How did you get on?

[Steve Arnold]

I get frustrated by other water users here in France as well.

BUT....they have every right to be there, just like me. Maybe I think I have priority as I pay for a fishing license, but I know that is not really how it works!

Looking at it from the others rivers users perspective, what right have I got to hog a stretch of river all day and sometimes EVERY day!

Fortunately the main holiday season is short here and for 9 months of the year I virtually have the Lot to myself!

 

[108831]

I agree with the sharing side,but feel that it is a one sided love affair,with the paddle boarders,wild swimmers,kayakers etc getting the best of the bargain whilst paying bugger all for it,they havent even got to lug heavy gear 3/4mile rather just bob along,with us trying to cast waiting for a gap in the traffic like Oxford Street,fish the Wye in summer...likewise,when we go for a day on the river,in many places we can struggle to to take a pee,with runners,walkers,cyclists plus the afore mentioned water users thinking what dirty buggers we are(as if we are doing something that they dont),its a busy world we live in.

 

[bullet]

The bobbing along I can deal with, it's the getting pissed up, shouting and music that gets on my nerves.

 

[108831]

On the tidal Stour on summer evenings when on holiday ive had six man rubber dinghies struggling against the flow with all the pissed occupants smirking and yawping whilst im sitting there trying to be camouflaged as possible,I wonder what they get out of it,apart from being part of the herd....

 

[bullet]

A load of topless girls came down the Wye in one of those Dingys when I was fishing last summer.
I was absolutely disgusted, they point blank refused to take the bottoms off as well?

 

[108831]

Ive seen it before,in fact in the seventies on the Thames at Richmond three young ladies came past in a row boat at as the tide turned(100mph),I had a triple take before nearly falling into the swirling water,they of course giggled into the distance as their antics achieved the desired effect...?

 

[markcw]

A load of topless girls came down the Wye in one of those Dingys when I was fishing last summer.
I was absolutely disgusted, they point blank refused to take the bottoms off as well?

What stretch ?
Asking for a friend

 

[Roger Johnson 2]

We’ve had “problems” with topless sunbathers on the bank at bottom of the garden and to my wife’s interest one naked man!
We’re taking bookings for April and May!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[markcw]

We’ve had “problems” with topless sunbathers on the bank at bottom of the garden and to my wife’s interest one naked man!
We’re taking bookings for April and May!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Sounds good, May is better for me, but will you tell your wife I will only get naked if weather is hot , ?

 

[markcw]

When I used to fish the Bridgewater Canal at Lymm opposite the towpath side with a couple of mates ,

Every summers evening around 6.30 a young girl used to jog along the towpath, trainers,shorts and a sleeveless running vest with nothing underneath. So you can imagine the sight as she jogged along.

Needless to say we didn't watch the floats as she went past. Oblivious to us we presumed.

One of my mates must have blabbed because within 3 weeks it was as if there was a match along the offside of the canal. What started off as 3 of us ended up around 12-15 ,depending on the day.

 

[bullet]

What stretch ?
Asking for a friend

No problem, Mark..
Wyastone Leys???

 

[Roger Johnson 2]

Sounds good, May is better for me, but will you tell your wife I will only get naked if weather is hot ,

Weather is usually hot, but the water is still very cold! Mrs J will probably need her powerful binoculars!


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[Steve Arnold]

Back to catching fish.....

Yesterday temperatures topped at 16c after a couple of very mild January days. Today winter was back with a maximum of 5c with overnight temperatures sub-zero.

But this swim would catch the sun for a few hours and I felt it worth a shot........

The fish obliged, constant bites with occasional fast runs. RESULT.....two chub of 3.8lb and 4.6lb and two barbel of 4.9lb and the last after dark I think a little bigger.....

This last year the chub have been almost totally absent. Now they turn up just look how lean they are! I wonder what is wrong with their environment?

The barbel look fit though!... and I lost a fish after a screaming run, might have been a carp and the trace must have caught under a stone.

So after a dire December '21 the New Year starts off on a very positive note, let's hope it continues!

 

[John Aston]

The bobbing along I can deal with, it's the getting pissed up, shouting and music that gets on my nerves.

But that's enough about the new breed of barbel 'angler ' .....

 

[silvers]

after a 3 week sojourn for Christmas I fished my first contest of 2022 on Sunday, the Bedford winter league (round 5) on the Nene at upper Ringstead. This is usually a prolific venue, with plenty of low double figure weights possible. it’s also very comfortable, with parking close to the peg and platforms on every peg number. It’s a real credit to the Wellingborough club. The forecast rain on Saturday had not really materialised, so the river was a good level and colour ... albeit with another frost on the ground that lingered pretty much all morning ... but there had been plenty of frosts all week, so the fish would surely be acclimatised?

The river looked fabulous, and fish were topping aplenty before the all-in (but none after ?). The depth was 8-9 ft from the bottom of the near shelf all the way across, and the flow was a steady draw. I kicked off with three swims:
4 balls of heavy groundbait, potted in, packed with casters and fluoro pinkies at 9.5m, followed by lightly feeding hemp over the top.
Bread punch at 4.5m straight in front
chopped worm at the same distance but downstream.

I went straight out on the pinkie and had one sucked bait (the only marked bait I had all day) that I missed.
Inside on the punch and had a tiny blade roach then nothing.
It was the same all around ... the only person who was catching was my immediate upstream neighbour Nigel Fawkes ... who was getting a few bites long.
Eventually i snared a decent 8oz roach on the punch and another blade or two, but it continued to be a real struggle for two hours, even Nigel slowed right up after his initial burst.
After two hours I started to winkle a few fish out over the groundbait and downstream from that, mainly roach but with a few dace as well. two of the roach were close to 8oz as well.
But it was still desperately hard all along ... and there was no pattern and seemed to be just when I fluttered a pinkie past the nose of a fish it might just grab it. Holding back hard seemed to work most effectively.
with an hour to go I risked topping up the groundbait and caught two more dace and two more small roach ... but then it completely died.

I ended up with 4 pounds and two ounces ... which was enough to beat Nigel’s all dace catch by four oz. for the section and amazingly was enough for second of the 32 anglers on the day!!

I think that was my second lowest weight all season so far ... but has certainly rekindled my enthusiasm!

edit ... it looks like the whole river fished rank yesterday ... an Open at March was won with just 6 pounds , where that is usuallly a 20 pounds of roach venue. (OK it’s not ‘really’ the same river ?)

 

[Pete Shears]

Out on the upper Soar again this morning, quite mild as the murk brightened up to gloomy revealing a nicely coloured river and flow and a little bit lower than my last visit.
Started with quivertipped crust as the flow seemed just a bit too quick for the fish to chase a float fished bait. First bite a 3lb chub in perfect condition then a family of swans thought I was going to provide breakfast, their presence doing nothing for the swim.
After they had moved on strange knocks and rattles revealed the culprit, a signal crayfish, nothing more so time to move.
Two swims upstream saw another chub at 4lb 4oz banked and a further move had a 1lb 4oz brownie in the net just as it started to rain.
Not much else going on ,a flock of starlings and another of fieldfares on the fields, kept hearing buzzard calling but could not see it.

 

[john step]

My worst day for bites ever on the Fos. 4 Hours fishing 5 bites and 5 small fish. The conditions looked perfect . I went for a walk on packing up and found the wintering shoaling holding area had concentrated even more judging by the fish topping away from where I fished.
As they say in the films. I shall return!

 

[John Aston]

It was back to my early twenties yesterday, as I scratched a long held itch to fish the Fosdyke , near Lincoln. Not in every angler's pantheon, I accept , but I lived in Lincoln in my twenties and loved it - the people , the fishing and the often empty countryside .

I arrived at dawn after a near 2 hour drive at the wonderfully named Drinsey Nook . I looked expectantly for prey fish being pursued by by the perch and pike I was seeking. How come so many articles I read about lure fishing are peppered with purple prose about 'eruptions of silver fish breaking the mirror- like surface as the first rosy fingers of dawn traced the eastern sky' and similar garbage ? Nowt was happening ,and when I saw the colour of the water I could guess why. It was a horrible mucky light brown , with about 6 inches visibility , not the steely grey green I'd hoped for .

I fished for nearly three hours without a take and the only notable thing was the wonderful sight and sound of several hundred geese flying in huge skeins . Hmm - I checked my ticket and saw it covered the River Till too . Despite having lived ten minutes drive away I'd never fished it . I had walked its banks one evening after work - my first working week I think - in Spring 1975 and loved the look of it. I was used to theatrical Pennine spate rivers but here was this little understated gem sliding by in silence between gently sloping banks .

But I never fished it - I fell in with Lincoln's merry band of specimen hunters who avoided noddy waters like the Till , with its mere roach and bream , not proper fish like chub, tench and carp ...

But I did fish it yesterday , and I even caught two pike - abut 7lbs and about 4 . It was lovely, if marred by the fly tipping and litter on the well trodden banks near the road . But 5 minutes walk away it was near pristine ,and enhanced by a display from the Red Arrows . Decent of them to mark my return .

And here is the Till -

 

[108831]

What a bloody awful day,went to bed feeling iffy,woke up next morning still not feeling great,but determined to go fishing,pre-heated the flask,but what looked like a jacuzi bubbling up,the stainless Thermos had blown,made a glass flask up and drove to the stretch of river with the car showing between 1-2°,got to the car park and 8 cars there,in the dark,knowing how it had been fishing all the decent swims and more would be gone,so I turned round and drove to Bedford,picked up another flask in tescos,then down to the river,sadly the colour had dropped out and with it being cold put paid to me getting a bite,I set up a 3gm bolo and found 8ft of water,I trotted for four hours or so,but the line was catching on something,after jerking through the swim I had a close look and saw the culprit,the knot attaching the line to the spool was peeking out,so that made my day,I packed at 1ish with no bites whatsoever,oh deep joy....

 

[john step]

It was back to my early twenties yesterday, as I scratched a long held itch to fish the Fosdyke , near Lincoln. Not in every angler's pantheon, I accept , but I lived in Lincoln in my twenties and loved it - the people , the fishing and the often empty countryside .

I arrived at dawn after a near 2 hour drive at the wonderfully named Drinsey Nook . I looked expectantly for prey fish being pursued by by the perch and pike I was seeking. How come so many articles I read about lure fishing are peppered with purple prose about 'eruptions of silver fish breaking the mirror- like surface as the first rosy fingers of dawn traced the eastern sky' and similar garbage ? Nowt was happening ,and when I saw the colour of the water I could guess why. It was a horrible mucky light brown , with about 6 inches visibility , not the steely grey green I'd hoped for .

I fished for nearly three hours without a take and the only notable thing was the wonderful sight and sound of several hundred geese flying in huge skeins . Hmm - I checked my ticket and saw it covered the River Till too . Despite having lived ten minutes drive away I'd never fished it . I had walked its banks one evening after work - my first working week I think - in Spring 1975 and loved the look of it. I was used to theatrical Pennine spate rivers but here was this little understated gem sliding by in silence between gently sloping banks .

But I never fished it - I fell in with Lincoln's merry band of specimen hunters who avoided noddy waters like the Till , with its mere roach and bream , not proper fish like chub, tench and carp ...

But I did fish it yesterday , and I even caught two pike - abut 7lbs and about 4 . It was lovely, if marred by the fly tipping and litter on the well trodden banks near the road . But 5 minutes walk away it was near pristine ,and enhanced by a display from the Red Arrows . Decent of them to mark my return .

And here is the Till - View attachment 19090

Like you I have never fished the Till but I did go to the Fos yesterday. See previous post.