Fishing - Anybody doing any ?

I know it is mainly Sea anglers that frequent this thread but i thought i would rock up with some course fishing love.

Went last weekend for a carp session since environment agency has been doing some work on my favourite canal and there has been a bit too much boat activity on the Thames near me due to the recent Magna Carta event.

I decided to give the lake i grew up fishing on a go. It has a huge stock of silver fish and a good few carp up to the 30lb mark. The lake gets regularly netted to take some of the carp out, so it doesn't become like one of those heavily stocked private waters which get overfished. Having said that the smaller carp i grew up hunting for seemed to have put on a fair bit of weight in the last 10-15 years and with my insane stroke of luck i manage to bag 7 over 26 hours with the smallest being around the mid teens and largest in the mid twenties. I have fished this lake well over a hundred times and have never had such luck.

I had no bites for 7 hours until the air started to cool and the sun started to set. Then it was run after run.

Brought the missus along so she could commandeer my bedchair and BBQ some food while i fished. Loving the new bivvy i bought, it feels of so much higher quality than any tent or bivvy i have previously bought and worth every penny at £210 (originally released at 509 but i think stock is being cleared for a new line). Since getting this fortress of a tent, i am all about comfort when carp fishing and though i use to dislike the idea of locking myself down with so much equipment, it is quite nice to have when you are in for a long fishing session.

fishingtrip.jpg


Currently looking at getting a Cobb BBQ to bring along. These things are amazing and can cook pretty much anything. A friend of mine has one and brought it a long to a weekend session. Thought he was a lunatic when he brought out an uncut raw pork shoulder to roast.

Here is the first one of the day before light got a bit too low for pictures:

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If it cools down sufficiently, i will crack out the pike gear and go for another long session this weekend. Would love a chance to catch a Zander or some of the bigger Thames pike.
 
Nice carp :)

Thinking of a DAM Neo Salt Traction or Long Cast with a fixed spool for a 'light' rod for salt water black bream etc. Same rod can be sued for most of freshwater/brackish predators too - including pike or bass. Ie go shore rock fishing with a smallish rod but also allow smaller boat fish..

 
It was taken out of the frame because the hook got caught in the matt after i took it out. Didnt want it flapping on a hooked mat and it was too hot to fiddle around with unhooking the mat while the fish was out of the water.

You can see it hasn't got a blade of grass or spec of dirt on it, and that would be pretty difficult to do without unhooking it on one.

It'd be pretty despicable if i went round carp fishing with all that gear and didn't have a mat.

Considering the weather only seems to be getting warmer, i think i will have to cancel pike fishing and go for something else this weekend. Could do Pike after dark and chubb during the day?
 
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^^ i went carp fishing a few times last season for the first time in ~12 years and i wondered what those basket things were that people had in their swims, im old school so i just have a standard mat..
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excuse the fish blocking the view of my mat :D
 
A lovely dark coloured carp there. I have an old school mat too, bought it when i started fishing 15 years ago. I like the look of the new basket slings since you can fill them with some water and keep fish wet. They are a bit like the ones people used to transport pike, pricey for what they are though.
 
are they the ones with solid handles and zip up at the ends? ive seen them on some carp fishing youtube clips, they look pretty handy tbh

EDIT: like this one?
 
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well they can **** right off if they are planning to do this while im down there fishing next week :mad:
(image snipped from their webcam)
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EDIT: just remembered Nick's boat fishing today.... look forward to a report later on :D
 
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Hey, incoming fishing report - I got home absolutely shattered.

So the original skipper contacted us the afternoon before as he'd just got back but he was stuck without reverse on one of the engines (solinoid) so he's had to cancel everything until he has managed to get the engine fixed. One the my mate rang around for 20 minutes and managed to convince one of the skippers that was going to have a day off to go out.. instead of out of langostone this was out of Brighton.


Got up at 4am.. pickup a mate at 5.. the others were meeting us down there - arrived at brighton at 0630.. and everyone else arrived just in time..

0700 we depart the harbour.. 1h30 journey out to the wreck, overcast - the sun popped out as we arrived.

The wreck is an old sunken ship that has now broken up so it's just a mass of rubble at the bottom. The skipper is a diver and normally runs diving trips so this

0830 first lines in the water - BANG.. virtually everyone hooked a fish on the first drop..

The cod were taking Rubarb & Custard, Orange, Pacific blue sidewinders. I switched and got one on a pink squid with a light stick inside then two on a 400g Norwegian Pirk with a 8/0 treble (IIRC).. There was a fish that both myself and Steve encountered that was biting the lures off the traces - 25lb & 40lb trace.. clean at the nose of the lure..

1030 We'd filled the cool box.. and were starting to fill buckets..

1100 Buckets critically full only keeping the big pigs.. we decided to keep at it until 1200..

1200 Lines up for the last time, started heading home ... gutting and beheading as we went... then wash down the boat..

1400 Arrived back in harbour.

We ended up having a BBQ and beers.. finally dropped into bed absolutely shattered.

My mate with a decent sized cod



His mates with our catch, all prepared that passed expectation..

 
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well chuffed for ya mate, its pricey going out from Brighton but its worth it when you have days like that :thumbsup:
its also very convenient for parking/tackle shop, but more importantly.. McDonalds :)

im just packing, off to the caravan in a couple of hours :o
 
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well chuffed for ya mate, its pricey going out from Brighton but its worth it when you have days like that :thumbsup:
its also very convenient for parking/tackle shop, but more importantly.. McDonalds :)

im just packing, off to the caravan in a couple of hours :o

Supposedly the fishing ban for commercial fishing near brighton has caused a big increase in cod of normal fishermen. It will probably help the entire channel including solent. It's stupid when you see trawler after trawler scouring the same areas day after day..

It was a good day - want to get a Ling, Conger and Tope next.

Good luck & have fun - we'll be expecting some reports.. although probably harder todo on a phone.

You'll have prime weather for it too..
 
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cheers, they have wifi in the clubhouse down there so il post if i have anything worth mentioning, seaweed still seems to be a major problem though looking at the reports on WSF forums :/
 

Actually - you can see my shakespeare agility uptide on the rail behind him, and the butt of my ugly stik against the wheelhouse - I switched from the uptide to the uglystick for a bit of Norwegian pirking.. I remember I'd just caught a fish, and was bent down busy dehooking when they had that photo.

One nice thing about the agility uptide is that the rubber grip used for pulling the two sections apart is the right height to also protect against being lent up against the hand rail.
 
Had a smooth hound this evening but only about 4-5lb , on peeler crab.
also caught my first ever sting ray :o very small though only about 8 inches across the wings. Caught on squid.
 
Had a smooth hound this evening but only about 4-5lb , on peeler crab.
also caught my first ever sting ray :o very small though only about 8 inches across the wings. Caught on squid.

Nice - although weed is probably problem, at least you're not blanking because of it!

I spoke to my dad, he's packaged up my old flyfishing rod and reel (since then mum has bought him a 'nice' rod which he uses). So I'll have my carbon #7 or was that #8 - I can't remember! which will be good for rock fishing. Should be able to put a fixed spool on and use it as a lure rod too when I'm on the boat.
 
Fished fkr an hour over high tide this morning and had another smoothy around 8-9lb on peeler,
The beach was quite busy so it draw a bit of a crowd, I didn't see anyone in the water after that :p
il upload some pics when I get home.
 
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