sebn

Honestly, stop caring about what other people think. Just go out and fish, just because some retail employee doesnt understand your fishing ideas doesnt mean there is anything wrong with either person. Pop into a proper tackeshop, buy a few bits, who cares about brands, just buy what best suits your needs and get out fishing. Of course angling is dominated by carp fishing now days but thats just the way it is, buy a few bits, sit by a river/lake and catch some fish, ultimately thats all any of us want to do.

I had intended on having one last lure session on the Stour this weekend before getting the fly gear out in April, however the torrential rain we had a few nights/days ago has got the Stour bursting its banks and full of colour, it is receeding albeit slowly, so maybe by Sunday it will have recovered to a fishable condition. Absolutely gutted really as last weekend it was beautiful, low and very little colour in the water, i opted to do some gardening instead

Will try and get out on the Stour for a couple of hours tomorrow morning, will be chucking some lures about for Pike, the levels have been settled for the past week and hopefully the cold snap we had at the beginning of the week followed by some warmer days and rain will turn the fish on.

Same seller, looks like the weights you are looking for http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FEEDER-fishing-lead-MOULD110-150-170-gr-carp-swimming-barbel-carp-SwimFeeder-/161732502558?hash=item25a802241e:g:WJgAAOSw~bFWPyDg

Whilst completely true, i'm sure it would still be a totally servicable pole for someone who is just getting into fishing or a more experienced angler who fancies doing a bit of pole fishing to change things up every now and then.

thanks for clearing that up mark. i was speaking to a couple of people fishing that side at the weekend whilst out for a walk, presumably they were poaching or just misinformed!

having just moved to the blandford area myself, this is useful a useful topic. i have joined blandford angling club as it is a bargain. i havent been out in the river yet but intend to have my first lure fishing session tomorrow. my understanding of the free section was town side below old bridge, till the weir, cross over walkway and the brewery side is free until the next foot bridge back over to coop side then the coop side is free till the bypass road bridge. there are loads of otters around which have dimnished the fish stocks from what i have heard, you will see the people with massive cameras at the weekends trying to spot them. have a chat with the chap in conyers, very polite and incredibly helpful. feel free to pm me if you want to discuss furter, might see you on the bank some time!

Thanks Vagabond, I dont actually own any scales, a ball-park "about x" is enough for me. I get the joy of catching from the take of a dry fly, the dipping of a float, the twitch of a quivertip and the subsequent fight. I dont think i will ever forget this particular graying though, its huge fin and amazing colour will stick with me to my end. Thanks for everyones input.

Net is 12" at its widest point. I must have really tiny hands, lol.

Managed another decent grayling on the dry fly this afternoon, river very low and gin clear, only one fish visibly rising. took a few casts but it took it, felt very heavy when i struck, it just sailed off into the current, apologies for bad image was wading and had to get my phone out of my trousers under my waders, bit of a faff, didnt have any scales, any estimation on its weight? my pb either way, it was such a beautiful fish when i was recovering it, beautiful red lined fin, amazing.

i had a lovely grayling on the dry fly earlier in the week, getting on towards a couple of pound from a stretch on the hampshire avon whilst trout fishing, was my biggest one yet, they are a beautiful fish and they certainly can put up a good fight on light fly tackle.

Mine finally arrived also, at last.

Indeed, havent deliberately targetted carp since May, been on the rivers since the season started.

I use the normal version and its a very versatile rod. Great workhorse for all kinds of fishing, i tend to use mine for general river work and have had no issues with it.

Been fishing with spinners and soft plastics over the last week or so on short sessions, had a couple of jacks and perch, a follow from a decent double figure but nothing substantial yet. will be out this weekend to try again.

Indeed, I shall be targetting roach in the next couple of months on the Hampshire Avon, I can only dream of getting a 2lb'er, but you never know, and, i guess that why we go fishing.

Blimey, something having a go at a dog would certainly point towards a catfish. It would have to have been a pike of considerable size to attempt that. I am sure that local angling clubs would be interesteed, however, i would be reluctant to go down that route. As soon as people know about the lake you potentially open it up to abuse. I would keep it under wraps and ask anglers you know and trust to help you out. I am sure any angler would love to have an unknown and unfished lake to explore, i know i wouild!

Avon Angling is my local tackle shop and i always pick up a couple of floats when i am in there. It would be tragic if they started to cut down on their selection. Christchurch Angling Centre down in bournemouth by the hospital have a lovely selection of locally hand made floats, always worth a gander.

Sorry Phone, could you just clarifiy that it is against the rules to use any kind of float whilst fishing on commercials in the US? Is there a reason for this? Is "float fishing" not a common method of fishing out there?

Thanks for the replies guys, I went for a quick session this evening on a different stretch that i hadnt been to before, found a lovely deep bend with very little weed. I managed to catch a Chub! Unfortunately i didnt have any scales with me, nor did my mate, i would estimate that it was around 4lb, it fell to bread flake on a size 8 with a small cage feeder with breadcrumb. It put up a great fight. It was the first time i caught one so a new pb this evening was great!

I wonder if anyone would care to offer me some advice. I have recently been fishing a beautiful stretch of the Hampshire Avon, the club i belong to have rights to quite a long part of the river. I have been employing quite a few different methods in attempting to catch various species. I have had great success in targetting Dace whilst trotting maggot with a centerpin, but now i am wanting to target some different species, namely Chub and Barbel. For the time being i am somewhat ignoring targetting Barbel and trying to tempt a Chub into my landing net. I have been using breadflake with a couple of SSG on a link ledger, or alternatively an open ended cage feeder with bread crumb. I believe these are both sound tactics for catching Chub (please correct me if i'm wrong) Now to the "issue at hand"; the river currently is incredibly weedy, its brimming with the stuff, i believe that it is "streamer weed". It is coming above the surface in a lot of places and just below the surface along the majority of the river. There are very few places where there isnt any weed, and even if i am able to get to some gravelly patches there is thick weed all around, between the gravel and the bank. I am very concerned about hooking something and instantly getting snagged and potentially harming a fish. Obviously this isnt a problem that is unheard of, but i am just wondering, "How do other people deal with this situation?" Another issue that i am experiencing is bite registration, i am keeping my rod tip high so my line isnt laying across the weed but it is inevitablly making contact with it somewhere. The tip of my rod is pretty much in constant movement when the weed is moving in the current and i am finding it hard to regocnise genuine bites. Any advice on this issue? For reference, I am using a John Wilson Avon rod 1.25lb with 6lb line straight through when fishing bread flake on a link ledger. When using a feeder i step down the hooklink to 4lb-ish. Many thanks in advance. Seb

I too saw this fishery and discussed it at length with a good mate as a potential investment, we ran the numbers and it really did not offer a decent ROI. As the other posters have suggested, it would take a lot of work and a long time to get any kind of return. The one thing you also have to think about is, If it is such a good money making business, why is the current owner selling up? If i was already part of the 50 man syndicate, i would be pushing for each member to put in two grand and buy it between us, then it would be a "true" syndicate. Of course, if i had 100k as "play money" i would buy it and make it my own private fishery, lol.

I would tend to agree that it is a dying art, but that is only annecdotal from my own experience. On the lakes that i fish on my club water it is incredibly rare to see anyone using a float. If i do see anyone using them it does seem to be older guys. Personally i love using floats but i also spend time ledgering on longer sessions for carp. Even on longer sessions when not a lot is happening i love getting out the float rod or pole and spending a few hours catching roach etc. There is just something so "interactive" with using a float, something that i just dont experience when ledgering. I do think it is a generational thing also. When i was younger, around 6 or 7 i started going to the local public pond with my dad who liked to use a pole. I grew up using floats and if i am honest i wasnt really aware of the "ledgering method" until much later in my life. I took a long break from fishing and started again a couple of years ago. (I'm 28 for reference) I have a great friend who is my fishing partner (of the same age) and he grew up ledgering and very rarely, if ever, using floats. Even today, his prefered method on most waters is ledgering. I recently picked up a couple of cheap poles and gave one to him, we decided to spend a day at a new water fishing for species other than carp. He really really enjoyed it, it wasnt something that he had done a lot of before and it was great to see his excitement when watching the float bob up and down. I dont think the kids now days get much exposure to float tactics with magazines and tv shows, so they arent aware of the magic of the method. This year we joined a local club that has access to some great waters and some amazing river stretches. Since the opening of the new season we have concentrated on fishing the rivers with float tactics, trotting and fishing the pools. I love it, something great about roaming along a river watching a float. There is obviously times where we use feeders and ledgers whilst targetting the barbel in the river, where its appropriate, but there is definitely something magical about float fishing. To be honest, i am rambling now and lost my train of thought. Just thought i would share my irrelevant thoughts.

Hello, long time lurker, first time poster! This is an interesting question indeed. I have just bought a centerpin, waiting for it to arrive today hopefully (nothing special, cheaper side of things to see if i get on with it) and i too am interested in knowing which way i should spool it. I believe that coming off the bottom is the traditional way and as AddictedToScopex said above me, it is apparently easier to wallis cast with it that way. From my research one of the benefits of having it coming off the top is that it prevents the wind blowing the line off the reel (if you dont have a line guard) Any advice for a 'pin newbie. I will be manily trotting for roach/dace the odd chubb and barbel on the hampshire avon/dorset stour. Thanks in advance.