fruitloopy

I went to a spot on the River Nene by a weir pool, someone else was fishing the fast flowing water so I setup my light feeder rod with a running leger 2oz grippa lead, size 6 hook and 3 dendra worms on the hook, tails nipped off. I cast into a swirly bit of water (sorry if this description is silly) and tightened up. I dont have much experience of rivers but I really want to do better...plus I SOOOO want a barbel. I see 12 year old girls catching double figure barbel in Angling Times mag so why cant I? Anyway...Once tightened up I notice that my quiver tip varies from slowly bending round and straightening back up again to occasional knocks. I was guessing the bending round slowly thing could be reeds or other underwater debris floating into and getting stuck on the line, then peeling off. I would hope the occasional knocks are line bites but probably debris again. I did catch a small perch and that bite seamed to be quite different but am I missing bites? What should I be looking for? A complete whack round? Or will that only happen with a hair rigged self hooking setup? I'll be back there tonight to fish into darkness.

I am all for recycling...why just dump stuff when it can be reused? I am all for saving energy...it can save me money and leaving the TV & other stuff on standby is just a waste. No-one likes waste. I like driving a much smaller car that I used to have...it saves me LOTS of money. I agree with re-insulating my loft...again, it saves me money and keeps me warmer in winter. I dont like the government threatening to take me to court if I dont recycle properly. I dont want to be taxed into doing or not doing something when other countries dont do anything to help the 'potential' situation. If India and China make no changes and contribute much more to gases, cows farting, CO2, etc than we do then whats the point in me paying my government more taxes to waste my time? Much more study needs to be done, none of the current 'evidence' is conclusive or 100% reliable and still much more needs to be discovered. Papers will still generate scaremongering headlines...they do this to sell papers to the ignorant. TV will still come up with shocking news and documentaries...they do this to sell programmes. Politicians will still create a tax for something that they dont completely understand...they like having two or three properties to live in. Scientists will still come up with "facts" when they are just elaborated theories and probabilities...they want to keep working as scientists and getting a paper published is something to be proud of. The world keeps spinning, the human race remains ignorant and hypocritical until we die out and something else comes along. If anyone of you here can tell me EXACTLY what needs to be done to solve this situation we appear to be in then please elaborate, the world is listening. If not then whats the point of arguing? Be nice, get on with your lives and GO FISHING! Maybe the aliens will save us?

One thing I learnt with keeping worms on barbless hooks is to cut off a small bit of rubber in whatever colour you like and put this on the hook after you've put the worm on. It also helps to push the worm further along the bend of the hook to expose more of the hook point. I think I probably read it here somewhere.

I really like those signs Barry. At the very least I may try and see if the council will let me display them at the site somewhere. Of course, as this is Peterborough (and many of the beer cans are Polish) I may have to get a few different translations for the myriad of nationalities we have here.

As long as you have the license number/code then you'll be fine. I keep mine on my mobile and my mobile is always on me, my license isnt. I was confronted with an EA official a few weeks back for the first time. I said I didnt have the license on me (its in my wallet which was back in the car) but I could give him the number, he said "No, thats fine" and moved to the next person.

I never thought about the lawsuit society we live in these days, I guess I was being naive to think this would just be a jolly jaunt for like minded people to clear up a lovely spot. I suppose the only over way is a clandestine operation with us all wearing dark clothes and balaclavas, turn up at midnight and get on with the job ourselves. Somehow I cant see it working. Thanks for bringing that to my attention Bluerinse, I'm still going to try to find out who is responsible for the site and see what can be done. I do know now that it is a nature reserve, but as far as nature reserves go its a bloody tip!

Richard - take a look at THIS great article about fishing for perch on commercial carp waters by Steve Burke, a chap who knows lots about Perch. He has a 3 part series on Perch fishing, almost a bible for those who want to hunt for 'ol stripey. Part One Part Two Part Three

I'll try and find out who owns the land, although I should imagine its the local council. I like the idea of a clean-up, BBQ and beer party though! I dont suppose there are any forum members who live nearby who would be interested in joining in?

I fished a nice lake in a public spot down London Road, Peterborough on Sunday. It used to be a brick pit I think and apparantly now contains a good head of Tench, roach and perch. Someone mentioned big carp in here but someone ALWAYS seems to mention big carp in any unknown water. The problem (and one that many are most likely familiar with) is that a lot of kids, teenagers and probably adults go along with carrier bags full of beer, food & questionable fishing tackle, eat and drink the lot then leave it all behind. I dont understand that bit...surely it weighs much less afterwards so why not take it away with you? I am concerned that places like these which are most likely owned by the local councils cost money to be maintained and if the council decide to cut the budget (a yearly occurence) then they may decide to either sell the place to a club/syndicate or just close it up and fill the lake in for health and safety reasons. From talking to others it seems there used to be a lot of council or local authority owned lakes that you could fish for free or very little money around the country but you dont get them much anymore. I know of four such lakes in Peterborough and I'd like them to stay free. I was thinking about trying to organise a clear up operation and getting some volunteers together, maybe even get the local newspapers involved to at least highlight the issue. Where do I start? Has anyone done this sort of thing before?

Now THAT is a lovely picture. Thanks Emma. Where was it taken?

I'm just wondering if others have found this weekend to be a bit...difficult? As a returner to fishing I'm not quite in tune with how our lovely seasons affect the fishing so I apologise if this is a stupid topic. I fished a good commercial (I caught almost bugger all last weekend so I wanted a confidence booster) on Saturday and spent almost twelve hours watching a float that didnt move. I know we all have good and bad days but this is the second weekend when I havent had it too good at all. And then I see those smiling bloody faces in the angling times holding up double figure barbel!! B4stards!! Can anyone take me river fishing? I'm not very good at it. So...how was your weekends fishing?

Why is there always someone who has to make or receive a loud mobile phone call when they are fishing? On saturday I spent a wonderful 12 hours fishing one lake but what seemed like every half hour this obnoxious prat at the other end of the lake made or received a phone call. It was like that comedy show (cant remember what it was called) when you had the guy with the ridiculously oversized mobile phone shouting "I'M IN THE LIBRARY!!" The ringtone was some sort of latest dance track played at the loudest volume. Mate, if your on this forum. PUT IT ON SILENT!!! Sorry. I feel a bit better now. Thanks.

I'm a bit surprised you havent had many replies yet, but then I usually reply when I get back to work on a monday (no, I dont do much work!) so maybe others are the same. As far as rods and reels go you cant do better than going to your local tackle shop and getting some recommendations and then trying them out. Its not just about reviews and stuff but how they feel to you personally. There is something to be said for the perfect balance you feel in your hand, wrist and forearm with a nicely matched rod and reel. That said, I can recommend the Shimano Exage 4000 RA reel, it has a fighting drag mechanism that really works quite well. Plus it looks and feels very solid and reliable. There was an affiliate offer on here at only £35 from Trevs tackle but it looks like that offers gone, maybe Elton could confirm this? As for rods, I cant help you and I do feel this is a personal choice which is why I recommend the tackle shop. If they seem unwilling to help then go somewhere else. As a returning fisherman I would say that not too much has changed in the float fishing world so just keep it simple and love every minute!

Very interested, must confess to being abit nervous about the old esox, especially as my recent post states that I caught a 7lb'er on lobworm the other night.

I know what you mean, I was fishing a lake on a hot, reasonably windy day. The scum on the surface of the lake was washing up on the bank so I decided to fish there. As I sat on the bank getting my tackle set up I saw movement by my feet. My feet were inches from where the lake water was lapping on the bank and I saw a 6lb carp with his lips above the scum practicaly beaching himself on the bank! I could have easily scooped the little fella up in my landing net. I know its not completely sporting but I dangled the pellet I had on the hook about 2 inches away from his mouth on the top of the water, he moved and sucked it in. 1 minute later he was in the net. They do come in VERY close! Very much in agreement with Chesters1, once the angler buggers off for the evening there can be lots of activity around his peg because he's probably thrown the rest of his bait in. Maggots, groundbait, hemp, etc has all gone in close to the bank. Sometimes I'll move to his peg once he's gone! Thats probably not completely sporting either...sorry

If anyone reads this and is thinking..."You cant catch Pike on Lobworm!" then I would have thought that up until this evening. I have been out fishing since 8am this morning and caught several very small Perch and Roach but mostly bugger all. I was getting some strange bites but not connecting with them. Suddenly at about 6:30pm the float shot under with my lobworm on the hook. I struck and immediately wondered what I had as it didnt fight like a tench, carp or bream. I got it closer and netted my biggest pike so far, a PB at just 4lb (I dont do much pike fishing). 10 minutes later, on Dendras this time, I hooked into another smaller jack pike at 1lb. The light had fadded so I put on a starlight and two dendras, a couple of minutes later the light attached to the float started travelling slowly to my left. I had gone about 3 feet when it sunk under and I struck. It took a few seconds to realise it had been hooked but once it did it did its best to shake me off. I caught another PB pike of 7lb! I packed up after that, I was hungry and needed beer! Is it normal to catch pike on worms? I'll get some pics on here later.

I have informed the EA about a problem with the system when you are buying a license for someone else. Once you have entered their details it goes on to the payment and it carries over the address of the recipient and not the payee. I bought another 8 day license for a friend a couple of weeks ago and it still wasnt fixed. It doesnt affect the payment but I can see how it may put others off.

Not having tried it myself I am not best to comment but I would say go with strategy no. 2. I think if you get there 2-3 hours before sunset, try to spot where the fish are feeding and start baiting up that area then it may work better. Maybe even during those daylight hours just feed them to gain there confidence, any hook bait you chuck in after sunset should be immediately taken. I'm going to try it myself this weekend, the nights are drawing in so it means I can effectively fish into dark for a couple of hours and still get home at a reasonable time.

I've seen this idea around for a while but never thought I would have a use for it. But I just cant resist the child in me from having a play with one so I got this one HERE for £31.98 inc postage...and it hasnt come from bloody Hong Kong either! It even has a BB pellet gun on the top for getting rid of the swans! :::I didnt say that...just joking::: I think one or two mesh cups tied or glued to the wheels would do better as I could see on the video that the plastic tub may get dragged under on when bringing it back up. I'll also keep it attached to an old butt section of a rod and old reel with the bail arm off just in case it goes out of range or stops working. Love it!

These guys used to have a shop in a shopping centre near to where I work in Peterborough. I would frequently pop in at lunch or after work and have a chat plus buy some good stuff. They're re-modelling the whole area so they havent been there for months now, I hope they come back to the centre though. I always good advice from them, especially as I was just starting out and didnt know where to go.

I think the usual advice about fishing in winter is to feed less than you would in winter so for instance if you were to feed 8-10 maggots in a catapult in the summer than 2-4 would be better. Wrap up warm, invest in some thermal long sleeve shirts and long johns, take a big flask, chocolate and plenty of food with you. I also invested in some thermal welly boots and its the best thing I got. Lovely toasty toes means the difference to me of a good days winter fishing or bad. I'm afraid I dont fish canals so cant offer any experience there. Trotting in winter usually involves holding back the float more than in the winter to give the fish a longer chance to take it when they are cold and lethargic.

I tend to break them in half and put both halves on the hook and this seems to get me bites that I can connect to. I do also tend to lose one of these halves either during the cast or when I get a bite so I'll be following the elastic band advice as well, especially the red ones as this could encourage a Perch to go for it.

I found the Great Rod Race and Record Breaking Fish by Matt Hayes and Mick Brown to be very entertaining because of the challenge, the good partnership that the two presenters had and because it showed the highs and lows of fishing. They had some crap days and some very good days. Also there were some handy hints and tips for each species but it didnt go into too much detail which non-anglers would find boring. The problem is that it has to appeal to a much larger audience than just anglers because if a show is to be aired its got to bring in the viewing figures that justify its existence. This is why the beeb doesnt do them anymore, they're too concerned with beating ITV with figures, targets, etc rather than offering the mix of quality non-biased programming thats in their charter. I just love the Passion for Angling and Caught in Time shows and cant wait for the Catching the Impossible series. While I couldnt give a monkeys if it didnt air on a free to air channel because I will be the first to buy it on DVD it doesnt encourage future producers to get involved if there's no takers. But does this matter now if thier DVD & book sales are so good? I think a mix of showing the natural and peacefull aspects of fishing, the good we can do to the environment AND the bad that some do, some education and the excitement of catching fish with good presenters who dont woop and yee-haw like Mr Green will do it for me.

Me and 3 other lads booked ourselves into Cobbleacre Lakes campsite this weekend, total cost of camping is £91.50 for 2 tents and 1 gazebo for 3 nights. I thought this was rather expensive when I first made the booking but thought it would be a great campsite and include fishing costs. I was wrong on both counts. When we got there we couldnt find a camp reception, just signs to the lakes so we followed them. We found a tackle shop which was closed and nothing else so I had to phone the office which seems to be close by somewhere. They told us to just pitch our tent on the grass and the bailiff might be there later. We pitched on the only peice of flat, non waterlogged grass we could find and once the tents were up and we had settled down to a couple of beers the bailiff arrived and said this was not our pitch. We said sorry but no-one was around when we got here so this is where we are camping. He just walked off, he didnt tell us anything about the place, facilities, local knowledge such as local shops & pubs, etc. The facilities were: A toilet shower block which consisted of a toilet and a shower tray with a curtain around it plus a sink with no hot water. There were two doors marked A & B but we dont know what they were. The "washing up area" was two stainless steel sinks with no taps or drainage attached to them. A tackle shop which is only open once the bailiff turns up. There was a burger van on Saturday as well. There is also a concessional rate for fishing which applies to caravaners...but not campers! The fishing wasnt great either but I dont think we can blame the fishery for that as the weather was quite changeable and cold. So £91.50 for the weekend works out to £15.25 per tent per night which, when compared to the £16 per tent per night 5 star campsite I stayed at last year is quite expensive, especially considering the severe lack of facilites, staff or helpfullness of the place. The fact that fishing was not included or discounted was even more of a kick in the knickers. Its fine as a fishery but I really dont recommend camping there, its very expensive for what you get. Camp somewhere down the road and go to this place to fish by all means but dont waste your money by staying there. I dont want to slag off a fishery because the lakes are very nice and I am sure there's plenty in there but I am using this topic to warn others that camping there is just not worth it.

They said it was gangs in brand new land rovers netting 20+ brown trout and whatever else they get in the net out of the rivers and selling them on. I didnt have tiome to absorb the whole report but apparantly the action the police are going to take is one of creating awareness that these poachers are not lovable rouge who just need to feed there family (cos this isnt the 1920's) but actual criminals. Not sure what else they are going to do about it.