How did you get on?

[The Runner]

Well done Simon..
Work commitments meant that I couldn't fish the club match on Slough Arm this weekend, a pity as a knock up there on New Years Eve had a top weight of 23 lb odd and 70lb between the top 4, all roach.
Finished what I had to do by lunchtime so took a walk up there for the last hour and weigh in and it was swearword freezing with the wind at 45 degrees into you- five or six had already called it a day by the time I got there. Plenty of fish being caught though- winner had 18 lb with an 11 a 9 and an 8 to follow. There again, first section was won with 2-13 and given my draw hand on the venue, that's where I would have been...

 

[jon atkinson]

With a hard frost over night, bright sunshine forecast all day & temperatures 'soaring' up to 3°c it was always going to be hard going today, but having not wet a line since November I was just happy at the prospect of being on the bank again. Brookfield was the venue I opted for - not a big pond but up to 8' deep. I decided to join my beloved walking the dogs before heading off, reasoning that an hour or two of sunshine might just take the edge of, plus there was a fair chance of being iced over early doors.

No ice when I arrived & quite a bit more colour in the water than I expected [apparently, the heavy rain of late caused a bit of a mudslide]. Started on single red on a B711 #21 on a 2lb hook length - suffice to say it was slow. I was loose feeding 6 or so maggots every cast & decided to up the hook offering to 1 red & 1 white, reasoning that it would be more visible - 5 minutes later a slight dip & a small roach. I then had about 3 that all slipped the hook, so subsequently allowed a little more time before striking. This led to another half a dozen small roach, nothing over 4oz plus a 'bonus' skimmer of about 1/2 lb.

Things died right off after about 14:30 but I stayed 'til dusk anyway as I was just enjoying being out, plus I had a rather 'confident' robin for company who seemed quite happy perched on my rod - it even, briefly landed on my knee at one stage! I heard plenty of buzzards & watched a young kestrel hovering for about 5 minutes, looking positively radiant in the sunshine. Some lapwings on the field behind me too - they're always good value. All in all, a lovely day out... bl**dy cold mind!

 

[ian g]

Robin's brighten up any winter fishing trip , I had two of them doing synchronized maggot stealing when I was fishing last week . Took me a while to realise there were two of them.

 

[tonybull]

No frost here in Herts this morning, probably due to the bitter NE wind and cloudy skies. Club jobby on the GUC near Tring and a walk off. 12 fishing and I drew 12mg: but was amazed when everyone walked away from the narrow peg by the bridge?

By 10am and the all in the cloud had vanished, it was blue sky and bright sunlight with a strengthening wind blowing through the arch on the bridge...
I started off fishing squatt down the middle in 5' of water, had 3 bites in 3 hours, 3 mini gudgeon in the net..where were the perch which usually dominate this peg?
Decided to change tack so stuck another 2 sections on the pole, a punch rig, and fished hard across. First bite a small roach, then a better one. Cupping in liquy after each boat went through the roach kept coming, the dipping sun and lower light levels got them feeding. So far the bites had been very tentative, even with the fine bristle dotted right down it barely went under, just a very slight bob or tweak and I was lifting and connecting with them. When the float did eventually fly under my 3 elastic made its first proper appearance, a very welcome skimmer in the net lifted my spirits no end. After that it was roach, roach and more roach, all swingers but plenty of them.

Come the whistle at 3pm I was first to be weighed in. 2lb:15oz which I felt was a reasonable weight for the horrendous conditions, it barely reached 3 degrees all day and with the wind chill I doubt it was far off 0...

Back at the car I was packing my gear in and changing my boots when the organiser walked up and dropped my winnings in the back of my car.

I had won comfortably, 2nd had 1lb:2 and 3rd 8oz...

Happy days...

Well Done Simon

Silvers Match at Slough House next Sunday with FAL

 

[markcw]

I didn't fish, I was out bailiffing a few club ( Lymm AC ) waters, -3 temp and I come across one hardy soul who had been bivvied up all night, he did not realise his lines were iced up in the water, after telling him he must leave due to the rule of no fishing on frozen waters I went to a couple more waters thinking they would be free of anglers, but no.. a few more hardy souls were out braving the elements on all of the other waters, and having a chat with them I realised that anglers would rather spend a few hours in sub zero temperatures and with a very slim chance of catching something than go shopping with their wives or do a couple of jobs around the house. :wh

 

[maggot_dangler]

I didn't fish, I was out bailiffing a few club ( Lymm AC ) waters, -3 temp and I come across one hardy soul who had been bivvied up all night, he did not realise his lines were iced up in the water, after telling him he must leave due to the rule of no fishing on frozen waters I went to a couple more waters thinking they would be free of anglers, but no.. a few more hardy souls were out braving the elements on all of the other waters, and having a chat with them I realised that anglers would rather spend a few hours in sub zero temperatures and with a very slim chance of catching something than go shopping with their wives or do a couple of jobs around the house. :wh

Errr yep i can hang with that one hence i was out in the stuff this morning rather be out any day the only thing i dont like is high winds .

PG ...

 

[mikench]

Well done Simon; you will be retiring soon at this rate!

 

[peter crabtree]

No wind or frost this morning but it was very dark and gloomy on the Aylesbury arm near Tring.
6 old codgers spread out along this short pound, setting up with eyes straining to see fine lines...

Not a lot happened, in fact just 4 fish were caught. One codger had a 2oz:8dr perch, another had 2 perch for 2oz while our oldest codger (88 years old) caught a 3lb skimmer in the last half hour.

The other 3 including me blanked...:doh:

 

[Graham Elliott 1]

Well truly a game of two halves.

Fished Wye town stretch as the water had dropped about
6 feet in last couple of days. Fair bit of colour still.
Planned a wading day with red maggots and bread. Hoping to get the chub feeding with heavy feed and maybe some dace and elusive roach.

3 hours later with a nice steady trot through and gentle breeze at my back not a single bite to either bait!!!!!

Made my way downstream towards home and thought about all the meggansers I noted last time in a swim on the way.
Must have been there for some reason?

Give it a go then.

First trot a plump 12oz roach shining bright.
Another half dozen followed the best couple good pounders.
Then four or five huge dace. Should have weighed the best one knocking a pound.

Three chub to 2lb then another couple of 12oz roach.
Meanwhile a pike between 15 and 20lb slowly breached the surface under my feet where the fish were being returned.

Somethibg much more solid the next bite. Barbel? No a good chub fighting hard. Played out at distance and not wanting it to be Essox lunch, bought it in on the surface into the net.

Even bigger than I thought and my best Wye chub at 6lb 7oz.

One more dace followed but by now the wind was in my face and I couldn't really get a good presentation for the last half hour. A very enjoyable half a day!

 

[Graham Elliott 1]

I will try put a pic up. Any help appreciated

 

[nottskev]

I will try put a pic up. Any help appreciated

I put a guide to one way to do it in the New Member Help thread a while back, Graham.

 

[nottskev]

Last time out I had one bite, so I was hoping for at least two today. No frost this morning, although it was dank and chilly, with a cold drizzle. At least the wind had backed off. I plumped for the Old Lake, and it was as deserted when I arrived at 11am as it would still be when I left at 3pm. I let myself into the site and made a mental note to remember to pay the bailiff next time I saw him.:wh

The water was very coloured, and I set up the usual 10 or 11m of pole and attached the rig from my last visit. I just had to move it up the line an inch, with a bit more water in the lake.

I was pondering what to feed and fish as I'd confused myself with too much bait. As well as the usual hemp, caster and corn, I had worms unused from Sunday's aborted effort. I never mind throwing unused maggots away, but I always feel bad if worms expire unused, so, given the colour, I decided to fish a section of worm over some chopped worm and casters.


I regretted it almost straight away, as I started catching roach half the size I expect, and the odd tiny perch. It was proving a more expensive and fiddly way to catch maggot-size fish, and it was only when I started to drip corn and hemp in that a few better roach appeared.

When something put the .08 hooklength to the test for the first time, I assumed a little carp would be the culprit. So this was a surprise. What was he doing, out on a January morning not far above freezing?

With no-one else on the lake, I got visits from all the birds and water fowl in the area, including this comedy trio.

The bigger roach weren't to be tempted, even when I tried a second line fed without the chopped worm, but at 2.59 – I'd decided to wrap up at 3 – the float dipped and a second little tench was a welcome way to finish.

It seems the chopped worm got me smaller roach – and a couple of unlikely tench. The rain dried up, and I had a bite every put in. So it will almost certainly be back to one bite next time.

 

[103841]

A super bag of fish for a winter's day Kev.:thumbs:

 

[john step]

What a great day Kev. Jealous about the tench

 

[rubio]

Having waited weeks for the river to get colour and flow I had high hopes of some decent roach last weekend but in fact got very little. The biggest part of the failure lies with me I feel as I didn't fish well. Hardly managing to get a bait through the same line twice on the stick. Whether bread or maggot I was broadseed scattering feed all over the place and consequently never got into a rhythm and never got confident I was doing the right thing.
Switching to legering for an hour I got a couple of small chub that scrapped with spirit and looked very fit in sparkling silver winter colours. The only roach I got showed nothing on the float and was simply hanging on when I lifted out.
Having quickly searched my bank of ready made excuses I don't think I've blamed salt off the roads for a while so; that is why I suffered, and cos it's not cold enough to need salt just now (out here at least) then obviously I'll get a shedful next time out.

 

[mikench]

You are supposed to share your tench Kev

 

[nottskev]

You are supposed to share your tench Kev

Be my guest. But probably best to leave it for a couple of months!

 

[103841]

Due to many reasons I haven't been out fishing for what seems ages, illness throughout the family and less than hospitable weather just two of those factors.

I'd had today pencilled for a while, long range forecast was good and the high tide was just perfect for the tidal stretch at Grove Ferry on the Stour with a run off for most of the daylight hours. Somewhat crestfallen last night when the weather lady said we would have rain til lunchtime today, as if often the case I'm pleased to say she'd got it wrong.......again!

It turned out to be one of the most pleasant winters fishing days I've experienced even though I caught precious few fish and those I did catch didn't require any assistance from the net.

The weather was glorious, I must have roved a three mile stretch meeting just one fellow angler along the route, he wasn't doing so well either. The bird life was abundant and varied, if only I knew what they were, being an ex townie I was able to recognise the noisy parrots though.

A couple of hours trotting produced a handful of small roach. Even a juicy worm couldn't tempt a stripey from likely looking hideouts.

Packed away the float rod and went off for a ramble with the lure rod in search of Esox. Not a touch but some nice scenery along the way.

Another spot that screams perch, I shall return.

Finished off back where I started and gave the float rod one more chance with just a tiny roach for my efforts, enough to make you want to walk the plank.

The journey home was an equal delight with a sunset that I should have stopped for and taken a pic, little wonder Turner thinks this was one of the best parts of the country for the light which he claimed was unique.

 

[ian g]

looks a great place to be out , on a pleasant winters day . Shame the perch were otherwise engaged

 

[Another Dave]

Took the dog for a very quick walk and managed to smuggle a 4m 'travel whip' out with me and a slice of bread. Now that the water level is back down my eddy has reappeared and we managed a couple of small roach on badly punched bread before returning.

Pretty much one a cast stuff so i'm hoping to get back on Friday with a rod.