Fireworks on the 16th

[JV44]

Last Thursday night we moored up on a local stretch of the Thames that has a rep for big carp and whilst walking up to the local Indian and off licence for the evenings supplies when i came across a guy catapulting biolies across the river to prebait for what he told me was his best kept secret spot just below where the boats moor anyway i get the essentials and come back to find a different guy doing the same thing with the same story,fast forward to take the dog for a walk before bed and yet another guy is doing his stealth prebait exercise and when i come back yet another is joining the barrage of bait all oblivious to the others .

Thinking of going down on the 16th just to see the full contact landing net jousting fight that is sure to happen ,Dumped my prebait off the side of the boat higher up after dark feeling smug,unknown to me so did some of the other boats knowing my luck .

Whilst bringing our new toy back down the Oxford Canal saw some massive carp in the shallows basking in the sun and fed some massive ones in our old marina on the Friday after they muscled the swans out of it.

Been prebaiting a few other spots and cant wait till the 16th ,May not make it that far as have been making boilies in the kitchen which is going down like a lead balloon with swmbo .

Anyone else starting to get excited?? Steve.

[Elton]

Anyone else starting to get excited??

 

I believe Lyn is

[lyn]

Just a little

 

lyn

[Neil G]

Not excited but relieved really to have the luxury of being able to walk from my house to the river to fish (less time wasted driving to spots). River will be barren/devoid of fish though as usual

[Anderoo]

Funny story! I must admit, that's why I've always felt uneasy about prebaiting...you never know who else has the same idea, or who might randomly plonk themselves down in your carefully (and expensively!) primed spot

 

Am I excited? Actually, no! For the first time in my life I'm not at all. With all the intense tench/bream fishing in the closed season now, I'm sad to say that the magic of the 16th has gone. I might pop out in the evening after work for a bit of trotting, but the rivers are in very poor shape at the moment anyway.

 

I'm very jealous of all the very excited anglers desperate for the clock to strike 12

[danny_b]

Im starting to get excited, no matter how much fishing i do in the close season on lakes, the opening of the river season always does it for me. I think i might go out monday night and wait till midnight and cast out then

[j_s]

I thought about pre-baiting the little river near me when I first went down there a month or 2 back (thread with pics on here somewhere) but it was obvious from the tracks near it that others have been looking at the same swims and even then it's only chub in there so I didn't see the point of dropping some bait in. Same with the canal, where the carp and tench hang out there are always a bunch of guys bivied up at the start of the season so a waste of money and bait.

[Guest tigger]

Pre baiting might be worth a dabble if the area your fishing is relatively unfished. If there's a lot of cover (nettles etc) you can see if anyones been down to the water so if you tread carefully throught the undergrowth and leave little as little squashed cover as poss then you can see if anyone else has been after you next day. If I was gonna pre bait a spot then I'd probably only do it for several days before fishing it. I think in Ireland when my friends used to go bream fishing if they where baiting a swim they would put a little marker/sign saying so and most people would respect it and fish another swim elsewhere.

[lutra]

I think in Ireland when my friends used to go bream fishing if they where baiting a swim they would put a little marker/sign saying so and most people would respect it and fish another swim elsewhere.

Them signs weren't fool proof, sometime other ways were needed, but i don't think you would have a problem.

[Rob Ward]

Pre baiting might be worth a dabble if the area your fishing is relatively unfished. If there's a lot of cover (nettles etc) you can see if anyones been down to the water so if you tread carefully throught the undergrowth and leave little as little squashed cover as poss then you can see if anyone else has been after you next day. If I was gonna pre bait a spot then I'd probably only do it for several days before fishing it. I think in Ireland when my friends used to go bream fishing if they where baiting a swim they would put a little marker/sign saying so and most people would respect it and fish another swim elsewhere.

 

Yeah I was going to say, when I prebait a swim I usually leave a note - 'Baited swim please honour'.