Fishing can be so so cruel........

[Newt]

With apologies to Phil for taking so long, I removed some posts and hopefully this great Blog can continue to run.

Edited June 8, 2007 by Newt

[Newt]

Just bringing Phil's fishing blog back to the top.

[Guest Brumagem Phil]

Well here we are once more.

 

Been out a few times recently, but to be fair I've only been to Earlswood and fished the match lake and its been bloody hard work for the time of year so have not even attempted the tricky carp pool as thats hard at the best of times and blanking night after night gets a bit tedious after a while as I found out last year!

 

Anyway.........decided to go and have a crack onthe Avon tonight. I normally fish the Severn but its still way too high really and with the Avon catchment area being relatively dry for the past couple of days I reckoned it would be about ready to fish. I wasn't wrong and found the water to be an absolute maximum of a foot above normal with the colour not too far from normal.

 

There was a fellah already there where I intended to fish. He'd got a couple of rods out for barbel and a dead bait for pike. I had a chat to him before I set up and found he'd had a jack and one barbel but while I spoke to him he picked up another pike of perhaps 11 or 12 pounds.

 

After we'd chatted, I picked myself a swim and set up........I must have been a bit TOO excited as my first cast ended with my feeder smashing through the lower branches of the tree opposite and dropping in the water 3ft from the opposite bank! Ooooops! I chucked it again and got it nicely in the slower water that I had initially over shot. A second rod targetted another slack area a bit to the left. I didn't leave them in the water more than a few mins as I wanted to find fairly clear swims and the rods hadn't indicated that the feeders had trundled too far downstream so I figured I was casting pretty much into weeds. Reeling in proved my theory correct so I decided to cast about half way across which was still well out of the main flow which was right up against my bank. The rods tapped, bucked and shuddered for a good 30 seconds after casting suggesting I'd found a much clearer area of river bed.

 

Not much happened for the first hour but on about the fourth cast (I recast regularly to keep some of my stinky fishmeal and halibut ground bait going in to stink up the swim) I had a tentative but definate chatter on the rod tip. Didn't take long to deduce it was no barbel.....my guess was a bream, but no, it was a nice chub of around 3.5 lb. Its a real pity these fish don't scrap as they really are one of the prettiest fish I think.

 

A shortish while later and the net slid under a bream just a tad shy of 6lb.......another nice fish!

 

The rods by now were beginning to nod and tap fairly often so I reckoned that all that stinky fishmeal was beginning to draw a few fish into my swim. A big snatch on the left hand rod and yes its on.......and then it was gone almost as quickly as it had appeared. DAM! Baited the rod up nice and quickly and got it right in the same spot again. 15 mins later the rod loops over again but this time it aint getting away. Definately feels like a barbel this time but not exactly scrapping like mad (maybe its a 25lb bream?!) A couple of minutes later my torch lights it up.............yup, its a barbel and I nearly fell in when I saw the size of it!!!! Once it was safely on the bank, I got the scales out and once the weight of the net was deducted it registerd a needle bending 12lb 3oz...........just 1oz shy of my PB. What a result!

 

I stayed a bit longer and bagged another bream of about 4.5lb, but by then its 2.30am and a bit of light drizzle is suggesting I call it a day and head off home as the weather is forecast to turn nasty before dawn.

 

Really chuffed with my first day on the rivers this year, and given the Avon is a river I don't often fish, I have to say i'm pleased with tonights result.

 

Thanks to blue rinse for his recent very valuable information on the Warks Avon!

 

P.S. The other fisherman took a piccy of my 12lb 3oz barbel and took my details to forward on the pic. If he does, then I'll post up the piccy.

Edited June 30, 2007 by Brumagem Phil

[bluerinse]

[Hi Phil You must have just missed me, I fished on the Avon with my son Yesterday, we left around 19:00 (he had homework to do) We fished on the concrete at the farthest point close to the lock, the water came up 1/2 a foot whilst we were there. (Just got to the top of the concrete)

We were after Zander, I had one 6lbs and my son had one 12lb 12oz

We also fished with a stick float for live bait and a bit of fun; we had some nice roach and bream.

 

We had all weather, heavy rain, sun, wind flat calm and a rainbow. (This was my son’s lucky sign)

I have added some photos; the bream was about 2lb,

My son was scared to hold the Zander so unfortunately the picture does not do it Justice, The picture of my Zander was videoed in error by my son so I can't post it.

 

Anyway a great day was had.

 

Glad you had some good fishing; the fish seem to be packed in tight in this area at the moment.

 

Hope to see you on the bank some time.

 

Cheers Richard

[Guest Brumagem Phil]

Ah, in that case you probably chatted to my fishing buddy some time mid to late afternoon! shortish lad with the usual bald head and a couple of kids with him...........he probably quizzed you for ages!!!

 

Looks like you had a cracking day!

 

any advice on this stick float fishing? Depth, bait etc? sorry, not much a float fisherman myself but always eager to learn.

[Guest Brumagem Phil]

Went to a spot on the canal today and even though the weather wasn't 'right' for the fish to come and feed off the surface, we managed to get mirrors, commons, ghosties and Koi of all sizes (up to low 20's) and they demolished 2 loaves of warburtons!

 

Gonna go out now and see how well they will scoff halibuts and boillies!

 

Wish me luck!

[Guest Brumagem Phil]

Just a quick update.

 

We spent half the night up there fishing last night. I didn't even get a take using the method feeder and a fishmeal mix along with halibut pellets, boillies, popped up breadflake or even VERY popped up breadflake (2ft off the bottom).

 

My mate had 3 takes with just one ending in a fish. A smalll common of around 7lb but in absolutely pristine condition.

 

I'm going to try my bread and sweetcorn ground bait next I think as it should be very visual...lets see how that goes.

 

Can't wait to go back there again!

[mattthefish]

As some of you may have read, I've been pre baiting up a swim in a 50 acre lake which holds a few nice carp but gets fished rarely and even then only gets fished for bream.

 

I'd caught a couple of nice commons last year but reckoned on there being a few real clonkers lurking in the depths!

 

Anyway, after a week of baiting up this swim I decided to fling me rods in tonight to see what might leap on me hook. After about an hour, my right hand rod went screeming off, and clicking off the baitrunner didnt seem to slow the fish up much either. Unfortunately he dived straight into a huge weedbed. I played the fish in there for at least 20 minutes, snagging solid, then giving him line, then holding a constant pressure to ease him along............I was convinced the fish wasnt gonna come out, but in the end I eased him through and almost had a heart attack when I saw it! It was the biggest mirror carp I've ever clapped eyes on.....way over 20 lbs. Trouble was, I'd had to walk to the far end of the weedbed to ease the fish out the far end of the weeds and was 50 yds from my net. I had to ease him down the gap between the weeds and the shore.........but alas he slipped the hook

 

I had a consolation common of 9 lb which had never seen a hook before and scrapped WAY above his weight, but the night will be remembered for the one that got away.

 

Still, at least I have confirmed my theory that this lake indeed holds a few real clonkers............its only a matter of time before I have one, and the real pleasure is nobody else fishes it.

 

Unlucky!theres nothing worse than losing a fish what ever the size, let alone a 20lb!! i was fishing my local pond with a ledger and a float with a super glued pellet... right near some lillies. you can guess what happened. 11lb-er straght into the lillies. after 20 mins it came off!the hook!

then literally as i put the rod down in a huff my ledger went screaming off, straight towards.. more lillies. not wanting to lose the fish again to the lillies. i was in 2 minds risking it or having to play the fish much harder. i chose the 2nd option but... i played it to hard right near the lillies and then SNAP! the line snaps!!it was 10lb line!! a 20lb-er!i was gutted. i re-setup both rods as they were before.

then my float went right under! not wanting the fish to go into the lillies yet again i just managed to get it on the edge of my landing net when. SNAP again!but this time it was not the line it was the rod!!!omg!!!i was **** off!!!the fish then managed to get off the hook! by now i was about to break down and maybe even cry! then off went my ledger. after a teadious 2 hours i finally landed a 7lb.but really i was gutted over the 2 20lbs-ers i lost. :

so you think your unlucky!!!

[Guest Brumagem Phil]

Funny how its always the ones we lose which we remember!!!

 

Decided to take the artillery with me tonight, so set up my beachcaster before I went!

 

It was a bit breezy and not the best weather for surface fishing but set it up anyway. A great gaggle of narrowboats had decided to moor up right where I normally fish (despite signs saying no mooring!!) so I had to adjust how and where I fished. I'd seen one or two carp pretty close in last night so decided to drop one method rod literally just 5 feet out right next tp the back end of the last narrow boat. I cast the other method feeder to another boat. The caster was set up lengthways down the canal into some open water.

 

Ten minutes later a fish took the bread off the caster with a huge swirl, but luckily for him he didnt manage to connect with the hook!

 

20 minutes after that, the close in rod was screeming away. I snatched it immediately decided if it headed for the snags I was gonna have to fight it 'toe to teo' style! Sure enough, instead of going under the boat he shot off for the snags..........I just grabbed my reel with my left hand and turned him before he could get there. He put up a great scrap though, he was back and forth toward the snag, then under the boat then up and down the margin (its a ruddy deep margin too at 5 feet). A couple of minutes later though and it was all over and he rolled onto the surface and slid into the net........REEEESULT!

 

11lb 10oz he weighed in at. Not the biggest in there by a long shot, but in absolutely pristine condition (see rather crumby pic at the bottom of this post)

 

I picked up a bream of about 2lb on the beachcaster which had me scratching my head a bit. Also shortly before I left, I had a carp on the caster but he really did try hard for the snag and I ended up loosing him.

 

Left a bit early tonight as the wind really got up, but quite chuffed with my first ever landed canal carp, so another PB to add to the list and I believe once we get one or two balmy still summer eveings (ok, a man can wish can't he???) that the caster will have me taking 4 or 5 fish on a good evening. CAN'T WAIT!!!

Edited July 6, 2007 by Brumagem Phil

[Guest Brumagem Phil]

Just a quick update as I have a few chores to do today!

 

Fished the canal again last night with a mate of mine. 6 rods we had out between us and boy was ithard work. They really didnt want to come up and take food off the surface either which is most odd.

 

In the end I managed one bream of about 2.5lb on the beachcaster (thats 2 nights running I've taken bream off the top!!!) and a mirror carp of 7lb. He had a few spawning marks on him, but overall he was immaculate and the ropey pics don't do him justice. No missing scales and I doubt if his mouth had ever seen a hook before. Excellent.