Dave H
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Posts posted by Dave H
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“Morning Sergeant”. ”Morning Constable”. ”What have you got for me today”. ” We have Anthony Worrell Thompson in possession of stolen cheese”. ”Right then lets grill him”
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I think your on a loser here Rob.I would be very much surprised if (for their purposes) they dont class trout as banned. Most places who have such bans actually word it as "No Freshwater" baits but "Coarse baits" will still be interpreted as the same.
Ive used small trout as lives for perch but as they are very strong had problems with "tail nipping" all the time.
Another "rule" you would have to make sure you didn't fall foul of is "having undersized fish in your possession"! Sounds daft I know but some years back while helping run the pike fishing days on a trout reservoir when I applied for permission to get in some trout live baits a regional fishery officer started to kick up! Basically she said that we were quite within our rights to bring in/sell/use trout as live baits (providing all appropriate paper work was done) but would have to keep a minimum size of 10" as this was (at the time) the legal take able minimum size!!! Crazy I know but there were (thankfully squashed) plans a foot to stop farms selling "undersized" fish to prevent anglers buying them and then being accused of "taking undersized trout" or indeed taking undersized trout and claiming they were brought! Load of old twaddle eh! Fortunately quickly squashed as several big trout waters actually by their trout in "undersized" then "grow them on" before stocking!
Trout for zander live or dead is by far the best bait. As pike anglers know it aint bad for them. I have never fished live or deads for perch but if a zander is anything to go by it's deadly
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I love fishing new water - so exciting
I would travel as light as possible and spend the majority of the day walking, exploring and generally getting a feel for the place. I'm a sucker for this, always saying to myself 'just one more bend then I'll stop'...'OK ONE more'...'actually I'd quite like to see what's round this corner'...
The more of the river you see, the better informed you are when you come to fish.
As well as looking for obvious things like cover, fast/slow/slack water, bends/glides, I also like to regularly check the depth and presence of weeds and other snags. There are several ways of doing this, like spinning as others have suggested, using a float, but what I normally do is just lower a weight on the end of the line off the rod tip until it hits bottom, reel down so the rod tip touches the water, then bring it out. You can then easily see what the depth is, and then check the surrounding depths up- and downstream to see where the bottom drops away, shallows up, or stays the same.
The reason I only check the near-bank depths is because that's almost always where I'll be fishing, especially for the first few sessions. Deep near-bank glides are both very easy to fish (as long as you're quiet) and very productive. I postpone fishing the trickier swims for when I need to. No point making it hard for yourself straight away
The good thing about fishing these areas is that because there are no visible clues, they are very often ignored. When you start looking, it can be very surprising how much the depth changes on what looks like a uniform bit of water.
As you're after perch I'd do a load of exploring and then pick your favourite swim for dusk, and fish with worms for the last couple of hours of daylight, with maggots as a change bait. Worms will pick up anything with a big mouth and especially perch, and if nothing happens a switch to maggots might reveal a swimful of other species
Indeed. i have also caught quite a few on prawn as a back up option too.
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In a way for me the Fish-ins are about travelling somewhere new!
On ones where I have to travel a long way though I like to be able to make a weekend/couple of days of it to make the traveling worth while.Mainly as the fuel is allways the major expense!
When I was doing my "Pike Teach ins" a dozen or so times a year it was either the hosting club who arranged every thing for me or the local anglers who had asked for it. All I had to do was turn up with the gear and sometimes baits.
One I used to organise my self was the AN one and a combined one for AN and the old Fishing Magic site members.I used to hold this at Les Weber's Angling Projects complex at Wraysbury.Thanks to Les this was a great venue for it with the clubhouse being right on the bank! We all ways made a weekend of this with instruction,slide shows and fishing all thrown in for free (as was the accommodation) All I asked those attending to do was make a donation to Les's charity (Angling Projects).
The Wingham ones are also good because of the length of the fishing and all the admin (such as lifts to swims,being shown the tactics and swims ,loan of any tackle needed and not to forget Peggy's BB-Q's) as well as the privilege of being able to fish such an exclusive syndicate.
Longer Fish-ins certainly make them more attractive to people who have to travel a distance though.
But that said for something "special" (a good chance at catching a new species or PB or fishing a famous venue or just learning a specific tactic) you would be surprised the distance many of us will drive!
Speaking to steve he told me. Some of those distances are beyond belief. he said one from the 'outer Hebrides'. Now that is a devoted angler.......
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Hope i am not sticking my head above the parapit but on a forum i used to run we had regions as sub-sections as maybe 3 or 4 counties as one subsection. like EG...Kent/Sussex/Essex/Hampshire. Then perhaps a anglers net fish in can happen in different regions and arranged in that sub section maybe by the Mod in that sub-section or just a organiser etc
Just an idea
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I like to explore a new river using a heavy spoon.
At each swim cast around, counting down from when the spoon hits the surface until it stops sinking (sometimes it's grabbed, that don't count!).
You quickly get an idea of the bottom features (and sometimes find snags so don't use an expensive lure, soft wire hooks and heavy b.s. braid means you will often be able to pull out of (or remove) snags).
Especially look for ledges (often a feature where the river level has been raised by sluices or locks). Such ledges may be the old drowned riverbank and will meander from one side of the current river to the next. Fishing the drop-off will improve catches.
At this time of year (well when its cold!), bridges can be good holding areas for silverfish.
Note any side streams that will be fishable when the river is in flood, these can sometimes become packed with fish, and also can be used by pike as spawning areas early in the spring.
Lots more to explore depending on type of river, depth, strength of flow etc.
Yes i was hoping for a Bridge but i am told there is not one. ledges are great i agree. I think the only issue i think is time. I might do all the homework on the first day with drop offs etc and another day i will be more prepared or just enjoy a running leger and if no luck spend the rest of the day doing it. But i have a lad with me so i think that is a bit unfair so i will just have a looksy for the first hour
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As ATS says, Google Earth can be helpful, especially if the river is in a country you have not visited before !
Plus any other "homework" - ranging from general accounts to local guides and brochures.
Having done all that, you are now at the riverside.
What to do?
My first approach is to set up a light spinning rod rather than float or leger. You can cover a lot of river bank by roving and spinning - much more than by float fishing. That way, you get an overview of quite a longish stretch in a short time, and the chance of a pike, perch, chub or trout (or something big and nasty if you are fishing somewhere exotic!) taking you "blind" is a bonus.
THEN go back and explore any likely-looking spots you have found with float or leger
Yep spot on to what i would do. going to have a roam around with a little mepps and have a looksy at the same time. The bends are often a good spot where Pike and perch hold up. I have had many a Pike on a bend . The google earth is a damn good idea and that is why i ask such questions as just that is a great tip.
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Hawk,
Answer: Approach this river from the West.
(Far to little information)
Phone
Thankyou...Very good
I would do exactly the same with the spinner. A nice little mepps perhaps. The slow water on the bends usually can hold a perch or two or maybe a pike.
The google idea is brilliant i had never thought of that. What a great idea. that's why i love to ask these questions in case although fishing all my life there is always something crops up different...Exellent!
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Speaking in the same section so to speak which are probably the most used boilies?
in ol days a fishmeal type boilie in the summer and a general bright fruity in the winter in a ball park figure sort of way. It used to be Tutti frutti that was always the carp anglers favourite although boilies had only been out a few years .
Just wondering what choice of boilie you would use if you had no kniwledde prior to fishing a lake?
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Think of the knowledge you have built up over the years as a huge plus. When the going gets tough you will probably the only one catching and feel it was all a great learning curve.
You will carry that into your pleasure angling and catch more fish than most.
You might want to answer my question on approaching a river for the first time as i think your experience could be invaluable
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Sunday i am going to approach a river for my first time. It's not a major river like the Avon but a reasonable sized one.
Good reports say there are carp up to 20lbs been caught decent pike and perch and chub. Well i like my Perch this time of year so that will be my target species.
For this how would you approach a river you have never fished before . I always like to hear others views espcially on Rivers which can be far more technical.
Rigs you would use for the first time on your arrival and in general how you would just approach it in the way of what to look for at this time of year?
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I'll add my thanks to those above Mark.
I've not done a lot of (intentional) eel fishing, apart from a period about 20yrs ago, and that was with very limited success, with a top weight of just over 3 1/2 lb. I found your post very interesting, especially the part about how close in you fish. I wondered if you ever tried using a float rig when conditions allowed. I found that it was much more sensitive, at times too sensitive and you had to move the rod tip towards your float, or the bait was dropped when the fish felt resistance from the rod. I found that it was best in slow rivers, or fishing close in, to the side on a stillwater, and I got less deep hooked fish than fishing on the bottom. I'm not talking about a pike float, but I used a big avon, just big enough to support a bait and a 'tell tale' shot. It would also help with the suspended baits you mention. I realise that concentrating on a float for long periods at night is not as comfortable as listening for the bite alarm, but I always stayed awake during night sessions, and if I started to nod off, stopped fishing.
What are your thoughts on this?
John.
I too never sleep at night . I think the reason is simple i am just too excited as we all know that its the most likely time you are going to get a run. I am not saying i do not dose but i am in a chair close to the rods or if raining in the bivvy in the chair but you are not comfy so you don't dose for long.
float fishing in the dark though i find a bit too concentrating and i dose off. I rearely do a 48 hr session but if i do and it is a warm day i will sleep on the bedchair but right next to the rods.
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There is probably only one freshwater fish i have not targeted and that is the Eel. Many times i have thought about it but as i have done quite a bit of zander fishing i have caught quite a few. zander swollow it like Perch but their mouths are smaller. in fact i have caught double figure zander with mouths smaller than a 4lb eel and i mean that.
So for years i tried to find a rig that could give the least chance of deep hooking. Many times in the early years i would have to cut the line right up to the hook or as close as i could get. Obviously from early on it was strike instant so i used to have my hand right on that handle and i know i have struck too early and lossed fish and after 5 hours in the bleakest countryside you can imagine with a wind howling through my empty brainless head how rather upset i was...
I finally decided on the best rig i could use as a happy medium between catching without deep hooking. It was a rig that was my rig and i have never seen one since partly adapted to the water i was fishing in.. but it was my best effort and i have no doubt that anglers will find a fault in it. offcoarse there is a fault in it. but there is a fault in every rig for every fish out there.Because no rig despite your best intentions cant kill the fish. infection for example.
the poor mr Rudd tired and knackered who can't out run the perch or attracts it with that tiny bit of blood
With ANY fish we do not know what happens to that carp as it goes back in the water or that little Rudd.but we do our best to get that fish hooked cleanly to get it in with minimal damage.
So what are you doing wrong?. nothing you are being a responsable angler. Sadly any commitee in any sport but especially blood sports will never put their head above the parapit on anything that is in the slightest contraversial I know as i have resigned/left from such commitee's not because they are wrong in some cases but in part i disagree especially the bit where it is in your example where a professional Angler for all the right reasons are doing it. I understand both sides as i have experienced both sides but for christ sake have the decency to give that person respect.
You have tried your best rig to avoid and you have chosen to share it so it can be published to other Eel anglers through the right channels but if they were to do this and sign on the dotted line then if just ONE eel dies from it they end up in all sorts of trouble. The other thing the is Anglers mainly hate Eels and fisheries too so why an earth would they support such a rig that actually saves them?....Sadly it's a fact of life .
That's my side of things anyway.
I shall await my Trial
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I was sitting on the bank with float rod out and i swear i saw a ghost. It was like a Ghost carp but it vanished and never seen one since...I could not resist
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Not been here long too but it seems to have been a warm reception and a laugh too so i hope you like it like me.
Seems to a few old timers on here too makes me feel i am the only one who used to fish with a pike bung and a glass rod at some point
So welcome
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OK guys bit of a Amateur enquiry here but hey ho it's worth a chat about
Just seen the Nash un-hooking mat which is like a stand off the ground what do you think. the budget is getting really tight now but obviously a un-hooking mat is a big must have and for my own satisfaction sling and weighing scales. any reccommendations. Yep i know its not hard is it i hear you cry but its all fishing so why not?
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Still use my 'Match', mainly for long distance float fishing or waggling on rivers and as a back up to the centrepin as was the case here.........
Still have a 300 I bought in 1973 somewhere, although it's not in as good a condition as the 'Match'. I managed to get a couple of Baitrunners a couple of years ago 5000GTE and 8000GTE and I think they are very well made. The double handle on the larger one is not to my liking though.
Thay's a beautiful fish by the way
I have just purchased a 2nd hand GT3500 to go with mine. I love them. I have tried many many reels in my local tackle shops and not one impressed me that much. I went home and got my 3500 out and it was just SOLID. The spool is ample for mid-range carping or whatever and it is just pure beauty and not what felt like to me just too light and tiny. I think the volume of the spools shocked me too . So much smaller even compared with my 3500.
I know what you mean about the double handle on the 800 i think they cocked up when they first came out putting them on i know some good anglers who shunned them straight away because of that
I found this lovely little silver Diawa Regal S too with 3 spools . i remember keeping that as it was a fantastic coarse fishing reel and it still is.
I remember saying after 15 years how i thought how cheaper tackle is well after a few months on yes i still think it's cheaper but the quality in everything i have seen is much worse. It seems even China has crept it's way into angling with cheaper equipment but worse quality. Its happening everywhere and i also tried some of these cheaper bait alarms and they really were quite pathetic. It reminded me of the cheap sets from woolworths as a kid but more money. I change my mind for your money its worse . I knew it was to good to be true
Still i am back fishing weeeeehheeeey!....Lovin it!
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Is the 3500GT being talked about an Aero model or a Triton/seaspin model as Shimano did a 3500GT in both.
Its definately not the triton model just the baby of the GT shimano baitrunners. i thinkk they had the 350. 400. 500 600 and 800.....I think
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Phone...
I found the patchy thing much more in america than anywhere. I remember this ol timer guy who had loads of patches and he chewed tobacco i gotta say he was one funny character like straight out of the movies . He made laugh about his stories and said he knew a guy called Steve from London and asked if i knew him LOL.
The game fisherman are a bit like that over here although yet to meet one chewing tobacco more like strepsils.There is a bit of snobbery but in light jest between the OCD boys and the scruffs. the amount of times (last week actually) i hear ' This guy had all his rods out with buzz bars and had caught nothing in 2 days and up popped this guy with his garden stool old split cane and a bag of maggots caught a 20lb common and then packed up after an hour and went off home' while The Mr OCD ( sorry i made that expression up up) watched on.
However you never hear about the other way round so i think snobbery and also jelousy a bit in there . I remember when pike fishing on an OCD set up and an old guy with his basket seat and cane rod walked by and said 'Can you pick up channel 4 on that' (showing my age here..LOL) as he walked by in which i replied keep your dirty knickers in your laundry basket away from me it makes my boilies smell bad' . It was OK for him to laugh at his comment but not me about his dirty knickers and wick basket comment ( in fact he had patches phone come to think of it..lol)
The thing is you OCD guys is you bivvy all tidy at all times and correct with boots firmly in line polished and upright. LOL
I am a bit of both i think although i seem to be starting to buy 2 or 3 of bits of tackle the same as i build up again...
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A full strip,clean and service is a tenner for any reel plus the return P&P (£5). Any parts required for repair are charged for at cost. I allways contact customers to let them know the price of any parts.Also I can quite often "diagnose" a problem with models I'm familiar with before I strip them so can give a quote prior.I mention this as once Ive striped and cleaned a reel (which solves a multitude of problems) Ive obviously done the bulk of the work and so charge! Also to save you wasting money and me time I will allways let you know prior to you sending the reel if (due to availability of parts) if its repairable.
All work I do is (as are any reels I sell) covered by my "Lifetime servicing/repair" deal all you pay is postage and any parts.
So are you OK with a GT3500 . It was always a bit of a back up for my 600 and 800 sadly now departed which is why i found it seperate i think.
I have seen a few 2nd hand ones around. am i to presume the 'Aero' baterunner was the same as the 'GT'. Or was it the case that they were entwined anyway.
Send me a PM Budgieand i will send it off but might wait until i get another and send the pair off...( any discount for two
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Yes I agree to and I see the odd reel or two!
My 3500 is just so more solid. I wish i did not sell my 600's years a go. Mind you i think it need a good service
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I have recently thought of buying some new baitrunners as my 3500 and 6000 are getting a bit dated so i was looking about for something similar well what a dissapointment i had. Maybe i am a bit old skool but after inspection of say the 4000 ST RA baitrunners they seemed a bit taccy and the spool volume very poor for a baitrunner even on the smallest of lakes and even going up in the market i found them just taccy looking.
Some of the older GT baitrunners on E bay are going 2nd hand for more money.
Do any of you think Shimano has dropped their standards and quality?
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Using my emergency parachute on a charity jump before you had to double up. Not as bad as that lady but still falling through the air.
Brave girl. I don't know if anyone or anything will phase her for the rest of her life.
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What a great idea...but where on the map would they be ? Members are spread right across the country and odds on the southerners would come first
Well the southerners should come first
On a serious note though why not?
Elton we are waiting
Would you start a new fishery today?
in Coarse Fishing
Posted
And a pound off for Anglers Net Members