Fishing

You've just described it perfectly, Google 'fishing a stick float' and the shotting pattern will be explained. 6lb main line, 5lb fluorocarbon hooklink about 10" long and a bloody great lump of flake squeezed around an equally bloody great size 6 hook. It is possible to trot (allow the float to trundle along with the current) with a fixed spool reel with the bail arm open, but a free running centrepin gives much better control.

I have now had over 20 chub in 5x 3 or 4 hour trips, only 3 of them have been slightly under 3lbs and 3 above 4lbs. Have another 4 plus!

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cracking fish! cheers

Absolutely the best type of fishing. They can keep their Method feeders and bait boats!

Oh well, the river season ended on Wednesday and what a ModernCarpAngler would call a campaign (fishing the same place a lot) is over. I was hoping to finish with a 5lb chub which I am convinced is in there somewhere, I didn't but I did catch 8 over 3lb on the final day. Biggest to date is 4:11 (pictured).

On the plus side, the trout season starts on April 1 and the syndicate lake should wake up in May. Maybe I'll have a wrecking trip for Pollack in between.....

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Ahhhh - wrecking for pollack - happy memories - massive mugs of tea on boats - watching alimentary canals go into reverse - life's precious memories.

Had my annual bash at the big bream on the syndicate lake today, fair to say it worked out. Smallest 8:4, biggest 9:12 plus a bonus 4ish male tench. The syndicate lake has woken up!

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First time out this year on the Frome, not a huge amount doing but very pretty. Missed a few takes, and the finally found a rising fish. Took 10 fly changes to figure out what they were eating. Turns out big black caddis or nothing, but bit of a lunker!

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That's one beautiful brownie!

Our bit of the Darent is at a height and pace that I haven't seen in the nearly 40 years I have been fishing it, except in chocolate flood. It looks like the chalkstream it actually is.

Meanwhile the breamfest continues, every bream in this picture is over 8lbs, 2 doubles, 4 more caught after I had the picture taken because my net was overcrowded! Probably about 150lb of bream and tench, bloody ridiculous!

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Utter slimefest! Don’t do any fishing with keepnets, do the fish recover well after and being kept out the water?

Really pleased with it, and it’s a really lovely urban water. Perfect wild fish and relatively clean water despite 1 kilotonne of traffic going over your head every minute

They all go back and swim away just fine, they're only out for about 2 minutes. Everything is pre-set for the pictures, you take about 20 and delete those with fish flipping into the air! The only reason I occasionally use a keepnet is to avoid returned fish spooking the shoal.

Don't suppose anyone can recommend a Ghillie in the North East can they? And a nice stretch of river you can fish for trout on a day ticket? Cheers

Haven't a clue, besides, there's an awful lot of the NE with a lot of good trout fishing. A good starting point would be to call Greys of Alnwick, one of our finest tackle emporiums, if anyone knows they will.

Still catching, a 21 this morning on the bream and tench gear plus a lot of yer actual bream and tench. If anyone does want to come down on a guest ticket, now's the time!

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thanks and nice Carp!

Greys of Alnwick have you got their address/number? Can't find much online. Think this is their FB page https://www.facebook.com/GreysFishing/?locale=en_GB

If I google tackle shops in Alnwick there looks to just be a hardy shop!

Dry fly action tonight with @jupiz

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Damn the pair of you, no point going up to the Darent in the current NE winds, maybe next week when the mayfly (June at earliest) start. It appears that Greys and Hardy are now pretty much one and the same, 01665 510020.

Trying to catch a bigger tench tomorrow, will almost certainly fail.

Need to do a write up for mine and @jupiz Hay on Wye bikefishing weekend. I got my first trout this weekend. 3 days of fly fishing and riding bikes

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Few more photos here, but can’t recommend the area enough.

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Great snaps, thanks for sharing. Looks magical.

On a train so thought I’d write this up a bit more:

Hay on Wye:
We fancied going somewhere a bit different from around Bristol and through poking a finger on a map around the fishable bits of the Wye and Usk, ended up on Hay on Wye - just in Wales. @Bobble drove us and we camped out on the other side of river from there. It was cheap and well set up, hot showers, drinking water and good size pitches + fire pit for £16pp/night. We were just after the book festival and before school holidays so it wasn’t too busy and ideal weather. The area itself is fantastic - beautiful views and the town is lovely - great beer, food ok (although they massively take the piss on prices). There’s a pop up wood fired pizza place which is great (£10/pizza) and otherwise would prob stock up from the co-op in town. 3 tuns is a nice pub with good beer, and the local tapas/gin place gets quite busy with the locals too. Butty Bach is great on cask, and there’s a local craft brewery place which has confusing open hours but served in the pubs.

Cycling:
Amazing rides pretty much anyway you go. Directly south is the Brecon Beacons (can’t remember new name) and riding out takes you straight up gospel pass for 6miles with fantastic views and little traffic. Horseflies are plentiful though and utter bastards. West or east will take you along the wye valley which is gently lumpy with stunning views and north more lovely scenery. We crawled up gospel pass the first day then rode west on Sunday along the valley - stopped in Erwood station craft centre tea shop for refreshments but wheelwright arms looked a good stop for another time. Drivers friendly and patient and gave us plenty of room.

Fishing:
We fished on the arrow at Kington on Friday which was way down and needed some fresh water - saw one fish only so I’d say it either needs a bit of rain or best tackled early/late morning or evening. Small rods needed and wet wading was fine but getting out was a bit of a pain, with my legs brambled and nettled up by the time we got back to the car.
Saturday we were out on the Usk at Brecon, mainly as it was close and cheap for salmon fishing and we fancied giving it a go at £15 a day. Lots splashing about from the tourists, but water was way down so little chance of a bothering them so we spent the most part trying to sneak up on the trout. These were beautiful wild fish, however annoyingly I couldn’t figure out for the life of me what they were feeding on on the surface despite matching what was about insect wise - in retrospect it was probably a presentation issue and shoddy casting rather than fly choice. I caught a lovey brownie on a wet fly before a message indicated that @bobble had had a close encounter with the finned kind. Unfortunately use of the net was still requiring work so I was left to take his word for it on the mythical proportions of the one that got away. Shortly after however he caught a lovely little fish on the nymph which was briefly held up for a photo before wriggling its way out of his hands mid shot. Bigger fish were on the way though, I caught a nice brownie on the Klink and dink in a foot of water and @bobble cracked the dry fly with a small hawthorn type imitation before we called it quits and headed to the pub.
Sunday was a quick outing to the middle wye at Whitney. It was really pretty but much more course type water, and we struggled to raise anything except a few obliging dace. A follow on the spinner aside, the most fun was stripping small streamers down and across a pool which were nailed by some strange silvery fish that looked a bit kippery - turned out to be thwaite shad which are almost unique to the Wye system in the UK and endangered so will leave them well alone in future. Also if you do fish on this bit beware of cows. Obviously very curious creatures and turned a 3 piece rod into a 6 piece one.

All in all, great trip - def planning to return. Want to do a longer ride in the beacons and explore more of the wye by Llanstephan which looked stunning. There’s also a little bit of free fishing by hay on wye (or nobody minds) which could be useful if you just fancy grabbing 30 mins on the water in the evening. Some of the people next to us took an 8 mile kayaking trip with halfway being in hay - which would be good to do if with non cycling/fishing friends. We were lucky with the weather and post concussion I’d been confined at home for the previous 4 weeks mostly which prob made it even more enjoyable, but one of the nicest trips I’ve been on in the uk for ages.

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Caught my 2nd river carp at the weekend :)

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Yay! Never had one from a River.

I'm maybe off for an overnighter at my syndicate lake on Friday. Not been for over a year!

Yeah, it was pretty special. Best of luck if you go, got to happen this time of year. The local river was like an aquarium when the sun was hitting the water at the right angle, carps everywhere.

Mrs EB just messaged me asking if this was worth £3, she spotted it in a charity shop. I told her to grab it, throw £3 at them and run away as fast as she can! F-ing hell!

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very cool! good find