How did you get on?

[wetthrough]

A very pleasant day out with Mike yesterday. I spent quite a lot of it pulling the rig out of the trees, about 6 times in fact but only lost one hook, not bad At least we caught a few including this which I think is an F1 as the Dorsal had a bit of a step in it. Put up a good fight for its size, maybe 11/2:2lb.

Just another view of the venue.

Thanks Mike and roll on Friday

 

[peter crabtree]

Back on the aquadrome today and fishing..

First blood landed after 1 hour…

landed another of similar size later on…Treble maggot on method feeder doing the biz..

 

[S-Kippy]

Is that bloody boat out ?

 

[peter crabtree]

Yep, going directly over my lines, am I bovvered, no..

 

[flightliner]

I decided on a trip to the tidal Trent yesterday.
The tide was to turn seaward at approx' 11-30 am but I was there for 9-30 as I wanted a chat with a friend before setting up my gear.
I was set up around 10—30am after my meet, gear was groundbait feeder borrowed from my friend after finding out that I'd left my box full of them on the garage floor?.
A few taps and knocks before the river went back seawards gave me hope of more when it did.
I was'nt dissapointed, but when it stood motionless for its obligatory 5 or ten minutes I pulted some four or five pults of pellets to hopefully settle in my chosen area of riverbed.
My first cast produced a solid thump on my q/tip rod but no fish, no matter, it was early doors and some three, maybe four casts later my rod end hooped over
and I could feel the signs of my target specie of roach, and a very nice one too— a nice start, not weighed but certainly over a lb and when returning it the other rod tip told me another fish was more than interested, not as big as the first, maybe 12 oz but I wasnt complaining.
It was patchy afterwards but a lost fish and another smaller roach and Bream of a lb or so kept me hoping for more bites, sadly around 4pm they dried up for an hour or so,
I took a break for a drink sandwhich and fruit and back on the rod bites were much more prolific then earlier, so much so that I decided to put one rod behind me and just use the one in a pretend alert matchman mode.
It seemed to work as I had two fish in two casts, both nice plump roach a half lb at best.
Time was pressing now and I decided to pack up when my groundbait ran out —maybe 3 or 4 casts at best.
Second one in and bare seconds later the tip bangs over and I can feel what is possibly my best roach of the day, it was pulling really hard but then things just went solid, was it snagged on a rock— no, A big pike had taken my fish!
I played it for some 3 or 4 minutes and it seemed then to wake up and put some 3 swims between the both of us, a long long way to bring back on a 16 wide gape hook and a 5 lb line!
It took what seemed an age but maybe half way back the pike released its victim and it was fighting as well as b4 it was ambushed.
Almost there, me ready with the landing net and the pike returned and took my fish a second time! Noooooooo,!
It took off again forcing me to dig my heels in, I refused to be beaten now after so much effort and some 5 minutes later there she was in full view, roach across its jaws in a typical attack mode 3 feet down in very clear water, and what a pike, big didnt describe it,, huge was a much better word, a rough guess would suggest twenty plus but I wa not to find out as maybe 3foot from my waiting net it flared its gills, let go of the roach and dissapeared out of sight.
To be honest my only dissapointment was the sorry state of the roach, badly mauled it was dead, on the scales it went 1—6 !!
The pik was the first roach of the day!

 

[mikench]

Beats a day in A&E Mick. Good to see you posting again about your interesting exploits. Stunning roach! ?

 

[S-Kippy]

Yep, going directly over my lines, am I bovvered, no..View attachment 16511

He's nowhere near your baits. That wouldn't even bother me.

 

[rayner]

Very pleased to see you back fishing Mike. You must be feeling a little better.
Good to see you smiling Mick.

 

[hooferinsane]

Spent a frustrating first couple of hours with the bait being removed from the hook with no indication on the float, perhaps I should have gone to specsavers . Happened with maggots, bread and pellets. Can’t think why, except there was a fairly strong undertow, not sure if this would make a difference. Single maggot hooked all the way through started to catch fish, roach ( a couple getting on for a pound) very small carp, a small tench and this one below on a single red maggot on a size 16 hook. However, had so many tangles today it was unreal…..

 

[Keep]

while fishing for Ajing using a tiny 10 gram metal jig, this was a bit of a shock - scales said 6lb

 

[The Sogster]

@Keep, most obscure the location not their face. Are you on interpols most wanted or just an ugly b*****d? ?

 

[Keep]

@Keep, most obscure the location not their face. Are you on interpols most wanted or just an ugly b*****d? ?

If you are asking seriously, yes, I'm pretty ugly.

 

[John Aston]

Funny old year it's been. Like many fishing friends, wherever I've been fishing , a little voice has been saying 'you should have gone to X or Y , not here', and when I get to X or Y I wonder about venue A . Cold spring and lack of water Up North has slowed my trout fishing down , tench has been ...err... steady and I've often consoled myself by having an afternoon on my local pond , an old brick pit , and fished for what comes- normally bream to couple of pounds , roach , perch and a single tench this year(but a 5 lb male was a sexual PB ) .

But yesterday I not only wanted to fish the Ouse with light lures, I did so , enjoyed it hugely and am planning on a swift return . The thing about light lure fishing is that every fish is an event , even though you'd dismiss some of them if you were fishing a feeder . It's the intimacy of the take (braid helps ) and the fact that you are exploring the river with every cast - the tug is the drug as someone said about salmon fishing .

I covered 400 yards of river in four hours fishing , had 23 perch to a pound-ish , a chub and two jack pike - as well as lots of bumps and tugs, lost fish and missed takes. I lost what felt like a pretty lumpy perch and also had the most violent take I have ever had in any form of fishing . I was trying a crayfish pattern , without much confidence as I prefer shad patterns , paddle tails etc ; I hold the rod very lightly when lure fishing and the take was so vicious it half pulled the rod from my hand and I had to deploy left hand to keep hold of it . Despite that ... the bloody thing didn't stay attached .

Other excitement included a perch nearly being snatched from my hand as I landed it (I was wading knee deep ) by a pike , much chasing of fry by predators and an unwelcome cache of golf balls lost by the course about 3 miles upstream .

For those interested in the technique , I used a Drennan light drop shot rod rod , Daiwa Legalis reel with 15lb braid , short Surflon knottable wire traces (don't believe that nonsense about getting away with fluorocarbon when pike are around) and 5g jigheads in l/s 2 and 4

 

[no-one in particular]

A walk up the pier the day before, two of the regular old boys fishing, they had one small bass and thornbacks, not big but plenty of them around apparently at the moment. no flatties or mackerel, they were after Dover Soles but they are probably more night time in this bright weather.

 

[peter crabtree]

Fished the GUC at Croxley green today. Another gem of a venue on the outskirts of urban Watford..

Fished a light pole rig on 13ft rod just over the near shelf, laying on with single red maggot over hemp and caster. Plenty of bites and some quality fish..As usual..

View attachment 16532

 

[seth49]

Back on the lily pond yesterday, haven’t posted for a couple of trips, but thought I would today, there just after 6 am and it felt a bit cool to be honest, the water felt cold as well after all the rain and cold winds.

Decided to just fish my pole as I could bait and fish tight to the reeds, I’ve bought some stronger elastic as it’s near the lilies and they always make for them, I wanted some of the Dura Slip size 17, but none in the shop so got some 19 instead, it does the job, I’ve had carp to 12 pounds and kept them away from snags as well.

So I had two carp in the first half hour, which was a good start, it then went quiet for a while, Mick and Neil weren’t catching either, normally The lilies pads are moving all the time as the carp swim through them, but it was dead today no shows anywhere, the cold had put them down.

It did pick up later, but the bites just came out of the blue, no signs of them on the feed and then the float would bury, finished with five carp and three F1s, so not too bad, so much for the August heatwave it’s set to be colder next week.

 

[silvers]

(unusual) midweek report:
I fished the midlands river masters qualifier at Barford on Wednesday. 5 sections, with the winner of each to qualify.
so basically it was a mini match of 10 pegs, for both money and qualification.
My drawing arm completely deserted me (for once) as I drew the peg in my section with the least form over the last year. it’s in an arm of the river with VERY little flow at this time of year. There are sometimes bream to be caught, but sadly not on this day!
in fact, just over a year ago, I managed 20 pounds of fish from this peg in about an hour and a half one evening.

I caught one chub, a handful of tiny perch... but mostly small hemp roach. My 8 pounds and ten ounces was nowhere near good enough, as Dave Harrell drew on the bridge peg ... which is a noted flier. He made no mistake with 31 pounds of chub.

I was so tired after the match that I’ve decided not to do a double header this weekend, so I’m just fishing sunday on the Great Ouse ... not Bewdley on the Saturday.

 

[mikench]

Well Friday duly rolled on and Gordon and I met up early doors at a favourite but moody water.

It was dry all day and calm and warm this morning with the sun on our faces. I set up a feeder rod on a buzzer and waited. It buzzed a few times with line bites but the only fish I caught didn't even activate the buzzer as it sedately and slowly drew line. Any guesses for what it was.

It hardly struggled at all until in the net when it flapped and flapped incessantly. A nice bronze bream around 6lb. Gordon also caught a couple like it but there was no sign of any carp for either by of us or the other anglers. We didn't see any cruising around either which was odd. Nevertheless I caught 24 assorted roach , rudd and perch on the float with only a couple of tiddlers amongst them. Two were netters but I didn't bother. One a perch of at least 10oz and the other a Rudd over 8oz. Gordon caught a similar number also on the float. A breeze developed behind us which took the edge of the temperatures and which began blowing leaves off the trees and onto the water. It felt and looked like autumn and served as a reminder of what is yet to come. Thanks Gordon ! I think we both enjoyed ourselves and had a few bends in the rod. The question now is where to next.

 

[nottskev]

I met up with NottsMichael mid-week for a go on the river. We were on the bank for about 6am which was quite a shock as I'm more of a 6pm starter these days. Michael was hoping to up his 2lb barbel pb - from the disused canal stretch we both have tickets for - and I think it's fair to say he managed that. It now stands at 11lb 4 oz. He described the experience as addictive, and I wouldn't argue. If there is a crack cocaine branch of UK angling, I'd say it would be barbel fishing. We had a really enjoyable day and both caught a few. Here's the best of mine

Next time we meet up will be on the canal.

This afternoon I put the football on record and drove over to the tench lake. I fished from 3pm til 7pm. Set off after lunch, home for dinner - that's more like it. I had to ask the owner to move his tractor to let me down the lane, but I'm always delighted to do so. It means nobody else is fishing and I have a large gravel pit to myself. Comfortable peg, no walking and the only free food for the fish is in front of me. I like swims where you can get tucked in the edge. I like to get my feet in the water and I can't stand fishing perched up on some wooden platform that resonates every sound you make

I set up to fish pole at 6m in 8' of water. Let me re-phrase that: 8' of weed-filled water, feeding 3m krill pellets and fishing maggot or 4mm expander on the hook. I caught tench from the first drop in, but the first dozen or so came in like this

Last time here I was intrigued by the roach and, maybe, rudd playing at the surface 25m out. So when they appeared again today, I left the tench alone and set up a waggler to fish the top 3' and started feeding them maggots. When they were fairly boiling at the surface I cast in and a fish hooked itself before I could react

However, that was the last bite I got on the waggler. I thought these fish might be easy, but they de-camped immediately so it was back to catching tench on the pole. Not the worst thing that could happen. I spent a bit of time pulling weed off the line and re-arranging shot - thank god for stotz - that had been bunched up by a tench burrowing into the weed. But there were a few in the net at the end

 

[Notts Michael.]

A couple of pics from the fantastic day on the river with Notts Kev
Even the 5lb or so Barbel felt like you'd hooked a 15lb carp, it was a shock to me as a Barbel newbie how powerful these river 'torpedoes' were!

Many thanks for suggesting the trip, Kev!