Jump to content
  • entries
    192
  • comments
    136
  • views
    255818

About this blog

the downs and ups of a pleasure angler

Entries in this blog

Mon 14th June Carped out

Last week another crack at the big rudd on the syndicate lake. Put half a bag of groundbait in at lunchtime, but when I returned in the evening I could still see it untouched in the shallow, clear water - no rudd, no carp, not even small roach. Blanked.   Today 7-10pm. Went to a club lake in search of crucians in a swim next to some lilies. Started on maggot, and it was small roach a chuck - and one rudd. Switched to a very small meat bait on 16 hook, but little interest, even when I switched
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

0

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

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

0

No perch 9.1.12

3.15 - 4.45pm   A mild day and nice grey cloud so decided to try for perch. I have identified several swims which I'd like to try, but most of them involve a walk, and I decided to wait till my back improves. So I went to a fallen tree in the town centre which looked ideal as I reckoned I could cast to the slack water at the upstream end of the tree, and leave the float there a bit (though on reflection I've never caught a perch in the slack water at the upstream end - would be interested in
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

0

Benham Lock 23.1.12

I suffer from a weak back which limits how far I can walk, and have been looking for a good perch swim on the canal that doesn't involve too much of a walk. I decided to try out the far western end of a main NAA stretch which ends just below Benham lock. The main aim was reconnaisance, but I took my tackle along. Hmm, not ideal in my view. Although you can park near the canal, there were no near swims which looked to my non expert eye as being particularly perchy. Still, I walked as far as the n
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

0

9.7.12 Trotting a crease

7-10pm. Went to the town centre (cheap parking as long as you go after 6pm). I really felt like trotting bread for roach, but I had quite a few lobs left over so thought I should use them. So my strategy was to start trotting and feeding maggot, and then put on a bigger hook and fish bread or lob for roach/perch/chub as seemed best.   Joy of joys, where are the swans? I only saw five, even when people were feeding them. Last year it was more like 40! I must say it is a mystery where they h
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

0

Grayling 16.1.12

3.30-4.45pm Cold and bright, so a short grayling trip on the Lambourn. I took some sweetcorn along in the hope it would winkle out a pounder.   First cast in a swim I haven't found much use in the last couple of years, and a beautiful 1lb 3oz male grayling took my maggot as I was winding in. Perhaps he thought it was a nymph? Anyway, mission accomplished on first cast! Only the third pounder I've had.   Then pretty hopeless fishing by me, and too many tangles not helped by the cold. Just
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

0

Gravel pit perch 30.4.12

I decided to try a local gravel pit where I know the perch run to over 4lb. I fished it at this time of year a couple of years ago and had one of 2lb 6oz, but when I tried it a month ago I blanked. Possibly the fish were spawning then, but after blanking I always need a bit of assurance from the fish that they are still around.   WT 12degC - no change in a month. 7.10 - 8.45pm   Float fished maggot for the first hour - just one small perch. Switched to lobworm and had one reasonable perch
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

0

Court Farm 10.4.12

5pm to 8pm at local commercial fishery WT 10.5degC. Aim - to catch some reasonable roach   When I came to this fishery 3 years ago (also at this time of year) it was easy fishing with plenty of bites, and I had roach up to 13oz. It started well this time, too. Within seconds of my first cast I had a nice roach of about 9oz, and I was expecting bite-a-chuck, but it turned out to be much slower.   My initial strategy was to fish caster, and loose-feed caster, but not to use ground-bait so as
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

0

Perch - unsuccessful follow-up 21.5.12

Two brief trips to follow up the surprising abundance of bites on jigged worm last week, even though the fish were only small.   On Friday I had a crack jigging plastic lures. Only one small perch.   Today it was back to jigged lobworm, but once again just one small perch.   I think I must put last week down to a one-off, but will remember to try a bit of jigging or twitching the bait when float fishing or ledgering when things are slow.
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

0

Same again 24.10.11

Same place as last week, same bait, but swim pretty dead. Had one nice half-pound roach just before I packed up at dusk, but that was it.   Hmm, the temptation to switch to perch is getting greater! I'll be interested to see how the drop-shotters get on as it gets colder.
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

0

Canal roach 10.10.11

Nice cloudy sky, albeit with moderately high pressure at 1018 hPA, and I decided to try for some roach - though other matters meant I had less time than planned - just 90 mins leading up to dusk. With winds at over 20mph the priority was to find a sheltered swim, so I went to a bit of non-flowing canal, which I don't often fish, and had little idea what to expect.   Float-fished with 12 hook and nice chunk of bread flake. Bites very slow, and I had a feeling my bait was too big, so went down
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

0

Thames roaching 31.10.11

Went up to ol' Father Thames for a couple of hours in search of Rutilis. I spoke to a chap who had been fishing from his boat 'Had 4 roach this morning, nothing since then'. But it turned out one of them was between one and a half and two pounds. Phew! Though of course it wasn't weighed...   No flow at all except when the lock opened. Started off on groundbait feeder for some reason with magic bread. In the first hour had 4 fish, 3 of them chunky, best 9 oz. Then switched to float/maggot. Ins
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

0

Roach again 17.10.11

Went to roach swim on canalised river for a couple of hours. While I was shotting the float a small gudgeon attacked the bare hook. Why did you do that I could hear his mum say to him!   Once again float and magic bread. Trouble with wind and a surprising number of barges. Even so first hour was good with 7 roach, mostly 6-8 oz, best 10 oz. Second hour, leading to dusk, was dead. Becoming too much of a pattern. Maybe it was the barges, though?
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

0

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

0

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

0

Court Farm 27.8.12

Decided to have a bash at the roach in a nearby commercial. I'd been told you could bag up in the summer on small pieces of meat, and this was to be my main tactic; but I started on maggot to boost confidence, I guess. I started catching roach up to 8 oz, but when I switched to meat the bites stopped except for ... the carp.   So back to maggot for most of the session, and had about 20 roach, but none bigger than 8 oz. Tried bread for the last half hour, with a bit of groundbait, but spent mo
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

0

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

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

Float fishing for river roach 29 Oct 2012

A cloudy day and as ever the question 'roach or perch?' I decided on roach and went to a section of canalised river . I've been told you can catch reasonable roach there on bread, and a monster was caught there last year as well. By the time I was tackled up it was 3.30pm, and with the clocks having gone back that only gave an hour and a half. I started on maggot. I'd been warned that this would attract endless gudgeon and small dace, and that's exactly what I got, plus 2 small roach. I don't kn
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

0

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

0

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

8.4.13 Charlie's Lake, Andover

5.30 - 8pm An attempt for some roach in a commercial fishery.Someone was saying in the tackle shop that the canal temperature at the weekend had been 2degC, and only perch had been coming out, so I wasn't expecting too much. In fact the WT wasn't too bad - 8degC - and I had about 25 roach on float-fished maggot. Mostly small, the best about 6oz, but at least I caught. And I wasn't carped once!
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

0

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
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We and our partners use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences, repeat visits and to show you personalised advertisements. By clicking “I Agree”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit Cookie Settings to provide a controlled consent.

  I accept