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The Flying Tench

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Blog Entries posted by The Flying Tench

  1. The Flying Tench
    5pm - 6.45pm
    My first Kennet ruffe. Not much else I can say about today! A nice, reasonably mild October day and I was shielded from the wind. The venue was a canal turning area where 3 streams come in as well as the outflow from a canal lock. I've been told specimen roach have been caught here, and a couple of weeks ago someone told me he'd had a big bream. I fished maggot feeder, and I thought I was bound to have some action, but it was not to be. 3 mini fish and that was all.
     
    I started by casting the maggot feeder to 3 different places to see if I could work out where the fish had gathered. No response, perhaps I should have trotted a float. So I put some groundbait in on the edge of the biggest flow about 12 yards out and fished the maggot feeder over the top. But the fish weren't impressed. I didn't fish on into dark cos my limited experience is that, if there's not much happening, with this type of fishing dark doesn't change things.
     
    Hmmm. I suspect the key is location given the rather complex flows. I guess that's what makes fishing interesting.
  2. The Flying Tench
    3.30-5.30pm
     
    The plan was to fish with maggots and lobs for perch, chub and maybe trout. From which locals may be able to deduce the weirpool! But when I arrived, although the AT was 9degC, I was shocked to see the WT was still only 5degC, which I feared might not be to the liking of sergeant stripey.
     
    So it turned out. I started with trotted maggot to try and find out where the fish were, but didn't get a touch. Switched to lobworm with maggot feeder, and chose to try a number of places in the weirpool rather than slowly building up one swim. My theory was that, with the cold water temp, the fish were unlikely to move around and I had to go to them. A slow day, but got one nice Brownie of 1lb 8oz from fairly fast water towards the tail of the pool, which saved me from blanking.
  3. The Flying Tench
    7.30-9pm
    A short exploratory session. My aim was to see whether fishing with maggot would tempt any of the better roach, or just get loads of small ones. I baited with 3mm halibut pellets, with maggot on the hook. First bite was a lovely 9 inch roach, and I was optimistic, but I didn't get any bigger ones - though it was 'bite a chuck', and there were several reasonable roach as well as some skimmers. For the last half hour I switched to sweetcorn, and immediately got a better stamp of skimmer, up to 2lb, but only one roach.
     
    Overall I had nearly 30 roach, 10 skimmers and one perch.
     
    Hmm, not sure how to get round the skimmers and small roach. I think I'll wait till the colder weather, which should reduce the enthusiasm of both relative to the decent roach which I understand are there.
  4. The Flying Tench
    For some reason I haven't had much enthusiasm for lake fishing since I moved to near Didcot a couple of months ago, and have made do with trips to investigate bits of river (the Thames) in preparation for the start of the season. But the helpful guy in the fishing shop assured me today that LPL isn't just carp, but has quality roach and perch, so I decided to have a go. Just a couple of hours before dusk. I fished a small segment of lobworm over 3mm carp pellets, which said guy in fishing shop assured me would draw the fish.
     
    Hmm, my fear was that it would draw the carp! So I fished too heavy, I think, with 4lb line through to a size 12 ringed hook. After a few small skimmers the roach took over. Did they push the skimmers out? Mostly small, but 3 nice roach of 9.5 inches, each approx 10 oz. And I wasn't carped once.
     
    What might I have caught if I had fished finer? Will try it next time!
  5. The Flying Tench
    3-4.30pm
    Went to the swim that was so productive last week with high hopes. I wondered if I had worked something out about how to snitch the bigguns. Not to be. 5 grayling from that swim, but nothing over three quarters of a pound.
     
    Tried 2 other swims. The second was bite-a-chuck for tiny grayling. Had 5, but as many got off, not sure why. Anyway, ten grayling in all, and it's got to be encouraging having so many small grayling around - they are obviously spawning well. I guess the EA knew what they were doing with their work a couple of years ago. I wasn't too sure at the time!
     
    Now how am I gonna get a few more of those pounders?
  6. The Flying Tench

    Lambourn 13.2.12

    By The Flying Tench,

    3.45-5.15pm
    A welcome relatively mild day, with AT 6degC. My original plan was to go for perch on the canal, but in the end I decided the water temperature might still be too low, and went trotting on the Lambourn.
     
    There were a lot of people around, including some youngsters, being half-term. A couple of boys aged about 11 were fishing. One combined a 5ft float rod with waders to be an effective grayling catcher. The other, amazingly, was trying to fly fish with proper fly line but only a 5ft rod. Well, I admired the spirit, but in other ways they were a slight nuisance. One of their group had got a wooden contraption - not sure if it might have been a crayfish trap - and they were intent on smashing this thing open by hammering it with branches. Phew! It sure made a racket! It seemed to put the grayling off their dindins, so I moved to another stretch, and enjoyed fishing some swims I haven't fished before. Just 9 grayling and one trout. Several nice fish close to the pound, but I don't think I broke the pound barrier. I mostly fished double maggot, but tried sweetcorn a bit at the end, though with no success on this occasion. Back was starting to hurt, so went home a bit before the magic hour.
  7. The Flying Tench
    Quite cold (AT 3degC dropping to 0degC). I decided to have a crack at ledgering for grayling. The main reason was so I could have gloves on to keep my little handy pandies warm, but I also wondered if I'd be able to get a bait into one or two places that my trotting skills aren't adequate to reach.
     
    I'm aware that some anglers reckon you shouldn't ledger for grayling because of the risk of them swallowing the hook, but I tried it a few years ago on a different river and didn't have any problems. However I did have problems today so stopped after catching 4 grayling, none of them of any size. It was also getting cold.
     
    Much of the time was spent fishing a spot with a gentle flow. Almost immediately at this swim I had a solid fish on and thought it could be a pb grayling, when the trace broke. I was puzzled because I wasn't putting that much pressure on the fish and the trace was 2lb 4oz. Then I missed several slow, cautious pulls and wondered what species was the cause - I started wondering about big roach! But all was explained when a 'roach' started roaring off in a very un-roach-like manner and turned out to be a 5lb 8oz pike! I'm pretty sure the first one, which I lost, was smaller, so there are at least 2 pike in that swim! I guess it's gone down in my rating as a grayling swim, but I was pleased to land it and it added some excitement on a cold afternoon. Hmm, I've never had a pike take a trotted maggot, but I've had jacks a number of times on maggot feeder. Slightly surprising as you'd think they might prefer a moving bait.
  8. The Flying Tench
    On the way back from my Wye trip I called on an old friend in Moreton-in-Marsh, and after an excellent lunch went to try Lemington Lakes, a commercial fishery only a mile away. If nothing else it would be an interesting contrast to the Wye! I had seen a feature on the roach fishing there in an angling mag, though I think a lot of the roach have since been transferred from Westminster Lake to Priory Lake and Abbey Lake. After parking the car the first lake I came to was Abbey, and a carp angler told me he kept catching roach 'this big' on his soft mini pellets. I took his indication of length to mean about 12 oz. Sounded good. I then got confused and started fishing the tench lake till a lady came to check my ticket and advised me that I wasn't where I thought I was, but would bag up on big roach averaging a pound in no time in Priory Lake, which is really the crucian lake. Maybe I'm not the only one who is confused?!
     
    Priory Lake is a small but extremely attractive lake, and it is from there that the lakes' best crucian came - from memory 3lb 5 oz. Well! Crucians, hefty roach and also some nice rudd - it sounded too good to be true. After putting in some roach specialty groundbait I started on float fished maggot, and my bait had scarcely hit the water before a fine 12oz roach was in the net. My disbelief evaporated - this is Shangri-la!
     
    Alas, the next fish was a small perch, and it soon became clear that fishing maggot would not be feasible as small perch and tiny roach dominated the scene. I tried corn and bread. The first fish on bread was a nice 11oz roach-rudd hybrid (I think), but then some small tench up to 2lbs invaded the swim followed by...grrr!.. a horde of small commons of about 12 oz. I tried depth changes and bait changes to shake off these pests, but nothing availed and after 2 hours I decided to give up on Priory. I have no doubt there are good roach, rudd and crucians in there, but how on earth to target them? And why, why, why? These lakes are managed by people who know ten times more about fishing than me, but why stock a mass of small commons into a crucian lake?
     
    On to Abbey. I had 40 minutes left. I decided to try maggot feeder as I was fishing into quite a strong wind. It was all action, with a bite about every 2 minutes, but I had great difficulty hooking them. I landed a couple of roach of about 8oz, plus one common of about 4lbs. These were wily roach who could get a maggot off a micro-barbed hook without giving any indication. It's interesting they came in on carp tackle. Certainly there were plenty of roach there.
     
    Despite the frustrations with Priory Lake I found this an interesting set-up. The lady assured me there were 2lb roach in both lakes. Many commercials have good roach, of course. As to how Lemington compares I don't think my afternoon visit was enough to say.
  9. The Flying Tench
    7-9pm. Bright warm day, so decided just to fish dusk in the hope of some decent roach. Started on caster, and it was soon clear they were up in the water, so I fished half depth. Bite a chuck small roach, but no big ones so switched to a bigger bait. Prawn is popular for perch and roach on this lake in winter, so tried half a prawn on the bottom, but just had a couple of modest perch and 2 monster gudgeon. Finished off with double caster on the bottom, and had roach of 10oz and 15oz.
  10. The Flying Tench
    Well that's the positive spin on 3 blanks! I think the real problem is that I'm a pleasure angler who aims a bit high for the hours that I'm able to dedicate. But they were still 3 enjoyable sessions.
     
    21 June. Went down to the syndicate lake at lunchtime, and there were loads of carp in the shallow end in the hot sun. I threw in a few dog biscuits, and one or two were taken, and I gambled on them growing keener in the evening. But they weren't!
     
    28 June. Had a crack at the crucians on a club lake. After being carped out last try, I didn't put in any feed apart from small pieces of meat. No success, but when I look at the time serious crucian hunters put in, I guess my couple of hours was a bit inadequate. BUT I did see some wonderful bright red moths - Scarlet Tigers, I'm fairly sure. I'd never seen even one before, and to see about ten of them dancing - so bright, so red - was great.
     
    5 July. Joined Rich Capper from Anglers Net on a local barbel swim. Neither caught, but it was great to meet and pick up one or two things from Rich. The big entertainment for me was a swan and some ducks. I've never seen a swan hassle ducks before, but this one was a kind of 'Punch and Judy' swan. The big kid who gets his amusement from hassling the little ones. An appalling critter! They were at it all the time I was there. The ducks could have pushed off, but they didn't. There was just a mother duck and about 9 ducklings. She'd take them under a willow tree to get away from the swan, and he'd go after them. And then I'd count fifteen, and out would come the ducks, in formation, and then a couple of seconds later out would come the bad tempered swan and give them a chase, with squawking etc. On and on it went. It had a carousel feel to it, I could almost hear the fairground music! Can't say it helped the fishing, though!
  11. The Flying Tench
    2 - 6.30pm
    I haven't been to LIF for 6 years! Partly straightforward neglect, but in recent years also cos I can only normally handle a couple of hours standing due to back trouble, which doesn't really give value for money. But the back was great today - I stood most of the time and fished 4.5 hours.
     
    The aim was to end a pb famine. My pb grayling is only 1lb 4oz, so as the grayling at LIF regularly go to 2lbs I felt I had a good chance - and of course a 2lber was the second aim.
     
    The river was in superb shape, and I ought really to have achieved at least the easier aim. It was not to be, but I had a great time and caught 9 lovely grayling, the best two at 1lb 2 oz. Most of the fish were close to a pound.
     
    A confession - I forgot the centrepin! Not only is this a serious sin in A.N. circles, but I suspect it affected my catch. I started off catching very few, but began to 'get the knack' as time went on, and holding back the correct amount was a key thing today. I found I needed to fish as deep as I could despite the weed, and hold back to avoid it, and the bites mostly came amidst false bites from the weed.
     
    But the ones that got away! A number got off, not the usual 'bumped' phenomenon, which I take to mean after a few seconds, but as they got close to the net. And I was broken twice, though in one case by a hefty trout, that started thrashing around on the surface as he came to the net. Two of the grayling that got off were definitely over my pb, and could have been 'twos'.
     
    Ah well, it will probably be a while before I go back there. But it was a great day, and the plus is that my pb is still breakable on the Lambourn!
  12. The Flying Tench
    7-9pm
     
    I went to a stretch of the Thames that has many hazards to put off anglers - a dicey bridge, rough fields to drive over, cows galore. But the guy in one of the fishing shops (a skilled angler) assured me it was a good place for trotting for roach, so I braved the hazards. All OK on the way there, but a bit trickier on the way back. There are gates at each end of the dicey bridge, and these are necessary to stop the cows crossing. I drove onto the bridge and shut the gate behind me. Problem - a herd of heifers were waiting just the other side of the next gate. I opened the gate, and they all gathered round. Clearly I am a cow celebrity! I decided I couldn't drive on (and force them to move) as it would leave the gate open behind me for them to go up onto the bridge, so I decided I had to sit there and wait for them to go away, with my car more or less blocking their way onto the bridge.
     
    What I hadn't foreseen was that the mad mingers decided my car was a big red lollypop! They jostled up and the 4 nearest immediately started licking the bonnet with their big tongues. Others were eagerly awaiting this thrill if there had only been room. Then the whole car started to shake. I couldn't quite work out what they were doing, but I think one of them might have been trying to eat the number plate! This went on a good five minutes and, such was their enthusiasm, I decided they weren't going to move in a hurry. I decided to go forward and push them out of the way and risk their going onto the bridge. Thankfully they ran off.
     
    What was the fascination? My wife reckons it was salt. 'It's so long since you had your car washed. Serves you right!' Ah well, these people who rely on human means to wash their cars!
     
    And the fishing? My aim was to make first contact with the Thames roach. I trotted maggot in about 7' of water. Enjoyable fishing. A mixed bag of chublets and small dace AND a 5-6 oz roach and one chunky dace of 4-5 oz. Mission accomplished even if the aim wasn't exactly difficult.
  13. The Flying Tench
    A bright sunny day with reasonably high pressure, so I decided to leave the roach campaign and have a crack at lure fishing at dusk, on the basis that it might be the last good day for it this autumn. I went to a swim where, on a similar day 2 years ago, I had two high-double perch and a 5lb chub in 5 casts! But alas, I was without my trusty Mepps Aglia Hot Tiger no 3, and the larger lures I used were not appreciated by whatever was in there. Zilch.
     
    So I moved to a tree on the canal where I also caught 2 years ago, but no success either for about 10 mins, so in desperation I put on a tiny bright orange Abu Reflex to try and get a small one. Several times a tiny perch came in with the lure, nibbling at the orange tassle, but not making a take. So I carried on just to see if I could coax one of these littluns to have a proper crack at the lure, and to my surprise - 2lb 2oz stripey! A fat and lazy fish that hardly fought, but it was very welcome, nonetheless.
     
    Incidently, I noticed in the report on the recent probable record perch that it had gorged on fry and was very fat. I suspect mine was the same. There are a lot of fry around this year, I think, so maybe that bodes well for some autumn perch campaigns?
     
    The whole outing was only an hour, cos I didn't want to push my bad back too much, but it was great to discover that, with the help of my corset/belt, I could handle a short outing spinning with the inevitable standing and walking that involves.
  14. The Flying Tench
    7.15-8.45pm
    I went back to the spot where I fished yesterday, this time armed with a spring balance in the hope of catching a 'three'. I know lure fishing is meant to be mobile, but for minor health reasons I'm a bit limited how far I can walk, and also on this occasion I wanted to concentrate on this swim.
     
    I started off with the Mepps Firetiger, as yesterday. 'Bang', first cast a nice perch of about 2lbs which got off at the net - drat, hope it won't scare the shoal. Second cast, a smaller one of a pound or so. A couple more casts and a nice perch of 2lb 5oz. At this point a boat came through and the swim seemed to go dead.
     
    I rested the swim a bit and then switched to jigging a golden-glittery plastic worm. Joy of joys, a few casts and a 2lb 14oz perch. The first fish on one of these, which will give me confidence to try jigging more often. Then a couple of maniacal jacks that swam around furriously, also on the golden jig-bait. Though I couldn't say I was jigging when I caught them, they just attacked the bait as soon as it hit the water.
     
    A great session. I didn't get a 'three', but was very pleased to get a perch jigging, which on reflection is also my best lure caught perch (unless I count the possible 'three' yesterday that I couldn't weigh.)
  15. The Flying Tench
    6-9pm
    I first went to a hotspot on the K&A Canal. Water very clouded. I tossed out my trusty Mepps Aglia and started getting 'knocks'. Now according to the books that is what you expect, but it has never been my experience. Up till now, when I got a 'knock' it meant I had encountered a bit of weed - at least, I think so. But these were too high in the water, and I was fairly sure it was fish. Could this have been linked to the murky conditions? I'd be interested in any views.
     
    Then, after a few casts I had a nice perch of about 2lbs. A truly beautiful fish which I put straight back at risk of scaring the shoal. I went back to the car to get the scales and keep net, but after that it all went dead.
     
    I then went to a small private Kennet weirpool. The water was low and very clear, and the perch didn't show any interest in my lures - and I had forgotten to bring lobworms. I messed around for a bit maggot fishing to find where the prey fish were, but even there the perch (and pike also) weren't interested. I made some mental notes for next time.
  16. The Flying Tench
    I had a good session on the flowing canal 5 years ago when it was bite-a-chuck small dace on maggot feeder, and through sheer luck I ended the session with a pb perch of 3lb 3oz.
     
    The weather today was OK, AT up to 12degC and quite cloudy, but I didn't like the high pressure and east wind. Rightly or wrongly I thought the dace and perch wouldn't mind this as much as the roach, so I decided to try and emulate 5 years ago - partly in the hope that the dace would be bigger by now.
     
    Alas I had not anticipated the impact of Reggie and Ronnie! As soon as the bait went in the crays were on to it. 7 modest dace in 90 mins. Lesson learned that maggot feeder has to be left till the WT is lower.
  17. The Flying Tench
    5.15 - 7.45pm weather cool and cloudy
    I've tended to dismiss maggot feeder for the Thames, particularly in summer, because my past experience has been that it just attracts very small fish. But I have met a couple of anglers recently who have done OK with it, which has made me wonder if I have given it a fair crack. Having joined a club that has a stretch of what is in effect a 'carrier' for the Thames, much narrower than the main river, I decided that I could concentrate the maggots in a limited area, which would hopefully build up a swim and really 'get them going'! I used a bigger feeder than normal, and my plan was to keep building a swim in the hope that it would attract some chub which would chase away the very small fish.
    It started well. First cast brought a skimmer, followed reasonably soon by some small dace and bleak, a chunky dace of 4 or 5 oz, a half pound jack pike and a small perch. But as so often, I find, the bites dried up. Why? Just when in theory the swim should have been starting to build. The modest tally was:
    1st half hour    5
    2nd half hour   3
    3rd half hour   1
    4th half hour    0
    5th half hour    2
    The only theories I can come up with are: a) a pike entered the swim (but there were no obvious signs of it;  b) I was over feeding (but I don't think I was, less than a pint of maggots in two and a half hours)
    I'd be grateful for any suggestions
  18. The Flying Tench
    8.15 to 8.45pm
    A short session to see if I could catch a perch spinning at a hotspot on the canal. My first cast hit the water with too much of a splash well short of where it was meant to go, but still, just as I was about to finish the retrieve, a good fish was on - about 2lb, but annoyingly I had forgotten my scales. Amazingly I had fish on each of the next 3 casts, one more about 2lb, one a high 'two', and one could well have been a three. I was almost relieved that it wasn't even bigger, as I'd have gone away not knowing if I'd had a pb (my best is 3lb 6oz). Unike some on AN I've never had more than two 2lb plus perch in a sitting, so I was really pleased to have 4 in 4 casts!
     
    All the fish were on my trusty Mepps Firetiger No 3. In fact, nearly all the decent fish I have caught spinning, including my best lure-caught pike and chub, have been on this lure. Why? It may be that it's a very easy lure to work. In truth you don't need to 'work' it at all, you just have to wind it in, though sometimes there is a little bit of skill getting it really low in the water, though not a factor today. Or is it that I have more confidence with htis lure, or use it more often than any others? So after 4 fish in 4 casts I switched to a silvery grey 'real fish look' plastic. 5 casts, nothing, although I did get a couple of 'bangs' on one of the retrieves, something that doesn't normally happen. I then went back to the Mepps, and first cast another perch, albeit a smaller one this time, under a pound.
     
    After that a few casts where even the Mepps Firetiger didn't get a response. I had put the fish back in where I had landed them, which I realised might have scared the shoal, and in all honesty I had caught enough, and preferred to leave any others till I could come back with some scales. So I went home very pleased after my best ever catch of perch - in 4 casts!
  19. The Flying Tench
    I've always wanted to fish the middle Stour since someone told me it was a place where you could reasonably rely on a good bag of roach with a good chance of a fish over 1lb. I was able to combine it with visiting a family member. Would the fishing come up to expectation?
     
    15 Nov 1.30-4.30pm. The fishing shop steered me in the direction of a 'mill pond', weir pool really. But this immediately raised a question. Where on earth in a weir pool do you find roach? Such experience as I have of weir pools involved perch, trout, chub and a few dace, but never roach! I felt the most likely place for fish generally was near the tail of the weir pool where the flow curled nicely against the bank, but my health requires me to sit for fishing most of the time nowadays, and there wasn't a suitable spot. In the end I sat on a stanchion where I could fish the back flow and tried casting a maggot feeder into likely places. My theory was that, even if I only caught very small ones, it could give clues as to where the fish were. But after nearly an hour - zilch. So I moved to a spot on the main river 100 yards below the weir pool.
     
    As I was set up I continued with maggot feeder. The first fish was a small roach, and I became hopeful that there would be more. But the next fish was a perch, and the next, and the next...… It was a relatively short session as I had spent a fair bit of time exploring and moving swim, but I had about 8 perch with a couple over half a pound, not too bad on maggot feeder.
     
    16 Nov 11.30am -2.30pm A different 'mill pond', but I decided to try the main river again. It was quite narrow but about 10ft deep with a nice medium flow. I decided to feed roach specific ground bait (as I thought) to avoid the perch, and started with feeder to ensure the feed ended up where I wanted it. I planned to switch to float when I had a reasonable layer of bait laid. I started with single maggot on the hook. After a few minutes a gentle bite - perch. After a few more minutes - big perch, 2lb 6oz no less! Well that made sense, my ground bait was attracting lots of little roach which attracted the big perch. But then a 3 inch perch, what led him to be there? And so it went on, always perch, though none over 4oz except the big one. I tried trotting a maggot through - perch. I switched back to feeder with bread on the hook - nothing at all.
     
    On the way back I met an angler who'd had a nice bag of roach up to a pound, as I'd been led to expect, but my experience from two sessions was that the river was full of perch. Of course I was delighted with the 2 pounder, and if I can arrange another trip I shall go armed with lobworms!
     
    Out of interest, has anyone else fished the middle Stour?
  20. The Flying Tench
    I went to the Oxford Canal again with ultra-lite gear hoping for a proper Zander to add to the 4" one caught on maggot last time. Alas, there was nothing doing, not even a mini perch. I assume this was because of the very cloudy water, with visibility only 2 or 3 inches, doubtless due to the 17mm of rain we've had in the last couple of days. It was certainly clearer on Friday. I'd welcome any comments on this from those with more experience of canals than me.
     
    I should have taken worms!
  21. The Flying Tench
    3-6pm
    My hope was to catch some of the quality roach which tend to reside in commercial fisheries, though it was a bit of a 'punt' as I have never been to this fishery before and had no reports on the roach fishing. The advice I was given by the guy in the shop there was to try Ben's Match Lake where they grow to 2.5lbs. Hmm, for some reason 'Ben's Match Lake' didn't ring the right bells, and the trouble with being told they grow to 2.5lbs - well, you could say that about a lot of lakes, and it's different from saying there is good roach fishing. It said on the web site that the specimen lake had good roach and perch but they were never fished for, so I suggested this. Unfortunately the minimum line strength allowed on this lake is 12lb. No wonder they are never fished for!
     
    But I took his advice, and went to Ben's Match Lake, a small lake where there were a couple of anglers fishing, neither of them for roach. The guy on my right was catching 2-3lb carp constantly, so to avoid the carp I decided not to use ground bait, but loose-fed maggot and caster, of course using those baits on the hook. I was soon catching roach and skimmers, the best roach being about 9oz. Not bad, though I had hoped for a little more. Then after a quiet spell I switched to caster & maggot cocktail, and surprisingly the bites increased, and I caught 4 beautiful crucians, 3 of them about 10oz and one 1lb 5oz. As well as these I had about 15 roach, 6 skimmers to 3lb, a perch and a rudd.
     
    Not quite what I hoped with the roach, but I was delighted with the crucians as I have caught very few of these to date.
     
    Oh, in case anyone thinks of trying these lakes, the gates close at 7pm, so you have to leave by then if you are not staying overnight. I hadn't picked this up from the website.
  22. The Flying Tench
    4-6pm
    I went to the same swim as the last 2 weeks,where I reckoned a lot of fish would be concentrated to get out of the fast flow, but after getting a pb dace last time I decided to leave the perch and see what other silver fish might be around.
     
    My first approach was with bread over specialist roach ground bait. Immediately I was getting little touches, but they were hard to hook. Then I caught a nice roach of about half a pound, but after that it was very slow so I decided to try maggot over the ground bait. Still slow, so I started feeding maggot, which inevitably meant attracting the perch, and things picked up to the extent of becoming bite-a-chuck by the end. As time went on I discovered that the dace were concentrated in slightly faster water then the perch - shouldn't have been a surprise, doh!
     
    Total tally was about 15 perch, best about 12oz; 8 dace, best about 6 oz; 2 roach, best about 10oz. Nothing monstrous, but an enjoyable session on the float.
  23. The Flying Tench
    5.15 - 6.45pm
     
    I went to the top end of the White House stretch of the Kennet to trot maggot. When I last went there there was a strong flow coming in on the nearside bank through the marina, and I was planning to trot the crease, particularly for dace. My mingy pb is only 6.5oz.
     
    This time the flow was much less which kiboshed my original plan, but I still fished the near bank. Somewhere at the back of my head I was planning to trot past some bushes where the fish were shielded from the passers by, but with the slow flow this didn't work out, and I was worried at first that the joggers etc might put off the fish. But it worked out quite well. About 30 fish in 90 minutes. A mixed bag of roach, dace and perch. The dace were all small , but the perch were chunky with one over the pound, and the best roach was about 10 oz.
     
    An enjoyable brief session, but I'm still looking for some decent dace.
     
     
  24. The Flying Tench
    6-10pm
    I've always liked the idea of float fishing for carp in the margins, but have never done it other than by accident on easy waters when my roach swim has been invaded. So when an angler who has been having some success with this style of fishing on one of our moderate difficulty waters invited me to come along I keenly took up the offer.
     
    I fished 4 feet from the bank in 4-5 feet of water with luncheon meat over a mixture of shop bought groundbait and various extras. I baited and fished 2 swims and felt I was doing the real thing, and even stayed at the water 4 hours, unlike my usual ridiculously short sessions. Unfortunately it wasn't to be, and neither of us caught - but I guess that is all part of the game when you go up a notch in the difficulty of the water. I learned plenty, and it was great to get to Peter a little bit. Next time I use this approach, though, I will probably try it on an easier water, though will doubtless graduate to the slightly harder waters in due course.
  25. The Flying Tench

    Mon 11th Jan

    By The Flying Tench,

    3.30- 4.30pm
    Thick snow. Decided to take a trip to the Lambourn, armed with sweetcorn and cryogenically frozen maggots. Maybe they weren't quite frozen in my garage, but their still state for some reason made me think of those who git themselves frozen in the hope of waking up feeling better in 2,000 years time!
     
    Delayed, typically, so time very limited, though not too worried in this cold. The aim I guess was to catch anything at all, but particularly to try out the advice Chris P gave to Viney in a recent thread - fish fine, and slow the bait down in the cold water. I particularly planned to use the 'pin' for this, only the second time I have used it for grayling fishing.
     
    Drat! Packed the wrong reel. A serious mistake, as with a frozen forefinger I found it hard to exert good line control with the fixed-spool reel. Another issue was how fine to fish. Didn't feel I could have too small a hook as I wanted to try sweetcorn, so compromised with a Kamasan 16 (equiv to a Drennan 18). Very slow, but bumped a small grayling on maggot, so changed to a Kamasan 20 on 1lb 8 oz line. Whether by luck or design almost immediately had a grayling. But then got in a couple of mini tangles which I would have easily sorted in warmer weather. Before I knew it dusk was upon me.
     
    AT 0 degC, WT 5 degC. The water temp was higher than I expected. I'd heard that spring fed chalk streams were colder than other rivers, but I suspect in very cold weather they may be warmer.
     
    I haven't often fished in such cold weather. With no feeling in my hands I fished badly, and was also hopelessly slow in making rig changes or sorting tangles. I think next time, like Arbocop in a recent post, I'll ledger and have gloved hands!
     
    Back to the cryogenically frozen maggots. Admittedly they didn't pay for the process, but was it traumatic for them to wake up and find they were being chucked into the Lambourn? Perhaps you, dear reader, are thinking of getting put down for a couple of thousand years in the hope the roach will be bigger then? But then, you never quite know what you will wake up to, do you? Heh heh!
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