Slickfish

So its rated to a 20+ elastic. I was after abit of advice from more experienced pole anglers(than myself) about what they'd advise using.

I bought a Avanti margin control pole/whip, its a 4m long 3 piece take apart pole. It may be short but seems very heavy duty, my question is what elastic do I put in it???. I fish a variety of waters but most seem to be the usual commercial pools. Have read an artile about this pole they recomended putting hollow elastic in it(im guessing that is exactly what it sounds like a tube as apposed solid elastic) I have no idea of its advantages etc. Any advice guys would be very handy, as I want to get it sorted this weekend.

I think its normal, I was the same lived for fishing til I left school, then it tailed of. I still went fishing now and again but very rarly with years in between trips. Now im 30 and back to lining reals, practicing new knots, making rigs etc while sat in the house watching TV, annoying of the missus.

This weekend’s fishing trip had as usual its daft occurance, we went to a fishery in Hemington just of the A50. Basically one of the lads who went with use's a carp rod I gave him, it’s not cheap stuff, now don’t ask me why but the numb nut didn’t but the bait runner on, and guess what happened. A combination of a slow day(not concentrating), and a bolting fish saw the rod fly in, he was sitting rite next to it as well. It’s a weird feeling watching the top 2ft of the Shimano Katana rod bobbing about as the fish dragged it rite into my swim. I managed to get it back using my feeder rig to tangle it thank god, but it did look like it was going to be lost. It was suggested one of us would have to go in to get it back, I was thinking about it while trying to snag it, if it was a river or big lake etc then no chance but it’s a commercial fishery still not tiny mind, it wouldn’t have been a job of wading it must have been in a 6-7ft of water. So if you could see your gear would you go in after it if you couldn’t get it any other way???, or watch your gear sink. Oh and yes the fish was still on when it was all sorted but the dumb a** lost it after 30seconds..D’oh.

We fished just bellow the big mill in Belper, in the weir pool just the oposite side of the road. Memorable is one word for it , we are planning a return visit this weekend.

Found a nice part of the derwent that is day ticket and had to day to remember lets say, proper comedy of errors. Tried feeder fishing 10mm pellets for the Barbel, which resulted in afew Chub 3lb region. Now while doing this a coot managed to dive for some yummys from my feeder and get the hook in its leg, followed the hastle of landing and unhooking a bird(thank feek for barbless hooks). Never thought about hooking a bird on a feeder rig . It ran of ok in the end though. After all the specific targeting of barbel on the feeder I hooked one on stick float fished single maggot , 2lb line, 18 hook. fish seemed to give up really easily,over came my brother in law with the landing net, netted it job done I thought, bringing the net in the fish vanished, it had somehow ripped a hole in the net, probably started my the bird earlier. so started the stupidity of playing a barbel that was still fresh, in a fast flow on light tackle through a knackered landing net on my own while Paul frantically set up another net. Christ knows how but I got the fish . Didn't weight the fish as TBH I think it had been through enough so I returned it ASAP, I'd guess it around 6lb ish. It was a day to forget and to remember

I am also quite a newbie to pike fishing, and I got all the same advice etc and although not meant to im sure, it did almost put me of the idea of trying it. Did kind of gave the impression if you arnt experienced every pike you catch will die, I know it isn't meant like that, its if something happens and you dont know how to deal with it bad things can happen. In the last year, I've seen old boys who have been piking years do things that would be frowned upon im sure, yet pike still exist . They are certainly are not made of glass. I think the idea of finding a local pike angling club is a good one, Im going to have a look for one round my way. Back to your question, I've never had to strike as such while lure fishing, they do seem to find the hooks on their own.

Im trying to find a day ticket venue within the notts/derby ish area that has a decent head of barbel in. The reason being the brother in-law is over and im taking him fishing, he's always been nuts about trying to catch barbel even though neither of us has ever actually caught one . I haven't done a great deal of river fishing. I know the obvious trent/derwent but what stretch?, are day tickets sold bankside by baliff? etc. I have asked in local tackle shops and i truly dont understand how no-one seems to be able to give me a solid answer on this one. There always seems to be a uncertain pause .

Fishing with a small plug for perch/chub on a small local river, thought I got snagged up on a branch or carrier bag etc, just dead weight. Got it all the way to my feet(standing on a bridge, only about 2ft above the water), and up pops a bloated sheep with my plug firmly in its leg. Seriously not nice, cut the line. Never did fish that stretch again straight after a flood Caught a 12lb pike while feeder fishing, it went for a small roach I didn't know had taken my bait, and somehow got a wire trace it had snapped of someone tangled in the actual feeder cage. Nothing quite tops a old boot though , out a local canal on a 3m whip.

The stock they have in store isn't really that good plugs wise, its mainly spinners they have in, but I was lucky enough to speak to the guy who works there who is in charge of the ordering etc. The lure I bought wasn't supposed to be there, he had done a sligh one to get them in store(Goodman ). Apparently these natural patterns are quite new. He told me they are abit funny about sending things out as they think it wont sell, However if you find what you want and ring up or pop in they will order you anything in at a customers request, that will be instore within 5 days, set aside waiting for you. It's daft I cant see these lure's not selling but still they are reluctant to get a large stock. The pike one he got in had been out for a short time and I was the third to buy, they had about 6 left out, im sure there will be alot less when I pop in again. As I said I have the common carp one on order, they have to order in 3's, so later this week 2 should be out on the shelf. Unless it looks as good as im expecting in which case I might buy 2. http://www.decathlon.co.uk/EN/young-carp-14cm-34487585/ Seriously the quality seemed very good to me, I cant vouch for how long they would last obviously as its still in the tree, but from first impressions it seemed quite well made. I'm happy to buy more and advise you guys to take a look. -EDIT- Went to try and get the lure out the tree this afternoon and it had gone, through either the wind or someone got it, still to get me over the disapointment I went and to buy a replacement and they only had 3 left now 2. So they are selling well. With any luck they might realise they fly out the door and increase the selection .

Yup back in my match days. Most stupid was on a local canal, I was pole fishing and decided to put the pole in the box mounted holder as my arms got tired, it was a heavy pole. anyway dont ask me why I did this but I picked my feet up, cue the box slowly tipping forward with me feet over the edge, unable to do anything about my impending dunk, and in true fashion the peg I got lotted was in a old boat yard with 5ft+of water. Had a horrible experience on the trent, fishing near Gunthorpe, you had to climb down a bank and stand in 2ft or so of water all day, I only had thigh waders, but them seemed fine. The place you stood was on a shelf about 7ft wide so it looked safe enough, afew boats went past I to stop the wave's flooding my waders I had to jump abit in time with the wave. It was going well most of the day until some plumb came hammering up river making a huge wave, I could see it but do nothing I hadn't enough time to retreat to safety so had to try to jump it, cue me getting swept into the river after a failed jump and slip. Christ knows how deep it was I didnt touch the bottom, my legs were of no use swimming in waders, luckly im a strong swimmer and able to tread water using only my arms. I went about 3 pegs down with amazed looks from the lads. after a breif WTF panic, someone held out a landing net to me and fished me out. Oh the jokes from that one.

I'm posting this as I wouldhave never thought to go to Decathlon for fishing gear. I went into the local decathlon store the other day and wandered down the fishing section, now in all honesty some of the stuff seems abit cheap, but some seems ok. I was having a look at the lure's and found some plugs with rather life like patterns(which I hadn't seen the like's of before), I decided to give one a try. I bought this one http://www.decathlon.co.uk/EN/pike-16cm-05-34487580/ Today, I have been once more to my local canal were I was told lure's don't work, I tried all sorts of spinners, spoons and plugs to no avail. I decided to crack out this new lure, now it looks quite bland with the darker colours but within 30min had a nice pike(about 8lb-9lb, didn't take my scales, very clean fish though). Side note whoever told me to take a set of plyers, thankyou you saved me and the pike a ball ache today. I now fully understand how forcepts wont cope in all hook ups. Im confident I would have had more but afew casts after I managed to get the damn thing in a tree and lost it. The canal has a thick overhanging tree lined far bank so the slightest overcast and your screwed. Im planning to go down one day this week to try to recover it. I have a 14cm carp version on order, in short these plugs are £6 to me thats better than throwing £12-15+ rapala's into tree's(if like me you do the odd duff cast), they have rattles and a nice action with alittle encouragement, I like the realistic look and it appears in my local pike venue so do the pike. Worth a look in my view if you like lure fishing.

I had a 14.5lb mirror on a deadbait roach about 2oz, trying for a pike, I was shocked. The lad I had toke for his first ever days fishing was not amused as the roach was his biggest fish of the day.

AH man your joking I would never have thought perch would be a good live bait being dark in colour, with spikes . I sat near all day just catching perch yesterday, throwing them back, I got one roach and used that netting a 6.5lb pike near the end of the day.

I am so pleased with how today went. Knowing how the water used to fish I couldn't resist buying half pint of maggots on the way down. Had a wander and saw the most incredible shoal of bream just sitting there 30-40 fish all looked a good few pound. Hadn't got the tackle to try for them. Tried all sorts on the pike front and had no joy, so I decided to get my 3m whip out and wind back 15yr's, and what on earth, the place is stuffed with Perch, chub afew minnows. had the smallest perch I hace ever seen followed by a nice 2lb'r, whicked fun on really light gear. In the end I did give in to the temptation to stick a roach on the pike rod, and was rewarded with a take within 15min, Like a class clown I had moved pegs not long before and forgot to get my scales and weight sling back out, had everything else ready, That was my fault not the pike's so I was unwilling to make it wait for me to get sorted so I released it without getting a weight. Gutting as it was a nice fish, at a guess a low double, so around my PB for pike. I will not make that mistake again. The catch has however raised another question from me, I had hold of the pike under the gill flap, lifted its head slightly, but it didn't open its mouth, as soon as I put the forcepts on its lip it would slowly open its mouth at the way then try to flap, rinse repeat, I was as recomended sat astride it to hold it down, obviously not sitting on it with any weight. got the hooks out(one in each corner of its mouth), the but still it did the same thing open up them flap. Is there a secret to get them to open their mouth without the flapping???. It went back no worse for it, got me back by going for a sulk rite in my little perch swim totally killing it off . I am seriously thinking about going down again in the morning.