How did you get on?

[jasonbean1]

I was hoping Saturdays rain would start after midday allowing me to take the bulky match gear down the Thames for a good go at some chub with my new 14ft cadence feeder rod but with forecast showing the rain starting around 10am it was just a tip rod and some bread to have a go at a few chub swims I cleared out in the summer but didn't get a chance to fish. Got down there first light dropped in the first one just upstream of a footbridge, cracking swim which I caught my first Cherwell double figure barbel out of many years ago. Small drennan grip mesh with some crumb in and a size 8 wrapped in flake. Within 30 seconds tip starts rattling from small fish and for the next 30 mins I was frustrated none developed into proper bites so I moved to the next swim, same thing happened at the next but after about 15 mins I did get a proper pull and a small chub around 2lb was in the net, another soon followed and by this time the rain started early so I wandered down to the next swim as I was sure of a biggy as it was a constant match winner with big chub for many years...after 30 mins in there, not a bite from big or small fish and not deterred by the rain I went on to one last swim. Straight away small fish were tapping and it wasn't long before another small chub was netted but the roach bites were infuriating as it was one of those days where I thought it would have been great to be trotting a stick... But I did manage to get two in the end on a size 8 about half a pound each so it was a good stroll in the morning and I did end up getting wet but it was good to see small chub in the Cherwell with lots of small roach pecking away at the bread, good for the future.

Off to tadpole bridge on the Thames today for a small friendly match...new water to me so I'll see how that goes!

 

[john step]

Just had a non fishing trip to a drain near the coast with a reputation to hold large numbers of overwintering roach to a goodly size.
There may be good winter roaching there but I will not be going to fish it. The bank is very high and steep and it runs alongside a busy road.
Not for me. Worth the trip otherwise I would always have been wondering about the place.

 

[thecrow]

Just had a non fishing trip to a drain near the coast with a reputation to hold large numbers of overwintering roach to a goodly size.
There may be good winter roaching there but I will not be going to fish it. The bank is very high and steep and it runs alongside a busy road.
Not for me. Worth the trip otherwise I would always have been wondering about the place.

Would that be one near Chapel St Leonards John?

 

[ian g]

Severn rising again , so I headed to Grindley Brook . I wanted to fish the bottom lock but the chatty guy was there . He gave me half a dozen gonks so I headed to the top pound. Not much to report here and my new mate called by to let me know he was off so we had a chat and I headed down to the bottom pound. Bloody cold and a bit more wind here . I stuck a gonk on the tip rod and fished a bit of worm on the float . Bites were slow but I eventually connected with a decent fish , a bream of around 2 lb , blank avoided . While I was fishing I was entertained by 3 robins squabbling over the maggots I threw on the ground . They were joined by a pair of blackbirds , at least something was interested in my bait . I switched to maggots to see if that would change things but bites were still slow . I bumped one fish and then landed a skimmer after an hour or so . The robins were now getting really bold by now sitting by my feet and on the rod . I ditched the live bait and stuck on a lob worm which resulted in a couple of tugs but no fish . I had one more bite on maggots , another bream which I weighed out of curiosity 2 lb 3 oz . Feeling the cold by now I jacked in around 3.30 . Good stretch of canal this but it isn't a river

 

[peter crabtree]

Club fixture today on a Berkshire lake, my first visit here and I was quite impressed at the layout. 42 spacious pegs and no real corners so 26 of us spread out nicely around the whole lake. Bright sun low in the sky and a stiff, cold breeze blowing broadside for me, my pole stayed in the bag.


.

My plan was to fish bomb and bread to start with then if nothing happened in the first 45mins I'd fish for roach non stop for the remaining 5 hours. No takers on the bomb so off I went on the wagg and magg, roach a chuck a rod length out but mainly 2-3 ounce jobs.
But! I noticed the odd carp being caught and the temptation won me over, out went the bomb again...
Gave it an hour and remained carpless. Back on the wagg for an hour or so and more roach before the temptation became too much, out went the bomb again.
In short I should have stuck to my plan, I weighed in 5lb:9 of roach and came nowhere. I was kicking myself again as my section was won by default with just 7lb odd.mg: I could have beaten that if only I'd stuck to my plan!
Terrible traffic on the M25 coming home didn't help much either...

Bollox!

 

[Graham Elliott 1]

Despite the snowy rainy windy morning, decided to pop out once it had abated.

Well very windy and odd sprinkling of light snow meant I stayed in a poor but sheltered swim.

One small chubs on flake on the feeder. And more annoyingly a confident sailaway take on the mackerel that resulted in no hookup to the strike.

Home for the Rugger. Support for French or Scots? Neither thanks

 

[Another Dave]

Back to same place as yesterday, cack handedly bumped off something chunky. Eventually a 1oz dace saved me from blanksville.

 

[jasonbean1]

yesterdays friendly match was on the upper Thames stretch just below tadpole bridge, lovely looking stretch of river and the pegging was set up for chub swims so we all had features to go at. I drew peg one just below the bridge opposite the pub and had a over hanging tree 20 yards down the swim with a smaller one half way between. Sun straight in your eyes and the wind was horrendous, blowing in your face and downstream making it almost impossible to present a float. set up 15ft acolyte plus with a 4gram avon to run down to the tree and a feeder which I thought would be the main attack due to the wind.

thought I would have the first 30mins on the float to get it set up correctly for later in the match when hopefully the wind would die down. presentation was awful with it blowing into the bank but bang on 30 mins I had my first bite right on the tree...chublet 4oz, 30 mins later the same....chublet 4oz, no more bites so swticthed to the feeder and surprisingly I had no bites on that so switched back to the float. 30 mins of running it up and past the tree the float eventually went again and this time it was a proper fish, some how I managed to stop it going under the tree and slowly worked it up the bank till It was under my feet and managed to net it...nice chub around 4lb 8oz. thought here we go few more of them will do nicely. unfortunately that didn't happen and only one small chublet before the end of the whistle gave me 6lb 6oz. luckily for me enough for a win with other guys pretty much fairing the same with single chub and missed bites, shame the wind was so bad as I think a few more chub would have shown up.

 

[103841]

Seems ages since I last went fishing, infact it was only two weeks ago. Seems even longer since I even caught a fish having blanked on my last few sessions.

A nice sunny day with a light wind albeit still ruddy cold had me itching to get out and wet a line, the river is still a deep chocolate colour and pumping through even though we've had little rain in the past few days, I thought it would have started to fine down but not a bit of it.

This was only going to be a short session of an hour or two so the thinking was to drop shot and find some slack water in search of a stripey

First cast and I must have put the lure on the nose of a fish as an instant take had the rod bending nicely bringing a plump fish to the net.


Low expectations turned to optimism with such early success but it was hard work finding the fish and a couple more slightly smaller perch added to the tally before calling it a day.

The new landing net handle was duly christened and worked a treat.


Warmer weather forecast for later in the week, hopefully a days piking on the cards.

With some of you not seeing my YouTube links on the music thread, give me a shout if you're not seeing two photos in this post.:thumbs:

 

[mikench]

Two nice photos John ; well done!

 

[Pete Shears]

Out on the reservoir after pike this morning after having scraped frost off the car,first time in nearly three weeks so I was looking forward to it even though the temperature on arrival was only +0.5C but knowing I would be sitting in sunshine instead of rain,sleet and snow.
Three dead bait rods cast, sit back with a coffee and. . . . . . wait, and a bit more waiting - not a twitch,the pike must have headed south towards warmer climes,fifteen + cormorants though and ten goosanders marauding through shoals of bait fish scattering them which in turn must baffle the pike,still good to be out even if it was another blank.

 

[Graham Elliott 1]

Testing.

As he is so shy thought I would load a pic of Rog from the recent Avon trip I posted about

 

[flightliner]

Off tomorrow to the Trent, am hoping to use mynew landing net.
may even leave early for another venue if it's quite.

 

[S-Kippy]

View attachment 3767


Testing.

As he is so shy thought I would load a pic of Rog from the recent Avon trip I posted about

Well done, Rog....thats a proper roach

 

[Another Dave]

Yesterday i ventured a bit further downstream and fished my largest curly tail grub weedlessly, a kind of Texas rig with a 2/0 wide gape. The weedless aspect worked perfectly, i could go through dead reeds and lost not a single lure to trees or snags. In a little over an hour i got 3 explosive takes and hooked none of them. Probably just jacks but i feel one might have been a perch, either way it would have been ace sport.

Had i used a standard jig head i would have hooked all 3, but i wouldn't have been able to fish the reeds and snags so i'm really struggling to work out how to play this next time.

 

[mikench]

Cracking fish!

 

[peter crabtree]

6 old codgers turned out this morning, despite the weather forecast, at the GUC near Berkhamstead. Drew at 9am and started at 10 and there was still cat ice floating, it was also windy and raining...





Alas 5 blanked (myself included) and one jammy codger had a bream on punch 2nd put in. Luckily there were some pleasant distractions to relieve the boredom, a kingfisher plopping in from the far bank bushes and a variety of trains passing on the nearby railway.

 

[jasonbean1]

where does the term "cat ice" come from?

 

[peter crabtree]

cat ice might just support the weight of a cat but no more.

 

[103841]

Yesterday i ventured a bit further downstream and fished my largest curly tail grub weedlessly, a kind of Texas rig with a 2/0 wide gape. The weedless aspect worked perfectly, i could go through dead reeds and lost not a single lure to trees or snags. In a little over an hour i got 3 explosive takes and hooked none of them. Probably just jacks but i feel one might have been a perch, either way it would have been ace sport.

Had i used a standard jig head i would have hooked all 3, but i wouldn't have been able to fish the reeds and snags so i'm really struggling to work out how to play this next time.

I’ve been trying same method as you have, only difference being, I’m not getting the takes, so at least you’ve located fish!
I’ve read you should pause for a second or two before striking when fishing weedless, failing that, go to a bigger 4/0?