How did you get on?

[tincatim]

Just got back from another short session on the River Dearne at Adwick. It was surprisingly busy tonight. I walked downstream of the car park that's down the road from the Manvers Arms and saw four anglers before I got to the bridge at Mill Lane. ]

Walking back up, the first swim I plonked myself in had a bit more depth than I'd encountered so far, I couldn't see the bottom for a start.

As I pulled my ready made John Wilson quiver out of its bag I realised I hadn't brought my bank stick and rod rest, the nettles made an adequate replacement though.

I cast a hair rigged 8mm halibut pellet across to the far bushes, perfect cast first time and my lead rolled under the trees before stopping nicely. I pinged a few loose pellets over the top and waited. Ten mins in and my rod pulled round violently, fish on! A minute later and this lovely chub of just under 3lb graced my net.

It went mental in the near bank weeds so I wasn't surprised not to get another bite there. I wandered up and found some lovely swims, shallow and gravelly with lots of streamer weed and deeper holes under trees. I sat myself down and cast another halibut pellet and waited, and waited, and waited and... What was that? A little pluck on the tip, then a rattle, then it hooped over and I struck, into thin air! B*******! Or words to that effect.
Another cast, and more rattles but not developing into proper takes, probably chub, the hair was probably too long too. One more cast, feeling lucky now, the tension built as I got a couple of liners. Then from nowhere I heard some strange noises coming from upstream. Lo and behold a canoeist comes splashing down the river thrashing at the water and straight through where i was baiting up! That was that, I picked my rod up and headed home.

I'm beginning to like these two hour after work sessions. And I feel I'm getting closer to locating some barbel

 

[neil1970]

haha Jerry

 

[lambert1]

The river was looking even lower and weedier than last week and so I decided to head to the weir reasoning that the greater depth and higher oxygen levels would give me more of a chance. It was not easy to say the least and I was beginning to fear another blank. I had used a bait dropper and lose fed some Hemp steadily right from my arrival and the fish activity noticeably improved,(although this may have been a coincidence) but getting any bites was proving difficult. I noticed some large fish moving by the far bank and guessed that they were Chub. I cast two chunks of garlic sausage on a size 6 long shank hook and a large shot nipped on to the line, to the edge Of where they had been moving. A strong take at last and in my excitement I managed to knock my rod rest in The result (the only fish of the entire session) was a 5lb 2oz Chub. This is only my second Chub over 5lb and I was chuffed to say the least! We badly need some rain. Good luck to all those out over the weekend.

 

[robertroach]

Had a first effort on the Upper Dorset Stour with hemp and tares the other day.
This tactic is great for the Summer but doesn't get going properly this early in the season. First swim deep and slow and not a touch, second swim shallow and weedy and managed a few roach and rudd but nothing special. Third swim I decided to fish the weirpool for the first time thinking oxygenated water might liven things a bit. First cast 12oz roach, followed by some other good ones, a bite a cast.
My pulse is racing and I'm thinking a couple of hours of good sport when 8 kids (16 to 20 years old) come along in their swimsuits and start diving, jumping, screaming and generally having a hilarious time all within a few yards of me. As its public access there's nothing much I can say so it was time to go home.
Nice to see the girls in bikinis, but redfins would have been even nicer!

 

[dorsetandchub]

The day four chub and a dace cost me a grand and a half...


After fishing yesterday, I had no plans to wet a line and this seemed doubly confirmed when my Blackberry mobile perished overnight. I'd put it on charge to wake to a black screen. Nothing. Zip. Nada.

Being the kind of chap who knows a dead parrot, I set out for the EE shop, giving myself two hours parking. Even as an existing customer, it took more than two hours to negotiate a new contract, honestly you'd think I was signing for Real Madrid. And that was after a pimply, spotty 12 year old assured me my phone was dead. My reply left him in no doubt his logic was not questioned.

New phone in hand and finding nothing worthy of reading in Waterstone's, I got home not in the best of mind frames.

After an hour or so, I caught sight of the current future ex Mrs H carrying what looked like a rod, towards the front door. Time for an inquest.

A week or two back, whilst tinkering she found out I'd had, for around 12 years, a Drennan Super Specialist Duo rod which I had to confess, I've never, ever got round to using.

This was the rod being secretly being transported. A raised eyebrow obviously sufficed. I was told I should go and exercise it, on the Stour at Longham. There were some 10mm cubes of Spam in my bait fridge, not that I'd put them there. Something was very wrong here and it only got worse. You know that when she comes out with "That Drennan would go great with the PXR 5000".

Either someone had died or she'd spent money. I wasn't wondering long. "It's ok, nobody died".

"How much and what on?"

"Fifteen hundred, a new couch"

I suddenly felt like I'd had a car crash in my own sitting room. It got worse. Thirteen hundred was my share.

I picked up the rod, bag and bait and left without a word.

"It's a really nice couch, you'll like it....you will" accompanied me out the door.

I got to the river after a short, pain free drive and feel the need to add that not even a normally extremely funny comedy on Radio 4 could shift my malaise. That said, I was starting to revive as the price of her redemption was a five plus chub...

The rod and reel combo with 6lb mono and an ounce and a half of Korum feeder, hemp filled, soon had me in the combat zone.

An hour of mumbling to myself which scared off assorted dog walkers and a couple of other anglers was soon broken by the Avon tip taking on a pleasant curve. The fish made straight for the far bank reeds and I knew it was my quarry. After a short, dogged scrap a chub around 1 and a half came to the net and was soon released, swishing its tail and splashing me lightly as it went.

We'd had a hell of a storm last night and the river had gone from well down to looking good.

After another 45 minutes or so of one missed bite and an old boy with a dog who took my side in the great couch debacle, I had a second chub, within an ounce or so of the first but definitely a different fish, its tail being chopped halfway up the top fin.

Ten minutes later, a third. A shade bigger at maybe 2 and a quarter. No monsters but fun all the same.

Nothing followed and, thinking about changing tackle, I put my hand in my ruck to find a bottle of Vanilla flavoured coke. Definitely premeditated creeping on the go but I'm ashamed to say it worked. Like most of us, I have to confess I've bought and smuggled God knows how many new rods, poles, etc over the years so I guess a new couch wasn't too unreasonable. Not that I was going to give ground, oh no I was going to hold out for a nice roast chicken and chips supper later.

Deal done (once I'd sussed out how my new phone worked) and the rod went again, a lovely bite but a proper keen whippersnapper of a dace, maybe all 6oz of it.

Another twenty minutes and off again, a small chub scraping a pound. Time the hunter was home from the hill.

She was babysitting for a friend, The Longest Day was on telly and I was owed chicken and chips. I got home to the juicy odour of a thoroughly earned and deserved chicken. Put the tackle away, washed my hands and kept my stern face on.

The chicken duly appeared, The Normandy beaches were overrun and I softened. "The coke, nice touch" I allowed. She produced a Cretan holiday brochure. "Not that nice" I fought back. Although its time will come again, probably in time for September.

Maybe she'll find it easier if that five ever does come my way.......

 

[no-one in particular]

markg...A couple of nice variations on the bread...top job !!

Thanks for that Tee Cee, Knowing your a roach man, that crust thing often works. I just anchor it with a bb about 2/6ins ffrom the hook so it wafts just off the bottom. I think partly because the little fish don't nibble it as quick as flake, its a bit hard for them and it gives the bigger Roach a chance to dive in. It often produces a good positive bite. Its good for any fish but, roach in particular. Nothing like seeing the float zinging away and a decent roach. I would say with certainty, I have caught more decent roach like this than anything else.

 

[neil1970]

I returned the favour from the Thames a couple of weeks ago this morning.

We got to our spot at 8.45am and enjoyed some float fishing for minnow, gudgeon, dace and tiny chub.

Then the ultralight lure setup came out with a 1" shad, my mate enjoyed catching his first lure caught fish, about 8 small perch and a jack of around 3lbs.

After that I baited a spot and dropped some spam in, expecting a chub or small barbel...he ended up with the tench (which looked a lot fitter than last year).

It seems like I enjoy watching and helping people catch fish almost as much as catching them myself :w

I still want to get to the bigger ones myself though!

Great day

 

[sam vimes]

Stole a quick hour and a half after doing the family thing for Sunday dinner. I knew that a downpour was coming, but it arrived a fair bit earlier than the forecast suggested. I got a thorough soaking until I got sick and knocked it on the head. Fortunately, it was just about worth the soaking for fifteen dace, including a couple of clonkers that pulled back hard and required netting, five trout and a grayling. Only two of the obligatory Swale minnows was a clear indication that there were plenty of proper fish in the swim. In hindsight, I should probably have stuck it out longer. The rain cleared by the time I'd made the short drive home. However, mooching about in wet undercrackers isn't my idea of fun.

 

[The Runner]

Fished club match on our lake near Wraysbury. Hugely frustrating place as generally switches right off in matches and can honestly say that I've rarely if ever fished anywhere with as big a gap between what you know it contains and what you catch. Carp cruising around everywhere today but it seems impossible to catch shallow or off the surface here, in match conditions at any rate.
Drew peg 36 aka the New Platform on the shallow bank. Quite fancied it although has very erratic form - very weedy on the inside with pondweed up to the surface to about 8 yards out and a few big clumps visible further out. Set up small method feeder as main line of attack with cage feeder as back up plan and pellet waggler out of pure optimism. Had a few chucks with bomb and bare hook before the start to get an idea of where the weed was, found nice clearish channel about 25 to 30 yards out and getting weedier again further out and absolutely solid weed more or less anywhere slightly left or anywhere past 40 yards
Nothing happened for nearly an hour but kept recasting every five minutes or so and also firing out 8 mil pellets over my feeder line. Had first carp out of the blue just before the hour which was the only fish caught on the whole lake up to that point. No real pattern to the next five hours, just the odd slam round at random intervals (and on random baits. Five carp. one on corn, one on dark pellet, one on red pellet, one on a bunch of maggots on a long tail and one on popped up maggot on method). And finally caught a fish here on pellet wag- a 4oz skimmer...
The five carp and a couple of skimmers went 20-14, small average size for here but enough for second on the day. Peg 6 won it with four carp for 24-1, with a 17-9 and 9-8 making up the frame.
No fishing for a couple of weeks now- off to Skye on Wednesday to see if my knees (and nerve) are still up to Sgurr nan Gillean

 

[tigger]

Similar to Sam, I went aware for the forecast but I hoped the bbc would have it wrong as they so often do, but today they were right....barstewards !
I got to a swim I fancied after about 3/4 of a mile walk to find I hadn't put the bleedin' maggots in my neck bag. Obviously if I wanted to fish I had to trudge back for the shyster's. By the time I got back with them the clouds had already started to change colour and the wind was picking up. I got a chub on the first trott and then had a few dace in the first swim. After 20 min's trotting through the first swim I had a move upstream to another of my haunts and after a dozen or so trotts through I hooked a barbel. Just after catching the barbel the wind got too strong for comfort and if you looked at the chop on the surface it looked like the river was flowing back upstream. The sky went black and the rumble of thunder getting nearer was my cue to hoof-off.
Unfortunatly for me I was caught in a torrential downpour which was so hard it actually run down my trousers and filled my thigh waders !
Half an hours car drive home and it was still raining but it soon cleared up and it's now a very nice evening.
I wish i'd taken notice of the forecst now.

 

[Pete Shears]

Saturdays trip to the reservoir meant fishing a different spot where the bottom is firmer and stonier - 7 bream, 6 over 5lb, the smallest being 4lb 12oz all on legered 10mm strawberry boilies , this time no tench or roach but as soon as the sun battled through the low cloud the bites stopped, will have another go on Monday.

 

[greenie62]

...Unfortunatly for me I was caught in a torrential downpour which was so hard it actually run down my trousers and filled my thigh waders !
Half an hours car drive home and it was still raining but it soon cleared up and it's now a very nice evening....

Sickening innit Tig? And a bet the downpour that soaked you won't add more than a spit to the flow - needs a good day of rain to perk it up I reckon!

 

[peter crabtree]

Inter club match x 3 today on the GUC near Leighton buzzard.
Tring anglers v Luton AC and Ampthill AC..
Drew peg 11 which became a 'déjà vu' moment when I arrived on it.
Exactly the same peg I sat on a year ago and got smashed up by carps on my light feeder set up. Out came the 12ft Abu Suveran and unusually for me, 8lb mainline to a method feeder and pre-tied Quick stop hair rigs to 7lb link. Fish meal groundbait on the feeder and hair rigged Dendra worm.

View image in gallery​

Casting to the overhanging bushes for the first hour and not a touch so I tried a light pole rig with maggot and pinkie down the track and got action from a few roach, gudgeon and blade skimmbobs. Back across tight to the bush on the feeder and a bite, tip bounced round and a 3lb skimmer graced my net.
Nothing more than a few knocks and severed worms from bladdy crayfish after that until the whistle.
At lunchtime I stopped for a sarnie and walked up to the next peg to speak to my old mate Brian, he was chucking tare on a light waggler and feeding hemp and was getting quality roach to 6oz. He weighed in 5lb:14.. Brilliant fishing mate....
I weighed in 3lb 8oz for 5th in section out of 11...happy with that though..
Winner had a 9lb 8oz carp and a good skimmer for 12lb:2oz on the pole long.
Great day out in thankfully cooler conditions.
36 fished.....

 

[no-one in particular]

Blanked yesterday. Lots of rain in the morning and the river looked very good, nice spot of color, air cooled down but, the water was 72f. Still, same as last time when I had some nice roach. Couldn't get my usual bait so I bought one of those part baked roll packets. Don't bother with this, its absolutely useless. Had some pellet stuff in the bag, that produced nothing but, had bought some salami type sausage as well. A few nibbles on this however, the river was pretty dead, in the last ten minutes I was even hoping for an eel just for some light relief and guess what, I got one,absolute truth. I did a Victor Meldrew, swore at the eel god and packed up.
Missed my usual bread and sweetcorn, may have been something to do with it. Still, you always learn something, even when you blank; it all goes into the data mix..
Saw a nice trio of Oyster Catchers flying over well, I heard them first, they do an arf make a racket and I noticed all the flowers are abundant along the river bank, small mercies and all that.

 

[tigger]

Sickening innit Tig? And a bet the downpour that soaked you won't add more than a spit to the flow - needs a good day of rain to perk it up I reckon!

Being honest Mike I wasn't really botherd, I know the seasons only just kicked off but it's all gone a bit stale for me already. I fancy trying some other rivers down country, "a change is as good as a rest" as they say.
Yeah your right, we could do with a day or two of steady rain, enough to put several inches on but since there's a lot of pin heads about just now we don't want any flash floods washing the little buggers away.

 

[S-Kippy]

A week's a long time in fishing !

The Big Feller though he'd steal a march on me and charged off up to Farmoor on Saturday evening expecting a continuation of the trite fishing bonanza we've been enjoying recently. He never had a touch let alone a fish so I'm glad he was in stealth mode and didn't ring me before going. I probably would have joined him.

By all accounts the temps & sun of last week plus a massive storm Oxford way on Friday have affected oxygen levels and the trite have responded by heading for the deepest water available.....about a mile offshore and 30,000 fathoms deep.

The only fish caught were on sinking lines and white lures and I'm afraid I agree with Phil when he says he'd die in a ditch before doing that.

Probably take a fortnight for them to settle down and by then I'll have lost all interest in trite. Great fun while it lasted though.

Now...where's my barbel gear ?

 

[neil1970]

1.5 hours today saw 17 perch and a jack (which had had a very recent lucky escape, this was its 'pretty' side), all on a fox microfry with 2g jighead.

I lost a decent perch in the weir by bumping it off with the net

 

[Pete Shears]

Reservoir fishing again today,first 3 fish to floatfished sweetcorn -3lb bream, a roach of 10oz or so & a beautiful rudd, 4oz of pure gold with blood red fins,without doubt the prettiest of coarse fish followed by a 3lb 12oz tench while I lost 2 tench in the weed in the leger rod but managed to land 4 more to 5lb 10oz, all on 2 10mm strawberry boilies. The kingfisher whizzed past me & a fox was out & about on the far bank enjoying the sunshine with young buzzards calling to each other all morning. Bites stopped around 11am, brightness & angle of the sun ?
Off to Devon on Friday chasing big & bigger carp for a change.

 

[Tee-Cee]

A different sort of day for me....I'd fished Sunday in a familiar swim which yielded fish and I had a good session, but on the way home I felt as though things were becoming a bit samey so I made mental plans to fish the same lake, but in a totally new swim; you know the sort of thing, one of those swims that you just don't fancy and have continually walked past for years !

Anyway, this morning I pitched up, decide to fish the float and spent a good 20 minutes plumbing the depths. This proved the 12' I was using was a little short as some parts of the swim were close to 10' deep. Closer in it was around 6/7' so I decided this would suit and I placed a few small balls of ground bait in two parts of the swim. Action was slow to begin with but eventually small roach found the flake attractive and so it continued for he next couple of hours. By this time the sun was well up and with some roach topping I decided to fish tares on a 16 with light hemp feed. Frustratingly, some bites slow sinks,some lightening fast, some on the bottom and some on the drop, but nice fishing, anyway !

I finished with around 25/30 fish to 10ozs and although many were swingers it was a very enjoyable session. The swim which shows promise offers some new scenery, a different view of the water and some very nice birdlife in the adjacent trees, and that's just what I needed....something fresh and new !

I shall give it another go tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to using a longer rod for the deep water...who knows what will happen..

Hopefully a bit of rain overnight - dead right !!

 

[S-Kippy]

Another bash at the barbel yesterday evening for me....and another blank for me ! Oy !

The river is looking low & rather stewed and badly needs a bit of wet stuff to freshen it up. The chub were annoyingly active...I probably had a yank every chuck but Captain Chevin is way too cute to fall for my "no prisoners" barbel rig. If I'd had some maggot & used a feeder with a tip I'd have wiped the smug smile off their faces instead of them playing knock down ginger on my rod tip.

I did catch. A very startled jack of about 3 lb that grabbed a boilie on the retrieve.

No barn owl last night but the kingfishers were up & down as usual & the wagtails bagging up on the mayflies which are still coming off in dribs and drabs. With a blackcap singing his heart out in the tree behind what's not to like ?

A barbel would be good & its starting to get personal !