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the downs and ups of a pleasure angler

Entries in this blog

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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Zig Rig 19.8.13

7.45 - 8.45pm The aim of the session was simply to catch a carp on a zig rig - something I've never done. My interest in this came from a time when I was trying to catch a carp on the top from what is now really a specimen lake, and they felt all round the dog biscuit to see if there was any suspicious line there. It occurred to me that if I had the bait a foot or two down with the line coming up from a running lead below the carp might come at it from above and not encounter the line. The lake
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Lure fishing for perch 12.8.13

7.15-8.45pm I went back to the spot where I fished yesterday, this time armed with a spring balance in the hope of catching a 'three'. I know lure fishing is meant to be mobile, but for minor health reasons I'm a bit limited how far I can walk, and also on this occasion I wanted to concentrate on this swim.   I started off with the Mepps Firetiger, as yesterday. 'Bang', first cast a nice perch of about 2lbs which got off at the net - drat, hope it won't scare the shoal. Second cast, a smaller
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Mepps Aglia Firetiger No3 11 August 2013

8.15 to 8.45pm A short session to see if I could catch a perch spinning at a hotspot on the canal. My first cast hit the water with too much of a splash well short of where it was meant to go, but still, just as I was about to finish the retrieve, a good fish was on - about 2lb, but annoyingly I had forgotten my scales. Amazingly I had fish on each of the next 3 casts, one more about 2lb, one a high 'two', and one could well have been a three. I was almost relieved that it wasn't even bigger, a
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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France 27 July to 4 August 2013

A family holiday in the Vendee region of the west of France. I managed three short sessions on local lakes which had all been created by damming little rivers: Apremont, Jaunee and Gue Gorand.   My aim was to try and make contact with some of the local roach. For some reason I reckon some reasonable sized ones will be found in these lakes - though my reason for thinking so is limited to one not very specific comment on a French angling website. In the first two cases I suspected from my exper
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Contrast of 2 lakes 22.7.13

8-9.45pm   We've had 3 weeks of very hot weather by UK standards. It was a choice between surface fishing for carp or trying a weirpool on the theory that the fish would have congregated there because of the higher oxygen level. The carp won.   I was passing by and had a look at Willows, the slightly harder of the 2 lakes from last week, where I couldn't see any surface carp at that time, though I didn't check out all the lake. This week it was very different with loads of dark shapes swimmi
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Warm evening 15.7.13

8 - 10pm We've had a hot, dry July and the most obvious thing to do seemed to me to be to try for some carp off the top. In fact I expected everyone else to think the same, so was surprised when I got to the car park for our easiest carp lakes to find it empty. Do they know something I don't, I wondered?   I catapulted in some dog biscuits in two or three spots, but got no reaction from the fish. This wasn't a total surprise as I had been forewarned by a recent blog by Viney, but the problem
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Spinning for perch 8.7.13

A hot, sunny, clear day. Not exactly a day for perch you might say, except I once read something by Archie Braddock which claimed the opposite. He claimed that in summer the best approach was to go out in the middle of a hot day and trot worm at half depth. Phew! I tried it once a few years ago on the Kennet at Speen Moor. I only had an hour but, to my astonishment, I had a two pound perch! Admittedly I fished in shadow.   Today it was so hot and humid I just didn't feel like fishing till the
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Speen Moor 24.6.13

6.30-9.45pm   The aim of the trip was a general recce as to how SM was looking, and also to try and catch a decent dace as I had heard some had come out recently. And my pb is a mingy 6.5 oz!   The first swim was challenging with a swift flow, and as I was trotting and feeding maggots by hand the bites were all about 20 yds away. First trot down I though I had achieved my objective but, alas, the convex anal fin showed it to be a small chub of about 12oz. It was enjoyable fishing. I caught a
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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The times are a' changin' 17.6.13

Not much to report on the fishing. Yesterday, the glorious 16th, I just had time to check out a couple of swims - and discovered that they are unfishable unless I bring gardening implements. Worth knowing, at least. Then I spent an hour spinning for perch in what I thought was a banker area where the river meets the canal. To give me confidence I started with a small orange spinner, certain that I'd catch a few small ones and could then switch to a bigger lure, but even the tinies weren't inter
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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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

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Roach from a 'commercial' 18.3.13

Court Farm, near Aldermaston 3.45 - 6.30pm A.T. 8degC dropping, W.T. 5degC After all that snow yesterday I wasn't too optimistic, specially when the only other anglers on the lake when I arrived said they hadn't had a touch all day. But I think they had been mainly targeting the normally very willing carp. My challenge, however, was how to avoid said carp. I fished fine, float-fished maggot and caster, and although it was never bite-a-chuck I managed 9 roach, the best about 12 oz, and several
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Blanko ergo sum

.....as the great French mind-angler Rene Dust-carts once said.   I wondered whether to report on my latest blank, and decided that, if I didn't, you might think I no longer exist.   Well I haven't caught much this winter - a mixture of other commitments, minor back trouble, and of course downright (and totally undeserved) bad luck! I've chucked a few spinners, impaled a few lobworms, caught one or two roach and perch, but nothing really worthy of comment. Yesterday was a typical example. Th
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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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

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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

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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

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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
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The Flying Tench

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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

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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

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Lemington Lakes 17.7.12

On the way back from my Wye trip I called on an old friend in Moreton-in-Marsh, and after an excellent lunch went to try Lemington Lakes, a commercial fishery only a mile away. If nothing else it would be an interesting contrast to the Wye! I had seen a feature on the roach fishing there in an angling mag, though I think a lot of the roach have since been transferred from Westminster Lake to Priory Lake and Abbey Lake. After parking the car the first lake I came to was Abbey, and a carp angler t
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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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

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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

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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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Blankety blank

June 4, 18, 25   Just for the record, 3 short dusk sessions. The first on Warwicks Water to try and get some quality roach, the last two on Dobsons to try and connect with the bream. Blank on each occasion apart from a few small roach.   Beautiful evenings, though ............
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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Carp on the top 28.5.12

8.30-10pm. What on earth to do on the evening of a hot bright day? I couldn't better Rusty's recent idea of trying for Carp on the top, though not being quite as perverse as him I went to the 2 lakes nearby that are supposed to have carp in them! I first looked at the bigger lake, but there was no sign of activity, so I tried the smaller easier one.   I then realised I had left some of my tackle behind, so had to go back home and didn't start till 8.30pm. It was amazing - the carp were very a
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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