Stretpegger

Slightly off topic here but for those venturing to Barton Court for the first time next March you might want to take a fixed spool outfit as well.Some sections of the fishery have minimal flow and even the most free running centrepins will struggle to pull line off the drum.

I had been tipped the wink that this fishery had turned up some big Roach so i had primarily gone there with Roach in mind.Never did find the Roach though...story of my angling life! On the whole it was mainly chub to about four pounds and some nice dace and of course the aforementioned six grayling.

Truly remarkable, this mans determination to enjoy his fishing is incredible.

Although i have caught Grayling from most of the well known grayling rivers in southern england it is the less known streams where grayling occasionally put in a appearance that mean the most to me. Going back a couple of years i had six grayling in consecutive casts from the Windrush, but despite visiting the venue a few more times that winter no more turned up.More locally i have had the odd one from the Enbourne over the years and going back over 20 years a brace of pounders from the Pang.

Added my vote Condolances to Dannys family.

Welcome Alistair, there are a few guys on here from the Newbury/West Berks area any questions just shout....oh and welcome to the site as well.

Although i was never a member of FM i did look in from time to time but not recently so i cannot comment on its alleged decline but it did seem a decent enough site. clicking on the link and looking at the various associated threads it seems that there is lot of talk about trying to carry on the site in one form or another.I would hazard a guess that a lot of this is based on sentiment without any understandintg of the practicalities of running a site such as this but good luck to them none the less.

Some bloke called Izaak Walton, never heard of him

Thanks for the help chaps, good old Daiwa at least they still cater for us simple maggot drowners! PS Nice to meet you yesterday Rusty, if by any chance you do get down to the Whitehouse stretch let us know how you get on.The odd snippet of information that comes my way suggests it could hold a few surprises, and its definitely on my places to visit list after christmas. PPS Nice result yesterday from the fast carrier Steve that was quite clearly grayling central! Trust me to go straight from the main river to the slow carrier without even wetting a line there!

Saturday night while sorting out my gear for the Timsbury Fish-in i picked up my bait apron from the shed only to find that it fell to pieces.No doubt due that in my carelessness i had packed it away damp and still containing the odd remnant of bait which the local mice population had greatly appreciated! As a result yesterday i had to constantly bend down to my maggot box perched awkwardly on top of my shoulder bag when wanting to introduce loose feed which i found annoying and inefficient.My old bait apron was a cloth market traders style money pouch that i had aquired years ago.Looking in two local tackle shops this morning it appears that they are hard to find these days.In fact i got very similiar response from both shops, along the lines of we dont do them anymore as there are no float anglers left on the rivers! Anyone know if such items are still available or even still manfactured? Im talking about proper match angler bait aprons here not the cloth money pouches

Home at last wet bedraggled and a thumping headache but content with a goods days fishing in pleasant surroundings and good company.Snow when i stepped out the front door this morning had me initially worried but this had turned to light drizzle by the time i made it to the fishery, and by late morning the rain had moved on to be replaced with intermittant sunshine and a blustery wind. Fish wise a pound rainbow and two small grayling was my lot from the river all three coming from near the downstream boundary.Moving onto the slow carrier at midday to escape the wind i sat it out on the quivertip for the rest of the day adding two perch and a gudgeon to my tally.No more fish came my way but i was more than happy just to be on the bank after not being able to get out at all these past few weeks. On a more personal note it was nice to put some faces to names at long last after being a AN member for just under a year.Sorry i did not get to say hello to everyone and apologies for shooting off early but my head was really thumping.Sorry also for not helping out clearing up the bacon rolls but the offer of a carrot roll was tempting! cheers Budgie. Last many thanks to Tony and Sue for organising the fish-in...cheers guys.

My bait menu consists of 2 pints of bronze with a sprinkling of reds half a pint of casters small tin of corn small bag of liquidised bread and some microwave zapped slices for hookbaits not to mention a large slice of luck and boundless optimism.

The best by a country mile has to be Masterline for me, prompt courteous and they treat you like a human being not an annoying nuisance. The worst is not a major tackle manufacturer but a certain essex tackle shop who sent the wrong rods to me not once but TWICE! Another endearing quality of their Del Boy style of trading is when i asked to be put through to their mail order dept only to be given a mobile number of some bloke who appered to be in the bath when i called....Quality!

Spoke to a friend of mine who was at Timsbury a couple of days ago.He found it hard going even in the relatively mild conditions that prevailed at the time, with the much talked about temperature crash we are due for the weekend it could be grim Most of his catch consisted of small grayling and most of them came from one swim!....apperently long sections of the river seemed devoid of fish.There were a couple of optimists on the slow carrier legering flake for the fabled roach but with no joy. Still i am looking forward to this day out immensely despite the prophet of doom tone of my post. See you all on Sunday.

Without doubt it would be a two pound roach for me but if i was being really picky i would prefer a river two pounder please. In an angling career getting on for 40 yrs now i have had precisely two roach over two pounds and both of those were caught in matches on lakes.Having already stated my preference for a river"two" im putting in the time on a local lake this winter after it turned up some big roach last year. Of the others on the list i have achieved some and come close to others but the one that stands out for me is pike.I am by no means a mainstream pike angler but i usually have two or three trips out each winter and considering what little time i devote to them i have been unusually lucky in catching the biggies.This probulary due in no part to the fact that i am put on good waters by my angling buddie who is a very talented piker. One fish not on the list that i would really like to meet up with is a big eel.The memory of a carp angler landing a five pound eel from the next swim has stayed with me for years.

The main river is gorgeous, you can see the trout and grayling holding station in the clear water. Where the river runs shallow you often can't see any fish, but if you trot some maggots down you'll magically catch them... a friend of mine caught the most beautiful chub I've ever seen last year in horrendous conditions, it was absolutely mint. The trotting is great fun, this will be the first time I'll have tried with the fly. Should be interesting! I'm getting a bit excited too now Hi Anderoo Intigued by your mention of the Chub, are there a decent head of them in the river? As in all my previous visits to Timsbury(admittedly this was several years ago) i have never come across them.

Clocked the trailers on YouTube a few says ago, amazing footage but then i would expect nothing else less from Hugh Miles. As for Martin Bowler well there is no doubting his talent as an exceptional angler so if he lacks the smooth presentational style of a "pro" then i can live with that.Unfortunately a certain Mr Taylor makes a guest apperance, now he really irritates me and has done for years but that minor blip apart i will be purchasing my copies ASAP

As has already been mentioned issues such as time of year,the target species and angling pressure all have to taken into account.Personally if i am on a unfamiliar venue i always like to "feel" my way into a session so inevitably start with modest amounts of loose feed, upping the quantities if the fish respond.If the fish continue to feed confidently then and only then might i consider groundbait.Im not talking a bombardment of grapefruit size "depthcharges" but rather egg size say every other cast. BTW an excellent and free groundbait is molehill soil.Colours the water nicely has next to no food content and will take quite large quantities of maggots and casters yet still breaks down readily underwater.

Cheers Budgie...thats also my prefered feeder i cannot fail now, famous last words!

Looks like everyone is thinking about the Roach in the slow carrier...me included! Was also thinking of sitting it out there on legered bread.Has anyone ever legered on the main river? if so what sort of weight are we talking to hold bottom assuming the river is at normal height.

Will take your word for it Chris as i no longer fish there.For the sort of money they are asking i want one pounders in every swim!

To be honest any match/float rod will be suitable for grayling so really it comes down to personal choice really.All the major manufacturers will have a suitable rod in their range, although make sure you go for a more general purpose float rod rather than a power/stepped up version as these are aimed at commercial carp bagging. For all my light line float fishing for grayling,dace,roach,rudd and chub i use a Preston Innovations Sentient(the 14ft version).This is a very forgiving rod and has a more tip to middle action rather than the more tippy action of traditional stick float rods.I use it with confidence even with very light lines and can easily handle waggler fishing as well.I believe Preston discontinued it several months ago, i do knot know if they have a similiar rod in their new range.I think there is a super sentient range of rods but have no knowledge of their intented uses.

In my experience big dace are often found with shoal members of varying sizes even towards the back end of the season when all the text books suggest that the whoppers form their own mini shoals.For that reason i am usually happy to remain in the same swim if i am on a "shedfull" only moving if they go off the feed or a predator moves in. My two best dace of 1lb each captured from the worryingly named Pansy Pool came on a day when it was a fish a chuck for most of the morning.With ranging from a few ounces up to the one pound whoppers. As for baits i would not look further than maggots and casters myself, i have seen bread mentioned as a dace bait but it has never done the business for me.Although in a swim containing dace and roach the bread will trip up the roach.

John In that article i was telling you about he was using pineapple flavoured red maggots.Trouble is all he caught on them were tench! However i assume he caught on the same flavour throughout the winter, there was no mention of flavour levels per pint but would err on the side of caution myself.

The Kennet at Barton Court is excellent for pike.Over a year since i was last there and to be honest i primarily have Roach and Dace in mind when fishing there.But the good head of pike present persuaded me to take a pike rod along as well and have a crack at them whenever any opportunities presented themselves.ie as in any obvious pike strikes when playing fish.