tony tinca

The top one seems to have whats left of a barble but in my opinion is an f1 and the other 2 are definitly f1s , all 3 of them have the head and mouths of f1s

Ive just got back from southern spain and out of the 12 days i was there only 4 of them had sun , it was still warm though and plenty of big thunderstorms to enjoy in the evenings. We even felt and heard what can only be described as an earth tremor for a couple of seconds and there wasnt a cloud in the sky for it to have been thunder

yes im fishing such a venue this weekend called the ribbon lake at summners fishery As rob says it is like turning the clock back 20 years (apart from using a pole ) and it makes a pleasant change. What i do there is mix up some green swimstim grounbait on the stiff side with a good helping of pinkie and start the match off with cupping 3 big orange sized balls out at 8m at 10 or 2 oclock and loose feed the opposite side with maggot and caster and after an hour or so decide which method is working best and stay with that on both lines . If its the grounbait line then i top up when i feel the bites wearing off with another orange ball , it can become as much as a ball every 10 minutes on this water once the skimmers and small tench & cruicians get their heads down. With loose feeding i find you can catch well for an hour then they move off and i find it better to try and keep them occupied and settled on the bottom with the groundbait taking the pinkies down to them , squats might work better but pinkies are just as good

Thanks everyone Its funny but ive got a game on my iphone called flick fishing and nearly all the fish on the game have been mentioned in these posts as a possible suspect to the lost fish

When i was snorkling last year here i saw what i thought was a grouper (big black fish ). It seems from the replies that the fish dont have to be huge to pull the rod round and break heavy line , i was estimating it at being over 50lb the way the rod went , but ive never cast a line in salt water let alone hooked anything

Back from spain later today but whilst here in nerja ive noticed alot of beach anglers and they often catch small fish like dorados or something similar (im not sure on what they are ) But whilst having a meal on a beachfront resturaunt i noticed alot of shouting and saw a guy playing something alot bigger , itching to get away from the table to have a closer look i scoffed my food down left my wife at the table and wandered over to the angler who 20 minutes later was still getting nowhere with this fish and he was getting very tired. He was telling me from what i could gather from my limited spanish that he was using a spinner of some kind and that the fish had took off into the distance as he pointed well out to sea . I could see that his gear was very basic and the reel had no cranking power to it and that he had a lot of line to get back , but i was so wanting to see what it could be as it was putting a big bend on the rod and it looked like strong line from what i could make out . He looked at me and puffed exhaustedly and i offered to take over for a bit but he laughed and said no and continued his battle , im no sea fisherman but even i could see he wasnt pumping the rod but just cranking the handle and making it hard work to get any line back as well as putting a huge strain on the reel that was not sounding to great . Anyway im glad he didnt let me take over as a few minutes later there was a terrible noise as the reel literally fell apart followed shortly by the dreaded CRAAACK! and the battle was over . I was as upset as the angler holding the rod because i was so eager to see what could have put up such a fight . My guesses are only going by what was on the local menus and these are Swordfish ( didnt see anything huge jump out the water) Hake Gilthead bream ( which id just finished eating at the time) Monkfish Tuna Turbot What fish does anyone think it could have been ?. Nerja is southern spain if that helps

Yes a few pounds will go into the donation box out of gratitude i think

same here Im in spain and just got the chance to have a look at the forum just as steve made his post for the bookings Maybe a bit of luck there , fingers crossed also

Tench for me as well Im aiming at a 8lb fish this year (maybe a bit optimistic as im fishing matches all the time ) Ive had a couple in matches up to 3lb so far I think my best bet is if i get the chance to go to wingham as this will probably be one of my only pleasure fishes . Im gonna struggle this year with my normal crucian catches as my local (300 yards away) lake that i practice on in the summer evenings has been sold to someone who is shutting it off to the public Still happy with my 9lb 11oz bream this year and wont be looking to better that for a while

My pond situation is looking good as all the plants and lilies are coming on well but we have a pair of ducks that turned up a few days ago , they only seem to leave the pond area to stretch their wings ,they take turns in doing a full circle of the property before landing very smoothly back in the pond . Ive done my best to make them feel safe here and i think they might be planning or already nesting in the wild area near the pond , i havent gone looking for a nest as i dont want them to feel threatened and i only walk to within throwing distance of bread and some soaked expander pellets for them . Ive got a feeling though that the ducks might not be good for the pond , they have already eaten the frogspawn and are probably eating the water snails but does anyone know if they eat fish as im unsure ? also will they damage the water quality with any parasites or their droppings ? I enjoy them being there and wont push them away but what can i expect in way of damage to water plants and fish ? Cheers Tony

Know what you mean about the garden , ive got a field full of christmas trees that im having to keep a sprinkler on and move it around every couple of hours , i just hope ive got to them in time as the watering today takes about 5 days to have an effect . My pond is doing well i think and ive just posted a seperate topic about it and the duck situation i have

Yes shimano is the way to go on the reel front I use a baby baitrunner 2500dl for most of my feeder fishing and ive just bought a shimano alivio fb for pellet waggler work and its a joy to use and so smooth and hard to believe i paid just 25 pounds for it . I Think the alivio range is an absolute bargain http://www.climaxtackle.com/shimano-co/alivio_fb_reels.htm

I dont see why they shouldnt work as they look a bit like a boilie , you could try colouring them with different food dyes. I agree with dales in that there are tried and tested baits that will work better , ive tried baked beans on the hook and although i still caught fish it wasnt as succesfull as the sweetcorn or 6mm expanders that i had. I think its worth trying different things just out of interest to see if fish will take them . I dont think if i have helped much on the confidence front either ps dont let this put you off as it could just turn out to catch you a pb

Like yourself if i get to go i will be happy catching tench and whatever else is in wingham , i think for me also as a first time at wingham that my best bet would be to make the most of it and just catch fish whatever they might be . As a match angler i definitely dont specialize on one target fish and would leave the big bream to those who are dedicated and skilled at it , the same as big carp or barbel etc . But what ive learnt about fishing for many years is that it continues to throw up surprises and in a recent match on a tench & carp water i managed a pb bream of 9lb 11oz on the pole at 8m fishing for f1's , wingham is a million miles away from being similar to the match venues i fish in the way the fish behave because its a totally natural water and the fish dont have to compete for the same baits ie pellets that are thrown in by every match angler, so for me this kind of fishing has to be like the fish are reverting to type and they each have there own species characteristics which means adopting a fishing style to suit each one . but having said that i still think that by fishing an all round feeder or float strategy well will certainly catch the tench and everything else but being that there are so few bream in there i think on a personal level that even over three days there is still an outside chance of me catching one , but out of the whole of us i think that someone or maybe two or three of us will catch them , you just never know whats gonna happen and like dales said it will be interesting to see what us newcomers can bring to the table . Hoping to be there too