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the downs and ups of a pleasure angler

Entries in this blog

Hemp'n tares 4.9.14

5.30-8pm. Went to the 'easy Thames' where dog-walkers go, where the banks are clear of nettles, and where there was a decent flow and 7 feet of water one and a half rod lengths out. Ideal for trotting. The aim of the session was to try hemp and tares.   My experience of fishing with hemp is mainly limited to the 'good old days' when I was a teenager. My twin and I got on the Green Line bus from north London to Walton-on-Thames one day, and fished for roach. It was a killer bait in those days
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Gold lame worm 1.9.14

5.30-7.30pm Kennet Spent the first 90 minutes alternately sheltering from the showers and ledgering for a monster chub that got into a snag and broke me up last time. Alas, he wasn't at home - or maybe he objected to the broomhandle and rope approach I used to try and avoid a repeat this time! Spent the last half hour jigging with my gold lame worm with the wiggly tail. It seems fish are appreciative of glamour, and I was pleased to net a 3lb 13oz chub and a 2lb 1 oz perch.
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Ladygrove Park Lake 15.8.14

7.30-9pm A short exploratory session. My aim was to see whether fishing with maggot would tempt any of the better roach, or just get loads of small ones. I baited with 3mm halibut pellets, with maggot on the hook. First bite was a lovely 9 inch roach, and I was optimistic, but I didn't get any bigger ones - though it was 'bite a chuck', and there were several reasonable roach as well as some skimmers. For the last half hour I switched to sweetcorn, and immediately got a better stamp of skimmer,
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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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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Lure fishing for perch 7.7.14

6-9pm I first went to a hotspot on the K&A Canal. Water very clouded. I tossed out my trusty Mepps Aglia and started getting 'knocks'. Now according to the books that is what you expect, but it has never been my experience. Up till now, when I got a 'knock' it meant I had encountered a bit of weed - at least, I think so. But these were too high in the water, and I was fairly sure it was fish. Could this have been linked to the murky conditions? I'd be interested in any views.   Then, aft
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

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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

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Thames trotting failed 16.6.14

7.30 - 10pm I've only lived near Wallingford since 19th March, so this was my first chance to fish the river. I've joined a club that can fish the Thames at Carmel College at Wallingford. This used to be a Jewish boarding school (it was known as the 'Jewish Eton') till the nineties when it had to close for financial reasons. I don't understand what it is used for now apart from being used as a film set for various TV programmes - and for angling, with beautifully prepared swims you can drive yo
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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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

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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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Mixed bag 24.2.14

4-6pm I went to the same swim as the last 2 weeks,where I reckoned a lot of fish would be concentrated to get out of the fast flow, but after getting a pb dace last time I decided to leave the perch and see what other silver fish might be around.   My first approach was with bread over specialist roach ground bait. Immediately I was getting little touches, but they were hard to hook. Then I caught a nice roach of about half a pound, but after that it was very slow so I decided to try maggot o
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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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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Weirpool fish - where are they? 1.1.14

I couldn't resist going out in the howly wowly wind to wet a line, even if it wasn't a very serious attempt to catch fish. Following getting my first 3 fish drop-shotting two days ago I went to a free weirpool to see if I could repeat the trick. I had already seen from the other side of the canal a few days ago that the EA had opened the weir gate wide and there was a mass of water rushing through, with almost no-where that a self respecting perch would want to go. Aha! My logic was this: with m
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Drop-shotting 30.12.13

2.45 - 4.20pm   I had a couple of hours on the CSAS stretch of the Kennet 2 days ago. It was good to meet up with Viney, but we both blanked and I am sure part of the reason was water temperature of 6.5degC. In addition it was rather coloured, about 12" visibility.   Today I went to the private weirpool I visited a couple of weeks ago. Water temp was unchanged from 2 days ago, but the colour had dropped out just a little. My plan was to do some more jigging for perch, but a guy in the tackle
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

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Side-Planer 22.11.13

3-4pm. Cold bright day. Not really a proper session. I fancied giving the side-planer a walk along the flowing canal with a Mepps attached. I've caught jacks on the s-p with wobbled smelt, but never had anything on a lure and I decided to have a go. But I lacked confidence as to what was happening to the lure. There was a fair flow, and not being able to see the lure, and not having direct contact with it, I had little idea how deep it was - and I felt it needed to be near the bottom on such a c
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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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

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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

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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

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Rumour of roach 9.9.13

I had some realistic plans for carp or perch for today, and then I heard a rumour about some good roach in one of the harder gravel pits. Typically, I gave up on the carp and perch and had a crack at the roach. Not a touch! Always the same - me and roach! I won't bore you with the details.
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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The Lost Carp 2.9.13

6.30-9.30pm   Went to an easier water than last week in search of a carp. My plan was to decide when I got there whether to fish on the surface or the bottom, depending how many fish were active up top. There was loads of surface activity, but I realised I had forgotten my fluorocarbon leader and felt that 6lb mono might be a bit light, so fished with a float 12 feet out on the bottom using 8lb soft braid.   I chucked in some dog biscuits and immediately a carp came and snaffled them up, so
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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