AN Wobblethon - 24th February 2008

[WayneX2]

Anderoo

I am quite Happy for wayne to fish with me I have got spare gear if he needs it, as I might go after the Perch

Tony

 

Thanks Tony. I won't need to borrow any gear but I will take you up on the offer of fishing with you.

[Tony U]

Thanks Tony. I won't need to borrow any gear but I will take you up on the offer of fishing with you.

 

Wayne

I cant PM you my phone number so I will be at the meet up pont between 08:00 and 08:30 depending on trafiic us getting lost etc.

 

 

Tony

[Mat Hillman]

I'm not going to be able to make this now, I had completely forgotton about a familly birthday this weekend, I'll be taking my kids to a birthday party in hastings instead

 

Mat

[Anderoo]

Sorry to hear that Mat, I guess the only thing wobbling will be the jelly

 

Maybe next time

[Mat Hillman]

They better have some Jelly, or I'm really going to sulk!

 

Hopefully I'll meet up with some of you guys At Wingham later in the year

 

Mat

[Anderoo]

They better have some Jelly, or I'm really going to sulk!

 

Hopefully I'll meet up with some of you guys At Wingham later in the year

 

Mat

 

That's one you really don't want to miss!

 

See you all on Sunday folks, best of British

[Dick Dastardly]

Well Im up in London now and looking at the weather here Im allready regreting not putting the bait gear in! Hope it changes for Sunday! Sorry you cant make it now Matt.

 

Spent a few hours this morning driving around a few tackle shops trying to replace the baiting needle I lost during the early part of the week.No one even seemed to know what I was going on about yet alone have one! No matter how slowly I said "Not a boillie needle a baiting needle" it was like talking to your phone company/banks/ISP's etc call centre! Couldnt find one anywhere not even in their time honoured place of the tub on the counter the disgorgers are in! So if anyone going Sunday has a length of stainless steel with an open loop at one end and a point at the other I would be most gratefull! Will try the local London shops tommorow.

 

I thought it a poor reflection of the tackle trade that no one even knew what I was going on about! And Jeeze dont they make a massive range of boillie needles these days! I know as I must have been shown most of them today!

[Chris Bishop]

Looking doubtful for me now due to work, might try and sneak down for an hour first thing or around lunchtime.

[lyn]

I hope everyone has a great day, sorry I will miss it but at least I got out today for the first time this year! We went on the Itchen near Winchester, I had my first grayling on my 3rd cast and thought great here we go! but that was it still at least I didn't blank

 

Looking forward to next Saturday at least I know that part of the Itchen holds a good head of fish.

 

Once again have a great day and looking forward to reading the reports.

 

lyn

[Anderoo]

Well, we're back! Thanks to everyone who came, especially those who travelled long distances. I think everyone caught and pretty sure we all had a good time. It was good to see a few old (metaphorical) faces and meet some new people.

 

My fishing started on Saturday morning, as I was meeting a friend and fishing overnight on the cut-off for zander before meeting up with the wobblers yesterday. We were a bit shocked to look off the bridge and see the bottom in about 8ft of water - I don't think I've ever seen it so clear! It was mild though, so we thought we might have a chance at night.

 

We were completely wrong though, it fished its head off in the daytime and all we had to show for our night-time efforts were two dropped runs We settled into a spot opposite some small trees and brambles which overhang the water and fished over to them at the bottom of the far shelf, and we must have dropped onto a pre-spawning area because it was crawling with hungry pike and finicky zander. I think the longest we went without a run/dropped run was about an hour, it was great fun! They weren't fussy either, live roach, dead roach, eel section, as long as it was on or near the bottom it would be taken. We hoped all the jacks pointed to a big old girl or two in the area, but the biggest we caught was about 8lb:

 

 

We had 8 or 9 pike between us (I forget now) and several dropped runs which we assumed were zander. I think our assumption was proved correct, when my mate Wayne came back from a short errand in town. I told him about the two dropped runs I just had and that I was about to fine everything down because of the clear water. He said, 'I'm not interested in them little ones, big bait, big fish', and hooked a bloody great rudd deadbait - it must have been about a pound - onto his trace (he uses double hooks for zander, and they looked stupidly small against this rudd!) and lobbed it out to the far shelf. Literally 10 minutes later (and this is at 1.30pm!) he had a twitchy bite on that rod and before the fish could drop it he struck and the rod bent over...

 

'This feels better!', he said. 'I think it might be a big pike'. He brought it closer and about 6ft down we both saw a grey/golden flash and said, 'Zander!'. Very nervously now he brought it up and it started thrashing on the surface, shaking its head, and we could see just one little hook nicked into the mouth, so I forgot all that good advice about carefully drawing a fish over a waiting net and scooped the bugger up as quick as I could

 

Tempting fate again (like I did the last time we went zander fishing) I said 'That HAS to be a double!'. However it was just a few ounces short:

 

 

But what a belting fish!

 

 

Dant arrived when it was dark and had a few hours' zander fishing and chatting before retiring to the luxurious (I'm not kidding!) comfort of his van for the night. No fish were caught through the night, but it was charged with that lonely fenland magic:

 

 

So on Sunday we toddled over to the Wissey to meet the AN bunch and after a quick chat we all wandered off in different directions to try our luck. Me and Will Wilkinson went upstream and third cast on a wobbled roach I had a gentle take and was soon landing a very spirited pike of about 3lb. This was about the average size for everyone I think, although Ginger did lose a bigger one. After that early fish it was hard going - I had a fish take and drop a wobbled roach and Will had 3 pike attack his lures but miss. Other people were doing well with livebaits, so we went back to see Dant who was float fishing and catching (and missing ) lots of roach and dace. So armed with those we wandered back and in the first swim we tried we had 3 pike in 3 casts!

 

The Wissey, lots of pike were around the boats:

 

 

We went on to catch another couple on trotted lives. I think Budgie was the only die-hard wobbler - he'll tell you that's because he's a committed angler staying true to the spirit of the day, but I know it's only because he forgot his bait catching gear

 

Back at the meeting point Sue kindly brewed up some traditional mulled wine and we all swapped tales of the day. If we do another one next year (which I'd be happy to arrange if enough people want to come again) I was jokingly suggesting we call it a Livebaitathon...

 

It was good to see you all, thanks for coming.

Edited February 25, 2008 by Anderoo