How did you get on?

[Clodhopper]

A glorious afternoon on the river, culminating in my first ever pike 'on the fly', caught with a blood red, black and silver jobby with a weighted head.

Absolutely made up with that.

Then I fell over a stile, on the way back to the car. In front of three dog walkers. Landed on my forehead. Very undignified. Took the shine off the evening or, rather, probably added one.

Cheers all.

Sent from my SM-A705FN using Tapatalk

 

[Philip]

Back from mullet-ing in the sun to news that the local river had been producing some Zander. Not wanting to miss an opportunity I threw together the necessary and got myself down there for an evening session.

Ledgering tiny dead baits I was getting tugs and pulls but could not connect. The indications were very Zander-ish so I took one rod and started touch ledgering. Every few minutes I gave the bait a quick pull of a few feet & let it settle again. It was after one of these pulls that I felt a tug and struck and a baby Zander came splashing to the net. Its nice to see these little ones coming through.

The boat traffic was a nightmare, this is a large river and every 10mins or so a huge barge would plough through forcing you to redo all the rods. This coupled with huge rafts of weed wiping you out as well and it was not the most tranquil fishing but I persevered and an hour or so later connected with another better Zander. They are not the greatest fighters but still nice to catch. A couple of small Wels that came at dusk completed the session. No monsters but as any Zed angler will tell you…any Zander is welcome !

Nice to see these little ones coming through..

Now thats a boat ! ....

I persevered the barge nightmare and was rewarded with a better one...

 

[seth49]

Out again yesterday on new fishery with Mick, started at twelve and fished till 8.30, quiet couple of hours when carp started coming into the margins, but very spooky, slightest feel of the line resulted in a big swirl, and a bow wave out of the swim, caught first one on pole of about ten pounds, bit hairy playing it on pole, so put that away, and rigged a rod up, using same pole rig.

Next fish was a small tench, and then a couple of smaller carp, before hooking one that screamed off, fought really well, and then came of, leaving me with just a scale on the hook, so obviously foul hooked.

I then had another about six pounds, before loosing three more good fish, not on for long but felt a good weight, then one gave me a real good scrap before diving into the reeds and snapping the line.

As it was getting late I just tied a hook on, and finished the session free lining a mussel, in the margins this got me the biggest of the day at 12 pounds 12 ounces, starting to get dark then so packed up, good day with a few things to think about be fore I fish this swim again.

 

[barbelboi]

I had another few hours yesterday trotting one of the streams (or in this case small river) over the fields to the back of my house. I decided on the Acolyte Ultra for a change to accompany the pin, small bag, net and a couple of slices of 50/50. The weather was mainly bright with some cloudy periods and stayed dry. Fished from 12.30-4pm for around 20 roach and a couple of small chub.

 

[Another Dave]

Managed to fit in a 30 minute session the other day during the last hot spell. Took a spinning rod down my local stretch with a couple of tiny plugs, or as people say these days 'crankbaits'. Had a half decent perch and returned it upstream. Next cast I had a group of 3 chub follow the lure right to the bank. Out of options, I just left the plug floating there and one of the chub made a grab for it. Didn't have a net so this is the best photo i could get you before unhooking.

I must say, this method is great fun in the summer.

 

[103841]

Fishing from a Whitstable beach this summer has been a complete no no with the amount of beach goers swimming, kayaking, paddle boarding etc. unless you can fish silly o clock before they awake. Needing a HT in very shallow waters means only a few opportunities a month, that is unless....it’s raining!☔️ Don’t mind a bit of wet when the air is warm and the beach this lunchtime was deserted. The water was clear and the dreaded weed had finally dispersed.

After thirty or so minutes of casting all sorts of exotic lures the novelty of fishing in the rain was wearing thin and thoughts of my continuing failure to catch a bass this year only dampened things further. One last change, the cheapest and most reliable lure in the box, a dexter coupled with a string of feathers to add attraction and there was that wonderful sensation as the rod suddenly bumped. the heart rate didn’t go up much as it was clearly a small fish, infact very small. I don’t think such a tiny fish has brought such huge pleasure, my first and possibly only bass of the year, not so much a schoolie, more a nursery.

Perfection in miniature.

 

[mikench]

Well done John; clearly perseverance pays off eventually.

 

[john step]

A day on the reservoir with my Acy Ultra a waggler and worm and dead reds. I had a very enjoyable day with roach, rudd, perch and two surprise bream plus a skimmer.

Why I say surprise bream is that until recently there were none in here but people started getting the odd skimmer. God knows how fish move around. Birds feet is an oft quoted answer. No one of the syndicate members would have stocked them.

Sorry about the fuzzy picture. It was lashing down as forecast. Thank goodness for umbrellas.

PS. Also 2 carp about 6 or 7 pounds. AND the Acy tip is still intact!

 

[The Runner]

Out again today, original plan for the week was a first visit of the year to Staffin today and back to Kilmaluag on Saturday but now going down to Newcastle at the weekend for the funeral on Monday of one of my oldest fishing buddies. He'd beaten cancer twice before, once twenty years ago and again four but sadly it only needs to win once...
Anyway, forecast had the wind turned to Easterly, not great for Staffin as would have the swell running straight in to the rocks, so Kilmaluag again it was.
Got there about 10.45, two and a half hours before low tide, tiderun racing past the point at Rubha na Tragha so started there, not a sniff in 45 minutes where its usually immediate so moved along to the gullies towards Bun-idein. Really beautiful day by now but the sun very bright on the clear water (can see 20 ft down)

Again nothing either running a lure up the gullies or out into the open water. Rethink time after an hour of this, so back along to the middle rocks towards An t-Sailleir , set up big rod and went for broke over low water slack, side of mackerel on a 6/0 on proper end tackle at about 50 yards, as close in to the really rough ground as I dared.

.Got 90 minutes on this before the tide started running hard on the flood, nothing other than the edge of the bait getting crabbed a bit, Back on the lure rod, maybe the tide change might switch them on ? Nope.. And then at about 2 45 the sea mist rolled in and it was like flicking a switch- six pollack in the next half hour before the ever building swell forced a retreat and a move back to the gullies- three more here before the sun came out again and all action stopped. Gave it a while longer before the sea conditions with a fast rising tide and the strengthening wind now behind the swell started getting a bit too interesting for comfort .
Average size of the pollack down a bit today, for scale that's a 10cm lure and a Stradic 4000.
still, can't complain at nine fish on a day that was beginning to look ominously like a blank- they really didn't like that sun

 

[no-one in particular]

Fishing from a Whitstable beach this summer has been a complete no no with the amount of beach goers swimming, kayaking, paddle boarding etc. unless you can fish silly o clock before they awake. Needing a HT in very shallow waters means only a few opportunities a month, that is unless....it’s raining! Don’t mind a bit of wet when the air is warm and the beach this lunchtime was deserted. The water was clear and the dreaded weed had finally dispersed.

After thirty or so minutes of casting all sorts of exotic lures the novelty of fishing in the rain was wearing thin and thoughts of my continuing failure to catch a bass this year only dampened things further. One last change, the cheapest and most reliable lure in the box, a dexter coupled with a string of feathers to add attraction and there was that wonderful sensation as the rod suddenly bumped. the heart rate didn’t go up much as it was clearly a small fish, infact very small. I don’t think such a tiny fish has brought such huge pleasure, my first and possibly only bass of the year, not so much a schoolie, more a nursery.

Perfection in miniature.

I like that idea of attaching feathers to your lure John, never seen that done before, good thinking.

 

[no-one in particular]

I had a jaunt to a village yesterday for the book shop and an auction somewhere else, a meal and a pint and a walk around a stretch of club river on the upper eastern Rother near Robertsbridge in Sussex or is it Kent. Very low, I have seen this river a raging chocolate torrent with dead sheep rolling down, I hooked one once further down from here many years ago. A lad was fishing and he scrambled down the bank next to the bridge to try and tempt a couple of chub that swam into view from under the bridge, about a lb. He had some bread and an inadequately shotted float. The interesting thing was the chub were in a little feeder stream with hardly any water (last pictures). I saw a small roach skit by on the main river but nothing else. It is only one fields worth but might be an hour or twos fishing in it one day. There was only a couple of places it could be sensibly fished, sensible for me is where I might not slide into the river on my arse these days and join those stupid sheep. I expect chub, the odd roach and maybe a lucky sea trout as I know a few travel up this river.
The lad passed me while I was waiting for my bus home and he said he hadn't caught the chub but he could see them following his bits of bread down that I had shown him how to put in earlier and make them sink. I advised him to dig some worms, try a big log worm on the hook, he might pick up a sea trout if not a chub and that will give him an experience.
A nice day, better than fishing sometimes just a wander and a nose, no pressure although it was drizzling, that felt nice though after all that heat, reminded me I was still in England and not some Mediterranean hell hole which it had felt like for a couple of weeks.
Nothing in the auction except for a couple of old Victorian rods that had already gone, estimate £100-£150, budgerigar that but there were 30 really really good Victorian print type bird pictures estimate £100-£150 which will come up today so I might bid on-line for them later, should go on eBay for £50 each, so an interesting not entirely fruitless day all round.

 

[103841]

Fished the river Stour at Grove Ferry for a couple of hours early this morning before the canoe chaos ensued. Fished a newly renovated peg.



It was a fish a cast, roach, chublets and perch,some required the landing net.



Packed up at 9-30 with a decent net of fish.



A southerly wind raised the temperature to 27 degrees so a short trip to the beach this lunchtime, wading in warm water looking for my second bass.

i will continue to look!

 

[mikench]

Gordon opted for the Dam in Lymm, one of his favourite waters and so we met up at 5.45 for a days fishing and convivial conversation. You can see why he likes it as it is a beautiful location and not far away.

Here is Gordon catching one of his 50 odd fish. I managed 45 small roach with none needing the net but it was lovely.

A lovely spot but the bigger fish just didn't show. I had a feeder rod out but just the one positive bite which I missed so I concentrated on the float. It was sunny and dry and pleasantly warm. I thoroughly enjoyed it Gordon; good choice.

 

[wetthrough]

Yes, another enjoyable day thanks Mike. Odd that the bigger fish didn't show. Even if I don't catch them there's usually evidence of their presence - that's fishing!

 

[markcw]

Gordon opted for the Dam in Lymm, one of his favourite waters and so we met up at 5.45 for a days fishing and convivial conversation. You can see why he likes it as it is a beautiful location and not far away.

View attachment 10217

Here is Gordon catching one of his 50 odd fish. I managed 45 small roach with none needing the net but it was lovely.

View attachment 10218

A lovely spot but the bigger fish just didn't show. I had a feeder rod out but just the one positive bite which I missed so I concentrated on the float. It was sunny and dry and pleasantly warm. I thoroughly enjoyed it Gordon; good choice.

Looks like you are on the old match length just past the Nook .

 

[tigger]

Due to the river being way to high for me to go trotting I visited one of Mikes haunts, and fished from mid afternoon until early evening today.
I only went for carp and my only bait was bread. I actually stopped counting them at fifteen, it was hard work trying to remember! Don't know how many I finnished up with but it was well over twenty! The place is stuffed with 'em and they all wanted my bread today.

 

[mikench]

Well done Ian. Were you one the original pool or the other?

 

[seth49]

Another day on new club water today, with Mick and Neil, very windy all afternoon and evening, fished the same corner swim as last time, it had the wind blowing in to it today again, but a lot stronger yesterday.

After Tuesdays events with the carp spooking of the line, I decided to just use three no four shot spaced out up the line, to pin it to the bottom, with one AAA shot four foot from the hook to lightly tighten too.

Worked well, didn’t see one carp spook from this, and still got good bites from the fish, had fish on mussels, worms and paste, hooked four carp and a tench and landed them all, none of the bigger carp today though best about eight pounds, Mick and Neil both caught as well, good day apart from the wind, enjoyed it.

 

[tigger]

Well done Ian. Were you one the original pool or the other?

Thanks Mike ?.

I was on the newer one of the two. They've made a mess of the old one in that corner!

I was looking at the place thinking how they could quite easily make a couple more pools there and extend the carpark.

 

[103841]

I like that idea of attaching feathers to your lure John, never seen that done before, good thinking.

I have a few traces of two or three feathers with the hooks removed when fishing in weedy conditions, the idea being the lure looks like a fish chasing bait, it worked for that bass when everything else failed and I caught my one and only Garfish using the method.