Another day wasted on the river Medway @ YALDING!

[cookus]

fished it today at yalding again and caught sod all again!

 

baits were:

worm

maggot

sweetcorn

lunchoen meat etc.

 

result = 2 small ruff and 1 gudgoen

 

use them for livebaiting but dint get any bites

 

is it just such a crap river or is it just me?

[Elton]

Can't answer your question, but remember the old saying...

 

"A bad day's fishing is still better than a good day's work."

 

Tight lines,

 

Elton

[Leon Roskilly]

What was the colour and flow like?

 

I've found that the main river doesn't fish well when it's highly coloured.

 

It's better to fish the cut when the water is moving fast.

 

As Dunk says, the Medway is a river of many moods, and you need to fish each of it's moods differently.

 

Tight Lines - leon

[Goose]

Hi Cookus

I haven’t fished the Medway for a over a year now, but have had 2.5Ib roach, 7.5Ib bream, 3.5Ib perch and carp to 23Ib and I know of 20Ib+ pike, 4Ib perch and barbel over 7Ib coming out below Yalding.

 

I would not say the river is crap, in fact I would go as far as to say that it is one of the most underrated rivers in the southeast, but she is a moody one. When the going gets tuff I tend to fish moving baits.

 

Where were you fishing and what were you fishing for?

 

Mind you will have to go a long way to find two more knowledgeable anglers than Leon and Duncan.

 

Regards

[Paul_D]

Cookus,

 

As Elton has mentioned it's the fishing that counts. I lived near Windsor as a yound lad (fished the Medway at Yalding once or twice as a matter of fact!) and catching Ruffe (Pope/Tommys)from the Thames was par for the course. I now live in Yorkshire and haven't seen one of the little critters for many a year. If I were to catch one on a Yorkshire river it would really make my day. Enjoy your fishing, but diversify if you can....

 

Tight lines

[ayjay]

cookus,I suffer a lot of blanks whilst fishing the H.Avon but don't ever see them as wasted trips.

 

It's up to you to try and learn something from every trip,any little snippet of information that may help you to achieve better results in the future.

 

I'm not talking about picking other peoples brains for info but doing something different to what is not working,or moving around and looking for different areas of river with different features that are not always apparent just by looking.

 

Have a cast in several different swims with a float and heavy lead used as a plummet looking for drop offs and slacker areas or any other feature which may attract fish.

[cookus]

yeah well

 

ive fished it on and off a few timwa this year and only caught an ok fish (chub on 1lb) in the teise river where it joins the medway at the sluice.

 

anglers i meet their always say they havnt caught much but then go on to say that they have caught alot there other days

 

the river at the moment is very murky.

 

i was fishing above and below the sluice about 3-10ft out using worms as the main bait (brandlings)

[River Angler]

I've always found the Medway at Yalding a good place ti fish, Had some of my best Medway catches at Yalding too.

 

Next time try fishing below the weir with ledgered worm on the feeder for the perch, bream and roach.

 

Or upstream near the small bridge same tacticks or even on the float and trot down with maggots feeding little and aften for the roach and you stand a chance of a 2lb plus fish there.

 

It can be a hard river but the rewards are there if you work at it.

 

Get it right and you could be in to some good bags of fish.

 

Good luck.

[Dunk Fairley]

i'll re-iterate the point i've made before and leon has quoted.

 

the medawy is a moody river, it seems to be in a pretty bad mood at the moment. the fish ARE there, but they don't like it cloudy. the chub seem to be hanging very close into the margins at the moment.

Try and find a decent undercut (there are plenty on the river, due to the boat washes eroding the bank at the waters edge)These can be virtually invisible at the moment due to the colouration.

 

If you try a BIG lump of crust (I like 1 day old french stick)balance with a couple of SSG. Flick it out and it'll find the undercuts for you. It'll then find the chub. This worked for me last year, when the conditions were almost identical.

[River Angler]

Just to add to what I said, if you fish below the weir stay close in or as far out as about the middle.