How did you get on?

[john step]

Sogster....... That stretch gets very popular doesn't it. Most blokes I know now avoid it there at the start of the season so as to avoid the circus.
I think most of those travel from far and wide and go there because of its reputation.
In fact the hot swims which are the first 10 downstream of the weir have to be booked for a Pseudo match up to a year ahead. All 10 booked together to reserve a swim or two is pretty expensive fishing.

There are many places on downstream sections controlled by clubs where there is always loads of room. In fact you can go all day without seeing a sole.

Edited..............make that without seeing a SOUL!!!!

 

[Philip]

Afternoon all. Firstly, apologies for the lack of a mat, I was roach fishing. However, I was looking for a bit of help on a Species ID please?

Landed from the Leeds Liverpool canal in Wigan on maggots, went just over 3lb, I guess its a Rudd Hybrid of some sort? Certainly a nice surprise on a slow day of fishing with this sun, fell to a single maggot on a size 20 hook! View attachment 15742View attachment 15743

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Ide agree with Simon.

I count 44 scales on the lateral line. Thats not enough for an Orfe/Ide

Tommos - how big is your landing net ?

If Mr Wintle is around he could take a look.

 

[Peter Jacobs]

Ide have much smaller scales than roach and usually around 55 compared to 40/41 for roach

 

[David Rogers 3]

Ide agree with Simon.

Having caught a few ide/orfe recently, I would have to disagree - one of the key features distinguishing them from roach being the dark eye. The fish in tommos photo has a distinctly red/orange eye, so more likely a hybrid of some sort as he first thought. This is an ide:

 

[theartist]

To me it looks like a roach, very much a canal type one, long and lean, usually those ones don't go 3lb though which is the thing, as it would have to be a very long fish, but were that not 3lb we wouldn't be even having a debate, I don't see any ide there at all or rudd for that matter

 

[Philip]

I would agree.

This is why I asked Tommos the size of his landing net as from that we can guage the length and from that an estmate of weight.

- I'll add that I am sure Tommos weighed it with good intention but sometimes fishing weigh scales can be out -

 

[Mark Wintle]

To me it looks like a roach, very much a canal type one, long and lean, usually those ones don't go 3lb though which is the thing, as it would have to be a very long fish, but were that not 3lb we wouldn't be even having a debate, I don't see any ide there at all or rudd for that matter

Looks like a roach to me as well, but 3lb? How big is the landing net?

 

[tommos16]

All very interesting! I do not know the size of the net, but, will measure later tonight when I get back in. Its an Advanta X5 Match Elite Oval Net, size: large.

I'll also check my scales, more out of curiosity to see if they're still reading right. It was 3lb 1oz after taking off the net's weight.

Would love to think it was a Roach, but, my mind still leans towards a Hybrid. Very happy with it considering the canals have never been overly kind to me

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[Mark Wintle]

A 3lb roach has a huge frame; the bulk is obvious. Here's one of that weight:

 

[tommos16]

Absolute cracker! I'll do some checks later Re scales and net size, more just out of curiosity than anything else. Certainly not trying to claim a 3lb canal roach here, don't worry haha

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[S-Kippy]

If its a hybrid then there's some bream in it. Pronounced abdominal keel.

 

[john step]

Possibilities.
A huge roach, the fish of several lifetimes!
A hybrid.
An honest mistake when taking the weight of the net off.
Faulty scales.
Miscalculation if converting KG to lbs .
I hope its the first .

 

[peter crabtree]

Feeder only fixture today on the Thames at Windsor. Not my ideal method at this time of year. The flow was slower in the peg I drew as it is a vast expanse of water, The trees on the left hand side are on the spit of the far bank with the Jubilee river joining the river from the left, flowing right. Roughly 150 yards to the boats moored opposite, slightly less to hit the new crease off the end of the trees, which is quite visible.

I’m certain that any angler would not walk past this peg, I too was optimistic as I imagined a shoal of huge bream maybe 2000 of them.
Kicking off at 9am my first cast was to the obvious spot, double maggot on a 3’ flouro hooklink and a medium sized maggot feeder. 18 red maggot hook. It wasn’t long before the rumble of an approaching craft forced me to reel in. Big lumps of weed hanging from anything it could.

Another long Chuck towards the moorings had the the same result. Changed to bomb rod and tried the crease my side. A few dinks from the bleak as the bait settled then nothing. Some interesting craft plied their way past as lunchtime approached….

I took a wander upstream and found Colin landing a pound perch before putting it in his net along with some big dace and chublets.
Hmmm I stayed long enough to see where he was casting, which was right across short of the far bank trees .
Back on my peg, I cast a heavy maggot feeder full across to the trees once more but landing in some flow from the main river. A huge bow in my line was necessary to hold bottom with 35gr feeder. I waited eagerly for the drop back but nothing . I stayed another hour after introducing some gb and casters into the near crease with skimmers in mind as I caught a few last week…Errrrrrm…..

OK, yes! I blanked and packed up an hour early.. As I walked back Colin was landing abother 3quarter lb dace…I sat and watched for 20 minutes and he was getting a bite a Chuck, clonking big dace . I think I worked out my problem this morning, there was a moderate East wind blowing directly towards me, straight across that expanse of water. Colin’s bank had huge trees for windbreak.

That’s my story anyway…
My river set up for feeder, I’m sure many others too. Doubled up 6lb line with float stops on the 2 knots, semi-fixed bolt rig in reality.

As I drove out of the park I noticed the union flag at full mast on the castle.

Sent a quick text message and it was replied immediately. “ Yes, come up the kettle is on. A slice of leftover funeral cake was also mentioned. As I entered I caught a niff of Boris’ aftershave…….The lady‘s reaction to my blank was, “It’s never very good until the elderberries bedeck the trees. That’s when one goes.”

 

[nottskev]

I mooched about in the morning, not really liking the cool breezy weather and finding lots of reasons why I shouldn't go to any of the usual places, the main one being that it's Sunday and nowhere good will be empty. It would be a waste of a June afternoon not to fish somewhere, so I headed off to a little local Trent tributary. It's a lovely little river, struggling to revive after a long history of pollution and degradation. Interest in it waxes and wanes. Just now there's a group of enthusiasts who run a facebook page and organise bank clear-ups and so on. Good on them; it would be great to see it the right side of the knife-edge it lives on.

It's the kind of place where if you fish 3 or 4 swims and catch something, you're doing well. I started on a big bend, the widest and most open swim on the stretch

I was fishing this peg a couple of years back when a trio of youths appeared and jumped in for a swim. There was no point freaking out about it, so I asked them to walk about a bit so I could see the depths. The water went from knee deep to above waist deep in an unexpected place, so I applied my topographic knowledge. No bites today. Time to move.

The next swim was short - about as wide as it was long, and off a high bank. I checked my landing net would reach the water, kept myself out of sight and after a couple of comic attempts got my breadflake under the canopy to my left.

It was only there for 30 seconds

I don't think I've ever caught two from the same swim on this river, so I walked 100 yards to the next fishable swim. People who like their pegs to be maintained like golf greens would dispute that description

No bites, so I took off the swan shot link leger and put on a thimble-sized feeder with liquidised bread, and that got a bite from this bigger than average chub

That was it. I tried another couple of swims, but no more bites. Just two bites, but on a day when I couldn't be bothered with all the paraphernalia and the crowds, it got me through that difficult period between lunchtime and the football.

 

[Steve King]

Yesterday I had another day at Alcott Farm.

I arrived slightly later than planned because I realised halfway there that I had left my landing net at home!

I caught steadily throughout the day: various types of carp, a few skimmers, roach and a solitary perch.

The next outing will have to be a barbel expedition!

 

[mikench]

After the exertions of yesterday and fearing my back would play up I decided the venue 35 miles away was 31 miles too far so I went local for a few hours. I had intended floater fishing but on arrival and having set up I discovered I had left my bait tub containing all my floater gear, hook lengths and bread in the garage. If there had been any other member there fishing close by I might have gone back for it but I was alone. Undeterred but annoyed at my stupidity I set up a feeder rod with micros and Eight mm pellets .

The promised rain didn't materialise and I caught from the off . I had 2 mirrors around 4lb, a good roach around 8oz, a few skimmers and half a dozen gudgeon hanging on to the pellet and barely hooked and a few foul hooked. I packed up after 3 hours so I can go tomorrow with Gordon. I then took a pile of rubbish to the tip which were packed into Er indoors ' car so a few brownie points. It's looked like rain all day so far but without a drop.

 

[john step]

Never mind. We all get senior moments. It could have been your rods you left behind?

 

[john step]

Another day on my local club lake after the rare tincas. Just the one which is a success. This mint 5lb 7oz female.

 

[Notts Michael.]

Had a great, early morning visit to a local canal, the lack of boat traffic meant a lot more weed around than there would normally be, and very clear water. set up below some lock gates thinking the oxygenated water below the leaky gates would hold a chub or perch maybe. not this time, but about 30 yards down from the lock proved to be an interesting area, with 2 small (12inch) Pike-lets taking double red maggot, a few chublets, and half a dozen beautiful condition perch between around half a pound and one and a half. then a mussel seemed to have closed it's shell tightly onto the feeder bead I had on the line to attach a small lead to. and another new species for me, although an unwelcome one came in, quite aggressive or defensive, with it's claw waving and general attitude! saw some better chub on the walk back, near an overflow channel which goes in to the canal taking water from above the lock, so that area will get some further investigation on another outing for sure.

 

[mikench]

Gordon and I met up at the same water as last week expecting a dry muggy day with increasing temperatures. It rained and quite heavily for about an hour early on but remained fine for the rest of the day but it became increasingly breezy. We both set up float rods and I plumbed up as , being an idiot I couldn't remember which line of China pencil was for this water. I have now made a note on my phone. We had planned to try lures for larger perch and Gordon did.

If Gordon had had any interest I would have followed suite but he didn't and I couldn't be bothered. Mr Metronome caught consistently a range of roach, Rudd and small perch with over 25 in total when I left. I too had a variety of similar fish but the mum and dad of the perch I caught were not in evidence. I had a bakers dozen all on maggot and this on pellet.

It felt like a bream but didn't really look like one and was a golden colour. Could it be a skimmer turning bronze or a hybrid. It weighed 3.5lb whatever it was.

I left early as I'm cooking tonight for eldest dotter and plan to serve up at half time. Cheers Gordon and thanks again for doing that little mod to the rod rest; much appreciated. An enjoyable day in the fresh air even if the fish were not really obliging. A few other stalwarts on the feeder struggled.