Who's been catching in the snow?

[Sharkbyte]

I'm really glad that you enjoyed my waffling. Straight from the head, through to the keyboard....hit the mouse!

 

As always, the pleasure is all mine!

 

 

 

 

To be honest, 3lb 10oz or 1lb 8oz, it didn't matter. The satisfaction was in overcoming the elements and coming away a little wiser than I had arrived.

 

Another surprise was the actual temperature of the water. It felt surprisingly mild underneath that layer of ice!

 

 

The amount of Rudd activity blew me away. Whilst they remain very active, through the winter months, on the rivers we frequent, most of the stillwaters we fish seem devoid of the species until Springtime.

 

Another point worthy of note are that the Rudd on this water are the 'true' old English strain that we so fondly remember catching as kids. Beautiful creatures, and a sight to behold. I mention this because on a number of the more commercially orientated waters we use, the Rudd appear to be completely washed out by comparison.

 

A targeted 2lb+ Rudd, of the quality present on this water, would have me doing back flips!

 

 

Best of luck to all those venturing out over the remainder of the weekend!

[Rusty]

Who's been catching in the snow? We have.....yipeee.

 

Three of us made to Barton Court in the end. Couldn't set off too early as the roads were difficult but once a bit of traffic was out and about the main roads were ok, getting to them was another matter.

 

Glad we did though, all three of us caught. Mainly Trout but in these conditions any bend in the rod is welcome. Mike (Arbocop) won the numbers game with loads of Trout and a good sprinkling of Dace, some pretty good sizes. I was in pole position for variety with a couple of Trout, a Dace (small one), a Grayling (even smaller) and a Minnow (titchy). Steve (JV44) was trying for Pike but the only one to show interest was after a Trout that he'd caught.

 

 

Two of the intrepid anglers;

 

Phil Daniels?...sorry I meant Steve

 

 

and Bono?...nope that's Mike

 

 

The fishery looked an absolute picture in the sun and snow

 

 

 

 

 

A very enjoyable day out

Edited February 7, 2009 by Rusty

[JV44]

Yes it was a great day out and the only bloody Pike i saw was munching on a Trout i had just hooked ,Mike had loads of Dace and Trout and some good ones at that and rusty managed a load of trout and a baby Grayling ,This is one for the twitchers whats this then

??

I spent most of the day feeding a male and female of the above maggots also saw a Snipe and a Water Rail.

I wonder what can have made the smaller fotprints here

.

Action shot of Arbocop and Rusty

Steve.

[chavender]

well ,done on braving it and catching ,i'm determined more than ever to get too fish there one day .

[Cyranne12]

Yes it was a great day out and the only bloody Pike i saw was munching on a Trout i had just hooked ,Mike had loads of Dace and Trout and some good ones at that and rusty managed a load of trout and a baby Grayling ,for the This is one twitchers whats this then

??

I spent most of the day feeding a male and female of the above maggots also saw a Snipe and a Water Rail.

I wonder what can have made the smaller fotprints here

.

Action shot of Arbocop and Rusty

Steve.

 

 

A pair of Brambling, maybe?

[JV44]

A pair of Brambling, maybe?

Stonechat and there were loads of them around there

[Rusty]

I didn't read this properly before posting our day. Well done Sharkbyte, I'd have been proud of that fish in perfect Perching conditions but to catch it the way you did was very impressive.

 

There's been a few posts recently of monster Perch being caught, are they enjoying a resurgence do you think?

[Steve Burke]

Excellent pics, Rusty.

 

Yes. big perch are more common these days. There's a lot of possible reasons, just one being that we've not had an epidemic of Perch Disease that periodically decimates stocks for about 25 years. When we started the Perchfishers about then it was hard to find waters that hadn't been hit and 3lb+ perch were very thin on the ground.

[Angly]

Wow, excellent judgement and great result there SB!

 

And well done to all those who braved the elements to fish Barton Court.

 

You certainly all set the standard for use mere mortals to aspire to.

[Cyranne12]

Stonechat and there were loads of them around there

 

 

Another mis-twitch I really must stop turning all my geese into swans