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the downs and ups of a pleasure angler

Entries in this blog

Summer roach 29.8.16

7.30 - 8.30pm   A hot, bright bank holiday Monday, and there was only about an hour of reasonable light (not too bright, not too dark) to try for roach. Float fished hemp 'n tares. Two nice roach of about 8 and 10 oz, plus some smaller ones. Quite encouraging, and I shall be back in more roachy conditions. Perhaps I should have 'lit up' and carried on a bit? But the bites seemed to have tailed off, and din-dins appealed.   Point to remember next time. I started with an 18 hook, but failed to
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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hemp 'n tares 1.7.16

2.30-5pm   On the web you can find stories of amazing roach sessions with hemp and tares four or five years ago on the Thames near Oxford. I tried a few times last summer with limited success, but thought I'd have another go on a different stretch. I fed hemp, and alternated tares and caster as hook bait, a six foot deep swim only a rod length or two out.   About 20 roach up to half a pound. An enjoyable session, but I never really got them going. My aim is to find some roach around the poun
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Local Lake 6.5.16

7-9pm. Bright warm day, so decided just to fish dusk in the hope of some decent roach. Started on caster, and it was soon clear they were up in the water, so I fished half depth. Bite a chuck small roach, but no big ones so switched to a bigger bait. Prawn is popular for perch and roach on this lake in winter, so tried half a prawn on the bottom, but just had a couple of modest perch and 2 monster gudgeon. Finished off with double caster on the bottom, and had roach of 10oz and 15oz.
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Milton Pools Fishery, near Thame 18.4.16

3-6pm My hope was to catch some of the quality roach which tend to reside in commercial fisheries, though it was a bit of a 'punt' as I have never been to this fishery before and had no reports on the roach fishing. The advice I was given by the guy in the shop there was to try Ben's Match Lake where they grow to 2.5lbs. Hmm, for some reason 'Ben's Match Lake' didn't ring the right bells, and the trouble with being told they grow to 2.5lbs - well, you could say that about a lot of lakes, and it
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Milky tea canal 11.4.16

I went to the Oxford Canal again with ultra-lite gear hoping for a proper Zander to add to the 4" one caught on maggot last time. Alas, there was nothing doing, not even a mini perch. I assume this was because of the very cloudy water, with visibility only 2 or 3 inches, doubtless due to the 17mm of rain we've had in the last couple of days. It was certainly clearer on Friday. I'd welcome any comments on this from those with more experience of canals than me.   I should have taken worms!
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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First Zander 8.4.16

All 4 inches of him!   Oxford canal 3 to 6pm. My past visits to canals in April have all been blanks, so almost anything was going to count as a success. I started float fishing maggot under the rod tip in a very narrow stretch. I guess I had too light a float, and it was a bit strange to see the wind blowing the float against the flow. So I switched to an area where a passer by told me Zeds roamed, and soon switched to maggot feeder. Almost at once two decent roach of 6-7 oz, and a perch of a
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 perch 26.2.16

3-5.30pm WT 6 degC   I feel at a bit of a loss watching 'Ol' Father Thames' sheeting by in winter, and wondering where on earth the fish will be. First I tried a bit of float fishing with single maggot, but my eyesight isn't good enough to trot at the distance needed in fastish water, so I fished very close (2 feet) from the bank, though still 6 feet of water. Plenty of small dace, but I had no faith I would get anything bigger.   So I switched to maggot feeder, just over a rod out. First
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The Flying Tench

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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

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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

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Jigging for perch 20.11.15

3pm to 4.45pm Thames   Plan A was to go roach fishing, but all the clouds disappeared and I though lure fishing might be a better bet. My new ultralite rod will have to wait for Christmas, but I thought it would be an interesting experiment to try jigging with a 12' feeder rod, with the most flexible tip. This would build on my tuition by Kappa a few days ago, and I would use two methods: casting to the middle of the river, and slowly working the lure in; and jigging below the rod tip.   I f
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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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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Sea fishing near Swanage 8.9.15

5.30-6.30am I'd never caught a sea fish on a lure from the bank, and didn't really know where to start. I have memories of casting out into the ocean in vague hope, but nothing coming of it, and not really expecting anything to come of it! But on this occasion a highly skilled local angler offered to take me out.   The first thing was that we met in the dark at 5am in the morning! After a short walk we clambered down rocks, also in the dark, with him giving me guidance all the way. Quite an a
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Brief Thames roach session 31.8.15

7.20- 8.30pm   A brief dusk session so I could feel I'd been out. Fishing feeder 30yds out with sweetcorn on the hook and open feeder with bread crumb, sweetcorn and 3mm pellets. A type of fishing I'm pretty hopeless at, but was pleased to catch 5 chunky roach, mainly 5-6oz, in the first half hour. One poor little fella hadn't actually been hooked, but had somehow got himself jammed in the feeder!   I was just starting to think I might get a nice roach as dark fell, when the swim went dead.
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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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

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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

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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

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Thames chub and perch 24.10.14

3.45-5.45pm Brief session on a lovely peg where the water flows somewhat faster than normal for the Thames - 6 feet of water just beyond the rod tip. The water had plenty of colour, a lovely green-grey, and the skies were grey too - ideal conditions! My target was roach. I had plenty on hemp and tares here early in September, and they took the tares immediately - no long wait as per many venues. My first task was to see whether they were still into this bait in late October.   The answer aft
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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Attempt at waggler 8.9.14

5.30-8pm R Thames The object of today's fish was to learn a new technique rather than to catch fish. Phew, fortunate that! I'd never fished waggler before and gathered it might be useful on the Thames, so... I remembered my depth gauge this time, and was surprised to discover how uniform the depth was -10' deep from a rod length out to three quarters of the way across. A bit deep for float fishing, but not impossible. I put the 2' extension in my rod to make it 15', and used a 10BB waggler f
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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