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first ever match come first with this beast at 11lb 8 a personal best and a good day spent with dad on Father’s Day 

Fired by yesterday's minor triumph I returned to the scene for a couple of hours this evening. I approached the swim with care in case any Environment Agency types were laying in wait after hearing of

After the previous picture of the lovely barbel I feel this post could be an anti-climax. Anyway it was off to the little stream for the second round of the day. Trotting maggots proved useless b

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3 hours ago, Nicepix said:

Catching a near 4lb chub from a small river is every bit as hard as catching one double the size from a larger venue. ? 

Arthur Ransome wrote an article entitled 'Fishing in Lilliput' and he described how catching the largest fish in the stream even if it was a small trout of 7 or 8 inches is equal to someone catching a 3lb trout in a chalk stream. Bother are at the top of the pyramid and catching them  deserves equal recognition. I love fishing small rivers, but for some reason am not bothered about fishing small ponds.

That is so true. When I was a kid we fished a small pond, anyone catching a carp of over a pound became an instant ,though temporary ,hero. The fish were small by carp standards but they were old and wiley and certainly not genetically programmed to be ever hungry like the monsters stocked today.

My planned canoe fishing trip on a tidal river today has been put on hold . With the wind ,rain and high levels it might have proved mildly dangerous and certainly  wouldn't  have been much fun.

Instead I spent a couple of hours at dawn on a local millstream where I opened the season with a few uspectacular roach and gudgeon. At least I didn't blank and I'll probably have another go this evening.

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55 minutes ago, comanche said:

That is so true. When I was a kid we fished a small pond, anyone catching a carp of over a pound became an instant ,though temporary ,hero. The fish were small by carp standards but they were old and wiley and certainly not genetically programmed to be ever hungry like the monsters stocked today.

My planned canoe fishing trip on a tidal river today has been put on hold . With the wind ,rain and high levels it might have proved mildly dangerous and certainly  wouldn't  have been much fun.

Instead I spent a couple of hours at dawn on a local millstream where I opened the season with a few uspectacular roach and gudgeon. At least I didn't blank and I'll probably have another go this evening.

I can think of a certain lodge that held a handful of carp. 5lb maximum. Those carp haunted our dreams. We did see an odd photo of one on the bank and my mate hooked and lost one. Today the lodge has been dug out to 4 times the size and sourrounded with a 'canal lake' aswell. All the old features gone, just clay holes in the ground. Young fishermen these days can catch two dozen carp there easy now, all identical, all starving and been dragged on the bank a hundred times. All the mystery, plans, preparation and wonder has gone. 

Get me on a river any day

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There is a very small river about 15 minutes from where we live. I fish it a lot in summer with a 6 foot quiver rod made especially for this type of water, a 1000 size reel and a pocket full of tackle. It is a fascinating location despite it being no more than 30 inches deep and 15 feet across at its widest part.

In one stretch there will be up to a hundred small barbel of around 6" all feeding on a shallow area of gravel. They take small fly-fishing  nymphs fished under s tiny float.  Just to one side of these is a deeper run of about 2 foot holding a few perch. Fifty yards downstream is another sandy / gravel shallow run where the barbel run a bit bigger, up to a foot long and they work there way upstream hoovering the bottom before drifting back downstream and starting all over again. Here and there are some monsters. In the upstream stretch there is a carp over 2lb and a chub almost as big that hang about under trees where you can't get at them, but they venture out every now and then and have been caught. In the downstream stretch I've had roach to 8oz on cockchafer grubs and two barbel over 2lbs each. Venturing further downstream there is a medieval bridge and this is haunted by two larger barbel and a chub, all around 3lb. But just above that bridge in a wider, deeper part on a bend carp and barbel sometimes come in from the much larger river downstream and spend a bit of time in the smaller river. These can be 6lb plus and don't half go when hooked. The higher reaches of this stretch are rock pools. Little pockets of water where you can flick a worm in and see what comes out. Perch or trout usually. Last year I caught a pumpkinseed fish from there and there is one part where poisson chat a small South American catfish inhabit. God knows how they got into this tiny river.

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Not from there. That river runs into the much larger River Vienne and just downstream of the confluence is an island about 2km long. One side of the island is deep and wide where some of those carp and barbel in the photos are from and the other side of the island is like a trout stream, all rocky, shallow and fast flowing. I've got a couple of #4 weight fly rods that I use there for trout and barbel. There is another very small river about 20 minutes away in the other direction  that has trout and barbel in too.

Before I moved to France I used to fish for coarse fish with fly tackle. Best was a chub just over 6lb, but I had roach, dace, perch and this specimen from an estuary. Had a few bass and pollack too.....

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Edited by Nicepix
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16 minutes ago, W. Katchum said:

Any info tips or hints on fly fishing for course fish will be appreciated mate ??

I write a monthly article for a magazine out here and I covered fly-fishing for coarse fish a couple of months ago. Here are the relevant parts:

Quote

The first three fish I caught on a fly rod were roach and this species has proved to be a reliable taker of my flies throughout the years whether fishing on rivers or lakes. Roach predominantly seek out hatching pupa that is the stage of fly life that is ascending the water column in preparation for hatching into flies. Dependent on the weather conditions pupa can be hanging or drifting in the water anywhere from the bottom to the surface and just as in trout fishing it is critical to locate this depth. The conventional method to locate where the fish are feeding is to put on a team of two or three flies, the point fly being the most heavily weighted and allow the flies to sink whilst counting down before beginning the retrieve. If you get no takes then allow the flies to sink lower next time and eventually you should find the fish. From then on it is a matter of counting down to the same depth for each cast. Alternatively you can use a modern wireless fish-finder device to locate what depth the fish are cruising at. That gives you some idea of how long to make your leader and how long to allow the flies to sink.

Flies for roach can be traditional trout patterns including Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear (GRHE) and Pheasant Tail Nymphs (PTN), but in slightly smaller sizes. I find a 16 or 18 preferable for roach. Probably the most reliable fly I have used for roach is a variation on Frank Sawyer’s creation: Sawyer’s Killer Bug (SKB) that was originally tied to resemble a freshwater shrimp. Traditionally the SKB was tied using Chadwicks 477 shade of wool and fine copper wire in order to catch grayling that were regarded as vermin on the trout rivers where Sawyer worked as a river keeper. You cannot find the original wool these days, but luckily any wool of a beige, brown, grey, orange or pinkish cast will work just as well for roach and other coarse species.   I prefer to tie the bug on a curved sedge or bug hook and make the shape a little more bulky at the top than the original pattern. Fine copper wire is used to add weight to the fly and it is best fished using a jerky retrieve that mimics the movement of a shrimp. Takes are usually quite gentle compared to trout as roach have a different mouth to trout and lack the toothed tongue that is used to hold and crush the nymph before it is swallowed. Any slight pluck felt should be struck.

Perch seem to prefer PTNs with a little green or red added to the basic pattern. A long shanked 16 is ideal to tie the nymph and a red or green thorax case rather than the standard pheasant tail fibres is often preferred. Small perch up to around 8oz will chase these nymphs and once a shoal has been located multiple catches are easily achieved. On lakes look out for shoals of perch cruising with their spiny dorsal fins just breaking the surface. Larger perch however are a different prospect and these have to be sight fished and stalked. You will sometimes find them tucked up alongside walls or wooden structures. Locks are good places to search for the large stripeys. Once you have located the perch then use a bloodworm imitation that is allowed to sink naturally or small lure cast a few yards in front of the fish and twitched erratically back towards you. I found that the larger the perch, the more wary they were.

Chub can be found in most rivers in our region and will readily take a fly. As the weather warms up they will move into open water and can be caught on dry flies such as Elk Hair Caddis (EHC) or similar bushy patterns. In small rivers you can stalk large chub and cast a fry or worm imitation in front of them. Chub are one of if not the most wary of fish and unlike trout do not lie facing upstream. A shoal of chub is like a flock of sheep; they are all looking in different directions, always milling about and when one takes fright, they all do. One of the best ways to catch chub is to use a small PTN suspended around 5 or 6 inches below an EHC tied in the New Zealand method; that is to tie a small link of line to the bend of the dry fly from which the nymph is suspended. This can be cast over weed beds and allowed to drift downstream naturally. Any drag should be avoided as chub, like trout will ignore a fly acting unnaturally.

Using a smaller EHC, Greenwell’s Glory or a suspended buzzer pattern; Klinkhammer in grey is my favourite, of around 16 or 18 hook sizes will take dace in the faster reaches of rivers. Dace give themselves away by dimpling as they take hatching pupa from the surface and usually there will be a good number of them shoaled up together. Hooking them is notoriously difficult as the dace take and eject the fly in a fraction of a second. Once (or if) you get the knack catching dace on a dry fly is very addictive. Try the Vienne at Aixe-sur-Vienne, Manot or L’Isle-Jourdaine if you think that you are up to it.

Other species that fall to fly-fishing include bream, tench and carp as well as predators such as pike. The latter is something of a speciality though as the rod and line required to launch large wind resistant lures, known as ‘budgies’ and wire traces is quite hefty; a #8 being the minimum and #10 or #11 being optimum. I found that the effort expounded was not rewarded with the predominantly small size of pike attracted to my lures. Catfish however might prove to be a more worthy quarry.

Sea species are also prone to take lures presented using fly-fishing methods. Bass, mackerel and pollack can be caught from the shore using Clouser patterns with white, pink and chartreuse being the favourite colours, and I have had flounder on brown Woolly Bugger flies or blenny imitations heavily weighted with a brass barbel weigh and tweaked along the bottom of estuaries. The same blenny fly is christened a bullhead for freshwater use and will take trout and chub when skated across gravel shallows.

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The whole article is here on page 36:  https://en.calameo.com/read/00014687587c953be2598

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1 hour ago, Gav said:

Dab?

Flounder. They come into estuaries with the tide and sometimes can be caught well inside the fresh water area. They don't fight much, but they taste lovely fried in butter.

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1 hour ago, Nicepix said:

Flounder. They come into estuaries with the tide and sometimes can be caught well inside the fresh water area. They don't fight much, but they taste lovely fried in butter.

Always have trouble with small flats unles they have spots ? Much prefer barn doors, Tarbut, Hallibut etc.

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After the previous picture of the lovely barbel I feel this post could be an anti-climax.

Anyway it was off to the little stream for the second round of the day. Trotting maggots proved useless but worms and bread attracted bites from plenty of little perch ,chub and roach. (See photos for images of the rod-straining leviathons in question).

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With bites coming almost every trot I was loathe to pack-up and would love to have fished into the magic hour of dusk but my daughter demanded my presence for Father's Day. 

It was on about the sixth or seventh last cast of the afternoon that a little chublet I was bringing-in was intercepted by a jack pike that actually flew out of the water in its enthusiasm to kill something. 

My expectation was that the thing would nip through my 3lb line and make off with my baby chub but after a few minutes of gentle sparring  I coaxed it into the net .

Examining my prize I realised it wasn't fairly hooked in the mouth.In fact it wasn't hooked at all.  The rather unfortunate-looking chublet was still attached to my size 14 but both were hanging clear of the pike's jaws. By some fluke my line had looped around the pike's nose like a noose. 

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Edited by comanche
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1 hour ago, Nicepix said:

Split cane rod, centrepin reel and tobacco tin for a tackle box. That's proper fishin'  ?

Float made from a broken arrow shaft,landing net pole made from a bit of bamboo stolen from a customer's bonfire and "flamed" for a faux vintage look. 

       Actually,I think "proper fishin' " generally involves more skill and fractionally bigger fish than the ones I usually catch . But I'd rather be the numpty who accidentally lassooed a 2lb pike , than be  sleeping in a kid's play tent waiting for a carp that's been caught so many times it has its own section in the bankside visitor's book to pick-up  a factory vomited ,sphere of junk food.

 

Edited by comanche
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