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the downs and ups of a pleasure angler

Entries in this blog

14.11.16 Thames Trotting

3 - 4.30pm. Tackle shop owners and anglers on the bank are saying the same thing. For some reason the Thames is full of roach this year, up to just under a pound. Chokka. Wall to wall. Brim full. It's so full of roach that I have found myself asking if there is even room for any water! And what is more they are unbelievably easy to catch. 'Bite a chuck mate, you can't go wrong.' The only problem is that not many of them have been finding their way into my landing net.   So in sceptical mood I
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

1

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

Thames lock cut roach 25.1.16

3-5pm, WT 7DegC I chose this lock cut to avoid the wind, but found it was in the opposite direction to the forecast, so did prove a slight problem. Plan A was to fish fine for roach (float, single maggot), as in my last blog entry on the lake, though I had a plan B (lobworms for perch.). But this proved unnecessary as first cast I had a nice roach of about 6oz. Then for the first half hour it was almost bite a chuck with quality roach between 6 and 11oz, ten in all averaging 8oz, so that was 5l
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

1

Cold lake 22.1.16

Local lake, 3-5pm   Plan A was to catch perch and maybe roach on prawns, which is a good bait on this lake. But, contrary to the forecast, there was almost no cloud, I got no indications on the float, and felt I had to boost my expectation. So I switched to double maggot on size 18 hook. One good bite which I missed and then dead. But might that be a tiny movement that was going on? I decided to do what the books say, and switched to size 20, single maggot, and shotted the float right down. Bi
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

1

Foiled by the bream? 20.7.15

7-10pm Tried a new gravel pit known to have a good head of bream which should beat my rather low pb of 5.5lbs. Hmm, I have little experience of this type of fishing. Clear, plenty of weed at the edge, but I cast out to a random spot about 30yds out in 15 feet of water. The feeder wasn't coming back too weedified. Fished sweetcorn or sweetcorn/maggot on the hook with conventional groundbait approach.   About every 5-10 minutes the bobbin would jerk up an inch or so, but I never got a good bite
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

2

Barnes Lake 8.6.15

I last went to this large and attractive lake about 8 years ago. It is mainly a tench lake, but also used to have some quality rudd. The first time I went there were small rudd everywhere, but I also lost a couple of good ones. Then the next year I went it seemed dead and no-one was fishing. Maybe it was too early in the year? For better or worse I didn't go back, and today was intended as an exploratory visit.   3.30 - 6.30pm. The lake was full of weed, more so than I remember it. I started w
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Nice lake roach 22.5.15

Ladygrove Lake, Didcot 2-5pm This lake has some nice roach, but my last 2 sessions with caster and then hemp and tares failed to get through the small roach and ubiquitous skimmer bream. Put on a small bait and a small roach gets it; a bigger bait, and it is immediately gobbled by a skimmer bream, anything up to 3 lbs. I baited lightly with 3mm pellets and hemp, with hook bait alternating between 5mm soft pellet and sweetcorn. I noticed that the pellets were getting even more bream than the sw
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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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

Birthday monster pike! 29.12.2014

R Thames 2.30 - 3.45pm Wobbled smelt   Cold and bright. High pressure, so decided to use a moving bait; but when I got there the river was very up and coloured. Wobbled very slowly in the slacker areas, and also left static for short periods. I didn't have high expectations, so used my smallest smelt! Then JV44 (Steve) turned up, and we had a chat, so I left it a bit longer than usual. When he moved on and I started to retrieve she was on, all 22lbs 4 oz! She was lightly hooked, so my guess is
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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River Ock 17.11.14

2.30-4.15pm First time on this little river. It was flowing though quite fast and coloured, so I wasn't expecting too much. I started trotting bread hoping for roach, and thinking that a big bright bait might be visible in the coloured water, but went 30 mins without a bite. Switched to 2 red maggots and immediately had 2 dace, one of 7oz - an equal personal best. Altogether had 1 small roach, about 7 reasonable dace and a chub of just under 3lb. A pleasing first recce on this little river!
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

1

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

2

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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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

2

Lunatic Heifers 24.6.14

7-9pm   I went to a stretch of the Thames that has many hazards to put off anglers - a dicey bridge, rough fields to drive over, cows galore. But the guy in one of the fishing shops (a skilled angler) assured me it was a good place for trotting for roach, so I braved the hazards. All OK on the way there, but a bit trickier on the way back. There are gates at each end of the dicey bridge, and these are necessary to stop the cows crossing. I drove onto the bridge and shut the gate behind me. P
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

2

Ladygrove Park Lake, Didcot

For some reason I haven't had much enthusiasm for lake fishing since I moved to near Didcot a couple of months ago, and have made do with trips to investigate bits of river (the Thames) in preparation for the start of the season. But the helpful guy in the fishing shop assured me today that LPL isn't just carp, but has quality roach and perch, so I decided to have a go. Just a couple of hours before dusk. I fished a small segment of lobworm over 3mm carp pellets, which said guy in fishing shop a
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

1

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

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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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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

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

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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

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

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Lower Itchen Fishery 14.10.13

2 - 6.30pm I haven't been to LIF for 6 years! Partly straightforward neglect, but in recent years also cos I can only normally handle a couple of hours standing due to back trouble, which doesn't really give value for money. But the back was great today - I stood most of the time and fished 4.5 hours.   The aim was to end a pb famine. My pb grayling is only 1lb 4oz, so as the grayling at LIF regularly go to 2lbs I felt I had a good chance - and of course a 2lber was the second aim.   The ri
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

1

Mixed bag 7.10.13

5.15 - 6.45pm   I went to the top end of the White House stretch of the Kennet to trot maggot. When I last went there there was a strong flow coming in on the nearside bank through the marina, and I was planning to trot the crease, particularly for dace. My mingy pb is only 6.5oz.   This time the flow was much less which kiboshed my original plan, but I still fished the near bank. Somewhere at the back of my head I was planning to trot past some bushes where the fish were shielded from the p
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Perch exploration 29/30.9.13

The essence of perch fishing seems to be that you do lots of hard work finding where the fish are, and then have a bonanza when you feel like it catching them. The latter is not too difficult, but the former is. At least, I find it extremely difficult, partly cos health issues mean I can't stand up/walk for too long, and partly I guess lack of patience/skill/determination etc.   Yesterday my plan was to spend an hour lure fishing the Hambridge section of the K&A canal, a stretch which I ha
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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