How did you get on?

[nottskev]

It was so nice to be out on the river yesterday evening that I went back again. Finding the car park empty at 6pm was a welcome surprise. I'd chatted with a bloke in the car park last night who told me - he'd been floatfishing for roach and dace - a big carp had come and nosed around his keepnet several times. A river carp is an interesting rarity, so I looked at the pegs in the area he'd been fishing and when I spotted footprints at the waterline I dropped in there, thinking I'd fish for barbel at the edge of the overhanging trees while feeding a bit right down the side.

I'd filled a box with assorted small pellets ..... and left it at home. This left me with a tub of punched meat pieces and a bag of small squid and octopus boilies, which looked attractive in a fishy malteser kind of way. Nothing turned up on the link leger, but when I took the shot off and dropped a touch-legered bait down the edge, just past where you could see the bottom, the line was ripped out of my fingers. Had I hooked a rare carp? No - it was a barbel, but I wasn't unhappy about that

I carried on, alternating fishing out with a couple of shot and in free-lined, but no more bites. I put a float on and ran it through, then laid it on. Nothing. I'll pack up at 8pm, I thought, as I was getting hungry and thirsty, but at five to eight a barbel crashed out in my swim. That gave me a bit of encouragement, and I got two more bites rolling a bit of meat through the swim.

 

[markcw]

I decided to go and have a few hours on the Thames at Sandford , I already had a rod and reel seat and bag of essentials in the car , All I had to do was remove the numerous bags and tubs of pellets that were in it ,grab a bait box and stop off for a pint of maggots .
I was in two minds to take the Acolyte whip and a couple of pole rigs ,but decided against it ,

Stop off for bait just over 5 minutes away, quick chat with Wayne and off I go , my intention was to find a god spot on the lock channel .

I arrive at the car park at Sandford lane and as I am getting my gear from the car a couple of cars pull up and a group of shapely young ladies get out ,dressed appropriately for the weather , shorts ,crop/ bikini tops and carrying cooler boxes and towels .

Here was a dilemma .... Were there anymore of these distractions along the lock channel sunbathing and swimming ? And if so how would I manage to concentrate on my float .

So I decided to fish the back channel, I have never tried here ,it's always been flooded ,
I walk along to the large Archimedes Weir at the top noting how shallow the river is in places and could see the bottom and weed beds ., there is a good stretch of bank to fish from here , There was a bivvy at the end of it so I walked back about 100 yards and went to another part of the bank that was close to the water

, I set up, the rod was an old 20 year Leeda concept ,carp waggler, ideal for silvers despite the name tag ,reel was my trusty Daiwa 1657M loaded with 3lb line , float was a Drennan Peacock taking 1.25 gram ,this was shotted with a bulk of 3 BB around the float with 4,6,8 dropper shot down the line to a size14 guru lwg hook this was loaded with 3 or 4 maggots ,

A few pouches of maggots were fired in every few minutes as I was setting up ,
A quick cast with unbaited hook to check how the float sat and if I was overdepth,
A quick adjustment to depth and I was off,

First cast and the float goes a couple of yards dips and is away , A small roach that must have been mugged by the maggots , This carried on nearly every cast with the odd roach from around 2oz to 6oz ,

I noticed every time I fired some Maggots in the surface was dimpled and also swirls with fish going for the bait ,and with the shotting pattern I was using it was landing as if a few maggots were going in and the small roach were on it more or less straight away .Similar to slapping a pole rig on a commercial for F1 ,

So a change of hook to a 20 silverfish pellet ,loaded with either one or two maggots , a change of shotting pattern , to less loading around the float , and the droppers increased to a small bulk half way down and smaller bulk near to hooklength, similar to a double bulk rig without the loading shot on a pole rig .This was to get the bait down faster to the better fish .
A quick cast to note how the float settled , and it was time for round two .

I fired a couple of pouches of maggots away from the end of my swim ,
Cast in and fired around half a dozen maggots near to my float .
The change of shotting pattern worked as did the change of hook size,
I was getting 6oz fish on a regular basis in between a few chub of around 8oz .
I noticed that when I was fishing that the flow on the river would sometimes stop and reverse direction . The flow was ideal for a Waggler and not enough for a stick float .

Regarding taking my whip as I mentioned earlier , I think if I had taken it I would have been on a better strike to catch ratio,
I may just take that next time I go

As I was packing up a couple of ladies swam past chatting away.

A 16lb 8oz barbel came out from near the Weir on opening day , There were a couple of blokes fishing on the opposite bank to the weir with feeder rods on a beachcaster style rod rest presumably after the barbel .

I had an enjoyable few hours fishing with minimal tackle , makes you wonder why sometimes you take everything for those "what if " I may need it situations .

 

[barbelboi]

I remember the horrible smell of plasticine, but this has very little scent. It seems to "keep" fine stays malleable and weighs heavy, The bit in that pic is just under 1/2 oz and stayed on for two hours and two barbel. Here's the stuff

Newplast Modelling Clay Bars | Cowling & Wilcox

Perfect for a range of activities & available in a range of colours, this Newplast Modelling Clay is non-drying, non-setting and waterproof. Shop now!

www.cowlingandwilcox.com

Newplast is brilliant, been using it for many years for rolling meat...................

 

[terry m]

Not been out since mid March so was keen to wet a line. The Avon is rather low so dropped into a local syndicate lake and did a few nights.

Despite the extremely hot weather bagged several carp ranging from 20-10 to 33-13, and several tench in the 6-7lb range which don’t really count on carp gear.

 

[riverman]

been on the river wharfe today and managed 2 barbel plus a mixed bag of dace bleak and roach.one barbel was around the 3lb mark and the other a bit smaller probably 2.5lb.legered luncheon meat accounted for the barbel whereas maggots on the stick took the silvers.lovely peg cracking weather and watching a kingfisher take a small fish opposite me an added bonus.cant wait for my next outing on friday as i'm out on the nidd,

 

[john step]

A blank on my first river venture today on the low clear Tidal Trent. Very hot and a silly time to go but I just fancied some flowing water.
The highlight of the day was a fully grown size dead cow floating in on the tide.

 

[terry m]

Three hours wandering down the Avon with a lure rod resulting in four ‘takes’ and zero fish landed. Clearly out of practice!

The Hants Avon is looking really good, but still a little low on water.

 

[flightliner]

A blank on my first river venture today on the low clear Tidal Trent. Very hot and a silly time to go but I just fancied some flowing water.
The highlight of the day was a fully grown size dead cow floating in on the tide.

Surprised you did'nt see a group of seals John, they've been around there for months now!

 

[flightliner]

I visited a tiny Nottinghamshire river this afternoon leaving at 12—45pm for the half hour drive.
I was set up with my roving gear but owing to the very overgrown vegetation and bankside trees my rod was a seven foot fox light lure rod set up with a reel, a line and a size twelve hook with the intention of fishing floating crust.
My approach to the rivers edge was cautious
as the water was only some eight or nine inches on average and gin clear.
A twenty minute period of allowing lumps of floating crust to drift downstream on the currant finally had a chub bowaving to it, I continued but the chub were reluctant to come nearer to me staying some thirty metres away.
I decided to move further down in order to cancel out any possibility of a hooked chub of snagging me in the overhanging trees and other vegetation and at the same time hoping my presentation would be better as with such a long distance to trot to the fish with such a short rod the line on the surface was snake like on the surface which could cancel out making contact with a taking fish.
In position after a short crawl thro some nettles (must be mad) I allowed two more crusts to float downstream which were both taken by chub so not being told twice I put a good sized crust on the hook and dropped it midstream to run downriver.
Fifteen metres down a chub bowaved towards it and I connected with it on striking making me glad about deciding to move earlier.
The fight was explosive with it being so close to the surface but I managed to net what appeared to be a chub that could possibly exceed five pound.
It didnt but who could complain at one that weighed 4lb 13oz,I was very happy with such a fish from so small a river that was little more than a wide stream.
I was back home at five pm, nettled but happy.

 

[sam vimes]

The highlight of the day was a fully grown size dead cow floating in on the tide.

Fitting that dead cow to the bottom of your feeder might be difficult. I don't suppose that it would hold bottom for a while either.

 

[mikench]

No beef with that idea. It's good fishing with nothing at steak.

 

[mikench]

Today was a good day. It's always enjoyable fishing with Gordon and I enjoy his company as much( well almost) as the fishing. Today we went to a popular venue and fished a new lake there which I have never tried but Gordon has. It's a deep lake i.e. 12' so we decided on slider fishing so Gordon could try out his new Cadence 15' #1 rod.

I used an Antares 15' but my slider fishing requires a lot more practice. I switched to a normal float having plumbed up and started catching decent roach and small perch. I set up my feeder rod and a Polaris float and immediately caught this.

The lake was stocked about 3 years ago but rarely fished and Gordon had only caught roach albeit quality fish around 6-8oz. He caught similarly today as did i and we were both sceptical that the fish we sought had been stocked.

This confirmed that our fears were unfounded.

And do did this.

I caught 5 chub and 5 tench all around the 1.5 to 2 lb mark and all pristine. I finished with 25 fish and Gordon had a similar number. The sun shone and we both enjoyed the day immensely. The stocked fish are clearly thriving. We just need to catch a barbel. Guess where we plan to go on Friday.

 

[wetthrough]

Splendid day thanks Mike and well done

 

[seth49]

Well the forecast was wrong yesterday, supposed to be cloudy and warm and it was blue skies all day and hot, never a good thing for the fishing as a rule, but didn’t turn out to bad.

Arrived at 6 30 am and just one other fishing, he was catching a few and as he was going at 10 am, I decided to fish the next peg, usual pole tactics, plus a rod out on an alarm for carp etc, slow start then started catching a few skimmers, tench, F1s, and one crucian.

Fished pole out till 3 pm, and then into the margins, had one carp on sleeper rod, plus a tench and the biggest gudgeon I’ve ever caught, which took a wafter on a method feeder, did get one carp on the pole which weighed 13lbs 2ozs, caught that on cockle plus an Ide and a perch. So not to bad considering, it did get very hot in the afternoon though , similar conditions tomorrow but even hotter so might give it a miss.

 

[mikench]

How is Simon? I hope he is continuing his recovery but I miss his reports as I'm sure do many others. I wish him well.

 

[Zeader]

Afternoon, had a day out with my eldest son yesterday. Weather red hot (30c+) in sunny Dorset. Club water with 3 differing sized lakes. I fished the largest one and manged 11 carp of varying sizes and shapes, alternating between medium white sliced off the top, whilst evading the resident geese and light bomb and pellet. My boy managed a 17lb 4oz Mirror and 8lb 1oz Common from the smaller more overgrown lake. Great day all round, and he even bought me pint on the way home, which is a rarity..

 

[Pete Shears]

Light lure fishing on the local GUC this morning for a change, last time was October 2021.
Managed to get three small perch with a fourth falling off. Had a pike follow but not take,another unseen pike chomped the red worm lure in half.
With very overgrown banks there were few spots to actually fish other than the locks themselves and mooring places - still a welcome change.

 

[flightliner]

Again, not fishing but fishing related, yesterday myself and a group of anglers were invited to the EAs fish farming oporation at Calverton in Nottinghamshire.
We arrived around 9—45 am where we were welcomed by the manager and his staff with tea or coffee and biscuits.
A slide/ of video show followed that showed all aspects of their oporation from harvesting brood fish to stripping them of eggs followed by the males being shed of their milt and mixed together by a goose feather.
Some amasing footage of what happens when the milt comes into contact with the eggs followed along with the care taken at every stage of the oporation.
Then a question and answer session followed, the knowledge and science those those guys need to get everything right is incredible.
Outside we had to change our shoes to wellington style bootees that had to be steralised in a trough of liquid then were allowed into the rearing enclosure that was split into coulor coded areas where any exit from one to the other required another dip of the boots. I dont think that even a brush could could be moved from one area to another so strict is the hygiene regime.
We saw labelled tanks of chub, greyling, Dace, Barbel and Tench.
They dont do predators, only Tench, apparently when small they prey on one another and at the video show we heard the joke was that if they were in one of the holding pools there would only be four left, one in each corner!
Eventually we went over the road to the mentioned pools where the tour ended.
Believe me that place is worth every single penny of the license fee!!!

 

[riverman]

decent session today.been on the river nidd and ended up with 1 barbel around the 4lb mark 1 chub around the 2.5lb mark 5 grayling and 4 dace,
the barbel and chub fell to luncheon meat on the leger and the grayling and dace to maggots on the stick.started off with hair rigged halibut pellets on the leger but not a touch.so switched to meat and fired some loose offerings out and eventually got some action.i did lose another fish which shot off and spit the hook but never mind.the grayling fishing on the nidd is superb and one day i'll target them on the fly.all in all a decent day but the nidd needs a bit of rain in it so the heavy showers the north are expecting will do it the power of good.

 

[mikench]

Who said lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place? Gordon and I returned to the same venue as last Tuesday and sat in virtually the same pegs and using the same tactics. Well not quite. I started on the feeder and stayed with it apart from about an hour on the float before a stiff breeze developed. Gordon surprised me not with a succession of quality roach on the float and a few perch, but with a chub on the feeder rod on a bomb and sweet corn rig. At last , I thought, he has turned to the dark side. Despite a lovely chub of around 2lb , he remained unimpressed and returned to the float. He finished with 34 fish.

I started with this.

And then this.

I had one more crucian and 5 more tench making it 11 in one week. I haven't achieved that many in a year before. This was the biggest at round 3.5lb.

I caught a dozen roach and perch so ended the day with 18. Another thoroughly enjoyable day without the heat of Tuesday. Cheers Gordon and here's to next week.