MotherHen

Taking a trip to Heyford Fishery in Northamptonshire tomorrow, haven't been properly in ages so not sure what works nowadays although corn used to do the trick. Carp, tench & bream are main inhabitants so I'm not sure what I should use, especially this time of year! Another thing, fishing the far bank in a couple of feet of water always used to work, would that change due to the time of year? Also if anyone's heard of canons ashby lakes, I'm going to give it a go soon so any advice is welcome Cheers AN, Indy.

I'm a member of TDAA, even worse than those two www.tdaafishing.co.uk/

When I was 7 or 8 I was fishing with my dad and his mate at Gold Valley nr. Farnborough, for whatever reason at the time one of my rods did not have a baitrunner. Like the OP you can imagine what happened. Being that age though, I jumped in the lake... What went through my head I'll never know but the fish pulled the rod out further so I came back to shore and a few anglers tried to cast out and catch my rod as it was floating on the surface. Eventually one guy hooked the last eye on my rod and retrieved it. :

When I was 7/8 I caught a chub trolling on the Thames with my dad. When it was in the boat my dad gripped the fish and while trying to pull the hooks out the fish slipped and one of the hooks on the trebles went into his thumb. This was in the days when barbed hooks were used and being this age I still demanded he took a picture as it was my PB at the time of 5lb5oz. So with a hook in one hand and camera in the other he took the picture, motored to a nearby restaurant and with the other 2 hooks corked, pulled it out with pliers. The reward for all this was a little piece of meat from his hand on the end of the treble! More recently, after a night carping I was shaving in the morning and being knackered from the night before, cut myself 5/6 gills on my jawline under my ear. Didn't stop bleeding for a good half hour!

It all depends what's in the section you're fishing really. Bream, perch and roach will all take worm and maggot but in some sections there may be carp / tench as well which would take these. What section you thinking of going to fellow Northamptonian?

I've had what appear to be exactly the same boots bar the colour for 3/4 years now and they're as good now as the day I got them. Brilliant boots, really good value for money at that price as well.

I've walked past that section many a time but never fished it, is it free or club-owned? And the Stourton stretch is very odd, looks like it would be a couple few deep max but there's 15ft holes and probably 8ft average depth when the water was low at the top. Although its infuriating as you can look up from the top swim to see chub and possibly trout rising under a tree just out of casting range

I was at blackstone on Saturday aswell, also blanked. Needs a hell of a lot more water in than it does currently. Only ever blanked the BAA stretches of the severn when the water has been like this Also, was the stour section you were fishing the BAA stretch near Stourton Castle? Been there once and had a few nice chub and a big perch.

May try some late-season tenching on a club water tomorrow if the weather's nice. Torn between that or day ticket carping though.

Well it really depends what you're interested in. Shatterford fishery (http://www.shatterford.com/) has some big cats and carp in their specimen lakes (also seen pics of people catching sturgeon but not sure if they're still there), also a runs water there which I've never fished. Furnace mill (http://www.furnacemill.net/)in the Wyre Forest is good fun but nothing big, a nice place to spend the day though. I fished Poole Hall in Kidderminster once a few weeks back and that was quite good catching fairly decent sized carp off the top. I have heard of Kingsnordley fishery being good but never been. Nordley lakes under BAA day ticket are fun IF the sun is out and the fish are on the top, otherwise its still good but not the best. Hope this helps.

Hey Jack, I'm a BAA member and have fished the Bridgnorth and surrounding many times for barbel. The biggest I have seen caught is on the most productive stretch I've fished in BAA which is the R/B of Arley near Bewdley. Day tickets can be bought from the tackle shop in Bewdley and 99% of the time you are guaranteed to catch on pellet. The other 1% however is now as there is very little water in the river which makes it very clear and turns the barbel off feeding. Had my first ever blank the other day on the Arley stretch simply down to the water level and clarity. As far as Bridgnorth goes, under the bridge is probably the best stretch for big barbel, personally seen them up to 12lb here but saw a 14lber caught from the Arley stretch. Pellet is definitely the best bait for all of the BAA venues I've fished for Barbel. Good luck.

I believe it's a common carp hybridised with a crucian carp.

Well staying on at my 6th form for another couple of years then who knows!

Unfortunately my club doesn't allow nightfishing And I'll be sure to try maggots but I've been put off corn! There's some big rudd to nearly 3lb there so may go after them at some point. Thanks.

Thanks for the reply. I'll give the cocktails a go next time I'm there and any ideas how I could make a decent rake cheaply? Also, do you think a swan shot a couple of inches from the hookbait is the right way to go in water this clear or not? MH

Hey, congrats on your results buddy. Got mine back yesterday aswell. Bio, Philsophy & Ethics - C Physics, Media, Chem, Eng Lit - B English - A Maths - A* Also took my AS Spanish this year and got a B!

I joined a local club last week and today paid a visit to one of the venues. 2 millpools, both gin clear and full of weed (there are swims which people have raked before me - or so it seems as they are void of surface weed) Unable to get to the tackle shop before hand, the only bait I could take with me was bread and corn which I picked up from a garage on the way! I spent around 8 hours there from 9-5 and I know these aren't good times for tench but there are big rudd and crucians and nothing showed bar a few small rudd! Anyway here's the summary of today: First I went down to the bottom lake, found a pre-raked swim under trees as there was pretty heavy rain. Plummed up, threw in a couple balls of groundbait, handful of corn and cast out. Not a nibble in an hour or so on either that or breadflake. I moved up to the top lake and found a swim which also looked raked, repeated the procedure and still nothing. So I went for a stroll and saw a swim with tenchy bubbles coming up from just beside a few bullrushes a few feet out. So I relocated a while back from the bank and decided to use the lift method as it was so close I assumed it was shallow and the sound of a plummet coming in and out might have spooked them. So I threw in a little corn and put my hookbait in the middle of it. For the next 20 minutes there were bubbles coming up all around my baited area and I would get bites but couldn't hit a single one. The only explanations I can possibly think of that caused this are that they were mistaking my shot next to the hook for hemp and attacking this or they were just line-bites and due to the water clarity not taking my hookbait. They weren't crays as I lifted slowly on a few bites and didn't feel any resistance. Normally I would just put this down to small fish but the fact that there were bubbles coming up from all over my area made me think otherwise. Eventually a couple of swans came over and due to the depth and visibility, any bait I put in they had instantly! So was forced to leave and call it a day. I was using a 4lb b/s hooklength which may be a bit too heavy but the lightest I had brought today as I hadn't been informed of the clarity. Simple waggler and lift fishing, neither worked. single / double grains of corn on size 12 / 16 hooks. Breadflake on size 12 hook. Nothing caught worth mentioning, so my question to you is how would YOU approach this? What baits should I take? Maggots? Casters? Hemp? Redworms/Lobworms? What methods? Also, any general tench fishing tips would be appreciated as I've never really targetted them directly. The lakes have no carp, just bream, tench, rudd, perch, roach, crucians and some big pike that I'll target in the winter. Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks, MH

Hey Denis, for exploratory fishing on rivers you don't know too much about, maggot feeder will find out alot about the species / size of fish that are there. Worms / corn on the hook are also worth a try and if you are hunting down big carp then you could give boilies / pellets a go. A sliding feeder rig with a 2 to 3 foot hooklength would be a good starting point. It's the most simple form of feeder fishing. Thread your feeder onto your mainline, tie a swivel on the end, tie your hooklength to the other end of the swivel and you're ready to go. You could try using a cage feeder with groundbait as well. Hope this helps, good luck.

I was always brought up to wait for a few seconds and never had any casualties to my recollection. ...and I'm hardly old!

The other day I was fishing a stretch of the Severn near Bridgnorth and as the water was so low, no barbel showed. However I managed to 'hook' a pike on a worm somehow although when I eventually landed it the line was threaded through its pelvic fin and it had lassoed itself so the line went through the pelvic fin, around the fish and hooked itself back in the fin less than an inch where it first went through. I have no idea how this happened as I always had resistance on the fish!

I didn't think of the fact that its this time of year as I only ever go after pike in the winter months, I've never once had a dead pike and always wait a couple of seconds after seeing the float move though.

When a pike hits a lure its generally quite aggressive so you don't really need to strike as it should have hooked itself. Also, a pike a foot long isn't really going to test your 10lb line so you can probably bully it to the bank in under a minute. Have you considered deadbaiting? Simple method and I find it really enjoyable. Just get a pike bung, snap tackle and a few small sprats / mackerel / roach. With deadbaiting you should wait a short period of time when you see the float going instead of striking straight away as this tends to pull the fish out of the pike's mouth. But if you plan to keep on lure fishing, you will have set the hooks just by the pike hitting the lure and the tension already on the line so just try to get your rod bent as soon as you feel the fish hit if that makes sense. Hope this helps.

If you're talking about the gold valley in Farnborough, last time I went there was 6/7 years ago and back then it was the best fishery I had ever been to. There were days where you could have 10/15 double figure carp in a day aswell as loads of smaller ones. Really easy to fish and from my experience Gold Lake was by far and away the best one. A straight running leger rig with a lump of luncheon meat on the end was the best method in all the time I went there which was a fair few years. Don't have to cast far out at all, a few feet out on either side of the swim or directly ahead 15/20 feet at most. The best swims on gold lake always used to be the first ones you would come to from the car park. Head straight down the middle and fish the first swim that is vacant on the lake. Be warned though, it goes completely dead from around 12-3/4 and all the carp come to the surface but due to floating baits not being allowed it is hopeless trying as they aren't even feeding! It is 4 feet pretty much all around the lake and from 8 o clock onwards it is unbelievably good fishing. Good luck!

Sounds good, a real wild trip ...& so I get asked questions like that!

Title pretty much says it all, what is / would be your favourite fishing experience? Can either be something you have experienced yourself or just something you would like to. Personally I'd love to go to Thailand for the Mahseer as well as big game fishing at some point, went to the Ebro when I was younger aswell and would love to do that again if I can get the £££!