How did you get on?

[S-Kippy]

Simon......that is the very swim I was going to fish on Monday last but the wasps put me off as I am seriously allergic to wasp stings. I was at Windsor today but I didn't walk down the river or I could have heckled you.

 

[tigger]

I didn't feel like fishing today, but since we have been forecast thunder and rain over the next few days I thoughti'd better get out and use some of my maggots up. Anyhow, when I arrived at the river it was nice and dry but there was a strong downstrean wind. Due to the fact that I was casting across river and trotting down the opposite bank alongside half submerged trees controlling my trot was quite difficult. I fished for an hour and had nothing other than a foul hooked loach and a minow. That was unusual as I nearly always get small chub or dace even when nothing else is doing.
For the next hour my time was taken up with club buisness which was a PITA.
Anyhow, back to my fishing and about the third trott through I hooked handsom barble which gave a great account of itself. I took it back to shore for a pic and then away it went. Back in the river and first trot through the float pulled under and I had another barblel on, but, not for so long before the hook hold gave and it came off. That was that, one fish!

 

[The Runner]

Hadn't been going to fish today, had intended an early start to climb one of the Cuillins but slept in and didn't really fancy doing it once the sun was high in the sky and on my back; so, rapid defrost in warm water of four of last week's mackerel and some squid and over to Bracadale. Late start meant I would be fishing the tide all the way down, not ideal for there and the bright sun probably wouldn't help either but nothing ventured...
Started on mackerel strip at about 70 yards, nice breeze to keep the midges off (it seems a bad year for them this year ) and set up spinning rod with a a couple of tinselly things to top up the mackerel supply

Had a succession of small bites , none of which I hit, obviously from small fish which weren't here last week. Couldn't find any mackerel on the lures so as it looked like I would be wasting bait , switched to squid. Still had the odd little knock but two and a half hours after I started tip went over properly- only a smallish dogfish though. Had two more in the next 90 minutes, both on squid tipped with a small piece of mackerel, one of which seemed a bit camera shy...

Quiet again towards the bottom of the tide, changed back to just mackerel on the hook and finally managed to hit a couple of the bites off the small fish that were still about. Was expecting probably tiny cod or whiting, both of which can be a pain on the sea lochs here but no, a mini-dab and an even smaller gurnard.

No sign at all of mackerel, need a couple more good days on them to see me through.
Saw a family of Shelduck, the first I've seen up here, and a pair of Divers , too far away to tell which species, flew past. And an otter just off the rocks to my left as I arrived; not my best pic....

 

[mikench]

With my self isolation over I was keen to go fishing. Gordon understands. I had decided yesterday where it would be and my chosen venue did not disappoint.

As the sun was rising over the distant trees I made my first cast with a Titan and 18 hook with 2 red maggots. I was so keen to do so I decided to dispense with plumbing up. This was the result.

I had about 15 Rudd, 20 or so roach plus a variety of skimmers and small perch.

After a few hours I set up a feeder rod, a Marksman Bomb rod but there was little activity save from gudgeon. One of the little blighters swallowed a large piece of spam attached to a 12 hook on a hybrid feeder and pulled the tip right right round. I was convinced it was going to be one of the very elusive resident barbel but it was its little cousin. It was returned unharmed.
By now the sun was high in the sky and it was hot and humid. I switched to floating bread with the float rod and a banded hair rig hook a la Tigger. There then followed 2 crazy bream and 11 common carp like this which weighed on at 8.5lb but felt and looked heavier.

I was knackered , hot and sweaty by then so decided to surprise er indoors by coming home early. In truth 6.5 hours fishing is quite enough thank you. I thoroughly enjoyed the day and came home just as rain threatened.

 

[markcw]

I went to Newlands for a few hours today, travelled light, 1 rod and reel, something to sit on bag of bits and landing net.pint of red and white maggots, That was it.
Got to chosen open, set the Shimano Aspire up with Daiwa 1657 reel loaded with 0.14 Silk Shock line, float was 3bb crystal waggler shotted old style with a couple of bb locking shot and numbers 4 6,8 down the line as droppers.hooklength was 0.13 Guru Nguage to a Size 18 guru LWG hook.
Set the depth to 6' in 13' of water 18 or so yards out. Catapulted a few maggots in and cast past where they landed and drew float into drop zone, I did this a few times before I got indications on the float, then it was feed,cast, strike, feed as play fish, land fish start again.
I ended up fishing 3' deep, all the shot apart from number 8 dropper up against the float.
After 3 hours I had had a good catch of roach, nothing over 6oz, but a really enjoyable few hours fishing with minimal gear,
No rogue carp had a go for the maggots or the tench that inhabit the place , these are known to take baits on the drop when fishing shallow.
I will be certainly doing it again, took me back to the days before I owned a pole.

 

[Ray Roberts]

I took my Grandchildren fishing yesterday. I never fish myself on these occasions but spend my time trying to get the kids catching. The two girls are quite competitive. The youngest boy is just three and he did well, he managed to catch four carp up to about 2lb the girls did well too. The eldest who is 10 caught 9 and the younger one who is 8 had 7 the best was around 3lb or so.

The venue was Hawkhurst Fish Farm in Sussex. They have three lakes for junior anglers and they are well stocked. They have a decent, if slightly expensive cafe/ restaurant on site where we had breakfast on the veranda overlooking one of the well looked after lakes. They also have an on site tackle shop, which is very well stocked. I have whips for the kids as they are far less prone to tangling but they can also be rented on site for a nominal sum. There is a guy on hand to help novices, which is nice. A highlight for my wallet was that due to a government initiative the grub was half price, lol.

The photograph is my youngest grandson Logan who is giving his full concentration to his float and willing it to go under.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[rayner]

Excellent Ray, and a nice little picture

 

[103841]

Lovely photo, hope the lad didn’t blank.

 

[Ray Roberts]

Lovely photo, hope the lad didn’t blank.

He had four carp.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mikench]

I can't wait to take my grandson but it could be a while as he is only 2 1/2 and lives in Dubai. Lovely photo and it sounds like you had a great time Ray.

Gordon and I met up again at a very pretty water which can thrill and disappoint in equal measure but one never knows which way it will go. Today it was on its best behaviour.

I set up a feeder rod with micros and chick peas coated in garam masala as bait ( Aknib they work a treat) and I had 5 carp to 12lb and 4 bronze bream to 6.5 lb. Here is the best common.

Nothing else worked on the feeder. I also set up a float rod starting with the 13' Acolyte Plus but changing to the Greys 10'6" because of overhead tree branches which had a magnetic attraction to my hooks. When will I learn to cast properly or recognise that 13' is too long. Many perch followed , too many and I had over 30 but with the biggest being about 6oz. I had a few roach and Rudd with one at least 1/2 lb. Gordon had a similar number of fish but the carp and bream left him alone.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable day; very warm and humid but shaded by trees most of the day. Trees for shade or to prevent casting ? The inconvenience of the latter was outweighed by the former. Thanks Gordon for an enjoyable day and here's to next week.

 

[peterjg]

Too hot, couldn't sleep, got up at 3.00 this morning and the outside air temperature was 71.4F! Went roach fishing to a club gravel pit which has several airators.

Right hand rod legered bread and caught 3 small snotties.
Left hand rod floatfished. Tried wheat, nothing. On punched bread or dead maggots caught 5 small roach, a perch, a dace and a chublet.

An overnight carper packed up early. Nobody else there, I was the only one stupid enough to be fishing in this heat. All bites stopped about 9am. The water temperature (in the edge) was 78F. Just managed to get home and unpack my car before the rain started.

 

[markcw]

I went to Newlands with the idea of making up some pole rigs due to the decent depth there, I took a feeder rod to pass the time as I did the pole rigs.
Got there and set up on a peg that I knew had variable depths, Insted of wasting time sorting through my stuff for what I needed before I left home, I just wheeled loaded space shuttle into car , followed by seatbox and holdall.

Out with the feeder rod ,set up with Preston ICS lead , 6" hooklength with 14 QM1 hook and quickstop.Bait was a 10mm Ringers chocolate orange boilie, Catapulted a few across to the island cast in ,rod in rests and waited.
Started on making pole rigs, managed to do 2 before got fed up and realized had some corn in carryall.
So on with pole rig I had made ,a 4 x 14 shorted with number 8,s and a couple of number 10 droppers, hook was a size 18 MWG guru.
Plumbed up to find decent flat part of the swim, this was 5' deep on a top2 plus one.
In with the corn, lowered baited rig over the corn and the float carried on going under, lifted up and I had mugged a small carp of about a pound,
They must have been shoaled up because it was more or less one a chuck, all similar size , plus a couple of decent skimmers.
Nothing doing on feeder rod .
Had an enjoyable couple of hours fishing, what made it more special was these little carp put up a decent scrap, I think I preferred catching these for a change instead of the margin munters that occasionally go to 20lb.

 

[markcw]

Too hot, couldn't sleep, got up at 3.00 this morning and the outside air temperature was 71.4F! Went roach fishing to a club gravel pit which has several airators.

Right hand rod legered bread and caught 3 small snotties.
Left hand rod floatfished. Tried wheat, nothing. On punched bread or dead maggots caught 5 small roach, a perch, a dace and a chublet.

An overnight carper packed up early. Nobody else there, I was the only one stupid enough to be fishing in this heat. All bites stopped about 9am. The water temperature (in the edge) was 78F. Just managed to get home and unpack my car before the rain started.

Sounds like the club gravel pits I fish, aerators all around the pools . And the pools are not over stocked
It's a well looked after fishery.

 

[wetthrough]

Had a good day out with Mike today, though I think there's something wrong with his rod. It seems to have a permanent bend in it. The closest I got was when the hook got caught in the chair, still fun though. Cheers Mike.

 

[rich66]

Another day out at Frisby for the 3 amigo’s. Really wasn’t feeling it this morning after yesterday’s heat I expected a dud day and a hot one too. Fortunately I was wrong on both counts.
I went straight onto the method feeder, mix of different size pellets micro‘s upto 6mm. sweetcorn on the hair, pulled through a bait band as I’d run out of hair stops.
line bites started almost immediatel. With my first fish coming after 20 minutes or so. Bites and fish where regular after that all carp around 1.5lb to 3lb max but I do enjoy catching that size as they don’t want to come in. The line to the centre island went quite and I had been feeding another under a tree about 3 foot out. Fished that on a float,lift method with mussel as the bait. Immediately I had another small carp rocket off. Back in again a while later I had a lovely lift and hooked into another fish. Absolutely delighted to find Id hooked and landed my first ever barbel not huge but who cares!

At that point I rebaited the float straight back in, for some reason I flicked the method feeder out too. very shortly after tip shot round on the method feeder and soon as I’d connected i saw my float shoot off at a rate of knots, stood there with a rod in each hand and 2 fish on! quick yell bought one of my brothers we managed to land both fish within 2nds of each other in the same landing net. Small carp again one of them had another anglers hook length still in its mouth.
Started to rain about 1:15 so we called it a day..

View attachment 10136

 

[rich66]

Ahh what’s with these thumbnails and full images ! Can’t seem to get it right

 

[markcw]

Ahh what’s with these thumbnails and full images ! Can’t seem to get it right

When pic is uploaded, just click on Post Reply.
Dont bother with thumbnail or full image

 

[seth49]

Out again yesterday, having missed Tuesdays fishing trip due to medical appointment, we decided to have a late start and fish till dusk, back on new fishery again.

So arrived there at 12pm to find only three fishing, so plenty of pegs to choose from, I picked on that had the breeze blowing into it, and mick went round the other side to a peg he’s been successful on.

Decided to fish my pole, only needed the top kit for the margin, with other sections to hand if needed, fed a few soaked two mm pellets and fished eight mm Sonu expander pellets under a small dibber float, I was sat at back of peg with just the tip of top kit over the edge of the peg.

As usual the carp didn’t come into the margins till three o clock, but I was catching a few F1s, roach and skimmers to keep me occupied, at 3.10pm first carp about four pounds, very few signs of them in the margins, most times the float would just bury.

I finished with five carp landed, and had a couple come off, and one big carp which shot out of the margins and although I got three sections on it just bottomed the elastic and broke the eight pound hook length, fished till 8.30pm when it went quiet so called it a day.

Best carp weighed 9 and 1/2pounds, which the pole handled no problem, good day out enjoyed it, sorry no photos today I forgot my camera.

 

[103841]

My lure fishing attempts off various parts of the East Kent North Sea coastline have been a disaster, 100% blankety blank. The conditions for the past few months have made it nigh on impossible to fish with lures such is the horrendous problem with the weed which should have dispersed by now but the heatwave has only made it worse. Bait anglers have struggled on catching some nice hounds and a few bass but bait fishing ain’t for me.

It’s also only possible to fish very early or very late with swimmers and paddle boarders active from early morning throughout the day. So with a high tide at 8am I made the journey over to Hythe on the ever so different English Channel for 06-30am, my preferred mark already taken by a couple of anglers. We also had a super trawler to compete with!



I took two rods, a light lure rod and a heavier carp rod for some mackerel bashing if they showed. Conditions were perfect, crystal clear waters, not a strand of weed and a flat calm sea on a very eerie foggy morning making the temperature fall dramatically to a pleasant 20 degrees. Started with the lure rod and had no takes after twenty minutes of casting. I noticed the other anglers starting to catch mackerel so changed rods and was in on the first cast, thought this was going to be a bumper session but the shoals moved in and out of range spasmodicly, did mange to catch thirty over a three hour period, returned 12 tiddlers and brought the rest home for a few fish suppers. I alternated between the two rods and it was interesting that the two biggest fish fell to the Dexter wedge lure on the lighter rod, they put up an amazing fight, but it was the feathers for the last cast which is nearly always a disappointment but on this rare occasion the cast brought in four together.



Mojo and morale duly restored amd I could t leave without a visit to my favourite beach cafe for a well earned coffee.



No need to post in the “what are you eating tonight” thread. ?

 

[peterjg]

I had a great day today!!! I took my grandson fishing for the first time. We fished the Basingstoke Canal, no other anglers and only one boat, an inflatable two man canoe.

My grandson, using a whip, caught 4 snotties and 2 roach, I only managed 3 snotties and 2 signal crayfish. My excuse being that I was helping him and not watching my float - I know all the excuses! It was wonderful seeing fishing through the eyes of a 7 year old! Now I will have to take his younger brother - can't wait!