Hugh Bailey
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 22, 2005
- Messages
- 326
- Reaction score
- 237
What a fantastic catch - Big Perch challenge is over I would think! Well done,
How did you get on?
- Thread starter peter crabtree
- Start date
peter crabtree
AKA Simon, 1953 - 2022 (RIP)
Never say die Hugh…
Well done Hugh.
My day was a little more mundane but enjoyable nonetheless. Wag and mag/worm on a small club pool. The roach were the target but they didnt play the game. I had 3 tiny ones but I had 5 carp and a chub to make amends. Why the carp and not roach should feed in the cold I dont know.
My day was a little more mundane but enjoyable nonetheless. Wag and mag/worm on a small club pool. The roach were the target but they didnt play the game. I had 3 tiny ones but I had 5 carp and a chub to make amends. Why the carp and not roach should feed in the cold I dont know.
Pete Shears
Well-known member
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2004
- Messages
- 882
- Reaction score
- 2,493
Another chub trip to the Wreake this morning with light drizzle blowing around which was not forecast. The river level was up a bit since last week and legered crust only brought on tiny rattles and tweaks. Striking at these resulted in nothing but the crust was still on the hook, switching to flake solved the problem - no action at all. On with a small lead and a worm, a bite straight away and landed a 13oz perch in pristine condition but could not get another bite. Cheesepaste was the next option and on the second cast managed a chub at 2lb 11oz. Very dark ,low clouds building up behind me was a signal to go and get out of the blustery cold wind.
Mark Wintle
Well-known member
The Stour was a foot up earlier in the week but had dropped back and I expected the colour to be good but it had far more colour than expected. I fished bread and didn't really crack it (should have taken Gros Gardon not liquidised bread as groundbait) but did find several decent roach amongst the tiddlers (had four little gudgeon with the roach). This was the best one at just over a pound.
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Short session on the K&A canal. Caught 9 roach, a chub, a dace, 2 perch, a hybrid and 2 snotties. It's more than coincidence that usually the first roach of the day is the biggest?? Water temperature was 47F.
Steve Arnold
Well-known member
With a forecast for 15c for this afternoon I just had to head down the river Lot.
Bright sunshine made for a comfortable few hours fishing. After all the frosts where the river temperature had dropped to just 2c it amazes me how quickly the water temperature has risen to 9.5c!
I missed a good bite after just a few minutes, the scene was set for a good session. But that was it for the next two hours!
The river was very low and flow almost non-existent. As there had been little interest in my baits I put in several small balls of groundbait, hopeful that would ring the dinner bells if any barbel were in the stretch.
After about 10 minutes I was getting small knocks but no real takes. A change to a bait spike on the hook, loaded with six maggots and topped with a 10mm boilie quickly brought a solid take and a 4.5lb barbel. About 20 minutes later a 5lb barbel took a similar bait and put up a decent fight. My new feeder rod has taken fish on every outing since I bought it a couple of weeks ago. This Daiwa NinjaX 3.3 metre 120gr feeder rod is proving both lucky and great fun with the barbel!
I had put out a 2nd rod with a bigger bait, just in case the carp had been woken from their winter slumbers, a couple of sharp takes on this - no hook-ups!
2022 is proving a good year for fishing so far. If we get just a little rain the next month should be excellent!
Bright sunshine made for a comfortable few hours fishing. After all the frosts where the river temperature had dropped to just 2c it amazes me how quickly the water temperature has risen to 9.5c!
I missed a good bite after just a few minutes, the scene was set for a good session. But that was it for the next two hours!
The river was very low and flow almost non-existent. As there had been little interest in my baits I put in several small balls of groundbait, hopeful that would ring the dinner bells if any barbel were in the stretch.
After about 10 minutes I was getting small knocks but no real takes. A change to a bait spike on the hook, loaded with six maggots and topped with a 10mm boilie quickly brought a solid take and a 4.5lb barbel. About 20 minutes later a 5lb barbel took a similar bait and put up a decent fight. My new feeder rod has taken fish on every outing since I bought it a couple of weeks ago. This Daiwa NinjaX 3.3 metre 120gr feeder rod is proving both lucky and great fun with the barbel!
I had put out a 2nd rod with a bigger bait, just in case the carp had been woken from their winter slumbers, a couple of sharp takes on this - no hook-ups!
2022 is proving a good year for fishing so far. If we get just a little rain the next month should be excellent!
Been on a club lake today,around 2ft deep,had eight carp to upper 9lbs,two skimmers to 1lb 8ozs,a hybrid around 10ozs,a nice rudd and a roach....expander pellet on the hook,presented under a 3bb waggler...
Just to add,my day was made very difficult by me destroying my feederarm two trips ago,a real pain as even with an extending bankstick the silt makes it very difficult on the platforms,I hope the new one comes today...
Just to add,my day was made very difficult by me destroying my feederarm two trips ago,a real pain as even with an extending bankstick the silt makes it very difficult on the platforms,I hope the new one comes today...
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no-one in particular
Well-known member
deleted, wrong thread, having one of those moments...
Steve Arnold
Well-known member
I like to see my line! So many fallen trees in this river. When the sun shines here (frequently!) the coloured lines, chatreuse and yellow, really light up!
The phone-camera also seems to highlight small amounts of colour, maybe the camera programming has a little too much "sharpening"?
My feeder rod has 20 lb braid, the carp rod has 40 lb braid. About 8' of fluoro leader of more normal breaking strains but always picked for its abrasion resistance. It's a rough old river and there are some massive carp, last year I had them to 42 lbs and even a 29 pounder on a 1.5 lb barbel rod.
I still get some fun with the barbel and rarely (never!) lose any mainline.
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One of those days. There is no fool like an old fool.
On the Fos today everything was going fine with lots of roach, perch, silver bream and a ruffe. Then it happened, My no.4 section slid into the canal.
I tried to snare it with the landing net but it just slinked away out of sight.
Dilemma. The pole was a Xmas pressy a couple of years ago from my sandwich maker so it has a bit of sentimentality about it.
I stripped to my underpants and vest and slid in to try to find it with my foot.
Big mistake. There are tin sides and it was deeper than I thought. I quickly went into some sort of shock in the cold water and I couldnt pull myself out as the tins are about 2 foot above water level. Its at this point one realises one is not young and one is at 73 not as strong as one once was!
Luckily the angler next to me, god bless him, was able to pull my arm enough for me to get out enough to pull myself out. I got grazes on the concrete bank. It was at this point I remembered I have stitches from a minor op in my back that I am not supposed to get wet.
I then treated the good folk onlookers of Saxilby to the view of my rear end as I dried off and put my clothes back on.
I will have to now try to source a spare section or buy a pole and keep shtum from the other half who would go ape if she knew my antics.
I fished another hour on a waggler but it was not as efficient as the pole here so I packed up early.
On the Fos today everything was going fine with lots of roach, perch, silver bream and a ruffe. Then it happened, My no.4 section slid into the canal.
I tried to snare it with the landing net but it just slinked away out of sight.
Dilemma. The pole was a Xmas pressy a couple of years ago from my sandwich maker so it has a bit of sentimentality about it.
I stripped to my underpants and vest and slid in to try to find it with my foot.
Big mistake. There are tin sides and it was deeper than I thought. I quickly went into some sort of shock in the cold water and I couldnt pull myself out as the tins are about 2 foot above water level. Its at this point one realises one is not young and one is at 73 not as strong as one once was!
Luckily the angler next to me, god bless him, was able to pull my arm enough for me to get out enough to pull myself out. I got grazes on the concrete bank. It was at this point I remembered I have stitches from a minor op in my back that I am not supposed to get wet.
I then treated the good folk onlookers of Saxilby to the view of my rear end as I dried off and put my clothes back on.
I will have to now try to source a spare section or buy a pole and keep shtum from the other half who would go ape if she knew my antics.
I fished another hour on a waggler but it was not as efficient as the pole here so I packed up early.
Ray Roberts
Well-known member
Bloody hell, that’s the stupid sort of thing that I’d do, I thought you were more sensible than that.
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No I can be stupid at times.
Ray Roberts
Well-known member
Due to my wife not being well with covid and and a host of other ailments I haven’t been out for probably one of the longest periods of my life.
I’m out tomorrow though, whoop, whoop. A day’s piking on the River Rother in Kent is on the cards. There is a weedy drainage channel near the main river that looks very perchy, that’s plan “B”. I lost a huge pike last year in the main river when a split ring on a large rubber lure opened up. I’ve replaced all of the split rings on my lures this afternoon and I’m hoping for round two.
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I’m out tomorrow though, whoop, whoop. A day’s piking on the River Rother in Kent is on the cards. There is a weedy drainage channel near the main river that looks very perchy, that’s plan “B”. I lost a huge pike last year in the main river when a split ring on a large rubber lure opened up. I’ve replaced all of the split rings on my lures this afternoon and I’m hoping for round two.
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mikench
Well-known member
Blimey Pete that all sounds alarming. Im sure your sandwich maker would prefer to have you alive and well rather than a section of pole. Im glad you are still with us . 
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markcw
Exiled Northerner
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2017
- Messages
- 13,402
- Reaction score
- 12,115
I should have been on the Oxford Canal yesterday, had everything ready ,sorted topkits for pole, chose handful of canal pole rigs, stripped seatbox to bare minimum,
Bait was maggots and pinkies.
Get a phone call late yesterday, from lad I was going with that he was having to work.
So I decided to go to Lodge Farm about 20 mile away,
Reorganized seatbox, changed pole rigs and topkits and grabbed a couple of tubs of pellets as additional bait.
I decided to fish the original farm pool instead of the pool they had dug out some years ago.
I set up two margin rigs, one for hard pellet ,the other for soft pellet.
Both rigs were on 6lb line straight through with clear dibber floats, hooks were guru mwg size 14. Elastic was 14 middy solid on side puller on both rigs .
I set a rig up to fish at between 5 metres and 14 metres. The depth in front of me was more or less a uniform 2.5 foot deep.
The float was an old Maver 4 X 10 shotted with stotz , mainline was 4lb Guru straight through to a size 16 hook. Elastic was a soft set orange microbore through a side puller. This was capable for both silvers and medium carp .
This was for a maggot swim to my left and soft pellet swim to my right.
I put a few hard pellets in left hand margin and a few soft hookers in the right hand margin, Fed a few good handfuls of pinkies at 9 metres to my left and a few soft hookers to my right. And catapulted pinkies and pellets out to 12 metres.
The sun was shining even thought the temp was around 5 degrees,
The reason I chose this pool was with it being shallow, it should start to warm up quicker,
It took about an hour to get a bite at 9 metres after constant drip feeding via a cad pot. this was the best distance to fish due to a breeze that made presentation difficult at longer lengths.
With the pool being shallow you could see the bottom clouding up as the fish started to feed, I drip fed a few pinkies in and lowered the rig in with double red maggot on the hook, A half minute later the float buried and after a short tussle a carp of 5lb was in the net.
I refed the the swim with a few more handfuls of pinkies via a cupping kit and allowed it to rest,
There were no indications in either margin despite dropping 3 or 4 pellets in every 15 minutes .The margins are around 2' deep so I would have seen the bottom cloud up or slight bow waves on the surface, I have fished this peg before so I have an idea how it performs, such as "force" feeding the open water swims and little and often in the margins until the fish show .
After a while there were signs of fish again at 9 metres, I had still been catapulting maggots and pellets out to 12 metres to draw the fish closer to the feed at 9 metres.
The fish were again over the maggot swim , not so much over the pellet swim to its right,
Once more drip fed pinkies from cad pot as I lowered the double maggot rig in .
After a couple of minutes the float buried and the elastic shot out,
This one took a little longer to land due to it trying to find the snags along the margins. The pegs on here are natural banking so I had no worries of it trying to get under my peg as on a commercial.
I netted another carp similar in size to the first one, possibly a shade larger.
Again force fed the 9 metre line and catapulted out to 12 metres, I had decided just to feed pinkies and fish maggot by now,
I ignored the margins due the the carp disturbing them by looking for snags.
After a 20 minute wait in which I managed a cuppa, the bottom clouded over and again the rig was lifted out and lowered in I did this a couple of times before the float carried on going down and away.
Another tussle and another similar sized carp in the net.
By now the sun had gone in and the breeze was getting up, the wind in my face. So I decided to call it a day.
It was hard going in a way, mainly because the resident silvers didn't show and with it being cold the carp seemed reluctant to feed.
Would I have fared any better on the deeper pool ?
I don't know, and I couldn't ask because I was the only one fishing on there, The owner said the frost in the night more than likely out a few off fishing .
I was happy with the three fish for around 15lb all caught on a total of 6 maggots and around 3/4 pint of pinkies.
Good day out and a cheap bait bill.
For £7 day ticket it's a good all year round fishery that responds to all methods, pole ,waggler,pellet waggler in warmer weather. feeder or carp set up with boilies,
My next trip out will more than likely be on the canal, I am going for a walk along it later to check it's clarity.
Bait was maggots and pinkies.
Get a phone call late yesterday, from lad I was going with that he was having to work.
So I decided to go to Lodge Farm about 20 mile away,
Reorganized seatbox, changed pole rigs and topkits and grabbed a couple of tubs of pellets as additional bait.
I decided to fish the original farm pool instead of the pool they had dug out some years ago.
I set up two margin rigs, one for hard pellet ,the other for soft pellet.
Both rigs were on 6lb line straight through with clear dibber floats, hooks were guru mwg size 14. Elastic was 14 middy solid on side puller on both rigs .
I set a rig up to fish at between 5 metres and 14 metres. The depth in front of me was more or less a uniform 2.5 foot deep.
The float was an old Maver 4 X 10 shotted with stotz , mainline was 4lb Guru straight through to a size 16 hook. Elastic was a soft set orange microbore through a side puller. This was capable for both silvers and medium carp .
This was for a maggot swim to my left and soft pellet swim to my right.
I put a few hard pellets in left hand margin and a few soft hookers in the right hand margin, Fed a few good handfuls of pinkies at 9 metres to my left and a few soft hookers to my right. And catapulted pinkies and pellets out to 12 metres.
The sun was shining even thought the temp was around 5 degrees,
The reason I chose this pool was with it being shallow, it should start to warm up quicker,
It took about an hour to get a bite at 9 metres after constant drip feeding via a cad pot. this was the best distance to fish due to a breeze that made presentation difficult at longer lengths.
With the pool being shallow you could see the bottom clouding up as the fish started to feed, I drip fed a few pinkies in and lowered the rig in with double red maggot on the hook, A half minute later the float buried and after a short tussle a carp of 5lb was in the net.
I refed the the swim with a few more handfuls of pinkies via a cupping kit and allowed it to rest,
There were no indications in either margin despite dropping 3 or 4 pellets in every 15 minutes .The margins are around 2' deep so I would have seen the bottom cloud up or slight bow waves on the surface, I have fished this peg before so I have an idea how it performs, such as "force" feeding the open water swims and little and often in the margins until the fish show .
After a while there were signs of fish again at 9 metres, I had still been catapulting maggots and pellets out to 12 metres to draw the fish closer to the feed at 9 metres.
The fish were again over the maggot swim , not so much over the pellet swim to its right,
Once more drip fed pinkies from cad pot as I lowered the double maggot rig in .
After a couple of minutes the float buried and the elastic shot out,
This one took a little longer to land due to it trying to find the snags along the margins. The pegs on here are natural banking so I had no worries of it trying to get under my peg as on a commercial.
I netted another carp similar in size to the first one, possibly a shade larger.
Again force fed the 9 metre line and catapulted out to 12 metres, I had decided just to feed pinkies and fish maggot by now,
I ignored the margins due the the carp disturbing them by looking for snags.
After a 20 minute wait in which I managed a cuppa, the bottom clouded over and again the rig was lifted out and lowered in I did this a couple of times before the float carried on going down and away.
Another tussle and another similar sized carp in the net.
By now the sun had gone in and the breeze was getting up, the wind in my face. So I decided to call it a day.
It was hard going in a way, mainly because the resident silvers didn't show and with it being cold the carp seemed reluctant to feed.
Would I have fared any better on the deeper pool ?
I don't know, and I couldn't ask because I was the only one fishing on there, The owner said the frost in the night more than likely out a few off fishing .
I was happy with the three fish for around 15lb all caught on a total of 6 maggots and around 3/4 pint of pinkies.
Good day out and a cheap bait bill.
For £7 day ticket it's a good all year round fishery that responds to all methods, pole ,waggler,pellet waggler in warmer weather. feeder or carp set up with boilies,
My next trip out will more than likely be on the canal, I am going for a walk along it later to check it's clarity.
peter crabtree
AKA Simon, 1953 - 2022 (RIP)
Went down to the supermarket wharf for a peaceful couple of hours fishing without the usual towpath crowds behind me.
Alas I found a group of noisy carp anglers had the same idea. I persevered for a while and remained biteless before the boats, swans , beered up sweary carpers etc ultimately followed by a boat turning around right in front of me stirring up a load of silt and dead leaves spelt time to go…grrr..
Alas I found a group of noisy carp anglers had the same idea. I persevered for a while and remained biteless before the boats, swans , beered up sweary carpers etc ultimately followed by a boat turning around right in front of me stirring up a load of silt and dead leaves spelt time to go…grrr..