Tigger

Alan, seriously bud, all I did for years was go out hunting with dogs. Reason for a pack of otterhounds wasn't because they needed them to kill an otter, the same way hunting foxes with hounds isn't because they need more than one hound to kill a fox. One hound would smash a fox in seconds! They had a small group of otter hounds for "tracking" the otters, and then if they went to ground they had some terriers to go to ground. They would either bolt the otter and have it with the hounds or they might have to dig down to the terriers who would have the otter held. Then the people would spade it or shoot it, or maybe just let the dogs kill it. I was told by several people that the well know named barbel (the traveller?) Which some people claimed was killed by an otter had been caught numerous times in the few weeks previous to being found dead. Obviously a big fish on it's last legs anyhow and so an easy target for a predator? It stands to reason that any large specimen is going to be a good few years old and once they peak they start loosing weight etc. On top of the ageing thing, being caught regularly isn't going to help them stay fighting fit is it? I was also told that there were no young up and coming fish, no tiddlers? So once those old ones had met their end by predation or just being plain worn out there was nothing to replace them? Apparently the river is still full of other species?

I don't believe the cat in it's jaws for a second, total bullshine....although, if otters did kill cats that would be a good thing, cats are ravaging the british wildlife on a massive scale, but thats ok it seems ! Regarding the goose, so what?....wildfowlers and rough shooters shoot thousands upon thousands every year, same with ducks etc etc. I have friends who have shot 200 plus in one day locally. An otter kills one goose and it's a big deal, come on, lets get real .

I have some stretches of the severn on one of my clubs book. If the stretch suites I would have to try my method using the float and see how I fettled, maybe some touch legering otherwise.

All those kind of ridiculour rules and venue destruction will only cause anglers to leave the clubs or just put them off bothering to go fishing.

I wouldn't believe a word the bbc have to say about anything!

I sometimes fish a smal river where barbel are a myth they are so scarce. Anyhow, I have a had quite a few, but over a 16yr period! When I say quite a few, if you spread them out over the 16yrs they would be very thinly spread. I have had up to four in a session and consider myself very lucky to have actually caught one. I have caught them all on the float whilst roaving from swim to swim. Although, all the fish have come from a small number of swims and never from anywhere else, just shows they do have favourite stop off points.

I don't know of any waters on my clubs books with that rule in place, but it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if they do. They seem to enjoy making nonsense rules...because they can!

I very much dislike using a feeder and if possible I always catty or throw out my groundbait/particles and cast as small a weight as possible onto it. I don't like leaving my bait in for more than about 10 min's before re casting. One reason for not leaving it long before re casting is you never know if your bait has landed in a spot where it isn't easily got at or maybe can't be got at, or even if it has been coverd up, come off, pulled off etc. The thought of sitting there for a half hour or more before re casting and my bait being hidden between some rocks etc isn't my idea of fun . Another reason for re casting more often is the fish very often see the bait as it goes down which incites them to go for it. I often make a wind or two of my reel handle a few minuites after casting out in order to move my bait to bring it to a fishes attention and hopefully incite it to take it, and it very often does the trick.

I see the exact same problems with the committee of a club i'm in, they think they do a good job, but in reality they just destroy waters. They destroy them by making footpaths resembling town centre pavements, erecting fences that resemble a prison fence, putting huge platforms in pegs to suite long stay anglers (carp anglers), cut back vegetation both in and out of the water. The platforms, some of which resemble blackpool pier are so high off the water it's very difficult to float fish from them. I suppose they kind of sterelise waters and remove the character. Then they stock the waters with carp !

One method which has worked for me is to fish the last hour of darkness and an hour after dark ( pretty much the same as anytime of year if targetting roach). I would fish a self cocker, so no weight on my line below my float. I would vary the depth as and when I felt it was time to adjust it until I got a result. My bait would be maggot, caster and bread. Only recently I was using this method using 8lb line straight through to a 8's hook for carp, anyhow I caught a lot of carp, but also caught a lot of chub and larger than average roach. The roach didn 't seem botherd by my thick line and large heavy hook. I could pretty much guarante a roach simply by using a smaller piece of bread and they were on it as soon as it hit the water. If I wanted the bread sink slowly in the water I would just dunk it for several seconds before casting out. I forgot to mention, I was using a 10ft 2 1/4lb test nash scope carp rod !....but in all fairness I hadn't gone out to catch roach.

I hope he washed his hands after he had a slash !

I prefer other baits, but when I have used hemp I never added flavours.

You could tie the braid to a post or similar and walk it off, even if you just walk a hundred or so yards off, then make a few hard strikes and pulls. Then as you walk back and wind the line back on make a few stops and test again? At least it might give you an idea of wether it is rotted etc. You could even attatch a decent weight and make some hard casts on a field or similar? Just ideas for you Glenn .

I have seen the glides, they arn't for me, but, so long as your happy with it, that's all that matters .

I have tried a few korum rods, not for me! The drennan specialist rods mighr be worth a look at, 1.25 test and 1.5 test models which both come in 11 and 12ft lengths. You get a solid top section and a quiver section with several tips included.

I've had some great sessions since new years day, lots of nice chub, barbel, roach and dace etc, just can't load the pics on here, so pointless carrying on with this thread .

I had a number of successful trotting sessions, have barbel and/ or chub, dace and roach on most of them.

The angling trust are just the ea.

There were three on my swim as I arrived yesterday....I caught 12 chub, 8 barbel and a dace. There are still lots of cormorants and sawbills on this river and it has more silver fish than ever.

Only just clocked this, sorry Martin, hope all went well bud. Gott'a addmit though, I tought you were much, much older .

It must have looked like that below the surface of some swims I have fished. Sometimes i've had hundreds of them, one after and as soon as the bait has gone in the river just a rod length infront of me! Then the next year they have completely vanished! It may then be years before that scnario happens again.

Well, january the 1st 2022 today so I had to get out and have a go at fishing. The river was way too high for float fishing, but the temps were good so I thought it might have got the barbel on the feed. Because of the river level I was forced to leger. I never had a barbel, but I managed 8 average sized chub, at least I didn't blank . For some reason it won't let me post my pic's, so from now on i'll just have to type a quicky as above.