How did you get on?

[sam vimes]

It's never occurred to me to grease the rings, something to be done in these freezing temperatures?

Glycerine is the usual suspect used to prevent icing.

 

[mikench]

l for a break a couple of times and the braid seemed to snap a lot easier than

What bs/ diameter braid do you use Neil?

 

[neil1970]

Vaseline works apparently s63.
I tried the Norwegian Formula hand cream I had on me but that didn't workmg:

 

[neil1970]

On this particular set up which is a 10-40g and 3000 reel rod I use 20lb braid Mike.
Usually gets me out of trouble if I need to fish painfully slowly amongst the far bank snags and general bottom debris.
Not today though.

 

[Graham Elliott 1]

Which one Neil? Powerpro?

 

[neil1970]

Sunline Momentum 4x4 Graham.

 

[Graham Elliott 1]

It looked a rather thick braid for 20lb.

Neil. Pm me your address if you want.
I have some spare super slik 8 for you to try.

 

[iain t]

Got to the bank of the River Rother(Sussex) after trudging through the snow around 6 am this morning. Being slightly mad made me thought I'll try this new Dave Harrell Pro float line. 5lb or 0.18mm whichever one you go by. Instead of trotting i though get the old Peacock quill out and do a bit of stretting. Hook and bait-wise, size 4 Drennan super specialist and thick toaty bread. In the 4 hour session, i had one 4ish pound Chub and 3 lost. By this time the flask had dried up and the cold was just getting to my nose.
Anyway back to this new DH pro float line. It is thinner than my usual Drennan float line DH pro 0.18, Drennan 0.20. It floated very well and it was still soft in the cold( it was -3) Seemed to have the same amount of stretch compaired to the Drennan. Can't dis of like it yet till ive used it a bit more. 1 good think it comes in 100 and 300m spools.

 

[103841]

Tip my hat for taking on these conditions to fish, if slightly barking.

 

[iain t]

As long as you dress sensible and be aware where your walking you should be OK. Driving there and the wind nearly put me off

 

[davebhoy]

Got to the bank of the River Rother(Sussex) after trudging through the snow around 6 am this morning. Being slightly mad made me thought I'll try this new Dave Harrell Pro float line. 5lb or 0.18mm whichever one you go by. Instead of trotting i though get the old Peacock quill out and do a bit of stretting. Hook and bait-wise, size 4 Drennan super specialist and thick toaty bread. In the 4 hour session, i had one 4ish pound Chub and 3 lost. By this time the flask had dried up and the cold was just getting to my nose.
Anyway back to this new DH pro float line. It is thinner than my usual Drennan float line DH pro 0.18, Drennan 0.20. It floated very well and it was still soft in the cold( it was -3) Seemed to have the same amount of stretch compaired to the Drennan. Can't dis of like it yet till ive used it a bit more. 1 good think it comes in 100 and 300m spools.

I’ve tried the 4lb and 6lb, I like it except when you pinch shot on it it flattens out and I found that I couldn’t move shot up and down the line without damaging it a bit. The 6lb handled a lively 7 1/2 barbel well enough.

What are you using for your hook lengths?

 

[iain t]

I fished straight through to test it. I usually drop down a pound or so. Didn't notice any flattering as i only had 1 LSG on the line with another LSG running to a power gum stop knot.

 

[neil1970]

I got out for a couple of hours late afternoon.
Managed to sneak a little Jack out of the river, which was better than nothing.

 

[jasonbean1]

Well meant to be up in Hereford on the Wye today but hopefully will get there tomorrow. I was feeling cheesed off this morning after doing the chores and then got in the car to go down the shops only to realise I had a bloody flat tyre on the front! Went to change it, luckily the spare was ok but the wheel brace was no good...had been rounded offmg:...rang my mate who brought one round then went down the tyre fitters and the wallet came out £310 lighter

Needed to cheer myself up so went down the Cherwell with some bread, river was low and clear with ice in the margins(no ice bergs) and talk a good walk around some reliable swims and 4 hrs later finished with 6 nice chub between 3 to 4lbish.

One was a good friend of mine who was a bit of a mug in the autumn when I could almost catch him at will out of a peg way further up the river...he as some sort of arse infection around his anal fin and he's knocking on a bit, size of his head and length would put him around 6lb in top condition, still fights well but age must be getting the better of him.

Good afternoon out with a fox walking straight past me on the far bank and didn't seemed bothered about even though he could see me and I was only 20 meters away, the deer were running around in the woods and in the last swim a barn owl flew straight past me...shame the season comes to an end soon.

 

[peter crabtree]

Thanks to the little river Bulbourne flowing into the canal and creating a tow there was no ice on our chosen venue today.





As I walked down to my peg I noticed 2 anglers were already fishing.
One of them was a top canal angler, well known locally, and he was blanking.. My confidence quickly sank and the thought of 5 hours biteless made me think carefully how to tackle up. I opted for short rod and waggler, I thought the pole above their heads in clear water might spook them and being quite wide there I could chuck all over the peg to maximise my chances of finding fish.
Punch on a 20 just off bottom on a very slow trot down saw my first bite after an hour. I missed it! Cast again to the same spot and missed again!! 3rd time lucky and a decent skimmer (2lb ish).
Nothing for another hour then I hooked another skimmer which fell off halfway inmg:
Around 2:30 with half an hour to go and the light fading I had 3 small skimmers in 3 casts.
Weighed in 3lb:4 for 3rd place.



Winner had 2bream for 6:12 both on maggot feeder across to the moorings.
2nd had 3:12 70 odd small roach on pinkie/pole above the lock...

I reckon the temperature got up to double figures with no wind, a welcome change from last week.

 

[jon atkinson]

Stick float on the pin 3 weeks on the trot [see what I did there?]. Whilst I feel that my technique is improving gradually, results are not :wh. Having done 2 hour round trips the last 2 Sundays with precious little to show for it, I reasoned that I might as well catch s*d all locally & save myself some time & fuel! I arrived at our local river Alt with low expectations which were duly met... blanked, again mg:

In fairness, I saw a heron and a kingfisher which did give cause for optimism that there might actually be some fish around, but I didn't see any signs of fishy activity at all. I tried a couple of different swims, but the Alt isn't the most accessible to a clumsy oaf like me. I finished up on the one below which is a small spur at the confluence with Downholland Brook which looked promising enough, but it was not to be :wh. I think that next Sunday is the thrice postponed deadbaiting session, so this will be my last visit to a river for a few months...

 

[ian g]

Few hours on the Severn today , low and cold and nothing to show for it.

 

[Aussie Bob]

Cooler evening with a chilly wind (well it was about 15 c) even had to put on a jumper still had my shorts on though! ...out with my ultra light lure rod . Tried some skinny minnow lures which are about 50 mm very shallow running with a normal retrieive but if you lift the rod tip they are near enough poppers. About 15 minutes of casting without any luck to get out of the wind hid down by the start of the rowing course and behind the starting blocks. First cast a perch of about half a pound second cast a really decent take and after a decent fight a perch of about a pound which with the light rod took a bit of handling. Nice way to christen the rod but ended up with hell of a tangle with my braid which ended the session . Perch is chilling in the fridge will be my tea tomorrow..i will try and upload some photos when i find the cable for my camera mg:

 

[103841]

Spent a few hours this morning walking along my local stretch of river armed with a dropshot rod, with snowmelt and a sudden change in temperature wasn't expecting anything other than a blank so when I hooked into a sizeable perch on my first cast my negativity turned instantly to optimism. Had a good view of the stripey as it surfaced and looked around the 2lb mark, that was my last sight of the fish as it threw the hook as I was about to net it.mg:

The next two hours didn't produce a single bite, felt angry with myself for losing the only fish and a goodun too but it was such a pleasure to be out fishing rather than spending the last week couped up just thinking about fishing. Going to get in as many trips as possible to the river over the remaining days before our attentions turn to still waters and canals.

 

[iain t]

Out again this morning, slipping on the bank at 5:30 am. This time on the Arun. Over the first hour chucking in around half a pint of Maggots. First cast produced a 3 foot long twig. The second trot landed a palm-sized Mussell. Third time nowt. By this time i was getting peaed off. So changed hook and bait and went for good old white bread. First trot got me a 2 foot Eel. First time I've caught one on bread. From 8 am to 12 pm it was blank after blank. Hopefully, tomorrow session with includes fish.