How did you get on?

[ian g]

I was unsure where to go this morning but thought I would give the same stretch another chance . I decided to hedge my bets a bit and brought some bread . I left the pole at home and fished a tip rod and a float rod . Decided to try a different swim further upstream , 6 ft straight off the bank was encouraging , I fished a float with worm down the side and a worm on the tip rod upstream a little .Two hours pass with no interest so I move downstream , same set up to start with before switching to bread . Managed a chub at around 3 pm , a very tentative bite which was hard to spot in gusty conditions . A bit of a surprise when I struck and felt solid resistance , chub around 4lb . That was it fish wise , I had hoped for more action on the bread . Frustrating session but that's fishing ,better than work , just wonder where all the perch have gone. Packed up at around 6.45pm

 

[no-one in particular]

This is the other end of the arse end of the RM canal. usually a few more fish but not today. The levels have been reduced and the water was very low, 2 or 3 feet and very cold. Two pike anglers had not had a snitch either and one remarked no sign of any small fry which I did not see either. This canal fished very badly for me last year, just one tench all summer so, hoping it picks up this summer. I was using some left over whizzed bread with some dried cranberries whizzed in, might try it in the summer when more fish about, just float fishing with brown bread on the hook, usually get a bit of float movement with that but not today.
The bird life was a bit more interesting, the rooks are getting nesting, two long tailed tits must be nesting in the bush opposite, in and out the whole session but too quick for a picture, the resident buzzard made a guest appearance with the resident kestrel in tow mobbing it but I didn't get a picture, just flew high up over my head as they came out from the trees opposite but always nice to see.
This is probably last gasp for me, rain forecast so might give it a bit of a rest till next June, uless I get the twitch, we will see.

.

 

[Ray Roberts]

This is the other end of the arse end of the RM canal. usually a few more fish but not today. The levels have been reduced and the water was very low, 2 or 3 feet and very cold. Two pike anglers had not had a snitch either and one remarked no sign of any small fry which I did not see either. This canal fished very badly for me last year, just one tench all summer so, hoping it picks up this summer. I was using some left over whizzed bread with some dried cranberries whizzed in, might try it in the summer when more fish about, just float fishing with brown bread on the hook, usually get a bit of float movement with that but not today.
The bird life was a bit more interesting, the rooks are getting nesting, two long tailed tits must be nesting in the bush opposite, in and out the whole session but too quick for a picture, the resident buzzard made a guest appearance with the resident kestrel in tow mobbing it but I didn't get a picture, just flew high up over my head as they came out from the trees opposite but always nice to see.
This is probably last gasp for me, rain forecast so might give it a bit of a rest till next June, uless I get the twitch, we will see.

View attachment 29666View attachment 29667.

The other end of the canal, the one you posted previously at Seabrook, is the place I wrote a short story about years ago for FM, where a rather fat lady slipped at the top of the bank and ended up in the canal. I will see if I can find it.

 

[Woofy Chivers]

Congrats on your great session yesterday Ray. 70 tench plus crucians
Wow ! Good for you

 

[Ray Roberts]

Congrats on your great session yesterday Ray. 70 tench plus crucians
Wow ! Good for you

They must have been starving, lol. Usually you would get a lull at sometime during the day but they didn’t stop feeding. Maybe they are building themselves up prior to spawning.

 

[John Aston]

Funny old game , this fishing lark.

Saturday - light(ish ) lure fishing for pike on Yorkshire Swale. Can't fish where I want as river too high to wade across safely , or even at all . Plan B was a pool only fishable by standing on a narrow , sloping ledge . No pike but a bloody great brown trout of about 4lbs - a grown on stock fish. Next cast , slip off ledge and slide into about 4 feet of water. Keep hold of net but not -idiot -my Drennan 7-6 rod and the Daiwa Legalis which had been a birthday present , Grub around with net in the clouded up water- nowt. Drive home in rage.

Sunday - return to scene of crime with friend. He spots the rod immediately , I snag it with a Toby , job done. Fortunately , as the river will rise today . I had taken my grayling gear and decided to have an hour or two despite the drizzle and east wind . The river has lots of grayling sometimes but fish of a pound plus are not as common as my other river. But crikey - in just over an hour I had six grayling , the smallest about 1-4. The biggest pair weren't twos (I didn't weigh them ) but a good 1-12 I'd guess. And even on a 14 ft Acolyte plus and 5.5lb hooklength they took some getting in , thanks to a flow which had meant I was using a 4.5 swan Loafer float . What beautiful fish winter grayling are - those silver lilac flanks and that absurdly huge , orange tinted dorsal .

So....result

 

[peterjg]

Well that's it for another season. Since the start of February I've been fishing 16 times - every trip after roach (yes, a glutton for punishment!). I've really struggled on the rivers and canals, even some club lakes have been closed due to flooding. Fished mainly lakes, caught a few carp to 26lbs 8ozs, several tench, a few bream, a few rudd and several roach, all smallish. Two blanks.
Traditionally fishing was mainly stillwaters in summer and rivers/canals in winter but another wet winter and so I'll swap things round and fish the rivers in summer more before they are permanently in flood?

 

[Ray Roberts]

It’s been lousy for river fishing locally. Any decent catches I’ve had this year have been on lakes.

 

[terry m]

As it was last day of the season, I tried to find an accessible slack on the Hants Avon. My normal go to spot was taken, so I had to don waders to get to a swim that looked nice, albeit well underwater meaning I had to sit well back.
A couple of hours in and the deadbait pencil started to waggle, and in the 10 seconds it took to wade to the rod the float was torpedoing out into the main flow. I lifted into what felt like decent fish and 7 or 8 minutes later a pristine 17lb 5oz pike was in the net. A couple more hours yielded nothing so I called it a day- and a season- and was home for lunch.

 

[ian g]

Met up with a mate yesterday who comes up from Mid Wales in his van and stays for a few days fishing the Severn . River was up and coloured so perch where unlikely . Nice cup of tea to start then fishing a nice inside crease . My mate just came along for a chat . A bite on worm came quickly but I managed to lose my hook link . A few more tugs when suddenly a rotten tree about 10 metres below us collapsed into the river , around 25 foot dropping down with a huge crack . Ruined the swim . Tried a couple more spots sitting in the rain before trying the fallen tree swim again , another stolen worm but no fish . I had been out since 9 o'clock sitting for long periods in the rain so gave it up at 6.15 , the end of a season . Enjoyed the day , it's not all about catching

 

[wetthrough]

Had planned to fish with @mikench yesterday but domestic duties on his part meant a change of plan. The forecast wasn't great but slightly better an hour down the motorway than close by. A choice of drive an hour and maybe fish in the rain or 20 minutes drive and probably fish in the rain, some of the time. I settled for a 20 minute drive to the dam. Haven't fished it in a long time and it just appealed somehow. The Gods were against me. There's a parking layby at the dam head with room for around 10 cars. If you're there early enough you get the pick closest to the side you plan to fish. Bgr, the whole lay-by is coned off for whatever reason. So to plan B. I've groundbait with me which I'd rather not waste which restricted my choice a little. Of the two remaining choices one would have required some thinking on how to get there from current location so took the easy way out and opted for where @mikench and I fished last week, somewhat unsuccessfully! Unloaded the gear parked car around 100M away got back and realised I hadn't unloaded the chair, bgr. Things didn't improve. Opened my bag to find I hadn't packed one of my bait boxes - hemp, tares, corn and meat. What the heck. I had maggots, GB and pellets. Just have to hope for the best. Fishing was slow to say the least but I was at least getting a few bites. Missed more than I hooked and managed to loose a lump which got under the peg and snapped me off. I had the brolley up which stopped me from standing up which would have given me a better chance of keeping it from going under the peg. Rained on and off but nothing torrential. Ended up with one Roach three Perch two of which weren't a bad size, one tiddler and a Bream/skimmer. First silvery Bream I've had from this water. They're usually sizeable bronzes. This one was around 3.5lb at a guess. The Perch decided to flip just at the wrong time. Packed up around 3.30.

 

[mikench]

At least you got out Gordon. Let’s hope next week is better on all fronts.

 

[flightliner]

I said on Bincas post "Last Roll Of The Dice" the other night that owing to the Trent being flooded again that I would end up on a canal further North of Doncaster.
That was at 11pm,but about ten minutes later i had another phone call from an old friebd asking if I wanted a session Chub fishing on the tiny, shallow, narrow river Meden in Notts.
Being tired and frustrated with trents flooding I accepted.
The following morning after changing my tackle for chub I was on my way to our prre arranged venue.
Once there I set up my tackle and headed to the tiny river finding it coloured and high but falling.
My first few trots down with flake produced nothing so I moved into the next swim down that resulted with the same result.
My old friend was suffering the same results as myself so we moved but this time well downriver of of our previous two, along the way down was very hard on account od hawthorn, bramble, brier and a tangle of young trees but we did manage to find two reasonable swims with a little more depth.
Interestingly we saw what could have only been been a Badger set, it was new with plenty of fresh soil scattered around the area but that aside we had come to fish and started our efforts again.
First trot down and my float ducks under and on the strike i was playing a nice fit Roach that I thought well of considering the conditions.
That was it, my Roach was the only fish caught, so an hour later we called it a day.
After packing our gear away i took fotos of the Badger set after strewing a slice bread around it hoping it would be eaten during the dark hours, back at our cars we said our goodbyes and left for for home.

 

[@Clive]

My mate fished the Tidal last night and didn't get a touch. He went home minus three of his heavy feeders though.

Badgers love malt loaf. My old mate could tempt them out of their setts in daylight with some Soreen.

 

[chevin4]

I wound up the river season on the 7th March the Gt Ouse was once again flooded so it was a visit to my local small stream. The River was high and pushing through. I alternated between stret pegging and using the small maggot feeder keeping feed to a minimum to avoid the barbel my target species was roach. It was a slow start probably due to the cold grey start and Easterly wind. It brightened up in the afternoon and from 3 o'clock started to catch steadily using single red maggot on an a 16. I finished up with several roach from 8oz up to 1lb 1oz and chub about 2lb. I went yesterday to a Colne Valley stillwater as a guest of a syndicate member. Dispite the excellent mild overcast conditions the roach didn't show but did catch a surprise 6lb tench which gave a good account of itself. We were due to fish into dark but because sport was slow my mate who blanked was more than happy to call it a day at 6pm. The timing was good was heavens opened shortly after loading the car.Despite the disappointing fishing I enjoyed being out in the spring like weather.

 

[Alan Whitty]

I went yesterday to a club lake where i fish for crucians, it was hard and every bite had to be dragged out, ended up with 8 skimmers to say 1lb 4ozs, 10 or so roach to 12ozs and a tench 1lb 8ozs...... just looked at this and realised I'd neglected a crucian over a pound...

 

[jon atkinson]

Not that I do much but had my last river session last Sunday - the club has recently come to an affiliation arrangement with Newton-le-Willows AC allowing us to fish their upper & lower pounds and more interestingly, their stretch of Sankey Brook, which is described as an up-and-coming little river with a wide variety of species present. I went for a recce session, fishing trotted maggots... total blank, extremely muddy making access pretty limited and it didn't stop raining the whole time, but I will try again once it re-opens in the summer.

Had a work party yesterday, so took my waggler / feeder gear to have a pond session afterwards. The lure fishing has been pretty woeful this winter, so I was looking forward to a relaxing session just watching a float. We have a 'no fishing before 4 pm' rule on work party days, unless you have been on the wp, so having pretty much the run of the place, I opted for the Carp pond, primarily because Tench are actually far more likely than Carp! I set up with a gentle breeze in my face and had a Tench of a couple of pounds on bread, after which it went very quiet, so I switched to maggot but was getting bitted out with small Rudd.

The gentle breeze had got progressively stronger to a point where the water was positively choppy and underarm casting (branches overhead) was increasingly difficult, so I fired up the 10' feeder rod, with hair rigged soft pellet and had another three Tench, all in the 2 - 3 lb bracket, before it was time to head back. So not 'quite' as prolific as Ray's outstanding Tench fest, but most enjoyable all the same.

 

[@Clive]

I had a day on the Vienne. I started float ledgering upstream of a bush, close to the crease where slower, deeper water is found closer to the bank. I had small roach on worms, but nothing on any other bait. I spent more time trying to avoid the roach than trying for bigger fish. I tried ledgering without success so moved downstream to another swim and repeated the process.

Charente next week I think. The Vienne has dropped to almost normal level, first time since October. The Charente responds slower, but is a warmer river and should be in better form by next week (hopefully).

 

[seth49]

On our syndicate water today, about ten minutes after I arrived mick rang me to say he had seen it was raining and went back to bed, by now the rain had stopped and it was dry for the rest of the day, so he missed out.

not a bad day it was windy on the pegs I’d thought of fishing, so I went on a sheltered peg instead, I plumbed up and fed a bit of groundbait and maggots, and then fished with my feeder rod to let the pole line settle for an hour, nothing on feeder so fished pole and had my first tench of the year, on worm over a few chopped worms, also some nice roach up to about 8ozs, plus a couple of stockie barbel.

usual quiet spell around lunch time, and then caught a few more, finished with 12 roach, 3 tench, 2 barbel, 5 skimmere, and 2 F1s, need some lighter elastic for one top kit as I lost some fish as well, not a bad day as the water is still very cold, pleasant day enjoyed it.

 

[Philip]

Something a bit different for me.....
There is a small chalk stream not too far away that I pass from time to time, its very shallow & holds the occasional Trout & a few coarse fish, minnows and the like. I went for a walk down it the other day armed with a pair of polaroids not expecting much but was surprised to see a few small Carp drifting about in the fast current, mainly commons but with the odd Mirror & even a couple of Koi’s, probably castaways from someone’s garden pond that stood out like the proverbial sore thumb in the gin clear water. They were all tiny like the venue that housed them but as they were probably totally wild & neglected, I thought it might be fun to try and catch one. So the next sunny day I armed myself with a little DV 8 foot rod, a few bits and bobs of tackle and bait and headed off.

Not your typical Carp venue..

The plan was to try and stalk one out, with my “banker” swim a little bush I had seen them browsing under. To cut a long short after an hour of endless tangles trying to maneuver the bait through a crisscross of branches , getting stung to bits by nettles and then watching a small common pass several times nonchalantly over my strategically positioned sweetcorn quite clearly aware it was being angled for, I called it quits and decided to move. Creeping up to an overhanging tree with slightly deeper water under it I spied a couple of Carp lazily drifting in the current, one a common the other a little koi. Game on.

Rummaging around in my backpack I found a few slices of mouldy bread and tore off the whitest bit I could & pinched it onto the hook. A couple of shot to get it down and I flicked it out midstream and then drifted it back towards the near bank and under the tree. I could just make the bait out and saw a dark shape move over it but wasn’t sure if it had been taken. However the line started to tighten so I took a chance and struck and the little common shot out from the tree attached to my line. What he lacked in size he made up for in spirit aided by the strong current but he ended up in the net, a lovely little bronze fish...

The commotion had scared the other fish off so I went for another wander but saw little else so stared to return to the tree. On route I spied the little koi now in mid river. Dropping to my knees to get off the sky line I pinched on another lump of bread and cast it past the fish then slowly started to inch it back towards it.

Complicated rig..

Twice I almost had it in position but the hook snagged on the bottom at the crucial moment & I had to re-bait and recast. Finally I managed to get it bang on, the bait a few feet upstream of the fish. I twitched it and the bait rolled right in front of its nose & it gulped it down instantly. Another brisk fight and I had it in the net. It was an ugly little thing, all gnarly with split fins, warty bumps but full of character. I suspect these fish were a lot older than their size might suggest and even though they were tiny there was a certain charm to them & I was chuffed to have caught them. It was a very pleasant way to spend a couple of hours.

Cindy Koi-ford..