How did you get on?

[markcw]

Not a good one today. Had a brief night fishing session on the Bridgewater canal with my friend last night, fishing Lamprey, 3 runs each and one 5lbish Pike landed on a single hook for me. Returned this morning at 6am anticipating we’d be there for bite time, same stretch, but there was not a single sniff on deadbaits. Managed two on Lures that were bait sized Pike if you were after a true monster. Ended up catching some decent Roach and Perch while trying to fish for small livebaits, but it just didn’t happen today. Same canal, 5 hours apart, and it was like two different waters.

Did find a nice stretch on the River Weaver near Frodsham that we fished for an hour but definitely deserves many more fishing hours. No negatives, just lessons learnt. I think…

I am not sure if that stretch of the Weaver is WAA controlled or by another club,
There is a good stretch near the swing bridge and garden centre, plus the Weaver navigation canal.

 

[John Aston]

My penultimate trip to my favourite trout stream . A bit of rain had coloured up the water to a sherry hue, and it was flowing with a vigour it had lacked in the dog days of August. I knew it would fish well , and it didn't disappoint, with 29 wild browns from 6" to 12 " , all on upstream nymph. For non fly anglers, this involves fishing upstream and concentrating on a few feet of floating, greased nylon as it moves downstream towards you . In shadow, ripples and shards of sun , this isn't easy, as take is often almost subliminal , with just a check of the leader, a sudden tiny pull you see but don't feel and sometimes no apparent take at all - but you find another fish on the end and you've no idea why you struck.

All the fish fight like tigers on a 6ft 3 weight , running for every obstruction they can find and leaping 6inches out of the water . The river has never been stocked up here and it is privilege to encounter pristine trout whose ancestors have been here since the Ice Age.

One disaster - a routine take , and strike contacted such solid resistance I thought I'd hit bottom in the shallow pool (about 10" in fact ) . Cue massive bang on rod top, broken leader and huge swirl . Cripes -well oxygenated , clean limestone rivers grow lot of bugs - and they can feed some very big trout ... # I'll be back

Casting looks impossible and it is to newcomers. You never cast overhead , invariably side , catapult or roll casting - not elegant, and tricky with a leader nearly twice the length of the rod ( key to good presentation) but easy with a few years practice

 

[108831]

Went yesterday on the small river,fished my version of the matchstick,a Drennan crystal inset tip,had four 4-6lb barbel,four nice chub 2lb 8ozs to 3lb 8ozs,half a dozen roach to 12ozs,a couple of dace to 8ozs,a perch 12ozs,a beautiful fish who fought the whole time with its dorsal up,quite a number of chublets several scraping a pound,along with a few gudgeon,very nice day,I was going to go today until I saw the forecast yesterday,so did the weekly grocery shop and went yesterday instead,good choice as it is peeing down here...

 

[john step]

A better day yesterday than my match debacle last Saturday.
A day on my secluded lake with no one else fishing although I had a visit from a couple of mates as we all keep an eye on the place.

An experiment insomuch as the water is very low and the carp are just not in evidence in the margins. I used a hybrid feeder in the depths at range and managed one carp and one decent size bream. The bream have never been stocked since it was dug, Where on earth do they come from?

Very peaceful. No one hammering in pegs behind, no frisbies, no radios and no bailiff more intent in using his noisy trials motor bike round the lake than doing his duties.

 

[mikench]

Your experiences Pete reminded me of a post I made years ago about a guy, his lady friend and his dim witted mate on a day ticket water.They erected one of those wind breaks you see at the seaside like a 20' length of blue, yellow and red striped hessian with long poles at intervals to be put in the sand. After 45 minutes of hammering and the dim witted one casting repeatedly in my swim and missing me by a matter of feet, I packed up and moved lake. I'm very happy on my own.

 

[108831]

It is ok if you are in the company of anglers,but one buffoon recks the entire day...

 

[rayner]

Fishing Aston Park this season has irked me no end, there are far too many pegs I can just not access. Nowhere near flat enough for my wobbly legs.
Yesterday up to Kiveton Waters. The only thing wrong with this venue is it is totaly carp dominated.
A couple of seasons ago maybe three they had a purge taking whatever roach they could get out. At least I can access most pegs on the venue.
I fished one of the wider pegs with a rail around the whole platform. Fished with maggot, I caught only carp with one solitary Perch.
I have dropped Aston Park even though I have a season ticket. My fishing now will be at Kiveton.
I have now decided the only way for me to fish is on the flat, Kiveton certainly give me that.

 

[john step]

A bit different today. I doubt I will get many "likes" on FM for this. .....

I was curious about how our commie match brethren view a days fishing bagging up with carp.
Anyway I didnt use a keepnet on this overstocked club lake.

I had 32 carp to about 5lb a chub and some decent roach and rudd on flake, hard pellet, wheat and prawn fished on a beefy short pole over a lot of bread slop. I had a lot in my bait freezer to get rid of.
I must say the carp liked my Hovis 7 seeds!

Curiosity satisfied, a sore shoulder and Feeling banjaxed. Off for a nap now.

 

[Pete Shears]

Early start on the local canal feeder reservoir,very low murky cloud blotting out the hills in the south with drizzle - great.
Two method feeder rods set up, one just off a weedbed,the other as far as I could safely cast it.
A bit slow so bird watching took over - around 100 greylags & 100 canadas with the same number of ducks,eight common egrets and two great white egrets, five or more herons and a pair of swans.
The first bite brought a skimmer on the longer range rod and two bites on the other rod revealed that something had pinched the boilie off the hair.
Another bite on the long range rod met a solid and slow moving fish which went nuts when it came into shallower water,eventually landing a female tench at 6lb 1oz.Further bites on that rod had five bream between about 3lb-5lb range - old fish,deep bronze colour.
Meanwhile the other rod roared off and I was successful in landing a male tench at 3lb 9oz.
Between bites the geese continued to come and go to feed on the stubble.Saw a hobby being chased by five jackdaws which later were mobbing an osprey whilst a red kite was being ragged by a crow.

 

[no-one in particular]

Had a trip to my old home town of Deal in Kent today, these two people were catching some small pouting, a small bass and a wrasse apparently from the central well in the pier on hand lines. I used to do that but never had a wrasse, not much else being caught by the experts, just how I remembered it, always made me laugh that, some things never change. Love the rod rest, I am going to make one of them, an old broom stick, a coat hanger, some super glue and bobs your auntie...

 

[John Aston]

A treat for me yesterday - an invitation to fish on the Dove, on the Derbyshire/Staffordshire border. Fishing in the footsteps of Walton and Cotton was always going to be special, although they actually fished a few miles upstream of here.

I expected crystal clarity but (thankfully ) it was very clear by my Pennine river standards , but nothing like as clear as the Test. I am in the minority of anglers who don't like sight fishing very much , and glimpses of chrome yellow flanks rising to needle flies and the odd olive was enough. A pound plus grayling on nymph on my first cast augured well, but I missed the next three takes on dry fly by striking at a speed fine for Yorkshire but not for here - too fast ! A bigger pause and then a lively 12inch plus brownie , the a switch to nymph for the fast head of the pool brought a lumpy grayling getting on for a pound and a half .

Then a frustrating 2 hours in one 250 yard long smooth glide . Fish rising but very , very picky , even on a size 18 on 0.11mm at the end of a 17 ft leader. Drag a problem , if not as serious as my own ineptitude , missing two fish and losing one.

After a late lunch ,faster water below a beautiful weir was much better . Rising fish , and in fast , rippled water, no time for a fish to inspect the fly (a size 16 Parachute Adams) too carefully . A stunning 14 inch , deep , fat and strong wild brown , followed by two more trout which fell off mid fight , both good fish , but ending with my best grayling on dry fly - a stunning fish with shoulders like a prop forward . Watching that gorgeous fish fight in clear water a joy . I didn't weigh it , as I've been lucky to catch a lot of bigger grayling (about 40 (weighed )twos so far) on nymph and worm but this one was about 1-14 /2-2 'd say.

Well worth the 5 hour round trip ...

 

[wetthrough]

Had a couple of days on the bank since last posting. Fished Dunham fisheries last Friday, nothing spectacular, about 15 mixed Carp from 5:6cm. Yes you read that right, they really were that small. A very pleasant day weather wise catching 3 Crucians to about 8oz and three Ide, similar weight. Plenty of Carp cruising about but not a lot caught AFAICS, just two that I saw, one by the guy on the next peg and one about three pegs down. Had the usual bucket of small Rudd, one or two small Roach and a couple of small hybrids.

Fished the Dam yesterday on the East side, it's sheltered from with what little wind there was by a high bank right behind the pegs. Kingfishers flitting to and fro Cormorants lunbering about and a few Grebes. Shaded from the sun when it did come out, on the day a very comfortable spot. GB at around 12M set a 13' for the 12M mark in around 8' and the 10'6" Toreon for the margin. Didn't bother with the bait dropper this time. Started of at 12M on the bottom while loose feeding the margin to my right. Picked a few bits up at 12M but not really much happening. Switched to the margin and immediately started picking up some nice Roach. The better ones going to Tares. Fishing about 12" off the bottom n around 4', about 2:2.5M out from the reeds seemed to be about the best spot

Switched back to the 12M mark when the margin quietened down but carried on loose feeding hemp and caster. Mostly small stuff coming out and all to either caster or maggot, Tares and corn didn't get a look in. Back to the margin to pull a few more out, while I was there I noticed some bubbles coming up over the GB so switched back to 12M with corn on the hook, nothing. Put three maggots on and after a few minutes the float buries and I'm into something a little bigger, not sure what though. Expecting Bream but if it was it was untypically grumpy, fighting hard, maybe Carp but with the drag set quite light even small Carp will usually strip line off the drag when they first bolt but this didn't, it just held its ground. A few minutes later I'm getting it up in the water and it's a Tench. There are rumoured ot be Tench in the Dam but up until yesterday I just thought it was a myth. Finally got it in the net, around 5lb at a guess, quite a thick set fish. First Tench I've had in the last couple of years so to say I was chuffed would be a gross understatement.

43 in all. General stamp not as good as last time I was there but with about 12 for the net not at all bad.

 

[rayner]

Well, a disaster yesterday. I was doing OK catching nothing but carp but what do you expect from an EA water.
To end the day somehow I did not check the line was not wrapped around the tip culminating in the tip of my quiver snapped off. 3O quid is a hard lesson.

 

[Pete Shears]

Another early visit to the local feeder reservoir,totally different to yesterday - brighter and clearer sky with hardly any breeze. Chose a different swim and within 30 minutes three other members had turned up luckily we all didn't want the same swim.
Very slow but nice to be out without the murk and drizzle of yesterday. A slow run on the plastic corn a long way out resulted in a 4lb 8oz female tench. Something kept pinching the esterberry boilie on the other rod,finally hit a bite and it turned out to be roach to be totally contradicted when a scale perfect male tench of 1lb 12oz took a liking to the esterberry.
Still the same amount of geese and ducks but not the raptors although a few swallows and martins were swooping over the water.
The wasps are getting too inquisitive.

 

[nottskev]

Well, a disaster yesterday. I was doing OK catching nothing but carp but what do you expect from an EA water.
To end the day somehow I did not check the line was not wrapped around the tip culminating in the tip of my quiver snapped off. 3O quid is a hard lesson.

That's a dear tip! What rod was it?

 

[flightliner]

I was invited to a carp complex today by an old friend who runs them.
I took my float tackle for the simple reason that I wanted to sample the roach and rudd potential that my friend told me could be interesting, my carp days are long gone now, I did enjoy them back then but these days I look at them with a slightly differant slant.
I arrived at 9am and was fishing banded pellet by 9—45am and the fish were there from the off.
Mainly Rudd with a smattering of Roach, both a good stamp at maybe three to a pound but held back with several smaller of both species.
I was pretty busy but not without the odd quiet spell that needed bringing back to life with a few freebies to both areas, left of me and forward to an island.
Eventually my concentration began to waver and by 3—15 I'd had enough and called it a day, a kwik weigh and a pik and away they went, all fifteen lbs eight oz of them.
One surprise was tho having fished the place before I always thought I was in flatlander country(Lincolnshire) but no, apparently I was still in south yorkshire!!

 

[seth49]

On our other pond yesterday, there early just as it was light, decided to fish worm over chopped worm as I have been doing well on other pond with that, had a small tench and a few ide and roach, before it went quiet around lunchtime, so put method feeder out while I ate my sandwiches, had an 11, pound 1 ounce carp within minutes, and another about 2 pounds later.

I had thrown some pellets in the small patch of lilies in the right hand margin, and they started moving when the carp found them, so changed to my pole fishing paste just by the lilies, did get two more carp and missed a couple more, bit slow though nobody else catching much either, weather was pleasant with just a cool breeze taking the edge off the temperature, it was nice to be out after not going Tuesday, hope to get two trips in next week.

 

[markcw]

I went to lodge farm on Wednesday,there were quite a few there despite it being around 9am.
Talking to a couple of anglers who arrived same time as myself,one mentioned going to Glebe fisheries,the only Glebe I had heard of was the one in Leicestershire.
This one was a caravan park not fat from Lodge park.
Arrived there and what a caravan park, there were quite a few motorhomes ,one had an awning the size of a bungalow on the side of it.Another was the size of an artic trailer. None of your VW Caravelle types or converted ambulances.
Anyway there were two waters on site.
We went on the larger of the two.The staging had attachments fitted so you could fit rod rests or buzzers to them if needed.
I went on a double peg more ore less into the corner of the pool. There were a few carp cruising around the pool plus lots of 2" to 3" Rudd.
I set up 4 topkits of my pole fitted with 17h elastic, double 6 elastic, black micro bore and orange micro bore elastic which I would rate at around 8 to 10. Not got a clue on the brand so rating was mainly guess work.
Plumbing up in each margin I had 3' of water and at 14meters it was 3'6" , at 7 metres again 3' .
I always think is funny that distance when fishing is normally in metres, but depth is in feet and inches.
I digress, I set 3 identical rigs up apart from the hooks . The left margin was a 4x14 PI shallow float shotted with stotz.Hook was a banded PI34 .line was Shimano silk shock.
Right margin,same float and line hook was a size 18 tubertini 808.
I didn't bother going to 14 metres,figuring that it would be just as good ,
One float at 7metres was set to fish on the bottom hook for this was an 18 b911.
The 4th rig for 7 metre line was an old maver one this was a 4x10 line again was Shimano silk shock,hook again was a size 18 tubertini 808. This was set at half depth ,
I baited up the left margin with a few 6mm mainline cell hard pellets,and really softened mainline cell 2mm pellets, the right margin was baited with corn.
The first 7metre line was baited up with mainline cell 2mm pellets and a few 3m Fjuka white pellets. This was going to be fished in front of me.The shallow rig for the 7metre line was fished at an angle to the left.
I started off fishing corn along the right margin at 7 metres, this put me in front of some rushes. The float dips and a carp is hooked and landed in record time, All 6" of it. This was the pattern for the next half hour, nothing over 6".
I potted a few more micros over the 7 metre line and some more Fjuka pellets.
I tried the left margin with a banded mainline cell 6mm pellet, Despite the rushes moving with carp cruising among them all I got were the small ones again, I even tried dobbing a piece of bread along the rushes, but was plagued by small Rudd and carp. Same result dobbing corn.
So out to 7 metre line, baited up with White Fjuka pellet to fish on the bottom, a few softened 2mm in kinder pot on the pole tip tip and away I went. A succession of carp around 2lb graced the landing net.
I baited the swim again and let it rest while I tried the half depth rig with a durable hooker F1 pellet, I pinged a few hard pellets around the float to sound the dinner bell. They must not have been hungry because that line was unproductive.
I decide to stay on the 7metre line fishing Fjuka pellets and for change of bait corn.
The carp again we're around 2lb with the occasional 3lb making an appearance.
I took a few photos of the venue and my peg and set up.
Unfortunately between packing up and loading my car I lost my phone, I didnt realize until part way home, so turned around and went looking for it, No joy, I had a couple of people who were fishing to ring my number to see if I could hear it, I had the volume turned low ,I couldn't hear anything, the area from car park to fishing peg was close cut grass so it would have been easy to spot ,plus I was the only one fishing that side of the pool.
I tried the fishing hut and toilets to see if it had been lost in there. The only thing I can think of is that it had fallen from bib n brace when taking it off on car park and I hadn't noticed.
I went back again after tea and left a message at caravan park reception and a contact number.
It was still ring when I phoned my number yesterday morning, so it hadn't fallen in the pool.
I went to the 02 shop and got it locked and blocked. I had to buy a new phone ,and get SIM changed to my original number.luckily I had a spare SIM phone a phone I keep in the car with all my contact details on.
So all in all it was an expensive days fishing, I have lost all my photos that were on the phone, family ones and fishing ones.
And to crown it all I got on the motorway to come home and went the wrong way, so had to drive about 15 miles to next junction and turn back.All this in rush hour traffic.

 

[rayner]

That's a dear tip! What rod was it?

A Browning Sphere 10' Bomb rod. It has 4 tips. .5oz, .75oz, .1 oz, 1.5oz the .5oz and 1oz are 20 quid the 0.75oz and 1,5 are 30 quid.
Don't ask me why the tips are not all the same price I just do not know.

 

[mikench]

Dear me Mark! Fishing is supposed to be relaxing , before during and after. I have an old iPhone 6 in an Apple case which is made of a material smooth to the touch but which sticks to material as in pockets. I also keep it in my shorts or trousers. It sometimes is difficult to extricate but I haven't lost it. It's so easy to do.??