How did you get on?

[seth49]

Back on club water today, thought Neale was joining me but his car wasn’t ready yet, and mick is still working on his sons house, so on my own again and decided to fish the narrow stretch between the bank and the island, first time I’ve fished it this year, but it’s been fishing ok lately.

usual pole with paste, and feeder rod in the margin on alarm, feeder rod went off before I had set my pole up with a carp, and with another as I was plumbing up, the carp were feeding well, had two on the pole before the margin rod went of again.

there were some nice carp being caught, I had a 12lb 4oz mirror, and I weighed a 19 pounder for a chap near me, plus there were a couple of 13 pounders out as well.

it turned into a carp only day, I had a total of 13 which was only one below my previous best catch of 14, most caught on dog biscuits fished close to the island on the pole, which was good sport .

still plenty of damsel flies and dragon flies about, and did see a raven as well, so a good day with plenty going on I enjoyed it, just a few photos I’ll not not post the all.

 

[mikench]

Fancy getting bored with catching barbel Kev.

 

[Neil Maidment]

Having been away for a while, here's an update. In reality, due to COVID and eye surgery, I only got back on the banks late last year and into 2022.

The winter chub and barbel on the Dorset Stour, particularly at Throop, were still there. Just for a change, the prevailing conditions were typically good for most of the time. The last few weeks of the season were very good for me and spectacular for one or two others. Had plenty of chub with a few 6lbers, best of the chub was 6lbs 13oz. Also a couple of stray barbel, the biggest being 11lbs 08oz. All on the float, most on trotted single or double maggot on #18/#20 hook. Selected highlights below!

 

[Neil Maidment]

The back end of the season also saw me chasing the grayling on the upper reaches of Dorset Frome. I had several trotting sessions travelling light as there's a lot of walking involved. By the time the coarse season ended I had only explored about half of the fishery but had found a few grayling including a brief but ultimately unsuccessful encounter with one its fabled leviathans.

Fortunately I can also fly fish this venue for brown trout and sea trout within the appropriate seasons. So I had a few afternoon sessions in May with a #3wt outfit in my hand with the main aim of continuing my exploration of the main river and associated carriers. Didn't bother any fish at all but had a comprehensive look around. Once the coarse season had started I continued my walks with the fly gear. I did manage to fool some micro trout and eventually a proper Brownie of around 1lb 08oz.

I also finally tempted a couple of proper grayling well over 2lbs and then on the last trip a stunning male of 3lbs 06oz. Not quite my biggest grayling but certainly the biggest I've ever had on the fly rod.

I shall be giving this venue a lot of attention in the winter months!

 

[Neil Maidment]

A good chunk of my close season fishing was at my club's complex of three ponds. Several relatively short sessions, normally afternoon into evening, saw me targeting the tench on the pole at around 10mtrs on pellet, casters, corn and most successfully worm. Nothing particularly big in tench terms but very enjoyable with plenty of fish in the 3lbs to 4lbs range. One or two came close to 5lbs but not quite. The occasional crucian also turned up as well.

 

[The bad one]

Some very nice fish there Neil and welcome back.

 

[Neil Maidment]

I had a bit more variation in the close season. Once the weather had warmed up a bit I had a lot of fun chasing carp off the top. I fished a lake on a commercial fishery which is included on my club book and therefore free of charge. It's far too busy Fri-Mon so midweek was my choice, plenty of areas to try with the very old fashioned floating crust under a controller weight/float. On later trips I also took my #8wt fly rod set up and had a lot more fun. For the most part I started on the fly rod but once the carp had drifted beyond casting range I switched to the floating crust.

They're not exactly difficult so Mirrors and Commons abounded. Mostly mid to high teens with the heaviest being a mirror at 21lbs 10oz. The fly rod gives a totally different dynamic when playing these carp. Most are not keen on towing around a full floating fly line but go a bit mad when they're closer to the net.

 

[wetthrough]

I'd run out of mixed groundbait which I prepare at home and fancied an easy relaxed days fishing yesterday. Dunham fisheries have a no GB rule and it's easy parking close to pegs. No caster either as AD had a fridge disaster last week (I wonder what they do with 16 gallons of stinking maggots?). Loose feeding maggots and a few 4mm pellets. First out was a small Crucian to sweetcorn, almost the only thing that looked at sweetcorn all day.

Next a slightly bigger Crucian, still only about 8oz to pellet. More or less stuck with pellet after that and had 6 Mirrors from about 2:4lb. Kept going back to corn but still nothing. Fishing maggot in between which got me small Rudd and Roach.

I'd been fishing down the middle of the stretch @ about 10m laying on about 3". Didn't really have enough weight to get me to the far side reeds easily. I cuold have switched floats but as I'd been feeding and catching down the middle wasn't too bothered. Carp had been cruising about all day, down the centre and along the far bank reeds. About to pack up and thought I'd just have a chuck at the far bank with a piece of sweetcorn. Landing about 1M from the reeds a Common of around 4lb snatched it as soon as it hit the water.

Not the largest or prettiest of the Mirrors, just the only one that kept still long enough to get a photo.

Not a bad day 19 altogether. Got a bit uncomfortably warm in the afternoon. Certainly gave the little Toreon a good workout, and me. Seven Carp is five too many for me. Comes to something when you're willing a skimmer to take the bait

 

[john step]

I wanted a day lazing by the water. I went to my syndi a deep farm reservoir and chucked out three double boilies on buzzers.
I had 3 mirrors to get me out of the shady spot I sat in.

What made the day was a small tench of maybe a pound that only just managed the boilies on a no.6. I had two others attempt my bait which fell off near the net.

What made my day was that these were tench we spent quite a lot on to buy and just simply disappeared for a couple of years. Small tench do this I know but we couldnt help wondering if the cormorants had got them . A good sign for the future. Well pleased.

 

[Skoda]

For a variety of reasons, I’ve only been fishing about 7 or 8 times this year! However, I would like to think that this is about to change, and I kick-started this by sneaking off during a week’s holiday with the grandkids for a short river session of about 4 hours to fish the River Severn, hopefully for barbel but just to get the rod out. I had very limited gear with me, Fox Duo-lite 2.25, Shimano 6000 Baitrunner 12lb line, rod rest, landing net, about half a kilo of mixed pellets and a bag with bits and pieces.

Travelling to the venue I became stuck behind a tractor and slurry tanker for about ten minutes then discovered there were not one but two road closures between me and where I needed to be! Undaunted, I ploughed on to the river and made my way to the bank. The first swim looked great, fast flowing, a little turbulence and a smoother glide on the inside. My first two casts resulted in two lost feeders and a not unreasonable move of swim to one I think I fished about five years ago when a September gale blew me off (search “Wake Me Up When September Ends”). A much smoother stretch of water but still, plenty of flow considering the dry conditions.

Initially feeding a few pellets upstream, hair rigged 8mm Robin Reds were my first option with a 90gm gripper lead cast downstream just this side of the middle attracted a few plucks but nothing hittable. Continuing the feeding more knocks but still nothing significant. Two kingfishers flew by.

I changed bait to a single, hair rigged 10mm old fashioned halibut pellet and moulded a bit of over-wet pellets into paste around the bait with a bit stuffed into the gripper lead hole, cast out a bit short of the middle and was rewarded with an enormous bite which I managed to connect with. Two or three minutes later landed a cracking chub which weighed in at 3lb 10oz, not a mark on it, stunning.

I repeated the method and sat down on the unhooking mat to wait. Upstream there was a very noisy commotion which I assumed were canoeists or something but a couple of minutes later my swim was invaded by 15 or 16 goosander which made a real dent in the peace and quiet. However, this didn’t seem to put off the fish as I managed to catch a couple more, slightly smaller but equally beautiful chub.

Whilst packing up there was a huge splash under the willow bush to my left, too big to be a fish. A few seconds later an otter appeared, popped its head out of the water and stared at me briefly before sliding away into the deep.

An enjoyable little session.

Andy

 

[maggot_dangler]

Day at the top pool today slow start very slow start then about 13:00 it woke up started with a nice Crucian then another plus small carp nothing over 4 or 5 lbs ( note to self stop being lazy find scales and sling) had 12 Crucian by the time i packed up and 4 small carp also discovered it is tim,e i scrapped all my old line and replaced it all any suggestions on decent line these days i sort of like Maxima but i guess there is better out there now

 

[nottskev]

I had a couple of hours on the river yesterday afternoon and with nobody else on the stretch rolled and floatfished mussels or punched meat through a few swims. These were the pick of the barbel

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This afternoon, I drove over to the irrigation res. I'd rather catch barbel on the river (although I'll be grateful for these stillwater ones in the winter) so I left out the usual hemp and meat feed. Not only are floats banned, floating baits are, too, but I'd come with a plan to avoid the barbel and catch some of the carp which have been cruising on or just under the surface lately. I emptied the freezer of liquidised bread, fed plenty of this and fished big pieces of flake, squeezed just enough to sink slowly. These are the prettier ones

 

[mikench]

You are certainly getting good use of that combo Kev.

 

[nottskev]

You are certainly getting good use of that combo Kev.

I'm sure I'll get the pole out before long. But I'm really enjoying the drag and the winding power of this reel when there's something big on the end. Fishing with Steve (Binka) who uses pins all the time makes you think about all the fish near your own bank.

 

[mikench]

I must try it.

 

[john step]

I had a couple of hours on the river yesterday afternoon and with nobody else on the stretch rolled and floatfished mussels or punched meat through a few swims. These were the pick of the barbel

View attachment 23169

View attachment 23171

This afternoon, I drove over to the irrigation res. I'd rather catch barbel on the river (although I'll be grateful for these stillwater ones in the winter) so I left out the usual hemp and meat feed. Not only are floats banned, floating baits are, too, but I'd come with a plan to avoid the barbel and catch some of the carp which have been cruising on or just under the surface lately. I emptied the freezer of liquidised bread, fed plenty of this and fished big pieces of flake, squeezed just enough to sink slowly. These are the prettier ones

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Just as a matter of interest Kev, are you catching more carp on your floating knot thats not a float than those who are using the standard carp rig? If so keep it quite or you will be banned.

 

[nottskev]

Just as a matter of interest Kev, are you catching more carp on your floating knot thats not a float than those who are using the standard carp rig? If so keep it quite or you will be banned.

Hard to say, Pete. I'm often there on my own, so can't usually compare. The blokes on the standard pod/alarm/boilie set up almost all fish from the same 20m of bank to an island. This leaves the rest of the lake virtually unfished and other baits and methods untried. They do catch, of course, but I think they're limiting themselves. I like to watch the non-float float zip away, but to be honest free-lining and touch-legering with a couple of little blobs of clay to sink the line near the bait works just as well. I'm careful to make sure I'm complying with all the rules re giant landing net, unhooking mattress, tackle spec, permitted baits.

 

[john step]

Hard to say, Pete. I'm often there on my own, so can't usually compare. The blokes on the standard pod/alarm/boilie set up almost all fish from the same 20m of bank to an island. This leaves the rest of the lake virtually unfished and other baits and methods untried. They do catch, of course, but I think they're limiting themselves. I like to watch the non-float float zip away, but to be honest free-lining and touch-legering with a couple of little blobs of clay to sink the line near the bait works just as well. I'm careful to make sure I'm complying with all the rules re giant landing net, unhooking mattress, tackle spec, permitted baits.

Good stuff. By the way that tip of yours about clay. I bought a couple of bricks. One brown one green. I have used it as a break away weight and also a more economical way to counter balance a pop than tungsten putty which is more expensive than gold dust!

 

[seth49]

Back on club water as it’s been fishing well lately, was joined with Mick as well for a change, the water was still covered in the green algae it’s had for a couple of weeks, really needs some heavy rain and then it should clear down the overflow.

it does tend to blow to one side later in the day, so picked a bank with the wind behind me, which helped get rid of it later, usual tactics as before pole and margin rod on alarm, soon had a carp of just over 8lbs on the rod, it also caught me a crucian, and a small barbel as well later in the day, all on chocolate orange wafter and 2mm pellets using a method feeder.

fished paste on the pole for the tench and crucians, plus another barbel and the usual skimmers, finished with 6 tench,4 crucians, 2barbel, 1carp, 2F1s, and around a dozen skimmers, no carp later in the day, they were cruising on the top in the sun instead of coming into the margins.

no photos today as I got my camera wet when photographing the carp, it’s now drying in a box of rice, might try the syndicate water tomorrow for a change, haven’t fished it for a few weeks.

 

[wetthrough]

Had yesterday on a club water @mikench and I have fished on several occasions, usually to get out of blazing sun. Picked a spot on the south end in amongst the trees as it promised to be sunny all day, not in the usual spot where my floats are still dangling from the trees. There was a bit of a breeze going so quite cool. Had me zipping the jacket up before long. Plenty of overhead room in the chosen peg. GB in at about 10M in 6' of water. Maggots on the hook got me a couple of tiny Perch, lip hooked by way of a change, thankfully, still, I can do without them. Switched to sweetcorn with about 3" on the bottom, nothing for about 2 hours then a small Tench (around 1lb) took it on the drop.

Played about with fishing off the bottom, moving 0.4g of the 0.6g bulk up to the float to give a slower fall, No10s and 8s strung out for the rest. It was generally very slow although picked up some half decent Rudd and Roach around 5:6oz through the day. Did eventually pick up one of the sizeable Bream that inhabit the place, somewhere around 4.5lb.

Around 3pm something big an heavy took the bait. A bit of bad fumbling with the backwind meant I didn't really get control of it and ended up close to the peg with the rod bent double and the float perilously close to the rod tip. Fish went under the peg leg and snapped me off. 19 on the clicker by the end of the day.