Your Red Letter Days

GrahamM

GrahamM

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Dave Johnson wrote: "Tell you what would be an interesting thread Graham, list what you consider to be your best achievements over the years - I remember reading some of your articles years ago on Cheshire Mere fishing, still conjures up thoughts of misty mornings on estate type lakes with big tench and bream........roll on summer."
 
GrahamM

GrahamM

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Obviously, like most anglers I've had more than one red letter day.

One of the best was when I caught 13 double-figure bream from a Cheshire mere on the float. In two hours with just half a pint of casters. I would have caught more but I ran out of bait.
 
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Dave Johnson

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The Dove last summer, had primed a cracking looking glide upb to some fast water with about 8 pints of hemp and caster, left it to stew until an hour before dark and then returned and hit 8 barbel in eight consecutive casts, all between 6-9lb, I then trod on my bait box and flipped it into the river complete with the remainder of my bait. Desperate to carry on i went back in darkness to the peg i had earlier vacated and picked up about 20 casters to use as hookbait. By now it was dark, no bait to feed with but still managed 5 more similar barbel before they spooked.
Still, five barbel on 20 casters......the ground was that dry I couldnt even get some worms-at least the wife was pleased when i got home before midnight.....
 
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Paul Williams

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Bloody ell Graham, i remember reading that in total awe!!!! i once had A huge haul of pike that included a dozen doubles and two big 20's in a day but that just don't compair with your catch!!!
I have had a few red letter days but the one that still comes to mind is my big Perch i caught as a kid, it seemed so big then!!! and i still don't know how big it was, i don't think i want to know now!!!!
 
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Dave Johnson

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there is something about big perch is'nt there Paul, I can't rememeber who said it, might have been Stoney, but whoever it was they said that the biggest 'big' fish was a perch. They certainly look impressive when they get to 3lbs.
Father-in-law had a cracker in September from the Severn at Ironbridge that went 3lb 5 oz i think-stunning fish!
 
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Malcolm Bason

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Hi all - you may or may not remember I previously stated I had recently got back into fishing last year. The most memoral day I have had was last year. It was around June/July and only having re-started around April, my confidence wasn't exactly sky high - but I was enjoying myself. I fished at a place at Wrentham just South of Lowestoft and on this small lake/pond/puddle(?) of about 18 pegs around 14 were taken up - I heard one or two moaning they hadn't caught much so thought ah well i'll give it a go. Straight away I began catching carp - only small 2, 3, 4lb, off a small island in the middle, but i was catching and this went on for about 2 hours! When the carp stopped biting I switched one of the rods to smaller gear (float/maggot) and began catching loads of smallish roach and with a few perch thrown in for good measure. All this time there was an old boy on the corner shouting to his mate (he was obviously deaf): "Has he bloody caught again" - and the next time it was: "Bloody Holiday makers" and so on - I thought it hilarious, but I couldn't go wrong that day.
 
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DAVE COOPER

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I think my favourite red letter day was my first ever all nighter when I was about 16 or 17. A mate and I fished an old estate lake and caught 28 tench for close on 100lb between 8pm and midnight. Didn't get a sniff after that but we were made up with life.
 
GrahamM

GrahamM

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Here's a couple of interesting little asides to this thread. The 13 double-figure bream catch also included a tench of about 4lb and a 6lb 6oz roach X bream hybrid. Angling Times said it was, and as far as I know it still is, the biggest catch of double-figure bream ever caught in one session.

That same year, 1995, I was also lucky enough to catch the Cheshire record bream at 14lb 1oz and the Cheshire record tench at 11lb 4oz, from different waters. I was runner-up in the Drennan Cup that year.

A 14lb 14oz barbel from the Great Ouse at Adam's Mill won it. This was a record for the river at the time.
 
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Paul Williams

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I remember!, i didn't know you personally then but i remember thinking just what a farce the DC can be at times!!! fantastic barbel, but geographically it couldn't and shouldn't have been in the same league, imho it was little more than a fashion statement that it won. Who was the captor i can't remember?
 
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Ron Clay

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The red letter day I remember most took place in South Africa. I caught a huge catch of Vaal River mudfish (Labeo umbratus) on a stretch of the Vaal River. One of them weighed 3.4 kg, well above the SA record at the time. I found this out later. All those fish were returnd
 
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Philip Inzani

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One session that stands out was a couple of years back on a really big reservoir as it was a bit of a mental turning point for me. I turned up with the intention of doing a couple of nights but the night fishing zone was packed out, full of mud and everyone was blanking. It had taken me ages to get there but I really thought about turning round there and then and going home. However just for the hell of it decided to buy day tickets and try and stay mobile as you could fish virtually the whole lake in daylight.
In just over 24 hours fishing I was lucky enough to catch 16 Carp, 14 of which where over 25Ibs and two over 35Ibs and all from less then 30 yards out. I also used less than a kilo of bait.
I am sure much bigger catches have been made but its memorable because it defiantly changed my way of thinking about fishing these places for good.
 
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Malcolm Bason

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Andy Davis - I tried to look at your pic, but one has to be registered with 'egroups' to do this!
 
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Malcolm Bason

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Hi Andy - nice fish! NICE WATER TOO! May I ask where this was?
 
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Andy Davis

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Malcolm, it's in Sandhurst... I have mixed feelings about the water, you can only use 1 rod, and it's no boilies, sweetcorn and high protein" baits. but it does contain some lovely fish and it's under fished....but the one rod rule really annoys me, and they need to spend some money on the lake... I could go on for ever, drop me a line on nc35@freenetname.co.uk if you want some more details.
 
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Dave Johnson

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Blimey Graham-14lb barbel winning the Drennan cup-would it even make the papers five years on?
Have u heard about the one from above Scropton........going on Thurs I think, just as the high pressure point descends.
You know that video you did on em....some reservoir, the series one clean rivers i think, when was it filmed...early 80's? most enjoyable
 
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Ryan Turner

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Last season I fished a sesh on a lake that I hadn't fished since I was a kid. I was taught to fish on the water by my grandad who lived on the bank. In all my young fishing days on that water all I ever caught were redfins and stripeys and the occasional "daddy ruffe" (not that I minded that at the time). My grandad used to catch bream, to me they were grownups fish. Anyway without writing a novel on it, I went back one night about a week into last season with two mates and a binliner half full of groundbait, we pretended we were in Ireland for half an hour and when two of us returned six hours later at five in the morning it really was like being in Ireland. I ended up with a keepnet full of 2-3lb bream, they weren't biggies I know, but there were thirty five of 'em and just about a ton in weight. The last time I had fished the place was as a child with my grandad, this sesh was a week after he died and we fished in his honour, I never saw anyone ton up on Hollingworth Lake before, not even my grandad. That was a red letter day for me because I'd waited for about seventeen years before I caught the mythical grown-ups fish that always evaded me as a kid.
Sorry for pappin' on but Graham asked!
 
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