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About this blog

the downs and ups of a pleasure angler

Entries in this blog

general

Swansea marina (River Tawe) 14-16.9.2021

Three days in Swansea fishing as part of a week's family holiday on the Gower. It has to be said that this was salt water fishing (well, maybe a bit brackish), and my experience of such contests is that the fish normally come away with a 'clean sheet'!  Though on this occasion I had built up my courage by watching a youtube video by some local youngsters who made it all look rather easy, catching small fish of a wide range of species. So I was hoping to get plenty of bites and catch even if the
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench in general

7

Roach from a 'commercial' 18.3.13

Court Farm, near Aldermaston 3.45 - 6.30pm A.T. 8degC dropping, W.T. 5degC After all that snow yesterday I wasn't too optimistic, specially when the only other anglers on the lake when I arrived said they hadn't had a touch all day. But I think they had been mainly targeting the normally very willing carp. My challenge, however, was how to avoid said carp. I fished fine, float-fished maggot and caster, and although it was never bite-a-chuck I managed 9 roach, the best about 12 oz, and several
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

5

Dace attack failed 11.11.13

Rainsford farm 3.00-4.45pm   Nice cloudy day with slight mist. River quite fast, and turbulent in many places. Trotted for dace with single and double maggot. I decided to try downstream of the foot bridge, but with the frequent trees along the bank and also fallen trees in the river there were not many nice glides long enough, given the speed of the water. In the end I spent most of my brief stay in one swim, but the dace weren't interested. My honour was saved by a half pound brown trout!
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

5

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

4

Kennet Ruffe 21.10.13

5pm - 6.45pm My first Kennet ruffe. Not much else I can say about today! A nice, reasonably mild October day and I was shielded from the wind. The venue was a canal turning area where 3 streams come in as well as the outflow from a canal lock. I've been told specimen roach have been caught here, and a couple of weeks ago someone told me he'd had a big bream. I fished maggot feeder, and I thought I was bound to have some action, but it was not to be. 3 mini fish and that was all.   I started b
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

4

Dace Attack 2 - failed (18.11.13)

2-4pm. A beautiful grey day, should have been just the job. My plan was to fish Colthrop (a stretch of Kennet for info of non locals), but for some reason my key didn't work so I couldn't get through to the main part of the complex and was limited to a few swims on the back stream.   My aim was to catch a reasonable dace, ideally to improve on my sparse pb of 6.5oz. I tried about 5 swims, but not a touch till the last, somewhat slower and deeper, swim where I caught a few very small dace and
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

4

Jigging for perch 16.12.13

2.30-4.30 Private weirpool   I'm lucky to be able to fish a private weirpool on the Kennet, and had a a tip-off from someone that had had bite-a-chuck success jigging for perch there. His approach was making half a turn of the reel handle at a time - a slower approach than the one I had (generally unsuccessfully) tried - so the purpose of the trip was to learn a bit more about jigging rather than to try and catch a monster.   First cast caught a small perch, which was certainly a confidence
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

4

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

4
general

Boddington Reservoir 1.6.22

I've done a couple of entries on this and they've been lost, so will keep it very brief. I spent an afternoon at Bod Res trying for the roach. Midwater. Plenty of bites on maggot and also 6mm pellet, but I kept bumping them and only landed about 10 fish. The problem may have been that the rod, a trotting rod, wasn't soft enough. I've got another rod more like a match rod, and will try again with that.
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench in general

4

Perch - 2 firsts 14.5.12

6.30-9.30pm. Went to the pit again, and the first 2.5 hours were a blank. I was the only angler there, and you'd have thought there weren't any fish either. I tried spinning and float fished maggot and worm - not a bite. Then I tried jigged lobworm, and the response was immediate. Actually it was half a lob cos when I had a whole one on they just nipped off the tail.   I had five fish in the last half hour. All very small, but I was getting plucks and nibbles all the time. I'll have to find a
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

3

Perch and Dace 17.2.14

3.30-5.30pm   Went to same swim as last week, where I was fairly confident there'd be some perch even if they weren't massive. Plan A was to try drop-shotting with a sparkly gold 'worm'. They weren't interested. But there was a submerged step about 2' under water, so I was able to get a very clear view there of how my lure was performing. Fine on the up stroke, but the down was hopeless - it didn't look like anything other than a piece of old plastic slowly dropping through the water. I put o
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

3

Benson Weir Pool Lure fish 6.3.15

5-6pm Clear sky WT 6degC   I had bought some new plastics, larger than the ones I have used on the Kennet for perch, and the plan was to try them out. But decided to start with my trusty gold lame worm to see if there were any perch about and also to check for snags. My back was playing up so decided to cast from sitting down, not exactly normal lure fishing!   First cast an 8lb pike! A good start, but I somehow broke the landing net handle, so had to get another (smaller) one from the car.
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

3
general

Maggot Feeder, what am I doing wrong? 31.8.21

5.15 - 7.45pm weather cool and cloudy I've tended to dismiss maggot feeder for the Thames, particularly in summer, because my past experience has been that it just attracts very small fish. But I have met a couple of anglers recently who have done OK with it, which has made me wonder if I have given it a fair crack. Having joined a club that has a stretch of what is in effect a 'carrier' for the Thames, much narrower than the main river, I decided that I could concentrate the maggots in a l
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench in general

3
general

Blankety Blank end November up to December 23

It must be about 6 trips now I've blanked, all on the Thames. All were short sessions of up to a couple of hours, so arguably they amount to just a couple of longer sessions by hardier anglers, but even so I'm starting to feel the need for some fish!  Mostly my trips have been casting cheese paste randomly into the river in the hope of a monster chub, or laboriously researching where the roach have shoaled up. As temperatures drop the chub ought to be a prime target, but the problem with the Tha
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench in general

3
general

River Thames Lechlade 21.9.22

I was fishing hemp and tares, and hoping for busy action, though it wasn't to be. In fact, after being directed by the tackle shop to a stretch of river which I think they ran, but which I found unfishable, I only had 2 hours on my preferred stretch. Just 4 roach, but the best was 14oz and my Thames pb so I was very pleased. This fish was on caster, the others on tares, 6 feet deep in about 9 feet of river. An angler near me fished maggot on ledger and had a very good bag of roach, maybe I shoul
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench in general

3

Coveted Angler of the Season Award

Sorry folks, I'm afraid you haven't won it. I have! IT'S MINE! Yes, the really coveted one, the one awarded by THE FISH to the angler who gives them the LEAST AGGRO. The BIGGEST BLANKER OF THEM ALL! The number of blanks I have had since May is truly astonishing. Leaving aside tiddlers and my trip to the Wye, in 12 trips I have had 12 blanks! And that's a pleasure angler in summer!   And how do I feel about this? Well, sad to say, a kind of benign idiocy has descended upon me, and I have quite
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

2

Rusty's chub live again!

Monday 27 Sept, 3-6pm   With Rusty's permission I decided to have a crack at his chub. I passed by earlier in the day and had a look, and at least one of them was there. But as Rusty had found, they weren't easy.   First I tried lure fishing - and just lost a couple of good lures. Then I tried a popped-up lobworm. I must admit I was a bit worried that my ham-fisted lure fishing might have spooked them. Also, even with the rod set up with the tip high the pull of the current racing through
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

2

A couple of modest ladies Nov 8

3.45-4.45pm   What to do? A sharp drop in temperature, an inch of rain in the last day or so, and the afternoon bright and clear, unlike the forecast. Also I was even more short of time than usual. I played safe and went down to the Lambourn. It seemed terribly shallow and clear, and to a non-expert like me it seemed surprising that the EA's decision to lower the weir would improve the fishing. Still, only one way to find out.   I trotted maggots and had a couple of half pound grayling an
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

2

Angling in a corset 19 September 2011

My slipped disk has been a pain over the summer and I haven't done any fishing, but I got a support belt thing recently that helps a lot. So I am OK now for short trips, I think.   Last Monday I tried maggot on the hook with groundbait feeder on a swim on the canalised river which is known for roach, but just got very small fish - gudgeon, roach, perch. But I saw a couple of reasonable fish just under the surface that could have been roach. So this week at the same swim I tried float and magi
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

2

Lure fishing 3.10.11

A bright sunny day with reasonably high pressure, so I decided to leave the roach campaign and have a crack at lure fishing at dusk, on the basis that it might be the last good day for it this autumn. I went to a swim where, on a similar day 2 years ago, I had two high-double perch and a 5lb chub in 5 casts! But alas, I was without my trusty Mepps Aglia Hot Tiger no 3, and the larger lures I used were not appreciated by whatever was in there. Zilch.   So I moved to a tree on the canal where I
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

2

Maggot feeder 14.11.11

I had a good session on the flowing canal 5 years ago when it was bite-a-chuck small dace on maggot feeder, and through sheer luck I ended the session with a pb perch of 3lb 3oz.   The weather today was OK, AT up to 12degC and quite cloudy, but I didn't like the high pressure and east wind. Rightly or wrongly I thought the dace and perch wouldn't mind this as much as the roach, so I decided to try and emulate 5 years ago - partly in the hope that the dace would be bigger by now.   Alas I
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

2

Blank 12.11.12

3-4.45pm Grey, cloudy day, reasonably mild, so I thought it would be a good fishing day, and decided to try for perch. Due to back problems I try to avoid walking too far, and it was a choice between the free stretch where, when I last looked, the EA hadn't destroyed all the perch swims, and a canal swim which I am fairly sure is where Rusty bagged up in early September. I chose the latter.   I started fishing maggot because it would be interesting to see what small stuff was around, and a
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

2

Fishing a crease 19.11.12

3-4.30pm. Family commitments meant I was very late on the water today, and didn't have much longer than an hour. I went to a crease close to the town centre where I caught some reasonable dace in the summer. Initial plan was to trot bread as the fish are used to it there as people throw it in for the swans a bit upstream. The main aim was just to find out if the fish were still there.   Actually the swans were a bit of a menace. In the summer I was relieved that numbers seemed to have dropped
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

2

Lure fishing for perch 12.8.13

7.15-8.45pm I went back to the spot where I fished yesterday, this time armed with a spring balance in the hope of catching a 'three'. I know lure fishing is meant to be mobile, but for minor health reasons I'm a bit limited how far I can walk, and also on this occasion I wanted to concentrate on this swim.   I started off with the Mepps Firetiger, as yesterday. 'Bang', first cast a nice perch of about 2lbs which got off at the net - drat, hope it won't scare the shoal. Second cast, a smaller
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

2

Moderate difficulty carp lake 26.8.13

6-10pm I've always liked the idea of float fishing for carp in the margins, but have never done it other than by accident on easy waters when my roach swim has been invaded. So when an angler who has been having some success with this style of fishing on one of our moderate difficulty waters invited me to come along I keenly took up the offer.   I fished 4 feet from the bank in 4-5 feet of water with luncheon meat over a mixture of shop bought groundbait and various extras. I baited and fishe
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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