How did you get on?

[tigger]

Mick / Flighty has some floats that the designer/maker had asked him to trial for him. Mick kindly sent me and several other FM members some of these floats to trial them.
Mine arrived early this afternoon .

As you can see the floats aren't of a generic design ! The floats are finished superbly and to a very high standard with a very unusual camo effect on the body and stem. The tips are highly visible and whatever the paint used is excellent.
As you can see the floats have a wedge shape which appears to have been designed to catch the flow and hold position / line whilst trotting. Here's a pic of the floats....



The two pics below are from my first and second trott through, I posted a second pic with the float laying on the fish....





The float performed very well and the unique shape did appear to keep it on line when holding back. It seemed ultra sensitive and showed bites and nibbles etc very well..... third and fourth trott through produced two more chub....



Things went queit so after a short spell of not catching a move down stream to a different swim
And second trott through got a result......





Today was only a quick trial and the float I used worked a treat in a smoothish flowning river. I used the mid sized one today but i'm looking forward to giving the biggy a go on a larger river and in faster choppier water!
I reckon the smaller ones would be a great choice for fishing light lines whilst targetting roach or other shy biters in small intimate rivers where the trotts arn't too long. I'm quite sure these smaller floats would appeal to the dedicated stick float rod enthusiasts.

 

[mikench]

Well done Ian! Clearly the weather has improved a lot! Lovely chubbly!

 

[tigger]

Well done Ian! Clearly the weather has improved a lot! Lovely chubbly!

Thanks Mike .
Yeaph, yesterday was about the first day in some time that the weathers been decent enought to enjoy a bit of trotting,
In all honesty though if Micks floats hadn't arrived I wouldn't have bothered so i'm glad they came and sort of forced me to go.
The gentleman who designed and made the floats (I think his name is Glen, but no doubt Mick will correct me if i'm wrong) has made a great job of them and they are a credit to him. Even going off yesterdays one short session using them I would thoroughly reccommend them to any trotting enthusiast, after all, there's always room for another float or three in the float tube .

 

[Another Dave]

Spent hours yesterday trotting lobworms through all my usual swims and then some more, blanked. River was chucking through a bit fast so i'm going to blame that.

 

[steve2]

Finally got out for only the second time this year. Nothing to report apart from it was good to be on the bank again.
Planning on going again on Thursday but the way my plans have worked out this year it most likely end up being a Thursday in May.

 

[S-Kippy]

Royal Berks with Grumpy today hoping for a decent perch but realistically hoping for anything given the lakes were 4 inches thick with ice on Saturday. Lots of tom tit floating on the surface making swim choice a bit limited but we found a tree to share and fished either side of it. Contrary to the forecast it was bloody cold.

The plan was to feed red maggot and fish alternately maggot and prawn over the top. I was into fish soon after starting...decent roach averaging 6-8 oz and as mint as any from a river. The bites were positive but came in short bursts. Phil was struggling next door and I'd had a dozen fish before he had his first. By now it was around 11-30 and it fished reasonably well for an hour or so....I had a perch of around 1-4 on the maggot, 3 or 4 nice roach around 12 oz and a decent perch of about 1-8 first chuck on a prawn. This made me persist with the prawn but over the next hour all I had was another nice roach and a missed bite. By now it had started raining and we were both really cold. Phil had a run of perch, mostly 8-10 oz jobs topped by a fish of around 1-4.

It finally stopped raining and the sun came out so we could warm up....but the bites dried up with the sun. I went back on the maggot and scratched a few more roach out including what was probably the best around 14oz or so. Phil continued to catch the odd perch with only the very occasional roach.

With 30 mins to " clear off" time I decided to go for broke and went back on the prawn but wasnt surprised to not get a touch. Still....it was nice to get out and to catch a few fish.

I guess I had around 20 odd roach, a solitary rudd and 4 perch. The other side of the tree Phil had around a dozen perch but only 3/4 roach. Odd...but I guess the fish were not prepared to move far given the very cold water.

Best of all the fishery has a new owner and Herr Flick the self proclaimed "Head Bailiff" and exceptionally nasty piece of work has been informed that his career path lies in another direction and has been given the tin tack.

 

[103841]

Another day, another stretch of river............another blank. A few too many blankers on HDYGO today.

Arrived at my chosen spot only to find to fine gentleman already fishing in my favoured swim.


It was clear to see that the member on the right had a substantial bend in his feeder rod. I watched with trepidation as he gently played what looked to be a very good fish.

Some ten minutes later and a lovely double figure common graced the net, caught on a 2lb hooklength, top dangling sir!


Much banter followed and a good gossip, lots to learn from some of the more senior members.

Those chaps couldn't muster a bite on their pike rods but undeterred I wandered off with lure rod in hand but to no avail. I even ventured along a dyke that runs off the river where I'm told fish often hold up when the river is in flood but once again nothing doing.

A pretty sight though and hopefully the last remains of snow in these parts for sometime to come.

 

[peter crabtree]

4 old codgers turned up this morning to fish the canal near Tring.
One very senior codger (88) stayed by the bridge while myself and two others walked up to the turning bay, which is usually good for a few skimmers.
Bang on 10am as we started a barge and lighter came up and turned around churning up tons of silt. Needless to say we all blanked, senior codger left early.
So, with no fishy pics or results, above is a vid of the swim before the barge came along...

 

[103841]

Is uploading a video the same procedure as a photo?

 

[Pete Shears]

Another trip to the river Wreake this morning,pushing through about 18" higher than normal with quite a bit of debris swirling round in my favourite deep pool so it was downstream to the next wider and shallower pool,the main current just off the far bank.Quivertip with a cage feeder,crust on the hook and liquidised bread was the weapon of choice and second cast had a bite resulting in a chub of 2lb.Casting to different spots in the whirlpool of the back eddy made no difference so it was back to the deeper pool.Spent two hours or more trying different baits but to no avail so was back home about 11am - no blank though.

 

[S-Kippy]

Further to my earlier post I was using one of those micro quick change swivel jobbies which are absolutely brilliant. I've used them on the rivers where I think the swivel helps stop grayling twisting off the hook but as they allow you to swap hooklinks in a moment today I could swap between an 18 for the maggot and a 10 for the prawn without losing my depth. Cant think why I'd not thought of this before.

 

[Another Dave]

Further to my earlier post I was using one of those micro quick change swivel jobbies which are absolutely brilliant.

Which ones are you using? I had a dabble with the micro link swivels from Decathlon which are like half a swivel with a link.

 

[S-Kippy]

Which ones are you using? I had a dabble with the micro link swivels from Decathlon which are like half a swivel with a link.

Drennan micro. Tiny swivel with one open "hooked" end and a tiny bit of silicone to cover it once you've looped your hooklink on. The packet says its equivalent to a no 10 shot...more like an 8 imo. Well worth having a packet in your box.

 

[Pete Shears]

The upper Soar was the venue to try this morning - a beautiful start,bit of frost on the fields & birds singing,kingfisher zooming away downstream,feeding robins - the river was still up a bit but free from floating debris so it was leger with the cage feeder,liquidised bread with crust on the hook on a wider bend.Not a tremble,tried flake,worms,prawns and cheese paste still no luck ,moved upstream to a straight bit with a fairly steady flow and had a chub of 2lb 10oz on crust then casting upstream another at 1lb 14oz and something else fell off.
That seemed to kill that swim so upstream again to a 180 degree bend in the river and had two more fall off,hook was sharp but the bites were so sudden there was little time to react,tend to think they were brown trout as they always seem to be harder to hook.Hope the forecast rain isn't too much as there aren't many days left.

 

[Mark Wintle]

The upper Soar was the venue to try this morning - a beautiful start,bit of frost on the fields & birds singing,kingfisher zooming away downstream,feeding robins - the river was still up a bit but free from floating debris so it was leger with the cage feeder,liquidised bread with crust on the hook on a wider bend.Not a tremble,tried flake,worms,prawns and cheese paste still no luck ,moved upstream to a straight bit with a fairly steady flow and had a chub of 2lb 10oz on crust then casting upstream another at 1lb 14oz and something else fell off.
That seemed to kill that swim so upstream again to a 180 degree bend in the river and had two more fall off,hook was sharp but the bites were so sudden there was little time to react,tend to think they were brown trout as they always seem to be harder to hook.Hope the forecast rain isn't too much as there aren't many days left.

When you say upper Soar is that upstream of Leicester? I only say this because when I meet up with the Likely Lads I come off the M1 at Fosse Park and then travel towards Oadby and cross the Soar and canal on the way where the Soar is fairly small.

Fished a sidestream on the Avon today for some cracking dace, easily told apart as males and females as they prepare for spawning. Just the one roach, all from 2ft of fast water.

 

[Pete Shears]

Mark - yes,the section I fish on a local club book is upstream of Leicester and Narborough and is small but having had chub,roach,dace and brown trout it is brilliant.Have yet to get a barbel or perch which are meant to be in there.Being narrow and when the level is low & clear to pass the time you can count the stones on the bottom makes it fairly cormorant proof although on bright sunny mornings the bites do tend to cease around 10am unless it is up and coloured.

 

[peter crabtree]

Fished the midweek open match at Willows lakes near St Albans.



6 hours on the tip and not a touch!

11 fished and 3 blanked. Didn't hang around for the results....

2 blanks in one week mg:

 

[mikench]

Of coarse I didn't like the fact you blanked Peter but you know what I mean! I have another cunning plan for tomorrow!

 

[jon atkinson]

We've all been there PC, some of us more than others...

 

[nottskev]

It seemed to have stopped snowing, freezing or raining for a bit, so I nipped out to the Old Lake for a couple of hours yesterday. For half an hour I was basking in the sun, but then it clouded over and I was back to the car for a further layer of clothes. For all that it was frozen over until a couple of days ago, a few fish were willing to feed, and pole-fished caster over hemp produced this small but welcome catch of roach, perch and small tench



It was nice to see some signs of spring, with continual duck-fights of the "You looking at my bird?" type, more bird song and the reeds in the margins coming on. In fact, it was getting hard to ship out without picking up the soft weed that grows in abundance here.

I took a friend along, and he showed a complete lack of etiquette by catching more than me. And I don't mean one or two. As if that wasn't enough, I found out that while I was scratching around with .10 or .08 hooklength, he was merrily catching big roach on a .15 carp rig, just because it was the only one he had that matched the depth. I suppose I should be grateful he didn't use roach gear.

Had lunch today in a riverside pub. Looking at the condition of the water, that could be as near as I'm going to get to it this season. If it comes to it, there's always the tiny brook for a last ditch (!) try for a chub.