How did you get on?

[peter crabtree]

Club match today on the Thames in beautiful rural south Oxfordshire. Mild weatherwise but the wind was blowing across the massive weir straight in my face. Better than broadside I suppose...

Suffering a dodgy leg I didn't want to walk too far despite being advised the better pegs were upstream. Started off chucking a feeder upstream towards the moored boats across the wides with Gb and maggot, decent roach first then bits and pieces. Sucked maggot with no indication on the the tip led me to shorten my Hooklink but the bites waned. Time for the pole over the baited area in front of me, bite a chuck but mainly bleak intercepting the maggot on the drop, on the occasions the maggot got down the full 12' on my top 4 rig it was dace after dace but they were small. Tried caster instead and got the same result, resorted to tares but I don't think the better roach were there as I got no bites at all...

Even with the bristle blackened with marker pen my float became increasingly hard to see, at times I was lifting more in hope than seeing it bob or duck..
Later the sun came out and the reflection was blinding me literally. Tried a few more chucks on the tip but that was dead.
Ended up with a netful of bits for 2lb:15 and no cigar, the fitter anglers who took a hike put paid to that...

 

[The Runner]

First round of the club's King of the Colne series on the river at Uxbridge today. River at least a foot down on the main river side, a bit less on the backstream as this gets a bit of a top up from the canal, and getting the nasty impression that these sort of levels are becoming the new normal. Had a working party Saturday to remove some of the pennywort and a few of the regulars who were on it seemed to develop prior commitments for today once they'd seen the state of the river....
Anyway, sorted the pegging out this morning and said to the Sec just before the draw that there were 2 pegs in that I really didn't fancy. And of course promptly drew one of them, peg 40. Log in the water at about 30 degrees to the far bank just below the swim and another just above, swim produced barbel in matches last year but haven't seen any there this season and can see everything on the bottom. Bad snag in the middle about 5 yards down as well.
Set up a mini waggler with a 22 to .08, bomb rod 20 to 0.10 and heavier bomb rig with a 16 B911 on 0.15 in case anything large seen nosing around under the logs. Log blocks most of the flow in far half of the river, inside where the flow is is very shallow with a light sandy bottom that the fish don't like and a big bank of grassweed still about 15 yards down stops any chance of trotting into the slightly deeper and dark water in front of peg 41 (which was left out as too short to 42)
Anyway , whistle went and flicked out a few maggots between the end of the log and the snag as well as a few into the slack water between the two logs and had three perch about 2 oz each one after the other on the bomb which I started on rather than waggler as didnt want to be running a float back and forwards until hopefully a few fish had settled. Ten more minutes for no more bites so picked up the float rod and added half a dozen more including a bonus of 12 oz or so in the next half hour. Had a drop between the two logs but only a minnow, no bites on bomb and worm , back on waggler and picked off a few more at random places in the swim before it died completely. Light was full on the swim by this time, only dark water was right across down from the snag and found that at least I could get a few bites over there in about 15 inches of slow water. Unfortunately I never found a way to catch only the minnows, as they were a lot bigger than the dace...Probably had 40 fish doing this for around 4oz, hardly worth it but couldn't buy a bite anywhere else. Had droppered in some hemp, chop and pellet next to the log and kept looking down but all I ever saw there were a few minnows knocking the pellets about.
Forty minutes to go and as the sun went round I got a bit of dark water again on the original waggler line and between the logs and scratched out another five perch , all on pinkie.
So, all out, and 19 perch and the various eyeballs went 3-9 which put me one out of the frame and unexpectedly the top weight on the main river as the pegs we all fancied for a decent net of perch had about 3lb between them. The big fish or bust peg 39 above me had an ounce and anywhere above the weir was generally grim.
5-15 of mainly dace won it from outside the Beefeater on the backstream, a good catch in these conditions from barely a foot of water, then 5 14 and 4 -15 from deeper backstream swims, then 3 -14 making up the frame.
Can we have our water back please ?

 

[108831]

My mum passed four years ago aged 79,hit me like a brick,my missus and two boys kept me busy,while my brain did cartwheels,enjoy your dads company,it is so precious a moment in your time.

 

[Pete Shears]

Yesterday was another struggle for pike on the reservoir but eventually managed a jack that might have made 2lb on a toby lure,two colleagues deadbaiting at the deeper dam end didn't even get a bleep.Not much visual activity from pike or perch chasing fry,no fish rolling of any sort just three too many cormorants,five white egrets,buzzards,a red kite being mobbed by four crows.Dragonflies and red admirals active all day, a bit strange for mid October.

 

[itsfishingnotcatching]

After two weeks fishing "sort of" competitions and suffering from a stiff neck and recurring arthritis in my ankle decided the Salwarpe with its convenient parking and gently sloping banks would be a better option than precarious ledges on the Severn or Teme. Having used a keep net for a fortnight decided to take one on the river, nothing like tempting fate! River level was good although very little flow but set up with 11'6 float rod, pin and 5bb topper to an 18 to 2.5lb hooklength. Second trot seemed to justify the choice as a presentable perch of around 12oz took the double red and conveniently unhooked itself in the net, next cast, history repeated itself as its brother was deposited in the keep net. This was followed by another dozen smaller perch before a switch to worm produced a few chublets, All appeared to be going to plan and hopes were high that today might be the day when a 3lb chub would finally grace the net when the predators decided to interfere. At just before 1.00 pm, bl00dy great otter comes through the swim within netting distance, crosses the river leaving a huge trail of bubbles, surfacing 20 yards downstream before heading down towards the weir, two hours of inaction only disturbed by swan and a couple of jacks trying to bite through the keep net. Released fish without photo, switched to a 20 hook and had half a dozen more fish from 3-3.30, the only saving grace being a chub around 2lb on the last cast.

 

[tigger]

I decided to go swimming the stream today but only had the last couple of hours of daylight in which to do it .
It seems to be the norm these days that the river is up and coloured and true to form it was, not massive but up non the less and carrying a lot of sediment which isn't really conducive to a good trotting session as the bait isn't visible to the fish until it's very close. Anyhow the first swim produced SFA, so I speed marched along the bank dropping in at any likely looking glides. Good job I like chub because that was all I caught...28 of 'em . They weren't very big fish ranging in size from about ten ounces to about 3lb plus a few ounces. They all put up spirited fights though and I lost a decent one due to the fact that it made it to the bankside vegetation and did the amazing trick of transferring the hook into a plant stalk. Even though it was only a short session I enjoyed it and i'm going to try and get out trotting again during the coming week if possible .

 

[theartist]

With it blowing a hoolie out there and me needing a break from the drawing, here's a catch report I didn't have time to pen from a few weeks back on a similar windy day.

Had to see a man about a dog down south and with a free stretch of the Itchen around the corner there was no way I was going without the gear. Had enough left over maggots for a few hours so hoped I could avoid the minnow long enough to get a few fish. With the wind blowing in heavy showers I looked a sight in my cheap poncho, looking more Vivienne Westwood than Clint Eastwood but it kept me mobile for when I got trouble from those punk minnows.

The variety of species was magic having been mainly catching barbel and chub back home so I was more than happy to get 8 species in the first 20 fish, roach,dace,perch,chub,trout and Grayling made for the bulk of the action with the dace being of a very good stamp. A couple of perch were good too as were some of the roach and the trout - well they were being trout and did a good job at keeping the minnow at bay, for a while at least until it was time to move.

Managed quite a few grayling topped by a cracker just shy of 2lb to make for a nice day. It really is a cracking river so if you get the chance to go on the 'fish in' on the LIF take it as it's even better there. Hope this whets the appetites of those going :thumbs:

 

[flightliner]

No decant tide, big winds forecast that would be ripping downstream making trotting nigh possible and not wanting to fish the lead to overcome the conditions I decided on my little trent trib where I could still floatfish.
Just a few hours with minimal tackle I was there inside the half hour on a little bend and an undercut bank .
Second trot down the floats gone under right where the freebies settled in three feet of water , the fish, a good chub, made short work of me by ploughing into dense reeds and marginal grass to leave me pulling back a bare hook !
It's a bad moment here as the river is barely ten foot wide and no doubt any other chub would have scarpered downstream hoping the trent gates were open.
Oh well, keep calm and carry on.
I did and soon afterwards I had two nice perch , the best no the pound mark.
The wind by now was pretty fierce and another hour produced nothing so I made my way back to the car but not before a few trots near a tiny bridge.
Five minutes later striking a bite I was playing a small roach when things went solid-- a pike--

Ok, game on, my account at the GB emporium is still in credit so in slides the pike in short order-- maybe five pounds tops which was all the good on a five pound bottom.
That was it, I packed away and called into a Stillwater to see a friend then left for home hoping things improve for next time out.

 

[rubio]

I had a brief battle with a similar size pike yesterday evening but lost the hook and the battle. I'd been down to my new favourite swim to catch some more roach. First visit was friday and produced plenty of bites to bread from chub, roach and rudd. It is just a little upstream and on the main river to the stretch I have put in previous reports about.
Deeper here, about 10 feet in places but I chose to fish just over a ledge a couple of rod lengths out in around 6 feet of water. Tactics were simple on both occasions; light waggler on the drop with a substantial (10mm) disc of fresh bread. Half a loaf of staler bread was roughly crumbled and torn by hand and small nuggets thrown in on a regular basis.
Heaven only knows what sort of bag a good match angler could get here. Even I managed just shy of 14 pounds in 3 hours friday. Last night was briefer than that but quickly becomes bite a chuck once some bait goes in. Only needed a landing net half a dozen times but I was happy with 4-6oz fish as an average. This time it was predominantly rudd that came to the party. I managed a couple of better roach by switching to a bulk and following the trot thro a bit further downstream. Then the first pike attack. It snaffled my best roach of the session as I drew it past the reed bed in the right margin. It wasn't so much bigger than the roach and was soon off again. A few more fish brought in more rapidly than normal after that but eventually it got hold of a small rudd and bit hook off. Time for home in the curious glow of saharan sunset

 

[nottskev]

I had a brief battle with a similar size pike yesterday evening but lost the hook and the battle. It snaffled my best roach of the session as I drew it past the reed bed in the right margin

Don't they just pick out the best ones! Of course it might be because we're bringing them in more slowly and giving them a better target, but it often seems they hit your biggest roach a second after you've hit the bite. Great fishing down there, by the sound of it.

 

[steve2]

Another day in the lures today had one pike first cast a few more pulls and that was it.
I don’t know what was up with the carp they appeared to be getting ready to spawn judging by the way they were chasing each other in the shallows. The Tench were also showing themselves. Think I will go back to Tench fishing while the weather is like it is.

 

[peter crabtree]

Old codgers match today on the GUC near Tring. Breezy and much colder this morning compared to yesterday. In fact I was somewhat underdressed and shivered my way through the 5hours fishing...
The first thing I noticed was a profusion of red admirals on the ivy behind me...

Set up the required wagg and magg on my old Silstar light line Ian Heaps 12' rod and the first thing I noticed was casting with it was totally different to my usual 13' rod? I was amazed the difference 12" made.

Caught plenty of gudgeon, Ruffe, perch, roach and a skimmer and plenty of flipping leaves grrrr.

Leaf it out!

Put 2lb:8 on the scales at the end, ( see predictable photo below ) not enough for the frame again but 8th overall..
7lb+ won it.

13 fished..

 

[S-Kippy]

Just in from another bash at the carp.

Arrived a little earlier than usual to find my 1st,2nd and 3rd choice swims occupied. Had it been an hour later I'd have waited them out but instead picked a swim that I've not fished before. An hour later without so much as a twitch on the indicators and no sign of fish I was getting very agitated. I just didn't feel right where I was. At last the rain chased the old boys off and I swiftly moved into a swim I felt much happier about....but by now it was gone 5 and getting murky.

However...immediate signs of fish and the odd liner cheered me up. I cheered up even more when the LH rod roared off but it was not the lump I was after. Common of bang on 13lb. Twenty minutes later I'm away on the other rod and this is a much better fish.After a good battle I've got it ready for the net....a beautiful mirror easily over 20lb......then the hook fell out ! *******s !

Another common of 16-10 around 7pm then the lake just died. I couldn't get any interest at all once the light went bar the odd lift as a fin caught the line. About 8-30 I had a tremendous liner and a big bow wave right in the margin so I thought I'd fish the last cast really short and pack at 9. Nine o'clock duly arrived and so did another liner so I plopped a bait right in the edge and started packing the other rod down at which point the margin rod melts off. Talk about stoppage time !

18-6 and another of those beautiful fully scaled commons. By now it was really rather chilly so I gave it best thinking that I'd done reasonably well all things considered.... bar losing what was clearly a very good fish.

I hope this was just bad luck and not the end of my golden run.

 

[theartist]

This weekend I needed a road trip so with the rivers painfully low and with a promise of a day out the missus and I headed off to the coast to fish the canal. When I say canal it's more like the Grand Union on steroids, a long thin working dock connected to the sea by a pair of gates big enough to get cargo ships through.

Twice before these docks have witnessed my novice sea fishing approach and both times were different due to the changing seasons in sea fishing with different species shoaling at different times in the sea. Plus there's the resident fish that stay there and nobody knows what's down there which adds to the appeal. Nevertheless I was still going to 'wing' it coarse fishing style as it worked before and as far away from any crowds as possible to avoid any embarrassment.

Stating off with a standard on the drop waggler approach I fished bread on a size twelve and it was evident I wasn't going to blank as the bread was being smashed on the surface before it even had time to get down. Small Schoolie bass were the culprits all about 5in with just one around 10oz which put a decent bend in the rod, all were undersized and returned although It's not recommended that you eat anything from there anyhow. Great start though to get a few fish and a good sign for the future stocks, hopefully my bread will fatten them up a bit for winter as they seemed hungry enough for it.

After 30 small bass it was time for a change as it was evident I wasn't going to get through them plus we were getting a little bit cold so we moved to a more sheltered part of the dock. Here the water was crystal clear and I could see 6 feet down easily to the bottom, trouble was all I could see was bass and they were even smaller, so for a while I fed them with bread and just relaxed as the sun tried to break through, watching them feed like aquarium fish.

After a little while the eyes got tuned and I could see other species down there so on went a stick float with a bulk shot to get the bait below the 'bass line' This worked as did a change to prawn and I soon had a tiny Pollack which was a new species plus some Black Gobies. I then saw a good sized Wrasse have a look at my bait on the bottom before turning and taking it, I was glad I was fishing heavier than normal as it tried repeatedly to get in a old pipe that was encrusted in all things salty and marine. The line held and once in open water the wrasse was soon in the net, my first even Ballan Wrasse and a corker to boot.

I was having great fun and it was like being a kid catching new species and starting out again, I was so eager to lower my bait back in the same spot but there was a crab there now and it was amazing how quick and persistent it was, finally I had no option but to catch the thing and once removed the fish returned

Soon I was in to more Wrasse and ended up with 7 in total, all Ballans or so I thought but with the help of a Sea fishing forum and guys who know much more than I, it turned out that they were Corkwings except for one which was a Baillon's Wrasse, a rare visitor to these shores and quite a catch. I knew Wrasse came in all sorts of colours but it was something else to catch a fish I had never even heard of before. Did I mention I didn't know what I was doing? Tell you what though - it's so much fun being a novice learning again.

Here's some Wrasse the top ones a Corkwing the bottom a Baillon's

We went to Brighton Marina for a meal after and there was thousands of Starlings doing their show in the sky before literally flying under our feet to roost in the stanchions under the marina, it was quiet a sight, quite a sound and come to think of it quite a day.

 

[john step]

The slowest day ever on an easy club lake. One F1, One perch about a pound and one mirror double all on worm. No other bait would elicit a bite.

 

[tigger]

I got a new rod yesterday and was meant to be christening it today but due to imperfections it's gott'a go back!

Anyhow, i'm not short of rods so I had a couple of hours roving with the float rod. I walked quite a distance and as I did so I dropped in any likely looking glides and had one or two chub in most of them before moving on to the next. The fish weren't big fish but it was good fun catching them on the trotting gear....

 

[sam vimes]

Went to a new stretch of club water today. It's been available to me, off and on, for the better part of thirty years, but I'd never bothered.

It's not the longest of stretches and it was part recce, part fishing. Settled into the very last swim after walking the length. It wasn't necessarily the most appealing swim, but it had the odd sign of life and I was there anyway.
After about an hour and four parr, I was starting to get suspicious about the fish that were occasionally topping. I had anticipated dace or grayling, but the didn't materialise. The unexpected bonus was a decent chub. I don't get chub that often, but that's what happens when you go a fair bit further downstream.

After another biteless hour, I decided to head back upstream to a spot that looked rather nice on the way down. First put in resulted in another parr. After that, it was a bite on most runs. Lots of them were minnows, and I lost the odd dace and grayling, but I managed 34 dace and one fairly decent grayling before I lost the light.

 

[tomino2112]

Glad I didn't get put off by the weather and went for afternoon to river Medway.

It was raining a bit, nevertheless I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Caught about 50 (not exaggerating) of these

Which I would identify as Bleak (?)

Unfortunately whatever I tried nothing bigger would come along.

I was rewarded for my trying by this pristine Perch though

All in all good session, first time on this river, definitely will be back

 

[thecrow]

Glad I didn't get put off by the weather and went for afternoon to river Medway.

It was raining a bit, nevertheless I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Caught about 50 (not exaggerating) of these

Which I would identify as Bleak (?)

Unfortunately whatever I tried nothing bigger would come along.

I was rewarded for my trying by this pristine Perch though

All in all good session, first time on this river, definitely will be back

I hate to see perch held by the jaw like that, there is no need for it and it does the fish no good at all, would you do it to a roach or dace?

 

[tigger]

I hate to see perch held by the jaw like that, there is no need for it and it does the fish no good at all, would you do it to a roach or dace?

I'm sure people copy this ridiculous way to hold a fish from the so called "angling celeb's"....angling bell ends would be a better name for them imo.