loopy

Its amazing we see and use all these modern baits and think they are the bees knees, but its the angler who catches not the bait, i remember watching Bill Penny fishing a lake in sunbury many moons ago , all he had was a backy tin with some bread in it made by his wife and a little bag of mashed bread as groundbait , he was pulling roach out every cast and i mean good roach all over 2lb He could strike ,hook play and land the fish with out even looking at the float or the water, he was an angling artist, funny thing was when asked how he prepared his hook bait ,he replied i dont know the wife does it and she wont tell me Whenever i see a picture of yester year of an angler on the bank with his cane rod sitting on a wicker basket ,and fag in his mouth topped by a flat cap it always reminds me of him. He was for a short time the british roach record holder, a master of roach fishing

My old dad used to use stale bread, left to soak for an hour or so, then mash it up and squeeze as much water out as you can, then he would add bran and any odd bits of hook bait, like corn maggots,caster ,meat. its very simple but effective.Ive seen shoals of barbel over the stuff on the avon and my dad never lost a match against my matchman uncle

On my local i would go for the black knat, or a small monty unweighted and olive dun

If anglers botherd to look in there flyboxes they would see loads of flies that do not look anything like the natural food trout eat, not even the ptn looks like the nymph it is supposed to look like, they are rough immitations not copies, so the blob is fair game

The easyist way to get a hook out is to push the hook through your skin so the barb is out in the open ,and then cut the hook so the barbed end is gone, then its a matter of sliding the hook back and out, but always get it looked at as infection could be dangerous from water bourne bacteria

Managed to whack myself in the back of the head with a cats, on my last outing, felt like i had been shot with an airgun

Dry fly fishing is the simplist and easist form of flyfishing yet was considered the only way to catch trout thank christ weve gone forward

If you need them to fit over glasses then a pair of cocoons will do the job nicely or get yourself down to aldi polaroid glasses there for 3.99 at the mo

If you go to your supermarket you can get hundreds of different baits from the humble bread to broth mixes ,flavourings, cereal even bird seed all alot cheaper than from a tackle shop packaged as bait after all how do you think boilees came about A good tip for sweetcorn is to add yellow colouring, it give the corn a fluorecent sort of glow to it, and of course youve got red, black orange, blue and flavours strawberry, vanella and so on i use a broth and birdseed mix with a touch of strawberry for my pond fish, they love it

years ago dry fly fishing for browns was considered the art of flyfishing, catching fish on nymphs was for the lower angler and assigned to grayling and alike, so this argument is nothing new, fishing goes forward, not stuck in the past like some would have it

What worried me was the fish i saw with fungal infections on them, and i had an underweight brown which didnt look well , also 5.5 and 6lb fish arent exactly big fish these days, there were also afew dead fish about" dead fish and infected fish do nothing to help sport"i believe infected fish cause shoaling of the others and puts them on the defensive, ive seen it happen at the mere afew years back the management should really be on top of this and sort it quickly as far as the corparote anglers are concerned i totally agree just "ego bashers"

Just for those who want to know how i got on at lechlade , had three fish 1 brown 2.7lb underweight jobby, 2 rainbows of 5.5 and 6lb it was very hard fishing but i used abit of common sense and fished an overhanging willow to get both bows on a olive nymph, the brown came to a buzzer in a bay. disapointed with the size of the fish as there were some corkers there ,but i seem to get wrong end of the bargain

Thank you Mr Chris just spreading myself about ,to get more info on the fisheries. ive got the urge to try lechlade but its convincing the wife and the weather nowing my luck it will be the mere again even i like a change now and again, i suppose at a push i could do syon Gaz

I know this is abit late ,but i wouldnt touch it with a barge poll, on the basis the customer service is dreadfull and the reports ive had off of other anglers about the water is just as bad

anyone been to lechlade recently, i keep seeing posts saying its really a winter venue, so why isnt it that good during the so called warmer months Also is frensham any good , posts are saying its rather peety now Cheers Gaz

I bet you wernt a course angler before taking up flyfishing How do you fish with so little tackle i just get heavier and heavier with gear, even when i leave stuff at home, theres always something extra you need 2rods, landing net with extending alloy pole"course" seat attached to my scierra chest pack or rucksack a wet sack for the fish,water bottle ,medication ,lines,spare spools, three fly boxes ,preist, forceps clippers floatants and sinkants the list goes on i packed up course fishing cause carrying the gear was getting far to much for my knackerd body, old habits die hard Gaz

Talking of polaroids, ive got a pair of flying fishermans calcuttas, they were about twenty odd quid, they got a very good review in a trout fishing mag. click view article http://www.flyingfisherman.com/2002/press_trout_0804.php ive had them about a year now and amazingly havnt scratched the lenses yet, theyve done me well Gaz

Clearly this guy has fished there before "or lucky" and knows the hatch.I work on the principle of trout being in the first 6ft of water, it dosnt always work, but more often then not "rainbows" start with a sinking or degreased leader , but heres the trick you got to slow the decent of the fly, using floatant has two advanatges, 1 your fly will stay on the surface until its dragged under by some pulls of the line, when sinking it will sink slower than most flies "depending on fly weight" I like non weighted monties, i give them a jerk every few seconds as they desend the water, you can even use them like a dry fly , had a couple of fish last week that way.You can also grease up your line to 1 inch- 12ins or more of the fly ,this will suspend the fly at the depth you set and can be a killer, better use mono for that and twitches of the fly.But with all fly fishing ,ever water is different, its matter of picking the brains of the successful anglers, you will then get to see the patterns that occure during the fishing season As for polaroids from £10 upto £25 you wont find much difference, i buy cheap cause i break things alot but a grey lense pair and a yellow or HLT lensed jobby will be the most used pair you can have and dont forget your hat with a peak. All the best Squibs

More than likely he knows the water, but signs are , Vs in the water, tails and fins,swirls, jumping,seeing the fish,watching the line of the ripple, and if there is any muck on the surface cast to the edge of it.Ask the guy who is catching the fish If you have trees around you, check the wind direction ,it will blow insects onto the water, watch the leaves hit the water and that will give you an idea of were the insects are landing.Get yer self a pair of binoculars and scan the surface, so you know what the buggers are feeding on

Try Halliford mere near heathrow "shepperton" abit out of yer way , but £20 c/cr allday its difficult but a nice freindly place and its got a bar . closed mondays If your there on a thurs or fri ask if garry is about ,i might be around some where fishing, just look for a fat git in black Gaz

Hi ron If you fancy some hard flyfishing "using yer brain stuff" try Halliford mere at shepperton middx, just the other side of heathrow. £20 c/r club house "beer" nice looking lakes, a good challenge. Black knats at the mo or greased up small montys As you can tell its my local lake, should be getting commission. gaz

Good on yer SF I fished there a month or so back, i have to say i hated the place "goldfish bowl" not for me I noticed you caught in the same place as an angler had a big brown out while i was there Nice browny

Its all a load of Bullhooks just to make you spend money and make you feel your good at something, clearly not fishing Ive fished in a white shirt with trout only a couple of feet away from me , with a flyrod flashing back and forth not even a wiggle from them.van porter used to wear red all in one , now hes obssesed with camo, how in gods name are fish going to see what on the bloody bank

I agree with Chuby, the only thing one can think off is you need four fish tickets to start fishing at a venue now, so if you used two say at syon then you would have to purchase another two before you fished vale end

Brian is the new manager of the mere , hes a nice bloke and has done some good work already, lakes one and two have been stocked, not to sure about three , but four is going to be let to a coarse club as it is to hard to baliff, try the buzzers next time about 7-9ft down