Peter M

If its as cold as the last weekend with night time frost and cold bright days i would say forget targeting the tench. you may catch them and i have had them in December but that was on a commercial and the weather was mild with night time temps above freezing and had been like that for a while. take maggots and worms and cut down your loose feed by putting small amounts in and only feed to bites. you may try fluro pinkies if your local shop stocks them. tight lines

I am going to say 3 pounds 5 ounces. By the way Janet do you now know what a Chuffing retweet is? I mean Chuffing is very mild for twitter. most people i follow are not that genteel. mind you i follow lots of West Ham fans like myself so my bit of twitter was a little strong in the language dept this weekend.

get a few to be active in the club or find a new club., badly run clubs lose members big time then start to lose thier waters, i have seen it happen before and its very sad.

Top angling mate never had a barbel on the float, must be great.

Your hook is too small. You match your hook to the size of your bait, ie single pinkie on a 22 or 20, single maggot on size 20 to 16, double maggot 16 and 14, single sweetcorn 14 and 12 double sweetcorn or square of luncheon meat 12 to 10, lob worm tail size 10, large lob worm size 8 to 4. This is a rough guide and you can experiment. tight lines.

Is the fact that there are so many signal cray fish about the reason that perch are getting bigger? my local river stort and river Lea has reported fish up to 4 pounds but i have had loads of gos at them and not had anything bigger than 1 1/2 pound, Big ones may be there but not there in numbers and are possibly hard to catch, i mean why take a lob worm when there are so many crays about that form much of the big perch's diet?

i wear the pants under my jeans at all times Btw naughty old Elton has just posted a link to this thread on twitter

I would like a Grayling but there are none in my area, tried for them on the hamps Avon a few years back on holiday, but only had chublets, minnows and salmon par. i had Zander in france would like one here and they are in my local river Lea but i have not really got round to going for them.

Actually i have a pair of lucky fishing boxer shorts, they are green with picturs of fish all over them. My wife hates them which of course means i wear them all the more. i also have a pair of camo boxerrs but i only wear them when i am stalkinng chub in the summer

Thanks Budgie i certainly respect your views on pike angling and although i have been pike fishing a few years now i still think of myself as a beginner (i have moved one rung up from novice), its the one branch of angling that really worried me when i took it up but as i want to be an all rounder rather than just fishing for carp all the time there is no choice but keep trying to develop, and thats why i love coming on AN. I mean just how expensive would lessons be and here i am getting all the advice i need from experts.

Hi Budgie thanks I have read that thread before and it makes interesting reading, I always strike as soon as the float moves and fish off the bottom so I get indications as soon the pike takes it. all my other fish today was hooked in the scissors but one had completely swallowed the bait and I really think I would have struggled to get out the treble hook but got the single out sweet as a nut and the fish went off strongly,. I am thinking of experimenting with circle hooks.

Lovely report and lovely pictures glad you had a great day, its what its all about at this time of the year. packed away my carp rods this am and went piking on a club lake. Its all pike chub perch roach and dace now, misty cold dawns, brown leaves on the trees, sudden winds that spring up followed by unexpected sunshine that has you taking off your jacket and removing your scarf, berries on trees manic robins nicking your maggots, dark evenings when you get home and you sit in the warm with a nice galss of single malt.............. lovely

Hi just to put in my fourpennyworth i have given up totally on treble hooks and use a large 1/0 hook on the wire. Today i had a pike take the bait right down even though i was on to the rod at the first sign of the float going across the water yet i managed to get the hook out no problem. Its just my choice you understand not saying anyone else should.

Chris Yates had a theory that when you were looking at the float intently the fish could 'sense' that they were being activly hunted for and that made them wary. as soon as you are not so intently hunting them ie when you look away to pour a drink say, then they bite. I have tried the trick on looking away but looking back again quickly and feel that it often works. This could all be a lot of hot air but it makes you think.

i did not think this type of thing still went on! It should be totally banned worldwide.

How long before that becomes a reality?

Hi I joined Ongar and district this year and fished their stretch twice. there are still some good chub in the river I had one three pounds four ounces. I also had some small perch on worm. the stretch that BDAS have is a little wider that ODAS bit. There are chub and perch to large sizes and this maybe because the dreaded signal cray fish also are present, I hate them but they can be a nice meal for preds. there are some pike in the river as well. unfortunately this river had a bad pollution incident in 2003 but it is on the mend now. I saw lots of fry in the river in the summer so fingers crossed for the future.

River Roding looking low but has a green ting to it river stort slow moving as always but down at the mo. going give this a try this week and leave the Roding until we have had some decent rain.

A lot of tackle is there to catch the angler. Its best if you fish to your abilities and add "fancy bits" if you really think they will improve things. Even then you don't always have to pay the earth. As already said good quality is one thing but often those extras you wont even notice. For example i don't care how many ball bearings a reel has, try it in the shop and if you like it and can afford it you won't go wrong.

I don’t like the term ‘the method’ to describe one method, i.e. the use of a frame feeder for holding ground bait on and a short hook length, as though all other methods are inferior. Ok it is a very good method, Ok it will mostly out fish all other methods in use on the lake and not just for carp. I’ll get my coat.

bream are very slimey and its this slime that protects the fish so always handle them with wet hands. i suggest accurate plumbing to get to know how deep you are fishing and how it varies around your swim. Janet is right most lakes in the UK and in the summer can be fished in the margins and i never cast far out when float fishing. the books that others have reccomended are a good idea and don't get sold the latest fad bait in the tackle shop. maggots worms meat sweetcorn bread is best with some feed pellets little and often as already said. if you want to know how heavy the fish is get a good set of scales and a weigh sling and learn to set the scales on zero with a wet net. most of all have fun tight lines.

As I understand it the fish picks up the bait, feels no hook, sucks it in, then feels the hook and tries to eject it by blowing the bait out but as the hook is not in the bait but free it will catch in the bottom lip ,that is why you tie the knotless not with the hook pointing inwards and hook length coming out the front of the hook. The carp (or tench and bream but not chub) feels the hook catch and bolts and the weight of the lead makes sure the hook holds. It does not work every time hence dropped runs, but it works a lot of the time.

I would go for a curry down Brick Lane E1

the roding did have some barbel and they got established but a bad pollution incident a few years ago killed loads and while other fish were re stocked barbel were not. i am going to target the roding this autum so if i catch one i will let you know. the other local place is fishers green on the river lea but this has gone down hill since, yes you guessed it, a pollution incidnet that killed loads. its a crying shame.

Yes here is an idea. go on holiday to the river severn or river wye. Barbel in essex rivers are like rocking horse poo, you will never find them. my advice go to a river that has lots in maybe look here http://www.barbelsociety.co.uk/home.asp