How did you get on?

[wetthrough]

Had Friday on a day ticket/club concession water. One I've fished with @mikench many times (the Tench venue) but fished one of the smaller pools. Choice being made mainly to get a peg with my back to the wind which was forecast to get fairly strong later on. Quite cold first thing but through the day when the sun frequently showed itself quite tolerable, if a little chilly inbetween. It's a bit of a hit and miss water. Sometimes quite productive sometimes not. This was a not day! Scratching for bites most of the day, no evidence of any big stuff about. Tried all the usual stuff. Maggots just got me tiny Perch and Roach. Surprise catch was several decent Roach to Tare, around 6:7oz. I don't find Tare very successful generally. The only place I find they work is on the Dam and then only in the shallows and that isn't guaranteed. I've only had one from the Dam in deeper water. I was fishing dead depth, tried others but dead depth (as near as I could tell) seemed best in around 6/7ft. Did eventually get a skimmer of around a pound and a half and another much later on maybe close to 2lb which put up quite a fight. Had me reaching for the backwind just as it remembered it was a Bream. The wind did get quite gusty later on, starting to feel almost cold. Seems I wasn't the only one struggling. The other two on the water had been scratching for bites. Just 13 on the clicker when I packed up at around 3.15.

 

[markcw]

Had a few hours on the Thames at Sandford . The back channel was going to be my chosen part, due to the amount of paddle boards and canoes being carried to the lock channel .
Every other angler must have had the same idea , nearly every available fishable part on one side was taken .The opposite bank had a few spare spaces .
I travelled light and baitwise cheap.
Settled on the first peg over the stile, close enough to keep an eye on the car and far enough away from the walkers and other anglers going past .
Bait taken was bread, corn , black and white Fjuka pellets and black maryuku jpz pellets.I left it to late on Saturday to get maggots and hemp . Hence todays bait choice for a last minute session .
I ended up just fishing bread ,
Set up was 13' rod , old Shimano Aero reel loaded with 2.8lb line to a 1.8lb hooklength to a 18 tubertini 808 hook . I chose this hook in case I decided to use pellet or corn later on .Float was a 3bb insert waggler.
I started off using the smallest guru bread punch . These are sharp edged so beware if buying a set with the punch bread tray.
They are also ideal for using punched meat .
Sport was slow but steady with small roach up to about 4oz being caught. Talking to other anglers when I packed up it emerged it was slow all along the length. , Only small roach to hemp and tares , maggot catching the odd small perch .
Talk was of pike being along the length and putting the fish off feeding . There are plenty of jack's along there with a few larger ones .
Possible visit to Tunnel Barn Farm on Thursday .

 

[john step]

Like Markcw above I had a crowded venue today. Only joking. Two mates decided to fish the same lake as me. It's a biggish lake so no one was near. There are only half a dozen of us permitted to fish on the 4 lakes. Hard life!
The fishing with the change of temperatures was slow. Just 3 commons to 11 3/4 lb on bread flake.
We get those cold Easterlies which kill sport. It stayed dry though.

 

[nottskev]

I wondered if there'd be more or fewer on the bank today. As it turned out, I haven't seen more anglers on the river since opening day. I gave up on three stretches with full car parks before I settled for a swim on an unpopular length. The river is so low it takes a longer than usual net handle to get over the rocks in inches of water. The weather was perfect when I arrived around 1pm - still, grey and cool. But the clouds cleared, the sun came out and my expectations sank a bit lower.

You know it's a slow session when birds start perching on your rod. I had no live bait to offer this robin, but he didn't say no to some crumbled flapjack.

I went for a bait-and-wait kind of style and dripped hemp in continually and ran a clear loafer float through a couple of times every 10 minutes or so. This got me 2 bites in 4 hours and this was the nicer looking of the two barbel

 

[jon atkinson]

First post on this thread for quite a while - I've been out but there's not been a great deal to write home about so to speak! Anyway, I had a few hours available yesterday afternoon so headed over to the Wirral to fish the stork pond, a favourite but one of the more challenging of our club waters in search of Tench & Bream. Fishing the waggler, I've been pushing myself to persevere with a loaded version (didn't we used to call them 'self cocking'?) which I'm gradually coming to terms with. I fished with prawn on a 16 at dead depth of close to 5' next to some lilies. put in a few smallish balls of GB laced with micros & cast out. Continued to ping a few micros over the top and after about 20 minutes had a bite - I thought it was a small Tench at first but it was a Roach of bang on 1lb - not my intended quarry but I was more than happy with that.

I stuck with prawn & had a Common of about 4lb, a Tench of about 1.5, a few small Perch, another decent but smaller Roach and finished with a Bream of 2.5 - I would love to have stayed longer as this pond comes into its own as dusk approaches, but work, as ever, had other ideas

 

[mikench]

It looks a picturesque spot Jon and one that is nice to fish regardless.
Talking of a nice place to fish Gordon and I settled in here on a difficult water but one everyone likes and forgives.

I normally take a pic of the other end. We tried another water first but the level was so low I didn’t fancy it so we moved. I fished the feeder and Gordon the float. As ever it was slow going but the benign conditions- no wind dry and mild, meant we both enjoyed the day immensely despite the paucity of bites. The hours passed quickly. Gordon had 17 in total with 3 decent bream around 4lb. I had one bream of a similar size and two tench of which this, at 3.5 lb or so was the biggest.

I lost a nice mirror at the end after a good struggle and , as with many anglers, the one that got away started off as a good fish, rising to a double figure fish and then a 30lber.. A lovely day and very nice to see Gordon again. Today was proof positive that fishing and the enjoyment of it , is more than just catching fish. Cheers Gordon and here’s to Friday.

 

[Pete Shears]

Fishing trips recently curtailed by lower back pain which only happened when standing from sitting and vice versa, could walk for miles without any pain so trips were limited to lure fishing long the local GUC resulting in small perch and micro pike.
Now things are back to normal a trip to the big reservoir this morning ,to try out a new feeder rod, which was going well until without warning the bail arm shut mid cast snapping the line and sending the feeder into orbit.
Still had a few fish casting short or long - bream, roach/bream hybrids and some scale perfect roach up to about a pound and didn't get piked at all. Just used sweetcorn as a hook bait switching to artificial corn on a hair when the bites picked up.
Driving back along the side of the reservoir spent a few minutes watching a hobby unsuccessfully chasing dragonflies.

 

[Neil Maidment]

Hot on the heels of my first trip of the season to the Dorset Stour, I was soon doing the same on the Hampshire Avon. A little bit of local information meant I was targeting roach. That snippet also said banded pellet was the way to go.

A touch of frost greeted my early start, and the Avon valley was shrouded in a thick mist.

Banded pellet produced plenty of chub, some of which may have weighed as much as 14oz! Not a roach to be seen.

I switched to caster over a bit of hemp. It didn't reduce the flow of chublets too much, but I did net five roach, three of which were well over 1lb and all in superb condition.

 

[flightliner]

Decisions decisions, where should I go.
I could'nt decide so I thort about a small bit of parish land on the tidal Trent not to far above Gainsboro where the tides can be pretty extreme at times.
On Arriving I mentally gave myself a massive kick up the backside as I had made the fundamental error of not checking the tide times at Albert dock nr Hull—the banks are bad enough but with no water in front of me save for some thick Trent mud I had no choice but to head upstream to look elsewhere.
Coates, Laneham ferry were blessed with a very "dead" feel with the water pushing thro at a snails pace so, onwards and upstream so to speak.
I eventually came to a venue where the pace seemed suitable to run a float downriver and where the banks were more forgiving so decided as the time was passing to give it a go.
In the next two hours I never had a bite, even with maggot but a fone call from an old friend fishing some distance below Cromwell weir informed me that he too was fishless.
Mmmmm! What to do?
The answer came with the tide begining to turn towards Newark.
Not liking it when it does I decided to go to an area that sometimes turns up a bream or two so a kwik bundling of tackle into the car and I, m heading even further upstream.
It was empty on arrival so things all sety up and groundbaited I dropped a simple feeder setup with a three maggot hookbait into the swim to await a result,
It took ten minutes and the culprit was a tiny Bream of four inches.
Then a perch of similar size then another almost identical.
The next cast brought a kwik response that was a decant Bream of about 5lb,a nice result for most.
Then it happened,just about to bring another skimmer to hand and a massive swirl heralded a pike taking it at the critical moment.
The attack was a failure of sorts as the skimmer was knocked free of the hook and swam away but it (the hook) must have travelled along the flank of the Pike and and impaled itself close to its tail.
The struggle was long, hard, and pretty tiring to be hones but it eventually came to my net and thrashed around with indignity at the feel of it!
I did'nt weigh it but guessed it at around nine or ten pounds!
An angler nearby took my foto with it.
How did the rest of the session go?
Maybe the two pics will tell the rest!

 

[Hugh Bailey]

Not really a catch report but walked along the upper Swale this morning. Have only been coming to these parts for maybe 10 years but have never seen it so low with very little flow. Spoke to one flyfisher who’d had a small trout but was not veryt about his chances. It must have been really dry up here as at home, both the Wey and Thames were back to nearly NSL - actually the Wey was up.

BOTD - a Dipper - only my second one in The UK - smashing bird!

 

[john step]

Something different today. A pole fish on the Fosdyke. Not far from the car. (Hernia op postponed. Now there's a surprise!) I never expected anything big and that was the case. Plenty of bites all day from silver bream,roach, perch and I even had a gudgeon and a pope.
Very few boats. A nice calm warm overcast day with loads of room.

Just typing this and glanced out of the window. 7PM and almost dark. Nights draw in very fast now.

 

[sam vimes]

Not really a catch report but walked along the upper Swale this morning. Have only been coming to these parts for maybe 10 years but have never seen it so low with very little flow. Spoke to one flyfisher who’d had a small trout but was not veryt about his chances. It must have been really dry up here as at home, both the Wey and Thames were back to nearly NSL - actually the Wey was up.

You should have seen it less than a month ago. The current level is about normal in recent summers. It was running a good 5cm lower than today's level this summer. We are due some rain tomorrow. With a bit of luck, there'll be a dab more water in on Friday. If that's the case, I may fish the Swale. However, the Tees being regulated by reservoirs means that it tends to have a bit more flow which tends to make it a better prospect at times.

BOTD - a Dipper - only my second one in The UK - smashing bird!

A blackbird with a posh coat and a specialization!

 

[mikench]

A strange day but an enjoyable one apart from the fishing. This is what Gordon and I were faced with early doors.

It wasn’t cold and there wasn’t a breath of wind so we set up. This was the same view 4 hours later when the sun came out and a stiff breeze set in.

Sadly it didn’t improve the fishing with just small perch on the float and nothing on the feeder. I was desperate to christen my new rod and had given up hope until a common of around 7 lb gave the rod a decent bend.

That was it however. Gordon had 14 in total and I managed 6. Others were struggling too and quite a few regulars blanked. I was still in shorts and it was very pleasant to be out just a shame the fish didn’t share those sentiments.

 

[john step]

Off to a farm reservoir today to get rid of left over maggots. Waggler and spray maggots got lots of perch. This was a water ravaged by cormorants for silvers a few years ago so it was nice to see the perch have bounced back.
Also 6 carp two of which were low doubles took a fancy to my maggots.
Used Kamasan B911s. What great hooks they are.
No photo. All commons look similar.

 

[Neil Maidment]

I returned to the club stretch of the Dorset Stour late last week.

Chucking an insert peacock waggler to the far bank overhangs and rafts produced small roach, dace, chublets, gudeon and bleak pretty much all day long. All on double caster.

Two early chub around 2lbs were also welcome but a short mid-afternoon spell saw three better examples close to 5lbs come to the net.

Really enjoyed it, haven't fished that way for a while.

 

[flightliner]

I decided to have a run round some not to far away tiny Notts streams last thursday. Three in total, the first I looked at was so shallow, maybe 3or 4 inches as far as I could walk thro the the hi nettles and brambles.
The second was dissappointing, a tiny stream i've had my eye on for a year now but it had been blocked off by the landowner so on to my third and last.
All I had were a few basics, rod landing net and some bits and pieces plus a loaf of sliced bread.
In no time I had chub taking it off the top.
Two small ones, the best maybe just short of a lb.
Then they were gone so I moved a hundred yards further downstream.
No sign of a fish taking my surface delivered bread but I let one piece go down, seconds before it was about to dissappear beneath some overhanging leaves up popped a fish and took it.
A chub, maybe 3lbs but that was it, I was nettled to death, had been tripped up by low brambles and my clothes were covered on sticky burrs,and I was all done in.

 

[mikench]

The pioneer spirit Mick.

 

[flightliner]

There are some lovely hidden gems to try Mike, ones that never see an angler. They're hard work but they can turn up the odd good fish on occasion

 

[maggot_dangler]

Well lot of things happened since my last post including a darn smoked Computer I hate this new keyboard .
Plenty of fishing been happening at various club venues with some nice results , today 11 F1's nothing over 2lb more Gudgen perch roach yesterday on the canal some nice bream biggest i would say 3lb a total blank the day before that first one for a while but cant complain .

What i can whinge about is this keyboard conventional keyboard i find the hard to use i need the ergonomic shaped style to be comfortable F12 is way too close to backspace on this Oh well save up for a new ergonomic job theres £86 for a cheap one

 

[Golden Eagle]

First post on this thread for quite a while - I've been out but there's not been a great deal to write home about so to speak! Anyway, I had a few hours available yesterday afternoon so headed over to the Wirral to fish the stork pond, a favourite but one of the more challenging of our club waters in search of Tench & Bream. Fishing the waggler, I've been pushing myself to persevere with a loaded version (didn't we used to call them 'self cocking'?) which I'm gradually coming to terms with. I fished with prawn on a 16 at dead depth of close to 5' next to some lilies. put in a few smallish balls of GB laced with micros & cast out. Continued to ping a few micros over the top and after about 20 minutes had a bite - I thought it was a small Tench at first but it was a Roach of bang on 1lb - not my intended quarry but I was more than happy with that.
View attachment 23669
I stuck with prawn & had a Common of about 4lb, a Tench of about 1.5, a few small Perch, another decent but smaller Roach and finished with a Bream of 2.5 - I would love to have stayed longer as this pond comes into its own as dusk approaches, but work, as ever, had other ideas
View attachment 23671

Nice session! I’m also a member of PSAC, joined earlier in the year. Have only fished Fireman’s and a section of the Dee so far. Lovely roach that.