How did everyone get on then?

How did everyone get on then?

We were lucky with the weather around here in that the rain held off and Saturday wasn't the washout that was forecast so I grabbed the gear for a quick roving session for the pike with the intention of having a couple of hours and ended up returning home after ten hours of fishing later

The fishing was hard going though, two small jacks and lost three with two good double misses again, i'm enjoying this jig fishing but never had so many misses after being followed in and just about to lift out.

Sunday I took a mate to a very old canal which has been isolated from the main system for many years and slowly being restored, had some great fun in what was mostly eighteen inches of water with the odd deeper hole to around three feet and gin clear, using micro lures I managed to bump three off and enjoyed watching follows from fish as small as a couple of ounces and even spotted one around seven or eight pounds eyeing up one of his mates.

Great fun, a good couple of miles walk with some fantastic scenery and a cracking late spring morning just for good measure.

So then, how did it go?

Aint been out for 2 weeks but last time i was out i lost 2 on jig heads am putting this down to me being rusty or single hooks rather then trebles bought some soft savage gear with single trebles for the next outting

Had a productive morning Friday up in the water for some decent carp, by 1pm the wind turned bitter so called it a day. The estate lake for some tench tomorrow.
Jerry

Some Skimmers and Bream to about 1.5lbs , couple of small Rudd and a few Roach, best about half a pound. Carp were splashing about in the lilly pads but didn't want to know, anybody seen any evidence of spawning yet?

No Ian, although I've not checked it with a thermometer the water temperature still appears too low on the waters I'm fishing.
Jerry

itsfishingnotcatching said:

Some Skimmers and Bream to about 1.5lbs , couple of small Rudd and a few Roach, best about half a pound. Carp were splashing about in the lilly pads but didn't want to know, anybody seen any evidence of spawning yet?

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Last year the local carp were spawning around May 2nd. This year I've only seen the odd fish spawning. I think it is the variable temperatures that is the cause. It was 19C on Friday and only 9C the following three days. The water temp' is just about 14C on the big lakes.

Cheers Jerry/Nicepix
Where I fished the silvers I caught seemed to feel cold, and on a pool renowned for some decent carp up to mid doubles, only three had been caught by the time I left around 1.30 p.m. (they may have moved in during the afternoon, it was a glorious day).

Jerry, congrats on scraping through to the Champions League again

Ian

I'll update you later, off to the river wear for a couple of hours fluff chucking


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I'm with you regarding variable temperatures Nicepix as changes in water temperature will have a large affect on carp's spawning habits. I believe they spawn when the water temperature has stabilised around 17-24C and may take place over several days
Jerry

Went down to the club pond on Sunday with a couple of mates. They chose to fish in the popular car park pegs whilst I opted for the last peg at the far end of the pond (not that it`s that far).

Upon arriving I fed a little hemp and stewed wheat and then started to tackle up. Decided to set up a sleeper rod for a bit of legering near the reeds and that went out first with a simple link leger and a whole dendra as bait. (We`ll come back to the sleeper rod later) And then set up the float rod, small waggler, size 18 B911 hook with a single grain of stewed wheat for hook bait.

The first 45-60 minutes went without a touch and I was just debating whether to switch to maggot when the float slid away in a classic tench bite and moments later my first wheat caught fish was in the net.




A few more casts saw no further bites so I switched to maggots and it wasn`t long before another small tench and then a small roach were caught. By now it was about 11am and I decide to wander down and see how the lads were doing. A chat revealed they weren`t doing much either, Dave had had 3 small roach and Keith had just a couple more.

Strolled back to my swim and recast. After 10 minutes or so with nothing happening I began to reel back in only to find that something was attached. It turned out to be a crucian



Recasting I again saw no movement on the float and after 10 minutes or so reeled back in only to find another bigger crucian was attached. Decided to quickly weigh it and it came in at a modest 3/4lb



And then it went completely quiet. I was casting around the swim trying maggot and wheat but nothing seemed to be working. Then around 2pm I caught a flash of movement in my peripheral vision and a moment later the alarm on the sleeper rod began to scream. It had been sat there for a good hour with a large disk of bread (thank you Idler`s Quest) on a size 10 hook. As I lifted the rod I noticed the coot in the rough area of my bait and it only took a second to realise that that was what I`d caught.

With the help of a chap from a couple of pegs down I managed to get the coot netted and cut the line free from its legs. but unfortunately I couldn`t locate the hook and had to cut the line.

The weird thing was that as I was reeling the coot in I could swear that one of the moorhens tried to drown it. It jumped on top of the coot and pushed it under water.

That wasn`t the only unusual bird behaviour we saw. A couple of gulls/terns (sorry I`m no twitcher) were swooping down and catching small fish. One of them had grabbed a fish but then dropped it and one of the resident crows swooped in and scooped it off the surface before the gull had a chance to recover it.

I managed another roach and a perch just before we packed up. All in all quite a tough day but everyone seemed to be struggling somewhat.

Sunday was our interclub match, Tring v Luton ac. A nice rural stretch of the GUC south of Leighton buzzard Beds. A very long walk through woodland then another half mile to the higher pegs. I drew 15 and as I passed 19 and 18 I could see a big overhanging Hawthorn bush. That unfortunately was peg 14.
With barely 3" of water across at 14m I set up a deep down the track rig and started there. Gudgeon and small perch a chuck on single maggot over Sensas Roach 3000 groundbait with hemp and squatt mixed in. After landing a decent roach and bumping another the swim dried up. Over on the shallow rig just off the far shelf, no improvement, bits and more bits. I ended up with 2lb 4oz.
Peg 14 with the bush won the match for Luton with 18lb mainly skimmers.
30 fished.
Yesterday was at a small open at Farlows in Uxbridge. A nice mature gravel pit with a good head of bream, big tench and a few carp. Basically a long chuck feeder is the usual set up. The first 4 hours I had 6 bream on cage feeder and fishmeal groundbait and double red maggot, then it dried up for the final 2 hours. Came 8th with 22lb. Winner had 80lb, back ups in the 40 and 30 lb range.
13 fished.....