How did you get on?

[nottskev]

Today's session started Sunday evening. With the weather warm, overcast and windless, I deluded myself I could apply patience and guile and catch a tench from a hard water. Setting up by the c**p lake (ordinary season ticket; full of water) next to the carp lake ( elite premium ticket; full of big fish) I was informed by the bailiff that a small old lake on the huge site had been developed for us ordinary anglers, and it was full of good roach and bream. He also said they'd put some carp in, but I wasn't really listening after the roach and bream bit.

Four hours with two rods on the hard lake didn't produce a bite, but I was back today, setting up on the new development, which turned out to be pleasantly tree-lined and secluded. Two lines plumbed and floats dotted; some hemp and caster cupped in here, some corn and pellet there, and I was ready to go. I thought a 6 elastic and a 16 hook to .12 hooklength should get most things out. You've probably guessed: first put in, float disappears, elastic bottoms, line breaks and expensive pole float surfs out of sight. As I'm not one of the guys who looks like they're moving house when they go fishing, I'm not carrying much beefy gear, and the best I can muster is a top two with doubled 5 elastic and a rig with .14 line. Back in, and out comes a fat little carp of about a pound and a half. Followed by another 43 of them plus or minus a few ounces. (I counted them because there is a no nets rule for carp)

No more tackle-smashing monsters and I never saw a roach or a bream. I sat in the pouring rain all afternoon catching pasty carp. Which is what I imagine I'll do in the afterlife, if I'm really bad.

 

[The Runner]

Just back from a long weekend staying with friends near Newcastle. Managed a half days fishing with a couple of old mates on Saturday with borrowed tackle- thought we were going to be on a club venue I hadn't fished since 1978, the splendidly named Stargate, but in the event went to the pool just across the road which back when I lived up there was a moonscape with a gravel washing plant and a silt trap. It looks a lot nicer now...
https://s11.postimg.org/4q8tf91fn/P1011554.jpg
Plenty of roach to start for me and Tony on my left and Mick on my right both picked up a nice carp on the float.Switched to pellet but no sign of better fish, just the roach knocking it about. Went out on a little feeder with corn and pellet to the edge of the far weeds but only a few liners. Four big pouches of corn and pellet, back on the float line and immediately had a bream about 3lb followed unexpectedly on a change to double maggot by this lovely little thing
https://s15.postimg.org/va384ysgb/P1011553.jpg
Tony had a couple of bream on maggot, Mick another carp and I found three more barbelettes in amongst the roach and perch (to the bafflement of a local who stopped for a chat) but the hot , sunny and windless conditions did us no favours in the shallow water and even the roach bites dwindled away to virtually nothing so after another unsuccessful go on the feeder, called it a day around 2.
One different thing about the venue, most places you go its a robin that comes and sits near you waiting to be fed maggots. Not here- it wouldn't touch corn though.
https://s12.postimg.org/kjx5slrx9/P1011556.jpg

A nice day's fishing, followed later by Whitley Bay Beer Festival. Hurrah !

 

[Philip]

I promised Peter a few posts so as I mentioned elsewhere I just got back from a few days in the sunny South and took along a bit of tackle to have a go for some tidal river mullet. Didn’t really get a chance to give it a good go but a short evening session trotting bread proved quite productive with 3 Mullet hooked, 2 landed. Mullet are a great fish and this one kept me occupied for several minutes on the float tackle. Look closely and you can see how precarious the hook hold is !

Although I was after the mullet you never quite know what else you will catch …

And a surprise bass too...this little guy also snaffled up trotted bread would you believe

Shame I didnt have more time but I'll be back..

 

[108831]

Excuse my ignorance Philip,but i've done a fair amount of sea fishing and caught a fair few mullet,but what is the fish in the middle picture?

 

[theartist]

Excuse my ignorance Philip,but i've done a fair amount of sea fishing and caught a fair few mullet,but what is the fish in the middle picture?

Type of Sea Bream by the looks of it, known as a Dreamfish or Goldline, I think that could be a very rare catch Philip certanly more so than Bass on bread as they love the stuff.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salema_porgy

 

[binka]

What a great looking fish that is, it reminds me of Stewie Griffin!

 

[no-one in particular]

I promised Peter a few posts so as I mentioned elsewhere I just got back from a few days in the sunny South and took along a bit of tackle to have a go for some tidal river mullet. Didn’t really get a chance to give it a good go but a short evening session trotting bread proved quite productive with 3 Mullet hooked, 2 landed. Mullet are a great fish and this one kept me occupied for several minutes on the float tackle. Look closely and you can see how precarious the hook hold is !

Although I was after the mullet you never quite know what else you will catch …

And a surprise bass too...this little guy also snaffled up trotted bread would you believe

Shame I didnt have more time but I'll be back..

I looked for signs of mullet in a tidal river at Rye yesterday and could not see any but there were lots of small fish about 3 inches long, not sure what they were but maybe smelt. Bit early for mullet or is it? I never knew bass took bread, do they really love the stuff, something learned. And that middle fish, never seen one of those before, is it a gilt head bream or something?

 

[theartist]

Trying to find out more about Salema Porgy and it's northern reaches are the Bay of Biscay down to the Med and Canaries. No reference at all on the British Sea fish website. For it to be in UK waters this time of year surely makes it a really rare catch.

How far south were you Phillip? Gibraltar?

 

[Philip]

Thanks for the comments guys…sorry I should have clarified ....when I said the sunny south I meant the Mediterranean South ! These are Med fish

The middle one is called a Saupe in France, it’s a type of Bream. I think its called a Goldline in the UK as Mark suggested. I took the photo as they are pretty little fish.

---------- Post added at 09:09 ---------- Previous post was at 09:07 ----------

I never knew bass took bread, do they really love the stuff, something learned

I wouldnt have put them down as big Bread takers either Mark although although I think the artist mentions they will take it ...

 

[theartist]

Thanks for the comments guys…sorry I should have clarified ....when I said the sunny south I meant the Mediterranean South ! These are Med fish

The middle one is called a Saupe in France, it’s a type of Bream. I think its called a Goldline in the UK as Mark suggested. I took the photo as they are pretty little fish.

---------- Post added at 09:09 ---------- Previous post was at 09:07 ----------



I wouldnt have put them down as big Bread takers either Mark although although I think the artist mentions they will take it ...

Haha Philip that's funny there was me getting all excited and was going to ask if I could put your photo on a sea forum. Great angling though mate and yeah were all jealous now. :thumbs:

Re bread and Bass this is something that I also learned this year catching my first Bass on bread, I was shocked till I spoke to a regular Mullet angler who says he gets plagued by them sometimes, I went on to have ten more that day. In total I've had 19 Bass this year 15 of which have been on the white stuff, biggest about 2lb but on my last trip I was in a private marina feeding a pack of Bass some of which were doubles and they couldn't get enough bread. They have very good eyesight as I was fishing heavy at the time and they took everything but my hookbait spooking at the sight every time. This would explain why they don't get taken often on bread as the they see the line if too thick. Yet they love the stuff, if you can fish light for them on coarse gear it can be sensational. Put it this way i'm not even worried about the river season starting as I've got the bug.

Bread is now my must have first choice sea bait and I'm trying to find a species that doesn't take it!

Re mullet Mark they are in most the usual south coast areas, it's not too early mate, although they're not there in full numbers yet.

 

[mikench]

Whereabouts Philip, near where a river enters the sea as i do not see grass adjacent to the med very often. I have tried for Mullet using a spinner near where the Var enters the sea. I actually caught one!

only managed a 3 hour session yesterday resulting in one bream and four roach! No tench! I used my 14 ft rod and a new closed face reel which worked well once i had discovered the drag and set it! I liked the Abu 501 so much i bought a 507! Lovely reel which balances the rod perfectly imho!

 

[john step]

Whereabouts Philip, near where a river enters the sea as i do not see grass adjacent to the med very often. I have tried for Mullet using a spinner near where the Var enters the sea. I actually caught one!

Mike I have caught Carp,chub,rudd in a couple of rivers running through campsites immediately prior to them running across the beach in both Argeles France and LaEscala Spain.

At LaEscala there is also a stream/river that enters the sea in the corner of the bay.

At this spot at LaEscala I witnessed a local angler catching some rather long looking common carp about 5 to 7 lb trotting BEYOND the limit of the land.
Obviously the effect of the flow negated the salt of this non tidal sea.

I saw him later walking down the road with them hanging on a rope through mouth and gills.

Knowing that the sewage arrangements in Spain were rather suspect at the time I thought "how tasty"

 

[mikench]

i loved Argeles John and when the kids were young we always went camping/caravaning there. I wasn't a fishermen then ( you are still not i hear you cry) so paid little heed to likely spots. In the Nice area you either fish from rocks or pebbly beaches!

 

[no-one in particular]

Thanks for the comments guys…sorry I should have clarified ....when I said the sunny south I meant the Mediterranean South ! These are Med fish

The middle one is called a Saupe in France, it’s a type of Bream. I think its called a Goldline in the UK as Mark suggested. I took the photo as they are pretty little fish.

---------- Post added at 09:09 ---------- Previous post was at 09:07 ----------



I wouldnt have put them down as big Bread takers either Mark although although I think the artist mentions they will take it ...

right, got it

 

[Philip]

Whereabouts Philip, near where a river enters the sea as i do not see grass adjacent to the med very often. I have tried for Mullet using a spinner near where the Var enters the sea. I actually caught one!

Yes thats right Mike, basically a river running into the sea, so a bit further inland not down on the beach itself so to speak. I'll send you a PM. Well done on your Mullet, the Var holds some good ones. They will take spinners but I think float fishing / trotting for them is a great way to catch them, they put up a great scrap on light tackle. Try early or late, I would avoid the middle of the day, you can flog away for hours without a sniff and then all of a sudden they just seem to turn on and you can catch several in quick succession.

---------- Post added at 13:12 ---------- Previous post was at 13:10 ----------

Re bread and Bass this is something that I also learned this year catching my first Bass on bread, I was shocked till I spoke to a regular Mullet angler who says he gets plagued by them sometimes, I went on to have ten more that day. In total I've had 19 Bass this year 15 of which have been on the white stuff, biggest about 2lb but on my last trip I was in a private marina feeding a pack of Bass some of which were doubles and they couldn't get enough bread. They have very good eyesight as I was fishing heavy at the time and they took everything but my hookbait spooking at the sight every time. This would explain why they don't get taken often on bread as the they see the line if too thick. Yet they love the stuff, if you can fish light for them on coarse gear it can be sensational. Put it this way i'm not even worried about the river season starting as I've got the bug.

Interesting stuff, thanks for that. I really didnt know they were big on Bread but clearly I was wrong. For some reason I imagined it would be like catching a Perch on bread i.e quite unusual.

 

[theartist]

Interesting stuff, thanks for that. I really didnt know they were big on Bread but clearly I was wrong. For some reason I imagined it would be like catching a Perch on bread i.e quite unusual.

Yeah that's exactly what I thought at first, now it's so normal I'm starting to think Perch are the weird ones for not taking bread.

 

[jon atkinson]

Mike I have caught Carp,chub,rudd in a couple of rivers running through campsites immediately prior to them running across the beach in both Argeles France and LaEscala Spain.

At LaEscala there is also a stream/river that enters the sea in the corner of the bay.

At this spot at LaEscala I witnessed a local angler catching some rather long looking common carp about 5 to 7 lb trotting BEYOND the limit of the land.
Obviously the effect of the flow negated the salt of this non tidal sea.

I saw him later walking down the road with them hanging on a rope through mouth and gills.

Knowing that the sewage arrangements in Spain were rather suspect at the time I thought "how tasty"

As a kid I used to fish a vast network of drains & sluices running off a very large lake to the south of Valencia that was essentially a reservoir to feed the paddy fields where the Bomba (Paella) rice is grown. The sluices would generally run about 200m with the lake at one end & the Med at the other. Carp & Mullet were equally likely to be caught, not forgetting bootlace eels , although I always caught more carp than anything - oh for the chance to go back with today's knowledge & kit :wh

 

[jon atkinson]

Back on topic, I've not posted for a while & in truth there hasn't been too much to write home about - still no sign of any tench, that's for damn sure
Previous time out at the Leg o' mutton dam I was catching plenty of small roach & perch. Switching to worm produced something a little more feisty which turned out to be a jack of 15" or so which leaped its own body length clear of the water before severing the hook length
More gratifying was being approached by a young lad who was very polite & asked me as to what I was catching on as he was having no joy at all. Transpires that he was hoping for roach but after a quick chat it transpired that he was fishing with a couple of reds skewered onto a dodgy looking size 10 (or thereabouts) on to some seriously heavy line. I couldn't do anything about the main line (although it was properly spooled to the lip at least) but I could set him up with a realistic hook length & #18 to give him a fighting chance. Sadly his excursion was curtailed by his mother no more than 10 minutes later although she did thank me for taking the time to talk to him.

So following a wonderful week of long walks with the dogs (& wife ) & pub lunches in a particularly sunny Somerset last week I headed out to Blackbrook Basin on Sunday with tench on my mind. It's probably been 4 weeks since I was last here & the Hornwort & other weeds have really taken a grip.

However, despite this, the basin was looking in pretty good nick...

I had plenty of small roach on double red but switching to 6mm fishmeal soft pellet upped the ante with a trio of better roach of which this at not far off 1lb was the best

Plus a couple of these guys

& finishing with my best skimmer of the season as going on 2lb, but still no sign of tench
Hey ho, tomorrow is another day...

 

[thecrow]

Fished yesterday and today for a grand total of around 2 hours at the most, determined to get on with the centrepin I fished a commercial near home where catching carp is almost a cert, wrong the carp ( only carp in the water) were spawning so although I gave it a go my heart wasn't in it.

Went to day to a different commercial with the same intent regarding the centrepin, fished with the breeze coming into my bank fed pellets and corn sparingly while tackling up and while fishing, started to get signs of fish in the swim when all of a sudden I thought a depth charge had gone off in my swim, a female angler had cast a method feeder into my swim and seemed oblivious to my WTF stare and proceeded to do it again 5 minutes later, that was enough for me so I packed up and went home.

Two good things came out of the abandoned sessions, the first was that I am becoming more comfortable handling the centrepin the second is that the bailiff didn't get his money from me so that's gone on some ground bait and bait for another try in the morning on a local club water.

Jeez big fish fishing was never this difficult

 

[mikench]

I sympathise with the issues you encountered . I had words with a bloke and his girlfriend who were bivvied up despite the sunshine and warmth and whose casting was as wayward as Kim Jong IL's missiles! Unfortunately neither could speak English or at any rate the language I know and love. Whilst communication was not his forte , he at least desisted from his wayward casting across the lake. I'll say no more!