Daz66

C'mon guys there must be literaly thousands of place's worthy of a post here. What about quiet little rivers where you have to leave the car and walk for 20-30 minutes to reach the best swim's, the idyll where you never see another person all day and have the place to yourself. I understand that you may be inclined not to say but I promise I wont tell anyone else or invade 'your space' when I want a quiet afternoon myself.......

I took my lad fishing at our local lake yesterday, it was a bit overcast and drizzly but good enough for the afternoon. However as I sat there I listened to the surrounding noises, the lake is about 1.5 miles from the M25 and in a residential area, I could hear the constant hum of cars on the M25 and the local activities such as people driving around and working on the gardens etc. along with the local wildlife (a particularly ardent woodpecker trying his luck ina tree nearby!)Also we get the planes from Heathrow and Gatwick passing high above. What I was wondering is where is the best most scenic and peaceful location in the UK to fish, away from the madding crowds and overhead traffic. I know if you guys have your favourite places and you may want to keep them secret but it would be nice to know that some idilic places exist and perhaps some directions would be useful!!

Thank you for your welcome advise gentlemen, I went out Sunday for a few hours to try my luck. I did try and get my sone to come but it was too cold for him so he stayed indoors!! The Mole at the moment is very fast flowing at the moment and chocolate coloured so I found a section near a bend, I have read that it slows close to bends, and the water was slightly calmer. I'm not sure if I did the right thing but having read some articles I tried ledgering, it seems and easy set up and I cast as close to the overhanging trees as I could get. I tried with 2 and 3 maggots and felt something like a bite once. Whilst having a drink of hot chocolate I noticed the line moving, it was on freespool, but none was taken off the reel. I put down the cup and struck (this all sounds very exciting doesn't it!!) but nothing was there!! I reeled in my line to check and some cheeky fish had had my maggots!!!!! After an hour and a half of this and loosing my hook link reeling in against some weeds I descided to try spinning with the small perch size lures, casting out several times into trees and other overhanging foliage I decided to move further up the bank and found a place where the river was virtually raging. It was much clearer of overhanging trees and the lure could be left to spin in the flow with occasional lifts and letting out of more line. However moving 20 yards further back nearer the bend the river was deeper and although still running fast I was able to cast about 20 yards into the bend and reel back close to the edge of the bank against the flow of the river. Needless to say after this grand dialogue, and half an hours casting, I was also still bereft of fish!!!! However I did enjoy myself getting used to casting my new rod and reel, setting up and waiting for that elusive bite. Its a shame my son didn't come but on the whole and enjoyable, if somewhat cold, wasy to spend a few hours on a Sunday afternoon......

Hi all and thanks for reading this, any advise will be welcome. I am new to the fishing scene this christmas after receiving a rod and reel from my much loved other half. I brought my son a shakespeare set up in the spring to fish the dyke at grandads in Norfolk and became interested in fishing myself as a result. To date we have caught many gudgeon and a half pound roach on the river Mole which is close by, now I have a bit of kit and a license (purchased via the net on christmas day, well I was excited!!) The trouble is I'm not sure what I want to catch and where to start, at the moment the Mole is running like a steam train and is a very dark brown with all of the storm water and melt water from the recent snow. The other problem is funds, I have been out of work for the last 7 months so buying expensive new kit is out, we have rods and reels a large and small landing net and unhooking mat so we can fish commercials and rivers alike but I would prefer to stick to rivers where day tickets are relatively cheap. Are there any free or unregulated rivers around?? So I suppose I need to now how to fish a very fast flowing river effectively and what can I expect to catch at this time of the year without to many fancy pieces of kit and cheap baits. Many thanks Daz