How did you get on?

[The Runner]

Well, fished club match on our lake at Wraysbury which was its usual match conditions hard work even with a holiday-depleted turnout of a dozen. Humid conditions meant that the lake's population of eels might be worth targeting in some areas (they're nearly all 1-12 and upwards so don't need many) and had decided before I got there that would go for them if I was on the deep bank, 5 or 6m chop and dead maggot. As it was, ended up on one of the swims on the front of the Island, drawn it twice before and won each time, but its the Willows swims on the shallow side that are fishing best at the moment. Set up usual method and cage feeder rods and also waggler as can be tench about 2 rods out in this area but very weedy close in.Exploratory chucks pre start with a bomb found a big bank of pondweed almost up to the top about 25 yards out as well as the masses of it that could see coming off the shallow water to my left. Blanket weed seemed to get worse the further out you went so opted for a clearish line at about 40 yards and started on cage feeder with a few dampened pellets in a bit of groundbait and lots of chopped worm . Nothing happened for 45 minutes or so then an odd sort of bite with the tip just shaking a bit back and forward, hit it and had the smallest eel I've ever seen here at about 8oz. Half an hour later, slow pull round and had the second smallest eel etc etc, about 12 oz this time . Not much happening anywhere apart from a bream from the reeds on the shallow side, so had a look on waggler without success. Back on tip, a couple of small fish knocks on maggot, had a look with pellet and corn , no joy, and more confidence in worm and maggot at present as that's what all the bream have been coming out on. Another look on waggler found two microscopic perch, then a couple of ounce roach and then bitten off by a bigger eel that I couldn't get up above the weed. Back on tip as four people now with single bream and needed to join them. One more perch on feeder and worm, Andrew at the next peg saved his blank with a 5 lb bream and finally with an hour to go tip went round properly again and a decent bream on. Which kited off left behind the big bank of pondweed and pulled out as I gave it stick trying to get it up and over. Ho hum. A couple more little knocks, probably liners , and that was my lot, 1-12 and nowhere.
17-11 won from the willows, one carp and one bream, two bream for 11-7 next to him second , then 8-9 and 7 -11 heading a string of "one bream and a few bits" weights.
Only beat two people I think, including the days only blank in the "monstercorner" who lost a carp from his only bite of the day which would have won on its own by some distance.
Frustrating place, but I do like it.

Ps sorry no pics, postimg seems to be playing up

 

[peter crabtree]

Club match for me too today on one of our lakes. A smallish pit which is long and narrow which serves as an irrigation lake for the nearby pick your own farm.
As normal at this time of year the level was down by around 5' but still around 8' deep in most places. With 24 fishing it was predictably dire and most (including me) struggled after the first half hour. I had a few small roach on the pole shallow rig with maggot but the feeder line was totally unproductive as was the close in waggler and worm rig.
1st 2nd and 3rd all had a carp each + bits with weights just into double figures,
the best of the rest just scraping 2:8lb with my 11oz just missing a section win....

 

[wrighty64]

had an afternoon on local farm lake 2 tench both around 4lb fished waggler on silstar carbomatic 13ft match rod n reel by same manufacturer. maybe old school but lovely control of fish. bait was sensas pellets bought in feb on ian heaps fishery, every time i use em i catch, bream like them too. rain curtailed afternoon but cider and a chinese takeaway sorted it.

 

[Keith M]

I spent 3 hours fishing a pond about a hundred yards from our holiday home on Friday evening using a waggler with some corn for bait.

I only expected to catch a few Roach, Rudd and maybe a few snotties if I was very unlucky, as that's all I'd previously seen people catch from there; but to my surprise it had some Carp in it.

I only caught them up to around a couple of pounds on my sweetcorn and waggler but there was a young lad fishing there with a light Carp rod fishing crust on the surface and he had several Carp up to around 12 or 13lb from this relatively tiny pond.

I know that a small 12lb Carp isn't likely to get anyone's heart racing but it was a pleasant surprise and being virtually next door to our holiday home it will give me plenty of fun when I'm there.
I've since heard that they have been caught up to 17lb but I'll take this with a pinch of salt untill I've seen them with my own eyes

I also caught plenty of roach and Rudd plus a few snotties that thought they could fly as every bream I caught jumped clear of the water, the only place where I'd seen Bream doing this.

Keith

 

[sheffields12]

Went out Yesterday morning to my local river (Rother), only my 2nd visit.

Was hoping to catch some Perch as that's what I caught there last time, but the stretch I was on was blocked off as it looks like some work is being done on the tree's around it.

Off I headed to a different stretch, found a peg I liked the look of and setup my float ready to just trot it down.
After an hour of not even a bite, i decided to try a different peg. This one was really fast and deep (About a foot deeper than usual). I was even temped to just call it a day due to how high the river was but I persisted with it.

Setup on a new peg, found the area I wanted to fish, this time i had a bite or two and even a fish... Tiny and pointless most would say, but hey... At least I didn't blank is what I thought!

The warden came round to collect money, had a nice chat with him explained i was pretty much new to fishing so he sat with me and checked out my rig. Advised me to use a different float and change my shot pattern. This worked wonders, I caught loads of Dace, nothing too big but as a novice it's better to catch any fish rather than just look for the big boys. And a few decent sized Roach (About the size of my hand).

To top if all off, I had a little Otter sat at the side of my watching me fish. First time I've seen one in the wild but every time I went for my phone to take a picture he ran off!

All in all, a great experience! I fished from around 91m - 3:30pm and felt like I'd only been there an hour or two!
No Perch but I've been told there isn't many in that stretch I was on. But there is plenty of Chub, some Barbel and loads more so I'll deffo be back there. Always feels much better than fishing on a pond!

Few pictures here:

 

[103841]

Oh my goodness what an embrassing moment.mg:

Wanted to try something new today at the weir pool, a short whip with bread punch to see how the food crazy Dace deal with it.

But on arrival the pool had a generous number of plump chub parading themselves in full view without a predatory care in the world. My whip wasn't up to this task so a trip back to the car to bring out the heavy artillery.

A very large lump of Polony was free lined into the arena and within a couple of seconds was seized apon and I was winning a brave fight with the greedy chub. I'm at least 8ft above the water and need a 3m handle on my net to land such beasts, no problem and I'm smirking at such an easy catch, it was then that the first section of my handle departed from the section I was holdingmg:

So there I am looking at my net (still containing fish) and a section of handle floating around in the drink below, very ungainly. No access to get down so very gingerly grabbed the 6lb line and started hauling net, fish and handle up, amazingly I made it, the barbless hook no longer in the lip but in the net mesh, a blessing in disguise.



Then the rain started so retreated back to the comfort of the car, a chance to order a Drennan twist and lock handle while I waited for the rain to stop which it duly did.

Left the Avon rod in the car and returned with a short whip which felt like a matchstick by comparison. The pool has been rammed with Dace, Roach, Perch and Chublets over the past few days but as I sat there watching a tiny pole float scattering occasional thumbnail sizes of bread mash, they had all but disappeared maybe it was my Frank Spencer moment an hour or so before that had sent everything into hiding but with perseverance did manage my first few fish on punched bread swinging to hand a few Dace.

With the constant attention from a particular angler I'm sure there is a big roach in this pool, I don't want to wish Summer away but Winter will bring new dreams and optimism.

 

[wawaw1867]

Not posted for a while, that's because I've been busy fishing lol. I seem to have found a hot-spot at a club water I joined at Matlock. Having caught a few Chubb, Grayling and loads of Trout on the Derwent before the season closed I thought I'd give one of their course ponds another go (after blanking on it in March). I've been going twice a week for the last 7 weeks now, fishing mainly method feeder with micro's and either corn or soft hooker pellets as hook bait. It's fair to say I've been coming home with an aching right arm!! My best session was two weeks ago - in 5 Hours I had 13 Mixed Carp between 5lb and 14lb, 25 Skimmers to 1lb, 3 Roach to 1lb, and 3 Tench to 3.5lb. My worst session saw me muster 4 Carp to 10lb and half a dozen skimmers. All on method feeder. I did try off the surface last week and hit 2 Carp and also had several nice Rudd fishing a small banded pellet 8-12" deep. But the Coots and ducks make surface fishing a bit of a nightmare. I've been enjoying it that much I haven't even fished the river yet since the season opened I'm not going to mention that last week my rod was pulled in twice at lightening speed I did manage to retrieve it on both occasions oh and I fell off my chair PMSL

---------- Post added at 19:34 ---------- Previous post was at 19:08 ----------

Went out Yesterday morning to my local river (Rother), only my 2nd visit.

Was hoping to catch some Perch as that's what I caught there last time, but the stretch I was on was blocked off as it looks like some work is being done on the tree's around it.

Off I headed to a different stretch, found a peg I liked the look of and setup my float ready to just trot it down.
After an hour of not even a bite, i decided to try a different peg. This one was really fast and deep (About a foot deeper than usual). I was even temped to just call it a day due to how high the river was but I persisted with it.

Setup on a new peg, found the area I wanted to fish, this time i had a bite or two and even a fish... Tiny and pointless most would say, but hey... At least I didn't blank is what I thought!

The warden came round to collect money, had a nice chat with him explained i was pretty much new to fishing so he sat with me and checked out my rig. Advised me to use a different float and change my shot pattern. This worked wonders, I caught loads of Dace, nothing too big but as a novice it's better to catch any fish rather than just look for the big boys. And a few decent sized Roach (About the size of my hand).

To top if all off, I had a little Otter sat at the side of my watching me fish. First time I've seen one in the wild but every time I went for my phone to take a picture he ran off!

All in all, a great experience! I fished from around 91m - 3:30pm and felt like I'd only been there an hour or two!
No Perch but I've been told there isn't many in that stretch I was on. But there is plenty of Chub, some Barbel and loads more so I'll deffo be back there. Always feels much better than fishing on a pond!

Few pictures here:

Not sure which stretch you fished but I live next to the Rother at the Chesterfield end, I've had some cracking Perch out on red maggot just trotting a float down a deep gulley. My best was 3.5lb. Had some Roach too well over a pound :thumbs: - Our section isn't managed though and you struggle in the summer to fight your way through the brambles to get to the river.

 

[peter crabtree]

A very large lump of Polony was free lined into the arena and within a couple of seconds was seized apon and I was winning a brave fight with the greedy chub. I'm at least 8ft above the water and need a 3m handle on my net to land such beasts, no problem and I'm smirking at such an easy catch, it was then that the first section of my handle departed from the section I was holdingmg:

So there I am looking at my net (still containing fish) and a section of handle floating around in the drink below, very ungainly. No access to get down so very gingerly grabbed the 6lb line and started hauling net, fish and handle up, amazingly I made it, the barbless hook no longer in the lip but in the net mesh, a blessing in disguise

Oh dear, Crabtree bad angling award heading in the Kent direction....

 

[john step]

I had my first outing today for 3 weeks. Shame about the rain but it was nice to be on the bank.
A few good roach on the Laguna freebie samples. "Exit Wounds"!!! Nice hemp and chile paste. Shame about the name!

Also 4 of these little beauties.

 

[binka]

I once again kidded myself into thinking I could catch something on a lure this afternoon and for a good three hours I gave it a damned good go.

Result...

One good hit on a large jelly worm and it felt like fish on but only to then retrieve half of said worm!

I tried spinners, hard and soft lures, drop shotted for a while and the river even looked good, so much so that I ended up kicking around in desperation for a slug or anything else I could use as bait in an attempt to get a bit of 'normal' fishing in but all to no avail.

I did find a rather juicy snail under a piece of washed up driftwood but I couldn't bring myself to ruin his day.

That's my excuse anyway... :w

 

[Aussie Bob]

Stiff breeze blowing and barely getting above 8-9 degrees i decide to go cast a fly which didnt really make a lot of sense but after a 3 week shift rotation decided i needed to make some sort of effort. After wandering around trying to decide where or if i could cast anywhere without wearing the fly line or fly i fished off an exposed point although very windy gave me the chance to cast directly downwind along a foam line. Expecting very little and keeping a keen eye on some horrible black clouds coming i was very surprised on my 2nd cast to hook into a fish ...played it as it jumped a couple of times then it came straight towards me and wallowed around right in front of me. I was getting a little bit worried as the loop connector was rattling around in the top ring . After a few refusals when it could see the net i finally netted a nice brown trout which i thought was maybe 2.5 lbs but once i got it home went 3lb 2oz which is up there with some of my bigger fish from the lake. There have been a lot of blanks before this fish so very pleasing ...caught on a nondescript green nymph with a slow figure of eight retrieve....

 

[sheffields12]

Not posted for a while, that's because I've been busy fishing lol. I seem to have found a hot-spot at a club water I joined at Matlock. Having caught a few Chubb, Grayling and loads of Trout on the Derwent before the season closed I thought I'd give one of their course ponds another go (after blanking on it in March). I've been going twice a week for the last 7 weeks now, fishing mainly method feeder with micro's and either corn or soft hooker pellets as hook bait. It's fair to say I've been coming home with an aching right arm!! My best session was two weeks ago - in 5 Hours I had 13 Mixed Carp between 5lb and 14lb, 25 Skimmers to 1lb, 3 Roach to 1lb, and 3 Tench to 3.5lb. My worst session saw me muster 4 Carp to 10lb and half a dozen skimmers. All on method feeder. I did try off the surface last week and hit 2 Carp and also had several nice Rudd fishing a small banded pellet 8-12" deep. But the Coots and ducks make surface fishing a bit of a nightmare. I've been enjoying it that much I haven't even fished the river yet since the season opened I'm not going to mention that last week my rod was pulled in twice at lightening speed I did manage to retrieve it on both occasions oh and I fell off my chair PMSL

---------- Post added at 19:34 ---------- Previous post was at 19:08 ----------



Not sure which stretch you fished but I live next to the Rother at the Chesterfield end, I've had some cracking Perch out on red maggot just trotting a float down a deep gulley. My best was 3.5lb. Had some Roach too well over a pound :thumbs: - Our section isn't managed though and you struggle in the summer to fight your way through the brambles to get to the river.

I parked at the bottom end of Orgreave Road (Just down from JTF), and fished on one of the first pegs as you go through the tre's where theres the little walkway.
Last time i went on the road side from there, but it's all blocked off at the min!

 

[peter crabtree]

Decided to fish a small town centre stream this morning as it was not raining or too hot. Set up my 13' ultra lite, Abu 501 and a small wire stemmed stick to a 20 b611 and 0:06 bottom. Plumbed up and found just 2' of depth and thankfully no weed, just nice clean gravel...



Started off trotting punch and caught small roach virtually every chuck.
Later I started feeding a pinch of maggots every minute into the main flow down the middle, single maggot on the hook bought a variety of perch, bleak, bigger roach and a bonus bream....



After 3 and a half hours the bites faded and my 4 hour max parking limit was looming so I packed up and came home for lunch......

 

[mikench]

Good to hear you use a 501 Simon! I have used mine to great effect and my enjoyment with it prompted me to buy a 507 which I also love! I just need a 506 to complete the set!!!

 

[peter crabtree]

Must be 40 years old and still going strong...

 

[tigger]

Good to hear you use a 501 Simon! I have used mine to great effect and my enjoyment with it prompted me to buy a 507 which I also love! I just need a 506 to complete the set!!!

I've got a nice one that i'd let go if your interested, still original and hasn't been tampered with so you can't back wind with it though unless you remove the pawl, but then you have a 501 for back winding that's why I kept it original .

 

[stu_the_blank]

Out Sunday for the first time in a few weeks

Mate said,lets fish Monk Lakes, a commie, my heart sank a bit but hadn't seen him for a while, so why not. Monk Lakes near Staplehuerst

Got down about 8-ish, bought the ticket and slowly drove around the lakes. Heart sank a little bit lower, busy, not a lot of water to fish in each swim etc.

However, driving beyond the easy access swims we found right at the end of the road a relatively secluded, reed lined bay with an island in front. Not easy so not over used by the look of it. This would do.

Decided not to do what eveybody else would probably do and cast to the island, I baited up about 10 yds along the reed bed and flicked a ledger around the corner. Result, some carp, not big but welcome ( 7 to 9 lbs ) and some bream ( not quite so welcome!)

Hate to admit it but will pobably go back.

Good craic and a really enjoyable day.

Stu

 

[Pete Shears]

Out at the reservoir again this morning,eight or nine white egrets prowling around the margins,funny to see two of them having a bit of a set to when there was over a quarter of a mile of empty bank behind them.
A very light north north-westerly breeze with not many fish topping,just the odd sploosh as a jack pike nobbled its breakfast.
Cast out the feeder rods and eventually had a bream of 3lb and a bit later a skimmer.
Around 10.30 all the liners and other indications of interested parties stopped as if a switch had been flicked to the 'off' position.
A swan ignoring the other 40+ acres of water wanted to keep swimming through my lines and then started hissing at me as if it was my fault !
Packed up soon after and had a walk round eyeing potential swims for later in the week after tomorrows alleged monsoon.

 

[no-one in particular]

Float fished a couple of sand-eels in the sea yesterday, not a ****y, not one bite. Tried two spots, one off an outflow pipe and my regular jetty; sea very calm and flat and clearish but a bit pea green colour which I don't like much. One bloke had had one pin whiting all day. No mackerel, mullet or bass although he said two very small bass had been caught earlier. No small fish either, where are the blenies, small pouting etc, the occasional weaver fish, no whitebait to be seen either, that's part of the the problem I think. One thing we used to catch all the time were bearded rockling, they were a pest fish, gobbled your bait down in a minute, even they have seemed to have disappeared. Very disheartening and worrying.
On a good note, knee deep in holiday crumpet being the season is well underway, could be a record year for the species; not from these waters though, a lot of EU species; recognizable from the smaller rounder tail fins but, at least something is spawning successfully. A bit of wildlife to keep the mind occupied but could have done with catching something.

On a serious note, I think the pro quota group, which is more or less the only group are in a state of deep catatonic self denial.

 

[Tee-Cee]

Perhaps one was too much distracted by the 'holiday crumpet'.........

I know this is probably not connected with your lack of fish, but I thought I read somewhere that cod stocks had recovered considerably so I had in my head this might apply to many other species.
If and when we eventually leave the EU will foreign trawlers and the like be allowed to fish our waters in the same manner they do today, or will we have more 'control' within the 3 mile limit(?) and would it help stocks recover anyway??
(Probably needed another thread or too political?)