wayne baker

I have noticed a decline on my local rivers in the last few years. Once eels were a common occurencs when fishing maggot and worms for other species. I remember reading an article a few years ago about the decline in eels and i must be honest over the years being a pike angler i have taken the odd one for bait or been given some by fellow sea anglers. I sure the conservation minded amungst us will take heed of what you have said. Is the decline in eels a world wide thing or is it just the ones in the UK waters?

Brown bears and wolves use to be native here to. How long before their back? Might make night fishing more exciting.

Well done cp cracking photos

Cheers Peter, Signed.

So i have been told the most popular method of suicide for cormorants is a cable tie round there neck. God knows how they tie them.

Im a bit old fashioned and it took me a while to get round to useing braid. Certainly for my piking i havent regreted it but i still use mono for most of my river fishing and have no problem with it. If your catching fish and happy with mono stick with it

Well i managed to get out on the river yesterday for the last time this season. I managed a few chub, and a couple of half decent roach. Back to work this morning until sunday so no more fishing for me. Good luck to the rest of you if you are venturing out the last few days. Tight lines Wayne

Quite agree Peter Carp fishing is a kind of sport of its own. I think most guys who carp fish have no interest in other species. I had the carp bug back in the late seventies anf early eighties and at the time i was quite obbsessed with catching big carp, Though back then it wasnt as popular as it is now and there was still a lot of challenges and so forth. I think its kinda sad these days youngsteres coming into fishing and starting straight on carp, And not learning the basics. EG learning to shot a float properly or even just catching a few small fish down the local canal. Carp are very low on my hit list these days. I cant even remember the last time i targeted them by disign. Being older now and married i would have the time to do the long sessions anyway, What with work and family. comitments. I have been lucky in the past i have had English fish to over forty, Quite small i supose by todays standards, Most of my summers now are spent after tench and barbel. Come October its good old reliable esox.

What can i say. I made a remark about this on another forum yesterday and the whole thread was removed. I feel quite strong on the subject of northen ireland, Because my brother was kiled there in the early eighties. Tell you what. I will say no more i dont want to upset this forum.

I use ruebens there fine. Only thing is there a bit bulky. I have no time for digitals.

Alas i am at work this weekend, But i have three days off in the week so i will be venturing out then down to my local river. Hopefully i will manage a nice chub or two.

I rarely plan ahaad these days unless i really get a bee in my bonnet about a particular species or venue. Most of my fishing is done on the spur of the moment. Im quite lucky besause i work continenal shifts and i get a lot of free time in the week to get out when its a bit quieter. My favourite river strech is only five minutes up the road, It actually takes me longer to walk to my favourite swims than it does to get there.

I have seen some of that footage aswell, Its amazing how much debre some fish pick up whilst feed and how they sort the food items out from the other matter. Also the amount of times they actually pick up baited hooks and spit them out. You can take a lot of tme balancing your hook baits in various ways. I think there are advantages in this especially when fishing say pva bags and stringers, The hook bait moving more naturally its more likely to be the first to be picked up Especially if you finely balance it so it is more bouyant than the rest. Obviously i am talking about boilys but the same can be aplied to other baits aswell. I think it is important to make sure the wieght to balance the bait is applied to the bait and not the hook, As it works against the natural movment you are trying to create.

These days with me mainly fishing rivers. I do my best to make the best of a bad situation, On a bad day if i am struggling to catch what i am after i will resort to targeting anything, even scaleing down to catch a few gudgeon if need be. Id rather go home with something under my belt than nothing. Going back to the days when i had the carp bug it wasnt unuaul for me to go weeks without any action. Especially when fishing hard waters with few but big fish. But i was knowing that any minute one of them could pick up your bait that kept you going. In those days i was totally obsessed with my fishing and when i think back i must of been mad. Even with my pike fishing these days i tend not to follow the crowds i much prefer to look for my own waters that havent been fished much. This season i have been fishing a 17 acre lake which hasnt had a lot of attention pike wise. between october and now i have fished it about about twenty times and i have only had six fish, And four of them came on the same day when it all came together for me location wise. We all go through dry spells with our fishing, Sometimes you really cant do nothing about it, You can be doing everything right but you still struggle. If they aint having it. They aint having it. To me thats the beauty of being an all round specimen hunter, You can always move on to another species, Through the season. I see carp anglers these days sitting it out all winter on waters where there isnt even anything that big. Blanking for the sake of it. To me its just a waste of the winter, But each to their own i suppose

Thats a good point Steve. A lot of my club waters in north Essex That have a close seaon or some type of rest bite dont get a lot of attention from their bailiffs during the close season apart from the weekend work parties. Leaves them open for the less disireable attention.

Over the years i have experiemented with some large livos but found them to be inpractical. Certainly with static type rigs like pats, To many false bites and movement. The only way i have found you can get away with it is when boat fishing with a large float. Of course one persons idea of a large bait isnt the same as the next mans. Personly i wouldnt use anything and i havent for many years bigger than say a pound trout. I once saw someone boat out a jack of about 5 ib which to me was a bit extreme, Needless to say he didnt catch with it, Just a waste of a fish. I see no need other than using normal size livos say four to six inches.

I try not to fish during still waters duriing the spring if i can help it though i do ocasionly do a bit of float fishing if i can find somewhere quiet. I certainly avoid the busy waters. I do belive we will eventually see the river close season abolished aswell. Which for me would be a sad day. Not so much as for the reasons mentioned eg the fish spawn during the season anyway but from my own point of view Which is out of respect for the quarry. Interesting what Budgie said about the tacklr trade, I cant really sea how if the close season was brought back they would suffer trade wise. As i remember that was the time when most people brought more gear, And also most tackle shops back then use to cater for all branches of the sport. So many shops nowadays are very carp orientated Alot of river anglers turn their attention to stillwaters during the close season but lets imagine if there was a close season on stillwaters and the rivers were open. Would the rivers get much more attention? Certainly around my neck of the woods i dont think they would.

It always pays to hunt the net, Like i said in another post i rarely visit tackle shops these days. Im a bit set in my ways when it comes to tackle, I know what i need and i buy in bulk, Im rarely tempted to try out new terminal gizmos etc i stick with what i know works for me. As far as larger items go like rods reels etc. I cant remember the last time i bought anything that was new. I still got a lot of friends in the carp scene and thier forever buying new kit,. So most of my larger bits are second hand. I bought a recliner chair the other week of a friend for 30 quid and its as good as new. My garage is full of items i have bought of friends who have upgreded their kit, I think i got three different bivvies in there and i rarely do any session fishing these days. Maybe im just a bit of a magpie lol. I should have a clear out really.

I can understand why some people use nicknames etc. But personally i use my own name, I got nothing to hide. If i upset someone not that i do very often, Atleast they know who done it.

With the end of the course river season looming, I was wondering about what to do in the close season. In the good old days when we had a full close season. We use to have three months of anticipation and preperation for the forthcoming magical day. Spending hours wandering around watching the fish, Sitting up trees. Making bait, And sorting you tackle out over and over again. Call me old fasioned if you like, But i really miss that part of fishing, Peronally i think it made us better anglers. With the time to rekindle our enthusiasm. The first couple of years when the stillwater season was abolished was a bit of a novelty but with me it soon wore off, I soon realised that none of the wildlife was getting a rest, Fish, Birds. Even the vegitation never got a chance to grow back on the more popular waters. Does anyone else miss the old close season, And that magical midnight cast, Or is it just me?

The cafe does a nice breakie. Or it use to. As far as the carp go i have not fished it for years apart from the odd piking session. Im sure theres a few Suffolk lads who could fill you in with some more recent info.

I would rather have a vasectomy without anesthesia than watch that pr@@k

The Roman river in Essex, Which is a tribuatury of the colne still has stone loach in abundance. I remember back in September last year on a nights lamping for rabbits having a look in the river with my head torch and having a grub about, I disturbed quite a few. I did not see any bullys though, Cant remember the last time i saw one. Which is strange as i thought they lived side by side.

I would imagine the rivers you are fishing are quite bit and pacey? What i would suggest is get a large pike type float. The type with a bottom attaching swivel. But fiest get a large lead and thread it on your line, Then get a couple of large beads, Then attach the float to the end of the line. Cast it into the swim and wind down until the float is tight to the lead on the bottom. Loosen your clutch on the reel and pull of a foot at a time, You can put a mark on the rod a foot from the reel face if you want for more acuracy but you dont have to. Keep pulling of the line counting as you go.until the float comes to the surface. Remember to make a note of where the lead hits the water so you can allow for the drag from the pace of the river Obviuosly if the river is very fast then this is not going to work but its ok for slacker water. You will have to use a more standard plumbing rig

Theres still gudgeon on in my local river,But their very localised and not widespread like they were say twenty years ago. Like someone else said the perch seem to be coming back in the rivers and this could be a factor. Or maybe water quality but im not sure if they are sensitive to this, I always imagined they were quite hardy little fellas. I can remember when i was a kid wading down the river with my green wellies on and having dozens of them swarming around my feet picking up all the food items i had disturbed.