A few hours out yesterday.....

[Tigger]

 

Had my first short session of the new season on a river today. I had a new reel to christen which I bought just as the season closed.

Anyhow my first fish was a dace....

 

 

Had a few more dace then a chub....

 

 

Next fish after that was a barbel...

 

 

Had a few small chub after that, so mission acco plished and I went home .

[Martin56]

Hi Tigger, have you tried the Dave Harrell Alloy stemmed stick floats??

 

I've some & very stable in all depths/conditions.

 

https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwiloMb5-fjiAhUX-FEKHXokDKoYABAZGgJ3cw&ohost=www.google.com&cid=CAESEeD2tdIJWTspf3G8pLUp6fTy&sig=AOD64_0ap6YFrTC0616Gg8_fOpVWvq7EwA&ctype=5&q=&ved=0ahUKEwiXr8D5-fjiAhXXMMAKHUgiAmoQ9aACCGI&adurl=

[Tigger]

Hi Tigger, have you tried the Dave Harrell Alloy stemmed stick floats??

 

I've some & very stable in all depths/conditions.

 

https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwiloMb5-fjiAhUX-FEKHXokDKoYABAZGgJ3cw&ohost=www.google.com&cid=CAESEeD2tdIJWTspf3G8pLUp6fTy&sig=AOD64_0ap6YFrTC0616Gg8_fOpVWvq7EwA&ctype=5&q=&ved=0ahUKEwiXr8D5-fjiAhXXMMAKHUgiAmoQ9aACCGI&adurl=

Hi Martin, thanks for the link. I have loads of stick floats in that style but never use em as I end up trotting long ranges, or in fast choppy water, so can't see the short sight tips on em.

I have some of his carbon stemmed bolo floats, i'll try his alloy stemmed bolos if he has bolos with alloy stems when my current alloy stemmed bolos eventualy get lost or damaged etc.

I have woodys bolos with wire stems in numerous sizes and some great map ones which are only in 3grm, but the map ones are superb and fly on the cast!

My favourites are some old Steve Maher carbon stemmed avon bolos.

[Martin56]

Tigger, have a look at these Fluted stick floats.

 

I used to have one that I know of (will post if can find)

 

http://www.goldmedalfloats.co.uk/fluted.html

[Anderoo]

Nice

[Tigger]

Tigger, have a look at these Fluted stick floats.

 

I used to have one that I know of (will post if can find)

 

http://www.goldmedalfloats.co.uk/fluted.html

Martin, i'm gonn'a sound like a miserable bugger now, but I have tried fluted floats and in all honesty they were naff.

Reasons were, they all had short'ish sight tips, long bodies and short'ish stems. Because of the longer bodies and short'ish stem they just flattened out in water with any decent flow or a chop/riffle on the surface.

I still have one, it is an old one, no idea why I hang on to it lol.

[gozzer]

Martin, i'm gonn'a sound like a miserable bugger now, but I have tried fluted floats and in all honesty they were naff.

Reasons were, they all had short'ish sight tips, long bodies and short'ish stems. Because of the longer bodies and short'ish stem they just flattened out in water with any decent flow or a chop/riffle on the surface.

I still have one, it is an old one, no idea why I hang on to it lol.

 

Speaking as a self confessed 'miserable old bugger', I agree with you Ian. I too have an old one kicking about, tried it a couple of times, and found that you needed to put too much weight directly under the float to keep it vertical, that you didn't have enough down the line. It seems most of us have a 'one off' float in our armoury, that's of dubious origin. I think I got mine free with something years ago, around the time I got my 'Newark Needle float', also a freebie.

 

John.

[Tigger]

I had a few hours out yesterday and caught a few chub up to about a pound and a half, and a few dace and a trout. I did hook a barbel and it instantly ran upstream, then I turned it and it ran downstream, again I stopped it and I had it infront of me for a good five minuites. I was using a 11ft avon rod which is quite powerful and even with the rod hooped right round the fish wouldn't hardly move so I realy put pressure on it thinking it was foul hooked because of the way it was acting/fighting. Anyhow the fish finally came up in the water enough to become just visible and it came up nose first so it was either hooked in or around it's mouth. After putting so much prssure on it I wasn't surprised that the hook pulled free as the fish powered away on another run. I couldn't tell how large the fish was, but 8f it was hooked fair and square in the moth it must have been a huge fish from what I saw of it...I was kicking myself after as i'm confident if i'd played it more patiently I would have landed it, then I would have known for sure if it was foul hooked or not and how large it was.....lesson learned!

 

I had a go on a different stretch today, only for a couple of hours, and I had a few chub to a pound or so, a very nice trout and one larger chub with half a tail....

 

Edited June 23, 2019 by Tigger

[Phone]

Tigger,

 

When I was able to fish several times a week throughout the year I had a nasty habit. Somewhere in the middle of May, just as the water began to warm, I would horse a world record fish and loose it just as you described. I always considered it the "beginning of the fishing year". It is amazing how some species gain strength and stamina as the water average temperature warms only a few degrees.

 

What are the chances of me getting you into a nice spincast reel instead of those refugee looking ones.

 

Phone

[Phone]

Tigger (and anyone else who will post pictures)

Intrigued by Tiggers photos I decided to investigate barbel compared to our sucker family.

"Barbus barbus is indigenous to eastern flowing rivers in England. Anthropogenic modification of the physical characteristics - water depth, velocity, and temperature; channel width; water chemistry, substrate and suspended sediment; amount of cover that control the quality of a river as habitat for these fish. They are all elongated, streamlined and with the slightly humped form that results in the fish being forced on to the bottom by the flow."

I found this interesting and thought I'd pass it along.

http://eprints.bourn...s_Tea Basic.pdf (2017)

 

Phone

edit: I accidentally posted this in another thread - this is where I intended it to be posted