How did you get on?

[Pete Shears]

Yesterday saw another trip to the reservoir,mainly to use up some defrosted sweetcorn and groundbait and a skimmer of around a pond and a quarter prevented the third blank in a row.
The large white bird mentioned in my earlier post is a great white egret and is quite a sight even at 200+ yards,the swallows and martens have now headed south,last Tuesday there were loads of them and two kingfishers were zooming about trying to find a vantage point for breakfast.My next trip will be lure fishing for pike and perch which have been very active this last week - I hope they can't read a calendar.

 

[The Runner]

Club Match today on the Thames at Benson, a venue I hadn't fished since my Mustad A4 days towards the end of last century. Not much flow on the river despite last weeks rain and still pretty clear.
Drew a nice short walk (20 yards from the draw...) and immediately regretted not bringing my time machine as 20 years ago the peg was one of the chub fliers. The tree is still in the water across but the chub are more or less gone. Still some bream in the area though so happy enough with the draw.
Plumbed up to find about 10ft on long pole line, no flow up to about 10m out so set up two rigs to fish at 12.5, one of a gram and one of 3gm for if the bleak were a nuisance.
Also set up 4AA waggler for down the middle and a feeder rod.
Whistle went and gave the pole line ten cricket balls of Gros Gardons mixed with soil and binder and full of hemp with some maggot. Unfortunately it quickly became apparent that not only were there very few gardons there, those that were were anything but gros. Generally know within a few minutes whether the balling in has got a response and ten minutes to the first bite isn't what you want. After half an hour and a few tweaks to the presentation the score was 4 roach and a bleak for perhaps 3oz. And then the bleak moved in and they were tiny, maybe 50 to the pound although still bigger than the two dace that I caught while shipping out. Onto the three gram rig, found a couple more little roach and a chublet but very slow. Waggler time, a few better bleak and one more little roach but going nowhere. Two or three more little roach on pole, nearly half time and didn't have much more than a pound, took a walk up to Dave next peg up about 35 yards away, also finding it hard going but had more than me so got back and decided my only chance was to look for a better fish or two on the feeder across. So, open ender with rolled dead maggot and chopped worm plugged in with a bit of Lake. Roach about an ounce first put in, biggest fish so far followed by a couple of smaller ones all on red maggot. Put a worm on and finally needed the landing net with a ten ounce perch. Added one more smaller perch but then no more bites on it. Just over an hour to go, back on double red on the feeder out to the tree and the tip knocked and then went round slowly and it feels like a proper slab. Got it 2/3 of the way back and the hook pulled, cue some colourful language.
Added another roach and a 4oz chub in the last hour ending up with 2-14 which put me next to last.
Tie for first with 9-15 and another for third with 6-11.
At least I won the mystery peg tenner.

 

[peter crabtree]

Runnymede on the Thames was the venue for today's club match, overcast, damp and breezy to start with at 10am when the whistle blew. Set up pole with a top4 rig which was not deep enough for my peg, a cage feeder for long chuck across. Chucked the feeder over to the far bank cover and let the bow settle and pull my tip round to start with, chewed maggot suggested bites on the drop which weren't registering hmmmm? My angler to my right lost a big perch on his pole line first put in....

Gave my pole a go but kind of knew it wasn't long enough and it was no good. Others were catching the odd fish...
An hour gone, I'm blanking, wtf!

Set up a 15' rod with a topper set almost the same length but on plumbing up it was still too shallow, even a long way out...
Dilemma! It was 12 noon with 4 hours to go and I was flummoxed? How deep is this peg, others didn't seem to have the same problem?
Searching my Thames rigs they were all top 4s until I had a brainwave and dug out my 6m whip rig with a 2gr bolo type float. Added another section to my pole, now a top 5 to hand, swung it out adding another 3 sections and despite its ridiculous length it plumbed bottom with a fair length of line above the float, blimey was it awkward...
The downstream wind strengthening by the hour I was desperately trying to control this ridiculous setup when the float buried, elastic showed and I landed a good roach about 12oz which fancied single red maggot. Blank avoided but very difficult to net the fish, the equivalent to a 9m whip to hand with elastic in flow...

With only 3 hours to go I had found the winning method and landed 14 roach for 5lb3oz....
I had definitely won my section, but as we packed up and made our way back to the carpark I learnt I'd won the match

£70 better off tonight minus 2 pints of lager in the local boozer...

17 fished....

 

[nottskev]

Tales of woe this weekend. Local Trent Saturday pm, and with a bit of water and colour in, I was confident of catching a few. I declined the mud-slide pegs and went for the comfy platforms, and, as some are spaced more suitably for the feeder, and too short for the float, I dropped in two below the next bloke to leave him room. After ten minutes of the usual tweaks, I was getting a decent roach or dace on the stick every run down. With the short pegs and the extra water and pace, I was down to the next platform by the time everything was trimmed up just right, and that's where the chap with the new centrepin chose to set up. Standing up on the edge of the platform (Hi, fish!) arms outstretched in the newbie's woops-nearly-overbalanced-and-fell-in casting style to deposit a large crystal Avon just upstream, he soon proved too much for even these hungry roach and dace. They fled, and I was reduced to picking up odd ones here and there. I was thinking dark thoughts about said angler's lack of gumption, and got an instant karmic response that started with lassoing a giant dragonfly on the cast- ever unhooked one of these?- then went on to hooking my net, a tree and a pike in successive casts. What looked like a 15lb afternoon turned into a 6lb afternoon and an early finish.

On the way out I stopped to chat to an angler fishing a whip and catching well, and I could see that a relatively heavy float – he was using 2.5 g – and the tip right behind it would be a good recipe to beat the downstream breeze that usually afflicts the stretch. So, today, when the rotten weather forecast had not materialised by lunch, I nipped down and just had time to set up a 6m whip/ bolo float/olivette rig and catch a dace or two before it did materialise, and the wind got up and flattened the method completely. There was more water in the river, which was ripping through, and the wind was gusting so hard at times I couldn't swing out a 3g rig, swing in a fish, or even tell if I'd hooked anything as the whip was so bent by the wind. Very frustrating, as the fish were prepared to take a bait if it was put to them in a less than crazy manner. A couple of hours of this and I'd had enough. I'll definitely be adding the whip to the repertoire, though; you could tell it would be just right in some conditions.


Not much to photograph, I'm afraid. Here's a pic of a whip with an elasticated tip for those who disbelieve such a thing exists

And here's a small collection of dace and perch.

 

[S-Kippy]

Simon.....i think you're a bloody hero for that performance at Runnymede. I could not have been doing with that sort of palaver I'd have been dropping a feeder into the abyss. Well done mate.

I hereby award you a Skippy " Determined Bar$tard" award......and another for Nottskev. I am in awe of you both.

 

[tigger]

I was thinking dark thoughts about said angler's lack of gumption, and got an instant karmic response that started with lassoing a giant dragonfly on the cast- ever unhooked one of these?

Lol Kev, I can picture you wearing a cowboy hat lassoing a huge dragonfly and playing it back to terra firma .

 

[mikench]

Well done Simon! You are a real glutton but a great result!

Kev, get thee behind me Satan! I had forgotten about whips!

 

[pratty117]

The forecast all week had said Saturday would be the driest of the two days and with that in mind I headed out to a recently found farm pond about 20 miles away. Armed with the usual maggots, bread, corn and meat I started on the float and as a back up set the feeder rod up. I had a superb day catching roach, gudgeon, perch and the odd carp up to 4lb which were great fun on light tackle. In the afternoon I switched to the groundbait feeder. It was my first attempt at fishing the tip and despite the odd tangle ( rig needs tweeking! ) all I can is wow! I found it far less daunting than I thought I would and really enjoyed it. I must remember to take the keepnet next time but I must've ended up with over 30lb of fish. Headed for home at 4.30 as the heavens opened but I have to say it was one of my most enjoyable sessions for some time. I'm feeling more confident about my fishing than I have for a long time. I never seem to stop learning or gaining knowledge.

 

[Another Dave]

Got to the river about 8:30, a bright morning and there were fish rising. I'd taken my ultra compact setup that i mentioned here.

Started getting solid takes on the worm, on a size 4 weighted 'jighead' hook. It's a kind of cross between jigging and light legering that has worked for me this year. Managed to screw up all of the takes, the fish coming off not because of snags but because i just wasn't ready.

Saw a pike of about a pound and tried twitching some soft plastics in front of its nose - nothing. Saw a goldfish, it refused my worm.

Switched to prawn and as i was gradually twitching it in i could see a stripey right behind it. The prawn disappeared, i struck properly this time and a few seconds later she was in my net, one or two minnows shy of 3/4lb, chuffed with that:

The current meant my bait was only washing round to one place so i put a 1/4 oz bomb up the line, went for a smaller jighead because i'd used up my larger worms during the dodgy start of the session. First cast on this rig with a medium sized worm and almost immediately i was into a fish which fought like mad, gorgeous brownie just over a pound:

Swim went quiet after that and it was somehow afternoon already so i started packing up, and nipped into my old favourite swim for a quick cast, cheeky little chub on the first cast, bright gold in the sunshine:

 

[maggot_dangler]

Had a trip to the Stour at Stouton Castle yesterday.

Water up and flowing with some colour one small perch and gawd knows how many leaves gave it 3 hours got hacked off came home to the local cut that fished its proveerbial head off .

I was hoping the stour was going to be good but alas not to be , Ill have to brave the muddy bits one time and try some of the lesser accessed swims where the banks are lower as well .


PG ...

 

[tomino2112]

Switched to prawn and as i was gradually twitching it in i could see a stripey right behind it. The prawn disappeared, i struck properly this time and a few seconds later she was in my net, one or two minnows shy of 3/4lb, chuffed with that

That is a cracking fish!

 

[jon atkinson]

Didn't get out last weekend due to wifey's BIG birthday & Rotary commitments & I was in work on Saturday so I was really looking forward to hitting the bank yesterday. Wifey asked on Saturday would I be fishing & I replied that yes I hoped so - she didn't say anything at the time, but it came to light shortly afterwards that I had forgotten that yesterday was our wedding anniversary mg:

To be fair it's the first time that this has happened & in my 'defense' I have been rather pre-occupied with her Birthday last weekend & a trip that I'm taking her on in a few weeks to celebrate :wh however, her allowing me to go anyway just confirms what I already knew about her being a 'keeper'!

Totally unpredictable weather forecast so I booked onto Brookfield, a lovely, fairly sheltered, day ticket water that I really like, but tend not to fish in the summer as it's a small water with just 7 pegs that gets quite busy. No worries on that front today as I had the place to myself

I put a maggot feeder out to my right with twin caster on the hook & had an almost instant take - only a small roach, but a promising start none-the-less. A few minutes later & the tip went again - a little larger but it slipped the hook before I could see what it was. Then nothing! So I set up the waggler rod with a #18 & double red. I started getting finicky, twitchy bites straight away, mostly on the drop but I wasn't hitting anything so I moved some shot further down to hopefully drag the bait down through what I suspected was a school of very small roach.

This seemed to work & a caught a steady stream of small roach. I switched to caster to see if that would weadle out some better fish, but no, all roach & nothing more than maybe 3oz. [I'm increasingly coming to the conclusion that the theory that casters induce a better stamp of fish is an urban myth, certainly based on my recent exploits!].

I tried corn - nothing, soft pellet got a few tentative nibbles but nothing that I could hit It was starting to look like one of those days - possibly the drop in temperature? At least the resident kingfisher put in an appearance - those little beauties always raise my spirits.

Whilst focusing my efforts on the waggler set up, the sleeper [feeder] road had seemingly gone to sleep. Brookfield is a small oval pool up to 8' deep - I was fishing the shallow end as it was the most sheltered on what was proving to be quite a gusty day, but I decided to reposition the feeder in the deeper water, pretty much straight out in front using a bobbin for indication. I also put on a slightly longer hooklength with 3 casters on a #14. I let it settle & went back to more small roach on the waggler.

Out of nowhere the bobbin on the feeder rod was yanked into life & the spool [on the fightin' drag setting] started spinning away. A strike was met with some spirited resistance & I decided that a smallish carp was the likely candidate but as it gradually came toward the net I'm sure my heart skipped a beat...

Just a couple of ounces shy of the magic 3lb but I wasn't complaining - this was almost 2lb better than my previous pb.

I then managed a couple of small bream around the 2lb mark, both of which kept their heads down right to the point of netting! Beyond that it was just more small roach. I packed up relatively early although you could sense that darkness wasn't going to be too far behind & went home for some celebratory Bollinger - a double celebration from my point of view :w.

 

[103841]

^^**** that is one helluva Cru, nice one, a nice reflection of your devoted wife's understanding!

 

[Another Dave]

Yeah, that's an absolute beauty.

 

[mikench]

Well done Jon! I suspect you don't know which gave you the most pleasure the crucian, your anniversary or the wife's big birthday! If she doesn't look in go for the crucian! A superb specimen !

 

[maggot_dangler]

Very nice Cru there got to be one of my all time favorite fish dont they give a good account of themselfs for their size .

PG ...

 

[jon atkinson]

Very nice Cru there got to be one of my all time favorite fish dont they give a good account of themselfs for their size .

PG ...

Don't they just - first two fish I ever caught were crucians - loved the little blighters ever since...

 

[peter crabtree]

Bit of a grueller today on our weekly old codgers match, bright sun and a cold WNW wind blowing down the GUC near Hemel...

The water was clear as tap water and the boat traffic busy..

Rod, reel and float only as usual so it was waggler for me anything from 2 rod lengths out to 20yds across. All the same depth but patchy weed still lingering in places. Started on punch which produced blade roach so I changed to single red maggot and the stamp improved and even produced a bonus skimbob...
Gudgeon, tiny perch and a solitary dace otherwise made up my net.
Finished up happy with my efforts during the 5 chilly hours.
The results were very close...

Winner had a big perch and bits for 4lb:12oz.
2nd 3:15:8
Me 3rd 3:15
4th 3:14:8

My net...

15 fished....

 

[Mark Wintle]

Didn't get out last weekend due to wifey's BIG birthday & Rotary commitments & I was in work on Saturday so I was really looking forward to hitting the bank yesterday. Wifey asked on Saturday would I be fishing & I replied that yes I hoped so - she didn't say anything at the time, but it came to light shortly afterwards that I had forgotten that yesterday was our wedding anniversary mg:

To be fair it's the first time that this has happened & in my 'defense' I have been rather pre-occupied with her Birthday last weekend & a trip that I'm taking her on in a few weeks to celebrate :wh however, her allowing me to go anyway just confirms what I already knew about her being a 'keeper'!

Totally unpredictable weather forecast so I booked onto Brookfield, a lovely, fairly sheltered, day ticket water that I really like, but tend not to fish in the summer as it's a small water with just 7 pegs that gets quite busy. No worries on that front today as I had the place to myself

I put a maggot feeder out to my right with twin caster on the hook & had an almost instant take - only a small roach, but a promising start none-the-less. A few minutes later & the tip went again - a little larger but it slipped the hook before I could see what it was. Then nothing! So I set up the waggler rod with a #18 & double red. I started getting finicky, twitchy bites straight away, mostly on the drop but I wasn't hitting anything so I moved some shot further down to hopefully drag the bait down through what I suspected was a school of very small roach.

This seemed to work & a caught a steady stream of small roach. I switched to caster to see if that would weadle out some better fish, but no, all roach & nothing more than maybe 3oz. [I'm increasingly coming to the conclusion that the theory that casters induce a better stamp of fish is an urban myth, certainly based on my recent exploits!].

I tried corn - nothing, soft pellet got a few tentative nibbles but nothing that I could hit It was starting to look like one of those days - possibly the drop in temperature? At least the resident kingfisher put in an appearance - those little beauties always raise my spirits.

Whilst focusing my efforts on the waggler set up, the sleeper [feeder] road had seemingly gone to sleep. Brookfield is a small oval pool up to 8' deep - I was fishing the shallow end as it was the most sheltered on what was proving to be quite a gusty day, but I decided to reposition the feeder in the deeper water, pretty much straight out in front using a bobbin for indication. I also put on a slightly longer hooklength with 3 casters on a #14. I let it settle & went back to more small roach on the waggler.

Out of nowhere the bobbin on the feeder rod was yanked into life & the spool [on the fightin' drag setting] started spinning away. A strike was met with some spirited resistance & I decided that a smallish carp was the likely candidate but as it gradually came toward the net I'm sure my heart skipped a beat...

Just a couple of ounces shy of the magic 3lb but I wasn't complaining - this was almost 2lb better than my previous pb.

I then managed a couple of small bream around the 2lb mark, both of which kept their heads down right to the point of netting! Beyond that it was just more small roach. I packed up relatively early although you could sense that darkness wasn't going to be too far behind & went home for some celebratory Bollinger - a double celebration from my point of view :w.

As the person who has the task of figuring out which UK waters have true crucians I have got quite good at spotting the impostors! Sadly this isn't a crucian; it's most likely a brown goldfish though there's a chance it's a goldfish x crucian - stunning fish though. I'll get Peter Rolfe who is the UK's foremost authority to take a look as well.

 

[jimlad]

Didn't get out last weekend due to wifey's BIG birthday & Rotary commitments & I was in work on Saturday so I was really looking forward to hitting the bank yesterday. Wifey asked on Saturday would I be fishing & I replied that yes I hoped so - she didn't say anything at the time, but it came to light shortly afterwards that I had forgotten that yesterday was our wedding anniversary mg:



To be fair it's the first time that this has happened & in my 'defense' I have been rather pre-occupied with her Birthday last weekend & a trip that I'm taking her on in a few weeks to celebrate :wh however, her allowing me to go anyway just confirms what I already knew about her being a 'keeper'!



Totally unpredictable weather forecast so I booked onto Brookfield, a lovely, fairly sheltered, day ticket water that I really like, but tend not to fish in the summer as it's a small water with just 7 pegs that gets quite busy. No worries on that front today as I had the place to myself



I put a maggot feeder out to my right with twin caster on the hook & had an almost instant take - only a small roach, but a promising start none-the-less. A few minutes later & the tip went again - a little larger but it slipped the hook before I could see what it was. Then nothing! So I set up the waggler rod with a #18 & double red. I started getting finicky, twitchy bites straight away, mostly on the drop but I wasn't hitting anything so I moved some shot further down to hopefully drag the bait down through what I suspected was a school of very small roach.



This seemed to work & a caught a steady stream of small roach. I switched to caster to see if that would weadle out some better fish, but no, all roach & nothing more than maybe 3oz. [I'm increasingly coming to the conclusion that the theory that casters induce a better stamp of fish is an urban myth, certainly based on my recent exploits!].



I tried corn - nothing, soft pellet got a few tentative nibbles but nothing that I could hit It was starting to look like one of those days - possibly the drop in temperature? At least the resident kingfisher put in an appearance - those little beauties always raise my spirits.



Whilst focusing my efforts on the waggler set up, the sleeper [feeder] road had seemingly gone to sleep. Brookfield is a small oval pool up to 8' deep - I was fishing the shallow end as it was the most sheltered on what was proving to be quite a gusty day, but I decided to reposition the feeder in the deeper water, pretty much straight out in front using a bobbin for indication. I also put on a slightly longer hooklength with 3 casters on a #14. I let it settle & went back to more small roach on the waggler.



Out of nowhere the bobbin on the feeder rod was yanked into life & the spool [on the fightin' drag setting] started spinning away. A strike was met with some spirited resistance & I decided that a smallish carp was the likely candidate but as it gradually came toward the net I'm sure my heart skipped a beat...

Just a couple of ounces shy of the magic 3lb but I wasn't complaining - this was almost 2lb better than my previous pb.



I then managed a couple of small bream around the 2lb mark, both of which kept their heads down right to the point of netting! Beyond that it was just more small roach. I packed up relatively early although you could sense that darkness wasn't going to be too far behind & went home for some celebratory Bollinger - a double celebration from my point of view :w.

We just don't get crucians like that up north. Shame - beautiful fish that mate


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