How did you get on?

[mikench]

It looks like there are some decent sorts now joining the ranks of carpers!

Seriously though they do fight and now i can manage( just) 2 rods one might as well set up a carp rod on a buzzer and then try and properly fish , float or feeder, with the other!

I have a potential treat in store today; more anon!

 

[puffer_]

Got my DRAC ticket through yesterday and decided to see what all this drop-shotting malarkey is about, so I headed off down the local canal for a couple of hours after work and proceeded to blank

Dare say it's my technique.

Anyway, loaded the float rod and some roving gear for a couple of hours down there tonight, so fingers crossed!

 

[S-Kippy]

It looks like there are some decent sorts now joining the ranks of carpers!

Oi! Let's not get carried away here. I've been once and I don't ( and never will) own a bedchair or bivvy.

Not sure I can be having with this two rod lark. One is enough when it roars off fairly regularly but I don't want to fall foul of the carp police.

 

[mikench]

Neither will I ! Having two rods set up is a novelty for me and I will continue to try the experience!

 

[tigger]

I had a drive over to the river today with me uncle Mike. We had planned to do a bit of trotting which as it turned out wasn't the best decision! We met up and drove over to the river, walked up stream to the desired spot and i'd say we had less than half an hours trotting before we caught a barbel. We went back to the bank and took a snap of it and released it, then got stuck in a conversation with a salmon angler who didn't want to go mg:. Anyhow we shook him off eventually :w. As we started to wade back out we looked at the sky then back at one another and waded back for our jackets as we could see it was about to rattle it down. It was lucky we did as no sooner had we got back in the river it did start to rattle it down and it wasn't just coming straight down it was being driven into our faces by the wind. I had left my rod on the bank and was helping Mike to cast and control the float etc as he's never done it before and needed a little help. Conditions weren't exactly good for a complete novice to be stood in a quite briskly flowing river lapping the tops of his waders and going over the tops now and then LOL.
Anyhow we had 10 minutes longer and Mike caught a nice dace which was his first ever fish caught trotting .

 

[mikench]

I hinted earlier about a treat i had in store today! Well, I had a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon trotting on the Ribble with Tigger! I had several firsts for me today; trotting for the first time on a river, wearing waders, wading out to the middle of a river with my rod and pin,wearing a bait apron full of maggots, and thanks to the endless enthusiasm and tenacity of Ian, I caught my first dace!

Ian reckoned it was about 7 or 8 oz so not bad. Ian had one nice barbel! The river was a bit high and the weather poor. A couple of other firsts were trudging across muddy fields in said waders , wading across a raging torrent(or so it seemed to me) and finally getting wet as water came over the top of the waders!

I confess to feeling a bit out of my depth(pun intended) and was convinced I was going to fall over much to Ian's amusement. It was a strange experience stood in a flowing current in 4feet of water holding a rod and wearing waders ! I wear glasses and when the rain started to fall very heavily I couldn't see a thing! I was relieved to make it back to the bank!

The conditions were against us and trotting was probably not a good idea today but it was mine and i have no regrets! So thank you Ian for a great afternoon and having my eyes opened by it all. I had never caught a dace so am delighted!

Ian was very patient and I hope he enjoyed my antics, the banter and his cracking barbel! Thanks again Ian!

 

[mikench]

I had a drive over to the river today with me uncle Mike. We had planned to do a bit of trotting which as it turned out wasn't the best decision! We met up and drove over to the river, walked up stream to the desired spot and i'd say we had less than half an hours trotting before we caught a barbel. We went back to the bank and took a snap of it and released it, then got stuck in a conversation with a salmon angler who didn't want to go mg:. Anyhow we shook him off eventually :w. As we started to wade back out we looked at the sky then back at one another and waded back for our jackets as we could see it was about to rattle it down. It was lucky we did as no sooner had we got back in the river it did start to rattle it down and it wasn't just coming straight down it was being driven into our faces by the wind. I had left my rod on the bank and was helping Mike to cast and control the float etc as he's never done it before and needed a little help. Conditions weren't exactly good for a complete novice to be stood in a quite briskly flowing river lapping the tops of his waders and going over the tops now and then LOL.
Anyhow we had 10 minutes longer and Mike caught a nice dace which was his first ever fish caught trotting .

We must have been posting at the same time Ian! Great photo of a lovely fish! Thanks again! I will sleep well tonight! I needed lots of help! Lol!

 

[tigger]

I needed lots of help! Lol!

Narrh....Mike, your a natural bud .

We'll do some legering next time .

 

[stillwater blue]

It's been a while since I was last out but whilst walking the pup by the river we both agreed it looked ideal for a spot of waggler fishing, it was just a hint high but fining down nicely.

It was only a short walk to the chosen swim, a nice steady glide just before a bend in the river. I tackled up hoping for barbel and chub and spent the first half hour trickling in some hemp and corn.

I ran the float through a couple of times whilst I tweaked the shotting and depth. Once happy I baited the hook with corn and the first run through produced a pb roach of 1lb 15oz, I must admit I weighed it twice

The next three casts produced three roach just a wee bit smaller and just I was getting excited the swim died. The next few hours proved very slow, a handful of goodish chub and I lost what I suspect was a nice barbel to a hook pull.

 

[maggot_dangler]

I actually made it out today .
Not having a good time of things right now so it is nice to get out fishing .

Wound up on the club pool for reasons i will keep to myself surfice to say the onsite services were essential .

It did look for a while that it was going to be a blank but a tiny perch prevented that one then a string of Snotties all around the 2lb mark and 1 chub of a similar weight .

I will get back to the rivers this year yet i will i'm telling you i will .

PG ...

 

[mikench]

It's been a while since I was last out but whilst walking the pup by the river we both agreed it looked ideal for a spot of waggler fishing, it was just a hint high but fining down nicely.

It was only a short walk to the chosen swim, a nice steady glide just before a bend in the river. I tackled up hoping for barbel and chub and spent the first half hour trickling in some hemp and corn.

I ran the float through a couple of times whilst I tweaked the shotting and depth. Once happy I baited the hook with corn and the first run through produced a pb roach of 1lb 15oz, I must admit I weighed it twice

The next three casts produced three roach just a wee bit smaller and just I was getting excited the swim died. The next few hours proved very slow, a handful of goodish chub and I lost what I suspect was a nice barbel to a hook pull.

I don't know which I like more , the cracking roach or that stunning boxer pup ! It looks all the better docked imo! If I get anothe dog a boxer it shall be by the name of Tyson!

 

[flightliner]

Well done Mike, a superb river roach, winter would or will see it at two pound plus.

 

[jon atkinson]

I hinted earlier about a treat i had in store today! Well, I had a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon trotting on the Ribble with Tigger! I had several firsts for me today; trotting for the first time on a river, wearing waders, wading out to the middle of a river with my rod and pin,wearing a bait apron full of maggots, and thanks to the endless enthusiasm and tenacity of Ian, I caught my first dace!

Ian reckoned it was about 7 or 8 oz so not bad. Ian had one nice barbel! The river was a bit high and the weather poor. A couple of other firsts were trudging across muddy fields in said waders , wading across a raging torrent(or so it seemed to me) and finally getting wet as water came over the top of the waders!

I confess to feeling a bit out of my depth(pun intended) and was convinced I was going to fall over much to Ian's amusement. It was a strange experience stood in a flowing current in 4feet of water holding a rod and wearing waders ! I wear glasses and when the rain started to fall very heavily I couldn't see a thing! I was relieved to make it back to the bank!

The conditions were against us and trotting was probably not a good idea today but it was mine and i have no regrets! So thank you Ian for a great afternoon and having my eyes opened by it all. I had never caught a dace so am delighted!

Ian was very patient and I hope he enjoyed my antics, the banter and his cracking barbel! Thanks again Ian!

Sounds like a most enjoyable [bar the weather] day out - I haven't 'committed' to a pair of waders... yet, but I get a feeling that it's only a matter of time . Whereabouts on the Ribble were you Mike? Presumably on one of the many 'Albert' stretches?

 

[mikench]

Jon it was a PAAS stretch and it was fun . The waders were more comfortable than I thought they would be for walking across fields

 

[103841]

After a couple of days stalking a rather shy river carp, a change was in order and with the promise of some summery weather today maybe one last chance to have a successful day on the whip catching Rudd.

Unusually Stonar lake was virtually empty when I arrived and the sunrise looked promising.

And that was to be the best moment of the day! No matter what bait, what depth, what distance, I couldn't tempt a single Rudd. This was my first outing with my latest whip acquisition, a Daiwa Tommy Pickering 8m whip, a bit of a handful at 8m in a stiff but warm breeze but whereas the Rudd were missing, the bream certainly weren't. Had plenty of these which the flick tipped whip handled well.

The clue was there, the absent local carp anglers know when the lake is either switched on or off, today definitely off.

 

[Hugh Bailey]

I wasn’t able to get to fish while we were away in France so I had a session on the Wey today.

Planned to spend the morning after Perch & then sit it out for a Barbel in the afternoon. Arrived about 8.20 to find the stretch deserted, a nice flow & good colour, so picked the swim I started in last time.

P1000591 | hughbailey | Flickr

Quiet for 40 minutes, then 4 Perch in quick succession on worm – up to about 12oz. The sun came out which killed I dead, so I changed over to maggot and picked up another Perch and a lovely Roach of about 1lb.

P1000595 | hughbailey | Flickr

After another quiet spell I moved upstream, baiting a third swim with hemp to return to later. 1st cast in the new swim and the float hadn’t settled before it was away for a lively Chub of a couple of pounds.

P1000597 | hughbailey | Flickr

A few roach followed, with another perch and a couple of gudgeon, but it was pretty slow. It became apparent why when 3 cormorants in line abreast surfaced right in front of me - ☹ the Wey is a small river, maybe 15yards wide here – I saw 2 or 3 other birds later – this level of predation is bound to have an effect.

I moved to the Barbel swim and sat it out on the maggot feeder – no Barbel, which surprised me as conditions were pretty good and I was confident. 2 or 3 more perch and a couple of nice roach were all I managed.

P1000601 | hughbailey | Flickr

Hopefully another session tomorrow – not sure where yet.

 

[103841]

Had a definite touch of the Stillwater blues after yesterday's less than successful attempt at catching some Rudd and I'd seen enough bream for a while.

With such a glorious start to the day and a few spare hours I couldn't resist a short trip to the river, a t shirt day with some very warm late Summer sun, however the trees and plants are letting us know that Autumn is here and putting on a splendid show.

A few days back I'd had my first sightings of river carp, today it was several shoals of bream marauding up and down the glides, I don't seem to be able to shake them off!, They don't spook like the chub and carp and I could quite easily plonk bait in front of them but they had no interest in taking any, I find this hard to admit but they do look quite regal and of a decent size too.

Enough of this nonsense, chub were the quarry and three graced my net over the period of the next two hours,, best going a tad under 4lb.

 

[peter crabtree]

My predictions regarding the state of the Thames this morning proved half right.
There was some flow but it was gin clear at Runneymede near Staines when I arrived this morning at 9:30. I think there had been a frost overnight too which never helps... After having a look I took the plunge, paid the £6 parking fee and set up my 6m Daiwa Harrier whip (flick tip of course) .

Dropping the rig in off the tip of the whip it was 14' deep with some weed growth so I shallowed it up by a foot and it trotted through slowly unimpeded.
Son of Meldrew had given me some nice prepared tares, some dyed black and some natural deep purple coloured. I kind of knew they weren't going to work today in the clear water but tried them for an hour or so whilst feeding copious amounts of hemp.

As predicted no roach seemed to be interested, this stretch is full of them normally, so I changed to double maggot. It was a good hour before my first bite, a small perch which was quickly followed by another.
I persisted for another few hours, ate my sarnies and chatted for a while with two charming Iraqi girls who were fascinated by the whole fishing scenario.
It transpired they had fled Baghdad and via Dubai had settled in Slough...
One shi7hole to another, I thought afterwards....
I went on to snare a few more perch before packing up and fighting my way home up the M25 past Heathrow and home...

 

[103841]

Could be a first for the HDYGO thread, two Herr flick tips on the same page.

 

[peter crabtree]

If you landed that chub on a flick tip you deserve a medal?