A few hours out yesterday.....

[Vagabond]

Nice one Ian.

 

Yes you are right about the dearth of fishing reports. a great pity.

 

I,m not getting out so often these days, and the difficulty of loading pictures direct onto site does not help, Yes, I know one can go through various photocomplexital sites, but the old system of direct up load was a good one.

[Kappa]

Exactly I would post catch reports if someone fixed the photos upload

[Tigger]

I fished a swim last year that called for hit and hold tactics, as soon as I struck into a fish. I had to strike hard and hold to rod as far back as possible so the fish was held just out of the half sunken tree when the rod bends round. Once the fish had tired itself out a litte on the bend of the rod and stretch of the line it enabled me to wind in a little bit of line at a time until I had the fish well away from the snag and under control. I had some seriously heart thumping sessions there and landed most fish with only a few hooks pulling out and an odd fish breaking my line on the snag if they got their heads into it.

I've just got back from trotting that very swim, I caught some small chub to about a pound, some dace and a little barbel of about a pound. I also had three"propper"fish on, the first of which got it's head in the snag breaking the line just above the hook and the hook pulled out of the other two because they where just so powerfull, too powerfull for my gear in this swim!

The 14 foot acolyte plus was bent to it's limit and if the hooks hadn't pulled out i'm not too sure if the rod would still be in three peices. Next time I target this spot i'm going to up my line from 6lb to 8 or maybe even 10lb and use a large 12 or even a size 10's hook. I honestly can't get over the power of these fish, just shows how much harder they pull back if they have somewhere close by to head for.

Funny how I managed ok last year, maybe the fish hanging round there at the moment are a bigger stamp or they just super strong!

[Tigger]

I went back to the snag swim yesterday and went prepared...I put some 10lb fireline crystal on my pin that i've had for several years but never got round to using as I wasn't impressed with the look and feel of it. Anyhow, that was to be my mainline and I added a hooklength of 30lb powerpro braid.

The river was up about 1 1/2 ft and carrying a peaty colour so not good visability for trotting but spot on for legering really. The method I used was a cross between legering and trotting, I was stood mid river holding the rod all the time and using a lightish bomb so I could keep lifting the rod a touch which dislodged the bomb and allowed the bait (a pellet) and bomb to edge down the swim. First bite or I call them taps as that's how they feel to me produced a nice chub that looked about 5lb. Second tap and I hooked a fish but it only stayed on for several seconds before the hook came free, I think it had only nicked the skin on the fish so had no hold under pressure.

Things went dead for a spell until another tap radiated up the line and down the rod to my hand, this produced a barbel of about 6lb. After that I had intermittent taps resulting in another 13 barbel that i'd guess went up to about 9lb give or take a few ounces. As I was mid river I just couldn't be botherd weighing any of the fish since they didn't look anything to get overly excited about, I unhooked most of them with the without even picking them up.

Although I didn't catch them trotting it was still good fun and an enjoyable few hours .

[Tigger]

 

Fished me flavour of the month swim again this avvey. The river was low and clear but because of the strong winds sending white horses upstream it was impossible to see below the surface. Whilst I was fishing mother nature provided me with intermittent showers varying from fine drops to big soggin blobs! Even thought the temps where about 17 degrees it felt cold in that wind and I regretted not taking a warm top as well as the t-shirt. My waterproof wading jacket was ok for keeping me dry but it's only thin and not at all warm.

The fishing wasn't fast and furious but I did ok...finnished up with four chub all around 4 to 5lb and four barbel up to about 9lb or over. I have taken a few odd pic's but still no computer to download them and post them.

I'm really enjoying this touch legering malarky .

[Latimeria]

I was down the opposite end of the same stretch, t'other bank. Had a load of dace, small chub, roach, couple of trout and a hybrid plus three ickle barbel, biggest about 1.5lb. Still not really into the swing of it this season though.

[Tigger]

I've had a few small barbel like that round there this season also. I've noticed quite a few jumping out as well, some even jumping out of the water onto a clay banking and squirming back down in into the water. It was wierd to watch, I can only think they where trying to remove those anguillisy critters(you can see I can't spell it).

 

Same here, just ain't got the motivation, need a change of scenery I think!

[Tigger]

Got a computer the other day so here's a couple of pic,s from this season.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyone recognise the fat fish below from the 4th pic down? the picture below is the same fish caught in the same place a couple of weeks earlier.

 

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Edited August 6, 2016 by Tigger

[Steve Walker]

 

anyone recognise this fatty...

 

Don't be so hard on yourself mate!

[Tigger]

Don't be so hard on yourself mate!

 

 

I know Steve, I asked for that didn't I .