How did you get on?

[Alan Whitty]

Been back to the crucian lake today, armed with a small bottle of wine, so a toast was offered, fished bread like Thursday, just two net skimmers and seven smaller versions, at about 11.30am I decided to have a go on punched meat feeding micros and 4mm pellet, talk about chalk and cheese, had 9 decent bream, 2 about 2lb 8ozs, the other 7 were from 3lbs 8ozs to 5lbs odd, two tench over 3lbs....very enjoyable apart from the icy wind that came from every direction possible...

 

[Ray Roberts]

I fished a lake that I took my grandchildren to in the summer. The car park is in a country park and you can’t get in until they open the barrier. So I loaded my car and headed for my local cafe, fed and watered, I headed for the lake, which is near Tonbridge. It’s got a few odd rules. Float fishing only, no alarms, no boilies, etc. I had some pre mixed groundbait that I had left from a previous trip and a variety of baits. I was surprised to hear voices from the lake as when I booked the previous night I was the only one. Two blokes were already fishing, thankfully not fishing the swim I fancied. If they wanted to chat, surely sitting next to each other would be a sensible option, but no, they sat on opposite sides of the lake and didn’t shut up until they left at around three. I fished a FreeSririt float rod and my favourite Shimano Twin Power reel. I usually do well here and twenty to thirty decent fish in a day isn’t uncommon. It was a lovely sunny day but an east wind added a bit of wind chill. I tested the water temp and air temp and both were 15c. A woodpecker was hammering away for most of the day. And some blossom was showing on some of the bushes. Mid afternoon a grass snake made its way across the lake towards me. It was one of the largest grass snakes I’ve seen. I pulled my landing net out of the water as I didn’t want the agro involved in extricating it from the mesh, as I had to do with one last year. When it reached my swim it came out slightly through a hole in the vegetation, had a look about and returned to the lake. I thought it was early in the year to see one. I ended up with four carp and five roach, obviously all on the float. No great size but the carp fought well. It’s funny but years ago if you had over 20 lb of fish on a day they weren’t feeding very well, you would have been made up, lol. I got back to the car and the battery was dead, great. The car park closes at a set time and if your car is in there they lock it in. The RAC came up trumps and after I explained my predicament had a van there with half an hour to spare. The RAC man diagnosed a dead cell and luckily had a new battery on board his van and saved the day. I was away with 15 minutes to spare. Brilliant service.

 

[@Clive]

Never mind the fish - look at that bokeh!

 

[ian g]

Eventful day Ray , can't be doing with chatty buggers

 

[Ray Roberts]

Eventful day Ray , can't be doing with chatty buggers

They were incessant, they stopped for a chat on their way out and were nice enough but,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[ian g]

It's one thing that gets me down on still waters Ray ,at least on the river you can usually move out of hearing range.

 

[S-Kippy]

It's one thing that gets me down on still waters Ray ,at least on the river you can usually move out of hearing range.

I agree. It drives me insane when you have to listen to a pair ( or more) of silverbacks who are a bit mutton yelling at each other for hours on end. For me it’s the daylight equivalent of my other pet hate….headtorches.

 

[nottskev]

I'd decided to try the Old Lake for a change until my mate with the new pole called last night: do I fancy the canal again? Not really, to be honest, but I didn't want to be anti-social. We started and finished a bit earlier than usual - 11am/3pm - as he's a Forest season ticket holder and needed to turn himself round in time to get to the City Ground tonight.

We plumped for the stretch I blanked on a couple of weeks ago. Surely the ide have woken up by now? Usually I'd alternate fishing for ide on maggot on the pole with fishing corn or caster across for bream or tench on the waggler. But a combination of a short day and feeling lazy meant I just set the pole up.

The day was so bright and the water so clear I doubt I'd have caught any bigger fish anyway

Luckily the ide were soon taking pinkies on the drop

They're putting on weight slowly but surely. A couple of years back they were all swung in; now you need to net quite a few. Mate was enjoying it, too, and caught a fair number. I wasn't sorry to be diverted to the canal, but I don't think I'll feel the urge to catch any ide for a bit

 

[ian g]

ian g said:
It's one thing that gets me down on still waters Ray ,at least on the river you can usually move out of hearing range.

I agree. It drives me insane when you have to listen to a pair ( or more) of silverbacks who are a bit mutton yelling at each other for hours on end. For me it’s the daylight equivalent of my other pet hate….headtorches.

Bloody hell , I'd forgotten about them .

 

[@Clive]

I went to a place on the Charente that I haven't been to for around ten years to find it wasn't accessible. Someone, presumably the farmer, had felled several trees at each access point of a mile and a half stretch of river. I'm guessing that the illegal night fishing, bonfire building carpistes are to blame for the disruption. Given the dry summers and huge fields of crops and trees I can understand it. So, I drove to the next stretch downstream that looks like it is a scene out of a Mr. Crabtree book.

The Charente here is a chalk stream, but it doesn't start as one. In this area the river is crystal clear and verdant. It splits and reforms several times, some of it natural, some of it altered to provide mills with flowing water. Here a mill pool has four waterfalls feeding in, then it itself feeds another mill pool with four more waterfalls. Historically the channels leading to the mills would have fish traps to harvest the annual migrations of eels and shad.

I set up on the head of one of the channels that leaves the river and rejoins about a mile downstream. Sat on the weir all I had to do was drop my float in and let the reel turn. First trot resulted in a roach of about 4oz. I kept feeding maggots in every other cast and tried maggots on the hook, but the roach was all I got.

Further down the main river I set up at the head of the upper mill pool and float fished for an hour without a bite and ledgered for another hour for the same result. I then set up on the lower end of the channel that I had started out on. This place screams "barbel" but I have never seen or hooked one here. Just chub and roach Feeding maggots into the flow and trotting at different depths brought nothing.

Finally I went upstream along the small channel on foot to a place on the outside of a bend. The water is crystal clear and a foot down on what it should be. I found the place where I had lured a nice chub on free lined wasp cake, and threw some maggots in. I kept flicking in maggots and eventually saw a white shape near the tree roots about four foot down. I put two dead reds and a small ball of cheese paste on the hook and carefully dropped it in alongside the tree roots. Nothing moved! The chub was not for luring.

I left early and stopped off 20 minutes away to check another area that I had neglected recently. That looked just as I remembered it. Maybe next time?

 

[Alan Whitty]

I'm mutton, and I take bloody umbrage of the attitude that if you are loud because you are hard of hearing then perhaps certain people ought to do one, hopefully you never have the problem, also some people are sociable, others are downright miserable!!!

 

[Alan Whitty]

Back to topic, I went today and was relatively quiet apart from blowing a gasket at a guy holding a carp 3ft off the floor when the obvious happened and it hit the wooden platform, ##@#@##@#@##, fished another new swim, which was a little shallow for my taste, but it all ended well, 12 skimmers 12ozs-1lb, 7 bream from 2lbs 8ozs to 4lbs 8ozs, a crazy 3lb common and a lone crucian 1lb 12ozs....punched meat over pellet feed....

 

[seth49]

Fished the syndicate water today hoping for some tench, but the bright sunshine and cold east wind, made it hard work, the peg I fished today was full of tench last week but not today, fished from 7. 30 till 3 pm, when I called it a day, after only catching two skimmers all day, it was hard work, too windy for the pole, and I fished a small cage feeder with groundbait and tried corn, wafters, hard pellets, and maggots.

just three bites missed one and landed two, I had a walk around after lunch and it was the same for most people, very slow and just a few bites, there were some nice carp enjoying the spring sunshine, but they were just in two sheltered spots, by the snags, it just needs to warm up, the fish felt very cold also.it needs to warm up.

 

[Ray Roberts]

I'm mutton, and I take bloody umbrage of the attitude that if you are loud because you are hard of hearing then perhaps certain people ought to do one, hopefully you never have the problem, also some people are sociable, others are downright miserable!!!

One thing being loud because you are deaf, quite another holding a conversation for five hours with someone on the other side of the lake. It’s like the divs who have a conversation on speakerphone with no consideration for the people around them. I would bet that you wouldn’t do it.

 

[mikench]

What did you say Ray?

 

[Alan Whitty]

No I wouldn't, unless I had someone that was near to me was determined to chat, it's like yesterday, I had a phone call from someone I know from my holidays at Christchurch, I've known him for many a year, we chat, maybe three times a year, he was on the phone for 20-30 minutes, I missed ten bites while he was chatting, when he rang off I stopped getting bites, I bet others on the lake heard what I was saying, sound travels well over water....
The artist (Rob) used to take the pee about how loud my voice is, unfortunately we with the issue have little choice in the matter...

 

[wetthrough]

Working in a sheet metal shop has probably finely tuned your voice to around 100db

 

[Alan Whitty]

It most certainly has Gordon, not so finely either, lol, not only that I have a modest amount of tinnitus whistling away, strangely I here birdsong pretty well, it's mens low pitched voices I struggle with, especially with any amount of background noise, it's embarrassing, but it is what it is I'm afraid....

 

[mikench]

We met up at 7.00am after a trip down the M6 which is never an enjoyable experience but once there we had an enjoyable day. The sun shone in a blue sky but that easterly wind was unpleasant all day and detracted from our overall enjoyment.

it wasn’t that the wind was very cold , it was the fact that it was gale force and incessant. I have had a bit of an ear infection for a while and a gale blowing in it was not something I craved.
Anyway the fishing wasn’t too bad considering. I used the feeder , the new to me Technium Specialist( it had never been used when I bought it ) and had 6 carp with the biggest around 5lb and a skimmer. Gordon had 4 carp and over half a dozen nettable roach. We were on adjacent pegs and had chats about all manor of things with Trump and the state of the world at the forefront. It was a good day and we both enjoyed it. No more fishing for me for 3 weeks unless a spot of beach casting appeals. Cheers Gordon and see you on my return.

 

[Alan Whitty]

Imagine ruining your days fishing talking about the tangerine dream....