Trust me to pick a Sunday when the sun is out to put up five curtain poles in the house. Going back to the diary I read I fished a Sensas Xmas match on the Bristol Avon on December 17. I drew one above the boys hole at the Crane and a rubbish day catching only 2 dace. 8lb of roach on the stick float won this match from just above the little wall, and 7lb came from the bay. The next day it was off to the centre of Bristol to fish the Docks Xmas match and I drew on the bank opposite Welshback. I fished the feeder all day and took 3 skimmers, 2 roach, 1 perch and a dace for 4lb 2oz which gave me £15 section money. I wrote that I missed a lot of bites!
On Christmas Eve I spent a couple of hours pleasure fishing the Avon at Conham. The river was clear but quite pacey and I decided to fish a small blockend feeder on a wand (light quiver tip) with a 24 to 0.075 pro micron. Despite the very cold weather I had plenty of bites and 25 roach / dace was a nice reward. A few days later On Wednesday 28th December I fished another match at the Docks. I had a similar match to the previous visit, 3 skimmers and bits for 4lb 14oz but no dosh this time.The following day I pleasure fished on the Feeder Canal, and fishing waggler and maggot to the far bank had 4lb of small dace and roach. I was obviously on a fishing mission during this Xmas hol break as I went fishing again the next day (!) this time I was pleasure fishing the K&A canal in Bath on a stretch known as the Mathouse I went along with Dave Haines and we fished different methods, Dave bread and myself casters. I didn't fish that far out, 6m in fact, but still managed 5lb+ of gudgeon, roach, Small skimmers and dace. Dave took 6lb on the bread.
The following day was New Years Eve and another match, this time back up to Moorlands Farm on their winter league. I drew Meadow pool once again this time I was on peg 59 which could be a real good peg. The weather was cold and windy and there was a bit of light snow at times, and I decided this would be an out and out maggot feeder job. A 20 hook to 0.12 Pro Micron was the terminal tackle used and maggots in the feeder with a few pinkies were all I used. Bites were few and far between for most of the match but I had a couple of good spells most likely when the shoal was in my peg, and I finished with 10 carp and 1 skimmer for 19lb 12oz. That weight was worth 2nd in the section and 5th overall and the team came 3rd on the day. I'm not 100% sure but this may have been the match when an old boy on the corner peg 60 decided to cast a feeder into my peg, I had some words with him but he said he was casting in front of him. He caught my line, took a good carp out of my peg and he also hooked two people's rigs who were fishing from the other side!!! However, other than me nobody had a go at him which I just couldn't understand, perhaps he was in the Brummie OAP mafia or something?
1995 started and my first match was the ATWL on the river at Newbridge, peg 53 was my home for the day. The river was still quite dirty but it was dropping, but as it turned out the river must have been full of road salt as there were a lot of blanks, including me! I had one bite on the feeder and missed it, just the odd chub was caught in my section. The team did well though and came 2nd on the day and were now 2nd overall just 1 point behind the leaders. After this match the weather was atrocious (much like recently) and the rivers were out of their banks and the next ATWL round was cancelled. Thankfully Moorlands was still fishable for their w/l and once again I was on Meadow lake, peg 40 though was in a bad area. First cast of the match on the maggot feeder I hooked a carp but lost it, my next bite was 3 1/2 hours later! Just one decent roach on the tip and one tiny one for 12 1/2oz was my lot, but so bad was this end of the lake that I got 21 points from 27! The team won the day to boot!
Sunday, 19 January 2014
Sunday, 12 January 2014
Commercial House Final Round K&A Canal
Got a call on Friday from Glenn Bailey, he was in need of a lift as his car had failed the MOT and needed £700 to get it through. I picked him up Sunday morning and despite scraping plenty of ice off the car and we got to the draw in plenty of time. The car was stuffed to the brim, and we hoped we would draw near each other to avoid lots of driving around. At the draw it was a bit like de ja vous as after a couple of bacon rolls Mark Harper asked me to draw for the team again. I studied the pegging and fancied drawing F11, 12 and 13 up at Warleigh aqueduct. This last match was going decide many things, and I was top of the individual points chart but only by weight as Mark Harper had the same points, Liam Braddell was just another point behind.
Team draw done and I had put myself on the brambles up at the George, happy with that as it has been good for small fish. Glenn drew in the same section, dead handy, and he was on peg 2 down by the cottage with peg 1 empty. Next to Glenn on the peg that came 2nd last week was Neil Mercer who had just about calmed down from reading my blog last week! (After the match Neil had pints of ale on the table waiting for his team mates, he's a good un really he had to shoot off last week!)
Just as I got to my peg the boat moored there was pulling out, but he said he was coming back at 11am, OH SHIT!! Thankfully the guy agreed to moor up where he was going off to, and come back at the end of the match, RESULT!! View of my peg without boat is here.
The only trouble was the canal here was covered in bits of grass, twigs, branches, wood and even a dead fox, it was going to be a pain to get a rig in, see the pic of the shite!
As far as setting up goes today I will just mention the rigs I caught on (as 3 were no use) my usual 4x14 drennan roach with 0.07 to 18 PR311 for punch, a 0.4g wire stem jobby for bloodworm at top set, a 0.2gm Preston PB silvers with 0.07 to 20 PR333 for bloodworm across. To start the match I fed a ball of liquidized at 4m, a ball of neat joker across at 13m, some casters and pinkies at 13,5m across to my right. (Chop worm swins were fed later but nothing came from them). Picking up the punch rig and the float went straight under with a small roach, and it did so for the next 35 mins with all fish bar two 3oz hybrids swung in. I then had to step down a punch size but it wasn't as good so I gambled and fed a bit more bread. The gamble worked and I caught again back on a 6mm punch, and I carried on doing so for another 45 mins, so it was a good start.
I now fed a ball of joker at 2m, and decided to try the bread across at 11m (something that failed for me on an earlier match) and caught straight away on this line. I probably took 15 fish from here before it was gone. I tried my caster line and had 2 roach smaller than I caught on the punch, and a 3oz perch later was the end of that line. My joker lines were not responding and neither was choppy, but the lad below me had a 1lb+ perch on a worm. I was really struggling for bites now and decided to go for a quick walk. Martyn Reyatt was two below me and he was doing the best, Liam Braddell further up had 2lb so I was ahead of him and it seemed I was doing well.
Getting back to my peg the better fish lines were not working and then with 90 mins to go the joker lines started to work, and my across line really got going. After an initial 5 fish on pinkie over I had to put bloodworm on the hook, but bites were coming as soon as the float cocked and the last hour was a small roach every cast to the end (as long as I didn't catch some of the floating crap!). I thought it was going to be close between Martyn and myself and fair play he did me by 1.5oz, I weighed 6lb 12oz of all small fish and had really enjoyed a good day on the canal. Coming 2nd in the section and beating Liam meant that Mark Harper had to win his section to win the individual. However, Mark had a poor draw in a poor section and the individual title was mine again, yay! My team won on the day and so we won the league again, double yay!
Results on the day :-
1st Nathaniel Johnson 14lb 12oz (F12)
2nd Richard Whitmarsh 14lb 4oz (F11)
3rd Craig Pinker 8lb 2oz
4th Rich Lacey 7lb 1oz
5th Martyn Reyatt 6lb 13 1/2oz
6th Me 6lb 12oz (last in the frame)
Knockout winner Andy Britt, runner up Mark Harper
Individual overall
1st Me 70 points
2nd Liam Braddell 66 points
3rd Mark Harper 64.5 points
4th Rich Lacey 64 points
Final team standings
A div winners Thatchers Preston A
Runners up Thatchers Preston B
Relegated M+N Electrical, Premier Angling Keynsham
B div winners Maver Cadbury Angling
Runners up D+W Builders
All it remains to say is well done to Nicola and Mike Goodhind and Vince Lunn who ran the league and did a bloody good job. Well done to all anglers competing, I hope we can get 13 teams again next year.
I think I might have a rest for a couple of weeks now, I'll rephrase that, do some DIY!
Team draw done and I had put myself on the brambles up at the George, happy with that as it has been good for small fish. Glenn drew in the same section, dead handy, and he was on peg 2 down by the cottage with peg 1 empty. Next to Glenn on the peg that came 2nd last week was Neil Mercer who had just about calmed down from reading my blog last week! (After the match Neil had pints of ale on the table waiting for his team mates, he's a good un really he had to shoot off last week!)
Just as I got to my peg the boat moored there was pulling out, but he said he was coming back at 11am, OH SHIT!! Thankfully the guy agreed to moor up where he was going off to, and come back at the end of the match, RESULT!! View of my peg without boat is here.
The only trouble was the canal here was covered in bits of grass, twigs, branches, wood and even a dead fox, it was going to be a pain to get a rig in, see the pic of the shite!
As far as setting up goes today I will just mention the rigs I caught on (as 3 were no use) my usual 4x14 drennan roach with 0.07 to 18 PR311 for punch, a 0.4g wire stem jobby for bloodworm at top set, a 0.2gm Preston PB silvers with 0.07 to 20 PR333 for bloodworm across. To start the match I fed a ball of liquidized at 4m, a ball of neat joker across at 13m, some casters and pinkies at 13,5m across to my right. (Chop worm swins were fed later but nothing came from them). Picking up the punch rig and the float went straight under with a small roach, and it did so for the next 35 mins with all fish bar two 3oz hybrids swung in. I then had to step down a punch size but it wasn't as good so I gambled and fed a bit more bread. The gamble worked and I caught again back on a 6mm punch, and I carried on doing so for another 45 mins, so it was a good start.
I now fed a ball of joker at 2m, and decided to try the bread across at 11m (something that failed for me on an earlier match) and caught straight away on this line. I probably took 15 fish from here before it was gone. I tried my caster line and had 2 roach smaller than I caught on the punch, and a 3oz perch later was the end of that line. My joker lines were not responding and neither was choppy, but the lad below me had a 1lb+ perch on a worm. I was really struggling for bites now and decided to go for a quick walk. Martyn Reyatt was two below me and he was doing the best, Liam Braddell further up had 2lb so I was ahead of him and it seemed I was doing well.
Getting back to my peg the better fish lines were not working and then with 90 mins to go the joker lines started to work, and my across line really got going. After an initial 5 fish on pinkie over I had to put bloodworm on the hook, but bites were coming as soon as the float cocked and the last hour was a small roach every cast to the end (as long as I didn't catch some of the floating crap!). I thought it was going to be close between Martyn and myself and fair play he did me by 1.5oz, I weighed 6lb 12oz of all small fish and had really enjoyed a good day on the canal. Coming 2nd in the section and beating Liam meant that Mark Harper had to win his section to win the individual. However, Mark had a poor draw in a poor section and the individual title was mine again, yay! My team won on the day and so we won the league again, double yay!
Results on the day :-
1st Nathaniel Johnson 14lb 12oz (F12)
2nd Richard Whitmarsh 14lb 4oz (F11)
3rd Craig Pinker 8lb 2oz
4th Rich Lacey 7lb 1oz
5th Martyn Reyatt 6lb 13 1/2oz
6th Me 6lb 12oz (last in the frame)
Knockout winner Andy Britt, runner up Mark Harper
Individual overall
1st Me 70 points
2nd Liam Braddell 66 points
3rd Mark Harper 64.5 points
4th Rich Lacey 64 points
Final team standings
A div winners Thatchers Preston A
Runners up Thatchers Preston B
Relegated M+N Electrical, Premier Angling Keynsham
B div winners Maver Cadbury Angling
Runners up D+W Builders
All it remains to say is well done to Nicola and Mike Goodhind and Vince Lunn who ran the league and did a bloody good job. Well done to all anglers competing, I hope we can get 13 teams again next year.
I think I might have a rest for a couple of weeks now, I'll rephrase that, do some DIY!
Sunday, 5 January 2014
Commercial House Round 5 K&A Canal
Saturday was a busy day, trying to sort leaks on the house causing damp (and thanks to Bela Bakos it looks like we've sorted them), doing rigs and replying to texts and calls of people who really were not looking forward to fishing on Sunday due to the weather forecast. Of course I also spent some time tying rigs and liquidizing bread, and had a few pints with Bela and Mike Nicholls.
Come Sunday and I loaded up my gear making sure the brolly was in the car and my water proofs. At the draw I found out I was leading the league individually and was up against team captain Mark Harper in the semi final of the knockout. I was in the same position after 4 rounds on the ATWL, but that went tits up, and I haven't done well on the canal so would need some luck. Mark asked me to do the team draw, and I put myself in Darlington Bay and Mark up by the wooden bridge wires which has been very good. Darlington has been fishing terrible, but two skimmers did come out of my peg last match, and when I saw 3 fish roll in a couple of minutes (when setting up) I was feeling happy. Next peg to me in the bay was Simon Alder (old Silver Dace pal) and one out of the bay on one of my favourite pegs was Liam Braddell, so I was expecting a lesson as he is the best canal angler around! Here's the bay and my usual friends the swans. Simon had the boat to fish to my peg was more to the left but took the photo like this...
I decided to fish positively, setting up 2 bread rigs, one with a 18 Pr311 to 0.07 and one with a 16 PR311 to 0.08, a .4grm PB silvers with 20 PR311 for fishing at 13m, and the same float with thicker bristle for worm with 16 B611 to 0.10. Also a waggler was set up for fishing caster across. On the whistle I fed the bread at 5m, dumped some joker in at 13m 11 o'clock, gbait with joker and caster 13m 2 o'clock. Chopped worm went in a bit later at 14.5m down to my left. I went in on a piece of punch and praise the lord the float went under a few times, but I never hit the bites so put a smaller punch on and caught a little roach. After the first hour I had around 25 roach on the bread but they were small and I never needed the net. As this was now slow I tried my 13m lines with a maggot on the hook. The joker line first gave me a little roach and then a better one which was grabbed by a pike! I played tug of war and held my top five up high and the roach flew out of the middle of the canal and landed in my chest, lol! At nearly 4oz it was to be my best fish.
The gbait line only produced a few small gudgeon so that was a waste, but the neat joker was giving me the odd fish. If I put a bloodworm on I would get a fry, a pinkie or a maggot would be a long wait for a 1/2oz fish so I was going nowhere fast. I kept trying bigger baits for the skimmers as I felt this was my best hope of doing well as catching tiny fish was not my cup of tea. About halfway through Liam was well ahead with more bread fish and a couple of better perch from next to a big bush, Simon was finding it tough. The rain was belting down and I was glad I had my brolly, as were my neighbours. The waggler had been tried a couple of times but I had no bites, and I had put some joker in close just in case some perch would play ball, but that just got surrounded by more fry.
I think it was with about an hour to go the rain had abated and I was still fishing positively when from nowhere a gust of wind picked up my brolly and in an instant it had gone 30 yds and over the railway line and down an 80 foot drop... bye bye brolly, only used it twice. Still the walk back later was easier without it.
With half an hour to go I had a small roach on the waggler, and then another 5, these were all on red maggot and were better stamp at an ounce and a half lol! The match finished and I knew I was not going to pick up any coin and having spoken to Mark a couple of times I was going out of the knockout (he weighed 3lb 5oz). When the scales finally arrived 6lb was top, and Liam had 5lb, my effort today was 2lb 14oz which actually turned out to be OK as I got 10 points from 13. That means after 5 rounds myself and Mark Harper are now joint leaders on the individual front, and Mark will fish against Andy Britt in the final of the knockout. The match today was very peggy, and some anglers had a great bag whilst many struggled, for example Vinny Lunn had 8lb 9oz, he said he had 8lb after 30 mins! Kev Dicks had 1.5oz.
Neil Mercer won the match from end peg F13 up past Diggers towards Dundas, skimmers and roach. The rest of his team mates asked me to put on my blog that Neil never bought his team mates a beer which is very poor, breaking a tradition the tight wad. I think Vinny was 2nd, and Mike Withey was 3rd with a high 7lb.
Thatchers B won the A div on the day, with my lot coming 2nd and we now have a 1.5 point lead going into the last match. The B div is very tight with 1/2 point covering the top three teams!
Back here next week for the final round and hoping to finally draw on some feeding fish (not fry).
Come Sunday and I loaded up my gear making sure the brolly was in the car and my water proofs. At the draw I found out I was leading the league individually and was up against team captain Mark Harper in the semi final of the knockout. I was in the same position after 4 rounds on the ATWL, but that went tits up, and I haven't done well on the canal so would need some luck. Mark asked me to do the team draw, and I put myself in Darlington Bay and Mark up by the wooden bridge wires which has been very good. Darlington has been fishing terrible, but two skimmers did come out of my peg last match, and when I saw 3 fish roll in a couple of minutes (when setting up) I was feeling happy. Next peg to me in the bay was Simon Alder (old Silver Dace pal) and one out of the bay on one of my favourite pegs was Liam Braddell, so I was expecting a lesson as he is the best canal angler around! Here's the bay and my usual friends the swans. Simon had the boat to fish to my peg was more to the left but took the photo like this...
I decided to fish positively, setting up 2 bread rigs, one with a 18 Pr311 to 0.07 and one with a 16 PR311 to 0.08, a .4grm PB silvers with 20 PR311 for fishing at 13m, and the same float with thicker bristle for worm with 16 B611 to 0.10. Also a waggler was set up for fishing caster across. On the whistle I fed the bread at 5m, dumped some joker in at 13m 11 o'clock, gbait with joker and caster 13m 2 o'clock. Chopped worm went in a bit later at 14.5m down to my left. I went in on a piece of punch and praise the lord the float went under a few times, but I never hit the bites so put a smaller punch on and caught a little roach. After the first hour I had around 25 roach on the bread but they were small and I never needed the net. As this was now slow I tried my 13m lines with a maggot on the hook. The joker line first gave me a little roach and then a better one which was grabbed by a pike! I played tug of war and held my top five up high and the roach flew out of the middle of the canal and landed in my chest, lol! At nearly 4oz it was to be my best fish.
The gbait line only produced a few small gudgeon so that was a waste, but the neat joker was giving me the odd fish. If I put a bloodworm on I would get a fry, a pinkie or a maggot would be a long wait for a 1/2oz fish so I was going nowhere fast. I kept trying bigger baits for the skimmers as I felt this was my best hope of doing well as catching tiny fish was not my cup of tea. About halfway through Liam was well ahead with more bread fish and a couple of better perch from next to a big bush, Simon was finding it tough. The rain was belting down and I was glad I had my brolly, as were my neighbours. The waggler had been tried a couple of times but I had no bites, and I had put some joker in close just in case some perch would play ball, but that just got surrounded by more fry.
I think it was with about an hour to go the rain had abated and I was still fishing positively when from nowhere a gust of wind picked up my brolly and in an instant it had gone 30 yds and over the railway line and down an 80 foot drop... bye bye brolly, only used it twice. Still the walk back later was easier without it.
With half an hour to go I had a small roach on the waggler, and then another 5, these were all on red maggot and were better stamp at an ounce and a half lol! The match finished and I knew I was not going to pick up any coin and having spoken to Mark a couple of times I was going out of the knockout (he weighed 3lb 5oz). When the scales finally arrived 6lb was top, and Liam had 5lb, my effort today was 2lb 14oz which actually turned out to be OK as I got 10 points from 13. That means after 5 rounds myself and Mark Harper are now joint leaders on the individual front, and Mark will fish against Andy Britt in the final of the knockout. The match today was very peggy, and some anglers had a great bag whilst many struggled, for example Vinny Lunn had 8lb 9oz, he said he had 8lb after 30 mins! Kev Dicks had 1.5oz.
Neil Mercer won the match from end peg F13 up past Diggers towards Dundas, skimmers and roach. The rest of his team mates asked me to put on my blog that Neil never bought his team mates a beer which is very poor, breaking a tradition the tight wad. I think Vinny was 2nd, and Mike Withey was 3rd with a high 7lb.
Thatchers B won the A div on the day, with my lot coming 2nd and we now have a 1.5 point lead going into the last match. The B div is very tight with 1/2 point covering the top three teams!
Back here next week for the final round and hoping to finally draw on some feeding fish (not fry).
Sunday, 29 December 2013
Todber Manor Park Lake
This blog won't take long tonight, and as it was a bit of a bloggers meeting you will find various other blogs will have more fish to write about!
I was travelling down with Ken Rayner, he knows the way, and when he arrived at my house at 7:15am I had just managed to de-ice the car. During our journey to the venue the temp gauge went as low as -4.5C and we feared for the fishing but didn't think the lake would be iced over, wrong on both accounts! I've only fished this lake twice before and that was in warm weather, but I had heard that the fishing was still good in winter. Draw done and Ken pulled peg 5 (which was good) and I drew 26 which was the other end of the lake, peg 25 was in and is a peg I had before and did well from in summer. The lake was frozen in most pegs, peg 25 was clear, but mine was not so broke the ice out to 13m (as far as I could) which was well short of the far bank.
The view up the lake to where my next peg companion Bela Bakos was.
It wasn't going to take long to set up and two rigs did me, a 4x10 with 0.12 to 18 PR412 (for inside margin and across) and a 4x12 Chianti for the deeper water with the same gear. My elastic in one top set was a bit slack so I needed to cut it back a tad, whilst doing that I somehow managed to also cut my finger. I needed a plaster and Bela came to my rescue as he had a first aid kit in the car, it did not look too bad as you can see.
As I got to the car the blood was really flowing now and a plaster would be no good, so I had to make a dressing to stem the flow and also allow me to fish without an issue, I think I went a bit over the top though, lol! It did the job though.
I finally started fishing 10 mins after the whistle and I fed some micros and maggots at 12.5m to my left, gbait to the right, and some micro and corn at 5m. An hour into the match and I had 2 small roach, Bela had 1, but the guy on 25 had 3 carp and had lost more fishing right across, also looking up the bank to the "good" pegs fish were being caught regularly. After another biteless 30 mins I went for a walk, and saw Fred Roberts, Tony Rixon, Phil Harding and Dave Romain all catching across. I went back to my peg and as the sun had been out for a while I managed to break the ice with my pole across to the far bank (Bela did the same). I fed some micro, maggot and the odd grain of corn over here, but it took me an hour to get a bite from a 1lb carp, and next chuck another! That was it for another 30 minutes and it was very obvious the fish were not at this end of the lake. I tried putting some gbait in right over on a new line, this only produced the odd roach.
The rest of my match was dead until the last hour when I had a few bites right across on either corn or maggot, from a few F1's and another carp. Plus two bites from my right margin on double maggot, a roach and a 1lb common. Bela also had a better last hour and caught some carp, he weighed 20lb to my 13lb, but we were the lowest weights on this bank, and I was BBS as peg 25 weighed 23lb of carp. Virtually every peg as you went past Bela the weights increased until match winner Phil Harding on peg 37 had a very good 98lb. I'm sure the other bloggers will have the full results!
A bad for me, which just seems to be the way things are at the mo, but that's winter fishing for you, and I hope the drawbag and fish start to like me again very soon!
Happy New Year everyone, onwards and upwards!
I was travelling down with Ken Rayner, he knows the way, and when he arrived at my house at 7:15am I had just managed to de-ice the car. During our journey to the venue the temp gauge went as low as -4.5C and we feared for the fishing but didn't think the lake would be iced over, wrong on both accounts! I've only fished this lake twice before and that was in warm weather, but I had heard that the fishing was still good in winter. Draw done and Ken pulled peg 5 (which was good) and I drew 26 which was the other end of the lake, peg 25 was in and is a peg I had before and did well from in summer. The lake was frozen in most pegs, peg 25 was clear, but mine was not so broke the ice out to 13m (as far as I could) which was well short of the far bank.
As I got to the car the blood was really flowing now and a plaster would be no good, so I had to make a dressing to stem the flow and also allow me to fish without an issue, I think I went a bit over the top though, lol! It did the job though.
I finally started fishing 10 mins after the whistle and I fed some micros and maggots at 12.5m to my left, gbait to the right, and some micro and corn at 5m. An hour into the match and I had 2 small roach, Bela had 1, but the guy on 25 had 3 carp and had lost more fishing right across, also looking up the bank to the "good" pegs fish were being caught regularly. After another biteless 30 mins I went for a walk, and saw Fred Roberts, Tony Rixon, Phil Harding and Dave Romain all catching across. I went back to my peg and as the sun had been out for a while I managed to break the ice with my pole across to the far bank (Bela did the same). I fed some micro, maggot and the odd grain of corn over here, but it took me an hour to get a bite from a 1lb carp, and next chuck another! That was it for another 30 minutes and it was very obvious the fish were not at this end of the lake. I tried putting some gbait in right over on a new line, this only produced the odd roach.
The rest of my match was dead until the last hour when I had a few bites right across on either corn or maggot, from a few F1's and another carp. Plus two bites from my right margin on double maggot, a roach and a 1lb common. Bela also had a better last hour and caught some carp, he weighed 20lb to my 13lb, but we were the lowest weights on this bank, and I was BBS as peg 25 weighed 23lb of carp. Virtually every peg as you went past Bela the weights increased until match winner Phil Harding on peg 37 had a very good 98lb. I'm sure the other bloggers will have the full results!
A bad for me, which just seems to be the way things are at the mo, but that's winter fishing for you, and I hope the drawbag and fish start to like me again very soon!
Happy New Year everyone, onwards and upwards!
Wednesday, 18 December 2013
In Search of Dorset Stour Chub
During my many years fishing one thing I have never done is caught a gert big chub, I think 4lb 1oz is my biggest. I am sure I have lost some large dogs, and one time I hooked one on the high wall up the crane on the stick float, it took me all across the river, I got it back it surfaced and the hook pulled, it was a big un. I mentioned this last year to angling journalist Brian Gay and he said he would take me on a trip to the Dorset Stour where big chub were more of a realistic target. Last year though the river was in flood for a long time and we never had a chance. It was then a real treat when Brian asked me to go this year and I gave him a date I could do.
Tuesday 17th December and at 5am my alarm clock goes off, by 5:30 I'm in my car with minimal gear and a gallon of maggots. I was though not sure the day was going to go to plan as I was sure we'd had to much rain overnight to make the river right, plus I had to listen to England giving up the Ashes on my radio. I arrived at my destination (Sat Nav said so) on the gates of the entrance to Throop fishery, Brian was a little late and arrived 30 mins later though it was still very murky light. To get entrance to the fishery you need a key from the club, or wait for a car to come out and run through the electronic gate lol (we had a key but the car was to good an opportunity to miss). Walking down to the river Brian was still sure the river would be fishable as the local club baliff had set it would be, as we approached I heard a large swooshing sound and unless we were approaching a weir there was trouble..... Yep the river was right up and had a fair bit of colour in it, everything chub don't like, my heart sank. Oh well have to try to catch a barbel or a big roach.
We walked upstream and Brian showed me the pegs that had produced 6, 7 and 8lb chub but none were fishable, we carried on going and found an inside of a bend where there was some steady water which looked like this.
Having no knowledge of the venue I did not how deep the water was or where weeds were, so I spent some time plumbing up a 3BB stick float. The river got deeper as it went downstream, not the best but feeding maggots and casting downstream I got some presentation, but after 45 mins and no bites it didn't feel right to me. Brian was a bit further down fishing the biggest maggot feeder I have ever seen, he was still biteless and picking up a lot of weed. I decided to move down to where the peg deepened and the water was faster but not boiling and fish a maggot feeder, I used 0.16 exceed to a 16 Super Spade, then changed to a 13 B711. Within a few chucks I had what looked like a decent bite but the maggot hookbait was untouched. I think reeled in a couple of times with chewed maggots having not seen a bite despite fishing of the rod end (weed was the problem).
Brian came and sat beside me and we chatted and then I hit a bite and small fish came to the surface and fell off. I was a bit gutted as although I had come to catch a big fish I still like to avoid a blank. Things went quiet and I was feeding plenty of maggots as most casts didn't last long due to the weed on the line. Finally quite a while into the session as I reeled in a washing line of weed a fish shook itself free of weed and there was a little gudgeon, and I thought I would take a picture as it might be a nice memento!!!!
Brian was still biteless but then saw my river skills come to the fore as I started to empty my peg with another gudgeon and 2 dace falling to 3 maggots, lol! During the day we did see a few fish top, nothing massive probably trout or roach, but Brian did have a huge fish swirl right next to the bank, with so many fry in the margins it could have been a predator. Eventually I decided I needed to find another spot to fish as my rod was just getting bent right round due to weed, as you can see...
I found a slack next to a bush and it was 8 feet deep and I was gutted not to have found this earlier. Brian reckoned this was an area big bream frequented so I changed to an open ender and fed lots of grounbait, worms and maggots into the swim before fishing it with a lobby over the top. I gave it about 2 and a bit hours here until the light was gone, sadly I had not bites or indications and had to pack up, Brian had had one chewed maggot all day, but he did tell me lots of stories of his chub exploits on this river and those just gave me even more of an appetite to come back again on a fishable river. A day where we could not beat the elements but we gave it our best shot, but being in Brian's company is great in itself and I really enjoyed the day out. No more fishing for me now until just after Christmas, so I would like to wish everyone a very Happy Christmas and hope you have a great time during the holiday, I intend to reduce the size of my collection of bottles of alcohol!
Having no knowledge of the venue I did not how deep the water was or where weeds were, so I spent some time plumbing up a 3BB stick float. The river got deeper as it went downstream, not the best but feeding maggots and casting downstream I got some presentation, but after 45 mins and no bites it didn't feel right to me. Brian was a bit further down fishing the biggest maggot feeder I have ever seen, he was still biteless and picking up a lot of weed. I decided to move down to where the peg deepened and the water was faster but not boiling and fish a maggot feeder, I used 0.16 exceed to a 16 Super Spade, then changed to a 13 B711. Within a few chucks I had what looked like a decent bite but the maggot hookbait was untouched. I think reeled in a couple of times with chewed maggots having not seen a bite despite fishing of the rod end (weed was the problem).
Brian came and sat beside me and we chatted and then I hit a bite and small fish came to the surface and fell off. I was a bit gutted as although I had come to catch a big fish I still like to avoid a blank. Things went quiet and I was feeding plenty of maggots as most casts didn't last long due to the weed on the line. Finally quite a while into the session as I reeled in a washing line of weed a fish shook itself free of weed and there was a little gudgeon, and I thought I would take a picture as it might be a nice memento!!!!
Brian was still biteless but then saw my river skills come to the fore as I started to empty my peg with another gudgeon and 2 dace falling to 3 maggots, lol! During the day we did see a few fish top, nothing massive probably trout or roach, but Brian did have a huge fish swirl right next to the bank, with so many fry in the margins it could have been a predator. Eventually I decided I needed to find another spot to fish as my rod was just getting bent right round due to weed, as you can see...
I found a slack next to a bush and it was 8 feet deep and I was gutted not to have found this earlier. Brian reckoned this was an area big bream frequented so I changed to an open ender and fed lots of grounbait, worms and maggots into the swim before fishing it with a lobby over the top. I gave it about 2 and a bit hours here until the light was gone, sadly I had not bites or indications and had to pack up, Brian had had one chewed maggot all day, but he did tell me lots of stories of his chub exploits on this river and those just gave me even more of an appetite to come back again on a fishable river. A day where we could not beat the elements but we gave it our best shot, but being in Brian's company is great in itself and I really enjoyed the day out. No more fishing for me now until just after Christmas, so I would like to wish everyone a very Happy Christmas and hope you have a great time during the holiday, I intend to reduce the size of my collection of bottles of alcohol!
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