bluerinse

They all look unused, It does make you wonder how they end up in a boot sale for a Fiver Well done

If you think that’s good you should try rook squab and squirrel pie Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

I was fishing the Avon at Stratford yesterday, I was catching bleak for live bait when a young lad about 7 or 8 came up and asked what I had caught, I showed him my live bait and he laughed, he said what do you call those they are tiny, I am and expert fisherman and I can catch big carp. Why waste your time catching those if you go to the carp lake that my dad knows you can catch big fish. I tried to explain that these were live bait but he didn’t get it and basically laughed at me. I did feel a little sad but I guess most kids only know carp lakes; I worry for the future of our sport.

No the Zander ate them all

I don't deign that it takes dedication, but I am sure the top anglers are equally dedicated; I am sure the England world cup team practise every day for many hours. It’s like comparing someone that goes bike ridding at the weekends with someone who bikes everyday. “Going fishing” is a pass time the same as going for a bike ride Being top in your field is completely different You can't become top of your sport with out putting in hours, effort and dedication.

well done, I am glad you had a great day, this is a lesson for all fish, I have caught roach and tench with a simmlar method Nice post.

Sometimes they just don’t want to feed. As a kid I fished a secret lake that was full of small perch. Like you if you caught one early in the session then you knew you were going to catch all day, I used to catch hundreds. Other days it did not matter what you did you just did not catch. You knew the fish were there but they just were not feeding. This always seemed to happen when I took a friend. I had told them you could catch a Hundred or more perch and they would arrive all excited and then blank and never return. It seems that perch can switch off the feed; it might be air pressure, or wind direction or water temperature I don’t know. I do know that when I first started fishing the lake there were only perch in it, but 3-4 years later on roach and Gudgen showed up. If the perch weren’t feeding normally the others were. I would say that the perch failed to show 1 in every 5 sessions. It could even be fish one day and catch, fish the next no fish and fish the following day and catch. Strange but there you go that’s fishing. You can see this pattern on rivers too, You might catch a mixed bag of fish including perch one day and the next another mixed bag but no perch from the same swim. It defiantly is a perch thing.

Well if these are Olympic sports why not fishing Ping pong Horse riding Canoeing Shooting Archery Ding sailing Rowing Fencing Judo Bike ridding These are all pass times on a par with Fishing, We have world championships the same as all the above mentioned sports, we have a structured league system, and we have a governing body. We have clear rules and regulations I see no reason why Fishing could not be included.

Older readers will remember the late John Sidley who used to write in the Angling Times in the 70s, an Eel fanantic (and pal of Mick Brown apparently too), he would advocate 'loose feeding' Eel swims with dead hedgehogs and other road kill. I regularly fished with John as a Kid (more like followed him about, I was 10 -11 years old) at Earlswood lakes, he was also a dedicated Pike angler but was properly better know for his eel tactic’s, I can confirm that he advocated a sack of dead animals weighted down and thrown in as the best method to attract eels, he would say give it a week or more and you would be right on the eels. He was also convinced Earlswood lakes held the British eel record. I recall him catching a huge eel on a frog spoon when fishing for pike at Earlswood. As a kid the eel looked as big as an anaconda, I Know it was on the front cover of the angling times, I wonder if anyone knows how big it was.

I would suggest that you are missing bites as you are not in contact with your flies, if you feel the take for just an instance that normally means you are feeling the fish coming off, it is very important to keep in contact, if you have slack line or to large a bow in the line it is hard to lift into the bites. A very very slow retrieve will counter the bow and keep you in contact. I presume you are fishing large water and not a river. if you are on a large water fishing 3 fly’s is fine, try a heavy fly on the point a CDC on the top dropper and a buzzer on the middle dropper you can then fish at 3 different levels of water, I would fish with a 15 - 20 ft leader once you find were the fish are feeding you can change all your fly’s to target that level be it on the top, 5ft 10ft or even 20ft. once you find the fish then it does not matter to me if I fish one or three fly's you will catch and with most places having a limit I tend to fish one fly otherwise I have caught my limit and have to leave.

Bronze maggots are the worst in respect of dyed fingers, if I se a couple of pints it takes me two weeks to get the dye out of my skin. I end up looking like a chain Smoker

Its true that is a big fish but we also caught smaller fish in the 4-5lb bracket on a meps 5. You also took the odd perch and Zander on the Meps and the perch were sometims as small as the Lure. I also from time to time hooked Salmon parr that were about 8oz on the size 5 Meps!!!

That is really interesting for me; I have never tried prawn or heard of prawn being used for perch. How well does it work? How do you fish it? Float mid water or hard on the bottom? Has anyone else caught perch on prawn, I might like to give it a go. I know a water were I have been looking for something different for the big perch. Any experience of using prawns for perch would be gladly received

Certain waters fish better with certain colours, this could be that that a particular colour matches best a natural food source such as nymphs or shrimp, or it could just be the case that the particular maggot colour stands out better in that water. The river Avon in Warwickshire is renowned for producing better catches to bronze maggots, why I can’t tell you but I can tell you, you catch more with Bronze maggots!

The biggest problem with bogus insurance claims is that the honest person such as me ends up paying higher annual fees to cover the cost of the bogus claims. It is a selfish act that shows the caricature of the man, add this to the fish smuggling crime and you get a picture of the personality of the Man. Not someone that should be representing our sport. I don't care what or if there are extenuating personal circumstances he should know better. It looks like he has now lost a mayor source of his income as a result. He only has himself to blame and will now I am sure slip into angling obscurity. How different it could have been for him if he had chosen to stay on the straight and Narrow.

When I lived in Sweden the best method for sea trout was with out a doubt spinning, a size 5 copper Meps, I always used to fish the first hour of day break, the sea trout were still moving to there daytime resting places, if the fish were running they would be leaping about, a big copper Meps is deadly, I have had sea trout up to 12kg. After an hour the fish stop moving and you will be lucky to find them with a spinner, it is then time to fish a prawn under a float, you need a pike float with a heavy weight, you then have to search behind boulders and into undercut banks to find the fish. Slow hard fishing but you will catch the occasional fish. Using a fly first thing will also catch fish, but spinning will catch you more. You can cover the water better and fish deeper if need be, the flash of the copper is irresistible to the sea trout. I presume these tactics would be similar in the UK.

Woops, it never crossed my mind you might be a minor, If you are take your mom or dad with you if someone offers to give you some lessons. "It depends on how old you are of course, if you're a minor don't go meeting oddballs (like Bluerinse ) off the net!" Oddball? me? you might be right but perfectly safe.

My advice would be go fishing with an experienced angler. Most anglers would be happy to show you the ropes. Were do you live? Someone on here may even be happy to go with you. Perhaps join a local angling club or just go to a venue were there are a lot of anglers and ask if you can quietly watch someone. Buy a good angling magazine and read up tactics or buy one of the many books on how to fish and have a read. If you are Warwickshire based I will be happy to take you fishing Cheers and good luck

I was feeding blackberries to chub and dace yesterday as I walked my dog along side the river Arrow. the dace came for them first but then the chub pushed them out.

Hi Chris It depends what you are after? Generally I like to fish the whole worm, hooked at the head end once. I tend to use half worms or sections when float fishing in the winter but still always start with a whole worm. Were are you fishing? What type of fish will you catch? Cheers

Try using big worms; you can still hide the hook in the bait even if you use a size 10. Bait the area with chopped worm. Vagabonds advice is spot on with regards to location and time of day. It can also pay to pre bait an area. Spend a week each day baiting an area (as described by Vagabond) with sweet corn, and mashed bread. And some chopped worm. Then early in the morning creep up to the area and lower a nice fat worm into the swim, the action should be pretty quick. Good luck and let us know how you get on.

THE END

Work! Whats that?

Tigger you don't have to worry about hoards of UK residents rushing out to catch kill and eat a fish, 99.9999% of the Uk population would not know how to gut, clean and prepare a fish, they are horrified at the prospect, (most households would not own a knife for the job either) if the fish does not come frozen, filleted, wrapped in batter or breadcrumbs they won't touch it. Which when you think about it is amazing for an Island Race.

But I could argue that hardly anyone in the UK eats pike, but it is common practise in the east. If you believe what is written here all the fish in the east have been eaten, which is not the case. Pike in the UK are properly killed less now than at any time in the UK history. Pike would have been on the UK menu for thousands of years and guess what there still here.