Mald

I've been fishing a large resi that has a huge population of Bream but as was mentioned earlier, if you just use boilies and no particles and definately no pellet then the bream seem to show little or no interest. I found this to be the case on a few different waters I fish.

Your right offcourse but to be honest I cheat. I fish with a friend and do the baiting between us so the rods are never actually left un-attended.

Marmite - which lake are you planning to fish and what are you planning to fish for ? IF it's the long lake day ticket, they have responded to halibut over a bed of pellets in the past and like I said can be taken a few inches from the bank. Solars squid and octapus has been good as well. Try casting over to the reed areas at each end then walk round to your cast spot and pile some pellets in. Both the ends have produced fish for me in the past and would be my 1st choice swims. You could use traditional cat methods as well if thats what your after ... longer braided hook lenghs, BIG hooks and something like salmon as hook bait but be aware there's some big buggers in there and they will fight very hard if you get into them so tackle will need to reflect this.

Halibut Boilie or 21mm pellet should be a good start. It will catch the carp and the cats. When it gets warm don't be shy with bait in the margins on the long lake it can be devastating.

Well ... yes we did, but it was almost like a spawning fish. It just wanted to lark about and not feed. I know they couldn't possibly be spawning but it wasn't interested in feeding either. All very odd

I was doing a session yesterday and saw a carp do something that was a new one on me. It was a pretty quiet session with not a lot of movement to mention. Late in the day a carp just a few yards from the bank popped it's head out of the water and proceeded to tail walk a good 10ft along the surface and then disapeared in a trail of bubbles, it was a propper tail walk aswell like you would expect from a hooked pike. It wasn't a huge fish - at the most a mid double but it still looked cool as it was skimming along. There were a group of us all saw this and we all thought - ODD. We then got a repeat performance at least 6 times over the space of about half an hour every time very close to us on the bank and they were long tail walks as well. Some of you guys may have seen this plenty of times but I have no idea what it was all about ? Anybody know ?

Sounds like a wonderful adventure Den. Reading that book I'de got the impression these places hadn't seen a hook in a long time. It gives it a nice perspective to know others were treading the same ground.

Re the Fathers day fishing - well in my experience not a one of us would have had a full nights sleep for a few months and once on the bedchair it would be lights out. I went with a friend last year a couple months after his 1st and he slept for 15hrs straight I tried to wake him a few times but he was GONE. It's a nice idea though and another excuse to be on the bank

Like a couple of you guys I have my 2nd little one due in May so pile the sessions in before then knowing time will be at a prenium after. Same as every season I will try and better my PB and carry on developing my river fishing. I've sneakily booked a week in France for the end of the year just before the wife ends her maternity leave so I can escape nappies and 2am feeds for a week so thats something to look forward to all Summer.

Great thread. The thing that strikes me when reading Casting at the sun ( Chris yates ) are all the lakes he found with fish in them that were totally un fished and un known to anglers. Little overgrown 3 acre jobs in the grounds of old statley homes. Do these kind of waters still exist or has every hole in the ground been claimed by now. Is it possible to get your map out and find your own little secret pool or has that time passed... offcourse IF you had found one you wouldn't be telling anyone !!

Been fishing for carp twice - caught 1 bream twice At least the river has been kind to me

A little tip is to add the putty to your rigs at home when you make them. The stuff goes like stone in the winter and cold hands will not help !

Glad to see I wasn't just being daft then, it is quite subtle i.d-ing one !! Thanks for all the replies.

Hi Guys 1st let me say i'm not a fly fisherman but I catch my fair share of game fish when chasing chub and Barbel and basically I just wanted to know how to I.d a sea trout and tell the differance from a brown trout. Cheers Mark

________country park near Sandbach in the Crewe area has a stock of cats. There is a day ticket water with a sindicate water above it. You can fish the sindicate mid week if there is space but not over the weekends. They are very catchable from there ( in warmer weather) and they do go over 40lb. A few of us fish it from time to time in the Summer and we do OK usually using carp fishing tactics. (He has Sturgeon and Carp in there also.) It also has a few smaller lakes on there where I take my daughter and nephew to pleasure fish and I had a cat out of there in the Summer on float fished bread !!