How did you get on?

Nice day today at How end fishery in Bedfordshire. Drew end peg on the lake.
Pole and caster @ 8m bottom of island shelf started catching Ide on caster. Biggest ones were about 1lb. For the last 2 hours I fished the margin to my right ( not easy when you're right handed ) and caught a steady stream of carp and barbel on double caster, all around the 2-3lb mark. Ended up with 27lb and won my section.

How did you get on?

............

Last time I went was Wednesday which turned out to be the last day of decent weather. I didn't fancy roach fishing as the sun was out and on the water quite early so I decides to fish for the very average carp.
Three hours of various baits on the ledger produced precisely nothing but I noticed a few fish up in the water with the black shapes just below the surface so I set up an 'Anchored Crust' rig and offered a few Chum mixers to get them interested.
Over the next three hours I had mirrors of 11,25lbs, 8,5lbs and three others between 4 and 6lbs. All took 2" cubes of crust fished approximately 2/4" below the surface and I probably missed just as many...but no matter..

Very enjoyable day and nice to feel a bit of sun with warmth .......

Away with my wife for a week now so it will be early April before I fish again. Good to have a break for a while...

I went out on Friday afternoon to the River Vienne looking for some new barbel swims. The first place I tried, a derelict water mill, is the opposite bank to where I go for river carp, but a totally different proposition. The near bank to where I used to live is quiet, deep and with moderate flow. All the water goes through a mill race and breach of the weir on the bank I had chosen on Friday.

Unfortunately for me there was a lot of extra water in the river. We have had no rainfall so presumably a dam upstream must have been letting out some water. This meant that swim spotting for future fishing trips was more difficult and so I ended up trying two swims, on shallow and very fast, the other deep and fast, both overpowering my 1.5lb tc rod and 2oz tip I had selected for more moderate conditions. I blanked at both swims.

I packed the gear into the car at 4.15pm and by the time the church clock struck the half hour I was casting out into another swim 8km upstream. Dinner was at 7pm so I had just over 2 hours before I had to pack up. In that time I had a bite every cast and hooked none. No matter what I tried I couldn't hit them. Worm produced little taps. Sweetcorn gave more pronounced tugs and home made salmon flavoured boilies resulted in the tip pulling round a foot. I've experienced this before and when changing to a float laid on has resulted in some lovely roach being caught. But I hadn't got the right tackle or time to try that method.

I sat by a gravel pit today & enjoyed trying out my new Korum umbrella for a few hours

Simon arrived and told me he was fishing further round, so after a bit I joined him for the remainder of the day.

Not a bite, still a nice day though.

I had a grueller today under my Korum brolly. No sooner had I got to the lake the heavens opened and there were squalls all afternoon. 8 degrees, driving rain and not a sign of a bite. By 3 o'clock I had fully zipped up all three garments, put my gloves on, swapped my baseball hat to a beanie and I was still cold. I was glad when I'd had enough and unsurprisingly I was the only one on the lake. Everyone else had more sense.

The highlight was when the rain stopped half an hour before I was due to pack up. So I cut and ran.

nicepix said:

I had a grueller today under my Korum brolly. No sooner had I got to the lake the heavens opened and there were squalls all afternoon. 8 degrees, driving rain and not a sign of a bite. By 3 o'clock I had fully zipped up all three garments, put my gloves on, swapped my baseball hat to a beanie and I was still cold. I was glad when I'd had enough and unsurprisingly I was the only one on the lake. Everyone else had more sense.

The highlight was when the rain stopped half an hour before I was due to pack up. So I cut and ran.

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It's certainly taken a step backwards here after a couple of weeks of fine weather, I had to pull hard to get the car door open yesterday morning as it was iced that solid!

Noticeably the south westerly that we've been enjoying has swung around to a north easterly for the next few days and I'm fishing all day tomorrow so will be picking my bank carefully to get the wind behind me, as it happens the lake I'm thinking of fishing has heavy tree cover on the east bank with deep water just off of it which will be an added bonus.

binka said:

It's certainly taken a step backwards here after a couple of weeks of fine weather, I had to pull hard to get the car door open yesterday morning as it was iced that solid!

Noticeably the south westerly that we've been enjoying has swung around to a north easterly for the next few days and I'm fishing all day tomorrow so will be picking my bank carefully to get the wind behind me, as it happens the lake I'm thinking of fishing has heavy tree cover on the east bank with deep water just off of it which will be an added bonus.

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Best of luck and warp up warm!

Come Friday, according to the forecast we shall have sunshine and temps' of 18C and climbing to over 20C by next week. :w

Downside is that I'm looking after a friend's house and pets while they are back in England for a funeral. So my fishing time will be severely restricted.

I really don't like this very unsettled weather with air temperatures up and down like a yo-yo....I don't mind a cold spell or a warm spell but mixed together always makes it, for me anyway, a difficult choice as to where and what bait to fish.
Two weeks ago as the temps seemed to be on the up I thought about a sneaky session or two after tench (just as a trial really) but held off as my local water was still very cold and now it seems like it's back to square one and waiting for a more settled spell..

Still, this weekend might just herald a turning point - let's hope so!

A few hours on the canal in three different spots, resulted in nothing.

Nice view though.

I hope the traffic cones aren't migrating to the water front in preparation for HS2 Neil.............

Had a couple of hours on the canal myself this afternoon, blanked also.

barbelboi said:

I hope the traffic cones aren't migrating to the water front in preparation for HS2 Neil.............

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Could be someones swim marked out ready for the glorious 16th