Bait making morning 11-07-13

Decided to try making some

home made baits today.

Below are some

Betane and Spice boillie

bits.

 In this photo below

are three bags of paste.

Left is Spicie Krill

Middle is trout pellet and Spice

Right is Spicie Betane.

I will let you know 

how I get on.

Another visit to Lacock. 02-07-13

Popped back up to the Abbey

for another try for some Chub.

It was a dull warm morning when I 

got to the bank at 06.00.

I fed a few swims in the first two fields

with a mix of hemp, groundbait,

crushed high oil pellets,

casters and maggot.

Then started on an

a swim that had 

a nice flow running into

an over hanging tree 

and raft of debris.

I tried various baits

on the trotted Crow Quill Avon Float

and feeder rod.

Well the result was a number of

small Chub, Roach, Dace

and Minnows.

Unfortunately

That was the same for all my swims.

Don't get me wrong I love

catching these smaller fish.

However I had hoped for something

over a 1/2 pound.

Just being there was great,

Some of the swims looked very fishy

The wildlife was very entertaining.

I guess when there is a bit more flow and colour

the scaly ones will start to show. 

I tried to pull something bigger out from this

mass of fallen tree.

This strange coloured duck

and her ducklings

decided to feed in amongst

the branches.

I also tried fishing under

a couple of large trees

where it was quite dark,

especially as it had started to rain.

Again nothing of any size

showed up

but

around mid day the bites stopped.

Just as well as I had to leave by 1pm.

Another very relaxing morning. 

River Avon, Lacock 28-06-13

First time to this Amalgamated Fisheries venue

Andrew and myself decided

to explore the swims and get a feel for

the water.

Arriving around 7am we walked down stream

checking and feeding some likely swims.

We then chose to float fish first with feeder rod

made up for back up.

With plenty of small Roach,

Dace, Chub, Perch, Gudgeon and Minnows

from the off,we settled in for

some peaceful fishing.

Just after 8am, I caught

this 4lb 6oz Chub

on a 14 hook with Maggot bait

and loose feed.

Second best Chub for me. 

 There are some very nice swims

BUT

the banks are very high in 

places and with the early rain were 

very slippery.

As poor Andrew found out.

 Fortunately he was not hurt.

Plenty of snags, reeds and

cabbages make for a great venue.

 There are some long glides for trotting a float

and deep holes for feeder fishing.

The fish have spawned here 

as there were loads of fry

in the shallows. 

Good to see.

We packed at 3pm having caught a

good number of smaller fish each.

Nothing bigger than 1/2lb.

Other baits that caught

were bread, caster worm 

and various pellets.

The bites slowed down

when the sun came came out.

What a wonderful venue

with great company.

Where have the fish gone down Baltic Wharf 25-06-13

A morning at the Wharf

produced this Silver Eel 

Three Roach, 1 Rudd,

3 Dace and 3 Pearch.

The biggest fish was a

1/2lb Roach.

Missed quite a few bites, not sure why.

Maggot over groundbait,

Hemp and Casters.

Fished 7am till 12noon.

The thursday evening matches are having the same problem

Odd Bream but mainly small

fish.

Frome again. 23-06-13.

A couple of hours spare from caring

for the misses today,

produced more tiddlers.

I hoped for more flow

but we did not have 

enough rain.

This Dace was one of the biggest.

I also managed a nice roach

of around 6oz.

I lost a Bream of around 2lb

my fault for fishing with light tackle.

 Where are the bigger fish?

They are there and very shy, thankfuly.

There seems to be a lot 

anglers who don't know what they are doing and

won't take any advice.

Great shame we need to be able to help these anglers 

to fish properly and

to handle the fish.

No need to hold a fish

with a dry cloth.

Bare hand or damp cloth.

This is a snaggy swim not good 

for light lines.

I love this light weight

fishing.

Off to the Avon or Baltic Wharf this week

if everthing stays settled on the home front.

Small Trout amongst other fish 18-06-13

Andrew had a hard week at work

so took a brake and we spent a couple of hours

down the Frome.

The fishing was not the best

but I managed a few tiddlers as usual.

Best of the bunch was this 

Brown Trout

weighed in at 1lb 1oz.

Caught on maggot over maggot

to a 14 hook.

I'm glad to say it was returned

alive.

Nice evening

which helped Andrew

in his labours.

Opening day of 2013 / 2014 river season. 16-06-13

Here at last

and on Fathers Day.

So my youngest son

Andrew ask where I would like to go.

Well I have a liking to the

Upper Avon.

Arriving around 06.30

we set up a feeder rod 

and float rod each.

Various baits were taken tried.

The fishing was hard,

and only small were had.

Other anglers also had the same results.

Andrew taking an early

lead with a small Dace.

 Time for another feeder

of maggot and casters.

 We tried a number of swims

but the fish were not hungry.

I used various styles of feeder and floats, hooks

and bait combinations.

But the larger fish did not want to play.

This was my best on the day

a 7oz Perch.

Andrew had one about the same

size.

I think Andrew won on weight

and I had the most fish,

so we agreed with a draw.

There was a light drizzle

from 10ish onwards, a light breeze

and warm.

Andrew was learning

the intricacies of fishing with a

Centre Pin reel. 

All in all a very enjoyable trip.

It is so quiet there.

Thank you Andrew for grand day out.