Fishing - Anybody doing any ?

4T5

4T5

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Not fished in a few years but have dusted off all my fishing gear bought myself a Pole & have started again. First 5 hour session this morning produced 15 Carp which ain't bad considering it's my first time out in years & first time on the Pole.
Carp No.3


So what's the OcUK fishermen up to then ?
 
Associate
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I started fishing about 3-4 years ago, initially was doing pole fishing on commercial lakes and progressed briefly into carp fishing before discovering Barbel!

Now I tend to do night sessions on the Tidal Trent targeting Barbel with the odd carp trip in-between.

Saying this I haven't actually been since around August / September last year. Luckily the new river season is only a week or two away..
 
Soldato
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Surrey
I left my fishing stuff at home when i went to university, so didn't go for 5 years until the other day.

Cleaned all my gear and re-spooled some new line due to my fear of finding tangle after tangle with 6 year old mono-filament mainline. I went down to Willinghurst fisheries to get back into practice. The place has loads of lakes which are incredibly well stocked with carp to 12lb and some lakes which go to 30lb. I figured, it would be nice to go for an easy day catching of small carp to get back into the swing of things. I use to love Willinghurst when i was younger and it was still great fun to fish, however the Carp fishing had become even easier (a little past the sweet spot of fun and toward the point where 2lb-4lb nuisance fish were preventing you from baiting a second rod because of the number of runs).

All in all had an absolutely great day and my addiction to fishing has returned (shame it can be an even more expensive hobby than computer building lol). You could tell that the fishery had become a hardcore match fishing venue due to the action i had throughout the day. My friend and i had no bites in the morning from maggot, luncheon meat, sweetcorn, boilies or dog biscuits. Other people on the lake were catching and had match bags and other match gear. So on a whim, i went to the onsite tackle shop and bought some pellets which i knew were popular amongst the match fishermen in this fishery.

Around the afternoon i switched to double hair rig pellet, fake corn (to pop up and keep the pellets on when wet) as bait. With a method feeder and a mix up of ground bait and all the morning bait. Had a take within 10-15 minutes of casting out almost every time. Caught too many small carp to count, but in the end the keep net weighed 85lb+. Hardly remember having such as successful when i was younger in terms of bag weight. The biggest was only around 8lb, but these pellet pumped up fish sure do fight back.

I would say that the fishery is ideal for people after easy catching to introduce friends or family to carp fishing or for match fishing or if you just want to shake off some dust and build some confidence. I wont be fishing there for a while as it is not a cheap water and considering how overstocked the lakes are, there was not that much sport in pulling out that weight in one afternoon. Due to the great fun i had, I will be joining a few local lake syndicates i use to fish, which i know are great places to waste a day.
 
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Soldato
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13 Jan 2003
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Sea boat fishing on the odd occasion with a group of mates.

I have a 7ft+ 40lb+ heavy duty rod - it's basically tope/conger class and little over kill for any sandy bottom fishing.. so I've just bought myself a 2nd hand 20b ugly stik boat rod (2m length) with a small battered but fully capable reel for a grand total of £40. I use braid rather than nylon as the large rod needs the directness to transmit the bites to the hands.. The little one should be far far more twitchy.

Main things I seem to catch are smooth hounds (returned) and Black Bream.

Got a boat trip arranged for march so I'm looking forward to running both rods and getting a bit of a fight on with the new small rod.
 
Man of Honour
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Main things I seem to catch are smooth hounds (returned) and Black Bream.

fishing out past the Nab tower in the eastern Solent by any chance? Utopia i think the fishing ground is called out that way.. had many SH from there, also had a lot of Bream a bit further east on the Kingsmere rocks/reef
 
Soldato
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fishing out past the Nab tower in the eastern Solent by any chance? Utopia i think the fishing ground is called out that way.. had many SH from there, also had a lot of Bream a bit further east on the Kingsmere rocks/reef

Yup - normally setting off from Havant/Hayling Island area - normally solent area.

March is looking at getting some crustacean lures, some rhubarb and custards to go along with the baited lines.
 
Man of Honour
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Yup - normally setting off from Havant/Hayling Island area - normally solent area.

March is looking at getting some crustacean lures, some rhubarb and custards to go along with the baited lines.

years ago we used to go out on the Trio II from Langstone harbour on Hayling island, our main catches were Smooth-hound and some Rays,
but in more recent times weve been out from Brighton Marina wreak fishing for Cod, its almost twice the price for chartering a boat from Brighton but you end up bringing back a lot more fish that you can eat,
the cod love the rubarb and custards down Brighton way ;)
 
Man of Honour
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^^ depends on rigs, bait, hook size, and what your wanting to catch,
Youtube will have various presentation advise,
see if you can get some fresh live peeler to use in the spring/summer, awesome bait, nothing can resist it!
this is a good guide to using them..


ive bought them mail order from here before.. http://www.onlinebaitsuk.co.uk/Sea-Baits-23/Crabs-44
they came well packed in a polystyrene box with seaweed and ice packs and they stayed alive for 3 weeks+, then with the few remaining ones, i de-lunged and shelled them and stuck em in the freezer
 
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Soldato
Joined
13 Jan 2003
Posts
23,627
My rhubarb and custard + mire/fire sandeels arrived this morning ... tied some rigs up on friday - just waiting for the muppets, spinning lure, ragworm lures and I'll be all set for the trip :D

We'll ring ahead and see of the skipper can load up with some peeler and live baits.

Not sure where we'll end up in terms of the trip but helps to be prepared for a range of eventualities.. fingers crossed that this trip goes ahead as the last one got cancelled due to weather.
 
Man of Honour
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just another point on buying fresh/live Peeler crab..
they tend to be sold per crab, and they aint cheap (60p-£1.00 each) and the price doesnt realy differ whether they are small or large crab,
small ones are the size of a 50p piece and not realy worth the money, id avoid tbh,
whereas large ones can be ~2"+ accross the back... happy days :)

this is worth a watch from 1:30 to 7:30, baiting with lug + peeler
 
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Soldato
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16 Jan 2006
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I'd love to get back into fishing but I really can't find the time.

Used to night fish most non winter nights and go carping and coarse fishing.

Really miss it.
 
Man of Honour
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im going to try to get out one day next week as the weather forcast is looking quite settled and warm, possably to Hayling island to target some flat fish with worm baits
 

4T5

4T5

Man of Honour
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Middle of England
I got all my gear out last night to check it over for the coming season, I reduced all my tackle down last year so only have exactly what I need & no more. Only thing I need is a Baiting needle I even have a couple of bags of decent boilies to start me off with.
With my new lighter tackle mode I plan on doing some stalking in the local rivers for a Big Chub or two. :cool:
 
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