How did you get on?

[jon atkinson]

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.

Certainly better than I usually fare! I've been in PSAC for a few years now - ideally I'd have found a similar club north of the Mersey but despite a fair amount of internet trawling I couldn't find any that offered what I was after... smallish farm ponds for Tench, Crucian, Perch & silvers. It takes me about 35 - 40 minutes to get to our ponds which I don't mind once a week or so.

Which section of the Dee did you fish?

 

[John Aston]

My last fishing book was called The Glorious Uncertainty - a magical element of our sport is that every trip is a venture into the unknown and unexpected . Today the principle operated in style , and my nerves are still jangling ...

A trip to the river, the same Pennine spate river where I'd had some big perch last season . Perch were the target - a bit early , perhaps , and conditions weren't great . Cool , blowy and sunny , with low flow . I was equipped with normal perch gear- an 11 ft Drennan 1.25TC Avon , 6.5lb line and a net that would fit a record perch , or even a damned big chub. Old style , I fished one of my cherished Fairy Liquid tops . Bait was lobworm on a #6 Kamasan B983 .

A few tweaks and jerks in the first 20 minutes from tiddlers but then the indicator rocketed up, without warning. I struck into something very heavy and very fast . After some very long , clutch screaming runs , the fight was pump and hold stalemate and I had time to guess what I'd hooked . Definitely neither perch or chub ! Salmon maybe , or a big pike ,or even one of the rare carp . Barbel? Nah , not a stretch noted for them and conditions and swim were both unsuitable . And obviously it was a barbel and a bloody huge thing it was too. The net was too small , but somehow I got most of the fish into it and staggered up the bank. I knew it was big but when I actually saw it properly I was shaking . Double figure barbel are common on the Trent but they aren't here ... And this wasn't 'just' a scraper double but a stupendous 13 lb 1 oz . And I am still shaking ...

No pic - I took only one blurry horror, as I was desperate to get the fish back quickly and I had taken enough of its time already . It swam off vigorously after being held a minute or two.

Glorious Uncertainty ? Yes please !

 

[sam vimes]

Old news, Grayson.

 

[seth49]

Usual fishery yesterday, it was cool when I arrived at 6.30, and just getting light, picked a swim that was sheltered from the north westerly wind, and when the sun got higher it was quite pleasant in the sunshine, till it clouded over later and the wind got up.

usual tactics margin rod to my right which did nothing all day, and fished pole at top kit and two sections, fished maggots over groundbait which was best, as no other baits I tried worked, sport was slow a few roach and skimmers, before a nice mirror carp picked a couple of maggots up, and tested the light rig for a while, but the carp are slowing down in the colder water, and the fish felt cold as well.

did get a couple of tench plus a crucian later on, which was nice, it was slow though, took the keepnet out at three pm for the meagre catch shot, I don’t put the skimmers in any more to avoid the slime and smell.

did better with the carp later in the margins, caught them on six maggots on a size 12 hook, over a bit of groundbait and loose fed maggots. Just fished on the top section.

finished with four carp, including a 12lb 12oz common which gave me a good scrap, the two tench and crucian, plus around 12 assorted silvers, so sport is slowing up now the colder weather is here, the tench are still taking though as Neil had a few as well, still nice to be out after missing last week, and it’s not too cold yet.

It’s

 

[john step]

A couple of trips this week to deep farm reservoirs. These are reasonable size lakes and are nice to float fish for whatever comes along. 6 Or 8lb Double Strength bottoms . I had a bag of hand size roach and perch and the usual carp which was the reason for the heavy bottoms.

Todays trip started very slow as we had the first frost of the Autumn. The carp came alive after lunch and I had 5 more between 9 and 17 lb.
Bread, worm and homemade paste .

Probably my last fish for a while provided my hernia op is not put off again!!!

 

[wetthrough]

Back to a venue yesterday @mikench and I have fished several times this year. Ice on the windscreen when setting off. Arrived around 7am and it was a lot colder than anticipated. Just a 'panorama' of the venue.

I'm not sure whether the video will work as I've just pasted the link in.

There's another water to the far left around the same size as the first in the clip. Couldn't get high enough to get it in. The one you can't see to the left is known as the Specimen lake but it suffered the worst in a pollution event around three years ago. Only fished it once since and caught one skimmer in around 9 hours. The first in the clip has some reasonable sized Carp to probably low doubles, plenty of skimmers Roach and small Perch. The next one is known as the match lake although I think it's a long time since matches were held there, it has some sizeable Carp in though not sure how big. The last, far right is the only one with Tench in AFAIK and reputedly Barbel but I've yet to see or hear of one being caught. It was Tench lake, far right I'd decided to fish. Started getting the tackle out AAAAAARGH, no nets. It's not a water where you're likely to be able to use someone elses nets. If there's anyone else on the water at all they're likely right on the far side. Bgr, bgr, bgr. Mike wasn't coming as he's been a bit under the weather. It's a 40 minute journey for me. If I'd had to go back I'd have probably stayed back and done some more decorating @mikench doesn't live far from the venue, maybe 12:15 minutes. Not sure he's going to appreciate being called at around 7:30 but star that he is he didn't hesitate to rescue the situation, he was there with some nets before I'd started plumbing up. A great big thank you Mike, you saved the day

I'd brought GB but decided just to loose feed keeping the GB for later on. Picking up small Roach and Perch to maggot early on. Wouldn't look at sweetcorn or pellets. Tried meat, still not much interest until I cast a little beyond the loose feed area and started picking up some nice Roach round the 7:8 oz mark. Slowed down around 11am, well stopped really with just one good Roach around 3.30. Packed up about 4pm with 17 on the clicker.

From the on nearly everything I caught I had to net. Some really nice Roach, a single Rudd and just one Chub, small but very welcome.

 

[mikench]

I’m glad it turned out to be worth the effort Gordon and happy to help a pal.

 

[john step]

I always have a spare net secreted away with a spare reel, some floats and the odd tin of meat and sweetcorn. Just because I am prone to forgetting things!

 

[markcw]

Went to Tunnel Barn Farm in Shrewley yesterday, It took e just under an hour to get there, If I had known it was closer I would have gone before now,
My mate travelled down from Warrington , took him longer than the satnav time of one hour thirty five minutes due to heavy traffic where the M42 joins the M40, Also took him over two hours to get home due to traffic .
Anyway we paid our £8 and went on House pool. We set up feeder rod first and I used a PI small inline maggot feeder with the intention of changing to method feeder or straight lead later on. Mate started on method feeder .
Then it was a couple of sections of pole plus topkits for fishing out in front and down the margins .
Depth down down the margins varied from 12" to a slope going down to around 2' . Depth in front was just shy of 4'
It's fishery only feed pellets so I bought a bag of 2mm and also a bag of milled pellet to use as groundbait . Had over a pint of maggots with me,
There wasn't much doing on the maggot feeder ,and the method feeder my mate was fishing only produced a couple of knocks . So I switched to straight lead and cast to my right towards a footbridge leading to pegs 29 onwards . Bait was bread . Mate decided on fishing the margins with maggot .
I had a wrap around bite and next minute there was a skimmer of around a pound in the net , not something I was wishing for . Meanwhile my mate was bagging up on perch of various sizes , some decent ones of around a pound in them .
I had filled my cupping kit with some 2mm pellets ,milled pellets and maggots to go out in front of me, as I was going to put it on my pole it caught the surface of the water and a fair bit went in . So brought it back and just dumped it in the margin to my right.
Refilled and out it went .
I did a few more casts towards the footbridge , dropping the lead right at the edge of it . I had a few carp to around three to four pound , the way the fought I was confined I was into a double .
My mate had moved to a couple of pegs past the footbridge and was catching well on method feeder and pellet , Same stamp of carp and same style of fight from them ..
I happened to glance down after I had cast my feeder to the bridge and saw the margin to my right was swirling where I had dumped the feed . So I threw a few more maggots and 2mm in to keep them interested . Had another carp on the feeder ,so decided to try the margin.
In went the small dibber baited with a couple of maggots, The float moved a few times and dipped a couple of times then sailed away , A bloody perch must have snuck in with the carp feeding.
This happened a couple times ,So a change to bread sorted the problem perch out .
I got seen off a couple of times with hook pulls ,due to I would think the elastic was a bit to powerful . Was using a red micro bore . So a change of topkits to a soft set 17 hollo worked a treat , I could " walk" the carp out of the swim into open water ,
Meanwhile my mate was still catching on the feeder before he went down the margins , He was using black hydro in his topkits,
, We were both catching at the same rate,sometimes sit and wait, other times a bite straight away. ,and similar stamp of fish ,
I changed to a Halibut soft hooker pellet to see if that would up the catch rate.I was getting bites on the bread but having to rebait if I missed a bite. I had a few more carp plus a couple of perch before deciding to call it a day .
There were two others on the pool who didn't seem to be catching anything but the odd skimmer .
I will say it was a cool day with a breeze going across the water . The water was cold as well , this more than likely slowed sport down .
As for the place itself ,It's a good layout with various pools on it , a good well stocked tackle shop. I didn't see seatboxes for sale as such .A couple of poles and rods were on show .
A good cafe doing breakfasts etc . But the cafe closes at 9am , I don't know if this is daily or just on days if a match was on such as yesterday .
I would recommend it for a days fishing and I am definitely going again,

 

[maggot_dangler]

Out this morning went and fished my local river the Tern a Public section on the edge of the town lot of walking something i ma not too good at but straight into the Trout fished up to 13:30 had 9 trout in total most around 6 inch but a couple of more respectable ones close on 10 inches plus a couple of Perch . So not bad I will pay for it later for sure but what the heck i was not expecting to catch much but a nice collection of trout was very welcome

 

[Pete Shears]

Opened the pike season with a fish of 10lb 8oz off the dam of the big reservoir on a silver Mepps after going through quite a handful of modern rubber shads and grubs etc - it took first cast but that was it, pleasant in the sunshine.
Stopping by the canal feeder reservoir on the way back, two mates had blanked using deadbaits , but watched an osprey swoop down just 20 yards away catching a roach for lunch - brilliant.

 

[jon atkinson]

I grabbed an hour with the lure rod on the cut at Maghull yesterday once wifey had returned from her travels. It was rather to bright to expect much and although I had 2 takes, both got off. The first was a very small jack that clung to the tail end of a green paddletail for a few seconds but didn't get near the hook. The second, a little larger, threw the hook on a Koi pulse tail just as I was reaching for the net . Still, I'd gone expecting a blank and so it transpired... 'til the next time.

 

[maggot_dangler]

Spent the afternoon on the river again today yet more Trout a couple of decent sized ones today they fall for white maggots as easy as on there good fishing all the same one section i want to fish i can not get at because of the nettle infestation i am somewhat allergic to nettle stings 1 ok 2 pushing it 3 head home so i need to wait till they have all died down to clear me a path for next year dang things

 

[Golden Eagle]

Certainly better than I usually fare! I've been in PSAC for a few years now - ideally I'd have found a similar club north of the Mersey but despite a fair amount of internet trawling I couldn't find any that offered what I was after... smallish farm ponds for Tench, Crucian, Perch & silvers. It takes me about 35 - 40 minutes to get to our ponds which I don't mind once a week or so.

Which section of the Dee did you fish?

I fished first peg at Farndon by the bridge on the hairdressers side. Had a bite a chuck on maggots but only tiny fish and a decent perch. Tried corn but nothing doing on that.
Had some left over bait from a match and just fancied something different to the commercials I match fish.

 

[riverman]

a bit disappointing on the nidd yesterday.had just the one take on meat but missed it but did manage 6 grayling and 6 chublets on the stick.had some leftover maggots and meat so i'm having a pole session today on a lake near york.going to fish corn pellets and the leftover baits and go for a mixed bag.

 

[peterjg]

Although I've done lots of fishing I haven't reported catches for quite a while. Still just fishing for roach but along the way (not by design) I've caught a lot of tench this summer, carp to over 20lbs, some nice rudd, crucians, etc. So far this season had roach to 1lb 14oz from the Kennet and several pound plus roach from the Basingstoke Canal.
However; the perch and pike have now really woken up! I've cocked things up of late by continuing to feed my usual groundbait which (I think?) has attracted too many small fish into the swim which have in turn attracted the attention of the predators. Yesterday again lots of surface activity from scared small fish. This has resulted in the target roach avoiding my swim. Oh well back to the drawing board!

 

[maggot_dangler]

Totally different part of the River today for me a part i used to fish a couple of years ago very slow and surprisingly deep as well this is on an almost U turn considering the bulk of it is around 3 feet deep this patch is 7 feet in one place had the normal now Trout but also 4 very nice smaller chub nice roach couple of bream dinner plate size one nice surprise a Crayfish BUT a Native White clawed one only the second one i have ever seen just need to get shut of the nettles there are a couple of places i want to fish but so many nettles not good for me at all .
Update on looking at video of Dace it would seem i also had a couple of nice sized dace as well today interesting

 

[riverman]

decent pole session yesterday using mondays leftover baits and went to redwood park in between york and thirsk just off A19.didn't realise there was a match on redwood lake so fished the arc lake peg 30.started on maggot to get warmed up and was into a roach on first cast.then a couple of f1's followed shortly after.then i switched to meat and the 1st carp around the 3lb mark was in the net.i fished in front me for a couple of hours before switching to the margins.peg 30 is the corner peg and i dropped the float next to the reeds and after a short while was a bite a chuck.finished up with 7 carp up to 5lb 5 f1's and a mixed bag of roach perch skimmers gudgeon and surprisingly a dace.the heavens opened at 3.30pm and jacked in at 4pm.nice venue this and was hoping to catch one of the resident barbel as i did last visit but not to be this time,gone up to a tenner now as last time it was £8.sign of the times i guess but well worth a visit.

 

[John Aston]

Well, another unexpected fish for me. Fishing on the river with a large yellow lure on a Cheb Rig I didn't catch the hoped for pike, from a lie where I'd lost one last year which felt like an animated railway sleeper . But I did find myself attached to a very feisty and incredibly short and deep chub of 4 -9. So not entirely a wasted afternoon , especially with 5 kingfisher sightings, 3 each of Little Egret and Buzzard , and a pair of very noisy Typhoons making their approach to the nearby RAF base.

 

[maggot_dangler]

Out for a late one on the river today we had a lot of rain last night and this morning the water was up around 6 inches and hence cold spent 2 hours in a normally productive area 1 nibble thats your lot resulted in sucked maggots at which point it started to rain again so i cleared off getting wet is not pleasant these days . Rain forecast for tomorrow as well last i looked so will see what the weekend brings now .