How did you get on?

[flightliner]

My new membership came through so I fished a canal on the book today. The club have upped the day tickets to £10 to encourage membership.
It certainly worked for me as this is a good winter roach spot, but not at £10 per day. £25 OAP book for a year is much better even for half a dozen trips.
Anyway I had a net of small perch,skimmers,roach and the odd bleak. It certainly made an enjoyable change using 20s and fine hooklengths .
The trouble is I am now knackered holding the pole for a few hours which I am not used to. Must practice more.

Seems Lincoln AA may have done the same, their Trent holdings are now the same £10 pd, only a very few short years ago it was £4, ah well, wellcome to southern prices y'all ?.

 

[flightliner]

I fancied another day with the stick, hemp n tare yesterday after a frustrating morning last week trying to do some Bream fishing and arriving at my venue to find it was closed owing to corvid.
OK, other places to use so off I trundle to a not far away dam but apparently it was lowered last winter owing to the floods and anywhere within 5mtrs was a mudbath-- no way was I going to endure that
so off I go again to a big res that I know was turning up some nice fish of late but again I was thwarted as the only area I wanted to fish was lined with guys who had had the opportunity to arrive before me having spent so much time running around in my car.
I had no other options left as my gear was totally Bream oriented so I sadly called my day off and went home!
On the tidal yesterday the swim I fancied with the xtra water in it was again taken so I went upstream to another reach where I'd fished before in the past, not as good but it was usually OK with the conditions prevailing.
I began by running a shouldered John Allerten stick down with the tare, shirt button style for starters but other than a single small roach in the first half hour it was pretty dire.
The river looked OK tho so I carried on but not forgetting to keep the hemp going in and pretty soon I was having the odd roach, chub let, skimmer and a single bleak.
Then it all died away so I re positioned my shotting to bulk (6number 6) with two number 8s as droppers, dropped the float a foot to try 18" off bottom and resumed my efforts, that's when I noticed my keepnet bouncing with a fair sized pike having a go at the fish inside-- bugger off!
Never there when I want them but at this venue they can be a pain!
Some half hour later just as I had some nice roach finally coming to my now change bait of two maggots the pike was there again at my net, persistent arnt they!!
I fished until the light made it hard to see my float tip some thirty yards downstream where I was taking all my fish-- totally opposite to my previous. Visit when they came up close near the rod tip, yesterday no account of trying would induce them to leave that same place, maybe one of those things that make fishing so interesting!
Oh, almost forgot, when I lifted the net many of the fish had escaped thro a hole in it so no piks lol.
I'll say it again - - Bloody Pike!!

 

[mikench]

I know what the french would have done with the pike Mick.

 

[Aknib]

A long time since I posted in this thread, partly because I’ve not been doing that much fishing due to one thing and another and partly because I was tired of reading my own mediocre drivel.

This was worth a mention though…

I’m currently on a fortnight’s leave from work but the body clock still persists in going off around 4am and this morning was no exception, I hadn’t planned a session but decided over a cup of tea that I would get some bare kit together and see if the Barbel were feeding in a river which was around four feet up on the usual level and heavily coloured.

I didn’t even bother to make a flask or take any food and had planned on trying a few swims on the heavy trotting gear so I decided to tackle up beside the car so that I could creep into the first run with a 6grm Avon…

This first run would ordinarily be almost dry during normal levels and it looked good, very good in fact but despite giving it an hour without any interest I decided to move on.

The second swim produced quite quickly, inching the float down the near bank it slid away and what was clearly a good fish was on. None of the darting about on runs like the smaller ones, this just hugged the bottom in front of me in a prolonged game of tug of war which felt like I was trying to pull the plug out the riverbed!

It eventually succumbed to the net and after a good rest up she came in at 15lbs 2ozs…

I was over the moon with that and despite giving it another two or three hours in that swim I couldn’t muster any further interest and so decided to return to my first swim, which I had introduced some feed into on my earlier departure.

It must have been ninety minutes before the float eventually sailed away and I was beginning to think I’d got it wrong but after a good scrap another good fish graced the net, this time 11lb 13ozs…

Two bites and two fish for just shy of 27lb on barely a mug full of pellets, I'm happy enough with that!

 

[103841]

Good to see you on this thread again Steve.

Mediocre? Please allow us to be the judge of that.?

 

[mikench]

Progold on the Conquest I see! Cracking fish Steve.

 

[no-one in particular]

Set off early for me, opted for flat board alley in the hope they were gone. Cold early but it warmed up during the day and pleasant enough but the west wind was chilly. 5 chub and 2 roach all on bread. I had some bites on sweetcorn but could not hook them. One very big chub for the water, might have been over 4lb, never caught one over that from this place, a few 3lb+ but they are normally 1-2lbish. very pleased with that and a good old fight ensued. I thought it was a carp when it first surfaced. All float fishing and on a 14 hook. The river was not up as much I thought it maybe, about 2-4ft so quite shallow here.

Only about 10 boards and kayaks, I was going tell one lot if they keep going they might make Calais by teatime but no one has a sense of humor anymore so I just waved them through, they did say sorry for disturbing the fish though, I thought that was nice.
Not much wildlife except for a buzzard being mobbed by crows, I do like buzzards though, always impress me.

 

[bullet]

This flat board and kayak obsession these days in rivers and canals is a massive pain in the arse and really gets on my tits.
What is wrong with people?
I can understand wanting to paddle down a big river, but what is the point of going somewhere like that, apart from irritating anyone trying to fish!

 

[no-one in particular]

This flat board and kayak obsession these days in rivers and canals is a massive pain in the arse and really gets on my tits.
What is wrong with people?
I can understand wanting to paddle down a big river, but what is the point of going somewhere like that, apart from irritating anyone trying to fish!

That's not half it, that bloke at the back ploughed straight into one of the pylons of that bridge and I am not joking, this is the widest part, they come down that 5/6ft bit all day..

 

[john step]

Seems Lincoln AA may have done the same, their Trent holdings are now the same £10 pd, only a very few short years ago it was £4, ah well, wellcome to southern prices y'all ?.

It is the Lincoln Book Mick. Southern prices indeed. £25 a year. Outrageous

However coming up is the s0ds law and senior moments bu$$eration factor!!
I got to the canal this morning a bit late and unprepared after slinging my gear in the car. Then the realisation hit me that the said year book aforementioned was still at home and not with my other books in my tackle. Dam it.
20 Miles back to home turf without setting up and a wasted hour in the car.

I ended up on my own deep res with my canal gear/pole/box and had a smashing 4 hours bagging up with roach on dead reds and punch.

Alls well that ends well but I must tie a knot in my neck to help me remember things .

 

[john step]

Steve, thats a great catch of barbel. Amazing.

 

[Keith M]

Those are excellent Barbel Steve, well done

Keith

 

[S-Kippy]

Wish I hadn't bothered today.....my head was elsewhere and my heart really not in it but the BF wanted another go at the club carp lake and I felt honour bound to accompany him.

Needless to say all that cold rain over the weekend had had a big effect on what is a shallow lake and it was a very challenging afternoon. I was convinced I was going home fishless until the bobbin on my rh rod pulled tight just as the light was starting to go....a very welcome blank saving 14 pounder. 20 minutes later I had another slightly smaller fish and the BF hooked one while I was playing mine. He'd had a couple of low doubles already but this was a much better fish and at 22lb 5oz his best from the lake to date.

Chatting to a couple of the members who know the lake much better than we do and fish it far more often we learned a few new tricks and wrinkles to try next time. Our usual approach does work but not so well when it goes off a bit so we need to vary our tactics next time.

Packed when it started to rain and was home fairly early. Didn't really enjoy it....like I said my head was elsewhere today and I was really only going through the motions.

 

[peterjg]

Tuesday I had a quick look at the Loddon - it was in full flood, over the banks with adjacent fields flooded, the Thames and Kennet up and very fast. So yesterday I fished the K&A canal, arrived just before dawn and attempted to float fish for roach. Water clearing and the pike were obviously feeding, eventually managed 3 reasonable roach on laid-on flake then the boats started. It's next to impossible to lay-on effectively with the water swishing to and fro with the locks opening and closing. Caught a further 8 roach (small) and 2 small snotties on punched bread fished off bottom. I'll fish somewhere different tomorrow?

 

[108831]

Cracking fish Steve,a lovely catch...

 

[103841]

Spent an hour in the wind and rain lure fishing for perch On the estate this morning. Only dabbled with this method a few time’s with zero success on the lake. Today I had a fish on just the second cast, I say had it on, it bumped off just I was about to net it, the downside of barbless singles! but that’s the way it has to be. Wasn’t a huge fish but it does give me hope and confidence to persevere and find one of the biggies in the coming colder months and try and get a lure caught fish on the scoreboard.

I did have a pb though, hauled out 20m of heavy line with a Drennan cage feeder attached.

 

[mikench]

I wasn't going to bother posting about my few hours on the beach as there were no fish but plenty of logs.

Every few minutes a log a lumberjack would have been proud of suddenly appeared in the surf and floated serenely across both my lines. I got snagged a couple of times so had to reel in when they came close . The one featured would have tested Sensor to its limits but thankfully I missed it.

It was a beautiful day and very warm so I soaked up the sun, ate my butty and chilled. My call to collect er indoors coincided with a log pile floating right by so I called it a day. About an hour before an attractive woman pulled up behind my car , alighted and sat directly behind me to read a book. She enquired if I objected and I could hardly say no even though she had another 5 kilometres of almost deserted beach to choose from. She was reading a novel by Albert Camus called La Peste( the plague ) which I remembered from A level french so we had a brief chat.

Very disappointing from a fishing perspective but it was nice to be beside the seaside. All together now.................

 

[103841]

Always worth logging on to see these photos Mike.

I think Id have some headphones attached to my phone and sit in that chair listening to The Sea by Morcheeba, it was written with Brighton in mind but who cares, it’s a beautiful piece of music.

 

[mikench]

It would have to be this.

 

[sam vimes]