Stuart Wright

Afternoon all, The first eel session only produced bream and tench, but the conditions weren't ideal so I'm not too concerned. Ended up fishing the JS rig on one rod and float fished on a second in the margin with a night light insert. Both fish fell to the float rod! Will keep you posted on progress. Stu

Great stuff Budgie, thanks for all the tips and pointers - very much appreciated. I hear what you're saying about the float fishing, but I spend so much time sat behind alarms when after other species, I thought I might be able to get away with something a bit different here. Maybe not! We'll see. Had already tied a few rigs using Quicksilver, just in case I fancied putting out a second sleeper rod, so I'm sorted there. I will be sure to keep you posted on how I get on and will most likely come back with a few more questions after my first session on Saturday night! Cheers, Stu

I will be fishing an old estate lake, which has a population of some nice narrow head eels, so the plan is to fish with worm and dead maggot. It produced fish of 5lb+ last year during the middle of the day to tench fishermen, so I'm quietly optimistic about catching a couple over the next few months. If I decide to go down the float fishing route (nobody has deterred me yet) then I will only be fishing one rod, but if someone can convince me that fishing with two rods and alarms will be more effective (for reasons other than just supposedly doubling my chances!) then I will somewhat reluctantly take that approach - I spend enough time behind alarms when fishing for other species! Based on what I've read, the 'no resistance' theme seemed to still be very much current. I must have been looking in the wrong places (just forum threads and online articles I could find)! Any pointers? Thanks for your help.

I have been reading up, Budgie, hence my questions. In fact my questions are the direct result of things I have read up on and can't quite get my head around. Have you ever float fished for eels? Are there advantages to the traditional eel rigs other than reducing resistance that I have failed to appreciate? Thanks.

Afternoon all, I'm planning on doing some serious eel fishing shortly, which will be my first real concerted effort to catch them intentionally, so I'm a complete novice. I have caught loads of eels over the years unintentionally using all sorts of tactics, ranging from float fished bread to bolt-rigged luncheon meat, so, in my mind at least, there are plenty of options for how I approach fishing for them (well, maybe not bread! ). Anyway, to cut to the chase, I have been doing my reading and appreciate how little eels like to feel resistance. However, my first reaction to resistance-free fishing is either free-lining or float fishing, yet I can find nothing on either of these techniques being used for eel fishing? I'm assuming there must be a good reason? Can anyone enlighten me? Crucians hate resistance but you wouldn't find anyone using a JS rig or a Dyson rig for them would you? Eel rigs just strike me as being unnecessarily complicated. However, I'm not going to presume that I know better than all those eel angers out there who have infinitely more experience than me, so please free free to put me on the straight and narrow! Thanks in advance, Stu

Interesting to hear a few people confirming the accuracy of this scale. Personally, I have caught so many chub of so many different shapes and sizes, ranging from short fat fish from the Dorset Stour to long lean fish from the Cherwell, that I would feel uncomfortable using such a scale. Also, length wouldn't take into account the seasonal variation in weight - you could catch the same fish (measuring the same length) in Autumn and then again in Spring and it wouldn't weigh the same. For the reasons above, I've never measured the length of fish I've caught, so can't provide any facts or figures, but I may well start doing so this season. Would be interested to hear so more thoughts on this. Stu

Hi, First of all, good idea! HOWEVER, many of the questions you ask sound like the basis for some very early market research, which, if you're launching next week, could well be too late. It sounds like you're trying to establish if there's a market for the product after you've already developed it? Anyway, for what it's worth here are my answers: 1. Yes 2. N/A 3. Maybe, but most people tend to know where they're going fishing before setting off. 4. No, I'm afraid I probably wouldn't pay for it (sorry). Actually, maybe I would cough up 59p! 5. N/A 6. Course fishing 7. See above! Best of luck, Stu Edit: Just noticed on your website that one of the features is also the location of tackle shops. This would be very useful if fishing further afield in an unfamiliar area, so I would definitely now spend 59p! (last of the big spenders). How about having a diary type feature where you could enter fishing notes, catch reports etc and attribute them to any particular venue you've fished?

Brilliant - two replies and both suggesting species I hadn't even considered! Chub is an interesting one. We all know that chub do well once they get into the pits, and if you combine that with the very good stamp of chub in the Thames around Oxford(shire), it makes for a potentially exciting combination! Has anyone caught any chub from any pits around Oxfordshire? Now my brain is ticking over faster than it has at any other point during the day... It hasn't been the most productive of days! :D

Ah roach! I hadn't even considered roach! Have always done all of my roach fishing on the rivers, so have never targeted them on the pits. Maybe now would be a good time to start... I know where some of the undisclosed pits are, although I don't have the money to fish some of them!! Although I know of day ticket waters that hold good fish...

Afternoon all. As is usually the case on a Friday afternoon, I’m sat in the office pondering the weekend’s fishing. However, I’ve been struck by an almighty case of indecisiveness/ lack of inspiration with regards to what to fish for and where! I often find this happens at this time of the year after the rivers have closed but we’re all still waiting for the weather to warm up. I have the ‘green light’ for a 24hr session starting Sunday morning before flying off on holiday on Monday afternoon (couldn’t believe my luck! ), so I don’t want to waste what will be my last session for a couple of weeks. So, I guess the question is what would you fish for in my position? Stu P.S. I live just outside of Oxford, so am virtually surrounded by water/ options, which I think is what’s compounding my indecision!

As you know, I've not read the book, but it certainly sounds like the same place. Having said that, it's definitely not the same water as that seen in the footage.

I've only just got to grips with consistently catching good chub from the Thames, so targeting rudd would really be setting myself a challenge! I suspect that my willingness to travel down to Frensham will increase as the summer progresses! Thanks for the tips.

Evening Anderoo. I'm familar with the 'beautifully tranquil' lake that the tench came from and had heard that it contained some decent Rudd too, but thanks very much for your willingness to share. Rusty, I've watched the DVDs but not read the book, which is something I hope to put right in the near future. It was interesting to read in one of the posts above about the three day session of feeding, waiting and watching before the Rudd action arrived, although I'm not surprised. Didn't the whole series take four years to film in total? I had a walk around Barnes Lake this afternoon, which looked very nice indeed and is another water that has been added to the 'Rudd list'! Stu

Okay, so I've just done the google search on 'Andrew's Lagoon' and haven't been able to find anything. Is anyone familiar with this water or know this water by another name? (Hopefully this isn't just an embarrassing inability to effectively use a search engine!)

Thanks Chris, that's a great help; I really appreciate it. Stu