The Flying Tench

Well done on the Lea, Alan! John

Thanks, Alan For info last October Terry T Shirt said he was still catching good bags of roach (10 - 15lb) all the way from Buckingham to Bedford, I think, but he , like you, has a lot of experience of the river. The truth is a better roach angler than me would probably equal that on the Thames locally, so that must be my key target. I'm assuming the pipes swim you showed me will be quite clear in summer which might be good for hemp and tares? Bedford may be a bit far, though sounds kinda reliable. Out of interest how big do the roach run to? I've got an A.T. article from last June which claims the roach at Bromham run to 1lb 8 oz, and recommends pellet, though it's apparently quite fast there and might be harder to fish for someone like me with a bad back.

I bought a cheap one years ago, but I could never get the thick spike into the ground and in the end I binned it. But today I saw a guy with a brolly on very hard ground (gravel and wooden fishing platform) and wondered how on earth he had fixed it. I wandered over and it turned out he had a relatively sit-up kind of chair, and he had tied the brolly with cord to the chair. It looked precarious, but all credit to him it worked! Do you have a brolly, and if so do you have any problems setting it up?

Apologies, Alan, I should have looked at a map! As you imply, Bedford is further from me than Milton Keynes. I think I meant Buckingham!

That makes sense in the majority of cases, but there seem to be exceptions. For example Bayleaf (see his blog this last winter) and I think Peter JG found a swim on the canal where it seemed you could always get plenty of bites from roach, particularly in winter, though from memory they were all small. Alan, I'm interested in your mention of the Gt Ouse at Bedford. I'm hoping to visit the Ouse this summer or autumn, maybe with hemp and tares, but was thinking the nearest to me might be Milton Keynes. But Bedford would be closer. Do you know if there is any day ticket fishing at or near Bedford?

It was the River Severn at Bewdley

Thanks both of you. At Boddington it's barbless only.

A key question, certainly, how long to leave the bait in before re-casting - and I often have little idea and don't even understand the principles involved. The ones I can think of are: Reasons for re-casting - get more bait in - put the bait in a better position (if there are no bites it may be stuck in weed) - stir things up! (this may be rubbish, but it sometimes feels like the thing to do!) Reasons for not re-casting - don't frighten the fish Any other factors? Ken, I think the main point of the video was that fish aren't scared of feeders. But I felt he overstated his case. It may be true of a big shoal of mainly small dace in a big river, but authors on barbel fishing claim they seen barbel in relatively clear rivers being spooked by feeders. I realise you're already aware of this, and it may come under your earlier statement that it all depends ........

I've done a couple of entries on this and they've been lost, so will keep it very brief. I spent an afternoon at Bod Res trying for the roach. Midwater. Plenty of bites on maggot and also 6mm pellet, but I kept bumping them and only landed about 10 fish. The problem may have been that the rod, a trotting rod, wasn't soft enough. I've got another rod more like a match rod, and will try again with that.

Thanks, everyone. Peter, re wheat it may be a problem for me if I have to cook it as my wife might not like the smell! The key question for me, anyway, is whether it would deter the small crucians and skimmers which are the predominant species, and no-one has been quite clear on that. So maybe I'll try bread first. Blackbird, no I don't think there's an oxygen problem. They've got a fountain device which increases the oxygen level.

Thanks, Peter. I'm afraid I'm unlikely to fish at dawn, partly because my eye-sight doesn't like driving in the dark. Unfortunately it limits dusk fishing as well. Is the point of wheat that it's reasonably roach specific? Do I just buy it from the fishing shop? Does it need a hair rig? I'll certainly be interested to try it as I've never done so before. Thanks to Martin also.

I'm a member of a club with a nice little lake - no monsters but tench, bream to 6lbs, a few carp, a lot of small crucians, and roach and rudd (just a few of the latter) to just over a pound. This last winter they netted the lake, and the EA advised them they were over-stocked. So they got rid of most of the roach 6 inches and below. Quite reasonable in my view, what else would they get rid of? BUT, it has changed the roach fishing. Last year I found the roach were always up in the water, regardless of the time of year ( I admit I never tried in the heart of winter) and there was always enjoyable roach fishing - hemp and tares, casters, maggots. But I tried a few days ago and there were no roach up in the water. When I tried up in the water I got crucians! So what if the best strategy for catching the better roach? Where are they? It's not so easy to get a swim going up in the water without the small fish, but if the nice roach are still up in the water I guess that's where I must target them. But maybe the removal of the smaller fish has changed the dynamics, and they've decided to become bottom feeders? How would you tackle it?

3-5pm mainly cloudy My first fishing session for three months, not being allowed to drive following heart surgery. It was good to be out! I float-fished double maggot, more than half the time up in the water. 1 tench (approx 3 lbs), 2 small crucians (both up in the water), one rudd, 2 roach. Nothing earth-shattering, but an enjoyable session, and somehow my brain is better able to plan future trips having had the first session of the season.

It'll soon be time for hemp 'n tares for roach. I usually use the standard unflavoured hemp, but there on the shelf in the angling shop there is also the spicy variety. I expect this is mainly for carp, but perhaps roach would like it too? What kind of hemp do you use for roach?

Hi Martin, are you back from the Canaries yet? Any success?

Well I had the heart surgery just over a week ago and thankfully it went fine. Chesters and Blackbird had me worried about the pain control. As Blackbird says, the button to give a shot more morphine didn't seem to work, but in my case it wasn't a problem as there was adequate pain relief anyway. Now I'm back at home, a bit 'uncomfortable' but I think going in the right direction. Not sure when I can go fishing again. One bit of info says I'm 'off fishing' for 12 weeks, but another says 4 weeks if it's fishing from pier, bank or bridge. Seems a big disparity!

A great season, Chris, as the others have said. In terms of the pb stakes, have you thought of trying the Thames? I can't claim to have done well myself, though that may be partly because my eyesight nowadays isn't up to trotting or waggler fishing at a distance, or driving home after dark; but anglers I meet on the bank seem regularly (as opposed to frequently!) to catch 6lb plus chub and 15lb plus barbel! Surprisingly I don't meet many perch fishers, but I remember when I was still in Newbury seeing on AN that JV44 used to catch 4lb perch from Thames weir pools, admittedly on lives. I've caught a few 2 pounders this year, but no threes, but I met a lure angler about 3 years ago who got plenty of threes from one lock cut when the level was up. Let me know if you'd like more detail on any of this, though I realise it's a different style of fishing and you may prefer a smaller river.

Re the hybrid, I had a similar fish from the Warwicks Avon a few years ago, though the photo was hopeless. 4lbs 14oz. As I understand it a hybrid between a crucian and a common is the dreadfully named F1, and I presumed in the end that's what it was. Though the 2 or 3 other F1's I've had looked more like a crucian than your or my fish, both of which look to me more like commons, but of course without barbels.

I normally use running lead or feeder, but I sometimes experiment with the approach (I never know whether to call it ledger or paternoster) where you have a water knot or float stop from which you have 2 traces, one to the hook and one to the lead or feeder. The question is, which should be longer? I have vague recollections of magazine articles saying one or t'other, but they never seem to say why! I'd like to be able to think it through on the day. So which do you use, when and why?

Well done, Peter. As I've said already, I blanked on the Thames yesterday (at Wallingford) and I think the two anglers on the far bank did also. Did you find the fish out in the middle or close in?

Chris, congratulations on an amazing haul yesterday! Re your comment above about wanting it milder for the perch, what water temp will you be looking for? I tried the Thames today. WT was 6.5 deg C, and I didn't get a touch on maggot or worm, though I've caught at that temperature in the past.

That'll be very interesting to see how freshwater baits work in the sea. When I was in Lanzarote about 10 years ago there was a guy fishing with sweetcorn. To my surprise he said it worked quite well with the little stripey brightly coloured sea fish there.

Well done, Martin! If I understand right you are in Fuertaventura at this very moment. What bait are you using? You've cheered me up, do let us know if you catch anything else.

A lovely pike, BTG. How high did you find you had to paternoster the dead baits to avoid the crays? John C

Thanks everyone for your kind thoughts. Wow, Chesters, it must have been fun to have interesting bods on the ward! Unfortunately though, to my surprise, after the first 2 days in the ITU heart op people like me have individual rooms, so not very social. In fact the whole thing doesn't sound exactly social. For example, for the first couple of days there's a lever you can press at any time to increase the morphine supply! But I comfort myself that they've been doing my (repair of the mitral valve) op for many years now, so they know what they're doing. It sounds heavy duty, but like most of us I'm thankful for the nhs.