davedave

Thanks for the post gozzer. I've gone into the habit now of only buying white maggot so I can turn my own casters

Not sure if i'm going if it's planning to pour it down. I'll review it the night before I think

And at £270, you'd be stupid not to buy one!

Trotting it is then Had a wander Friday evening with the scythe and cut a path to the river in a few spots, saw some fry and chublets on the surface up to about a pound but no biggies. The river looks in better nick than last year, but thinking back we did have a drought last year, the river actually looks quite fishable although I reckon a day of rain on Thursday or Friday would just add a tinge of colour to it. I'm going to put some bait in Saturday evening and fish it sunday morning as early as I can get out of bed. Not long now

Do we go trotting or do we leger for chub? This is the question

Rudd (I think they were, could possibly have been roach though) were spawning on Tuesday in the margins, the water was almost boiling with them.

Never even tried to hook hemp so no help i'm afraid. You could try the fake stuff though? http://www.matchmansupplies.co.uk/enterprise-imitation-hemp.html

Works well for me http://www.englandangling.co.uk/displayProduct.asp?prodCode=C00079

Finished work a bit early today so decided to go fishing. Fished from half four to just before nine trying to catch these bream or anything half decent really. Kicked the swim off with a pint of hemp, caster and corn and fished double hair rigged corn over it, occasionally topping it up with a bit of corn. I started getting indications and line bites quite soon and after an hour and a half had a run that went straight into the reeds and when I tried to stop it...ping. Heartbroken, 10lb main to 6lb hooklength, you know it was a pretty good fish. Fished on but despite plenty of liners and lots of indications of fish in the swim I had no more runs. Bloody bream! Never mind eh

Had a quick walk about last week and took a couple of pictures. This is where i'll be fishing on the day, going to cut the nettles back next week so I can get in there. Does look nice I must admit.

Bloody casters, more hassle than it's worth. Bought it on Thursday, divided it into two bait boxes to breathe and stuck in the fridge. Opened it today, all very dark. Hmmm I thought to myself, so I put them in a bucket with water and low and behold, half of them float. Absolutely fuming as I have a match tomorrow and all I've got is half a pint of questionable caster and a few leftover maggots from two weeks ago. At £3.50 a pint I think it should last more than 2 days in a fridge. Tackle shop owner in for a bo***cking when I next see him! :angry:

^ I was thinking that, never seen a picture of a canal barbel before. Nice looking fish though and looks quite healthy not like Stillwater barbel.

Well I've come to my caster conclusion! Bought a pint of casters from the tackle shop today, £3.50! And i'm not keen on the tackle shop ones as although they look ok they feel a little mushy because they have been frozen. Got home to see how my maggots were doing (took them out the fridge last night and have spent all day sat on the side of a warm garage), and I've got quite a few nice looking casters, and I can probably get more if I leave them out. So I think the solution is to buy maggots and what I don't use put in the fridge and take out a couple of days before I want caster, and whats there should be ample for hookers and limited feed, plus they're not mushy, not too much hassle and save a few bob as well! Thanks guys

Cant you put a fag out on them and things like that?

Why do you need to know how much line your putting on/taking off your reel?

Ayjay - Thanks, yes, wondering whether the time/hassle is worth doing it myself! John - Thanks for that detail, appreciated, do you find white maggots make better caster?

Hi all, Got just under a pint of mixed maggot in the fridge, which is two weeks old, but has been in the fridge and wont turn to caster. I'd like it to turn to use it in a match on sunday and i'd rather not buy any because the stuff in the tackle shop is dear and naff. Looking on the net it says to use damp sawdust but I don't have sawdust, just maize. I thought the maggots were too cold to turn so will just leaving them at room temp turn them? I riddle them every day for the last few days and theres a few deads and maybe one or two casters but they're reluctant to turn! Any suggestions? Thanks

Can you elaborate?

Thanks

Thanks, sounds good for the perch too!

Not patronising at all mate I've only recently started clipping up as I thought it was just for carpers fishing on big reservoirs and stuff, starting to wonder how I ever fished without clipping up! Thanks

Thanks bud, what type of groundbaits? Also whats the lift style? Like a pop-up with artificial corn?

Cheers mate, I only said about the heavier line as I was worried about damaging the line when clipping up. Given me a bit to think about, thanks Thanks phone, don't get tench or bream your side of the pond?

Evening, I fish a club pond regularly, it is a deep irrigation pond with over 20 pegs. It has a lot of roach and rudd, some large perch, chub, a handful (literally) of big carp, tench and bream. The bream and the tench do not get caught very often at all, they are in there, and the bream go to 8lb, the tench to nearly 5lb but they just don't get caught. Most of the bream seem to show in the middle of the pond where it is generally deepest (14ft approx.), and the tench don't show at all, but get caught within 4 or 5 rod lengths out. There is a lot of natural food in the pond, bloodworm mostly, and I think that the fish aren't being caught because they are gorging on the natural food. I keep thinking how I am going to target the tench and the bream, I'm not fussy which I catch, I'd just like to catch one of them! My last go at them I tried fishing a cage feeder with soft pellets in it and double hair rigged corn. I had lots of bites but this could have been roach attacking the feeder, although the bites were quite violent at times. My most recent thought was to fish a heavy mainline (10lb) and use a medium block end feeder (http://www.poingdestres.co.uk/ProductImages/fullsize/tfob.jpg) to put a bed of maggots out. I was thinking use the heavy mainline and then line it up and clip it up so i'm hitting the same spot consistently, have 5 or 6 casts then attach my hooklength, something like a 5lb hooklength to a size 10, and use a big bunch of compost redworms (to mimic the bloodworm) on the hook. How many pints of maggot do you think I would need to effectively get the breams head down on the feed? If you were fishing the water, how would you go about targeting the bream? And possibly the tench but that I think would be even harder. Thanks guys

Most people I speak to on club waters can't stand eels and many will just cut the line. You also get the ones that wrap them in newspaper and hold them with dry towels to unhook them. Most people against eels are the older generation but not always. I find it very rare to speak to anyone who enjoys catching them, apart from match anglers as they can put a good weight together with a few bonus wrigglers. I once fished a small club pond and there was a guy age mid twenties fishing opposite me, absolute moron, drinking cider, moaning that he'd been bitten off by pike because his cheapo braid hooklength had snapped (there were no pike in this pond), anyway, as I was packing up he proudly shouted across to me that he'd just caught a small eel which he'd cut in half with a pair of scissors, by this point the bailiff who had been fishing on the opposite side of the bank and had had enough of him asked him to leave and told him he wasn't welcome within the club anymore. Just goes to show peoples attitude towards them. My opinion is that I wouldn't target them, and i'll admit they can be a nuisance when legering lobworm for perch in the warmer months, but they are getting rare and I respect them like I do all fish (with the possible exception of F1 carp). I always land eels no matter how small purely because it makes them easier to unhook, with my hands on the outside of the wet landing net I grab the eel near the head and take the hook out with forceps (which I find easier for big hooks). Dave