Tigger

I managed to get out yesterday, main reason was to try out a new rod I got a few weeks back. The weather forecast predicted a high of 21 degrees, cloudy and showers so I thought that didn't sound to bad. The river was a nice height but was heavily coloured with what looked like brown sawdust, obviously the sewage companies taking advantage of the flush of water from the recent rains. They prolly thought it would go unnoticed or people would assume it was run off . Anyhow, I had a chub of about 3 1/2lb first trott, followed by some similar sized chub, chubletts and dace. I had an angler just above me rolling meat,another one just below me legering with two rods, then two more just below him both using two rods each. The one below me was there when I arrived, but the rest arrived just moments after me! I go fishing for solitude and to get away from people unless they are my friends of course, so I decided to go back to the car and head off to another stretch of river on my other clubs book. I had that stretch all to myself , the fishing was similar to the previous stretch but I got a couple of small barbel. I only fished just over an hour in each spot and am sure I would have had a good chance to catch some better fish if I had stayed, but I couldn't cope with the heat as the temp's had risen higher than the forecast prediction, there was no showers and the sky was clear. On top of the hot weather my ankle was giving me grief so I left it at that and went home. https://postimg.cc/ns6dnqKv https://postimg.cc/VSSGyKtf

At least you got out Ken, more than I did lol. Bell ends in inflatables would really burn my brain and I think it would lead to violence!

I always have a quick look at the local rivers etc when I go over them or past them and the rivers were flowing very slowly and had lots of sewage floating on the surface. It was the bubbles which forms into brown scum. It gets stuck on overhanging branches and against the bank in low conditions forming quite large rafts. You can smell it also, it really is beyond belief that this is being done so blatantly!

Not good ! There has been several fish kills round these parts in the last week !!

Great stuff, anything for you Keith . Elton to the rescue many thanks Elton .

Your prolly right Ken, although I don't get why anyone would rather use FB etc than a propper angling forum like this one.

Thanks for that Ant, I will do a report when I get out next. I got a new rod to try out so am eager to see how it feels trotting a float, and hopefully woth a decent fish pulling back .

I pm'd Elton and he jas got back to me, fingers crossed it gets sorted. Thanks for the info about attatching pic's Ken, i'll give it a go when I have my next trip out fishing .

I stopped posting fishing reports because I couldn't download any pictures, and without anyone else posting any mine are just same old, sam old, once you've seen one of my reports the rest are pretty much the same so just boring for anyone else. Shame, this forum was the bees knees of angling forums....imo anyhow. Keith/Boldbear has just contacted me saying that he can't even make a post on here, as the forum doesn't work for him. Can someone have a look at his account and sort it put for him please?

.....where is everyone? Fishing majic is still going but it's just a small group of regulars on there. Maggot drowners is quite busy with a number of posters.

You got a float making fetish going on Martin lol. If it gives you pleasure then keep it up . The nearest i've come to making a float is cutting peacock quills down to size. I don't even paint them as they are white and visible enough for how I use them.

Thanks for the info Martin, good on ya bud! I'll give it a try next time I go fishing/if I catch ewt lol.

Hey Martin, thanks for asking after me bud . I only stopped posting my catch reports because I can't figure out how to post the pic's. As the fine gentlemen above have said, I've posted on an fb group recently and maggotdrowners. It's just been so quiet on here for such a long time now, kind'a stops you lookin' in to regularly. Thanks for the offer of floats (your a star) but really, i've got loads of 'em lol.

Its all been a bit quiet !

Thanks Chris

Thanks for the nice words BB .

I think this fellas real thoughts on the jab are becoming more obvious.

I don't come on here as often as I used to and have only just seen your post, sorry to hear of your loss bud, very sad.

Very sad ☹. I met Den several times on the excellent AN fish ins at wingham, had some good chats with him. On one occasion he told me about his fishing gadget inventions which looked great! He was very enthusiastic about his inventions! Another time at the wingham fish in I remember him being very upset because he had on a huge tench and his line (or landing net head) got caught up on the chicken wire on the platforn he was fishing off causing him to loose the fish . If I remember rightly he liked his Alpen for brecky at the fish ins . RIP Den.

I just tried posting some pic's of ide but I can't post them on hee any loner for some reason. As has already been said ide had smaller scales which look kind'a cramped up on the fishs body in my eyes. They are a stockier fish than a roach and some of the have bright blood red pelvic and anal fins. Problem is they often hybridise with other fish such as roach and imo should be knocked on the head (unless in purpose built waters) and definately not introduced anywhere....same as catfish!

If you think about it a guru reel is made by daiwa for guru, the same reel is likely to be at least a hundred quid cheaper if it were to be marked by daiwa. So, if your looking at guru reels, then look at the daiwa reels first as a 200 quid reel from daiwa themselves will prolly be as good or better than the guru reel at 300 quid. Regarding front or rear drag, I have found my rear drag reels every bit as smooth as the front drag models, infact, I prefer a rear drag reel.

Many years ago I used to use bubble floats to carry large chunks of luncheon meat when trotting for chub, they worked perfectly well and I caught lots of chub whilst using the method. Back then there were no barbel in the river but I don't see any reason why they wouldn't work equally as well for barbel.

One of the rivers I spoke of is only small Alan. Regarding the fish still feeding while the otters were present, they obviously knew/sensed they weren't on the otters menu by it's actions. I've seen the same thing with pike, fish buzzing about close to them feeding as though the pike wasn't there, so the fish must have an inert sense that the pike was in non predatory mode. As I said, if there is no fish left in the river, why are the predators still there, they have to eat something and they won't live long on a few garden pond fish.

Alan, the rivers round here have always had otters present. The otters where there before the barbel where illegaly stocked, so the barbel have reached the numbers they have done in the presence of the resident otters. People moaned a lot about the introduction of barbel as the roach etc dropped right off as the barbel numbbers exploded. Anglers blamed the barbel for the rapid decrease in the numbers of roach, chub and other species, the gudgeon vanished! The barbel seemed to reach a peak and have now dropped off in numbers. As the barbel have droped off in number the roach, dace, perch and chub etc have bounced back to very good numbers. Last year I was stood mid river whilst casting across the flow trotting a float for barbel. Anyhow, whilst I was watching my float trott down stream I noticed an otter appear porpoising along the edge of the far bank upstream towards me. As I watched it it moved out into the middle of my swim virtually on top of the spot where I thought my sweetcorn wou,d have landed amongst the rocks etc, my float went withing a few feet of the otter! The otter kept appearing for some air and then diving back down. The swim was around 3 to 4ft deep. I carried on trotting my float through the swim with the otter still doing it's thing in the middle of it. It turned out the otter did not put all the fish off feeding as I caught three barbel whilst it was present in the swim. I have no idea what the otter was doing, but I reckon it was rooting under stones for eels, invertibrates etc, or maybe eating my sweetcorn? I do know someone hooked a otter on a boilie and actually filmed it as they tried to play it. The line parted so the poor otter had a large hook stuck in it's mouth, throat or guts. I once saw an otter pop up like a seal about 50 yards downstream of me on a small river, it look round at me only to submerge and dissapear. Out of curiosity I walked straight down to the spot where the otter had been and proceeded to trott my float in the spot. The bait had no sooner began to sink and my float was pulled under, it was a huge dace. Every trott after that produced a dace or chub, mostly large dace and small chub to a pound or so. I have to addmitt to being surprised on both of those occassions that the fish just weren't put off by the otter. Now pike on the other hand, they are genuine party poopers and deffo kill the swim lol. What I do find odd about those rivers where it apears that otters have ate all the barbel is, if there are no fish left in the river, what are the otters and other predators eating. If there is no food then the predators have to move on or die, and they won't live lo g without food. By the way Alan, i'm not saying you or anyone else are wrong regarding your thoughts that otters have ate the fish, i'm just saying there may be other causes for the demise of the fish...maybe?

So it's your fault then ! I blame chester n'all