nicepix
Well-known member
Spent the afternoon / evening on the River Glane aka Dingly Dell. Left home at 3pm and was fishing by half past. Didn't forget anything this time :w which was just as well as I had my carte de peche (rod licence) checked by the Garde de Peche for the first time. Really nice chap too. 
I started fishing a seam just upstream of a patch of lilies. First couple of casts resulted in small roach to red worm bait and I decided to switch baits as I don't like wasting worms on small fish. I prefer to save them for the barbeaux. So I switched to micro pellet banded onto a 16 hook, 1-14 hook length to 4lb mono fished on my little 'River Don Special' five foot quiver rod and Daiwa 1500 reel.
Started catching roach from the off. Casting a 1/4 oz bomb slightly upstream and letting about 6 or 7 feet of line bow out downstream then firing a dozen or so mixed micro halibut and chicken pellets in by catapult. I had three roach in successive casts using same pellet Each successive roach was slightly bigger than the one before and eventually the tappety-tap bites became single knock and drop backs as the roach began to top the 4 oz mark. I got a bit giddy then and put in two small balls of groundbait that effectively killed the swim for a good (or bad) half-hour or so.
Once the fish returned I continued the loose feeding every cast and soon got them back into the feeding mood. I reckon I had 30 to 40 roach in around four hours and the river continued its habit of throwing up a new species every visit with a tiny rudd. My first ever and a total surprise. I'd seen splashy rises when I'd fished before and thought they were dace. Now I'm not so sure and will have to investigate with my fly rod. The biggest roach would have been 9 or 10 ounces and gave a good account on the little rod in the faster part of the current.
While fishing there today it occurred to me that in total I was using less than £100 of tackle and bait - all in. The rod was £25 from Dawsons of Sheffield last time I was in England two years back. The reel was €30 from Decathalon. My bag is an Aldi £9.99 special, the line I'd had ages as part of a bulk spool, the seat cost around a tenner from Argos around 15 years ago and my net was another tenner from an estate auction. Probably the most luxurious part of the kit was the pre-tied hooks to nylon I bought about 7 years ago following a serious eye injury that stopped me being able to tie my own for a few years. Bait was worms from my own wormery and a handfull of pellets. Even the groundbait was stale breadcrumbs mixed with a bit of ground hemp, maize and pellets. I was sat there like a little gnome as happy as Larry
I started fishing a seam just upstream of a patch of lilies. First couple of casts resulted in small roach to red worm bait and I decided to switch baits as I don't like wasting worms on small fish. I prefer to save them for the barbeaux. So I switched to micro pellet banded onto a 16 hook, 1-14 hook length to 4lb mono fished on my little 'River Don Special' five foot quiver rod and Daiwa 1500 reel.
Started catching roach from the off. Casting a 1/4 oz bomb slightly upstream and letting about 6 or 7 feet of line bow out downstream then firing a dozen or so mixed micro halibut and chicken pellets in by catapult. I had three roach in successive casts using same pellet
Each successive roach was slightly bigger than the one before and eventually the tappety-tap bites became single knock and drop backs as the roach began to top the 4 oz mark. I got a bit giddy then and put in two small balls of groundbait that effectively killed the swim for a good (or bad) half-hour or so. Once the fish returned I continued the loose feeding every cast and soon got them back into the feeding mood. I reckon I had 30 to 40 roach in around four hours and the river continued its habit of throwing up a new species every visit with a tiny rudd. My first ever and a total surprise. I'd seen splashy rises when I'd fished before and thought they were dace. Now I'm not so sure and will have to investigate with my fly rod. The biggest roach would have been 9 or 10 ounces and gave a good account on the little rod in the faster part of the current.
While fishing there today it occurred to me that in total I was using less than £100 of tackle and bait - all in. The rod was £25 from Dawsons of Sheffield last time I was in England two years back. The reel was €30 from Decathalon. My bag is an Aldi £9.99 special, the line I'd had ages as part of a bulk spool, the seat cost around a tenner from Argos around 15 years ago and my net was another tenner from an estate auction. Probably the most luxurious part of the kit was the pre-tied hooks to nylon I bought about 7 years ago following a serious eye injury that stopped me being able to tie my own for a few years. Bait was worms from my own wormery and a handfull of pellets. Even the groundbait was stale breadcrumbs mixed with a bit of ground hemp, maize and pellets. I was sat there like a little gnome as happy as Larry
