How did you get on?

[@Clive]

had a day on the lakes near to where we live. Wilf is back from Portugal and champing at the bit to go fishing, but I was committed to being on call for a couple of friends who have car issues and might need a hand. So, I went local on my own so that I could be free to assist if required. As it turned out I wasn't required.

I started at a 25 hectare section of Lac Mas Chaban fishing two rods, one a Greys 12 foot float rod, Mitchell Match with home made waggler and maggot, worm and sweetcorn baits. The second rod was a Greys 1.75lb with a Lidl 300 size reel, one of the zander floats I made last week and the back half of a sardine mounted on a circle hook to wire trace. Today is the last day of the zander season on these lakes. It was very windy and cool too. I fished for two hours without a bite until just after 11am the zander float dipped and slid away. I tightened up and felt solid resistance. Unfortunately it wasn't the zander that I was hoping would grace our dining table tomorrow, but an out of season jack that knew no better.

I moved to the other side of the lake and fished a feeder for an hour without any interest.

I then drove about 15 minutes to the other big lake, Lac Lavaud, right round it to the other side and settled down about fifty metres from three French zander hunters who were fishless and a pole angler who had caught a few zander baits. I started with the waggler, cast as far as possible into 10 foot of water and with maggots scattered every cast. Second cast resulted in a nice roach and I ended up with between fifty and sixty. By the third hour I had managed to get them feeding two rod lengths out in 7 foot instead of the 20 odd metres into 10 foot intially required. Virtually all took on the bottom after the float had settled. Plenty of time to cast, catapult and strike. It was only in the last 15 to 20 minutes that they started to take on the drop. Single maggot to a 20 and 2.5lb hook link did the trick.

By 3pm I had discarded the coat and jumper and was fishing in shirt sleeves. What a difference it was when the wind dropped!

 

[ian g]

Met my fishing mate around 11 o'clock to fish above Shrewsbury . The stretch is slow and deep and was a favourite haunt of mine a few years ago when I was trying to catch big chub. Not sure why but there are some great chub in this stretch , I always used to fish bread flake or cheese paste on this stretch and have had a few 6lb chub off here along with barbel , pike and even a salmon all caught on bread flake . It's always a tough stretch and 2 or 3 fish is a good day . Any way today wasn't a good day for me fishing wise as I blanked but my mate had 4 chub so it must be me.

 

[Alan Whitty]

Well I sat on the Ouse at Bedford in a cracking roach and bream swim and made it look crap, one 3oz roach saved the blank...

 

[ian g]

Hard luck Alan , I'll be out again tomorrow on the Severn

 

[Alan Whitty]

That will be my last day on the rivers this season, hope you get a few tomorrow...

 

[flightliner]

I fancied fishing the pole yesterday afternoon and I hadn't been to the disused canal since last summer, so I headed there. I asked the one angler on it who was packing up how he'd got on; one bite, he said, and the match on Sunday had plenty of DNW's. It was either give it a try or go home. The place holds thousands of Ide, and these fish were brought here, as far as I know, to provide winter sport. Surely I can get a bite off one on a warm March afternoon? No, I couldn't.

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Today, despite blanking on my last three trips to it, I thought I'd give the Trent a try for chub. Steak and mince have been revived by some local anglers, so my bait for the afternoon was just some of Lidl's finest

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I called in at 3 stretches before I found the combination I was looking for: a swim where the risk of sliding in and drowning was low, with the kind of pace and crease chub like. Luckily, unlike those canal fish, the chub were looking for something to eat and I hadn't put the rod in the rest first cast before the tip bounced and the first chub was on

View attachment 33103

The next three fish were a similar size, and then the swim died. I had a walk around to see if there were any other swims nearby, but I decided I was in the best place, so I lay on the bank in the sun, ate my lunch and gave the chub an hour to resume their positions. When I started again, I got no indications, so I put on a lighter hooklength and a smaller hook and cut bits of steak not much bigger than a maggot. Bingo! Two bites and the two best chub

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Superb chub kev, and the last two against the standard practice of "swim jumping" i watched a u tube video last night where the angler only gave his bait two minutes in the water before moving on- far to short a time (imho) for any swim to be searched properly.

 

[nottskev]

Superb chub kev, and the last two against the standard practice of "swim jumping" i watched a u tube video last night where the angler only gave his bait two minutes in the water before moving on- far to short a time (imho) for any swim to be searched properly.

Cheers Mick! Hope your hand is healing well. A friend had a great barbel session on Friday not far away and gave me the details. I turned up yesterday full of hope and the sun blazed all day, the colour dropped out and I found the swim he'd fished had somehow filled up with rocks overnight. It had to be a feeder job, not my favourite way to fish, and I added a couple to the tackle graveyard while failing to get a bite.

Your point maybe deserves a thread of its own - what people do outside of flogging a swim for the duration or moving swims after a couple of casts. Someone famous is supposed to have said it only takes a second to score a goal. I get the idea, even if you're unlikely to score if the ball's in your penalty area with a second to go. Maybe it's sometimes the same with catching a fish - if half a dozen fish would make a good session, it might be true that fewer casts/less time with your line in the water pays off. I remember the fashion for "bait and wait" tactics for barbel, feeding a swim but only casting once at widely spaced intervals. And fishing for chub by repeatedly casting in a maggot feeder with no hooklength for a time, adding a hook only when you think they're coming up and bumping the feeder. I'm sure people have other examples of that kind of thing.

 

[ian g]

Pretty disappointing perch season for me , well I think most of us so I thought I'd try and change things by giving a stretch near Atcham a try . Arrived around 11 o'clock , no one on but bright sunshine didn't fill me with confidence . Set up a maggot feeder with lobworm as bait and a float rod also with worm and fished down the side . Slow day saw me swapping the tip rod over to maggots . A couple of knocks on maggot followed and finally the tip goes around . I struck but the hook link came back bitten off . Back out again and around 2.15 the tip goes around again and I'm attached to a decent heavy fish , long hard fight on a 6 lb hooklink and a size 14 hook . I thought it might have been a carp but slipped the net under a very nice barbel 10.10lb . A guy came on around 3 o'clock , had a chat then he disappeared upstream into the next field . Not another sniff fish wise so I packed up around 6 o'clock . Met another guy fishing around the corner who was just netting another good barbel , 10lb on the nose . I'll try and fit in another session or two but weather looks a bit changeable.

 

[S-Kippy]

I was up with the sparrows and off to the Colne for another crack at the big chub known to frequent this stretch. I was rigged for chub, small block end and a 16 to my beloved 5.3 bs Suffix.

Took an hour to get enough maggots in the swim to interest chevin before the rod hooped over. 15 mins later I’m thinking this is no chub and so it proved with an absolutely mint barbel which went 11-13. Unbelievable scrap too. Back to reality when the next bite produced a chair leveller of 7-9.

In the next hour I had 2 more barbel ( 8-9 and 8-3) and then hooked and lost another which did me in the Bankside brambles…my fault for being a cocky d1cky

A chub did finally show up but only the official food taster at 3-6.

It was misty and mizzly all morning until the colder weather arrived around 1pm. I had 6 layers on and was still frozen and the swim just died. I fished on more in hope than expectation until 3 when I gave it best and staggered back to the car. I’m done with it now…. not sure I could do another day physically and with the change in the weather and overnight frosts I think the river will simply switch off.

The 2 best barbel and the Gatecrasher. The big one was absolutely mint as you can see.

 

[Ray Roberts]

I took a trip to a club stretch of the Eden in Kent. I haven’t fished it much this season. I arrived early and gave it my best shot. There was only one other angler and he was debating for pike. After four hours of trotting I only had a few bleak to show. The river had a little water on it, but it looked spot on. About 11:30 I decided that it wasn’t going to happen there today and although kitted out for river angling I decided that a visit to the club’s tench and crucian pond was on the cards as its less than a mile from the river. I ended up with thirty one tench and no crucians by the time I packed up at 17:30. Most of the tench were small and near the end of the day I picked up a couple 3.5 - 4lb I could have carried on if the rules allowed it but you have to leave the water without the aid of a torch. Unlike Skippy I wasn’t cold at all and wore just a long sleeved t-shirt and fleece. I think the sunshine and maybe some colder water may have killed the river sport anyway I salvaged a disaster and caught some fish.

The river looked good but it was disappointing.

Most of the tench were about this stamp or smaller, with only a couple of larger fish. No record breakers, but good sport on a float rod. I struggled to find a suitable float as I mainly had river floats. It was a shame I never brought the floats with me that I made for tench and crucians earlier this year. I tried some new flavoured liquidised bread that I added Lo-salt and aniseed powder to, along with punched bread that I had sprinkled with the same mixture prior to rolling. The tench seemed to like it but the average size was small. When I upped the bait size to be more selective using corn flavoured in the same way it worked, so I upped it again with bits of Lidl’s garlic sausage and this seemed to work well. It’s always difficult to tell if additives make a difference, but judging what I caught against the other two anglers fishing within view, I would say it does.

 

[S-Kippy]

I’m older than you Ray and have less insulation ! I never saw the sun all day.

Debating for pike ?

 

[markcw]

Cheers Mick! Hope your hand is healing well. A friend had a great barbel session on Friday not far away and gave me the details. I turned up yesterday full of hope and the sun blazed all day, the colour dropped out and I found the swim he'd fished had somehow filled up with rocks overnight. It had to be a feeder job, not my favourite way to fish, and I added a couple to the tackle graveyard while failing to get a bite.

Your point maybe deserves a thread of its own - what people do outside of flogging a swim for the duration or moving swims after a couple of casts. Someone famous is supposed to have said it only takes a second to score a goal. I get the idea, even if you're unlikely to score if the ball's in your penalty area with a second to go. Maybe it's sometimes the same with catching a fish - if half a dozen fish would make a good session, it might be true that fewer casts/less time with your line in the water pays off. I remember the fashion for "bait and wait" tactics for barbel, feeding a swim but only casting once at widely spaced intervals. And fishing for chub by repeatedly casting in a maggot feeder with no hooklength for a time, adding a hook only when you think they're coming up and bumping the feeder. I'm sure people have other examples of that kind of thing.

As per repeated casting . Not on rivers but mainly resevoir and large pools .
Bagging waggler mainly for carp . This is a deadly method on Clattercote Res, ( the bailiff there ,John Bonney , I'm not sure if he is still there , made his own floats for there and sold some on . Also food method on linear complex.
Pellet waggler , ideal again for carp and ide. I've had some good tench and well
Wag n mag . Also good on canals . Ideal mainly for anything that swims .
These methods can be hard work for little reward . Or on the right day a lot of reward .
We used to bait up Swindon Lymm dam with big feeders before going over the top of it with baited hook . Had some good bream doing that .

 

[markcw]

I took a trip to a club stretch of the Eden in Kent. I haven’t fished it much this season. I arrived early and gave it my best shot. There was only one other angler and he was debating for pike. After four hours of trotting I only had a few bleak to show. The river had a little water on it, but it looked spot on. About 11:30 I decided that it wasn’t going to happen there today and although kitted out for river angling I decided that a visit to the club’s tench and crucian pond was on the cards as its less than a mile from the river. I ended up with thirty one tench and no crucians by the time I packed up at 17:30. Most of the tench were small and near the end of the day I picked up a couple 3.5 - 4lb I could have carried on if the rules allowed it but you have to leave the water without the aid of a torch. Unlike Skippy I wasn’t cold at all and wore just a long sleeved t-shirt and fleece. I think the sunshine and maybe some colder water may have killed the river sport anyway I salvaged a disaster and caught some fish.

View attachment 33159The river looked good but it was disappointing.
View attachment 33160

Most of the tench were about this stamp or smaller, with only a couple of larger fish. No record breakers, but good sport on a float rod. I struggled to find a suitable float as I mainly had river floats. It was a shame I never brought the floats with me that I made for tench and crucians earlier this year. I tried some new flavoured liquidised bread that I added Lo-salt and aniseed powder to, along with punched bread that I had sprinkled with the same mixture prior to rolling. The tench seemed to like it but the average size was small. When I upped the bait size to be more selective using corn flavoured in the same way it worked, so I upped it again with bits of Lidl’s garlic sausage and this seemed to work well. It’s always difficult to tell if additives make a difference, but judging what I caught against the other two anglers fishing within view, I would say it does.

Ray.. have you tried adding dedicated coconut to liquidized bread ? It breaks away when on the bottom and starts to rise slowly acting as an attractant .
I've used crushed Alka seltzer in ground bait feeders for attractant.

 

[Ray Roberts]

Ray.. have you tried adding dedicated coconut to liquidized bread ? It breaks away when on the bottom and starts to rise slowly acting as an attractant .
I've used crushed Alka seltzer in ground bait feeders for attractant.

I haven’t used coconut yet but can see the advantage for feeder work.

 

[Ray Roberts]

I’m older than you Ray and have less insulation ! I never saw the sun all day.

Debating for pike ?

You’re not older than me, it’s just that I have retained my youthful good looks. Can’t argue about the insulation though. I may have a last hurrah on the Rother in Kent on Friday for pike.

 

[S-Kippy]

My apologies Ray….I seem to have settled into “ Old Boy” mode rather too easily.
As I suspected I can barely move today so that’s my lot on the rivers.

 

[nottskev]

With medical appointments yesterday and this morning, there wasn't time to travel anywhere so I defrosted the left-over steak and mince and settled for a couple of hours on the nearby little river. The cows were back in the field I fished last time. They stand shoulder to shoulder in the underpass you have to walk through and you'd have to push your way past. It's quite possible they'd just move, but you do read now and again that some innocent walker has been stamped into the ground. The riverside pasture is, anyway, like a 100 yard egg-box, with pools of poo and wee where the eggs would go, so I wasn't too bothered about defaulting to a more urban section

Access was easier and you get used to passers by hanging over the bridge and saying caught any mate/ no fish in here mate/ some big ones in here mate etc. This swim yielded one chub on link-legered steak from under the raft of branches

Below the bridge there's a long run past trees. The mince sticks in gripmesh type feeders, so I'd made a couple of very small ones out of pop bottle plastic and fished as far down into the tunnel of trees as I could

This got me a couple of chublets and one proper chub

A quick scout about showed there were no other swims a couple of hundred yards or so either way - nature had reclaimed a couple of spots I fished years ago - so I was happy enough to call it a day and beat the traffic. Thank god for chub - save for them I'd have caught next to nothing this last month.

 

[@Clive]

I had a session on the Charente today. It was 4C when I left home, but rose to 16C by just after lunch. I started trotting and feeding red maggots in 4 metres of water, searching from half way down to the bottom without a sniff. Changed to maggot feeder with double maggot, worm, sweetcorn and couldn't buy a bite. Until just before lunch time that is. Then the bleak moved in and snaffled every maggot bait I had. There must have been millions of them. No takes on sweetcorn or worm, but maggots were getting shredded every cast!

I tried a waggler with sweetcorn without a take. Worms were untouched, but single red maggot was a fish a cast and they were all at the bottom. All the bites came after the float had settled. I changed back to the feeder with a cage and sweetcorn bait for the last two hours and never got a touch. I packed up early and went to take some photos in the sunshine.

 

[terry m]

The last two short sessions on the river have proved fruitless so I returned to a local pit and spent a rather windy day on a deserted venue deadbaiting for pike. 4 runs 3 fish banked the best a scraper double. Although as always the ‘one that got away’ felt a much bigger specimen. I plan to get on the river for one last hurrah later this week.

 

[Steve Arnold]

Such mixed weather recently that short sessions are grabbed when a weather window appears. Yesterday morning was sunny but my wife needed the car back by about 1pm, so I was out the door at 8am and fishing close to home by 8.30am. No bait to prepare as there were boilies in my tackle bag and pva mesh bags of crumbled boilies and pellets in a sealed box.

About 9am I had the first barbel and conditions looked right for a carp.

My contentment was destroyed when a van of workers turned up with hi-viz gilets and chain saws. Walking along the skyline and cutting back damaged trees by the river, disturbed my peace and obviously the fish would now be in hiding!

So a quick move to a different swim, but this was now the main river flow and I wondered if the fish would be there. Fortunately barbel are often in the strongest current and it was not too long before I had another.....

Pulling this barbel against such a flow was quite the struggle, even near the shoreline a strong back current goes under the landing stage. But it went in the net, finally!

Then a few good pulls on my usual 18mm boilie bait, but no hook-ups, so I searched my bag for something smaller and slimmer. Anyone recognise this Nash bait?

I was given these several years ago and have no idea what flavour they are. Although the packet shows mixed fruits they smell more savoury than sweet, but when my usual fishmeal boilies fail these have proven to be fish-catchers!

So one of these Nash baits on a size 10 hook with a loop and bait spike, properly hooked the next biting barbel.

Then it was time to pack up and I was only 10 minutes late getting home, that's not bad for me with my severe case of last-cast-syndrome!