How did you get on?

[rich66]

That looks lovely Rich...

I sat and listened to Hancock's half hour and when it said that all the clubs waters were in tier 3 territory I nipped out and picked up more than a gallon of reds with a few fluoros in,enough for one session I reckon....

It is ! just that little stretch from the weir at the top you can just see to where I was standing. It leaves the canal and rejoins. I usually fish upstream of that tree on the left or on that concrete edge on the bottom right. Occasionally I’ll sit dangle my legs off the side of the weir like a kid and catch roach n perch but it’s quite a drop !

 

[john step]

Up to a lake on the Wolds. Very windy but very mild. I wanted to try the new mini reel I bought to accompany my old Shakey wand. Its the old original version that registers a bite if a minnow coughs near the bait.
Anyway great fun on light line and pull round bites. 8 Carp/2 proper bream /a roach and a perch not big enough to bother the Challenge.
I cant think of much better for a winters day.

 

[rubio]

Desperate for bites lately I had to visit a favourite spot. River was fining down nicely but I chose to quiver tip flake link legered. A knock first cast. A tremble, then the tip dipped and I tightened into it.
Not much of a struggle as I lifted my pb water snail into my palm. Sometimes you just know somehow you're being played. 4 blanks then mollusc. Great!
All sorted very next cast and almost a pound of silvery loveliness was safe in the net.

Dace and chublets got to the bait quickest for 30 minutes or so. I was casting around the swim testing where I could hold steady and how hard to twitch to move it.
I'd put in nothing other than hook bait so far and still bites came within 3 or 4 mins.
Eventually I fed by hand, a pigeon egg ball of bread and hemp just downstream. I stayed inside cos I thought I might run a float through. Wind just got worse tho so didn't bother in the end. Had another half dozen of the better stamp but none bigger than the first. Great to be catching again. Roach especially tho one chub of 3lbs pulled hardest by far.

 

[peter crabtree]

Had an hour lure fishing here on the GUC at Harefield. Only 10 mins from home. Saturday it’s usually full of canoeists but none at 2:30pm

J

Tried 3 different lures but no bites...Nice to get out anyway..

 

[The Runner]

Did you try the other side of the bridge Simon ? The perch used to shoal up solid there in winter in front of the pub and just below it.

 

[peter crabtree]

No Martin, look at those puddles! Busy with cars going down that side, I’d end up soaked..

 

[108831]

Went today,arrived at 7am,2 cars fished on lead as a biblical deluge hit mid-morning,the river rose and coloured within 15 minutes,had 5 barbel to 5.8,2 barbelets about 4ozs and 2 chublets....

 

[wetthrough]

Fished the Bridgewater yesterday from around 8:30 to 3:30 - not my finest day. Some colour in the water so put a few marbles of sieved red lake and mostly black crumb. Struggled right through just managing two small Perch, one ~2oz Roach and three of these brutes on half a maggot.

​

Still, better than being at home and had several visits from the Kingfisher, too far for a decent photo.

 

[john step]

I hope you had a suitable sized landing net for that one .

 

[108831]

Simon,can you pm me that adblock info again,I thought i'd put it on correctly,but obviously not,the ads a flooding in as popups at he bottom of my screen and are making using the forum a crock of shite....

 

[peter crabtree]

Busted......

 

[peter crabtree]

Fished today at Albans lakes, London Colney on the match lake. Target was the big bream which inhabit this deep lake...

Method feeder with gb and punch bread on a hair rig chucked long, almost to the other side in fact.. Got my first tug...

Bloody carp, followed by 2 more....

Didn’t get any bream, my mate had one and some skimmers, otherwise loads more carp...

 

[sam vimes]

The river has been up and down like a yo-yo for weeks. It's rarely even managed to drop low enough to encourage me out of the door. Today it was as low as it has been in a while, still too high for my liking, but the weather was half decent.

After about half an hour, I knew that I may have been better off staying at home. Eventually, I managed a bite and connected with a fish, probably a grayling. I doubt it was massive, they all feel decent in heavy water, but I'll never know. After a short time, I affected a perfect long range release. I eventually tempted something that immediately made it quite clear what it was by doing some acrobatics. After a further fruitless spell, I gave up the ghost and wandered off home.

 

[seth49]

Just Neil and I today, mick is still in hibernation, back too the Stillwater as the river was to high, fished two rods, tip rod with cage feeder using groundbait with a bunch of dead maggots in a bait band, and carp rod on alarm, with method feeder and punched crust on a hair.

Only plus 0.5c as I arrived at the fishery at nine am, with a slight frost, no wind at all so felt pleasant when the sun came out, just one bite for me, a common carp of about four pounds on the tip rod, Neil caught a few small roach and gudgeon on float fished maggots, nice to get out again, and didn’t blank this time.

 

[rubio]

Had an afternoon wrangling a 5g float on a churning river. Took 6 changes of swim to get first fish. 6ozs of roach.
Had to go to extremes of over shotting and overdepth to get that.
Conditions were shouting meat on the tip. Didn't have either.
Two further swims produced some smaller roach and dace without me being any wiser as to what made the difference.
A near balmy few hours without a coat on. You barbel boys must be rubbing your hands.

 

[108831]

Yee haaa,did it today,been on the small river trotting meat on the pin,had 9 barbel,five between 4 and 5lbs,the others 7lb 6oz,8lb 3oz,9lb 10ozs and 10lbs 13ozs...

 

[wetthrough]

Back to Dunham Fisheries yesterday. Not expecting much but a relatively good day for waggling. Around 3 degrees at 8:30am and very light SW wind. I'd planned to fish down the bottom of the pool but a fit ff lazyness took over when I got out of the car and set down in the nearest peg Trickled a few pinkies in down the middle, 2lb to 20s single maggot. Nothing til 10 when the float slid under and a nice Ide slipped into the net.

Big by Dunham standards, at least I hadn't blanked.

Carried on with single maggot mainly trying sweet corn and punch occasionally but nothing for the next two hours. Put three maggots on and got a bite within minutes, work that one out. A Roach of around 5oz, again, not a bad size for Dunham. Another three maggots and another smaller Roach, then lost one, probably Roach. After that it was a struggle but managed around 7 or eight Roach and a small Rudd. Several others on the bank and I didn't see anything else pulled out.

 

[ian g]

Nice to catch at this time of the year

 

[wetthrough]

Short session on my local water from around 11 to 4. Around 15 Roach from about 3:5oz, maybe a bit more, one Bream/skimmer around 1.5lb and one skimmer of maybe 8oz. More than I expected but it's in the heart of suburbia so probably a bit warmer than your average club water. Got to try out my new Peacock hand warmer which I was quite impressed with. It's still warm now but if you're contemplating a handwarmer of some sort you need two.

 

[tigger]

As I drove to the river I looked at the car thermometer and it read 1 degree, so cold!
When I got to the river I had literally half an hours trotting, caught one chub and the next one got into a snag and the hook came free. I wasn't botherd as i'd achieved my target of a fish on crimbo day . I left it at that and as I drove away I glimpsed at the car thermometer and it was 0.5 degrees, so only just above freezing. I'd only drove a few hundred yards and it started to rain and that made my decission to catch a fish quickly and shoot off home again a good one?