How did you get on?

[robtherake]

All I wanted to do was go out and get a single, solitary bite using my lovingly handcrafted perch bobber.


I’d had my first ever fish, and some good ones at that, on a float crafted from the clumsiest hands in fishing!


:w

How did the bites develop, Steve?

 

[binka]

How did the bites develop, Steve?

It's a bit of a pun but they really were a "bob" on the bobber to begin with, following that they would occasionally dip away quite confidently and sometimes they would just melt away as if in slow motion.

I adjusted the depth and got bites between a couple of inches on to the same amount off but I reckon both were signs of fish confidently feeding.

Now and again I would hold the worm under the rod tip the float depth off bottom and very gently raise and lower it until I felt the hit and then quickly lowered the rod tip to give it some resistance free time before the float danced away, these were more aggressive bites which I associated with the movement of the bait.

 

[robtherake]

It's a bit of a pun but they really were a "bob" on the bobber to begin with, following that they would occasionally dip away quite confidently and sometimes they would just melt away as if in slow motion.

I adjusted the depth and got bites between a couple of inches on to the same amount off but I reckon both were signs of fish confidently feeding.

Now and again I would hold the worm under the rod tip the float depth off bottom and very gently raise and lower it until I felt the hit and then quickly lowered the rod tip to give it some resistance free time before the float danced away, these were more aggressive bites which I associated with the movement of the bait.

That's how we used to do it, when all of us kids were fishing the "perch pond" just down the road. Takes me back a bit....well, quite a bit, actually.

 

[binka]

That's how we used to do it, when all of us kids were fishing the "perch pond" just down the road. Takes me back a bit....well, quite a bit, actually.

I've always found small perch to be suckers for movement of anything they think is edible, I remember a couple of seasons ago catching a 2oz perch on a 10mm punched meat pellet intended for barbel, whilst reeling in.

I did what you would and "wobbled" a meat pellet to take a string of small perch

 

[wa1115]

Had another short evening session last night but this time from the bank, access isn't brilliant from the bank and only a very short stretch that I could fish but I gave it a go anyway. Ended up with 3 small Brownies which all fell to a small bronze size 2 spinner.

I don't often get pictures of me holding fish but I collared a lone dog walker to take one for me. No prizes for size but lovely fish.

Was an enjoyable session if not a bit nippy as the temperature soon dropped off.

 

[john step]

Had a practise today on my pole which is about 20 years old and has not seen the light of day for years.
I have a fund raising fish-in cum match Sunday so I thought it best to wave it about a bit.

Well.. hemp and tares/wheat and pellet with the odd dead maggot produced about 25lb of beautiful prime roach with the odd rudd and perch.
Some roach were pounders some 3 ouncers so at over 100 I reckoned that a fair estimate.

Come Sunday I bet I won't get a bitemg:mg:

 

[flightliner]

Well, all my plans of sitting behind two rods today by way of a change from float fishing came to nothing.
I,ve aquired a pole and wanted to try it out before the season started as after that it could be months before another oppotunity presented itself, where too, well the crucian lake seemed as good as any so off I went.
Fishing down the margin with feeder pellets took about a half hour before my first bite--- one that I missed but the next one some minutes later came to the net In similar crucian fashion, twisting, turning, boring, the whole unique cru style of fight that never ends until its in the net.
A nice fish too, a pound and a half at least, maybe an ounce or two more but I didnt use the scales as by this time after using them last week a "guestimate" was sufficiant.
A quite ten minutes followed then off I went on a mini run of some five or six more similar fish, great fun too on the pole.
Then the problem started, the surface nearby was white over with the white cotton wool stuff that blows fron vegetation and gathers on the surface. The wind shifted just a little but enough for it to drift into my swim making it almost impossibe to get the bait (and shot ) thro it without it getting covered in the stuff.
Bites just stopped, and for the next three hours all I had was two short dips on the float that produced nothing.
Around four o clock the water cleared a little and bites started to materialise again and tho not as many or as strong as earlier I managed a total of eleven, all peas in a pod to look at but with the floating fluff returning again I was off earlier than planned to beat the rush of traffik nearer home.
A nice day all round, great fun.

 

[barbelboi]

Thankfully I haven't seen any 'cotton wool' up here Mick but a couple of pits in the Colne valley used to suffer from it badly this time of year - clogged up the top eyes on your rod. Whoever planted these ****ing trees so close to water should be hung upside down in the water/stuff until it disperses ..............

 

[binka]

I managed a total of eleven, all peas in a pod to look at

And here is one of Flight's peas in a pod...



Very nice Mick

 

[flightliner]

Thankfully I haven't seen any 'cotton wool' up here Mick but a couple of pits in the Colne valley used to suffer from it badly this time of year - clogged up the top eyes on your rod. Whoever planted these ****ing trees so close to water should be hung upside down in the water/stuff until it disperses ..............

Surprising that Jerry, you'd think your little cru pond in the wood should be a prime candidatefor a "snowstorm".

 

[S-Kippy]

Talk about a game of two halves ! For the first time in God knows how long I had back to back trips.

Thursday : Another go at the Farmoor trite. Very bright when I arrived about 5pm ( eat your heart out, Jerry) and it wasn't until about 6-30 when the sun got off the water and a breeze got up that the trite showed the slightest interest. I had planned to fish the dray flay but I just couldn't see it in the chop so I reverted to my standard set up.....daiwl Bach's and a tiny weighted GRHE fished through the surface. It was the GRHE they fancied and I ended up with 14 fine,fat,Farmoor trite with the best about 5 and 3 good 4 pounders. Only 2 fell off this time . Late on they came up and were taking minute buzzers but by then I thought " how many more do you actually need to catch ? The answer was none so I promptly buqqered off.

I even fooled the Dept of Transport by going round Oxford Anti-clockwise and defeating their efforts to delay me. Have that !

Today......Bury Hill for more crucians only I didn't get any. Not one.....not even a tench either. For some reason it has switched right off and has been like this all week. It was still busy yet I saw only 2 tench caught all day and 1 crucian. Everybody seemed to be plagued by Crabtree sized perch and little scriber roach. I fished my nuts off for 6 good roach between 14oz and about 1-2......a couple of nice rudd and about a third of a bucket of mixed whitebait. Very disappointing but I suppose that's payback for sneaking off out two days in a row.

Highlight was seeing one of Brother Binka's perch bobbers over Farmoor yesterday evening. Well....that's what it looked like to me anyway though the bloke down the bank said it was a hot air balloon. I'm not convinced personally.

Happy days.....I shall be on jankers for the rest of the BH weekend now. Mrs S won't forget this in a hurry.

 

[barbelboi]

Surprising that Jerry, you'd think your little cru pond in the wood should be a prime candidatefor a "snowstorm".

No, only 'proper' trees here Mick - the worst you get is a bit of blossom, or later in the year, an acorn on your head..................

 

[Graham Elliott 1]

Not doing so well on my lake fishing of late.

Problem is......too many fish in these ponds....

Went back to my perch lake that was simply perch and carp in March and April in the colder weather.
Now its roach rudd and bream aplenty. Whole king prawns and 1 inch lumps of meat on the float just get mullered till the bait and the size 10 is small enough to be sucked in.

After a frustrating brim brim roach brim brim rudd brim etc for 2 hours I reverted to single maggot on a 16 with 1 dust shot and no float feeding maggots over the top.

About 100 fish later with the best fish of all species just topping a pound I gave up. The carpus were just starting to spawn.

Roll on 16th June.

 

[rubio]

Returned to the scene of my last evening trip to see if my excellent plan of fishing from dark into the night would work.
Bit of bread mash in;wander around carp spotting for a bit;return for the crucians and go home with a smug grin.
Plan worked brilliantly up to the point where I started fishing!
Half a dozen roach at first, as anticipated. Then a couple of hybrids. Then......
well more hybrids. Packed up at midnight with a final score of nil crucians and a bit more snot on my trousers than i like.

 

[peter crabtree]

My peg today on beautiful lake in S.Bucks. My mate guested me on one of his club fixtures and he drew next to me, which happens uncannily too often?
Started on a shallow maggot rig and found the fish 11/12m out. Small Rudd a chuck.



After an hour I was tiring and after spotting some big carp out in the pads I tried a dobbing rig with expander and the Rudd took that too!mg:
Resigned myself to going for it for the final 3 hours and finished up with a hard earned net of them...



Weighed in 6lb10 for 3rd place. Winner had an island chuck and had a decent carp and bits for 10lb. My mate came 2nd with 7lb 8, a tench and numerous Rudd.

9 fished....

 

[barbelboi]

Do I know that water Simon or is it just very, very similar to another that we both know?

 

[peter crabtree]

Do I know that water Simon

Yes..........

 

[binka]

I had my second overnighter of the year last night and as planned I fished it on the float with a Starlight attached.

A bit of a disappointment in terms of results but otherwise a great craic.

I was never happy with the swim but as I was double pegging with a mate it had to do, I wanted to fish up to the marginal shelf which had brought great results during day sessions over the last week but in this area there was no even bottom below the rod tip with what felt like large boulders when I plumbed up and I was forced to go another rod length out which found me in eleven feet of water and changing over to a slider float to make netting easier when a couple of feet had been trimmed off the reach under the curve of a fish on a thirteen foot rod.

Still, I managed a few perch and some decent ones at that to about 1-10 and it was nice to see that yellow glow of the Starlight slipping away below the surface occasionally, my mate had a single carp just into double figures.

There was the most amazing sight around 5am as the water became black just above the surface with what looked like dozens of swallows chasing a hatch and large roach cashed in too by rolling amongst the carp that were doing that head and shoulders, vertical surfacing thing that they occasionally do in the evenings.

Packed up around 8.30 this morning and grabbed a coffee on the way home before putting the gear away and washing the cooking kit ready for next time, a few hours cat napping between varnishing floats and I’m nicely chilled out.

It dipped to 8° again last night with a very wet dew and I’ll enjoy my bed tonight!

:w

 

[thecrow]

How you watched a starlight all night I don't know, when I have one at the end of my rod I start to hallucinate with it jumping about all over the place
when I know its really not moving at all.

 

[binka]

How you watched a starlight all night I don't know, when I have one at the end of my rod I start to hallucinate with it jumping about all over the place
when I know its really not moving at all.

Lager!

The double vision cancels out the hallucinations... If only one float goes under you know it's not a real bite