How did you get on?

[mikench]

Well today Gordon and I decided to go to the river for a change and to practice our trotting techniques. We were not that close as is the way with rivers but arriving early we had the pick of the swims

which we felt comfortable with. This was mine.

We both used a Matchpro Ultralite and I had the Conquest pin on mine. I struggled with it to be honest and had 1 too many tangles so I gave it up and switched to an Abu 501. However I had this on my second trot. My first Grayling.

A few minnows followed. I was very happy to notch up another fish on my list so I was content. After switching to the 501 I had too many minnows but another first with 2 of these.

Gordon was snapped off by something big and heavy and was as equally minnowed out as me. It was a lovely warm day with little wind and whilst the fishing wasn't brilliant we enjoyed it and learned something. We will go back and next time I'll give the feeder a try. Cheers Gordon and it was again a case of the one that got away. A kingfisher paid a visit as did a mink.

 

[silvers]

Bought a new rod yesterday so it needed to be christened so down to my closest swim on the river armed with a pint of red and white maggots !
Bites from the off on the new rod but was struggling to convert them into fish with the soft tip !
After a while of frustration I decided a tweak in tactics was needed instead of fishing the rod tip up I’d have it side on giving less bow in the line and it was a instant success connected to the first bite ! A Minnow! Maybe another reason for so many missed bites !
Had a trouble getting the bait past minnows had 8 in a row before any this of size came along which happened to be a grayling quite a decent size a few more minnows got landed than boom ? a proper rod moving bite resulting in the biggest perch I’ve caught this year that killed the swim for a while then I had 2 small perch and to finish off and killed the swim completely was a rather excitable brown trout after that I packed up happy the new rod had done what it was bought to do catch fish in tight tree lined swims !View attachment 10624View attachment 10625View attachment 10626View attachment 10627View attachment 10628View attachment 10629View attachment 10630

Nice report and pictures .... that spire never ceases to amaze me when we visit friends in chesterfield

 

[silvers]

First trip onto a river this season, I spent the afternoon on the Soar near Barrow. Quite a few small fish mainly dace I think ? Maybe someone can tell me? anyway lots of bites but not so many hook ups. I did enjoy the change and I had company of a young duck I just could persuade to bigger off so I gave in and fed it a steady stream of maggots at my feet while I catapulted free offerings to the fish further out.

A few small roach amongst the others
And “that” duck!

Bleak in the top photo. They have a pronounced upturned mouth and very smooth flanks

 

[wetthrough]

Gordon was snapped off by something big and heavy and was as equally minnowed out as me.

Seems to be happening a lot lately. Maybe I should stick to minnows On the bright side I got my first 3 Chub all be they somewhat diminutive. Sorry, no pic. The only one I took was blurred.

 

[silvers]

Charles ****ens could have written my weekend ... a double header of matches on the Warwickshire Avon.

on Saturday I was below the weir at Barford in the 5th round of the league there (3 sections above, 3 below).
sunday - Riverfest qualifier at Stratford upon Avon

Saturday
a decent draw - a peg that has thrown up a couple of barbel on the last two matches (despite the river being very clear) .. but a worrying absence of small fish to make a weight if the barbel didn't show.
Luckily they did - despite the river being very low and being able to see the bottom in 7ft of water!
three barbel on bomb and luncheon meat, backed up with a couple of pounds of dace - sixteen and a half pounds and best weight below the weir. As this league is fished as two separate matches that's a win, although one chap had 19 pounds of bream above the weir.

Sunday
Drew down at Manor Farm, luddington (1981 world champs venue), I hadn't been here for over 20 years but the river looked nice - with a tinge more colour than upstream and a narrow peg with decent flow.
However - under the surface there were stick ups pretty much everywhere - after 3 and half hours and over 20 new hooklengths I gave it up as a bad job. Even when I did hook a dace or roach a pike attacked it!
It turned out I was in the right section - 12 pounds won the zone but there were 4 other double figures in the 10 pegs. Oh well, there's always next year!

today ... it’s my birthday ... and my lovely wife was kind enough to get me John Essex’s magnum opus on the history of the National Championships. It looks a belter of a book on first flick through ... I was most surprised to find a photo of myself adorning one page! (Ok ... it was a team photo ... and I was actually the non-fishing reserve that day )

 

[103841]

Even one of our greatest writers gets censored! ?

 

[tigger]

Few hours on the river today produced chub from a few ounces to5lb, dace, a sea trout of about a pound and a half, roach to about 12 ounces. No pic's again, just to much hasstle in the circumstances.

 

[S-Kippy]

Deff'o a salmon.

As Ray says, it has a V in it's tail rather than it being square as a sea trout is.

Yep....I agree with my learned friends. Definitely a salmon. The tail is a dead giveaway

 

[108831]

Been fishing a few times,but haven't posted much as my arthritis and situation with my autistic son was getting me down,anyway here goes,a week last Saturday I had 12 medium sized barbel to 6.8,plus 8 babies between six ounces and a pound or so,plus a few chublets,the following Thursday I fished a peg where not many fish,had four chub between 2-4lbs,on the Saturday following I got in a good peg that had had a few decent barbel for the stretch 9/10lbs fishing close in away from the shoal fish,still ended the day with a good catch,with several barbel over 6lbs,biggest 7-15,yesterday I fished at the top end of the venue and it seemed very hard for most of the day,I heard from bank walkers it was hard along the length,even in the flyers(still caught enough though),I ended the day with four chub 2/3lbs,one barbel about 3lbs,a cute 4oz bertie and half a dozen chublets to 10ozs....

 

[flightliner]

Well today Gordon and I decided to go to the river for a change and to practice our trotting techniques. We were not that close as is the way with rivers but arriving early we had the pick of the swimsView attachment 10685 which we felt comfortable with. This was mine.

We both used a Matchpro Ultralite and I had the Conquest pin on mine. I struggled with it to be honest and had 1 too many tangles so I gave it up and switched to an Abu 501. However I had this on my second trot. My first Grayling.

View attachment 10686
A few minnows followed. I was very happy to notch up another fish on my list so I was content. After switching to the 501 I had too many minnows but another first with 2 of these.

View attachment 10687
Gordon was snapped off by something big and heavy and was as equally minnowed out as me. It was a lovely warm day with little wind and whilst the fishing wasn't brilliant we enjoyed it and learned something. We will go back and next time I'll give the feeder a try. Cheers Gordon and it was again a case of the one that got away. A kingfisher paid a visit as did a mink.

Mike, your day pretty. much mirrored mine on the Don near Sheffield yesterday which I enjoyed tremendously in the early autumn sunshine.
Ps, don't those Greyling squirm!

 

[seth49]

On the other pond of our new club with Mick, I got there about 9.30am mick a bit later, only ones there till 1.00pm when three more turned up, very slow day caught at long intervals between fish, fished my Korum power float, to eight pound line, drennan glow tip float to guru QM1 hook size ten, really like these hooks, strong, sharp, and I don’t lose many fish on them either, bait was mussels, or 8mm expander pellets, all fish on mussels today.

Caught four carp in all over about 8 hours of fishing, plus a tench last thing, so slow going, did do better than the others, mick had 2 carp and a tench, and the other three had 1 carp between them, it was a lot colder today, and the water felt cold as well, still the fourth carp was my 88th of this year, not to bad with lockdown and learning a new fishery, will try to get too 100, and then do more grayling and silvers fishing,

 

[mikench]

Mike, your day pretty. much mirrored mine on the Don near Sheffield yesterday which I enjoyed tremendously in the early autumn sunshine.
Ps, don't those Greyling squirm!

Mick I couldn't believe it. Getting the hook out was a nightmare. It just would not stop squirming. A big one must be impossible to hold. Lovely fish though and a very pleasant surprise. It made the day even though I caught very few.

 

[flightliner]

Mick I couldn't believe it. Getting the hook out was a nightmare. It just would not stop squirming. A big one must be impossible to hold. Lovely fish though and a very pleasant surprise. It made the day even though I caught very few.

Mike, there are so many in the Don I use barb less hooks, if I lose one (several yesterday) there's always another not far behind.

 

[mikench]

I don't think they are as prolific in the Dane, where I was but it was a barbless hook( all I use) and I thought I would get more but it must have told its mates.

 

[peter crabtree]

11 codgers fished yesterday at Tring on the GUC. A very pleasant day in the sunshine but fishing was difficult with surface skim and lock movements.
Fishing waggler across was so difficult and I struggled to control anything tbh.
Had a few bits and pieces and came last!

Had 7 Ruffe which is a record for me, good size too...

 

[S-Kippy]

With the weather set to go downhill rapidly me and the BF decided to get a few hours in yesterday and barrelled off to a club "runs" water near Guildford for a bit of very casual carping......simply because it was a bit different. Covid has closed half the swims on the lake ( proximity to public footpath) and as its a popular venue we werent even sure we'd get on. Sure enough....it was rammed when we got there but one guy was just packing up and he had an empty swim next door so we dropped in there. He'd been roach fishing but kept getting done by carp so the omens were good. Of course the BF decided he was going to fish that swim.

Anyway,rods out and within 20 minutes I'd had a run on each rod,losing what felt like a decent fish and landing a very handsome 12lber. I followed that up with another at 13lb before the BF had his first run...which he promptly lost. A while later I had a slightly smaller but very pretty fish

Bit later again another fish bang on 13lb....the BF by now had had a couple of fish and we were fairly content, deciding to fish for an hour or so into dark. It went very quiet as dusk fell which it can do there but around 6-45 Phil had a fish of 18lb and bang on 7pm I was off and landed a fish which just tipped 20lb at 20lb 6oz. That was good enough for both of us so we packed and left. 9 fish in total...I had 5 with 4 to the BF.....not bad for about 4-5 hours and just what we both needed.

The scraper 20.

Trophy shot taken by the worst photographer in the world,ever. He has all the gear but has never yet taken a decent shot of me with a fish. I am clearly not ready in this one but
Mr Press on Regardless carries on anyway.

 

[rayner]

I had a nice day fishing maggot on the bubble. Catching roach Ide and chub, plenty of quiet spells, even so, my clicker registered roughly 20lb so a reasonably busy morning. Things slowed in the afternoon a big mistake from me some how my hooklength tangled around the swivel giving me only a few tiny roach. I should have realised my bubble wasn't sliding eventually I did and the Ide were lined up, by that time my three pint of maggot was gone.

 

[john step]

Thats it for the time being. I am all carped out. I went to a small club lake to try for perch with prawn/worm/deadbait. I had 10 mirrors about 4 to 8lb on the float. No perch though. It used to be my go to water for decent perch but I guess thing go in cycles. I have not had one now for a couple of years.
The carp are fun in their own right but enough is enough this year. I am going to investigate places where I can use finer gear for silvers without the risk of carp.
I have a canal in mind not too far away.

 

[Keith M]

The carp are fun in their own right but enough is enough this year. I am going to investigate places where I can use finer gear for silvers without the risk of carp.
I have a canal in mind not too far away.

I’ve decided to investigate a stretch of canal not far from me too; there’s a stretch in between Watford and Kings Langley which once was a very well known match stretch (before commercials took over) and held plenty of decent sized Chub, some decent sized Perch and some large shoals of Roach (and Bream but I’m not too bothered about them ) I often wonder if those large Chub still wander up and down the far bank on this stretch of canal; like they used to.

Keith

 

[john step]

I’ve decided to investigate a stretch of canal not far from me too; there’s a stretch in between Watford and Kings Langley which once was a very well known match stretch (before commercials took over) and held plenty of decent sized Chub, some decent sized Perch and some large shoals of Roach (and Bream but I’m not too bothered about them ) I often wonder if those large Chub still wander up and down the far bank on this stretch of canal; like they used to.

Keith

Yes a great stretch of water. I dont know about parking nowadays but we always parked on the green in front of the church at Hunton Bridge.