high winds. I was cold, ok the car thermometer read 15 degrees but in that wind it felt bloody cold, even more so when I got soaked. I nearly just turned round and walked back to the car, but, being an idiot I carried on. The river was up from recent rains, but this was pushed up even more by the incoming tide.
As I started to fish I struggled to hold the rod steady in the wind and the force of it was powerful it was actually bending my rod into an ark similar to one as if I was playing a good sized fish. I also struggled to reach over the bankside foliage and it was quite hair raising trying to edge out in the cover as you just couldn't see where the banking ended. One wrong step and I would have been in the drink!
Anyhow, I did get a bite and caught this little scrote....




I took a picture of it as I thought it was going to be my only fish of the session. Another couple of trots produced another one of those little scotes like the one pictured but I refrained from taking it's pic lol.
I moved to another spot and hooked a fish which felt heavy, only for it to come off after about ten seconds.
As I wound my float back in it was attacked by esox, not good having esox lingering around in my swim! Everytime I wound back esox launched itself at my float and actually cleared the water completely, looking like a performing killer whale in minature.
I walked back upstream and tried a number of spots with not a sign of a fish until I got back to my starting point. Again, I nearly walked back to the car but talked myself into carrying on.
I carried on upstream and as I did so I noticed the level had dropped down several feet as the tide was receeding. Next swim I tried and at last i'd found some fish . I caught fish in all the next swims I tried, no big ones but half decent and they all did their very best to get into the bankside vegatation. The 13ft sphere waggler rod was bent into some serious arks as it put the hand break on and turned the fish out of the snags.

 

[wetthrough]

Another enjoyable day out with Mike yesterday. That looks more Roach than Rudd to me @mikench. The mouth isn't underslung and the start of the pelvics looks to be in line with the dorsal. Splendid fish either way. Mike's being a bit generous again. I stuck it out on the bottom and ended up with 31 most of which were picked up on the drop. I had fish feeding in front of me on and off all day. They just weren't interested in anything I had to offer. Tried everything from bread to fake worms and chick peas but only managed three or four small fish to maggot on the bottom.

 

[mikench]

I think you are right Gordon. I don't know my Rudd from my roach. It had the colour of a Rudd when I caught it.

 

[no-one in particular]

On the pier again yesterday, sea slightly calmer and less wind, the colour dropped out a bit from the day before but still a bit murky. Frozen lug and luncheon meat cocktail, thought I would try it to give the frozen lug some oomp. Nothing much caught on the pier, some little whiting, and one Dover sole from the lady fishing next to me. I had a couple of whiting, the top one was a bit bigger but did not feel like it on the rod even with the smaller one to help it. However I did catch a pouting, not seen any of these for a while and it was big enough to put a bend in the rod, felt a lot bigger when I reeled it in; it actually dragged my weight towards the pier giving me a slack line bite like bass sometimes do, so at least I had a moment this time. However, we used to feed these to the cat when we used to catch loads of them from the boats but they are very bony and not much good for eating although I believe some of these master chefs think they are good. A couple of soles would have done me or a nice bass still, at least I caught something this time but not enough to restore my faith. A bloke next to me was dropping a big baited drop net, have not seen that done for a long time, he just had mainly crabs but I was surprised to see some prawns in it when he pulled it up. Thinking about that myself, live prawns are a killer bait.
Conversation of the day was with a Polish bloke, showed me pictures of all the Pike and Zander he caught from the Ouse near Cambridge I think he said, he said he could catch a 100 on a good day lure fishing, I asked him if he ate them, he said he didn't as he belonged to a club and the EA rules that 25% of the club fees has to go towards restocking to keep the stock levels up so he helps with that by not taking them home to eat. Fishing on the pier or jetties around here is always interesting if nothing else.
One bird of the day was a House Martin, the only house martin I have seen this year so nice to see but it was flying towards the coast! Must have got its sat-nav switched off.

 

[108831]

A fantastic days fishing,on the float with maggot,an adaptation of the Artist's matchstick,a Drennan insert tip,8 decent chub,god knows how many roach to just over the pound,several decent dace,more than 13 perch between 4ozs and 12ozs,8 small barbel(ahhhhhh),gudgeon,smaller chub from dots to a pound....

 

[mikench]

Cracking fish Alan

 

[108831]

On the pier again yesterday, sea slightly calmer and less wind, the colour dropped out a bit from the day before but still a bit murky. Frozen lug and luncheon meat cocktail, thought I would try it to give the frozen lug some oomp. Nothing much caught on the pier, some little whiting, and one Dover sole from the lady fishing next to me. I had a couple of whiting, the top one was a bit bigger but did not feel like it on the rod even with the smaller one to help it. However I did catch a pouting, not seen any of these for a while and it was big enough to put a bend in the rod, felt a lot bigger when I reeled it in; it actually dragged my weight towards the pier giving me a slack line bite like bass sometimes do, so at least I had a moment this time. However, we used to feed these to the cat when we used to catch loads of them from the boats but they are very bony and not much good for eating although I believe some of these master chefs think they are good. A couple of soles would have done me or a nice bass still, at least I caught something this time but not enough to restore my faith. A bloke next to me was dropping a big baited drop net, have not seen that done for a long time, he just had mainly crabs but I was surprised to see some prawns in it when he pulled it up. Thinking about that myself, live prawns are a killer bait.
Conversation of the day was with a Polish bloke, showed me pictures of all the Pike and Zander he caught from the Ouse near Cambridge I think he said, he said he could catch a 100 on a good day lure fishing, I asked him if he ate them, he said he didn't as he belonged to a club and the EA rules that 25% of the club fees has to go towards restocking to keep the stock levels up so he helps with that by not taking them home to eat. Fishing on the pier or jetties around here is always interesting if nothing else.
One bird of the day was a House Martin, the only house martin I have seen this year so nice to see but it was flying towards the coast! Must have got its sat-nav switched off.View attachment 10477View attachment 10478

Must be localised these house martins then,seen plenty,around my home county and in Dorset...

 

[103841]

@markg is that Hastings Pier?

I’ve been watching a lot of Youtube videos made by The Saltwater Angler, he’s based in Sussex and does a fair amount of fishing around the Hastings area, his videos are excellent and well worth a watch.

 

[peter crabtree]

Club fixture today at Little Stoke near Wallingford on the Thames. A lovely day with little wind and sunny intervals..
Set up 17’ Aco with a 1:5gr bolo float which I fished whip style, to hand. 15’ Matchpro ultralight with sliding waggler for down the middle. 10‘ depth on both rods.

Balled it with 1:5kilos of gb down the middle, a blend of dark Super roach and black turbo for added stiffness.
A slow start down the middle with bleak making maggot or caster impossible, my 3:5gr bulk on the slider couldn’t get down quick enough before the bleak intercepted the bait. My 12” waggler looked like it was idiot dancing grrrr. They were very small bleak too.
All the while I’d been throwing loose maggots and casters on my inside line and decided to give it a go. It was solid!
Small skimmers, chublets and decent roach were lined up. I plundered them for a good while before bites died off, back on the slider.
Changed bait to corn and had a few nicer sized roach....

For the rest of the day I alternated between the 2 lines and at the scales weighed in 11:4:0.

That was enough to win the day, with two 9lb+ weights runners up.

11 fished....

 

[mikench]

Balled it with 1:5kilos of gb down the middle, a blend of dark Super roach and black turbo for added stiffness.

The mind boggles ! A cracking roach there Simon and it looked a lovely spot. Well done.

 

[108831]

Trouble is,the bleak are a nightmare and enjoy the groundbait and any suspended particles hold the little beggars,maybe a babies head every chuck might feed em off,scare the hell out of the roach mind,at least 2 kilos of gb at £4 a kilo,with another kilo,in case,frightening really,plus maggots,corn,Simon is an oil magnate in real life,seriously though,match fishing is an expensive pastime to take seriously...

 

[tigger]

The weather was pretty naff this morning, strong winds and intermittent heavy rain showers rattling on the windows. I wasn't sure wether to bother going fishing or not, so had several cuppas while I deliberated wether to make a move and go. Anyhow the temp was ok at about 17 degrees and I felt quite warm with just a t shirt on and decided to just go fishing in my t shirt, I would dry between showers and my active style would keep me from getting cold .
When I got to the river it looked like rain was imminent but other than a few spots it missed me and from then on the weather just improved ?. The wind stayed but I could cope with that. The fishing turned out to be great , lots of decent chub, and literally as many dace as I wanted to catch.
At one swim i'd just tossed a couple of handfulls of maggots in and was in the process of filling my hook with them when I heard a crash in the willows downstream and across river from me (right in my taking spot) and a woggy hen sounding off. The bird came flapping out into the river and swam across, as it did so I saw the back of a large otter appear behind it as it porpoised after the woggy hen and then nothing. There was a lot of bankside folige as so things can vanish quite easily. I decided to sneak down to see if I could get a closer look at things, but there was no sign of either the otter or woggy hen when I got there. Ididn't even see and swirls or anything where the otter may have swam off. Creatures round these parts are very shy otherwise they wouldn't exist!
I walked back to my spot and trotted down to the very spot in river where the otter had been. I got a dace first trott and continued to catch them until i'd got fed up and moved elsewhere.



Propper gob full for this dace...

 

[The Runner]

First day of the annual Severn trip today, five of us went to knowle sands which was rock hard. River nicely up and coloured but the barbel didn’t play ball. Had my only one ten minutes before we packed on, around 4-8 and only one other caught by by us. Not a lot for the other anglers present either. . After three hours and only one roach on the feeder, set up stick and pellet for about two rods out and had some lovely roach , smallest was 8 to 10 oz. couldn’t really line them up though and had fifteen or so before went back on feeder for last hour.

 

[mikench]

What rod were you using Ian; i didn't think you had rods with reel bands.

 

[no-one in particular]

Pier fishing again yesterday, nothing much to say about it really, zilch again for me, the curse is still with me. Not much else caught either, one very small plaice, a few small whiting (although they appear a bit bigger than last year) and one small bass. I had a non fishing friend with me who gave me earache all afternoon which did not help, a non stop talking type.
Conversation of the day, one bloke next to me who caught the bass said he came from London, he fishes around there in the Thames and said he catches bass around the Canary Wharf area, occasionally over 10 lb but usually about 3-5lb. He said he lure fishes for them along the docks, sometimes he just walks along the wall trolling the lure behind him. All a revelation to me, never knew they went that far up, all I need is a friend who lives in Canary Wharf?
No birds this time, well; only the sunny day type walking along the pier.

 

[108831]

What rod were you using Ian; i didn't think you had rods with reel bands.
[f

Found it in his 'rod house',I mean room,lol....