How did you get on?

[thames mudlarker]

Finished my season with a good day on a local stream today, christened the new Allerton sticks that came through the post on Thursday.

The colour in the river was dropping out and there was a good flow. I went for the 4 no 4 stick as a long cast wasn't necessary, this stream is probably no more than 30 feet wide in most places. A .10 bottom to an 18 in about three feet of water and double maggot on the hook. Took a bit of time to get them going, but after that, I caught consistently all day. I finished up with around 50 dace, 12 chub with three over three pounds, one roach and loads of minnows.







A good end to my first season float fishing on rivers.

Pucka session there mate and well done to yer first season river float fishing :thumbs:

Be lucky

 

[Steve King]

Last week I went spotting swims on the Teme and chose an area to fish - was planning a roving session.

Yesterday (Saturday) several of the swims I'd earmarked were not looking as good as last week! One swim looked more suitable as s canoe slalom course - it even had white water!

Anyway, my problems started before I had got out of the car park! My fishing suit (2 piece) lives in the back of my Land Rover and when I unfolded it a sour, mouldy smell assaulted my nostrils! It was damp and had numerous spots of mould! A toilet roll next to the suit was wet too, however interestingly, the carpet was not wet! So obviously my Land Rover had done what it does best and leaked!

The next issue was my landing net! Like many people I have several landing net poles and I mainly use an aluminium pole for barbel and the spreader block is more or less left permanently attached to it, except this time it wasn't!

After much searching and a significant amount of bad language I found the spreader block - it was at my feet and had somehow dropped there un-noticed during my searching!

When I finally got to the bank I tripped and stumbled numerous times on long bramble creepers and nearly ended up in the drink more than once! The Teme has treacherous banks at the best of times!

Next I received an abusive text from SWMBO, berating me for not telling her where I had hidden the littleun's iPad (I had confiscated it the previous evening), additionally I was guilty of going out and enjoying myself whilst she was stuck at home with a grumpy child! :wh:wh:wh

I managed three chub before giving it up as a bad job! mg:

 

[fishing4luckies]

Todays little escapade to the Beult was a very different affair indeed from yesterdays 'pretend I'm a competent match angler' shenanigans. I met up with my fishing partner for the day (see earlier thread http://www.fishingmagic.com/forums/general-fishing/360552-bring-weekend.html#post1412795) and opened the back of the van to be reminded why it's best to put unused maggots in the fridge after a days fishing!! To say the van smelt ammoniacal would be an understatement.

Anyway, swim chosen we got set-up, both deciding that the minimal (non existent) flow lent itself perfectly to a spot of waggler-ising. Although the overhead branches did their best to bring on the stampy-stampy dance I resisted and persevered eventually getting plumbed up and getting a baited hook into the water. A few balls of groundbait, a liberal spraying of mixed reds and whites and a bankside brewed fresh coffee and I was settling back into my chair, fag in hand happy as you like, fully expecting to bank one or two decent fish within the hour.

The hour came. The hour went. Neither myself nor Chris had even the slightest bob, dip, twitch, flutter or waft of our floats. Nothing.

The freebies had been flicked out little and often, the groundbait was cloudy, smelly and had minimal feed value but loads of attraction. Everything was being done that should be done. We came up in the water, laid on more, dotted right down, even sacrificed some prime lobworms that were being saved for a stillwater Perch hunting session during the week. The River Gods were not impressed and refused to play ball.

Eventually a tiny lift registered on my float - the prize was a 3 inch long Roachlet - absolutely lovely little thing - it's back was almost emerald green in the sunlight.

Fish wise, that was it. We did however get to wolf down some very fine homemade sausages cooked by your truly, cleared the air from our previous 'wobbler' and booked our next trip to the hidden farm pond next weekend.

 

[thames mudlarker]

Last week I went spotting swims on the Teme and chose an area to fish - was planning a roving session.

Yesterday (Saturday) several of the swims I'd earmarked were not looking as good as last week! One swim looked more suitable as s canoe slalom course - it even had white water!

Anyway, my problems started before I had got out of the car park! My fishing suit (2 piece) lives in the back of my Land Rover and when I unfolded it a sour, mouldy smell assaulted my nostrils! It was damp and had numerous spots of mould! A toilet roll next to the suit was wet too, however interestingly, the carpet was not wet! So obviously my Land Rover had done what it does best and leaked!

The next issue was my landing net! Like many people I have several landing net poles and I mainly use an aluminium pole for barbel and the spreader block is more or less left permanently attached to it, except this time it wasn't!

After much searching and a significant amount of bad language I found the spreader block - it was at my feet and had somehow dropped there un-noticed during my searching!

When I finally got to the bank I tripped and stumbled numerous times on long bramble creepers and nearly ended up in the drink more than once! The Teme has treacherous banks at the best of times!

Next I received an abusive text from SWMBO, berating me for not telling her where I had hidden the littleun's iPad (I had confiscated it the previous evening), additionally I was guilty of going out and enjoying myself whilst she was stuck at home with a grumpy child! :wh:wh:wh

I managed three chub before giving it up as a bad job! mg:

That's God punishing yer for confiscating littlens iPad the night before ......lols

Other than that well done on yer session,

NB: always get into the habit of checking yer gear properly before you set out for another session, it's all to easy to leave things unchecked

---------- Post added at 04:18 ---------- Previous post was at 04:08 ----------

Todays little escapade to the Beult was a very different affair indeed from yesterdays 'pretend I'm a competent match angler' shenanigans. I met up with my fishing partner for the day (see earlier thread http://www.fishingmagic.com/forums/general-fishing/360552-bring-weekend.html#post1412795) and opened the back of the van to be reminded why it's best to put unused maggots in the fridge after a days fishing!! To say the van smelt ammoniacal would be an understatement.

Anyway, swim chosen we got set-up, both deciding that the minimal (non existent) flow lent itself perfectly to a spot of waggler-ising. Although the overhead branches did their best to bring on the stampy-stampy dance I resisted and persevered eventually getting plumbed up and getting a baited hook into the water. A few balls of groundbait, a liberal spraying of mixed reds and whites and a bankside brewed fresh coffee and I was settling back into my chair, fag in hand happy as you like, fully expecting to bank one or two decent fish within the hour.

The hour came. The hour went. Neither myself nor Chris had even the slightest bob, dip, twitch, flutter or waft of our floats. Nothing.

The freebies had been flicked out little and often, the groundbait was cloudy, smelly and had minimal feed value but loads of attraction. Everything was being done that should be done. We came up in the water, laid on more, dotted right down, even sacrificed some prime lobworms that were being saved for a stillwater Perch hunting session during the week. The River Gods were not impressed and refused to play ball.

Eventually a tiny lift registered on my float - the prize was a 3 inch long Roachlet - absolutely lovely little thing - it's back was almost emerald green in the sunlight.

Fish wise, that was it. We did however get to wolf down some very fine homemade sausages cooked by your truly, cleared the air from our previous 'wobbler' and booked our next trip to the hidden farm pond next weekend.

Unlucky mate on yer session yesterday, to be perfectly honest I don't know if you've fished there much before mate but within the number of years that I've fished the Beult is that it very rarely responds to feed during the winter,

It's certainly not an easy venue during the winter,

To be fair you possibly killed the swim at the very start of the session with the ground bait and liberal spraying of maggot, not so bad in the summer but during the winter I've always done far better by roving with single hook baits using popped up bread for the roach and decent roach at that :thumbs:

 

[no-one in particular]

Todays little escapade to the Beult was a very different affair indeed from yesterdays 'pretend I'm a competent match angler' shenanigans. I met up with my fishing partner for the day (see earlier thread http://www.fishingmagic.com/forums/general-fishing/360552-bring-weekend.html#post1412795) and opened the back of the van to be reminded why it's best to put unused maggots in the fridge after a days fishing!! To say the van smelt ammoniacal would be an understatement.

Anyway, swim chosen we got set-up, both deciding that the minimal (non existent) flow lent itself perfectly to a spot of waggler-ising. Although the overhead branches did their best to bring on the stampy-stampy dance I resisted and persevered eventually getting plumbed up and getting a baited hook into the water. A few balls of groundbait, a liberal spraying of mixed reds and whites and a bankside brewed fresh coffee and I was settling back into my chair, fag in hand happy as you like, fully expecting to bank one or two decent fish within the hour.

The hour came. The hour went. Neither myself nor Chris had even the slightest bob, dip, twitch, flutter or waft of our floats. Nothing.

The freebies had been flicked out little and often, the groundbait was cloudy, smelly and had minimal feed value but loads of attraction. Everything was being done that should be done. We came up in the water, laid on more, dotted right down, even sacrificed some prime lobworms that were being saved for a stillwater Perch hunting session during the week. The River Gods were not impressed and refused to play ball.

Eventually a tiny lift registered on my float - the prize was a 3 inch long Roachlet - absolutely lovely little thing - it's back was almost emerald green in the sunlight.

Fish wise, that was it. We did however get to wolf down some very fine homemade sausages cooked by your truly, cleared the air from our previous 'wobbler' and booked our next trip to the hidden farm pond next weekend.

I was wondering how you might get on expecting you might get into a chub or two, reading the previous posts they seem to be active. However the Beult seems to be difficult river as Mudlark's comments seem to endorse; my only attempt produced pretty much the same result. I think its one of those rivers you have to hit right. Some of these little rivers take a lot of fishing to learn them properly.

 

[barbelboi]

The last river visit of the season so I decided to have a leisurely few hours on one of the main rivers trotting for roach from the sitting position for a change. I’ve done enough yomping about the rivers, streams and backwaters for one season so I took that optional extra, the X-lite.

I settled for a swim between the bushes and dead vegetation with enough room to move and knew the topography well from the summer months when the water was gin clear. A good trotting swim of approximately 7’ of depth with a run of some 30 yards between where the ribbon weed and cabbages were prolific. I collapsed the rear legs of the chair to the contours of the incline of the bank and set up the old Titan 2000 with a pin, 3.2lb floatfish decorated with a 6xno4 stick and a 20 to 2lb bottom. A single red was the bait for the day feeding the same plus a bit of hemp.

Starting at 10am it was virtually a fish (roach and dace) a trot until 1pm. After that I couldn’t buy a bite for an hour so and, with the reds running low, decided to call it a day just after 2pm. I finished with many fish, completely lost count – but a most enjoyable last session where the pike were quite active for a time chasing in some of the fish. This one (in the pic) just made it to the net but lost a bit of it’s tail. I also had a first of a species from this river, whilst paddling the pin in from one of the few unproductive early trots, the bait was grabbed by a fish half way back. Obviously a chublet – nope, a rudd of around half a pound.

Funny how the roach and dace both switched off around the same time – I usually find if one stops feeding the other often carries on. Still, not a bad few hours sat in the warm sunshine – the only downer was the fierce downstream wind...............................

 

[fishing4luckies]

I was wondering how you might get on expecting you might get into a chub or two, reading the previous posts they seem to be active. However the Beult seems to be difficult river as Mudlark's comments seem to endorse; my only attempt produced pretty much the same result. I think its one of those rivers you have to hit right. Some of these little rivers take a lot of fishing to learn them properly.

A lot of fishing and learning it properly is exactly what I've got planned for next season.

Drawing a blank doesn't generally put me off a venue or spot - it makes me want to figure it out. So you can expect a lot of posts come June regarding my strategic 'Battle of the Beult'.

 

[mikench]

I was ready for action today and those moules marinières didn't stand a chance!

 

[tigger]

I had the last two hours of daylight on a small tributary and had a few small chub, the ones in the pic's where the biggest.
If I can get out tomorrow I might have a dabble with the leger rod mg:.







If you look in the last pic you can see maggots the chub was pukin up in quite large numbers, they often do this and it makes me wonder if they do it so you'll eat the maggots instead of them.

 

[Pete Shears]

Disturbed two white egrets on the frosty bank of the Wreake at 7am this morning.Put out a float with worm to swirl around the big back eddy and flicked out a cage feeder with bread flake.
A kingfisher whistled by heading downstream and saw two pairs of buzzards.
Fishing wise,all I caught were four minnows on the float fished worm,not a tweak on legered flake or crust or cheese paste - even using the minnows as live bait did not provoke a bite from the perch which I know are in this deep pool,I have seen perch that would weigh more than three pounds.
So off downstream - walking to a new swim I was watched by a green woodpecker clinging to a willow trunk.Trotting bread this time - a bite,felt like a chub as it wanted to inspect every weedbed on its way to my landing net - 1lb 12oz,pristine condition.
Tried two more swims but nothing and getting too warm in winter gear - will have to wait until
summer now as I am going to the upper Soar tomorrow to end this river season.

 

[binka]

A really nice finish to what we traditionally know as the end of the season for me this afternoon, especially as I hadn’t even planned anything until this morning.

I ignored the river in favour of a spot of stillwater perch fishing again, it had been kind to me over the weekend and I thought it was deserving of some further attention and I was hanging bobber floats off of two Ultralite Avons by early afternoon.

Standard set up for me, bottom of the nearside ledge along the patrol route just off the rod tip and being as it was that lull time of day I decided on a bait and wait approach, feeding a pint of dead reds and chopped lobs over one line and not baiting the other at all. 3.3LB Drennan Supplex flouro hooklinks to size 10 B911x’s and a sizeable lob to each rod just nicked in the head and held on with a dead red below 5BB floats…



I sat back off both rods so that I had both floats easily within view and little really happened for the first hour and a half which allowed me to take in just what a glorious day it was with a big, Spring sky helped along by a pleasant westerly and it was only when I lowered one of the rods back in after checking the bait that the float just continued on a downward journey well below the surface.

The strike was met with a kick that was noticeably heavier than that of a big perch and a few minutes later the culprit was in the net and a beautifully marked, spawn laden fish at that…



Completely unintended but I made sure she went back strong.

The pike didn’t stop there though…

I took another three after that one, all in quick succession and very much the scrawny and horny smaller jacks that would have been latching on to her. My luck then ran out as I suffered a bite-off and so I baited up again and things went quiet for an hour or so.

Without warning I then had a sail away bite which gave no prior warning at all and had the ‘pin spinning by the time I was on the rod and this felt much more like the target and it was.

A lovely, deep bodied perch of 2lb 11ozs…



That marked the start of a steady run and in each case the floats were just sailing away without any of the usual bobs ‘n dips which I usually get with lobs, several more fish over 2lb gave good backup sport.

After reviewing the pictures I'm pretty certain this one was a repeat capture within a few minutes of its first appearance…





Hey...

I caught it twice so I'm counting it twice!

The strange thing was that all four pike fell to the same rod whilst the perch were evenly spread between the two despite one being a baited spot and the other not baited which in turn suggests to me that these perch are sticking to a set route and passing both baits at some point depending on which direction they are moving, the feed only holding them up for a short while before they've either cleared the lot or got bored and moved off to look for prey fish.

I fished until darkness with quite an electric expectation as the sun set but there were no further sparks and I had enjoyed a great afternoon's fishing.

All the very best to those out tomorrow for the final fling, good luck and tight lines… :w

 

[thames mudlarker]

I was wondering how you might get on expecting you might get into a chub or two, reading the previous posts they seem to be active. However the Beult seems to be difficult river as Mudlark's comments seem to endorse; my only attempt produced pretty much the same result. I think its one of those rivers you have to hit right. Some of these little rivers take a lot of fishing to learn them properly.

The thing is that where " fishing4luclkies " is fishing it's on the PWACS and is above the Yalding sluice and the majority of the chub in the Yalding / Hunton section are generally below the Sluice which is on my club ticket of KAPS :thumbs:

However throughout the rest of the Beult it's well known for its quality roach, tench, bream and pike

Speak soon

 

[Neil Maidment]

So that's it for another river season. I was a bit late leaving home and just knew I was going to be in one of my indecisive moods.

Simple choice really, I wanted to catch some chub so Throop it was. Car park was almost empty which was the first surprise. Second surprise was not an angler in sight anywhere and yet allegedly the fishery was "rammed" today.

That wasn't really helpful because I realised I had too many choices. Sort it out Maidment, just pick a swim and get on with it!

40 minutes in and I had lost two small chub and was considering a move (still no anglers about). But the Stour chub once again obliged as a big "5" eventually found the net.

They didn't exactly go crazy but several good chub followed, mostly the same sort of size of 5+ and all was well. Then the sun disappeared behind clouds for quite a spell and they started feeding really well.

Two on the trot and then a short while later I repeated the double (one in the net resting whilst playing another). But this time I had 2 x 6's in the net, both weighed in at 6:04. More followed until I packed up at around 4pm.

An excellent end to my season.

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[thames mudlarker]

Well I managed to get out today and decided to try one of me local little chalk streams, the river Cray, it's certainly not the easiest and best of rivers to fish but hey ho it's local and free fishing,

The river although it had some colour was actually quite low and it was a case of roving about to find some of the quality roach that river can produce at times,

Today I decided to do a bit of ultra light touch ledgering IE just 2 AAA shot pinched onto the mainline about 3" from a size 12 kamasan hook, the reason why the shot is near the hook because I have a very specific way that I use bread flake and it actually pops up hence the shot

Anyhow I was on the river today for a whole 11 hrs from 7 am to 6 pm and the fishing to be honest was actually quite difficult, I tried in vein many swims and apart from a few odd plucks and tentertive bites I managed 1 roach of several ounces and one very nice dace of around 10 oz, this was in 8 hrs of roving

It got to 3 pm and I settled into a swim beside the main town bridge and skilfully casting sideways I could get a considerable distance under the low bridge, I fished this for about another 3 hrs and managed another 9 fish,

One chub of about 1 lb, 7 roach upto about 1/2 lb and a loverly 14 oz roach :thumbs:

All the fish caught were caught touch ledgering and most of the time I was actually striking at the movement of the line long before I even felt anything

The 14 oz roach can be viewed on me profile album pic no: 1

( apologies as I can't upload pics onto open threads but only on me profile album )

 

[fishing4luckies]

So that's it for another river season. I was a bit late leaving home and just knew I was going to be in one of my indecisive moods.

Simple choice really, I wanted to catch some chub so Throop it was. Car park was almost empty which was the first surprise. Second surprise was not an angler in sight anywhere and yet allegedly the fishery was "rammed" today.

That wasn't really helpful because I realised I had too many choices. Sort it out Maidment, just pick a swim and get on with it!

40 minutes in and I had lost two small chub and was considering a move (still no anglers about). But the Stour chub once again obliged as a big "5" eventually found the net.

They didn't exactly go crazy but several good chub followed, mostly the same sort of size of 5+ and all was well. Then the sun disappeared behind clouds for quite a spell and they started feeding really well.

Two on the trot and then a short while later I repeated the double (one in the net resting whilst playing another). But this time I had 2 x 6's in the net, both weighed in at 6:04. More followed until I packed up at around 4pm.

An excellent end to my season.

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Some cracking chub there Neil - well done. What a fantastic way to end the season.

Having grown up down your way I have to ask if you're related to a Don Maidment? If so I think our families knew each other of old.

 

[mikench]

Ditto to that Neil! Those are fish to be proud of!

 

[Tee-Cee]

Great 'end of season' reports from Binka and Neil Maidment and a real tonic for those of us who cannot get to water, for one reason or another. Some absolutely stonking fish caught, which along with the lovely weather must've made it a real pleasure to be out...

Am I in the least bit envious - you're damn right I am!!

In the meantime, armed with just a paintbrush..............................................

 

[Neil Maidment]

Some cracking chub there Neil - well done. What a fantastic way to end the season.

Having grown up down your way I have to ask if you're related to a Don Maidment? If so I think our families knew each other of old.

Not that I know of. There were a load of Maidments in the Hants/Dorset area, not quite so many now. My lot were sort of based around the Southbourne/Tuckton area but a couple of generations ago hailed from further west in Dorset/Somerset.

---------- Post added at 08:10 ---------- Previous post was at 08:00 ----------

( apologies as I can't upload pics onto open threads but only on me profile album )

The overall process is archaic but when in the "Reply To Thread" box you should be able to use the "My Photos" box below the "Smilies".

With the images already in your album just click "Insert" in that box, select the image, which should then appear in your reply.

 

[thames mudlarker]

Not that I know of. There were a load of Maidments in the Hants/Dorset area, not quite so many now. My lot were sort of based around the Southbourne/Tuckton area but a couple of generations ago hailed from further west in Dorset/Somerset.

---------- Post added at 08:10 ---------- Previous post was at 08:00 ----------



The overall process is archaic but when in the "Reply To Thread" box you should be able to use the "My Photos" box below the "Smilies".

With the images already in your album just click "Insert" in that box, select the image, which should then appear in your reply.

Already tried it loads of times Neil and it doesn't work

I can't load no pics onto gallery, I've tried so many times and just won't have it,

I can upload pics onto me profile album no problem but as soon as I try to up load them by clicking the my photos insert tab on the reply thread box it just says no gallery pics and doesn't recognise the set option facility etc

I've now given up because what ever I try it just doesn't workmg:

I'm happy enough in putting all of me pics on me profile album, it just means that other forum members and users will have to look at me profile album if they wish to view any particular pics,

If I ever put a report up I'll just Clearly state that all pics can be viewed on profile album :thumbs:

 

[greenie62]

...I can upload pics onto me profile album no problem but as soon as I try to up load them by clicking the my photos insert tab on the reply thread box it just says no gallery pics and doesn't recognise the set option facility etc

I've now given up because what ever I try it just doesn't workmg:

I'm happy enough in putting all of me pics on me profile album, it just means that other forum members and users will have to look at me profile album if they wish to view any particular pics,

If I ever put a report up I'll just Clearly state that all pics can be viewed on profile album :thumbs:

Or - you can always add the 'Insert Image' link in to the album in the post, e.g.: