flightliner
Well-known member
Years ago I used to fish a near local pond,where we could catch some cracking pound plus fish by fishing a one foot cast, no shot and a hook baited with "usk" ( maggot chrysalis) surrounded by lots of others thrown around it.
The water foamed with roach untill the tiny float would sail across the surface untill a strike hooked the fish.
All high summer stuff untill a change to lobtail in the autumn fished hard on the bottom would see one or two roach of enormous proportions ( never weighed- as kids they would always be there surely), that looking back today I reckon they could have been oner two pounds.
Later as a fifteen year old I fished the Witham in lincolnshire and creed wheat gave me my very first two pound roach weighed correctly, other guys at the time had the odd ones too.
In the seventies a lake that was a little further away was turning them up to anyone who bothered to try, a bit like shelling peas The eighties a carp water and a one off from the trent did me the honours.The nineties it was on a big reservoir in west yorkshire-- brilliant big framed fish that had guys coming from the deep south.
That was it, since then countrywide its been nothing but decline, a very depressing scenario.
My last, some seven years or so back , and a heaven sent personal best (go up one digit) was the last I heard of in my region with the exception of the one Binka took this summer.
I know a carp runs water that has a few nice roach presant that will hopefully give me a last chance before to long-- fish to a pound and a half or therabouts that are generally ignored by the locals who's presance on a 24/7 basis thankfully keeps the comorants away.
overall a pretty depressing scenario , so differant to what used to be where it was on the cards that as one big roach water went into decline thro normal cyclical reasons another one would appear not long afterwards.
The water foamed with roach untill the tiny float would sail across the surface untill a strike hooked the fish.
All high summer stuff untill a change to lobtail in the autumn fished hard on the bottom would see one or two roach of enormous proportions ( never weighed- as kids they would always be there surely), that looking back today I reckon they could have been oner two pounds.
Later as a fifteen year old I fished the Witham in lincolnshire and creed wheat gave me my very first two pound roach weighed correctly, other guys at the time had the odd ones too.
In the seventies a lake that was a little further away was turning them up to anyone who bothered to try, a bit like shelling peas The eighties a carp water and a one off from the trent did me the honours.The nineties it was on a big reservoir in west yorkshire-- brilliant big framed fish that had guys coming from the deep south.
That was it, since then countrywide its been nothing but decline, a very depressing scenario.
My last, some seven years or so back , and a heaven sent personal best (go up one digit) was the last I heard of in my region with the exception of the one Binka took this summer.
I know a carp runs water that has a few nice roach presant that will hopefully give me a last chance before to long-- fish to a pound and a half or therabouts that are generally ignored by the locals who's presance on a 24/7 basis thankfully keeps the comorants away.
overall a pretty depressing scenario , so differant to what used to be where it was on the cards that as one big roach water went into decline thro normal cyclical reasons another one would appear not long afterwards.
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