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the downs and ups of a pleasure angler

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Roach again 26.9.11

Went to the same swim as last week, a roach swim on the canalised river Kennet. Fished just over an hour at dusk, trotted bread. Air pressure a bit high so I wasn't too optimistic.   5 roach, mostly small, but one nice 14 oz fish. the best I have had from that stretch. Very pleased. Also one perch of about 6oz. I've had pike on bread before, but never perch!   I'm starting to get some confidence in using bread, ready for getting a monster when it gets colder! Though the good fish was caugh
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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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

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River Thames, Cholsey Marsh 21.6.19

7.30 - 9.30pm During the last 2 years I did some fishing with 8mm pellet. It worked well in the lake, but was pretty dead in the river. So I decided to try 6mm pellet to see if that would be more to the taste of the quality roach which are my main target. I used 3mm pellet in the feeder.   Just one skimmer bream, plus a number of bites including a couple which got off. I would say mostly skimmers. Maybe the roach were up in the water?
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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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

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general

River Severn - lots of mud, no roach 10-12 November 2021

I booked myself a couple of nights in a B&B in Bewdley in the hope of catching some Severn roach and maybe beating my river roach pb, a modest 1lb 2oz. Alas, things didn't go to plan, but as with all failed angling trips I'm hoping I can learn from the experience! Wed: arrived at 2pm at a BAA water, Blackstone Farm where I'd been reliably informed I could drive along the bank, only to find BAA hadn't sent me the lock combination. Just past office hours so I couldn't phone them up. Grrr.
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench in general

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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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River Lambourn - can the scales lie?

3 - 4.30pm. Because of back trouble I'm trying to fish where I can sit for a fair bit of the time; but with a cold day, clear sky, but not particularly high air pressure, I decided I decided there was not much option other than to try for some grayling. At least I could see how the back coped.   I haven't fished the Lambourn in earnest since the work done by EA, and the river is currently very low, so I wasn't too sure how my limited trotting skills would cope with the clear, fast, shallow
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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River Blavet, Brittany 1-6 October, 2019

This was a special fishing holiday near Pontivy in Brittany to fish the River Blavet and the Nantes-Brest Canal which it flows in and out of. I had heard from blogs on-line, and also a reliable report on Anglers Net, that the roach (to 1lb 8 oz) and bream (to 6lbs) fishing here was prolific, with nets of around 50lbs regularly available in a session. Also the locals mainly fish for predators, to be taken away and eaten, so I assumed the roach and bream wouldn't be too 'hook shy.'   Alas, that
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Private weirpool

3-6.30pm Grey sky, moderately high air pressure   I went armed with worms, maggots and deadbaits, and wasn't sure when the magic hour came whether I would try for perch or pike. Started off with float/maggot to see where the fish were concentrated, and it wasn't where they usually are! Had 3 roach, best about 8oz, and 4 mini-dace.   Then tried worm on the float with no success, so switched to jigged plastic worm. Had a 2lb jack, interestingly where the roach were. The perch weren't intereste
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Private weir pools

Mon 2 July 4.30-5.45pm   Well having blanked a couple of times I decided to try something easy, but things didn't look too encouraging with light rain in the morning forecast to get progressively heavier during the day. Also the back was playing up a bit, so I wanted somewhere where I didn't have to walk too far carrying tackle, and could realistically fish for just an hour or so.   I went to 2 private weir pools I am priviledged to be allowed to fish. The first is on what is really a fork
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Prawn cocktail? Mon 10th May

6.40-9.10pm local pit WT 13.5degC   The aim of the outing was to find out a bit more about the perch in a pit I've spent a few sessions on now - and also to try prawn as a new bait. I've never been keen on the messy business of chopped worm, and I hoped that Tesco's economy prawns would prove an alternative.   Started with maggot feeder tight to an overhanging tree, but zilch for the first half hour. With the water temp having dropped it didn't seem too promising, but then I noticed some f
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

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Perch at last! Monday 26 April

Went to a local angling society pit, where the water temp had risen to 15 degC, and wondered if this would have woken up some fish.   Called in initially in the afternoon for a brief spell chucking a spinner, to no avail. But chatted to an interesting angler   Returned in the evening with a float rod and a couple of worms and some maggots. Instant results on the only two worms - one perch of about a pound and a half and a tiddler. Then switched to maggot - slower, but got three more perc
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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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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general

Perch - which worked better, lure or worm? 25.10.22

Another 2 hour dusk raid on the Thames, and this time I took a lure rod along. I can't do normal roving lure fishing due to arthritis, but the plan was to fish the one swim alternatively with ledgered real worm and slightly shiny plastic worm on a jig head. I started with the lure rod and caught a couple of perch of about half a pound straight away, but then the bites from the lure rod dried up and the remaining 6 fish (all 4 to 12 oz) were all on real worm. I had hoped the lure (about 2.5 inche
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The Flying Tench in general

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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

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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

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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

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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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Near blank at Speen Moors

A friend mentioned he'd had some reasonable roach at SM in the summer, and I thought I'd see if they were still there. Other commitments usually mean I can't get to the bank till about 2.30pm at the moment, and today it was nearly 3pm before I had a line in the water.   Trotted magic bread as usual. Amazed how much water was coming through, given the recent lack of rain. Just 3 small ones and I didn't have the feeling there was going to be anything of note; and then there was quite a heavy sh
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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My next PB 21.6.19

At the start of a new season, in case it's of any interest to anyone, here are my pbs so far. The question is, how to improve at least one of them this season given that I'm a bit of a cushy 'pleasure angler', not into all night stints and with health issues hindering also:   roach 1lb 9oz River Farm Lake, Fareham Oct 2009 float single caster rudd 2lb 2oz Aquatek Lake, Woolhampton May 2009 float single maggot dace 7oz River Kennet,
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Monster Watching - Mon 17th May

Syndicate lake 7.30-9pm WT 16degC   A lovely mild, calm evening (18degC) with flies hatching everywhere - so different from a month ago. The initial plan was to try for some carp on dog biscuit. I had seen them in two places in shallow water earlier in the day, but one place was now dominated by a swan - not great for fishing on the top - and I couldn't see any carp in the other, and nothing took my free offerings.   So, plan B which was to try for a big rudd where I had one last year, in
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Monday December 7th

10am to 12 noon. As a result of yesterday's recce and 20 mph winds forecast I decided to miss the river for once and fish Dixons for roach in a sheltered spot. Air temp forecast 9deg C, though I didn't have a water thermometer, seemed mild enough for it not to be too hard. Started with float, but switched to maggot feeder when the wind moved round a bit to the west. 14 foot deep. Tried two swims on Dixons plus a few minutes on the Moor Ditch. Not a touch. Had fished the morning as Metcheck fore
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Monday Dec 14th

2.45pm - 4.30pm. AT 5C, but felt quite mild with little wind.   Today I had an assignation with the Lambourn ladies, though I was a little nervous how they would greet me as I have ignored them for the last year. I have also largely ignored my AN 'pin since Santa brought it last Christmas - at least, I have never used it on a pacey water, which the Lambourn is in parts. So this was an attempt to put both omissions right. It was also the first time I have used my Greys rod with its extension
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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