Tales

Tale's From The Riverbank

29th July 2017

Members tale - Andy Childs

I had a phone call the other week from a good mate Dennis Poole suggesting that we meet at The Green as he'd had a couple of good barbel (14+and 13+) and seen a few others. We met later that week pre dawn and spent a good few hours just walking the river looking for fish. That morning we spotted 5 barbel and 9 chub but despite our best efforts another blank was chalked up for both of us. I decided to have another go and rang him but he'd just started a job and was busy. I wen...t alone covering much of the same ground but didn't see a thing. I then explored an area off the beaten track and saw a chub estimated in excess of 7lb. I fed a handful of pellet and continued looking for another hour or so. Seeing nothing I returned to the chub swim, glanced down to my left and saw a barbel, easily in to double figures. Another handful went in and a larger fish lifted into view. A rig was very carefully swung into the darker water and an hour later I hooked the smaller fish only to loose it in a snag.. I trickled in some feed and glimpsed the orange of pectoral fin. Another rig was tied and swung out. An hour passed without any signs and then the rod just folded over . This fish was even more powerful and just ripped line off the pin. Just as I was thinking it was under control the hook pulled. I finished the day with a chub of 6lb, a good fish had I caught it trotting on my float rod... I can't remember the last time I had two bites over there in a session let alone loose two fish. I couldn't wait to get back and I returned today more in hope than expectation. A good look in the swim revealed nothing so I fed it ,left my gear and went off searching again. I fed a couple of other swims, came back to find three barbel grubbing about. Once again I tied a fresh rig with 2 x 12mm boilies wrapped in matching paste, upped the hook size to a seven and quietly swung it into position. An hour passed in the blink of an eye, the tip nodded and the rod flew round, pin screamed and I was on it in a flash. I saw the fish clearly as it tore off downstream and out of sight. It made the sanctuary of the same snag and once again everything went solid.. Pulling was futile, so I placed the rod in the rest and prayed it would swim out. The minutes ticked by and to my amazement the tip nodded and she was out!. In the net she looked big but was on her side and clearly exhausted. I nursed her back to upright and left her to recover. On the scales she went 14.11 and to my delight and relief swam away strongly.. Thanks again to Dennis for the inspiration.

16th November

Members tale - Steve Palmer

Evening all; Had a day over Langridge yesterday Piking, there was supposed to have been a frost but sadly we must have missed it but I still went, and got there by about half eight.

I decided on a swim past the bridge and steps where the river runs by the side, I walked passed the bridge bend, and was tempted to go in, where the bridge is but decided to give that a try later.

I got to the swim and set up, I had three rods with me, my spinning outfit, my float rod and a ledger, all set up at home, so all the hard work done.
My ledger went out first, a paternoster set up with a popped up Herring tail on an alarm. My float outfit was set with a slider knot but fished very shallow as the weed was quite heavy, This had a Herring tail also, couldn't get anything else, this was cast out about forty yards slightly to my right , my Ledger was to my left close to a little island. My spinning outfit was put together but not fished for a couple of hours. I was probably in the water by half nine and sat there for about 3 hours before I noticed that my float was bobbing, My float had been pulled closer to the bank as it kept drifting too close to my ledger so as luck happens the right spot by accident.

I hit the take which felt like a good fish, lots of weed so couldn't really tell how big, it fought like crazy and made runs like a very big fish, long boring runs but no jumps so I didn't really know what size it was. I decided to let him fight as long as he wanted to which was about fifteen minutes, the first time I saw it it had weed all over its head so not as big as I had hoped. The net was in early and well down and as the pike came in he saw the net and drove off again but the second pass he went straight in the net,

He had taken the bait a long way down, so I had to put the end of the trace in my mouth and put a slow pressure on to pull the hooks up, as luck had it the trace came into view and I was able to get my long forceps I, I weighed him in, and untangle the hooks. He looked worn out and lay on the mat silently while I took a pic, the scales said ten pounds, a very fine example. I held him for some time letting him recover but he looked in no rush to swim off, in the end I held him by his tail and moved him backwards and forwards to get the water through his gills and finally he was released. He sat in front of the swim for close on two hours until the last time I looked had slunk off.

I checked my rig out to make sure of no damage, rebaited and cast out again, I had no more action and at half past two I decided on a move. I did try my spinner outfit but the weed was more trouble than enough, I felt I needed a surface lure and I had just the right one, my Baby that I had been saving for a day just like today, a large floating multi jointed piece of artistry a beautifully painted lure you have ever seen £20 quids worth from eBay. I had a coupe of casts, but where the lure was large it didn't cast that well, but it did work well on the surface.

I decided on a long cast and let it go but where I am still getting used to my press button reel got the timing wrong, and by luck, if anybody finds it please give it back, I will give a reward.

I went down to the swim next to the bridge my ledger went out close to the left hand bank and my float out in front my spinning gear was not used I was still sulking after losing my baby, the light looked as if it was fading and I had possibly an hour before I had to go.

I kept getting a little beep but assumed it was floating weed as I had heard that beep all day and when I had reeled them in were full of weed. My last cast with the float was a long way out the water was still where I cast too and I was able to see it better, I wrapped up my spinning out fit and started to pack the gear up, only the two rods left and the float came in first. The big cast had tangled the line and the lead was wrapped around the float so never a chance of a take and the light was now almost gone so I packed it up as it was and packed it away, now for the ledger, I picked up the rod and tried to reel in but it seemed as if it was snagged I put pressure on and it started to give and then I felt a couple of little knocks, that feels like a fish I thought another pull and a couple more, bugger me a fish on, to cut a long story short he had eaten my bait and must have just sat down to digest it , the only sign was a beep now and again, but still I wasn't complaining, When I finally saw the fish it looked big, a massive head and it looked long I had to bounce him to get him in the net. Amazingly he only weighed in at twelve pounds, but this fish had been a dam sight bigger at one stage, a massive head and the full length of my mat but lean as hell, he went back in and swam away and that was my day done,

There are times when even if you are watching your lines intently, there can always be a fish on without you knowing, this was one of those occasions, after all they feed and then rest not normally right there and then but on this occasion it did. Tight lines all.

10th July

Message from the secretary

Four hours to kill before my chemo session so I thought I would get down to see how the fishery looked.

The water is just about as low as it has ever been making many of the swims unfishable.

The sun was bright and the water clear so the fish were hiding up in the deeper holes under bank growth and undercut banks.

Nothing was caught by the time I left on the river but one angler float fishing the weir swim on the channel was getting his share of Roach.

Earlier this week Barbel of 13.05lbs reported and chub of 5.05lbs.

One angler that has for the last 10 years only fished on matches decided to go back to his childhood and took himself to the river with a stick float and a pocket full of maggots.

Dace, Roach, Perch and Gudgeon graced his landing net for the next four hours. Not the sort of weight returned on most matches but he is already sorting out his next visit.

Chris Pirie

On Tuesday 17th March, myself and another BDAC member decided to do a bit of winter Carping. We decided that Seventy Acres Lake at Fishers Green was the target for the day. We made a nice early start but unfortunately nothing showed all day, well not until about 4.30pm when on a pop up pineapple bollie I had a run.

Very quickly I realised something wasn’t right, the first sight was a big gapping mouth full of teeth. I was waiting to get bitten off at any second. But I soon realised that this pike although of a size didn’t have a fight in her. After netting her we found a Blue barbed lure plus all the rig caught in her Jaws, and by pure luck this had snagged my line. After removing all of this, I had to weigh her and at 12lb 6oz she was a PB for me. After a long while of getting the water flowing back through her gills as she seemed very weak and probably hadn’t eaten for some time having trailed half of someone fishing box around. She kicked hard back off into deep water. Next time let’s hope she’ll have a bit more fight in her.
Chris Pirie

Ricky Strivins

Went spinning at Fishers Green today , fished Langridge and top part of relief channel. Had a nice double follow lure in at Langridge on first cast but just would not take lure. Moved to top part of relief channel lost two fish and finally caught one at 6lb.

River level up on River Lea spoke to a few anglers fishing one angler had a good Chub and Barbel which is good to see coming out during daylight hours.