Tigger

Deleted, it's pointless now

Last....hang on , it was sunday last week not saturday , the river was a couple of feet up and I had to don my chesties in order to get out to the area i'm usually able to reach in my thigh waders. I'd forotton how much of a hasstle it is when you want a slash and your wearing chest waders! The water felt cold and to be honest I wasn't expecting much, so I was surprised to hook something solid after only a few trotts through. I won't harp on about how I got a piece of wood shaving in my eye after cattying out the first pouch of maggots, or how I had to walk back to the car and try to swill my eye out with half a small bottle of water that had been in the car since june!, or the rain, the downstream wind,etc etc. Anyhow, within a couple of hours (that includes the time it took to walk back to the car etc, oh, and re-tie my hook after it hooked a large twig on one of my fist casts) I did ok and had six barbel and some xxl dace as a by product, several pic's from the session....

I've fished for the last two saturdays in a row, week before last I caught five small barbel and some chub... .

I have no idea how i've never seen this thread, i'm shocked! So sorry to hear this, I really liked Dave, a true character and gentleman R.I.P. Dave.

I had several hours trotting for barbel yesterday, but not a sniff of a barbel! Maybe the sudden overnight frosts and with the river only just dropping down after being in flood had put the dampers on me catching a barbel. Anyhow, I did catch 5 decent chub of about 3 1/2 to 4lb , several roach of around a pound, small roach, dace and chublets....no barbel though! Had another couple of hours after chub today. There was a horrible strong downstream wind but the temps were up from 9 degrees yesterday to 14 degrees today. I did ok today and had quite a few chub, no monsters, but all of them were around 2 1/2 to 4lb and really fought hard. A couple of pictures from the day....

Too posh for them down your end .

Have you still got your huge collection of reels Chesters? Was it intrepid reels ?

I had to abort my trotting for barbel today due to conditions of the river, but rather than miss out on a days fishing I visited another venue and targeted chub instead. These chub fight really hard and are difficult to stop from getting into the bankside vegetation. Because of this I used a hardy marksman supero 11ft avon rod and it was perfect for the job. Here's a couple of pic's from some of the swims I dropped into....

I've always found those placcy bits whatever colour they were or direction the line went through, they come appart, sometimes very quickly! When they do split the swivel is still useable as they only cover the other swivel eye. I actually prefer to use them without those placcy covers. I would only buy the ones without those placcy covers now.

I managed to get a couple of hours trotting on saturday afternoon (just gone). The river was a little up on my previous session and had a colour of peat to it. I think the peat colour comes in from one of the tributaries a few miles upstream, thankfully it wasn't that horrible brown sawdust looking mess which is obviously particles of sewage! I only fished two swims that day, in the first swim if I fished more central in the river I would get a bite a cast, either a dace or roach, if I cast closer to the opposite bank I would normally have a much better chance of catching chub and barbel. Anyhow, I caught lots of roach and dace, but not a hint of a chub or barbel which were my target species so I moved downstream to another swim. I had to wade out about 45 yards across seriously slippy rocks and then cast about another 30yds to reach the sweet spot of this swim, which was close to the opposite bank and was quite fast in comparison to the swim i'd just fished previously. I had a decent chub first trott through, maybe about 3 pounds, then I had a number of chublets and a few dace. After about half an hour I struck into a more solid critter which turned out to be a small barble of about 3lb. Shortly after that I had another barbel which was about the same size as the forst one. I remembered I had no food left in the freezer for my Manueli piranha and decided to catch a few small roach and dace to take home for it. I really don't like doing it but the piranha has to eat. What was unusual was when I gutted the dace they were full of roe ! Possibly this warm spell has kicked them off but I do think they will have been spawning throughout the summer. If conditions are right I don't see why they wouldn't just keep breeding, as fish do in aquariums. I didn't bother taking any pic's, it was a long wade back to the bank on those awfully slippy rocks and for such small fish it wasn't worth the trouble.

I have to try and catch a fish when I go fishing. I often spend more time walking and crashing through undergrowth than I do fishing. I never have a relaxing fishing session!

Fishing a fishless river can't be much fun Chesters, you'll have to travel a bit further maybe? Is there no other rivers than that one within a decent radius of you?

I spent yesterday trying to hunt down a stunted trout, I couldn't find one! I must have walked about 6 miles yesterday, through long grass and nettles, balsam, stick bob bushes etc etc and was propper nackered at the end of it. I visited two stretches catching fish on both, first tott on the first length and I had a roach that I reckon (without weighing it) would be a good 2lb, then another exactly the same! After that I had a few decent chub, chublets and dace, and a single small barbel. You wouldn't believe it, on the next length I had another of those roach, virtualy identicle, they must have followed me . I also had a good few decent chub, chublets and lots of dace with a few being quite large, as far as dace go. Not a hint of a barbel on the second stretch, strange as it used to be lifting with barbel on that stretch. Only a few years back I had 43 barbel, some large chub, chublets, dace, and trout on one swim, and yesterday not one barbel and only a couple of decent chub and some dace, quite depressing to be honest.

I think you might be as well asking on the traditional angling forum, they are obsessed with cane rods and fancy dress! I do think they will be able to help you out on info about your rod.

I fished on sunday, target species was chub, mission accomplished.... I had a dabble on the river today...30 degrees and blazing sun! Luckily for me I know of a spot that's shaded by a huge steep banking covered in large trees. Anyhow, I fished the swim from 1.30pm to 3.30pm theis afternoon, packing up just before the sun came round and fried me! I was lucky and had a good few dace, chublets, a few decent chub and 6 or 7 barbel, I lost count . The barbel weren't big, but a barbel is a barbel and they all fought hard for their size....

A week ago today I had a ride down to the river seven for a day for a change of scenery, it was really nice, but unfortunately was a little to high for me to wade in my thigh waders. It was dropping off and was carrying colour but still looked good. I stood at the waters edge, or just in it and cast out into the middle or towards the opposite bank. I had roach, dace and some small chub, then dropped on a shoal of very nice chub and had 14 virtually one after the other. My spider senses told me that I was due a barbel amongst those chub, but my friend had to get off and I wasn't sure of my way back to the main roads and left with him. It turned out my phone took my the exact way he took me so I could have stayed after all....darn it! I had planned on another ride down today but the river was way above last weeks level and so I stayed local. I'm hoping to get back down there asap as I enjoyed the change. I had a couple of hours out trotting on a falling river today, the river was heavily coloured with what looked like sewage again!...so not a tanning from peat which often comes down from one of the tributaries that comes from peat, it was tiny brown particles which looked like mashed up bog roll and shyte! Anyhow, the river never fishes well when this stuff is coming down, I saw no sign of a barbel but managed a few decent chub, roach and dace. It was quite precarious wading out around 40yds on a rocky river with no visibiity so I only took one chub back to the bank for a photo when going back to re fill my bait pouch....

I had a session on the river last friday, the river was up a meter and the wind was howling! I had a good country mile walk to get to my intended fishing spot and I had to fish off the bank, no wading due to the extra water going through. Things weren't ideal and I spent most of my time crashing through undergrowth trying to get to fishable spots on the bank. Anyhow, I caught a lot of roach and dace before having my fill of 'em. I don't normally visit the river on a weekend, but because I had several pints of maggots turning and a pack of sweetcorn de frosted in the fridge I decided to go fishing on saturday just gone. The river was still up but had dropped off from the previous day so I could just about wade out on my tip toes lol. This was a different stretch than yesterday and more chance of a barbel. Anyhow, I had a lot of very nice roach up to around a pound and a lot of huge dace. I also caught a few chub and 18 little barbel ranging in size from the one in the picture to about 3lb in weight. I was stood about 40 yards out in the river so released all the fish there appart from the one in the picture which i'd taken back to the bank with me when I had to go back to refill my bait pouch. It was an unusual session catching so many little barbel like that, that'a the most little ones i've ever caught in one session.

I wasn't realy in the mood for fishing today, but since the weather was nice and the river had dropped to a fishable level, plus I have a load of maggots shrivelling up in the fridge I decided to force myself out for a couple of hours trotting. As usual I wore my thigh waders and at times when wading out or back to shore I was literally on my tip toes as the water was lapping the very tops of my waders. Now and then I felt a cool sensation on my legs as the water came over the lip of my waders. The fishing wasn't up to much at all and all I caught was a load of roach to about 10 ounces, a few chub of about a pound to a pound and a half and one average barbel. I fished from 12pm to 2pm before i'd had enough. The sudden dissapearence of the sun behind a cloud made me look up and see a huge bank of dark angry clouds coming over me which made me quicken my steps to the motor. I'd drove half way home before the rain started, it's still hamerring down now and forecast to carry on overnight and possibly tomorrow ! Here's the only barbel of the session...

As has been said, you need to put a thin'ish layer of maggots in your tubs and keep the lids off. You can add maize as they do in the tackle shops to soak up mosture. I just use shavings or sawdust because I always have it available and it works a treat! I have had moisture form iin the fridge and it drip off the top into the maggots when i've had too many maggots in the fridge, the fridge outlet may have been a bit blocked also . Because of that, if I walk past the fridge I often open the door and waft it open and shut a couple of times to change the air in it and remove moisture. I keep the maggs as cool as possible without killing them, cold enough so as they are just moving a little bit and they last for weeks. They do start to shrink though after a while.

Thanks Martin, it was nice to get out for a go, although, if i'm honest i've kind'a lost a lot of interest in fishing just now. I think i've seen those rods you have Martin, if I remember rightly they had a purple blank? A friend of mine had the barbel rods out of that range of rods, same purple colour blank twin tipped rods, I think one had a white tip.

I had a couple of hours out trotting last wednesday also. I used a daiwa Dave Harrell RS PF rod which is supposed to be a power float rod (PF) but it's a lightweight compared to the 1.6lb test free spirit my friend had lent me! To be honest it was much nicer to use and it wasn't a bad couple of hours fishing. I used a reel I haven't used in ages, a 4 3/4 inch kingpin zeppelin reel which are usually shipped out to the americas for the steel head anglers etc. It was nice to use on the daiwa rod and they made a good set up. A few pic's from the session...

Since I posted on Kens thread i've had a couple more ventures out swimming the stream . A friend of mine dropped a free spirit 1.6lb power float rod off for me to try out last saturday. Next day "sunday" I was out testing it. The rod is heavy which makes it unwieldy in use, but I managed to use ok. It is a specialist float rod, apparently made for float fishing for large carp and would normally spend most of it's time in a rod rest where the weight of it wouldn't be an issue. Anyhow, I managed to cast accurately with it dropping the float onto the correct spot in the flow at up to 30yds away. I caught lots of dace, chublets, some half decent chub, some very decent roach and seven small barbel using it and even with the rods power no fish were bumped off, I don't believe in the old bumped off fish theory because a rod is to harsh. I think the reason for having a fish on for a second or two and then it coming off is because the hook isn't sharp, or because the angler isn't striking hard enough or quick enough and just nicking the fish...anyhow, that's a thread of it's own really I think? I used 6lb sensor straight through to a size 12 drennan superspade and loaded the hook with 15 or more maggots, or a maggot and corn cocktail, or three or more grains of corn squashed onto it. The treble corn seemed to be the most effective bait on that day. l

I ventured out on Friday just gone, reason was because it was nice and overcast and felt much cooler. The spot I fanced was a couple of large pools inbetween fast water which usually hold lots of fish. It was quite a long walk/about a mile, and most of the walk was through a wood on a steep banking. I had to bash down undergrowth for a lot of the walk so I was quite sure no one else had fished the place this year. As I came out of the wood to the top of a sheer banking the river looked like paradise, I was expecting to catch lots of barbel , however, things didn't go to plan and in the first one of the two spots I fished I only caught dace. I even removed my float added a link leger and touch legered, got a bite instantly but it was a dace! I had about a dozen dace touch legerring and swapped back to the float only to catch more bloody dace? The only way to get to fish the swim below was to walk down to it in the river. Even though I walked close to the edge it was all rocks varying in size from goose stones to boulders. It was horrible to navigate over those stones and it was made even worse because they were coated in slime/algea. My ankles are black and blue right now! Anyhow, first trott through this glide produced a decent chub, followed by a few more of a similar size. I also caught some gudgeon, roach, lots of chublets and guess what, lots of those bloody dace lol. I fished for a couple of hours but the skies cleared and that blazing sun came out which was my que to make the journey back to the car. On the way back I must have stunk of sweat and I was constantly slapping myself trying, and succeeding in swatting horse flys which were intent on sucking my juices! I was very happy when I got back to the car ! Here's the only picture I took which had to be taken mid river due to there being no suitable banking to take it...

Yes, i'm not sure if the barbel would have been having sexy times yet as they were only small, but if they were cock fish they were most likely having a go lol.

Thanks Martin