Opening days results.

[ndeezy]

I didn't go out but went to have a look at the narrow end of a big local lake that Holmesdale AC owns the rights to. Looked good, a grebe was feeding her young and coming up with lots of fish. Found a what I thought was a wattleless turkey wandering round a housing estate. Need to look up that one.

 

Some kids were fishing off a ledge near where the lake drains out and were causing a clamour. Went over to see that one of them had hooked a jack, line had come off the spool and he was in a right mess as none of them had a net. I managed to clamber down next to a man-made waterfall and pull the line in by hand, must've been 20lb breaking strain. I'd never unhooked a pike before but have read up so pulled the little fella out (about 3lb) and unhooked him easily before sliding him back in to sulk. I had a small pop at the kids for being so ill-prepared as the pike would've been done for but to be fair to them it had grabbed a small fish he was reeling in and got lip hooked - kid looked to be using a size 6 or thereabouts. Hope they'll learn.

[Dick Dastardly]

Nice one Jamie! great start to your season.

[RPM]

Pretty much a disaster, depending on how you look at it...

 

Checked out my swim at East Stoke on the Trent a couple of weeks ago and it looked beautiful in the sun and a great place to try my Centrepin for the first time. Started to get worried last week when the rain started to come down hard but remained optmistic (blindly). Arrived at said swim at 4am only to find that the water was up by over a metre and still rising, having driven down a very precarious and waterlogeed track. Had to wrestle through about 1 foot of mud which had collected at the base of the hill towards the river so even before I had set up I was covered. Set up a with a very heavy feeder which at every cast took about 10 seconds to run about 40 metres through my swim, or so it seemed, so totally unfishable. No chance with a CP. Decided after about 15 minutes to pack up and head for the clubs local lakes. Didnt get a bite until mid afternoon which was a nice perch of about 1lb 1/4. Waited another 4 hours and only my second bite of the day which turned out to be a PB eel of about 1.5lbs. Got home about 7pm. At least I managed to get a day out but will have to wait some time before I can fish my local Trent properly.

 

Shame

[Guest tigger]

Pictures from yesterday evening.

 

My Peg - this was the swim I fished last night...

 

This is the Barbel I caught

[noodle996]

managed to get out for an hour at 945 last night chasin perch didnt manage any but ine tench of about 2lb saved the day

[Peter M]

Well jamie how are you going to top that this season? Seriously what a great fish at 21 pounds and tigger what a great start with a big chub and your first barble. really great. my opening day was no where near as exciting, i went down the river stort around Harlow and caught a few small chub and perch on maggots but i was happy. i really wnat to explore a new streach of river and want to fish the Chelmsford angling streach of the Chelmer at little waltham in the next few weeks.

[chavender]

my first short session on friday night/sat was a bust ,but i only fished 9 til 1am (intending to fish 12-2am)

 

my second ,session on the sat night looked dodgy with my first choice out of the question.But a quick trip and i was at my second choice.Where i managed a couple of chub and a small 6lb barbel from a very swollen trent.(only just at 11.40pm)

 

I had too move half way through the session to find a bit of slack water ,once the fish homed in on my lump of luncheon meat usually chub bothering it ,a couple of bigger ones managed to snaffle it down ,then finally a barbel tuck a chunk ,felt like a whopper in the current but was only about 6lb ,didn't even get it out the water ,just unhooked it in my net waited for it to recover then let it slip back into depths.packed up and went home,not a bad start for me.

Edited June 17, 2007 by chavender

[Anderoo]

As expected, the weather caused a few problems - what a wierd weekend! On saturday I sat through 2 of the heaviest showers I've ever fished in and yesterday I got sunburnt!

 

I had a leisurely start to the 16th, keeping an eye on the weather until finally going out to a small river at lunchtime. I stuck to my plan of trotting maggots in the day and feeding up barbelly swims for dusk. The river was carrying a little extra water and was fairly coloured, and was pushing through a bit harder than normal. For trotting, I decided on a nice swim where the river is very narrow and goes round a U-shaped bend, trotting maggots around the deeper water on the outside. It was so enjoyable, standing in the river in my wellies, easing the float round the bend with my superb pin skillz (only about half a dozen lost hooklengths - not bad!). The float dipped regularly and I caught a succession of very hard fighting trout, one small chub and about 10 beautiful, chunky dace. Those dace were the highlight of the weekend - it's been years since I caught decent dace, they fight much harder than I remember!

 

As darkness approached I moved between my barbel swims, but apart from one 2lb chub and a couple of missed chub bites there was no action. Still, I went home very happy.

 

Yesterday I met Rich at the Thames and caught a niced mixed bag of little chub, perch, roach, bleak(!) and skimmers (and only 1 crayfish!) on trotted maggot and feeder-fished maggot, then we packed up and went over to the small river again hoping for some chub. We trotted at the same swim as I fished on opening day and caught only trout (which were great fun!), and then fished a series of pre-baited, banker chub swims. However, all we got were plucks and rattles on the tip - the extra water has really put them down, they weren't interested at all. Shame really, but I think we did OK for the conditions.

 

The highlight of the weekend (aside from the dace) was watching 2 boats take a bend in the Thames too fast and getting beached on a sand bar. No lessons were learned though, they both sped off just as quick again when they (eventually) managed to free themselves. Ruined our swim for a bit though!

[Stupot85]

I set out at 11pm last night for a 1am start below the weir in beeston nottingham hoping for a barbel and maybe a chub, to find every fishable peg taken for about a 30 min walk.

 

After finding a far from ideal peg I baited up with groundbait, hemp, pellets and meat and began to set up my rods. I was planning to have one setup with two pellets on a hair and one with luncheon meat on the hook

 

I then looked into my tackle box to realise I had forget my baiting needle

 

I managed to haphazardly thread some meat and pellets onto the hooks but it was far from ideal

 

I had one bite around 2.30am which I missed but that was it. A huge dissappoointment but only myself to blame for being underprepared. what an idiot. cant wait to get back down there and have another go.

 

Well got back down yesterday afternoon and got the peg I wanted on a big bend in the river. Really simple tactics with just using luncheon meat and hemp alone as no local tackle shops were open.

 

Between me and a friend we caught 3 barbel in about 3 hours weighing approx 1,3 and 7 lb. Our first ever Barbel.

 

So so happy, Best fish we have ever caught

 

going back down tomorrow fully loaded for more

[Tony U]

The Fishing this weekend was a bit of a disaster we were going to have an early start on the River Rother at Newenden. However, the weather Saturday morning was awful, it tipped it down from about 5:00 in the morning until about 10:30 afterwards the river was up about a foot and pushing through coupled with a gusting wind blowing down the valley, so we took the decision to go to a still water.

We went to Iden wood near Rye as it is quite sheltered and nothing makes Sue pack in quicker than sitting all day in a wind; getting tangles. We had all the wrong gear and bait I had Fox 0.5lb test curve specialist rods and Sue had her John Wilson Avons’ both of us were on 4lb line, great as long as we did not hook a big Carp.

 

I had a reasonable day piling in pellet and maggot and catching silver fish (we had no corn or luncheon meat and only a few soft pellets, which did not interest anything). I finally got through the small stuff and got a decent roach about an pound and a half which I would have been happy with on the river anyway and a few minutes later I got a shout from Sue to help her land a fish which she had initially pronounced as a small Carp. Twenty minutes later she was still playing it but gaining the upper hand and ten minutes after that she got it over the net and landed, her biggest ever Carp, a stunning common of around 15lbs caught on double maggot, she is still smiling.

Edited June 18, 2007 by Tony U