goosequill

Hi Jas, Would be interested to know about the property you are staying in at Fordingbridge. Would you be able to PM me the details? Thanks, Chris

I enjoy fishing for tench anywhere, from small weedy farm ponds where any tench over a pound is unusual to big gravel pits where the tench might be huge, but location might be "difficult" I suppose my favourite lies in the middle of that range - an old estate lake with lily beds and marginal flags where tench feed on the snails, etc attached to the flag and lily stems. 3lb is good, a five-pounder is exceptional, Traditional "lift" tactics, and its also traditional to say "good ol' Fred" when you connect with a rod-bender. Absolutely! If I found a place like that (and I thought I had a few years ago at Wotton) then that would be amazing. Years ago I did find a place like that, a perfect jewel of a water that a small angling club controlled; we caught wondefull numbers of Tench, Roach and Bream and the odd Pike in Winter. Suddenly one new season (on June the 16th) we all started to catch carp up to twenty pounds (none had been ever been caught from this venue). The following season the club lost the rights (after almost half a century) to a "new" carp syndicate. I still get very sad about that lake to this day, although I had no evidence, I was, in my opinion, convinced that the carp were illegally introduced from a very exclusive nearby Shropshire syndicate water during the clsoe season and then they waited till the rights were up for renewal the following year and gazumped the club into oblivion. Anyway, I hope the original poster finds a venue nearby and apologies for going off thread a little. Regards, Chris

Good Luck, hope to see some news soon.... Regards, Chris

Andrew, Many thanks. I quite agree with Autumn approaching it will be winter before we know it. I really need to get back into the fishing this year as I have been in a non angling state for far too long and keep thinking about those winter sessions we had.......... Chris.

Congratulations on a super brace of Chub. It's so easy to get used to seeing fish like this on the Thames but a brace of chub of this size is a super event that would have made front page news back in the day. Well done! Chris.

Indeed! Let me know when you are on the Quest and hopefully we can share a session or two over the remainder of the season..........

Certainly looks like there are good numbers of Roach showing on the Thames; I have noticed a marked increase in the last three years or so. It would be great to hear if other rivers are showing a similar roach revival.

A nice little tale there Andrew; I wonder if a few Roach were also hiding in those glides......

That's a shame but it was fun while it lasted - i enjoyed a few of the early AN fish ins here which were always good fun.

No, not this time around - I have promised myself to spend much more time on the Thames for Roach, Perch and Chub this season after last years fiasco. I have already had some lovely bags of Roach so things look very pleasant for the season....... Shall be looking forward to the zed reports in this thread and I know everyone will have fun!!!!

I shall be looking forward to following this and reading how you folks get on! Fingers crossed that the weather is kind to you.

You will be lucky to find a bait that crays will not eat.......I haven't yet. I suspect that as boilie flavours are designed to attract fish you will, if you have crays in the swim, be attracting them also. I think you used to be able to get a small plastic cage to go around the exterior of the boilie which, as others above have said, buy you a little more time. The best crayfish proof bait I have found is plain old simple breadflake. Best of luck, they can be a nuisance in the warmer months.

Super Tench indeed! Congratulations. That is rather sad what people do to some fisheries; I used to live very close to Yately but fished the gravel pits over at Farnborough and had some lovely early morning trips for Tench. They started to do the same on their waters; cutting entire swathes of trees back.

Well done Andrew, interesting to know chub are showing now. Could be an interesting winter! !

You are not being a grumpy old git at all. Some people, and a number of anglers, are incredibly stupid. It sounds like the gentleman upstream of you was a perfect example of that gross stupidity. In my experience any reasonable debate with such balloons yields either abuse or grunting noises. One should advoid these species at all costs.

First weekend of November is not good for me. Second weekend of November is fifty/fifty at the moment. Third or Fourth weekend of November currently look good. If would me nice to have a fish in again. Despite catching very,very little at most of them I shall never forget the first time I attended at Timsbury, such a crisp and gorgeous Novembers day and a simply beautiful stretch of water.

Count me in if there is any sniff of big river roach.

Is this the one that used to take place around early March time? There also used to be one on the Test around November time.

Wow eighty quid!!!

When I were a lad there was just two places to buy tackle. Cheap and cheerful from woolworths or one of the many local tackle shops. Today both have gone and sadly with the demise of all those tackle shops we are left with mostly cheap imported **** .......it is no surprise that a company that revels in selling cheap trainers and clothes sells cheap tackle. Even woolworths tackle was better than some of the alarming tack available in supermarkets. Please keep the remaining tackle shops alive......

I think I will be having a go for a river Perch tomorrow with a float and a worm. May have a go for a Roach in the dark too. Hope everyone that is out this weekend has a cracking time, looks like a great 'soft' autumnal day.

I have always considered that bankside vibrations are a no no. A lovely old carp lake I used to fish in Devon allowed me to spend hours and hours watching carp next to the bank. Any bad footsteps or clanging on the bank was a negative. Likewise movement on skylines was a bad bad idea. I undertook various experiments with voice levels and even screamed on occasions to observe the carps reactions which was not as bad as the thumping of feet/equipment or skyline movements. However if fish are used to certain noises (traffic on bridges for example) then most of what I have said is tosh. It's an interesting topic and I suspect it varies from water to water.

Welcome back to the fold!!!! It's a great feeling isn't it? (I took a vacation from angling and was swept back into its spell when I saw a Passion for Angling some twenty years ago now....mind you it was a shock how many things had 'evolved' during that vacation)

Interesting stuff.....just means that the Chub fishing will start a bit earlier this year