Bryan Andrews

LOL. Reminds of the landing net handling I bought that fell apart after 3 trips. Does anyone know where I can get smaller sizes of circle hooks, 7 to 10 or 12. I want to have a try with them for Chub fishing.

I'll be out there between 23 and 30th April. Counting the days down. Thanks for the info.

Thanks Newt When I last checked they had two patterns, one being Owners and I can't remember the other. Sizes ranged from 6 to 2/0. Cheers Bryan

You can fish a similar rig as above for using Lobs as cat bait. Either use a real fishmeal pop up or one of the foam ones and soak it in some fish glugs for a while and either hair rig the worms or put them directly onto the hook and pop up to whatever distance. (As a basic rule of thumb, days they should be deeper and nighters shallower.) Alternatively you could fish them using a float about 18" deep. There are plenty of good alternatives to liveys and deadbaits. Use some a couple of big (25mm+) Halibut pellets, a tin of luncheon meat, a couple of outsize boilies, a piece of liver, squid. All of these catch cats. I think it's Biopharm that sells the leeces, from memory, they are about £6 each but can be reused. Goodluck with getting your worm pulled

There are some places over in the UK that now sell them. The CCG has a supply for Catfishing Also Raisons/Tackleup were stocking some in the summer.

Malcolm I'm off to Val Dore at the end of April with my Nephew. We're booked in swim 16 and 9. Is either 9 or 16 big enough to have two of you fishing it? I'd originally booked with a mate but he pulled out after I'd paid the deposit, so am taking my Nephew instead and I'd prefer to fish with him for a while. Can I ask a few questions What distance is there between the fishing spots on 9 and 16? i.e. if we fish in seperate swims are they close enough for me to keep an eye on him? whats the depth like at that end of the lake? Did you try the food from the cafe, is it okay? Any other comments gratefully received Cheers Bryan

Yes Darrell I've got the winter coarse ticket Oct to Feb. Something like £140 seems great value for the terrific sport. I would ask Lyndsey before you arrive to use the top beat, particularly seeing as you have 20 people going. Normally they only sell 5 days tickets per day. The top beat has been the most lightly fished, as it is reservered for season ticket holders, and not surprisingly is also producing the most and best fish. The most I've seen 5 people fishing the top beat but that included 1 fly fisherman poaching and two lost, cough, day ticket anglers. Most time a couple of us or even just me. Don't you jusy hate the solitude I'd also try and speak with Jon the riverkeeper sometime during the day, he'll give up to date info on whats been going on. Also I'd ask him if 'some' of you can stay slightly later to have a go for the Barbel and Chub in the Hatchpool area. Jon let me do this the weekend before last and I had 3 Chub and stopped counting the Trout after number 15, did n't manage a Boris though. They are starting some maintenance work on the access road this week, which is planned to finish before you guys arrive, but probably worth confirming, because if it is not open, then you should get them to divert you via the country park, which will save a very long walk. I might be down there on Sunday afternoon, if so I'll let you know any other info. In the meanwhile if anyone wants to know anymore info let me know. Bryan [ 09. February 2005, 12:29 AM: Message edited by: Bryan Andrews ]

Hi Darrell LIF is fishing quite well at the moment, the were at least seven 2lbers, best 2.10, out this Saturday. Roach to 1.14lb and Chub to just under 4lb and Brownies to 3lbish. Even a Salmon was spotted leaping in the top beat. The best Carp from here was mid 20s, (24 I think)the season before last. Theres a realistic chance of a 5lb Chub and the outside chance of a 6lber. At LIF the Chub tend to bunch up, so if you get one, you are most likely to get another. My best was 7 from one swim on worm/maggot over a few hours one afternoon. Definitely take Dendra or Redworms with you, many of the bigger Grayling this year have come to worm or worm/maggot. The Grayling also have a liking for breadflake and HNV type pastes. Most of the swims on the bottom beat will have decent sized resident fish, as you say feed up with a few maggots every cast and the fish will come. Typical feature finding works well on LIF, with pods of Grayling being present in eddys, around bends, in the deeper runs around weedbeds, surprisingly for this time of year will still catch them from the shallower faster water. With regard to tackle, I tend to use a 4bb stick float attached to a swivel and hooklength of 2lb@ mono, it works for me. Some of the other guys use Avon or Cubber patterns, horses for courses really. We changed our tactics this year and they've proven successful, rarely do we long trot, although the venue is suitable for that. We found that last year we were loosing too many fish even with a swivel and pole elastic if they were hooked at a fair distance from you. Also often we'll walk downstream in the faster runs to net fish and again stops lost fish from spooking the rest of the pod. BTW Did you ask Lyndsey about using the very top beat?? Good fishing Bryan

Last year I did a fair bit of long trotting on for the Grayling and Dace and used some of the floating line grease (sorry I can't remember it's correct name) from my carp gear. BTW last season I found that I was losing a lot of decent Grayling, this year I've tended not to long trot, hardly at all in fact and my catch rates have increased dramatically. Have you tried light pole elastic? I do use braid (Fireline) for trotting . float fishing for a range of other species, but not for Grayling. You can always use the braid setup for some touch ledgering after dark for the Chub and Trout :-)

Budgie If you use braid as a mainline whilst trotting for Grayling, it may cost you some fish due to the non stretch nature of braid. If you are going to use braid, its probably worth adding in a short stetch of pole elastic above the float to act as a cushion, plus mono hooklink joined to a swivel. The Itchen is pushing through a bit faster than normal, so if you hook a Grayling, it makes playing it harder particularly if there is no swivel or stretch in the line and just wait until you hook one of the mental Sea Trout I would n't load up different lines on the spool, I'd take a spare spool and the other line and respool if necessary. There are one or two longer runs on the Itchen, so you might find it useful to have 50m of line rather than 30m Rgds Bryan

She's not fat she's 9 years pregnant! Wonder how many boilies she's eaten

quote: Originally posted by darrell.cook: [QB] Fishing is from Wards pool down and includes two carrier streams. It would be worthwhile asking the LIF office if they will allow you to fish from Howards run to the the top of the beat boundary. This section is reserved for season ticket holders and has been producing some very nice Grayling (3lb+)plus some decent chub and trout this winter. This section and the section that you have booked are reserved for coarse fishing only, so if anyone intends to fly fish, it's probably worth while checking that they are OK with that. It's rather civilised as a fishery in that you can park behind most of the swims. BTW Worms and Corn can often sort out the bigger Grayling there. If you do manage one decent fish, then hang on in that swim as there is a pretty good chance you'll get some more of the same size. However if you bump one off or lose one then that tends to kill the sport for at 30 mins.