How did you get on?

[wetthrough]

Lymm Dam yesterday opposite side to the Church. Nice day given recent weather and good to get out on the bank again.
Fishing wasn't great. Two bites two fish. Roach, one about 5oz the other about 4oz in 7hrs. Not that I was expecting
much but a few more would have been welcome. Easy fishing though. Very little wind and almost no tow. The tow in
some places on the Dam can make it quite hard work on the float. Used a Drennan antenna for the first time which I
liked for still conditions. Nice and sensitive. If only I'd had more bites. Note to self - must try harder

 

[peter crabtree]

Yesterday I had another go on the open match at Willows St Albans, I was pleased to draw a low number peg as the pit is much narrower here. However, it was flipping deep! Chucking a feeder halfway found at least 15' of water, in fact it was the same regardless of where I chucked.



Sweet Fishmeal groundbait in a cage with worm on the hook I felt confident I'd catch a few bream...



During the 6 hours I had 2 liners and that was it. I think the depth of cold water wasn't helping today. I tried a bomb and worm on another rod tight to the reeds opposite where it was shallower but probably too late in the match to be effective....

9 fished and 2 others blanked, little consolation but at least not just me...
27lb won it which is no great weight for the venue.
It was good to be out trying something different nonetheless and not too cold for a change...

 

[nottskev]

Thanks to some eye-drops that blur your vision a bit, floatfishing was off the agenda and I had to resort to a bit of light feeder fishing. The Deep Lake was deserted so I went for a sheltered, comfortable peg with 10' 20m out.



I'd been looking at some internet stuff on light helicopter rigs, and I'd bought a pack of Korum ready-mades just to see how they work. You slide it on in one go, like those sliding float stops, and it all looked neat and tidy with a small - 20g - feeder on the end.

The fishing was slow, and out of a dozen fish in the first hour only this perch



and this surprised-looking skimmer needed a landing net.



As the afternoon wore on - I'm choosing words carefully - I started to question whether the helicopter set up was right for this job. With the bait my side of the feeder, won't more fish be spooked by the mainline coming up off the feeder? And if you twitch the bait back to induce a bite, aren't you pulling your bait out of rather than into your feed? If the fish prefer a bait they've seen dropping, via a long tail......? I'm sure it's a good set up for some applications, but after a couple of hours I swapped to a conventional set up. Which didn't do any better. Oh well. After a couple of hours on this, I packed up and put back about 4lbs of assorted small fish.

 

[peter crabtree]

- I started to question whether the helicopter set up was right for this job. With the bait my side of the feeder, won't more fish be spooked by the mainline coming up off the feeder? And if you twitch the bait back to induce a bite, aren't you pulling your bait out of rather than into your feed? If the fish prefer a bait they've seen dropping, via a long tail......?.

Would be an Interesting new thread Kev?

 

[nottskev]

Would be an Interesting new thread Kev?

Yes, I d be interested to see what people think - I'll put it up.

 

[S-Kippy]

Had another go at Royal Berks with Grumpy yesterday, perch again the target. Warmest day of the year according to the Met Office....not sat where I was with a constant wind in me fizzog it wasnt. I was so cold despite multiple layers I had to move to get out of it.

Started on Lake 2 in a swim with some perch form. Scriber roach a chuck on maggot from the off but nothing of any quality. After an hour tried the prawn and after hooking ( and losing) a carp first chuck missed a succesion of bites until finally connected with one....bloody F1. I was so cold by now I upped and moved. Phil was doing bettter than me with some quality roach and the odd perch to a pound but he was just as cold.

My move onto Lake 3 sort of paid off as after a few roach I managed to snaffle a nice fat perch of 2-2 but then got plagued by bloody F1's again. Phil had switched to prawn and was getting some quality roach topped by a fish he reckoned was "nudging a pound and a half"....so probably about 14oz knowing him. He is truly rubbish at estimating fish weights.

I went for broke and fished prawn for the last hour but without a bite. Switched back to maggot for the last few casts and had 2 more F1's. Bloody things.

Back in the car park Phil had a story to tell. Persisting with prawn he'd hooked a carp at about 2-30 and finally landed it at 5 past 3 ! It went 15-4 and was an absolutely mint fully scaled common. Not bad on a float rod and 2lb bottom.

Took me all the way home to warm up. I still havent worked this place out and with the water warmjng and the carp waking up I'm not sure how many more trips after the perch will be viable. There doesnt seem a way of targetting them specificallly. Its as likely to be a roach,carp or F1 that snaffles your prawn as a perch and red maggot seems as effective as prawn. Worm doesnt seem to work at all which is really odd.

 

[103841]

I still havent worked this place out and with the water warmjng and the carp waking up I'm not sure how many more trips after the perch will be viable. There doesnt seem a way of targetting them specificallly. Its as likely to be a roach,carp or F1 that snaffles your prawn as a perch and red maggot seems as effective as prawn. Worm doesnt seem to work at all which is really odd.

Im assuming live baiting isn't permitted, or it's a method you choose not to use. Are you allowed to fish a lure on this water Skippy?

 

[S-Kippy]

Im assuming live baiting isn't permitted, or it's a method you choose not to use. Are you allowed to fish a lure on this water Skippy?

Not sure....I suspect not to both ( certainly livebaiting) as this place has more rules than most and I'm wary of asking for fear of attracting even more scrutiny than you get anyway. It would be one way of avoiding the bloody carp though.

 

[Bobnewboy]

Went to Twynersh fishery yesterday, fishing in pit 1. It is a bit expensive as a day ticket, but usually productive, and very well maintained. However, trying my absolute best, with all manner of fishing depths, hook baits and hook sizes, I only managed two quick bites the whole day, neither of which converted into fish on. It we a bit disappointing but on the other hand I didn’t see anyone else land anything, and there were a lot of people fishing.

A couple of days earlier I had a day at Frog Island fishery, and although I only caught small roach (c. 8 oz each), they were coming out continuously. Perhaps water isn’t up to temp yet even down here in the softy South ?

 

[steve2]

Interesting day didn't catch any pike but did manage to hook and unfortunatly lose 4 cormorants on dead bait.

 

[mikench]

Since my cunning plan devised on Monday afternoon I have been fishing twice on different venues with just one fish at each. Baldrick could have done better!

On Wednesday I visited a water I hadn't been to for nearly a year as the fishing had dropped off. I was persuaded to go by a restocking a week or so ago of 500 f1's and 500 bream! I had 3 proper takes on the tip and just the one f1 . That was it in 6 hours of fishing and having endured a cold breeze all day and a lake 2/3 rds frozen at 8.00am! I discovered I had lost my ezfeeda as I could not find it in the boot! I rate it now after two years of use!

Yesterday in an endeavour to redress the balance of the previous day's disappointment , I set off for my nearest and favourite venue! You know the one Kev! I had the middle lake all to myself and there in the grass was my ezfeeda so a great start! I set up the feeder and on gb and pellet I had a bite within 20 Minutes and landed a pristine roach about 1lb! I felt very buoyant at that point but it was the highlight of the day as I didn't catch another thing! I had a few bites and knock back bites which resulted in nothing! It was also very cold in the breeze so I came home to warm up at 3.00 pm.

All in all a very disappointing two sessions! Nobody else caught either but this failed to raise my spirits! However there is always tomorrow both metaphorically and literally!:wh

Has FM been down as I have had difficulty getting on the site?

 

[103841]

I think the site went down under the sheer weight of blanks.

 

[Tee-Cee]

....and I have just added to that weight - again!

Too, too painful to talk about, so I won't....

Now looking for a new water with fish in it!!

 

[mikench]

You and me both!

 

[Hugh Bailey]

Went to Twynersh fishery yesterday, fishing in pit 1. It is a bit expensive as a day ticket, but usually productive, and very well maintained. However, trying my absolute best, with all manner of fishing depths, hook baits and hook sizes, I only managed two quick bites the whole day, neither of which converted into fish on. It we a bit disappointing but on the other hand I didn’t see anyone else land anything, and there were a lot of people fishing.?

I fished there last year during the closed season, probably around Easter and it was a bit a chuck from decent roach in pit 1(I think - 1st one on the right?). I also caught carp - tbh pretty much everyone did but it was a really warm day - lots of cruising fish. As you say - pretty dear really. I also tried Goldsworth Lake - no bailiff - no bites !

 

[Tee-Cee]

Interesting??

From my last post it will be noted that I am more than a little miffed about the recent run of 'roach blanks' (carp don't count) so you can imagine how I felt when a 'friend' phoned me last night to mention, in passing, that at this self same lake he managed to catch 37 roach (that's thirty seven!) last week with 'some' over the lb mark. I couldn't bring myself to ask from which swim..........

Under normal circumstances I may well have listened intently, and after putting the phone down dismissed the matter entirely, but this chap is not prone to exaggeration in any way shape or form, so I savoured every word of his account. Bait was red maggot and he fished 1pm to evening left but well before darkness.....

I wouldn't have mentioned this, but it does go to show that roach can and will shoal up in one spot and feed even in very cold water, but as we all know, finding them is another matter entirely. Just to show how fickle they can be he went back the next day - same swim etc. etc. - and drew a total blank!!

All of this means I have now decided to have another try tomorrow instead of sitting with a long face, cursing my luck....

Onward and upward and maybe I will blank again, but this catch has given me renewed confidence - at least for tomorrow!!

ps The water is a gravel pit of varying depth and water temperature yesterday was around 48 degrees

 

[Another Dave]

Tried the lake in the city centre the other day - needless to say i blanked. A guy i know was there and he showed me a pic of a 15lb pike he had caught there, he reckoned perch to 3lb as well.

The sheer weight of weirdos talking to you and drug dealers on every corner was enough to put me off ever fishing it again...

 

[lakhyaman]

Five of us are off to the Himalayan foothills to spin for Golden Mahseer (Tor putitora). My back up spinning rod - a Shimano Exage 10ft 5 piece travel rod, casting weight 15-50 gms- arrived last week and I took it to the lake to test it out.

Since spinning is not an option in terms of catching fish there I stuck on a baitrunner and put an ESP mega feeder at the end of the line. In time the reel sang out and a six and a half kg (14lb 5oz) Catla put the rod through its paces.

It works and is going to the Himalayan rivers with me!

 

[john step]

Tried the lake in the city centre the other day - needless to say i blanked. A guy i know was there and he showed me a pic of a 15lb pike he had caught there, he reckoned perch to 3lb as well.

The sheer weight of weirdos talking to you and drug dealers on every corner was enough to put me off ever fishing it again...

Was that the Central Park Lake? If so things have certainly changed? As kids we used to fish it all day with no probs. Lots of pike and some good perch.

 

[Nobby C (ACA)]

Five of us are off to the Himalayan foothills to spin for Golden Mahseer (Tor putitora). My back up spinning rod - a Shimano Exage 10ft 5 piece travel rod, casting weight 15-50 gms- arrived last week and I took it to the lake to test it out.

Since spinning is not an option in terms of catching fish there I stuck on a baitrunner and put an ESP mega feeder at the end of the line. In time the reel sang out and a six and a half kg (14lb 5oz) Catla put the rod through its paces.

It works and is going to the Himalayan rivers with me!

View attachment 4115

Pancheshwar?