How did you get on?

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My third trip of the year to Samphire Hoe, this time armed with the favoured bait of the venue, ragworm.

Once again the place was near deserted.

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Made use of a couple of redundant carp rods.

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a good hour passed by with little action on the rod rips other than the customary rattle from the pesky crabs. Eventually a light rattle developed into a proper dip of the tip and my first pouting was landed, their bronze colouring is rather handsome.

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A Border Force vessel out on patrol.

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A few more pouting landed before the species I'd been after for some time, at last, a wrasse, small in size but gave me a huge grin.

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A few more pouting and then a second slightly larger and more colourful wrasse, they don't half put a scrap for their size.

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After high tide the action came to a standstill, crabs weren't even interested. The venue is unpopular with many because of the amount of tackle lost in the rocks.

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I was feeling pleased with myself when packing up, having caught my first wrasse, the pouting a first too, and feeling quite smug that I hadn't lost a single item of tackle, my homework doing a recci at low water on a previous trip paid off. My smugness wasn't to last long!

It was still quite early so I decided to stop off at Hythe for a spot of spinning. It's only a further 10 miles along the coast but the conditions were so different, an onshore breeze with a bit of a swell.
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That had coloured the water up so lure fishing wasn't looking promising but thought I'd give it a few chucks, the "last cast" was a fateful one with my rod snapping two foot from the tip whilst retrieving the lure, a clean break , no line wrap, no snags and not an Acolyte, very odd.

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I've emailed the company I bought it from in the hope they can get me a spare top section, fingers crossed.

Back to freshwater for the next outing.

Nice report, your first fishy photo is a Pollock

 

[103841]

Nice report, your first fishy photo is a Pollock

Thank you for the nice remark and also putting me right on the species, it was an even better day now knowing I caught at least three species.

 

[108831]

Went to the crucian lake yesterday,fished the pole,had nine crus to just over the pound,two smallish tench,3 mirrors 3/5/6lbs and more than forty roach(lost count,so was a few more)between four and twelve ounces,packed early as it was too bloody hot,got burnt down one side,doh....

 

[no-one in particular]

This is called the sea, its where I don't catch fish, I just like to admire the yachts.
Blanked again yesterday, the end of the pier was closed, some function for football; so not where I wanted to fish and only one other fishing, spinning with a rubber sand eel and feathers, he blanked as well, he was fishing to near me obviously. Tried lug and fish strips but the bait was a bit mank; might take a loaf on their next time, cannot be worse. Admire the yachts because that is all your getting, maybe for sometime yet.

 

[103841]

An early session on the estate this morning

04:30am. El chillio

By 09:30
it was El scorchio

The five hours in between were hard work, no tench showing, a few skimmers, roach and a nice crucian

The nicest surprise was catching this perch

Nothing special, quite small actually. I'd left a tub of limpets in my bag from the Wrasse trip a few days ago, man did they pen and ink but within minutes the perch took the bait, must remember that, free bait from the local beach!

Just have to take round my better half's Uncle his regular Sunday dinner then it's home, a few Stellas and cheer on our boys at Wembley.

 

[The Runner]

Different report to usual this week, spent last week in London seeing step and grandkids and broke journey back by staying with old friends near Newcastle this weekend. So had a half day this morning at Angel of the North fishery, first time I’ve coarse fished in 9 months and first on a commercial for three years. A bit limited on tackle, ended up on borrowed waggler rod and margin pole with pellet and meat.
Quite a few fish moving as we started, mate had three carp quickly on meat while I lost a couple of foulhookers but activity slowed as the wind got up.
Ended up having most of my fish on the pole at 4m against the reeds, the four hours fishing getting me six carp to about 5lb , about a dozen skimmers, two tench and this crucianish thingy...Mate had a few more than me and we called it a day at lunchtime to watch the football. Nice day out .

 

[Roger Johnson 2]

With a busy week ahead in the now fully open BnB, today was the only day available for an early start and so was labeled June 16th not that it has any relevance here in France, but with a nod in Mr Crabtree’s direction I’ve always tried to fish for tench on “opening day” and preferably with a float and lillies present. The only lake I know of relatively locally with tench and lillies is where I took a fine catch of rudd from in the early spring, the tench don’t even grow as big as the rudd, but a tench is a tench.
With the forecast for clear skies and 34c an early start was planned and the lake looked wonderful with mist swirling over the water. Chosen swim was one I’d fished in previous years and has always been a bit of a birdcage (good for shade later on) and a test cast with a feeder rod saw a lost feeder in the trees and a decision made to keep to the float and underarm casting!
A fruitless couple of hours feeding hemp corn and GB and fishing corn or worm on the hook, eventually saw a dark shape appear just sub surface by the float, by chance I was just starting to rerig the feeder rod, and a bit of quick thinking (rare for me these days!) saw a size 10 super spade tied direct to 8lb sensor and a largish dendro impaled upon it. The aforementioned was sent in the direction of the dark shape landing about 3ft ahead of it, which was now morphing into the largest black bass I’ve seen to date, a couple of twitches keeping the worm near the surface and the fish moved forward and gently sipped it in! A measured strike and.... I missed it!! Fortunately the fish hung around, looking more aggressive and second cast on the button, couple of twitches a gentle sip and BANG ...”Fish On”. A pleasing battle akin to a tench of the same size and a new personal best Largemouth Bass at 2.10. And Largemouth by name largemouth by nature, I could have got my fist into its gob! Photo taken by a passing young French angler who then proceeded to thrash the water (in MY swim!) to a foam with his spinnerbait, cheeky little git! I carried on with the freelining worm taking a few more much smaller bass and a couple of pumpkin seed. Certainly not what I came for, but with a new PB who’s complaining!
PS not sure I understand why these fish are a multibillion $ industry in the US, but hey, not sure I understand much about the USA anymore.
.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[The Sogster]

Fished today on the estate lake once again.
Arrived about two to find the place virtually empty, then I remembered England were playing.

Fantastic, I had the choice of all the usually most popular pegs so settled into one of these and set up a small banjo feeder with sticky pellets and banded pellet on the hair.
Tried it once recently, liked it and now getting into the habit.

I was fishing about 30 yards to the edge of a bed of lilies.
After about 40 minutes I had my first wrap round bite and a minute later the first skimmer of the day was in the net.
This was followed by three more in the first 90 minutes.

The next four bites were all tench, no monsters. All between about 2.5lb and 3lb

Followed by a screaming run from this plump chap.

Fished until about 9pm finishing with another couple of skimmers.

 

[Burton Bridge]

I had the pleasure of fishing with Mick (Flightliner) today. We'd fixed up to meet at the tench lake at 3.30pm. I was just getting in the car around 2.30pm when Mick phoned to let me know he'd taken no chances with the traffic and the directions, and had just got there. He was netting a tench as I pulled up. The lake was looking its best

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So I dropped in next to Mick, who'd set up on peg 3. There was an angler fishing on peg 2 of this 5 peg stretch (how dare he) where 1 and 2 are the most productive, but they're comfy pegs near the car, so what the hell. We were both getting back into regular fishing after fighting our way through a winter of afflictions. Mick was set up with a float rod and a Trudex pin. A tree overhung my swim, so the new pin I've now brought here twice, unused, stayed in the box and I opted to fish the pole. The roach in the water are massively outnumbered by tench, but Mick had brought some hemp, and was catching some nice roach

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A few times Mick hooked fish I assumed were tench, with hefty splashes on the surface, but which were roach, Mick told me, which slipped the hook. Meanwhile, I caught a few tench. Compared to the swim I last fished in the opposite corner of the lake, the tench were half as numerous and twice as big, which was ok by me. Instead of 12oz to 11/2lb fish, these were 11/2 to 21/2lb.

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T
We weren't in the best swims, and the angler who packed up emptied his net a few metres away and our bites stopped for a while. (excuses excuses) but we picked up fish through the evening, with a few quiet spells. I had a particularly quiet spell when I managed to get my line stuck in the tree overhead and had to rig up again, not to mention when I hooked the bottom of my keepnet and when I dredged out 5m of ridiculously thick mono. Mick continue to pick up some nice roach and odd tench, and managed to hook only fish.

It was great to be able to sit out in a tshirt, catch a few fish and chat. Mick was anxious to get back lest the police nab him for a rear light that had just failed, so we wrapped up after 8pm. There were a few tench in my net, although the picture is so bad (low sun) there could be anything in there

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Mick had a fair few tench too, but I got the impression he was particularly pleased with the roach

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Cheers, Mick. Thanks for an enjoyable evening. I'll look forward to meeting up somewhere over your way before long.

This looks lovely your from my neck of the woods, whereabouts is this tench lake? I'd love to pop and wet a line there.

 

[103841]

Another excursion to Samphire Hoe today, I wanted to escape the heat and the English Channel provided lower temperatures and a slight breeze, very pleasant, 27 in Whitstable, just 22 at Samphire. ? Sun was still strong though, plenty of factor 50.

Same setup as last week, two carp rods paired with 4000 Rareniums, loaded with 12lb Progold.

This sea fishing is a steep learning curve and today I learnt a couple of things. Like maggots, not all ragworm is equal. Last weeks supplier provided me with rag that lasted well for a good few days, trouble is he's a fifty mile round trip. I got some rag on Friday from a local indie closer to home in Herne Bay and . even with careful storage they were nearly all dead today.

The other thing was the conditions, last week there was a bit of colour and a slight swell, today it was flat calm and the sea was crystal clear.

These are conditions I pray for and rarely get in and around Whitstable when lure fishing, it seems today's conditions didn't favour bait fishing. I always question my own ability or lack of it but walking back along the prom speaking with several anglers discovered they were struggling as well.

I managed to avoid a blank with one small pouting.

It was good to be out and a bit of ship spotting plus two spitfires flying over made for a nice session, the jocks getting beat was an added bonus.

 

[john step]

Another lazy day on the res. behind buzzers. A gorgeous cooler cloudy day with a strong breeze blowing in my face.
Only two runs from very modest ugly scaled mirrors but they bent the rod.

On confiding with my wife this evening that my alarms seem to have lost their volume she informed that "Its your hearing not the alarms you old fool" Love Eh?

 

[steve2]

Louder alarms are cheaper than hearing aids

 

[seth49]

I mentioned to my practice nurse that I was getting hard of hearing, twenty five years of jack hammers didn’t help, she got me a recommendation for a hearing test, I went for the test and came out with new hearing aids, which were free on the NHS, plus free batteries when I need them.

 

[mikench]

Gordon and I met up early doors at a well liked venue where the fishing can be temperamental at best and poor at worst. It's a lovely spot but then in truth aren't they all.

I set up a feeder rod and despite offering an eclectic menu du jour it didn't bleep once. Fortunately I emulated Gordon and float fished. The weather was lovely and we both caught regularly; nothing big and no carp or bream but it was very satisfying nonetheless. I had 35 assorted perch, roach and Rudd. None were netters but neither were they tiddlers.

These were typical sizes. We both enjoyed our day in the sunshine and even though we caught nothing of significance we caught nevertheless and enjoyed the privilege. Cheers Gordon.

 

[S-Kippy]

Early start for me today and a trip to one of the club waters at Marsh Farm. Nobody there when I arrived which is never a good sign but it seems they were all waiting for the members only lake to open tomorrow. I leave that well alone until July as it’s an absolute bunfight for the first 2 weeks.
Anyway….I had bubbling fish in front of me but couldn’t buy a bite. A nice tench eventually picked my bait up but it was the only one that did at range. I ended up popping a bait right in the edge more in desperation than expectation but 4 more tench and a nice crucian cheered me up a bit. The sun was now well up and it got roasting hot so I gave it until 1pm then scuttled off.
Something not quite right about the place today….there was a bit of spawning going on and a lot more weed on the bottom than usual. TBH it looked a bit stewed but it’s a lovely spot and I did get a few fish. I suppose I enjoyed it but it all felt like a bit of a chore today....dunno why.

The crucian is bang on 2lb and the tench (best of the day) is 4-6. I dont know what's going on with the pictures

 

[john step]

I mentioned to my practice nurse that I was getting hard of hearing, twenty five years of jack hammers didn’t help, she got me a recommendation for a hearing test, I went for the test and came out with new hearing aids, which were free on the NHS, plus free batteries when I need them.

I have a NHS for my left ear but am reluctant to wear it fishing as the advice was not to get it wet.

 

[no-one in particular]

I had two NHS hearing aids issued to me last year, my hearing is not that bad but they thought I could try them out as they detecting a bit of hearing loss while checking something else. They were free but I was told they would cost about £80 each to replace if I lost them. I lost both of them because of these bloody masks, they got tangled or something taking the mask off and I must have pulled them out and they fell somewhere, who knows but, I have not replaced them. Daft as a brush, I know...I couldn't get on with them anyway.

 

[108831]

Went yesterday to the deep tench lake,had one third cast 4lbs 15ozs,an hour or so later a rudd 6ozs,then two hours or so later the float slid away and an epic battle began,I can't tell you how many times I got this mirror carp from under the trees twenty yards to my right,upon landing said mirror it was plain to see spawning had thinned the fish right out and what should have been close to twenty pounds actually weighed 15lbs and a couple of ounces,action was then over but sitting under trees in the shade on a beautiful tree lined lake was a lovely way to while away the day....

 

[seth49]

Back on usual club water today, arrived at 7.15 am lovely sunny morning already feeling warm, my favourite corner swim was empty so straight to that, margine e rod in with method feeder and yellow wafter on alarm, set two top kits up for my pole, one for straight out in front, at two sections plus the top kit, and one for the left hand margin for later, fed two pots of groundbait in the open water swim, and half a pot of two mm pellets plus a few grains of corn in the other.

Slow start for half an hour then a roach, followed by an ide and then the first tench, the tench were a better size in this swim nothing big but around a pound, these were stocked two years ago, so bigger than last years stocking, caught a total of eight through the day, plus four small stockie carp of around two pounds, plus an F1 and a few skimmers and roach, all on 6 mm expander pellets.

Around three noticed swirls in the margin swim, so swapped to the margin kit, and put an 8 mm expander on for the carp, first one a mirror of eight pounds, which fought well on the pole, then I lost a couple and then got one on the feeder rod of mirror eight pounds also.

So an enjoyable day, apart from the usual lull around lunchtime it was steady sport all day, very hot in the sun in the afternoon, a bit too hot to be honest, but good for a sunny day.

 

[rayner]

Finally got some action. I fished my favourite paste with hemp. Only had seven carp, topped up by a load of F1s.
F1s are far from my favourite species but it is a change seeing the float disappear so often.