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the downs and ups of a pleasure angler

Entries in this blog

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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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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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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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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24 and 25 Oct 2016 Britford Hants Avon

I booked into a B&B for one night to enable me to explore this well known fishery where there are still big roach. Though not for me on this occasion. The first thing that struck me was how amazingly clear it was, and I fully understood it when Stuart, the river keeper, told me there wasn't enough colour for roach. So I spent my time exploring and catching rainbow trout, plenty of grayling, and some small chub. Nothing big, but enjoyable fishing. And I shall return when the conditions are mo
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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31.10.16 Kennet Weirpool

11am to 3pm The forecast was a bright clear day with high pressure, and I was unable to make dusk - and unwilling to make dawn! I decided to visit a weir pool which I used to fish when I was in Newbury, and which used to hold a good shoal of decent sized perch, to see whether my new art of ultra-lite, taught to me by Kappa, landed more fish on the bank than I used to get by traditional spinning. Though the water level was very low, and I wasn't sure how 'up for it' the perch would be.   Short
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench

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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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2.9.21 Jack-Attack!

I returned to Swift Ditch where the swim had gone dead on maggot feeder, though my first experiment was to try float fishing with hemp'n tares in a slightly different swim. In an hour I had just 3 roach, all no more than 3 inches long. I don't know how the greedy little fish could eat such a large bait as a tare! I wasn't fishing well, partly because I had set up too log a rod for the various trees and bushes. So I switched to a ledger rod, and moved back to where the swim had died the day
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench in general

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Grove Pond - Hemp and Tares 25.6.2021

5.15 - 7.15pm. I'd had a crack at the roach with hemp and tares a couple of days ago, but was frustrated by very few hook-ups. This time I did much better. I wondered if the tare was sliding round the hook and masking the point. Switching from size 16 to 14 helped a lot. They were still very fast, tricky bites but I managed 23 roach and one rudd up to half a pound or just over.
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench in general

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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
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench in general

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general

Grove Pond 31.5.23 Mixed Bag

This is mainly to let you know I'm still around, though it's a while since I went fishing - mainly because of the state of the Thames, and then waiting for the lakes to warm up. Today I went to find a new lake at Standlake called Lincoln's Lake. Problem, I never found it! Doh! So I drove down to Grove Pond and had an enjoyable time float fishing maggot. Almost no bites from small roach, but a 2lb carp, 3.5lb tench, 11oz crucian. I'll let you know when I find LL!
The Flying Tench

The Flying Tench in general

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