How did you get on?

[103841]

Two great reports with a dash of drama!

 

[108831]

I decided to go this afternoon for a trip to the Eden in Kent. It had been a rainy morning and was raining when I left.

Fortunately the weather had cleared by the time I arrived. My intention was to park at the opposite end of the stretch that I fished on Saturday and walk the entire length with spinning gear. I took two rods, one a very light 6ft spinning rod which I fished with a Jelly worm jig the other only slightly heavier and with a crayfish jig there are very few fishable swims on this length but it was really a recce trip. By the time I reached the far end I had only had a couple of tentative knocks. I had about twenty minutes to fish the small weir pools at the far end of the fishery. First cast I had a very small perch on the crayfish. The fish took the entire lure, this is it. I didn’t need a mat, I used a leaf instead. They really are aggressive little beggars.

A couple of casts later and I had it’s big brother at about a pound and a half.

Just time for a few last casts. I moved swim and as I climbed down the bank I went A over T, lucky for me it was just slippery and not steep. I had another perch about a pound then a Jack of about five pounds, which was decent sport on light gear.

I needed to get back to the car before dark and started to make my way back. After about half a mile or so I thought I would ring my wife, aargh no phone. I shot back and it was laying on the ground where I had taken the picture. Not a great result but the water was up and far more coloured than Saturday. I caught more than I would have done sitting on the sofa and I spied a few interesting swims that looked very Chubby.


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Quite disappointed you didn't continue the hunt for a PB dildo Ray....

 

[S-Kippy]

On the bright side, he's avoided calling you by your given name.

For which I am eternally grateful. TBH I’m not sure Ginge even knows it

 

[Ray Roberts]

The only dildo on the bank today was the one who fell over and dropped his phone.


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[wetthrough]

Fished a pool Mike and I have fished on several occasions intending to feed his regular swim for him. Arrived at dawn to find someone had beaten me to it. They make an early start here, three other anglers already fishing when I arrived. Settled down in my usual swim, picked on this occasion because of the wind and leaves. The wind was behind me and the other end of the water was chocablock with leaves. Not a very eventful day just picking up small Roach around 2:4oz, 46 in all. It wasn't a particularly good day for anyone. Maybe 6 or seven Carp between 4 or 5 other anglers.

Friday, set for a right royal soaking but determined to fish. Set up at the South end of Duynham Whiteoaks with my back to the wind again. Fishing into the wind might be better fishing but I've had enough of fishing through leaves for one Autumn. The heron was getting dive bombed by a Gull on the far bank. Shame it didn't give the Cormorant the same treatment.

Turned out to be deeper than I expected at 5' so switched from a 1.6g to 2g antenna, 3.3lb:18s loose feeding maggots and caster with a spread out spray of micro pellets.

Not sure what to expect at this time of year but first out were tiny Rudd, lots of them. A real mixed bag of a day which suits me. A few small Gudgeon, I've only ever caught one in a session before and then a Silver Bream took me by surprise:

I wasn't aware there were any at Dunham but it seems so. Never heard of anyone else catching one. A nice chubby Crucian followed:

Carried on picking Gudgeon and Crucians in fits and starts, mostly to maggot. Not a lot of interest in caster although the only 3 sizeable Rudd ~4oz all went to caster on the bottom. No interest in bread or corn at all. Bread is usually quite reliable on Whiteoaks. One F1 around 3lb, maybe a bit more and a lone small skimmer. Finished up at 5pm with the very last of the last casts. Decided to chance my arm with double maggot and got hooked into another F1 but didn't quite manage to land it before it threw the hook. Six maybe seven or more Crucian, around a dozen Gudgeon, the surprise Silver Bream and the F1, 36 not counting scores of micro Rudd made for a good day despite the rain.

 

[john step]

I love those silver bream. I have been catching them more this year. I am sure most people just dismiss them as small bronze (skimmer) bream.

 

[S-Kippy]

I've never knowingly caught a true silver bream but I've half a mind to try. Its on my fishing bucket list.

 

[peter crabtree]

Inter club match today on the Thames near Wallingford, Tring v Hanwell Prince of Wales. My favourite Thames venue by far.
I was a little apprehensive on the way down, imagining a chocolate torrent of a river. Pleasantly surprised to find it pushing but far from unfishable. My peg was a bit of a parrot cage with trees hanging both sides but there was a nice slack eddy in front of me.

Set up 15ft Ultralight with a 1:5gr bolo float, olivette and droppers. Plumbed up and found 8’ in front of me. No need to cast, just a swing out and the float barely moved. If it did it went to the right then back left again in the eddy. Lovely. Set it so my maggot hook bait was just dragging along the bottom. No weed or snags luckily, just clean gravel. Balled in a kilo of gb, VDE Black turbo, which is of a heavy, sticky consistency which goes straight down without breaking up. Good roach first put in at 9:30, a lovely positive bite.
They kept coming to single bronze maggot on a B 611 size 20 hook. 2 hours in I’d fed the other kilo of gb in dries and drabs, I had about 10lb with some lumpy roach. As usual it went quiet for a spell around 1pm. Just bits and pieces then until 3:30 when the whistle went.

The scales man arrived and told me I had 11:15:0 to beat. Tipped mine into the net and the scales went round to 13:0:0 which got me 2nd overall.

My main rival had 15:15:0 grrrr.

15 fished.

 

[rich66]

After being told there was a good head of roach and some larger ones too on our club specimen lake. I tried my luck amongst the carp men yesterday. I was surprised how incredibly shallow a rods length out was just over 2 foot I was still on the bottom. Spent around 1 1/2 hours catching nothing but a few rays of autumn sunshine. Then got called into work, Bloody covid!

 

[103841]

A wry handsome net of roach Simon.

 

[Philip]

An up against the clock session. I got to the river earlier than normal and judging by the lack of activity I knew the Roach were not there yet. However as dusk started to fall as predictable as Pavlov’s dog they arrived and I began to get indications & in quick order landed 6 Roach with 5 over a pound plus a Carp that gave me the usual run around on the Roach gear. A passer by stopped as I was playing it so I sunk the rod almost to the butt and tried to pretend nothing was happening as the Carp did its best to rip the rod from my hand. …amazingly I think I got away with it !

4 of the Roach best going 1.10

The Roach were really up for it & it was one of those sessions when I felt the chance of a really big one was on the cards if I could have sat it out, however the call of real life meant I had to pack up. In some ways its frustrating to have to stop when you know your in with a chance but at the same time it leaves you wanting more so its not the end of the world.

Many of the Roach are Long but lean... I look forward to meeting a long & fat one !

 

[no-one in particular]

mmm

An up against the clock session. I got to the river earlier than normal and judging by the lack of activity I knew the Roach were not there yet. However as dusk started to fall as predictable as Pavlov’s dog they arrived and I began to get indications & in quick order landed 6 Roach with 5 over a pound plus a Carp that gave me the usual run around on the Roach gear. A passer by stopped as I was playing it so I sunk the rod almost to the butt and tried to pretend nothing was happening as the Carp did its best to rip the rod from my hand. …amazingly I think I got away with it !

4 of the Roach best going 1.10

View attachment 11237

The Roach were really up for it & it was one of those sessions when I felt the chance of a really big one was on the cards if I could have sat it out, however the call of real life meant I had to pack up. In some ways its frustrating to have to stop when you know your in with a chance but at the same time it leaves you wanting more so its not the end of the world.

Many of the Roach are Long but lean... I look forward to meeting a long & fat one !

View attachment 11238

I dreamt I was roach fishing last night, I was in this clear pool and catching nothing on freelined bread and then all these roach showed up. Then a lot of people showed up and started fishing right next me and I had to pack up. Weird dream, I Absolutely true and then I read your post first thing this morning Phillip, I may need medical advice!

 

[Philip]

As long as the dreams dont become wet ones I think your alright ..

 

[john step]

Yesterday was a day hunkered under the brolly on my res. Wag and mag and a nice bag of roach, some good netables. Only two tiny perch. Where have they disappeared to?
I tried again to to a PC type photo of them in the bottom of the net but when I try it it just comes out as a blurred mess. Hey Ho.

 

[103841]

Simon has had more practice than the rest of us put together!

 

[silvers]

i was on the Wye champs at the weekend - The bleak are all through the Belmont (town) stretch at the moment. Hadrian Whittle was on permanent 28 - which is not historically a good bleak area ... but caught 1560 for a winning weight of 52 pounds!!!!
I genuinly think there are 20 pounds of bleak to be caught on nearly every peg on Belmont at the moment for a half decent angler - but you have to be single minded. Hadrian is the very best at this - and he's not half bad at all the other methods! I did beat him next peg once - but only because he packed up half way through with a horrendous hangover

There are 3 main choices on Wye matches
1. big fish: fish for chub or barbel
2. silvers approach: dace and roach with groundbait and bait dropper (loosefeeding if the bleak are not about)
3. bleak!!
All depends on the area/peg you draw and the river conditions.

My own match on sunday was a tale of wrong decisions. I drew bang on the best barbel peg on Belmont (the ferry), so with a rising and colouring river (it came up a metre whilst we fished) I went for Barbel at about a third out so I could keep fishing that line as it came up. After two and a half hours all I had to show was a couple of dace that had hung themselves on a pellet! Turns out very few barbel or chub were caught on the whole match!
So I came on the inside line for dace & roach. By feeding rock hard groundbait and also maggots through a bait dropper I minimised the bleak nuisance - although they were still a pain. I used a 5g Bolo with the olivette at 10-12 inches from the hook to bomb the bait down in 11-12 ft of water. I wish I had a bigger one in the box as the bleak were still holding this up!
Although the dace were mainly small - I still ended up with 17 pounds odd in just over two hours ... so there are silver fish underneath the enormous bleak shoals. That weight was just two pounds off a section win
A friend of mine was drawn upstream and loosefed - he said the water was just erupting with bleak when he fed.

 

[Ray Roberts]

I took my youngest son to Southall again yesterday. He usually takes a few hours to do a bit of business there. So as I did before, I headed down to the G U Canal. I had decided to target the area where I had fished previously and where I’d had a few taps on the lure. This time I was armed with some smaller jelly worms.

As I hoofed it along the towpath I came across a couple of East European guys who were spinning for pike. I stopped for a chat and they said they had been at it all day and not a touch between them. I carried on to where the boat basin is and an old barge is grounded.

When I arrived there was a group of young Indian youths sitting on the top of the barge. They looked like they were; shall we say, somewhat under the influence. I passed by them and as I went to go to the spot I fancied under the bridge one of the Indian lads had already beaten me to it and was violently throwing up, exactly where I planned to fish from.

I crossed over the bridge and started to set up on the opposite side. I assembled the landing net, threaded the rod rings and just as I was about to tie on a leader the phone rang. It was my son, he said that he had finished early and could I come and pick him up, bu88er, not even one cast.

To add insult to injury, what looked to be a decent fish swirled on the surface of the main canal. I despondently made my way back towards the car.

The Indian lads were still larking about and the one who had been sick managed to stumble and fall headlong into the canal, much to the amusement of his mates. It seemed a rather dramatic way to wash the vomit off of the front of his shirt, but hey ho.

I stopped again to talk to the EE lads and one said that he had just hooked up with a Jack pike in the margin but it had jumped clear of the water and threw the hook. Probably a very lucky escape for the pike I thought.

The only good thing to come from the day was that on my last visit to the Eden I spotted an old boy putting his gear into his car in the car park belonging to the next stretch of river to ours. I’d fancied having a crack at this bit of water for a few years. There had been a board on the gate saying who to contact in emergencies but when I had rang it previously the number was dead and although I had trawled the internet, I wasn’t able to find any info on who owned it.

I stopped the old boy as he was unlocking the car park gate and he kindly gave me the name of the guy running it. I phoned him up and he kindly emailed me a membership form yesterday. I sent the cheque off today. Membership for me is £10 p/a, which must be the bargain of the century. He said they have access to three lengths of the Eden and a couple of small lakes. So at least there was one bright side to the day.

Southall barge basin and vomitoria.


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[no-one in particular]

I took my youngest son to Southall again yesterday. He usually takes a few hours to do a bit of business there. So as I did before, I headed down to the G U Canal. I had decided to target the area where I had fished previously and where I’d had a few taps on the lure. This time I was armed with some smaller jelly worms.

As I hoofed it along the towpath I came across a couple of East European guys who were spinning for pike. I stopped for a chat and they said they had been at it all day and not a touch between them. I carried on to where the boat basin is and an old barge is grounded.

When I arrived there was a group of young Indian youths sitting on the top of the barge. They looked like they were; shall we say, somewhat under the influence. I passed by them and as I went to go to the spot I fancied under the bridge one of the Indian lads had already beaten me to it and was violently throwing up, exactly where I planned to fish from.

I crossed over the bridge and started to set up on the opposite side. I assembled the landing net, threaded the rod rings and just as I was about to tie on a leader the phone rang. It was my son, he said that he had finished early and could I come and pick him up, bu88er, not even one cast.

To add insult to injury, what looked to be a decent fish swirled on the surface of the main canal. I despondently made my way back towards the car.

The Indian lads were still larking about and the one who had been sick managed to stumble and fall headlong into the canal, much to the amusement of his mates. It seemed a rather dramatic way to wash the vomit off of the front of his shirt, but hey ho.

I stopped again to talk to the EE lads and one said that he had just hooked up with a Jack pike in the margin but it had jumped clear of the water and threw the hook. Probably a very lucky escape for the pike I thought.

The only good thing to come from the day was that on my last visit to the Eden I spotted an old boy putting his gear into his car in the car park belonging to the next stretch of river to ours. I’d fancied having a crack at this bit of water for a few years. There had been a board on the gate saying who to contact in emergencies but when I had rang it previously the number was dead and although I had trawled the internet, I wasn’t able to find any info on who owned it.

I stopped the old boy as he was unlocking the car park gate and he kindly gave me the name of the guy running it. I phoned him up and he kindly emailed me a membership form yesterday. I sent the cheque off today. Membership for me is £10 p/a, which must be the bargain of the century. He said they have access to three lengths of the Eden and a couple of small lakes. So at least there was one bright side to the day.

Southall barge basin and vomitoria.


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Bloody hell!

 

[john step]

Another day on the wag and mag. The wind was forecast to be strong so a sheltered pool was selected up on the Wolds. Its only 4 foot at the deepest so my old 11.5 match rod did the trick. I just wish it had screw reel fittings not the old sliders.

I counted 18 roach before the carp moved in. 14 Of those followed. In this pool they are only a couple of pounds so still fun on light gear.
I got rid of a load of old maggots and now I will go and buy a fresh supply for Saturdays Fish In.

Oh its a hard life.

 

[markcw]

As long as the dreams dont become wet ones I think your alright ..

I think it was the long and fat one that did it ?