How did you get on?

[Ray Roberts]

I took my youngest son to Southall today. He had some business to get done. Meanwhile I took a walk along the GUC. I didn’t bother with any gear as it’s rock hard at the best of times. One of the boat owners obviously had a sense of humour.

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[Pete Shears]

Had to venture out today as when the snow melts from Sunday onwards, the rivers will be in flood again along with all the road salt washed in and the stillwaters will still be frozen.
Did not arrive at the Wreake until about 11am when it had warmed up to 0C with a blasting east wind but sunny,found a sheltered swim and with the level down yet again and the muddy colour gone it did look good.
Started off in the swim where I had 2 chub last week but nothing at all,moved downstream using quiver tipped worm but did not get anything until I used a cage feeder with crust on the hook - tip went round,struck,rod stopped and bent into a heavy lump which slipped the hook and left 2 scales on the hook point. Recast and eventually had a chub of 3lb exactly and after 4 or 5 last casts , legged it to the car to warm up.
Had a kingfisher settle on a clump of dead reeds opposite until it saw me,fieldares,robins,wrens around and plenty of hare tracks in the snow.
On the way home the dashboard told me it had warmed up to 0.5C.

 

[Hugh Bailey]

Next Tuesday could be good...

 

[bullet]

Bit bleak out today, but the river was at a nice level for the float and lots of rain is forecast for tomorrow, so I got well wrapped up and headed out with float and leger gear, a pint of reds and some bread...

On inspection, it was carrying a bit more colour than I was expecting, and the wind was gusting a fair bit, but I opted for the float and mag approach anyway, and didn't bother with the leger rod.
I tucked in in the most sheltered spot and quickly hooked a decent Chub which went straight for the willows and the hook pulled.
I carried on baiting and fishing and eventually found another that stayed on until the net, it pulled really hard in the flow and the Accy Plus was bent right over.

Fished on for a while in the same spot, but nothing doing, so started heading back and had another smaller fish before my hands started getting a bit nippy!
Great just to get out and fish in a nice height of water, haven't been that many opportunities this Winter!

 

[chevin4]

Bit bleak out today, but the river was at a nice level for the float and lots of rain is forecast for tomorrow, so I got well wrapped up and headed out with float and leger gear, a pint of reds and some bread...

View attachment 13233

On inspection, it was carrying a bit more colour than I was expecting, and the wind was gusting a fair bit, but I opted for the float and mag approach anyway, and didn't bother with the leger rod.
I tucked in in the most sheltered spot and quickly hooked a decent Chub which went straight for the willows and the hook pulled.
I carried on baiting and fishing and eventually found another that stayed on until the net, it pulled really hard in the flow and the Accy Plus was bent right over.
View attachment 13234

Fished on for a while in the same spot, but nothing doing, so started heading back and had another smaller fish before my hands started getting a bit nippy!
Great just to get out and fish in a nice height of water, haven't been that many opportunities this Winter!

This has whetted the appetite as I have no local fishing I have not been able to try and put a bend in my new 15ft Accy. Like you I will team it with my Youngs Purist Lightweight cant wait to get out again hopefully it wont be too long

 

[rich66]

With the raising temperatures I decided it was time to venture down to my club waters, they have put in trout on one of the lakes in the hopes of them eating young crayfish. Thought it’d be nice if I caught one as its something I’ve never caught before. Caught 6 great little scrappers they are too. Lost almost as many, hook lengths kept breaking.
Just nice to get out too !

 

[Ray Roberts]

Seems a strange fish to use for controlling crayfish. On the other hand they do seem fairly omnivorous. I would have thought that perch would have been better. I have had some nice perch on buoyant rubber crayfish.


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[john step]

The ice has gone. The air is mild and windy. I pitched up facing the wind on the lake and chucked out a couple of popped up roach.
Just one at 16plus. An owl serenaded me all day. I think a tawney.

 

[Pete Shears]

The EA site told me the river level was dropping so off to the Wreake this morning after having blanked on Monday with the level rising with snow melt,rain and road salt.
Started off on the big pool which was still like a washing machine but the extreme muddy colour had started to fade. Small cage feeder with crust on the hook cast into a slacker area on the edge of a back eddy. Tap,tap,tap,whack the tip went round and the fish stayed deep with jag,jag head shaking using the stronger swirling current further out. Side strain with the clutch just giving line brought the fish to the surface and up popped a massive roach glinting silvery/blue/grey along its back and into the net - the scales told me it was 2lb 1oz,no-one to take a picture for me so another one of the fish in the net with the scales alongside for reference.
Recasting saw a chub of 3lb 14oz and then another at 1lb 12oz followed by a 10oz chublet- after all that the bites ceased - time to move.
Settling in a another swim saw 2 more chub banked - 2lb 10oz and 12 oz then it started to rain - time to go home and go cross eyed on the internet sorting out this years car insurance.

 

[chevin4]

The ice has gone. The air is mild and windy. I pitched up facing the wind on the lake and chucked out a couple of popped up roach.
Just one at 16plus. An owl serenaded me all day. I think a tawney.

Beautiful markings John nice proportioned fish with a small head. My idea of a pike

 

[john step]

Beautiful markings John nice proportioned fish with a small head. My idea of a pike

Thanks. Its a water we run on strict lines about fish welfare. Its coming to the end of the piking winter. Very soon they will be spawning and there are other species to go for.

 

[xenon]

The EA site told me the river level was dropping so off to the Wreake this morning after having blanked on Monday with the level rising with snow melt,rain and road salt.
Started off on the big pool which was still like a washing machine but the extreme muddy colour had started to fade. Small cage feeder with crust on the hook cast into a slacker area on the edge of a back eddy. Tap,tap,tap,whack the tip went round and the fish stayed deep with jag,jag head shaking using the stronger swirling current further out. Side strain with the clutch just giving line brought the fish to the surface and up popped a massive roach glinting silvery/blue/grey along its back and into the net - the scales told me it was 2lb 1oz,no-one to take a picture for me so another one of the fish in the net with the scales alongside for reference.
Recasting saw a chub of 3lb 14oz and then another at 1lb 12oz followed by a 10oz chublet- after all that the bites ceased - time to move.
Settling in a another swim saw 2 more chub banked - 2lb 10oz and 12 oz then it started to rain - time to go home and go cross eyed on the internet sorting out this years car insurance.

Hi Pete, is that the swim immediaely below the bridge?

 

[Pete Shears]

Hi Pete, is that the swim immediaely below the bridge?

That was one of them,he other downstream of the college.

 

[John Aston]

Thought it’d be nice if I caught one as its something I’ve never caught before. Caught 6 great little scrappers they are too. Lost almost as many, hook lengths kept breaking.
Just nice to get out too

Err - time to use some stronger hook lengths perhaps ?

I fished the Swale today, flowing hard, coloured and up a good 4 feet. But after the snow has melted, a welcome 42 F , 4 degrees up from my last (blank ) session .

I fished 3 swims without a knock , then missed an unmissable chub bite on cheese paste in the next swim , after only 5 minutes. Much cussing and harrumphing from me , and not another bite on cheese . I switched to worm (3 small lobs, in fact on a size 4 ) and tried slightly faster water in the hope of an early (or is it late ? ) barbel . A thumping bite, after a ten minute wait , and solid resistance way out in the flow raised my suspicions about what was pulling my string. It turned out to be a very fit chub of 5-7, which I'd far prefer to a barbel of the same size , in any case .

Now the Pinot Noir beckons, so I can drink a toast . Or several , in fact . ***** it - it's Friday after all

 

[john step]

A very very windy day . Colder than the weather man said. Nearly cold enough for gloves. Too windy to float fish for roach so I chucked out a mini groundbait cage. Used up most of the frozen dead reds from the lockdown with worm.

7 carp and one chub tucked in behind the brolly.

 

[barbelboi]

After a couple of days trying to locate the roach in the waters over the back without a rod I took a stroll over the fields armed with the 2000, pin, net a bag of bits and a few slices of 50/50. The weather was dry, cloudy and mild. I didn’t manage to locate the larger ones this time but, considering the ups and downs with the weather, I was more than happy to have a continual supply of ones around this size. An enjoyable few hours trotting a stick for some 20+ fish – fished from 1-4pm....

 

[mikench]

Out of interest is the “pike season” until the end of March ?


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[john step]

Out of interest is the “pike season” until the end of March ?


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No official pike close season Mike. I personally dont target them into the Spring as they are early spawners . Every year seems a bit different depending on the temperatures. The big ones are female and I dont feel comfortable catching pike full to bursting with spawn just to get a personal best.

Get a quick session or two in now before its too late?

 

[Pete Shears]

The mild weather which has been forecast seemed to have missed the banks of the Wreake this morning and the wind was blustery making seeing a bite on the quivertip difficult to say the least. Eventually I banked a chublet of about 8oz, no roach today and bites were very few even with a lower level and slightly reduced flow.
The highlight of the day came just after getting out of the car, a barn owl appeared over the hedge,flew over the road and landed in a field about 50 yards away,was immediately mobbed by two jackdaws and then flew back over the hedge and disappeared - last one I saw was in Devon about 10 years ago -
Brilliant !

 

[john step]

The mild weather which has been forecast seemed to have missed the banks of the Wreake this morning and the wind was blustery making seeing a bite on the quivertip difficult to say the least. Eventually I banked a chublet of about 8oz, no roach today and bites were very few even with a lower level and slightly reduced flow.
The highlight of the day came just after getting out of the car, a barn owl appeared over the hedge,flew over the road and landed in a field about 50 yards away,was immediately mobbed by two jackdaws and then flew back over the hedge and disappeared - last one I saw was in Devon about 10 years ago -
Brilliant !

Lincolnshire is the barn owl capital. There are nest boxes on poles all over the place along river banks. A few years ago on a drain I had one attempt to land on the pike rod I was holding. If birds can look surprised..that one did!