How did you get on?

[ian g]

Thanks Mick , I work from home in Shropshire but every couple of weeks I go over to Micklefield for a couple of days and stay over . I was looking at the local canals to spend a few hours of a summer evening . They're nothing like the Llangollen from what I have seen.

 

[riverman]

been to moor monkton pools today (formerly carpvale) nr york.after a slow start hit a common on the waggler with mussel which weighed 7lb 6 oz and then later had another common at 9lb11oz.the best fish of the day was a 10lb 3oz mirror.finished up with 7 carp and 3f1's taken on mussel and prawn all on the waggler.

 

[Philip]

Well, I’ve been rather quiet for sometime, so a quick recap may be in order.
Jan/Feb was mainly wasted with clear skies heavy frosts and water levels like a tart’s knickers. March picked up with barbel and bream from the bottom of the garden,

trout season opening suffered from the aforementioned professional lady syndrome…..
However the last couple of weeks have come good, with my first carp since living here in France, the land where 60 pounders crawl up your rods, …… mine was 6lb (and a bit). (And the photo won’t load!).
More good news, since buying a dedicated “euronymphing set up I’ve managed to catch more trout from the river in two weeks than the previous 4 years put together, it’s almost like cheating! And all my own home tied flies too!

Other news, and partly why I’ve been posting less, for family reasons, our house is sold and we shall be moving back to the UK around the end of May. Heart is broken.

Sorry to hear that Rodger..I was hoping to get down your way this summer. ...Quel dommage.

 

[Roger Johnson 2]

Sorry to hear that Rodger..I was hoping to get down your way this summer. ...Quel dommage.

There’s still time for a visit, we’re not shutting up shop until 11th May,( there’s a little flexibility on that)and there’s room for closing down sale prices. And the area is always worth a visit we’re genou deep in Plus Beaux Villages and fois gras!


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[Roger Johnson 2]

Out euronymphing again this evening, one salmon parr and one small brownie, not bad for about 40 mins fishing. YouTube has dozens of vids on how to euronymph as though it’s some great skill or mystery. Well here’s my take on it, it’s not much like fly fishing, more like fishing microjigs, and if you’ve done a bit of stalking for chub or rolling meat then it’s a piece of p ….cake.


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[Steve Arnold]

Since the end of March I have not done much fishing. I got distracted by a search for a camper-van to explore a bit more of France, and the weather has been quite carp so far this year!

Anyway, I did find a reasonable camping-car and it does not need too much done to it. Hopefully my wife and I will be spending a lot more time around and about France this year. Last year we tried camping (with a tent!) and enjoyed "being There" - but needed a week in bed afterwards! Definitely too old for tents now!

Although it was cool and a bit rainy today I felt a fishing trip might be in order. One of my favourite stretches had been over-run with japanese knotweed last year and someone has now bulldozed the bankside for a few hundred metres. That has given access to a couple of new swims, so I was quite enthusiastic about the prospects.

Unfortunately the fish must have taken fright and moved! Hopefully the usual carp, barbel and chub that are fairly resident here will return. Today I had to settle for just one bite and a decent barbel.

No sign of the carp, they usually show themselves here. This is a long stretch of river between weirs and carp do travel a great deal. Last year at the end of March I had three carp between 26lb and 42lb from this stretch - afternoon temperatures reached 27c. This year it has been freezing overnight and had some snow. The weather should improve in the next few days and maybe the fish will feed again!

 

[Mark Wintle]

My mate suggested a couple of hours on the nearest ponds earlier in the week. After blanking for 45 minutes on the smaller one we shifted to the bigger pond and I finally had some bites on the pole, losing one good fish that unhooked itself in the lilies before landing what I'm reasonably certain was a 2lb roach (there are a handful of regularly caught hybrids in the water but I'm pretty sure this wasn't one of them).
As my mate was messing around with the video camera I was able to make a short video of the session: Second Chance - The One That Didn't Gety Away

 

[S-Kippy]

Bury Hill today after the crucians on Milton lake. Pole work.

Chuffin freezin when I arrived and foggy too which made me think it might be another challenging day despite assurances that " its fishing really well". Sadly,as we subsequently learned,it had been fishing really well but switched right off the beginning of this week,though goodness knows why. Our info was spot on as there is a guy we see there regularly who we've become friendly with and who fishes there virtually every other day if not every day. He had 25+ crucian a week ago but struggled for a few fish yesterday. 4mm expanders have been doing the business so the BF naturally fished red maggot and wondered why he got bitted out with rudd,perch and the odd roach.

After starting on the maggot and only getting bits I switched to and persisted with the expander and after an hour or so started to get a few tiny nudges and dips but they were unhittable. From the few positive bites I did get I managed to winkle out 4 typical BH crucian all around a pound or so...the best maybe 1-4 and lost another. I had to dot the float right down which made it incredibly hard to see in the reflections. The BF had one average Milton tench of around 2-8 and a few better rudd. As well as the crucian I had 2 lovely roach around 10-12 ozs on the expanders. We both felt that the crucians were behaving like fish that had been hammered and they will only put up with that for so long at BH.
We'd really both had enough by about 12-30 but persisted ( without reward) until about 2 then packed and joined the nightmare that is the M25. I did stop for a coffee on the way back but it still took me nearly 3 hours to get home. Not what either of us had hoped for.

 

[108831]

Been today and had quite a nice day,19 crucian/brown goldfish(5 over 2lbs,biggest 2.3.8),4 carp between 4-6lbs,two skimmers,one nearly 2lbs,a roach 7 or 8 ozs and a rainbow trout about 1lb 8ozs,absolutely cream crackered,all fish came on the waggler 3lb mainline,0.10mm hooklength and an 18 hook,feeding micro pellet,with punched meat,corn or bread on the hook....

 

[seth49]

Back on usual fishery today after over a week of due to flu and the weather, it was foggy during the drive over but it cleared about an hour after I arrived, it was a lovely mild spring morning and soon warmed up to be pleasant, as usual sleeper rod in margin with method feeder and a chocolate orange wafter on a bait spike to a size 12 Qm1 hook.

And I plumbed my pole at a top kit and two sections, fishing worm or maggot. Over chopped worm and ground bait, it was very slow to start with just an odd tench and skimmers for most of the morning, it did pick up a bit later but i did expect more to be honest, I also had had three tench and a barbel on the margin rod today, did change to the margins for carp later but no sign of carp today. I finished with eight tench plus silvers so not to bad really, enjoyable day in nice weather for once.

 

[rayner]

Back on usual fishery today after over a week of due to flu and the weather, it was foggy during the drive over but it cleared about an hour after I arrived, it was a lovely mild spring morning and soon warmed up to be pleasant, as usual sleeper rod in margin with method feeder and a chocolate orange wafter on a bait spike to a size 12 Qm1 hook.

And I plumbed my pole at a top kit and two sections, fishing worm or maggot. Over chopped worm and ground bait, it was very slow to start with just an odd tench and skimmers for most of the morning, it did pick up a bit later but i did expect more to be honest, I also had had three tench and a barbel on the margin rod today, did change to the margins for carp later but no sign of carp today. I finished with eight tench plus silvers so not to bad really, enjoyable day in nice weather for once.View attachment 20135

I love a nice mixed bag.

 

[nottskev]

I had appointments Wed and Thurs, so I thought I'd go Friday. I hadn't noticed, being idle, it was a Bank Holiday, so it was a surprise to find a line of blokes along the canal when I turned up at noon. The only empty peg was the one I'd have fished anyway. A good start. Too windy to fish the pole last time, today was a windless, blue sky scorcher.

Two rigs - a very light shallow one and a heavier one to fish for bigger species - set up, I cupped in some micros, casters and corn down to the right and catapulted a few maggots 10m out in front. I mostly stuck with the shallow rig, a 3 no12 home made job

as the bigger fish weren't inclined to feed in the bright sun, and I was catching the same stamp of fish on the heavier rig, with the exception of this little mirror,

The small fish - a mix of ide, roach, chublets, skimmers and perch, even a few little carp - were keeping me entertained, and many were a decent stamp

In a couple of months' time I'll be happy to fish for half a dozen bites from barbel, but I do enjoy it when you get plenty of bites

I mentioned last time that the locals were noticeably friendly. This old dog was getting tired, so the owner left him with me for a bit while he had a walk.

 

[jon atkinson]

I had appointments Wed and Thurs, so I thought I'd go Friday. I hadn't noticed, being idle, it was a Bank Holiday, so it was a surprise to find a line of blokes along the canal when I turned up at noon. The only empty peg was the one I'd have fished anyway. A good start. Too windy to fish the pole last time, today was a windless, blue sky scorcher.

View attachment 20151

Two rigs - a very light shallow one and a heavier one to fish for bigger species - set up, I cupped in some micros, casters and corn down to the right and catapulted a few maggots 10m out in front. I mostly stuck with the shallow rig, a 3 no12 home made job

View attachment 20152

as the bigger fish weren't inclined to feed in the bright sun, and I was catching the same stamp of fish on the heavier rig, with the exception of this little mirror,

View attachment 20153

The small fish - a mix of ide, roach, chublets, skimmers and perch, even a few little carp - were keeping me entertained, and many were a decent stamp

View attachment 20154

In a couple of months' time I'll be happy to fish for half a dozen bites from barbel, but I do enjoy it when you get plenty of bites

View attachment 20155

I mentioned last time that the locals were noticeably friendly. This old dog was getting tired, so the owner left him with me for a bit while he had a walk.

View attachment 20156

Jeez Kev, you certainly know how to bag up! Top dangling sir...

 

[Hugh Bailey]

A question about the float Kev- would it work in slow running water. Looks like some I’d like to try for roach?

 

[nottskev]

A question about the float Kev- would it work in slow running water. Looks like some I’d like to try for roach?

The tips being thicker than bristles, they work well in slow flows, Hugh. I've got all kinds of variations - they're easy to knock up. The only tricky bit is gluing a side-eye in, which is a bit fiddly. The stubby ones are balsa and cocktail stick. The longer ones are balsa with a bit of carbon stem. The little flat tops are nearly self-cocking with wire stems....... The ones here take anywhere between 3 or 4 no 12's to 6 no 8, plenty of shot for a slow river. They were very popular with pole anglers in the North West back in the day, which is where I got a fondness for them. They sit nicely in the water, are big enough in the tip to see easily and the fish bury them without hesitation.

 

[Hugh Bailey]

Thanks Kev - food for thought there. You obviously make your own - is there a standard name for these typ of floats?

 

[nottskev]

They're called "dibbers".

 

[markcw]

I used to make my own dibbers , but fished bottom end only .
They were either cut off lengths of peacock quill with a cut down darning needle as a stem , the eye of the needle on show to thread the line through then a piece of silicone pole float tube to hold line in place, Or cut down pieces of balsa dowel , the same arrangement with darning needle for stem .
They are also ideal for the margins,

 

[mikench]

What a net full Kev. Well done.

 

[108831]

A cracking bag of fish Kev,one that you won't see too much these days as most anglers don't use keepnets anymore...for various reasons,lots of waters don't allow them,often these days where they are allowed I can't be bothered to carry them,or dry them,that is without the supposed fish care insinuations...