How did you get on?

[neil1970]

I went out for my last river session of the season.
On my way to meet Simon I hooked something on a spinnerbait that instantly ripped yards of line of the spool and then came loose when I twisted to full lockdown. Probably a lightly foul hooked carp or Barbel.

Met Simon and we had a good catch up as its been a while.

On the way back I had one bite on a 2" white kopyto which almost pulled the rod from my hands.

Nice to be out

 

[peter crabtree]

Bit of urban fishing on the river Colne in town today. It was warm enough for no bib and brace or jacket. Selected a swim and set up my clobber...
15' rod and 5BB stick float straight through to a 18 forged hook. Sat for a while drinking tea and pinging maggots across in the main flow.



With a good pouch fed every run through it wasn't long before a purposeful yank down on the float and a lively fish on.



Neil turned up soon after that for a chat before he set off roving.

I fished on into the twilight; after a good couple of hours I had my second bite. This was quite a way downstream and felt a bit more solid. It certainly was lumpier than the first. I think the garish blue net may have shocked it.......



Normally solid with roach and dace here but none showed.

 

[iain t]

Last 3 days have been a total nightmare. Lost floats, line and hooks. 8 pints of Maggots and not even a nibble. Each session I've had to dry my clothes out. The water has been running quite fast and coffee coloured. Yesterday i was chased by a Cob Swan for no reason. Everywhere i went he followed me like on a mission. Could understand if there were cygnets but it's the wrong time of the year for that. On Friday i slipped on the bank, ending up with my wellies full of muddy water. Luckly i keep a spare pair of boots and socks in the car. Today im taking it off due to it being Mothering Sunday. Sods law it's the first dry day in the last 4.

 

[mikench]

Sorry to hear that Iain! If there had been a "sympathise with this post" button I would have clicked it!

 

[103841]

Having suffered numerous blanks over the past few weeks I was calling into question my relative lack of experience and knowledge but reading posts like Iain's it's clear I'm not alone.

 

[bullet]

Probably my last session of the season this morning. River well up and coloured so chose to ledger worm in a few slacker spots. Nothing doing, so I thought I would try a few maggots in a feeder, something I hardly ever do.
After about an hour I had a small Roach, which I was quite pleased with as it saved the blank and I hardly ever catch them.
It wasn't what anyone would call a fine job of fishing,however, it was just on there when I reeled in!
Still, they all count, I suppose!

 

[mikench]

I agree John! Its posts like Iain's which give me the enthusiasm to continue and not feel too disheartened by a blank, incompetence on the day or the loss of tackle!

It's that Maidment bloke who gives me the hump!!!:wh Only joking Neil! Do you ever have a blank?

 

[103841]

I agree John! Its posts like Iain's which give me the enthusiasm to continue and not feel too disheartened by a blank, incompetence on the day or the loss of tackle!

The majority of my recent trips have been short ones lure fishing, a method I think is more capable of producing a blank than others, don't dishearten Mike should your forthcoming trips with the lure prove less than fruitful. Having said that I find these blanks not as disappointing because I'm constantly on the move walking along the river which is a pleasure in itself.

 

[Bobnewboy]

Got out with a basic rod'n'reel and floats to a small stream near me on Friday. Plenty of small fish taking maggots - roach, ruffe, perch, dace, chublets etc, but nothing more than 2 or 3 ounces. Then I changed to sweetcorn on a number 16 hook and got a relatively big bite, which had this fella on the end of it.

Maybe 6-8 ounces, but it made a nice end to a few hours fishing. Heavy rain stopped play in the end. I usually fish on this small stream with a cheap whip, but wanted to make sure I could reach the opposite undercut bank, and it seemed to work.

Cheers, Bob

 

[nottskev]

The rivers here are bank-high, so I thought I'd try a place I'll be going to in the C/S. I turned up at the Deep Lake at 12. The two other anglers were packing up biteless, so I had my choice of pegs.



I'd set off on a warm, still morning, but it had somehow morphed into a grey day with an uncomfortable easterly breeze. Peg 13 had a big tree beside me and a line of bushes behind, so I decided that was the place to be.



I'd done a bit of prep for today, tying hooklengths for various light-feeder methods as I fancied a lazy afternoon with a wand after bream, but seeing the other blokes checking out, I got the pole out and resigned myself to scratching a round. By 2pm this was all I had to show for it




Another half hour of dripping in a few disco pinkies and a fat little roach turned up




But it was a false dawn, and even resorting to microscopic hooks, .06 line and a float you needed to squint at to see, not much else happened and their was plenty of room in the net at 3.30 when I wrapped up. The fish were like ice-cubes, and you only had to touch one to be reminded that even though the air had warmed up a bit, the bottom of the lake hadn't.



Sorry about the upside down pics. They are right way up on my pc.

 

[The Runner]

Only third time out since early December and it being last weekend for the rivers, decided against club match on the canal and took just a float rod with maggot and hemp down the Colne .
Nobody else there when I got there 9 30 ish so headed up to the top point. River still low and quite clear but pushing very hard and something about the swim didn't feel right so after two biteless hours on the waggler decided to move. Last two times out both resulted in blanks, didn't want a hat trick so dropped onto the backstream where the roach are. For which read , were...Two about an ounce each straightaway but then only a minnow and a similar sized perch in the next hour.
Moved again back onto the main river to the Apple Tree swim. Switched to a 6 no 4 stick as boiling up a little and needed it to go in a straight line, 18 B911 to 0.13 and gave it three big handfuls of hemp and then loosefed maggot. Nothing for 45 minutes or so, then float went about five yards down and it was something solid. Thought it was a big chub at first but then it decided to steam up past me and I knew it wasn't. About five minutes later put the net under a lovely barbel, thought it might be a double but just short at 9-13,
No more bites but a nice end to the season.

 

[nottskev]

First there were upside-down pics, then no pics, then the upside-down ones appeared. Oh well - one of those days all round

 

[Tee-Cee]

Following yesterdays 14/15 degrees and the 5 degrees I found this morning at 5.45 I thought I might be in with a chance of a few silvers, but again they failed to show in the 6 hours I spent at the water. Conditions were really very good with low cloud and just the slightest of breezes. Once or twice a weak sun poked through and all through the morning I expected to see the float sail away....

Tried all sorts of sensitive floats and went down to a 22 on a lb bottom with single maggot before trying a worm segment on the bottom and just off. Nothing! I even dropped a small amount of ground bait mixture in one part of the swim and fished over that after an hour without so much as a dip of the float. Tried hemp and punch with the same result............

No surface activity again, but a chap across from me had three small carp on the ledger.

Back out on Tues/Thurs and Friday, so not about to give up!!

All in all, not a bad day for fresh air and total peace....................

 

[Pete Shears]

A dull & misty vista greeted me this morning as I realised I did not have to scrape ice off the car windscreen,so flask in the shoulder bag and off to the river Wreake.On the way there I saw a lone hare sitting in the middle of a field and a little further on a stoat shot across the road in front of me but getting to the river I found it was nearly three feet higher than my last visit and still rising with loads of debris swirling about at all depths.Still out with a lump a crust into a large back eddy trying to work out what might be a bite and what wasn't.Eventually had a good bite and landed a chub of 1lb but with the water rising the pattern of swirls,eddies and main current kept changing which meant casting to different areas just to avoid rafts of rubbish if nothing else.Tried worms - nothing, then prawn on which there was a vicious tug and the bait was missing.Almost out of coffee and with the level having risen over three inches in three hours - time for home!

 

[jon atkinson]

No pics showing at all on my laptop Kev - there's just a series of links that read "Attachment 4021" through to "Attachment 4026" but when I click on them I get the following...

"Invalid Attachment specified. If you followed a valid link, please notify the administrator"

Surely not more picture woes on FM?!

 

[peter crabtree]

Knock up on the canal today, the venue we planned to fish had a match on it so we moved up to Berkhamstead town centre.
Drew an end peg on a bit I've not fished before, I was surprised how shallow it was.





Despite the nippy east wind blowing down from the lock to my left I had bites all day, mainly small roach, a few chunky gudgeon and 3 skimmers, alternating between punch and maggot.
Weighed in 5lb and came 6th out of 7...

14lb won it. Some big perch showed, biggest probably 3lb and a few over 2lb.

 

[jon atkinson]

And now they are showing, with only 2 of them upside down!!

 

[thecrow]

First there were upside-down pics, then no pics, then the upside-down ones appeared. Oh well - one of those days all round

I couldn't see them for a start but now I can, initially I was getting this...............Invalid Attachment specified. If you followed a valid link, please notify the administrator. weird.

 

[jon atkinson]

Rake Brook reservoir near Chorley was the chosen venue for our thrice postponed dead-baiting session. Perhaps a little warmer than ideal (I left my coat in the van & didn't miss it!) but otherwise conditions appeared to be absolutely bob on - light cloud with a gentle ripple on the surface. Appearances however, can be deceptive - 3 'deads' out between us with mackerel, sprat & lamprey - not a sniff all day. I also had a feeder rod out with caster on the hook - again, no sign of life throughout. We decided to call it a day at 16:00 & go and have a pint & when I reeled in, something had had a right good go at my mackerel but had completely avoided both trebles & there hadn't been a hint of an indication on the bobbin. That's a consecutive hat-trick of blanks for me, I think that's the first time ever :wh - still, spring is clearly on its way & even blanking beats sitting at home watching TV or whatever...

 

[thecrow]

something had had a right good go at my mackerel but had completely avoided both trebles & there hadn't been a hint of an indication on the bobbin.

Any Eels in there John?