How did you get on?

[john step]

A different day today. Fished a canal on my re elasticated 30 year old pole. First time for goodness knows how long. Pleasantly surprised it was twice the depth of the GUC I used to fish.

Nice net of roach, perch one bream and one bleak. Thoroughly enjoyed the change except for the rain which was of Boddington proportions. I must say this continual rain and the wet tackle is beginning to get to me.

 

[S-Kippy]

Different day for me too. Despite biblical rain until about 4pm being forecast I allowed Big Dave to bully me into having a go on a rock hard stretch of the Thames that produces very big barbel....hardly any but real lumps.

Fished for approx 8 hours. Neither of us had a touch. This is par for the course apparently...one bite every 3/4 trips and you're doing well. BD has fished it 6 times now and had 2 bites and 2 fish. A barbel of 14-1 and a carp of 31-4.

Worth persevering with. I like a challenge and this stretch is clearly that.

 

[tommos16]

Different day for me too. Despite biblical rain until about 4pm being forecast I allowed Big Dave to bully me into having a go on a rock hard stretch of the Thames that produces very big barbel....hardly any but real lumps.

Fished for approx 8 hours. Neither of us had a touch. This is par for the course apparently...one bite every 3/4 trips and you're doing well. BD has fished it 6 times now and had 2 bites and 2 fish. A barbel of 14-1 and a carp of 31-4.

Worth persevering with. I like a challenge and this stretch is clearly that.

A perfect example of why they call it fishing and not catching. The joy is in the chase I always feel, good things come to those who wait etc. But never let it be said that the magic days where its bite after bite aren't the best, as long as it isn't a commercial lake of course (tounge firmly in cheek)

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[bullet]

One of my favourite Grayling spots has been out of action for weeks due to high levels, it had dropped to "just fishable" this morning, and with more rain forcast tonight, I grabbed the oportunity of a couple of hours this morning.Bait was some 3 week old whites that have been hanging about in my fridge.

Its starting to look a bit autumnal.



It was quite calm initially, but the wind started to gust a bit, and was bringing down masses of leaves each time.
I tried a few of my favourite spots, but they were slow on the Grayling front, but had plenty of Trout, so I kept moving.
Eventually, I found a few Grayling, all in the 9 to 10 inch bracket,
except for one that was about 12.



It then started to hammer down, and the leaves were thick, so called it a day.

 

[mikench]

Some lovely and well composed pics being posted of late. I blame that Aknib bloke for starting the trend which even Tigger is following. Last time out he brought some studio lights and a generator with him!

 

[wetthrough]

Managed a day on the Dam yesterday. Arrived around 8:30 finding it much warmer than expected. Fishing the far end east side. It's one of the few places that's relatively shallow (59") and gets the sun. Figuring if anywhere is going to warm up at all that would be it. Given the time of year I was half expecting a blank and by 10:30 feared I might be right - nothing. Switched from about 10M in front to the left margin and picked up a few small Roach. After a few from the margin it dried up so switched back to the 10M mark. I'd put a bit of ground bait in when I got there and the fish seems to have found it picking a few more Roach and a couple of small Perch. As is normal on the Dam it goes quiet around 12 and from past experience isn't likely to pick up til around 1:30. Decided to pile some groundbait in (a pile being about 200g wet) while it was quiet in the hope they'd stick with it when they returned and so it was. 49 all told most of which came after 1:30 up til 3pm when I had competition, a b***** Cormorant. Cormorants don't usually stick in one place for long and it disappeared after a few minutes. Leaving the swim totally devoid of fish Managed one more after that just before packing up. Nothing huge. Biggest around 5 1/2 but considering I was half expecting a blank, not a bad day at all

 

[Another Dave]

I didn't blank on my micro-lure session today.

 

[mikench]

Gordon how can you be so precise to state 59"? You have taken plumbing up to another level.

 

[wetthrough]

Marked on the rod and measured at home. It's just what it was. You should try it one day

 

[peter crabtree]

The cessation of the rain coincided nicely with the parking restrictions yesterday lunchtime. At 1:30, parking in a residential street situated close to the Colne becomes available so off I set.
On arrival I was slightly disappointed to find the river low and clear as I crossed the footbridge. Where had all that water gone?
Unperturbed I headed for the swim where I caught the 2lb perch last week, would it throw up a bigger one?

I could see every leaf and stone in my margin as I set up my 17’ accy with a 1:5gr bolo float. Over by the bush far side is a deeper 4’ channel so the heavy float helped casting underarm to reach it.
Single maggot to start with produced no bites on the short trot down to a fallen tree which is just out of shot on the left.
Eventually a bite produced a nice dace.

A few small perch and a little roach followed so I changed tactics. Swapped the 20 hook for a 16 and tried a whole Dendra.
This was ignored for quite a while and my confidence was ebbing away..
Eventually I got a bite but not quite the stamp I was hoping for....

 

[mikench]

Marked on the rod and measured at home. It's just what it was. You should try it one day

I know and I have you know occasionally.

 

[nottskev]

With the rivers in the fields again, the marina is the place to be. But with the levels this high, the pegs left on dry land are strictly limited. So, much as I prefer to fish in the afternoon at this time of year, I decided I'd better get there early and fish the morning, if I wanted a peg at all.

The end of summer time, with some clocks re-set remotely and some needing re-setting by me, made setting an alarm a bit confusing, and I wasn't expecting to find a good coating of frozen rain on the windscreen. But at least I got the peg I wanted, albeit at the wrong end of the day.



Roach are the main target, with some nice perch, so I fish the same rig - a light slider - for both, but feed two swims: one with hemp and caster for roach, often with tares on the hook; the other with maggot for perch.

Last week, the perch turned up at the end of the session; this morning, the first three fish were nice perch. Unfortunately, I only got one out



And after that, the perch disappeared for the rest of the morning, so I had to fish for the roach. The roach can be induced to feed all day; the bigger perch seem to feed in spells according to their own mysterious rules.

I had a bit of company on the bank today, with a couple of pike anglers to my right, and another roach angler to my left. The pike anglers never got a take. Odd, considering pike are prolific and some days they disperse the roach as fast as you can draw them in. Today, I had no fish taken by pike. Another day, the first fish you hook might be snaffled. The roach angler had a small dog who gave me a few tips



I was a bit disappointed that the perch didn't show, but there were plenty of bites from roach. I was a bit hasty with the pic, trying to be as quick as possible, so I missed off some of the bigger roach lurking at the end of the net.

 

[peter crabtree]

Interclub fixture yesterday on the Thames at Little Stoke in very
rural Oxfordshire. One of my favourite stretches of the river.
It was a cold start with bright sun, the river was pushing but within it’s banks. Didn’t get my banker peg where I won the last match with 23lb of roach, this was taken by Hanwell’s best angler which was slightly worrying..
I had a fair old hike downstream to an area I’d not fished before.

Set up my usual slider which, on testing, was quite difficult to control in the fast flow. Also set up a 3m whip for the slack water under my feet.
First chuck on the waggler and a good sized roach took my single maggot. Here we go I thought but after that bites were scarce.
After 3 hours and about six roach I considered a change of tactics. My nearest competitor was having a job to hold bottom with a 40gr feeder and was catching very little so I ruled that out. I phoned my friend to see how he was doing. He said he was catching close in in the slack.
With that I reached for my whip. Plumbing up it was about 6’ deep in my margin, this didn’t allow much time for my bait to reach the bottom so it was a very short trot through. Fish were there though and I had a string of roach in quick succession, some tiny and a few 3-4oz jobs.
One of them had a distinctive red patch on its gill cover.

In order to get a slightly longer trot down the edge I swapped my slider for a stick float, a bush to my left hampered my view of the float but I picked off a few more roach further down.
I began to regret wasting 3 hours on the slider and should have fished the margin all through.
Ended up with 4lb:13 which got me joint 5th out of 11.
9lb won it, matey on my banker swim only had 4:15, my friend who fished close in all day was second with 5:13.
As usual we (Tring anglers) thrashed Hanwell on their home water....

 

[S-Kippy]

Never seen a roach like that. Maybe his mum got startled by a goldfish at spawning time ?

 

[Another Dave]

I sometimes see roach with the occasional tiny 'goldfish' dot on them, but never a patch that large.

 

[peter crabtree]

At first I thought it was a pigment of my imagination .

 

[Roger Johnson 2]

Greeting from SW France
Well it’s a while since I posted, with the BnB up and running very successfully, I’ve had very little fishing time other than the last hour of the day, if I’m lucky, and reports of “chucked out feeder, caught barbel/bream” or “chucked feathers and fluff around and caught fluff all”, get a bit samey.

However with Autumn drawers on and bookings slowing down and barbel at the bottom of the garden, things looked up, and a recent shopping trip back to not so sunny England saw me return with many kilos of pellets, hemp and a true gallon of fresh reds, ( and many,many litres of Dulux Brilliant White..... the savings paid for the tunnel fare!).
With pressure off on the DIY front and Mrs J owing me a day off, ( after five b****y days of shopping) a decision was made to try out Lac du Tolerme, at a bit over 90 acres one of the smaller reservoirs,and a 20 mile drive through stunning scenery and no traffic. Research on the local angling website suggested a good head of roach averaging 200 grams, that’s about 1/2lb in old money, and larger fish to be caught at distance, and one thing I am missing whilst fishing the upper Dordogne, is good roaching.
Rocking up to the car park about 11ish showed the lake quite full following the recent rain and fish topping directly ahead and with nothing else to go on as good a place to start as any, however a few chucks with the deeper pro and then with an empty feeder showed very little depth maybe only 2-3 feet at 20-30 yards. Still the decision was made to fish the area, I’d seen fish and I was in the area of an inlet stream, weather was mild, and I’ve yet to see a roach too big to swim in 3 feet of water.
Setting up two feeder rods,( Avon tops, to be fished on buzzers) one on open ended clipped up around 40yards, the other weight forward block end clipped up at 60+yards, both were fished as helicopter rigs 5 lb hook lengths and size 14 with 2/3 maggots, it’s a long time since I’ve fished this style, but back in the day, was how I tackled places like Tring and Sewell reservoirs, the intention was to get some bait on the feeder line whilst also trickle in some bait for a float attack towards the end of the day.

I hadn’t even got the second rod out before the bobbin was dancing on rod 1, firmly lifting in to the fish provided a good bend, some head nodding and then a steady draw in, by about halfway in I thought the fish was off, however it turned out to be a small roach with some very fresh tooth marks!As the day went on both rods were producing a bite a Chuck, but rarely producing anything more than a 4 inch roach, interesting though that it didn’t matter where I cast there seemed to be fish. Highlights of the day were the 12 oz rudd and a few similar sized skimmers. Fishing the waggler close in brought similar results and was a lot less tiring than throwing feeders silly distances.

Not sure if it’s worth a return trip, the drive back in the dark was pretty hairy, but I suspect there could be some good predator fishing, if......the neighbours haven’t eaten them all!

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[103841]

Fished a section of the Stour on my club ticket that I’ve not fished before except a few walks with a lure rod. This spot is just downstream from the fly section which I shall be visiting very soon when it is opened up to coarse angling.

They’ve installed a number of platforms which are great but the scaffolding poles need cutting down, a right p in the a.

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A very slow start, the reason soon became apparent when a cormorant surfaced in front of me, some catapulted gravel saw it take flight and not to return during my short session. After a hour I got the roach and dace feeding as I trotted a maggot, nothing of any decent size, this being about the best.



Shortly before the end of the session I hooked into something very heavy, thought I’d snagged at first but it started moving slowly and hugging the bottom, I’d guess a big bream or a carp maybe, had it on for about five minutes before it got me snagged for real this time, so annoying when you’d just like to know what it was. Next time maybe....

 

[mikench]

I see you are using a pin John. Do you like it?

 

[103841]

I see you are using a pin John. Do you like it?

First time out for this one Mike, a Speedia got from the bay. A lovely light reel (198g) but with a small diameter arbour the retrieve is quite slow plus I did notice the line kinking slightly on the line lay posts, I’m hoping to get hold of some very cleverly made 3D printed arbours to eliminate both issues, if I don’t succeed in getting them I’ll make my own out of cork strip.

I like the fact these lovely little reels were produced by a guy in Shepherds Bush dating back to the fifties, love a bit of provenance.