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About this blog

the downs and ups of a pleasure angler

Entries in this blog

Zig Rig 19.8.13

7.45 - 8.45pm The aim of the session was simply to catch a carp on a zig rig - something I've never done. My interest in this came from a time when I was trying to catch a carp on the top from what is now really a specimen lake, and they felt all round the dog biscuit to see if there was any suspicious line there. It occurred to me that if I had the bait a foot or two down with the line coming up from a running lead below the carp might come at it from above and not encounter the line. The lake
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Wye trip 18-20 July

A repeat of last year spending 2 nights in a b&b in Ross-on-Wye - though the river was 2 feet lower than last year, so I didn't know what to expect, as I think barbel like a bit of rain.   On Sunday eve fished a peg in the town stretch. An angler packing up had had 2 barbel, so I took over his swim and was reasonably expectant. He advised me to cast out to the edge of the main flow. Lots of yanks, shakes and bangs, but few real bites. Had 2 chub, and lost a third. I fished an hour into d
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Wye barbel trip 15/16.7.12

Got to a Guest House in Ross-on-Wye late Sunday afternoon. Nice place, and close to the fishing shop, but this time they moved me up to the attic cos the room originally booked was full of used champagne bottles from a party, I understand. Went out for fish and chips.   Arrived at river, town stretch. Flowing fast and very brown, but nowhere near the top of the banks. Looked a bit formidable to a greenhorn like me. Shall I fish from the top, and then if I get a fish will I be able to jump 6 f
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Wily perch 10.2.14

4.15-5.20pm. Bright clear sky much of the time. I was shopping in Newbury last week and looked at a spot where 2 streams join. Most of the area was too fast for sane fish to hang out, leaving a small quiet triangle of water where in theory all the fish would be. So I decided to give it a try, fishing lobs from a float and feeding maggots.   I was immediately into a small perch, and then a few more (about 6oz), but they were tricky customers, unlike my normal experience of the sergeant. These
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Where are the roach? Nov 3

2.30-5pm   Had heard of some good bags of roach from 2 of the local lakes a couple of weeks ago, so turned up at Dobsons which I have scarcely fished before. WT 10degC. Gave it half an hour, but not a touch. Wondered what to do. What would a REAL roach angler do? I went to a part of the canal where, a few years ago, they got good bags of nice roach. A strong downstream wind. Had always reckoned that a downstream wind was Ok for trotting as you can control the speed of the float, but found it
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Update

What happened in 2020?

I've just realised it's been more than a year since I posted, so I thought I'd do an update to let the world and the computer system know that I am still around! What fishing happened in 2020? For me very little. I can't remember what the problem was in winter 2019/20. I think it was the time I had tennis elbow! Then in the spring and summer we had Covid and restrictions on fishing and tackle shops coupled with a house move - not far, still Didcot area. In the autumn I did at least wet
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench in Update

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Weirpool fish - where are they? 1.1.14

I couldn't resist going out in the howly wowly wind to wet a line, even if it wasn't a very serious attempt to catch fish. Following getting my first 3 fish drop-shotting two days ago I went to a free weirpool to see if I could repeat the trick. I had already seen from the other side of the canal a few days ago that the EA had opened the weir gate wide and there was a mass of water rushing through, with almost no-where that a self respecting perch would want to go. Aha! My logic was this: with m
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Wednesday Dec 9th

2pm - 4.30pm   Very mild day, and a few days leave left so took a few hours to go perching. Went to a tree swim on the canal where a friend bagged up a few days ago using the pole. Had thought the colour would have dropped out sufficiently to make jigging a plastic worm a good option, aiming for my first perch on a plastic. But the canal was more coloured than I expected so I decided to try lobworm on a straight lead, with maggots sprayed over the top. But I would use a long-drop bobbin, whic
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Warwicks Avon 25/26 July 2016

Decided to visit the Warwicks Avon at Fladbury in the hope of getting a bream (my pb stands at a lowly 5lb 12 oz), though I wasn't expecting too much as there was so little rain in the river. Had a brief float-fish in the afternoon, and had a nice roach-bream hybrid of about a pound. Well, I think I had him, I think he touched the bank, but I never got him into the landing net. While I was fumbling about reaching for the net and looking in the wrong direction there was an explosion in the water,
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Warm evening 15.7.13

8 - 10pm We've had a hot, dry July and the most obvious thing to do seemed to me to be to try for some carp off the top. In fact I expected everyone else to think the same, so was surprised when I got to the car park for our easiest carp lakes to find it empty. Do they know something I don't, I wondered?   I catapulted in some dog biscuits in two or three spots, but got no reaction from the fish. This wasn't a total surprise as I had been forewarned by a recent blog by Viney, but the problem
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Wareham 2-4 Nov 2015

Took a 2/3 day fishing break on the free stretch of the River Frome with 3 objectives:   a) catch a really big roach, though I realised this was a long shot b)catch some middle-ranking roach c) get a pb dace   Well the biggies weren't around, and it turns out there are very few middle-ranking roach there. I was mislead on that score by a local angler when I dropped in in September. So that left the dace.   Unfortunately they were a bit AWOL also. Some exceptional dace had been comin
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Vendee, France - August 2012

Family holiday near St-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie on the west coast of France, but took a couple of rods for some not-too-serious fishing. Based on trawling the web (despite my poor French) I had hoped for 3 possibilities:   1. Catch a black bass in lake Apremont. I tried a bit of lure chucking, but really didn't know what I was doing - no luck.   2. Catch some decent roach in the river Vie or Lac Apremont. In the former (a dam area about 10 ft deep at the lowest point of the river) I was bombed
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Valentine's Day Lady Hunt

I've been off for 3 months with a back problem. No big deal, but it didn't seem wise to risk it fishing in the cold weather. So the main aim today was to see how the back was, particularly standing for a while, and I decided on a short trip to the Lambourn for Grayling (Walton Way for info of locals).   Locals will know that the EA have done clever stuff heaving in loads of gravel so it's faster and shallower than it was. I find it rather tricky, for example, guessing how far the loose maggot
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Ultra-light 17 Nov 2015

1.30 - 4.30pm The Thames   Kappa kindly took me out for an afternoon introduction to U/L, borrowing his rods. The fish were in good form, and the extra flow meant they were a bit nearer, in which aided contact. Nevertheless, there was a dramatic improvement on my previous attempts at lure fishing on the Thames, where I have caught one or two pike but found the perch hard to find compared with my previous experience on the Kennet. Let me rephrase that - in 18 months I have only caught one perch
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Trying for lake roach 15.10.12

5.30-6.30pm After a few weeks 'off fishing' with a bad back I decided last Monday to find a swim where I could fish close to the car park. I heard that a couple of club members had caught some decent roach on maggot on BW, one of the local gravel pits, and decided to give it a try. Result - 'perched out.'   Today I only had an hour available, but decided to have another try using maggot, because others hadn't found the perch to be such a problem. Chose a swim diametrically opposite. Put dow
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Tiddler bashing

6 Sept 10.30am - 12 noon. Well I couldn't work out what to do today. Heavy rain was forecast in the evening, my usual time. I was thinking of trying out the canalised river, but a fairly strong east wind was also forecast, and I thought it would make trotting difficult.   In the end I went to Dixons gravel pit, where I reckoned there would be adequate cover from the wind. Last September I went there and started catching 4oz roach, bite a chuck, but got sidelined into trying for rudd in the
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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The times are a' changin' 17.6.13

Not much to report on the fishing. Yesterday, the glorious 16th, I just had time to check out a couple of swims - and discovered that they are unfishable unless I bring gardening implements. Worth knowing, at least. Then I spent an hour spinning for perch in what I thought was a banker area where the river meets the canal. To give me confidence I started with a small orange spinner, certain that I'd catch a few small ones and could then switch to a bigger lure, but even the tinies weren't inter
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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The story so far

Well here goes with a new blog. I fish the same waters around Newbury to a degee as Chris Plumb and Rusty, so it'll be interesting if it reads like that to anyone else! For various reasons I often only manage to fish short sessions. I'm really a 'pleasure angler' who still likes to catch the occasional pb, even if they are not specimens as such. I fish once a week, normally, on Mondays, and aim to post each week for a while to see how it goes.   After a couple of years with no pbs (beyond a g
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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The Sergeants win this time 21.7.14

6 - 9.30pm I started in a private Kennet weirpool. Too bright, really, but I had a good (chub?) on who snagged me and threw the hook. Then, towards dusk, I moved to a perch hot-spot on the canal. A beautiful still summer evening, and I felt in my bones I was certain to catch, but the perch seemd oblivious to my spinners and worms. As the evening wore on the fish activity increased. The canal wasn't as murky as I had expected, and I saw first of all a small shoal of 2-3lb chub cruising around j
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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The Lost Carp 2.9.13

6.30-9.30pm   Went to an easier water than last week in search of a carp. My plan was to decide when I got there whether to fish on the surface or the bottom, depending how many fish were active up top. There was loads of surface activity, but I realised I had forgotten my fluorocarbon leader and felt that 6lb mono might be a bit light, so fished with a float 12 feet out on the bottom using 8lb soft braid.   I chucked in some dog biscuits and immediately a carp came and snaffled them up, so
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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The Angst of Angling

Another three blanks!   24th May (WT 23 deg! about 2 metres out, 2 metres deep) Attempt to capture the big rudd in a local syndicate lake - the evening of a very hot day, where I think I had seen a few rudd earlier in the day, but couldn't see them -or interest them - in the lower light levels of eve.   31st May (WT 18.5deg) spent an hour or so chucking lures round a local gravel pit, to no effect. Hmm, I'd located the perch a few weeks ago, so thought I was onto a good bet. Saw a strange
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Thames weirpool 30.6.14

7pm to 9.15pm   Lovely weir pool, with the main flow the far side and inaccessible to me, but a nice back-flow under the rod tip (9-11ft of water). Beautiful with the church bells sounding across the fields. I had intended to take worms and maggots, but stupidly didn't leave enough time to get to the fishing shop, so went with bread and lures, the latter with perch in mind.   No immediate response to the lures, but then I saw a suspicious splash under a bush, so I tried jigging a gold plast
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Thames weirpool - bream hunt 20.10.14

4.30-6.30pm Visited a weirpool today said to be cram full of bream which don't mind feeding during the day. Felt like (and was) a complete novice. I was told you need to cast 50 yards to get to the edge of the flow, and I fear my casts fell short of that, and weren't particularly accurate either - always an issue for me with distance fishing. Still, I had a small bream of nearly two and a half pounds - a start!
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Thames ultralight 4.3.16

3.30-5pm Brief session. 5 small perch and a 4lb pike.   At a banker swim by a boat, at the start of fishing I got the usual immediate small perch, but a pike came in with it (not hooked.) After that the swim went dead!
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Thames trotting failed 16.6.14

7.30 - 10pm I've only lived near Wallingford since 19th March, so this was my first chance to fish the river. I've joined a club that can fish the Thames at Carmel College at Wallingford. This used to be a Jewish boarding school (it was known as the 'Jewish Eton') till the nineties when it had to close for financial reasons. I don't understand what it is used for now apart from being used as a film set for various TV programmes - and for angling, with beautifully prepared swims you can drive yo
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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