How did you get on?

[Peter Jacobs]

The latest from my old mate Matt over in France . . . .

He just had his sixth 200lber, and second this year, at 203lb (92 kg) for a length of 2m45

 

[mikench]

My worst nightmare.

 

[bullet]

Looks like he's half way down it's throat.....

 

[103841]

Giving my better half moral support during difficult times and doing various errands and chores I was left with just an odd hour to myself this afternoon. With azure blue skies to the east and dark stormy skies to the west it was a gamble but I felt the need to an hour to myself. Took the lure rod over to the estate in search of a stripey, a glorious fail without as much as a tap having covered virtually every square metre of the lake.

The dark skies were closing in, a good time to cut and chase. Home to cook a quick spaghetti Aglio e Olio Before settling down to watch my team in hope of making an all English final.

Some will be relieved to know I forgot my phone so no boring flora and fauna photos to show you today. It's now stair rods outside. ☔️

 

[108831]

Went yesterday,a very hard day,had a crucian around 1lb 8ozs,a tench a pound,a carp around 5lbs,a bream about 2lbs and this dazzling creature at least 2lb 8ozs....

 

[wetthrough]

Arrived around 7:30 on a pool Mike and I have fished on a number of occasions. Clear blue skies had me putting sun screen on by 8:30. Fished a 3aa antenna strung out shot 3lb:18s. I usually loose feed three or four maggots two or three times a cast after putting GB in but decided to put more in less often to see if I could keep them on the deck. I should have stuck with my normal routine as I just kept loosing the shoal or that's the way it seemed. Did catch from the off though. Some on the drop, some once it had just settled on the bottom. Brought it off the bottom about 6" (in 8') and had a Bream.

Average size for this water. Around 4 1/2:5 although I'm not good at guessing Bream. Rest of the day spent picking Roach to about 5oz+, Rudd to around 5 and around half a dozen small Perch, 45 in all. 2pm saw the temperature drop, heavens open, the sky lighting up and me heading for the car. Sat it out for about 20min til it had passed. Fished til around 4:30.

 

[theartist]

Morning on the canal yesterday, still cold in the wind and warm in the sun and still fishing hard.

Managed two chub 4,6 and 4,15 before getting bleaked out (again) they didn't half go some though, the chub not the bleak that is

 

[103841]

Taking my early morning stroll along the beach it was noticeably quiet, few swimmers and dog walkers but little else, the wind had dropped to zero and the sea was flat calm. A view almost worth keeping printing and maybe I'll mount it.

With a neap tide and the sea temperature still not much above nine degrees it's still too early for serious lure Fishing but there again it doesn't really need to be serious, does it? "home James and don't spare the horses" a little voice in my head exclaimed, back at base in ten minutes and grabbed some gear to get back to the beach for the first hour or two of the ebb.

Thinking there maybe some small species catchable I took my lrf setup with a handful of micro jig lures.

A repeat of yesterday's visit to the estate...not a touch. I have rtz lures in silva, I'll try them next time. The wind got up and a chill well cold brought my session to an end. A bit of Emerson Lake and Palmer on the way home, Just Take a Pebble seemed quite appropriate.

Fingers crossed for an English monopoly of the two European Cups.

 

[mikench]

Lovely pics John as usual. The rule of thirds much in evidence on the last one. Stunning!

 

[Steve Arnold]

Weather forecast for out part of France said 40% chance of rain. Usually that means no rain at all, so I went to my bream swim for a few hours.

Well, it rained from the off! Drizzle at first then a windy squall of heavier stuff - I am just SO not used to this in France, reminded me of a Scottish summer!

First cast with a little Decathlon method feeder and small boilie brought a 3lb barbel. Now this is a 20' deep swim which has not brought a barbel in the three years I have fished here!

My fishing buddy arrived but soon lost interest. As we were packing up another bite for me resulted in a bream, spawning tubercles on its head.

Maybe the barbel have finished their spawning and are now feeding on bream spawn?

Something new for me at every visit to this river - wonderful!

 

[sam vimes]

I am just SO not used to this in France, reminded me of a Scottish summer!

There's a lot of folks that would be grateful for a Scottish summer right now. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-57011369

 

[S-Kippy]

Well....I’ve sorted my feeding out, all I’ve got to do now is to get the damn things to stay on when I hook them.
Barely +1 when I left this morning and it never really warmed up all day. I was bloody frozen but today was the only day I could do.
I did have a few fish but I must have lost at least as many as I landed....either done in the lilies, broken or the hook just fell out. Most were tench but some weren’t and I never lose crucian. I had bites fairly steadily which in itself surprised me but my feeding is much more accurate now and a great deal more thought is going into how much, when and what the fishes reaction is.
I ended up with 6 tench...4 of which were proper lumps with the best an ounce shy of 5lb and 6 crucian....all good ones between 1-10 and 2-2.....plus a run of those horrible snotty things none of which were allowed in my new landing net.
Around 3pm the sky went black so I packed sharpish before the front arrived. The temp dropped like a stone and as I drove up the track my frost warning light was on and the car said it was only 3 degrees. I don’t doubt it...by then I had the death shiver going even with the heater on.

Here are the best 2 crucian. I’ll never tire of catching these beautiful fish. Every fish bar one tench on 4mm expander. Didn't seem to want maggot at all today.

 

[seth49]

Well today was a day of two halves, started ok nice and warm and sunny before it went downhill fast later, started with sleeper rod to the island with method feeder, and rigged my pole up to fish for tench and silvers, usual top kit plus two, fed some groundbait with pole cup, and fished over that, the tench do prefer groundbait to pellets.

Caught steadily through the morning, mixture of tench and skimmers, plus ide and gudgeon and a few small roach, 4mm expanders were the best, just bits on maggots, finished with 7 tench out of a catch of 25 fish, plus one carp on feeder about three pounds.

Then the day went downhill fast, it started to rain, so I put my brolly up and fastened it too my chair, as the peg was to stony to get the pole in, the alarm went of on carp rod, got up to land it, I’d just landed it when there was a terrific gust of rain as the next shower started, and then disaster struck, the wind blew my brolly and chair over, brolly in the water and the all my bait went in the margin, nearly lost my phone as well, and my camera which were on my bait tray, luckily they dropped on dry land, the large bait box which sits on my tray and contains plummets, disgorgeers, etc went in the margin luckily I found everything apart from one plummet.

So returned the carp, and me and mick managed to retrieve my brolly, and placed everything safe, my sandwich box was floating away, so went to other side of pond to retrieve it, came back and noticed that the largest pole section was missing tried to find it but no luck, so that’s gone, will order a replacement today, I’ve never used that one so can manage for now, what a miserable end to a decent days fishing.??.
PS just checked I’ve lost three pole pots as well.

 

[103841]

Another very short session today, not by choice but domestics take priority at the moment and as it happens, this little but often approach suits me fine.

Unusually there were three other members on the estate and between us in my short time there we were scratching for the odd skimmer or two, the water is still very cold and the decent fish are staying down and disinterested.

So to winkle this one out was a bonus and another bonus was catching it on part of a limpet! I'll have to try a bit more mix and match experiments with my sea baits.

 

[mikench]

We met up early doors at a familiar venue , pegs and method. It was sunny and pleasantly warm at the outset, clouding over as the day wore on with rain falling regularly and dark foreboding skies threatening worse and then cleared up around 3.30 when the wind dropped, the sun came out and Gordon lost a container of stotz. This loss brought on a nagging tooth ache and despite searching everywhere the stotz did not turn up.

In hindsight that was the highlight of the day.

Gordon caught consistently mainly tiddlers but a few decent roach and Rudd. I alternated between the float in the morning, the feeder early afternoon and back to the float for last casts. I missed a carp on the feeder which escaped into the lily pads and something big on the float which shed the hook. 3 decent roach at the death brought a miserable tally of 19 whereas Gordon had over 40. On the fishing front the day was a disappointment in truth and not as expected. We enjoyed ourselves non the less. I do hope Gordon recovers quickly from his loss.???

 

[Pete Shears]

A touch of ground frost this morning at the local canal feeder reservoir but brilliant sunshine which was much better than yesterday when it rained until about 9.30am. Loads of fish topping , very little wind, set up a float rod to fish sweetcorn using the lift method close in as well as a method feeder. Managed to get a couple of small roach on the float as well as loads of unhittable bites, just the odd liner on the method feeder set up.
Sat back in the sunshine butthe wind was still icy when a cloud masked the sun. a chiffchaff in a willow behind me grey lags with nine goslings waddling up and down the path a most pleasnt morning but still no tench, no swifts or cuckoo either.

 

[john step]

Up on the tiny deep pool on the Wolds today. Sun/rain brolly/sun brolly down/hail brolly up and so on all day.
The cold water didnt enhance fishing and I struggled for bites until midday when I started getting a few.
Some decent roach/rudd/tiny perch 4 carp and a decent enough chub.

I managed to catch the farmer and enquire if the chub were ever stocked or as I thought got in from a stream. He said some were put in about 15 years ago so who knows. They dont look like old battle scarred fish to me however.

 

[markcw]

Had a session on Newlands today with two others,. And I was brought back down to earth after last weeks catches in Devon. According to the local tackle shop fishing had perked up on Surmans pool on Newlands, Lying sods ?..
The 3 of us set up feeder rods to try up towards the island, there was a slight ripple on the water so my pellet waggler was set up along with a couple of top twos for the margins,
There was nothing doing on the feeder rods, one was using maggot feeder the other was using method feeder and myself used pellet feeder with option of changing to straight lead and boilie later on.
Pellet waggler was a lot of effort for no reward, had a half hearted attempt of a bite.
The other two stayed with the feeder while I tried the margins, Fished maggot one margin and soft hooker in the other.
One bite was all that was coming,
So it was out with top two plus two fishing at 5' deep in 7' of water using maggot.
I started to get bites then started to connect with them, my mate to my right stayed with the feeder, he said he needed the practise. My mate to the right set a waggler rod up and a " few miscasts" into my swim got him a bit of abuse, so he got the pole out and decided to fish at same distance same but at deeper depth, I didnt tell him I hadn't plumbed up, I knew what rig to use on that peg from previous visits, and nearly every time caught at around 5'
I ended up with a mixed bag of small roach,perch and a solitary skimmer, he had two small roach, mate who stuck with feeder blanked.
I kept it simple on the pole line, feeding a few maggots little and often,
The weather didn't help either, cold, intermittent rain, and the tow on the water was changing direction every now and then.

 

[mikench]

Pete is it permanently dark where you live or just where you go fishing??

 

[108831]

Had a disappointing day yesterday,on a normally prolific venue,particularly for bream,especially in yesterday's conditions,three bites,two commons,one four pounds,the other a few ounces under fifteen,on waggler tackle,4lb line,it fought like stink and took me 18 minutes to land,no signs of fish at all during the rest of the day...