[A few hours out yesterday.....]

Great looking pike !

I'm keepin' al reet thanks bud :).

I am having some good sessions recently but pointless posting about them really.

[A few hours out yesterday.....]

21 hours ago, gozzer said:

Were you posting on here when the big 'take a fish for the pot' debate was going on Phone?

The result was that around 7/8 thousand 'anglers' out of an estimated 1.5 million, voted to ban the taking of fish from our rivers. Except that is for, 1 pike up to 65cms, 2 grayling between 30 and 38 cms, and 15 other fish under 20cms, per day. When I contacted the EA about my concerns, such as keeping the option to take fish, with suitable catch and size limits, would take some of the arguments from the antis, with regard to the situation in Germany and the green Party, he said that I could still take most fish for the pot, as long as they were 20cms or less. I questioned his logic in the fact that I was denied very occasionally taking one or two perch of around 1lb, but could legally take 15 perch of 20cms every day I went fishing, and that anyone could legally take a couple grayling from a specific slot size that could in theory decimate a year class on some rivers. His answer was that it was what the majority of anglers wanted, as well as the Angling trust. That day, I lost much of my faith in a large section of my fellow anglers, and all of the little faith I had in the Angling trust, and the EA.

John.

PS.

I don't know what's happened to the site. I can't post pictures, I get timed out in a short time, and even logged out automatically!

Is it just me?

 

 

Your not on your own, I can no longer post my pictures either.  

 

[A few hours out yesterday.....]

Sorry P, can't do anything about it bud.  I'll just have to leave the pics out from now on.

[A few hours out yesterday.....]

Had a trip up north last week for grayling, wasn't anything like it used to be, only 10 grayling and 24 trout.  Nothing of any size, several grayliing were around tye 2lb mark and a few of the trout were about the same size.

Had a couple of trotting sessions over the last few days, had a few barbel at the weekend and had 14 barbel, 2 chub, a dace and a grayling yesterday.

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[A few hours out yesterday.....]

JV, what a cracker m8, I bet your well chuffed....congrats

[A few hours out yesterday.....]

 

I just copy to forum on postimage and then share.  I hold my finger on the post on here and it pops up post image which I press and it comes up when I post my reply....normally that is, but, for some reason it's suddenly stopped  working.

 

I had a great session today, caught nine barbel with a couple which I would say were over ten pounds quite easily.  I had a nice chub, and a few small chub also.

I lost another foul hooked barbel and lost one after it slipped back out of the laanding net and as it bolted away my rod tip was only lever with the water and my line cut off about a foot from the fish, just an accident but not good.

The fish will be carrying five bbs shot and a foot of line unless it sheds the hook which was a size 14s drennan superspade.  The weights were only pinched on and slide along the line very easily so i'm not worried the fish will become tethered or anything, just hate leaving hooks and line atattched to a fish!

[A few hours out yesterday.....]

The river was too high for trotting today so I had to have several hours on a club pool. The temp's have suddenly dropped right off and a horrible cold north north westerley made it feel much colder.  I think the temp was 15 degrees when I got there at about 2.30pm and it was 12 degrees when I left at 6.30pm. 

I freelined meat and bread whilst targetting carp and managed quite a few which really fought to avoid being landed.  I had one small fish which may or may not be a true crucian.

I'll try and post a couple of pic's but for some reason they've stopped showing?

 

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[A few hours out yesterday.....]

On 9/20/2020 at 10:30 AM, gozzer said:

I seem to be hearing the same from places all round the country Ian. Barbel seem scarcer this year, even on the usual 'hot spots' like the Trent, Severn, and Avon. Like you, I think that the heavy flooding over the winter has played a part, not the otters as a guy I met on the bank the other week kept insisting, we had a slightly heated, (more like luke warm), debate on the subject. I've not tried for them yet this year, I've reached the time of life when my approach is more sedate than it used to be. Walking a few miles of bank, to locate them is out now. I don't mind a longish walk to a spot, but then settle down and fish. I thought I'd hooked a barbel last week when I put out a couple of dedras on the leger, after the float line died on me. I was hoping for a perch, and was getting a few knocks from smaller fish, when the tip swung round a few inches. I thought I'd missed the bite and started to reel in, only for the rod to bend over as something powerful took off across the river. After about 5mins, and several runs under a willow, it suddenly turned and dived under the willow above me, and the line went solid. I tried pulling, then leaving slack for a while, but nothing. I decided to pull for a break, and tested the 5lb sensas hook length to it's limit. The 'thing' then started to move, and a decent pike surfaced under my rod tip. I was worried that it wouldn't fit into my 22ins pan net, but at the third attempt it just made it. The hook was set on the outside of the scissors, so easy to unhook. I tried to weight it in the net, but my scales batteries were dead, but at a little over 36 ins, I guessed 12lb +. It rested at my feet for more than 5 minutes before it took off it was so knackerd. I went back to catching roach, gudgeon, perch, chublets, and of course 'dice'. An hour or so later my keepnet tried to take off, and and I'm sure it was the same bloody pike that had come back for another go! 

It's getting to the time of year I always thought of as prime barbel time, so if the weather, and new threatened lock down permit, I might get a session or two after them. 

I really must try to sort out posting pictures on here, when I get the time. 

John.

 

Hey John, nice report bud, as was Keiths :).

You did well getting that fresh water crock on your set up!

Great to see people post their catch reports again :).

[A few hours out yesterday.....]

On 9/19/2020 at 9:16 PM, Phone said:

Tigger,

I'm not buying for one second "you're not fishing so good".  You know you're not fishing so good when you pass up a chance to go. I KNOW when you are on the water you're working your arce off. Hang in there

Phone

 

I had an hours trotting on Tuesday just gone.  I only went late in the afternoon and was doing more of a recy as it's about 6yrs since i've been to this beat.  Anyhow, I bumped into someone I know and spent half of my time chatting to him.  Eventually when I did do a bit of trotting I had a "dice", a seatrout of about a pound and a half, a few smaller chub, one chub of about 5lb and a nice roach of about 12 ounces or  more.  I'll try and get back and fish a spot I fancy asap.

[A few hours out yesterday.....]

On 9/19/2020 at 3:02 PM, Martin56 said:

They don't always respond to trotting Ian, maybe take another rod that's set up - overshotted & a foot or so overdepth & held back. Put the rod it the rests & have a sandwich, with the Ratchet on (if you dare lol)

 

I nearly alway drag or skip the bottom Martin.  As you say they often want a static bait, I just prefer float fishing to sitting about.  If I uave to leger i'd rather touch leger and feel the fish take the bait, then strike the hook home.

[A few hours out yesterday.....]

Hey Phone,

Your right, no so many barbel again.  I think there's several different reasons for my lack of barbel.  

There may be less in the river after the last few years of quite serious floods.

There are a lot of people fishing for them now and they are very pressured.

Most of the fish I catch are smaller now with a few decent ones, maybe the older ones have died off and there is some new year classes coming through?

My barbel catches have dropped off drastically over the last 5yrs.

It isn't down to otters as they have always been there, and were there before barbel were even introduced to the river.  

It may be a cycle thing?

It may be i'm just not fishing so good as before!

[A few hours out yesterday.....]

Had a decent session today, caught a good few chub of various sizes, some "dice", annoying minows and a single barbel.

The strong down stream wind made float control hard work, especially in this spot as the river is 80 plus yards wide and a wind tunnel.

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[A few hours out yesterday.....]

I had a couple of hours on the river for the latter part of the afternoon today/yesterday now!

Anyhow, the river was still carrying a bit more water and was powering through the swim i'd chosen to fish.  The wind was a strong upstream one which helped me out in the powerful flow.

Anyhow, I lost a barbel which managed to get under a half sunken tree.  I got my float back and shot but the fish is wearing a lip piercing for the time being.

It was only a 14's so not big and whoever catches the fish will be able to remove it easy enough so no real harm done.

My 6 grame wire stemmed avon bolo float was bent like a capital letter L but I was able to bend it back into a small lette l, all be it a bit of a wiggly letter l lol.

I caught a few very nice chub and a barbel before hunger pangs got the better of me and I went home for my tea.  I ate that much food I got a pain in my left collar bone area and neck, that's what greed gets you! Lol.

 

I've tried to post some pictures as I always have but for some reason they wont work on AN site.  

[a day of teaching the final conection]

 

 

Phone,

 

Get knotted ya'all

[Meat from PoundLand]

On 9/9/2020 at 2:31 PM, BoldBear said:

I haven’t needed to do this for many years but If your using soft Luncheonmeat on a hair rig you.can thread a piece of biro tube over the hair so that the hair doesn’t just cut through your meat. You can also do this with some hooks with short sections of biro tube slid over the hook shanks.

Keith

 

 

I just use grass, or a hawthorn spike.  Even if putting the meat straight onto the hook, just pull the hook through the meat, twist it and put a piece of grass stalk, twig, hawthorn spike or whatever under the bend and pull on the line or press the hook back to synch it up.

[A few hours out yesterday.....]

Did an hours trotting on a lake outlet late this afternoon.  I had lots of dice, chublets and a single perch in my last swim.  I lost two dice to esox who killed that swim off forcing me to fish another spot where I caught a absolutly huge "DICE".  Infact it so huge I was going to weight it.  I got my dinky digital scales out, hooked on a small placcy bag and placed it on my sling pack in readyness to weight the fish.  I lifted out the landing net head and got hold of the dice, as I put the net head back in the water the bloody dice wriggled and slipped from my hand falling onto a load of laying down old nettle stalks which crossed the water and  as I reached out to get the dice it wriggled and slipped through them and fell back into the water !  It was wierd how it happened !!

 

[Meat from PoundLand]

You really need to do a taste test.....they have testers for dog food, even cat food so you should be fine with the meat LOL.

[A few hours out yesterday.....]

That's very nice Phone!

 

[A few hours out yesterday.....]

Fishing boats...80mph!....I want one lol.

Unfortunately i'll never be able to afford one :(.

[A few hours out yesterday.....]

Phone,

I wasn't talking about using expensive reels, just asking if you had ever actually used a centrepin reel. Regarding prices, some of my mose used pins are run of the mill okuma reels, one is a sheffield and the other a adventa.  I got the adventa reel from a large outdoor shop over here a few years ago when they sold them all off for fifty notes each :).

The reason I ask is because unless you have used one and got proficient with it you won't realise just what you can get out of them.  

I do use a fixed spool reel, and even a closed faced reel from time to time but since most of my fishing is trotting a float on a river I just use the best tool for the job....for me of course.

i do use the pins on still waters for a lot of applications and again, I find them to be a better tool for the job than a fixed spool etc.

As I said, you really have to learn how to use one prificiently to get the benifits out of doing so.

You gott'a believe me Phone, it isn't a snob thing as many people seem to think. Again regarding price, many very good centrepins are cheaper than a decent fixed spool reel.

 

[A few hours out yesterday.....]

Phone,

I wouldn't go that far....pretty?  Just silver things lol.

The reel was just another pin, not used that one for a spell so gave it an airing .

Phone, just curous, have you ever used a centrepin reel?

 

 

[A few hours out yesterday.....]

Phone, that sounds great, i've alway wanted to fish for those whopping grayling over there!

I had a few hours out today, non stop catching really, unless I was walking to the next spot that is.  At one point I heard a woggy hen sounding off and then it came flapping out of some willows downstream and opposite me.  It then swam "on the double" across the river.  Not far behind it was a otter porpoising after it !

Anyhow, I caught countless " dice " and had to take a couple of pic's of 'em for Phone :)...

 

 

[A few hours out yesterday.....]

Phone,

They were chub in the last fishing post....not carp, or "dice"....no "dice" or carp were caught lol.

I think your pulling my leg maybe :).

[A few hours out yesterday.....]

Phone,

The reel is a JW youngs River Specialist, it's a ball race reel, not a bush and pin.  It is a nice reel to use, for me at least.

If you decide to fish central america, gimmi a shout and i'll join you :).

The reason the river rose so fast and then dropped off so quickly is because of the sea.  I fished in the tidal area where the incoming sea pushes back up the river and often it flows back upstream!...until it ebbs, when it all goes still for a few minuites and then it all starts to go back out again.  

it can make for quite tricky conditions and many a shooter/ wildfowler has been drowned when out on the marshes and caught out with the tides.

[A few hours out yesterday.....]

 

I had several hours o a swollen river in horrendus weather conditions today.  The wind was gale force, and it drove the rain so hard the drops stung when they hit my face!  Luckily the rain stopped but the wind stayed.

Fishing was very difficult and I thought I was going to blank so when I caught this small chublet I took a picture of it...

Another couple of trotts through that swim and I had another of those tiddly chub.

I tried a few more spots as I walked down the bank but had no luck.  Last spot on my walk downstream and I hooked a heavy fish, but, it came off after about ten seconds. As I retrieved my float esox tried to eat it !   Each time I retrieved my float the pike attacked it and actually jumped clear of the water as it struck looking like a killer whale in minature!

I decided to walk back up river and beyond my starting point.  As I walked I noticed the river level had droped off about three feet as the tide receeded.  

Anyhow, next swim and fish on...

I caught fish in all the next spots I fished, no big ones and no "dice", but they all pulled back hard to try and bury themselves in the submerged bankside vegetation.....