How did you get on?

[mikench]

I forgot to add that the end I chose to fish from is 10'deep about a rod length out but only 3' at the far end. It Is still a deserted place and one you would never find.

 

[no-one in particular]

bb

Well I ventured forth again to a water i didn't originally like. I had only 1 small perch in 3 visits and gave it up. I returned this year to try piking and blanked on 3 visits. I went today in the forlorn hope of a tench.

View attachment 13938

I fished a feeder rod to no avail regardless of bait. I used a GB mix with corn, hemp and wheat added but no tench. I float fished using maggot and managed 29 fish all small including perch , roach, skimmers and a few hybrids. The place is growing on me despite it's spooky atmosphere and diabolical unmade road to negotiate and a very muddy carpark. It was pleasantly mild and an enjoyable day. I think I'll go back.

It looks very similar to a day ticket water I used to fish Mike, deep in the middle 12/15ft and lots of trees around half of it and a bit gloomy, it held good tench, I found it best to fish about a rod or two out in 6ft of water, on this water they used to come on after about 4pm; I have found lake fish species take their turn to feed at different times, not always but sometimes found a pattern and if you know they are in there they will come on soon. Despite some starting to be caught I think it is still a bit too cold for them to really get going, 17c forecast sometime next week, give a day or two for the water to warm up and I bet they will come on.

 

[markcw]

Well I ventured forth again to a water i didn't originally like. I had only 1 small perch in 3 visits and gave it up. I returned this year to try piking and blanked on 3 visits. I went today in the forlorn hope of a tench.

View attachment 13938

I fished a feeder rod to no avail regardless of bait. I used a GB mix with corn, hemp and wheat added but no tench. I float fished using maggot and managed 29 fish all small including perch , roach, skimmers and a few hybrids. The place is growing on me despite it's spooky atmosphere and diabolical unmade road to negotiate and a very muddy carpark. It was pleasantly mild and an enjoyable day. I think I'll go back.

WAA water ?

 

[mikench]

No PAAS water.

 

[bullet]

Looks a nice quiet spot. Hope it improves for you when it warms up a bit.

 

[mikench]

I'm sure it will. The club have put in 34 tench all over 4lb and, alledgedly, have 400 roach on order over 12oz. The roach and perch remain small for some reason but it is a nice secluded water. Again allegedly pike to 25lb and carp to 30lb ; i have yet to experience either.

 

[sam vimes]

The roach and perch remain small for some reason but it is a nice secluded water. Again allegedly pike to 25lb

It doesn't take much imagination to join those dots!

 

[peter crabtree]

Tried again on the pit fishing later in the day. Blanked....

 

[bullet]

I'm sure it will. The club have put in 34 tench all over 4lb and, alledgedly, have 400 roach on order over 12oz. The roach and perch remain small for some reason but it is a nice secluded water. Again allegedly pike to 25lb and carp to 30lb ; i have yet to experience either.

Ah yes, the legendary Club Book blurb!

 

[markcw]

Right.........
I decided to go back to venue where I had blanked the last 3 visits.
Got to my chosen peg, set up 3 topkits ,2 for the margins and 1 for out in front of me,
The margin floats were AS3 in 0.3g with size 18 Tubertini 808 hook.I have found this hook to be ideal for a variety of baits.
The float for the 5 metre line in front of me was a PI inline shallow, it was a 4 x 14 shorted with stotz in a bottom half strung out pattern.Hook was a B911.
I then set up my trusty Daiwa Harrier bomb rod up, I put a 1.5 oz tip in it, the business end was a 20g PI inline ICS cage feeder,threaded onto 5lbs Maxima A Pi flying backlead was attached above the feeder.. The hooklength was short length of 7lbs Guru to a 14 QM1 hook.The reel was a Shimano 4000DL baitrunner.
Bait for the feeder was 5 red maggots on the hook. The feeder was plugged with Ringers Red method groundbait and maggots in between.
Bait for the margins was Ringers red fed loose with predator plus and red maggot on the hook, the other margin was sweetcorn with F1 liquid flavour over it, plus a throwaway line with bread over liquidized bread.
In went the bomb rod with a few casts to get a bit of bait down before baiting the hook.
Margins primed and 5 metre line primed.
There wasn't much doing ,presentation on the pole was difficult due to the wind getting up. So the 5 metre line was abandoned along with the corn and bread margin. I kept the maggot margin going due to being more sheltered.
A large swirl in the rushes at the edge of my peg in maggot margin swim had me thinking the carp had arrived, So I lashed some maggots in and grabbed my topkit.
It transpired that the fish was caught on the next peg along and tried to make a dash for freedom through my margin swim and ruin it.FFS....?
Anyway the bloke managed to turn it and net it. Was around 8lb.
So out with the bomb rod again but around 15 yards out, After a while the tip went round and I was playing a carp, I realized I had set my smaller net up for some reason. This will take 8lb to 10lb fish , This one was bigger, I asked the bloke on the next peg if I could borrow his landing net.
Landed the carp and weighed it ,it came to 14.5lbs, minus the net at 1.5lbs the fish was a dead on 13lb, fantastic condition and hooked neatly in the top lip.
That was my only fish,
I packed up when the wind got stronger and colder and the rain was just starting.
Back again next week, but with waggler rod and bomb rod , no pole .
And to round the day off I checked my lottery numbers and found I had won £30 on one line and a free go on the other line. And Saturdays lottery not done yet.
That's the 3rd time in the past 4 weeks I have had £30 and a free go on my numbers.?

 

[John Aston]

Between the end of the river season and the start of the (river) trout season I tend to haunt a couple of local commercials . In happier times I'd travel further and perhaps finish off my perch season on some canals but my nearest is too far away for comfort .

Now if you'd asked me fifteen years ago about commercials, I'd have spat out my Pinot Noir and indulged in a rant about artificiality , tame fish and grotesquely huge bags but I see them a little differently now . They were my salvation in 2012, when a serious back problem reduced my mobility to a few painful yards and I have developed a slightly softer spot for them . Of course my first love is wild fish in natural habitat , but violent floods and cold weather make for slim pickings . Even the lake which is productive in Spring and Summer can be incredibly slow in Winter and... well, I like catching fish , and I regard most fishless days as wasted ones . I know some anglers love to brag about how ...err.. rock hard (it's always 'rock hard ' now isn't it ? ) their water is , and how they endured 35 blanks in succession before missing a bite , but that isn't for me thanks.

So I will happily confess to having caught a lot of nice roach, hybrids and ide in my last four trips , from some local fisheries . The revelation for me has been to realise how totally carp centric angling at these venues has become , despite the fact that I haven't seen anybody actually catch one all winter. I've had about a dozen to about 10lb since November - all by accident - fishing for silver fish (as we now are duty bound to call them ) on 18s and maggot , fished with 0.13mm line and wagglers. They're an inconvenience but can liven up a slow afternoon .

But here's the thing - because almost everybody fishes for the c word , there are big populations of lovely roach which are rarely targeted , especially as I seem to be almost alone in fishing maggot . I've often had 20-40 roach , pristine fish and many needing a landing net . And of course they don't know they live in a lake with an on site cafe, they're are just concentrating on being happy roach - and they are every bit as shy biting as their wild cousins . That has meant a huge improvement in my float fishing technique as a bonus .

But there are limits - yesterday I caught about 40 ide between 8oz and nearly two pounds. I'd got a bit tired of them on the first lake after 90 minutes , so I wandered down to the next lake and had groundhog day , with more of the same .

If you've ever read the story of Theodore Castwell by Skues you will know just how I felt ..

Now it is very nearly the time to sort out the chest waders and chase the wild trout of the North York Moors I think .

 

[sam vimes]

Now if you'd asked me fifteen years ago about commercials, I'd have spat out my Pinot Noir and indulged in a rant .

I'm sure I've heard you growl about them a lot more recently than that, even if it was just in print! I'd struggle to put an exact date/year on it, but it must be no more than eleven years.

 

[mikench]

I haven’t caught a carp since October. Mind you I was away for 10 weeks over autumn and Christmas. I am unconcerned and, despite blanks, remain content to continue to venture forth. I’m obviously disappointed to blank but there is more to fishing than catching imo. I do fish one commercial as it’s on my club card and free for 10 visits. It’s ok but nothing really special. I certainly would not go otherwise. In these stressful times the opportunity to get out of the house in the fresh air, to have a picnic and to relax cannot be underestimated.

 

[John Aston]

I'm sure I've heard you growl about them a lot more recently than that, even if it was just in print! I'd struggle to put an exact date/year on it, but it must be no more than eleven years.

I'll take the fifth on that. But I am mellowing in my dotage ...

 

[Pete Shears]

Another piking trip to the local reservoir today with a mate who was on his last piking trip of the winter. Managed to get a jack of about 6lbish on a mackerel tail to avoid a blank,my mate landed an even smaller jack which was only just bigger than the deadbait.
A pleasant day out although the wind still has an icy edge to it - plenty of the smaller birds about and the bigger ones; buzzards,kites and ravens.

 

[john step]

I haven’t caught a carp since October. Mind you I was away for 10 weeks over autumn and Christmas. I am unconcerned and, despite blanks, remain content to continue to venture forth. I’m obviously disappointed to blank but there is more to fishing than catching imo. I do fish one commercial as it’s on my club card and free for 10 visits. It’s ok but nothing really special. I certainly would not go otherwise. In these stressful times the opportunity to get out of the house in the fresh air, to have a picnic and to relax cannot be underestimated.

I think one has to have some GO TO waters in the winter where bites are easier. Apart from my piking I have a couple of local waters I would best describe as easy if I fish with some finesse.

There are canal places where the roach shoal up in winter and a 3 pond complex a farmer lets me fish where I get my string pulled with chub, roach and the carp word. I only fish there in the harder months. This is not a brag because its a bites water but I have had about 60 or so carp since January.
Its expensive on bait mind you. Red worm a slice or two of bead and about half pint of frozen maggots!!

And the scenery and wildlife are fantastic. Hard this retirement isn't it.

 

[Steve King]

I’m planning a trip to Leigh Sinton Fisheries soon. Looks interesting...

 

[john step]

I’m planning a trip to Leigh Sinton Fisheries soon. Looks interesting...

I looked this one up. The thing that would keep me away was the phrase Dog Friendly and the explanation that a large number of the members of the public walk their dogs here.

 

[Golden Eagle]

Between the end of the river season and the start of the (river) trout season I tend to haunt a couple of local commercials . In happier times I'd travel further and perhaps finish off my perch season on some canals but my nearest is too far away for comfort .

Now if you'd asked me fifteen years ago about commercials, I'd have spat out my Pinot Noir and indulged in a rant about artificiality , tame fish and grotesquely huge bags but I see them a little differently now . They were my salvation in 2012, when a serious back problem reduced my mobility to a few painful yards and I have developed a slightly softer spot for them . Of course my first love is wild fish in natural habitat , but violent floods and cold weather make for slim pickings . Even the lake which is productive in Spring and Summer can be incredibly slow in Winter and... well, I like catching fish , and I regard most fishless days as wasted ones . I know some anglers love to brag about how ...err.. rock hard (it's always 'rock hard ' now isn't it ? ) their water is , and how they endured 35 blanks in succession before missing a bite , but that isn't for me thanks.

So I will happily confess to having caught a lot of nice roach, hybrids and ide in my last four trips , from some local fisheries . The revelation for me has been to realise how totally carp centric angling at these venues has become , despite the fact that I haven't seen anybody actually catch one all winter. I've had about a dozen to about 10lb since November - all by accident - fishing for silver fish (as we now are duty bound to call them ) on 18s and maggot , fished with 0.13mm line and wagglers. They're an inconvenience but can liven up a slow afternoon .

But here's the thing - because almost everybody fishes for the c word , there are big populations of lovely roach which are rarely targeted , especially as I seem to be almost alone in fishing maggot . I've often had 20-40 roach , pristine fish and many needing a landing net . And of course they don't know they live in a lake with an on site cafe, they're are just concentrating on being happy roach - and they are every bit as shy biting as their wild cousins . That has meant a huge improvement in my float fishing technique as a bonus .

But there are limits - yesterday I caught about 40 ide between 8oz and nearly two pounds. I'd got a bit tired of them on the first lake after 90 minutes , so I wandered down to the next lake and had groundhog day , with more of the same .

If you've ever read the story of Theodore Castwell by Skues you will know just how I felt ..

Now it is very nearly the time to sort out the chest waders and chase the wild trout of the North York Moors I think .

Beautifully written, you made me as happy as a commercial roach!

 

[Steve King]

I looked this one up. The thing that would keep me away was the phrase Dog Friendly and the explanation that a large number of the members of the public walk their dogs here.

Well I was looking at trying Badgers Brook pool which (allegedly) is the least fished of the pools. Given the location, I doubt if there will hordes of dog walkers as there is plenty of open space nearby.

Leah breaks up from school Thursday for two weeks and this means weekday fishing is go!!

The rules are less strict and you can use groundbait and two rods!