Am returning to the winter coarse fishing fold after 40-ish years of chasing trout and grayling with flies. Now looking for some diversion in the colder months that doesn't require regular lottery wins to support:.
Spent in interesting if slightly disheartening day on a tour of the Oxford area tackle shops today, buying bits and pieces in return for the lowdown on my chances of getting some roach by trotting the smaller rivers of W Oxon (Windrush/Evenlode/Cherwell etc. - ideally, I prefer the more intimate feel of these to the more 'open-plan' Old Father down the road in Oxford). I now gather that they're not good, with the activities of cormorants, the booming otters population and signal crays digging out the banks the main source of invective.
To be honest, watching a quivertip over a breadflake ledgered near some tree roots etc. wasn't what I had in mind when I decided to 'return' but am beginning to think that these chubby tactics may well offer my best chance of some local sport.
If there are any experienced Oxon-based river anglers reading this, I would be grateful for your opinion and any pointers, particularly towards the aforementioned trotting, but if this'd likely be a waste of time in terms of results, don't be shy.... Bottom line, I'm after some river-based sport in the limited time I'll have to put into it - please let me know your thoughts!
Thanks in advance
Mike
Spent in interesting if slightly disheartening day on a tour of the Oxford area tackle shops today, buying bits and pieces in return for the lowdown on my chances of getting some roach by trotting the smaller rivers of W Oxon (Windrush/Evenlode/Cherwell etc. - ideally, I prefer the more intimate feel of these to the more 'open-plan' Old Father down the road in Oxford). I now gather that they're not good, with the activities of cormorants, the booming otters population and signal crays digging out the banks the main source of invective.
To be honest, watching a quivertip over a breadflake ledgered near some tree roots etc. wasn't what I had in mind when I decided to 'return' but am beginning to think that these chubby tactics may well offer my best chance of some local sport.
If there are any experienced Oxon-based river anglers reading this, I would be grateful for your opinion and any pointers, particularly towards the aforementioned trotting, but if this'd likely be a waste of time in terms of results, don't be shy.... Bottom line, I'm after some river-based sport in the limited time I'll have to put into it - please let me know your thoughts!
Thanks in advance
Mike