6 replies to this topic

[Ken L]

Fished the Severn yesterday.
It was cloudy when we arrived with just a tinge of colour from the recent rains.
I fished it with meat and pellet for five hours with nothing other than unhittable bites.
On wandering back from having a chat with dad (who was picking up a few chub and baby barbel, I looked into my peg from another angle just as the sun came out only to realise that I'd been plonking my baits into the middle of featureless gravel bed the size of a tennis court that was only half a meter deep. The unhittable bites were presumably dace because I had zero chance of barbel from that peg in daylight.
Muppet!

[chesters1]

LOL i did pretty much the same taking my son fishing to a hot spot i found at stokes bay ,not a bite from an hour before high tide until it went out and we realised the then 15 feet of water was 2 feet deep ontop of a huge gravel bank ,even the top of outlet of the river? (By stokes bay car park) was only just showing grrrrr

[Martin56]

Fished the Severn yesterday.
It was cloudy when we arrived with just a tinge of colour from the recent rains.
I fished it with meat and pellet for five hours with nothing other than unhittable bites.
On wandering back from having a chat with dad (who was picking up a few chub and baby barbel, I looked into my peg from another angle just as the sun came out only to realise that I'd been plonking my baits into the middle of featureless gravel bed the size of a tennis court that was only half a meter deep. The unhittable bites were presumably dace because I had zero chance of barbel from that peg in daylight.
Muppet!

Barbel clean themselves off after spawning in shallow gravel beds, so could be a prime spot for a couple of days or so at the start of a given season - especially if they're late spawning. Might be worth an early reccie at start of next season.

[gozzer]

You're not the only one Ken. 

In my youth, a few of us went to Scarborough to fish the night tide off the 'fish pier'. It was raining when we arrived so we tackled up at the back of the van. I was the first to be ready, and walked to my chosen spot, and cast into the darkness. Through the sound of the rain, I heard a faint, dull thud. Turning on my torch to investigate, I looked down at bare sand about 20 ft below me. Thinking that we'd mistimed the tide by an hour or so, I went down the steps and walked about 50yds and still found sand. When we checked with the tide tables my mate had used, we found it wasn't an hour or so, but more like a few months! He'd looked up the wrong date. We spent the night drinking coffee, and casting into a few feet of water in the harbour, with no bites. To finish off a 'perfect' trip, on the way home the driver fell asleep at the wheel, and I only just grabbed the wheel in time to stop us going into a ditch.

 

John.

[barbelbarmy]

A work colleague of mine went fishing a lake in winter. Set up in pitch black and cast too his prime spot over the far side of lake. Fished there many times so could judge cast easily in the dark. After a fruitless night he watched the sun come up to find that section of the lake was frozen over and there was his bait sitting on the surface!

[Phone]

All,

 

All of the above and more (so to speak).

 

I have told my story many times for setting a goal of carp fishing in every community with the name "Weston" in the US.  Since each was new water for me I had to rely on watercraft to decide on my "spot" on many occasions.  The only thing I can tell you is water is generally flat on the surface and wet.  Very humbling for an "expert".

 

Phone

[Tigger]

A group of my friends went on a trip to Ireland and found a nice looking lake and proceeded to bait it up ready to fish tomorrow.  They went back and fished it the following day but blanked and decided to move elsewhere to fish.  A few days later  when on their way back home they went past the first lake where they'd pre baited and the lake was now a field with patches of coloured groundbait still visible, apparently the field is prone to flooding after bouts of heavy rain!