A few hours out yesterday.....

[Tigger]

Wow, that's quite a club lake - a few 1.5lb roach in summer!

 

I suppose it is really, maybe we should try targetting them and see what we can get.

[Tigger]

 

Nipped out at 1.30 (so only 3 1/2 hrs ago) this afternoon in time to fish the incoming tide. Anyway, I had lots of dace and small chub to a pound and a half. The river began to back up while I was there and I needed to move up the bank a couple of times as it rose higher.

 

It was then I heard a rumbling in the distance. Distant thunder (no, not Indian drums lol), real thunder!

I peered around the willow tree I was standing next to, to see the sky in that direction black and lightening bolts and flashes!

I threw my sling over my back, grabbed the maggot tub, my rod and speed marched back through long grass towards where I'd left the motor. Mumbling to myself that I'd better get an effin move on or else I'd be drenched and maybe even electrocuted if I didn't, lol.

 

I made it back just in time. I'd no sooner got inside the car and the tapping started on the roof, as I drove away the tapping became louder and then I had to put the windscreen wipers on full speed as a deluge hit the windscreen.

 

The roads back were full of huge puddles and some even had mini rivers of their own flowing down them.

 

Anyhow, I'm back now and gonna get a shower after sweating like a trooper on my speed march back to the car. The long grass was latching onto my legs like prehistoric man eating plants in that old Journey to the Centre of the Earth film!

[BoldBear]

My son and I went out yesterday with the intention of catching a few Barbel on my favourite club stream.

Although I say stream; its actually the upper reaches of a river (with swims from around 3ft up to more than 5ft deep and widths between around 15ft and 25ft on average when in normal conditions, see pic below), but when we arrived at the gate of the fishery there was a sign saying that the fishery was closed for a week or more due to drastically low water levels.

Too low to fish??? Thats the first time thats happened here as far as I can remember and I hope this is isnt going to be the norm in future.

 

NB: Heres the stream/river when its in a good condition :

 

So we decided to go up to the river Ivel about 30 minutes further away to catch a few Chub and maybe a Barbel or two; but the flows on the river Ivel were also too drastically low to fish too.

 

So we went further up to the upper Gt Ouse in Bedfordshire to see what that was like, but although it was looking ok by the time we got there we only had time for a bit of a recce and didnt manage to do any fishing so alas I have no fish to show you this time ☹

 

NB:

You may have recently heard about our Hertfordshire chalk streams if you havent read about them in the Times recently.

 

In Herts there are lots of chalk streams that have almost dried up; compared to their normal levels, and although some of this has been caused by the warmer and drier climate; the majority of it is because infinity water (who supplies our water) gets all of its water from the aquifers and none of its water from storage reservoirs, and water abstraction has increased steadily each year.

 

This is also true of many other places around the country Im sure.

 

The creation of a large reservoir in this area to alleviate the shortages wouldnt be a bad idea instead of bleeding our streams and rivers in Hertfordshire dry.

Edited August 6, 2019 by BoldBear

[Tigger]

Fished the incoming tide again today but on a different stretch lower down. The tide came in quite fast this low down and came up high! I had pretty much a fish a trott whilst the river was still flowing out and even as it slowed down and began to flow back upstream. At this point I decided to lay on, was great watching the float slowly slide away as a chub took the bait .

I only fished for 3hrs but my back was wreckin me and being stood up wasn't helping....enough is as good as a feast anyhow, so I went home smilin .

 

This landing net of fish was literally ten minuites fishing....

 

 

These were caught when laying on...

 

 

 

Edited August 5, 2019 by Tigger

[Tigger]

Only saw your post after i'd posted mine Keith....that's seriously disgusting m8!

How on earth are the EA allowing this to happen? Just shows you someone is getting something to keep em sweet!

The water company should be made to create more reserviores than are needed anyhow. They just don't want anything to eat into their precious profits!!

Edited August 5, 2019 by Tigger

[chesters1]

My son and I went out yesterday with the intention of catching a few Barbel on my favourite club stream.

Although I say stream; its actually the upper reaches of a river (with swims from around 3ft up to more than 5ft and widths between around 15ft and 25ft on average when in normal conditions, see pic below), but when we arrived at the gate of the fishery there was a sign saying that the fishery was closed for a week or more due to drastically low water levels.

Too low to fish??? Thats the first time thats happened here as far as I can remember and I hope this is isnt going to be the norm in future.

 

NB: Heres the stream/river when its in a good condition :

 

So we decided to go up to the river Ivel about 30 minutes further away to catch a few Chub and maybe a Barbel or two; but the flows on the river Ivel were also too drastically low to fish too.

 

So we went further up to the upper Gt Ouse in Bedfordshire to see what that was like, but although it was looking ok by the time we got there we only had time for a bit of a recce and didn't manage to do any fishing so alas I have no fish to show you this time ☹

 

NB:

You may have recently heard about our Hertfordshire chalk streams if you haven't read about them in the Times recently.

 

In Herts there are lots of chalk streams that have almost dried up; compared to their normal levels, and although some of this has been caused by the warmer and drier climate; the majority of it is because infinity water (who supplies our water) gets all of its water from the aquifers and none of its water from storage reservoirs and water abstraction has increased steadily each year.

 

This is also true of many other places around the country I'm sure.

 

The creation of a large reservoir in this area to alleviate the shortages wouldn't be a bad idea instead of bleeding our streams and rivers in Hertfordshire dry.

Looks a bit like where I fish on the wey but a bit wider and more open, unfortunately, its trout country round here upstream so coarse fish are removed every now and again so big fish rarely are seen .never seen a barbel here ever!

Your pic looks very like the confluence we have both branches of the Wey merge here , I have several hundred yards to play in on the northern branch but nothing on the other one but cormorants have emptied the river at Waverley abbey its a very neglected stretch slow-moving and full of mud as the river is slowed by a wier and the river has 6 ft of mud under 1ft of water ,once it gets over the weir though it reverts to a real river although the river bed even there has risen 4ft since the abbey was built.

All the EA is concerned with is flood control not maintaining healthy rivers

Edited August 6, 2019 by chesters1

[Tigger]

Popped out for a couple of hours trotting today, a quick session before the forecasted storms which are apparently going to reach these parts sometime from midnight tonight onwards.

Anyhow, I had a lot of dace, including some quite large ones that fought similarly to pound sized chub! At one point I was harrassed by a fresh water crock but it seemed to move on elswhere after I tried to spear it with a branch.

As I walked beck upstream I dropped into a couple of swims and caught a few dace in each before moving on again. I dropped into my last swim before I was done for the day, and had a few dace...but, as I was reeling in what finnished up being my last dace another fresh water crock darted from the depths and engulfed the poor dace! I instinctively struck and luckily (or unluckily as it turned out) hooked esox in the scissors, I played it for a good 4 or 5 min's as it really battled and bent the 12ft acolyte carp waggler into an undignified hoop over and over!

I netted esox and took a picture of it, but, as I picked it up under it's gill rakers it wriggled vigourously and I felt a tooth on my finger. I gently tried to manouvre my had so not to get cut, esox must have felt my finger and it actually bit down like a bloody bullterrier on my finger tip and wouldn't open it's mouth! As I tried to sprize it open with my other hand it wriggled again and my finger was cut quite deeply. I pushed the fish into the river with my foot and it bolted off, none the the worse for being caught....unlike my finger!

 

 

 

 

 

[chesters1]

Them teeth are like needles ,i have often been surprised by blood and not even felt getting cut

[Tigger]

 

It was a tooth that went in half an inch from my finger tip on the underside that's the worst....me finger tip has gone black now and is totally knumb!!

I'm positive they have anti coagulant in or out of their teeth as whenever i've been nicked with a pike i've kept bleeding for ages, whereas other more serious cuts caused by tools etc stop bleeding pretty quick.

[chesters1]

They may have it would make sense but i cant be bothered to look to see

Worst cuts i ever had was on a splinter from a broken pig bone it bled for hours but the hole was tiny almost invisible and extremely painfull ,i was removing some very large maggots from a carcus (they looked like wasp grubs and the same softness) the piglet had been hit by a tractor so i put it in a mesh sack and hung it in the barn for the flies to enjoy

Not sure about anticoagulents but things taken as fact are infact false it was always said komodo dragons killed because their mouths were full of bacteria but its been found they are venomous but ofcourse this new "fact" could be bull in ten years time lol