How did you get on?

[mikench]

I was beginning to wonder if you were OK Mark so good to see you posting. I too have bought maggots, casters and worms from Willy Worms and they are good quality. If you can buy for others as well then the postage becomes reasonable.

 

[lambert1]

Kind of you Mike. These are very difficult times and there is nothing like a nice days fishing to cheer you up!

 

[iannate]

Does your shop do a click and collect service, they can bring them to the front of the shop and you can leave your money in exchange?

 

[lambert1]

Unfortunately not Ian. They have put in measures like separate entrance and exit and they are clearly making an effort, but I am afraid that at the moment I just don't want to risk it.

 

[iannate]

That's a shame they don't do it, at least you can get some from Willy.

 

[rayner]

I had everything geared up to fish Monday the 2nd for the first time since September, I've been overtaken by circumstance. The new start date for me will be probably the week after.
When I do eventually manage to start one thing is for sure I'll swerve the tackle shop, I have enough pellets, tinned meat also corn plus plenty of baits in my freezer such as hemp, I could sell the tackle shop worms I have so many. Worms, for instance, have cost more in feed than they are to buy, I feed them either banana or melon they've had half a melon every two weeks or a couple of bananas.

 

[peter crabtree]

With a club fixture looming on the town pit I thought I’d try a peg I would normally walk past. I’m going to practice a lot of the pegs in fact, as I could feasibly draw any of them come the day...
This one is nearest the carpark and has room to ship back a pole.

Found about 4’ depth at 9:5m out and no weed thank goodness. Set up a 0:50g float with a bulk of no10’s and a 11 dropper hoping it would hold steady in the tow. No 4 slik laccy and a 20 carbon match hook with maggot/pinkie cocktail..Potted in a kilo of gb and some loose pinkies in a fairly tight area.
Even with this positive rig the tow was dragging the bait along but this didn’t seem to deter the perch, no size but bites nonetheless....
Had a couple of net roach and skimmers too ..
The ski boat comes quite close on this peg...

Not going to win with this but last year someone came third with around the same amount?

 

[john step]

As it was cooler today I ventured to my local pit. Nice cooling breeze. On my pole on worm, red deads and soft pellet I had over 20 skimmers plus perch and a few roach. It made a nice change from chasing big stuff with heavy lines and buzzers.
All I have to do tomorrow is de-slime my nets.

 

[bullet]

A few hours this afternoon trotting on the river, quite a bit cooler than yesterday which was nice.
Couple of pints of mixed reds and whites.
The first spot I wanted to fish had picnicers on the other bank, complete with a barking dog and paddling kids, so I moved downstream to another nice spot. There's a deepish channel between the Ranunculos, and you can creep the float down and skim it past the willows on the right.....

This produced a good few Chub, most in the 1lb plus area, with the odd better one at about 2, all fighting really well in the flow.
A few average sized Dace as well.

The next swim usually produces a decent Chub, but nothing today, so I moved on to a deep area with flow tight down the far bank and slack elsewhere, it's tricky to fish with the stick, but the level today seemed to help.
After feeding for a while started to run through and picked up a few more Chub and dropped a couple that felt much better.
Then all hell broke loose when a good brown hooligan took a fancy to the mags...

Him crashing and flying about seemed to kill off the swim a bit, but a while later I had another about the same size.
After that, just a couple of Chublets, and it was near drink time, so called it a day.

 

[tigger]

Bullet, I thought you were holding that dace with your foot for a second or three?, then I realised you had your hand in a strange position ?.

 

[bullet]

I see what you mean!
Me toes ain't that long, mind

 

[tigger]

I see what you mean!
Me toes ain't that long, mind

Lol, I realised that after a second or two.

That stretch of river looked ideal, cracking run!

 

[iannate]

They're some nice fish and really good footography.

 

[The Runner]

Had my first trip this year up to the North End today to the Aird at Kilmaluag, lovely day initially but turned to drizzle and squally showers in the afternoon with the wind getting up and building the swell.
Went to my preferred North side at Rubh'an t-Sailleir intending to fish beachcaster on heavy gear whenever the tide run allowed (never mind dead cow leads, when its running hard here you would probably struggle to hold bottom with the weight of a real dead cow...) and lure fish down the side between times.
Looking back from start of the walk in

Walk of about a mile, initially on sheep tracks but gradually getting rougher. Thankfully not as boggy as it used to be as the common grazings people have dug or cleared a number of new drainage dykes, although getting across them when they're full could be interesting. Got there about two hours before low tide, ebb still running a bit so started on a paddletail, one pollack after 20 minutes but a couple of hookpulls and a few short takes suggested they weren't really having it. After an hour flow stopped so out with mackerel strip on a 3/0, serious depth here, 5oz lead taking 28 seconds to hit bottom at low tide

Managed two hours on this before the tiderip started, two bites, one pollack and a small coalie and only lost one lead to the snags (mixed ground past 50 yards but horrendously snaggy closer in) Rip was right in the side to start with and had two pollack in quick succession on the paddletail . Went quiet as the race moved further out as the tide rose , and the swell started getting quite lumpy with an increasing wind behind it, put a heavier sandeel lure on for extra distance and one more pollack. As the main tiderace moved out to about 60 yards, decided to spend the last hour back on the bottom, one more bite which I missed and called it a day so could walk back in a gap in the weather that I could see approaching.
Five pollack and a coalie so not too bad a day but no sign of the bigger pollack that can show here. All were about the size of these...Normally they all go back but the last one I had (second pic) took a bit of a battering when the swell took it over a ledge as I was about to land it. Very deep hooked as well. so it will be on my dinner table tomorrow

 

[103841]

Some quality posts today.?

 

[sam vimes]

A late afternoon into evening session on my other local river. Found the dace, chublets, perch and roach in another frustratingly finicky mood. However, the reason for their skittishness became very obvious in fairly short order. A fairly sizeable pike started slashing at the odd fish I hooked, my float and occasionally my hook/maggots. It had already chewed up one dace before it ended up hooked neatly in the scissors. I played it for what seemed like an age. Just as I was reaching for my woefully inadequate landing net, it flared its mouth and shook its head violently. That resulted in my hooklink going across its jaws and the inevitable happened. I'm not overly keen on pike, but after playing it for so long, I was pretty gutted to not land it. After that, the bits became a bit more amenable. However, after about half an hour or so, it seemed to be back. For quite some time, wherever the bits settled, the pike would end up sitting and waiting. It shredded a decent sized roach before I hook it again. It didn't fight quite so strongly second time around. I eventually managed to squeeze it into my 18" match net. The poor sod was almost folded in half and wasn't a happy camper. For that reason, coupled with being perched on a precarious bank, I didn't take a photo of what I'd estimate at being a low double.

After being landed, the pike seemed to slink off elsewhere to sulk. The bits filled the void and I started to catch them with some consistency. Ended up with around sixty dace, about half as many chublets, six roach, five perch and one pike.

 

[108831]

Been to my local super stream yesterday,woke up slightly later than required,but didn't care much after the oppressive heat,when I rolled up I was shocked to see the car park empty so it was a flyer for me,I fished one a few weeks back,so opted for the other,again no embarrassing numbers of barbel caught going to be quoted,but a truly massive catch,one in fact I haven't had the like of for a very long time,fish from 3 to 7/8lbs,packed at 3pm totally shot,got home and layed on the settee,then the arthritis set in and I couldn't get up,senile old git...

 

[wetthrough]

Managed a couple of days out last week. I was itching to get back on the Bridgwater to see if I could hold the fish in the swim longer at first light but the strong westerley would have made it heavy going on the float so plumped for an easier day at Dunham fisheries. Didn't do too bad but it was generally slow pulling a small Mirror out, several Crucians and small Roach in the morning. Managed one of the bigger Crucians around a pound in the afternoon, they're generally quite small at Dunham so that was quite pleasing follwed by a common of 4.5 and a couple of Mirrors around 4lb plus a selection of small Roach and Rudd alongside.

Friday on the Bridgewater, dropped the ball really. I'd planned to get the last Bridgewater session in before the summer hol's started. Once it does the boat traffic takes the fun out of it. Duh, hols started last week!

Last time I was there the GB seemed to bring them in. The plan was to put an initial load in at the bottom of the near drop off to my left and fish just a bit further out so I could pull them away using the 13' rod to avoid spooking the shoal - topping up with small balls later. Well, it might have worked if there's been a shoal there Picked a few Roach and Perch up but it wasn't as good as it's been in the past, smaller and less of them. Switched to the 10'6" Toreon to fish the far shelf. It seems a bit about faced using the long rod close in and the short at distance but the overhanging trees on the far bank make a long rod risky. In general there are always small Roach and Perch on the far shelf but they weren't playing ball Friday. I was picking the odd one up here and there and ended up with 38 all told so it wasn't that bad, just not what I'm used to in that particular spot. Found out why around 1:00 when the float went under, fish on then thud and the line goes slack. Pike attack almost certainly or maybe Zander. Packed up at 1:30 as it was getting way too hot for comfort and I'd arrived at 5am.

 

[tigger]

I popped over to the river this avvey and had a couple of hours swimming the stream. The fish were playing hard to get today and all I had to show for two hours standing mid river in a cold wind and a few showers was two barbel, the little one pictured and another of about 10 ounces.
When I say cold wind, it really was, infact I was glad i'd left a packable puffa coat in the car otherwise I would have got cold! Maybe the sudden drop in temp's from them being so high switched the fish off feeding a little, who knows, who cares, there's always another day....effin fish ! ?

 

[markcw]

Managed a couple of days out last week. I was itching to get back on the Bridgwater to see if I could hold the fish in the swim longer at first light but the strong westerley would have made it heavy going on the float so plumped for an easier day at Dunham fisheries. Didn't do too bad but it was generally slow pulling a small Mirror out, several Crucians and small Roach in the morning. Managed one of the bigger Crucians around a pound in the afternoon, they're generally quite small at Dunham so that was quite pleasing follwed by a common of 4.5 and a couple of Mirrors around 4lb plus a selection of small Roach and Rudd alongside.

Friday on the Bridgewater, dropped the ball really. I'd planned to get the last Bridgewater session in before the summer hol's started. Once it does the boat traffic takes the fun out of it. Duh, hols started last week!

Last time I was there the GB seemed to bring them in. The plan was to put an initial load in at the bottom of the near drop off to my left and fish just a bit further out so I could pull them away using the 13' rod to avoid spooking the shoal - topping up with small balls later. Well, it might have worked if there's been a shoal there Picked a few Roach and Perch up but it wasn't as good as it's been in the past, smaller and less of them. Switched to the 10'6" Toreon to fish the far shelf. It seems a bit about faced using the long rod close in and the short at distance but the overhanging trees on the far bank make a long rod risky. In general there are always small Roach and Perch on the far shelf but they weren't playing ball Friday. I was picking the odd one up here and there and ended up with 38 all told so it wasn't that bad, just not what I'm used to in that particular spot. Found out why around 1:00 when the float went under, fish on then thud and the line goes slack. Pike attack almost certainly or maybe Zander. Packed up at 1:30 as it was getting way too hot for comfort and I'd arrived at 5am.

More likely a Pike Gordon, there have been no reports of any zander in the Bridgewater, Sounds a good days fishing.