Bluemoon Angling Thread

[Saddleworth2]

Absolute scenes here on the Severn. Came down Friday for a week staying in a cottage at Highley. The pub is closed but the river isn’t.

First evening I was alone and I fished for barbel in an interesting gulley. Hooked a strong fish which eventually surfaced and was a huge eel. As I drew it in, writhing on the surface a big pike shot out of the shadows and grabbed it. I played tug of war with this pike and it let go leaving me to land a bloodied up 2lb eel. Then before dark I had a 9-1 barbel. Then in the dark I had a chub.View attachment 54202

Saturday dawn I was on the river at first light with the heavy lure gear. On the same peg I hooked a lunging pike, presumably the eel thief. He was about 12-13lb. In removing the hook I lost the bottom treble hook on my big jerk bait. I carried on using this and hook and lost twio more pike.
View attachment 54208
My mate joined me on Saturday afternoon and we shared a peg. That evening he caught one barbel and I had a chub. Back for a meal, a beer and a sleep and we were up at first light again walking the river with the lure gear. I went with the ultralight stuff this time and had a jack pike and a few perch. I hooked a big perch and it fell as off as I messed with the net. Another big one followed but wouldn’t take.

Yesterday afternoon I waded around rolling meat with no results. My mate had lots of perch on worms. For the evening we settled in separate areas for the barbel. First cast I had one about 6lb. Half an hour later the downstream rod with a boilie on ripped off and one of the most memorable things of my fishing life happened. First I started to play a very heavy fish. Then this zoo creature leapt out of the water forward whilst tail walking and lunged across the river. Then it took off downstream with a pace and power I have never experienced. The reel handle was ripped out of my hands, and the rod nearly was. It had gone 50-60’yards in seconds as I hung on. But I was at the top of a bed and it set off on its second run round the bend, landing me in big trouble. I stopped it and it was a dead weight and I slowly started to pump it back inch by inch. With the line touching the near side trees. Then it went again. The inevitable then happened and the line parted. It can only have been a 20lb+ Salmon by the way it lunged out of the water although I couldn’t see it clearly. I lost two big barbel, one double figure fish to snapped line via a snag. Then I landed 3 more barbel, two over 9lb. Got back to the cottage for a curry and my mate had had two barbel too.

View attachment 54211
Another dawn start this morning, pike the target. I had one in front of the cottage before my mate had got his boots on. Had three more fish hooked, a big one at the net tailwalked and somehow frayed and snapped a wire trace, I landed a 10lber then I lost another. My mate had a big perch and a pike.

We’ve been into town for lunch, a pint and some fishing gear, am about to have an hour snooze and the back for the barbel.

It doesn’t get any better and I am here until Friday.

Great report mate. Sounds like a brilliant days fishing. Would a salmon take a boilie? Maybe you foul hooked something in the tail. That can give the impression you are playing a monster.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Great report mate. Sounds like a brilliant days fishing. Would a salmon take a boilie? Maybe you foul hooked something in the tail. That can give the impression you are playing a monster.

I have no idea whether a salmon would take a boilie. I know it seem strange but for an entire week I saw what I assume was the same salmon, a big one, leaping and crashing all around the area. Also, I was fishing in 7 feet of water and I can never remember a barbel or a carp which immediately surged across the surface in a kind of tailwalk like that straight after being hooked. My mate did see a 20lb+ carp that week so that’s a possibility but it felt like no carp I’ve ever hooked in the way it fought.

I’ll never properly know because at long range I didn’t see it accurately, just a 3 feet long creature which looked lean and went like lightning. I’ve foul hooked a number of barbel and they fight long and doggedly but this didn’t feel like that.

Also the bailiff told me a lad returned a 18lb salmon caught on barbel tactics which influenced my hunch too.

 

[crublue1]

Final Severn update. Had 2 barbel on Wednesday afternoon but I had to quit early due to sunburn, lack of liquid and desire for chippy tea and beer before the City match. Up early again on Thursday for just an hour’s lure fishing before a concerted last day blast at the Barbel. We had more pike fun: a big one was following and nudging his lure so I came down from the next swim, chucked my wobble bait out and hooked it first cast. As we pissed ourselves laughing it tailwalked and threw the hook.

That afternoon my mate went home so I settled down for a last barbel session and had six of them. So I ended one of my best ever fishing holidays with 22 barbel (lots of 8s and 9s but none over 10lb), 10+ pike to 13lb, lots of chub and perch and half a big eel. And possibly the only salmon I will ever hook in my life, lost, forever.

Good angling that, and really nice to read your reports and thoughts.
Thanks for taking the time to share it with us, it's much appreciated.
Tight lines mate.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Good angling that, and really nice to read your reports and thoughts.
Thanks for taking the time to share it with us, it's much appreciated.
Tight lines mate.

Much appreciated mate. This page has become a sort of angling diary for me. I am also in a specimen group and have posted catch reports there for 12 years. I keep meaning to copy and paste them all into one long document to keep.

 

[Saddleworth2]

I have no idea whether a salmon would take a boilie. I know it seem strange but for an entire week I saw what I assume was the same salmon, a big one, leaping and crashing all around the area. Also, I was fishing in 7 feet of water and I can never remember a barbel or a carp which immediately surged across the surface in a kind of tailwalk like that straight after being hooked. My mate did see a 20lb+ carp that week so that’s a possibility but it felt like no carp I’ve ever hooked in the way it fought.

I’ll never properly know because at long range I didn’t see it accurately, just a 3 feet long creature which looked lean and went like lightning. I’ve foul hooked a number of barbel and they fight long and doggedly but this didn’t feel like that.

Also the bailiff told me a lad returned a 18lb salmon caught on barbel tactics which influenced my hunch too.

It could well be mate. Salmon are strange in that they don’t feed at all in fresh water. They take a fly or lure out of aggression. If someone has already caught on barbel tactics then it must have been. You think you have seen it all in fishing but something new is always just round the corner. Anyway sounds like a brilliant fishing holiday.

 

[crublue1]

Much appreciated mate. This page has become a sort of angling diary for me. I am also in a specimen group and have posted catch reports there for 12 years. I keep meaning to copy and paste them all into one long document to keep.

Keep them coming mate, even though I don't fish anymore, I still love to read about people's fishing adventures.
It's always in you I guess.
Take care bud

 

[Didsbury Dave]

So, it’s been a while since I was out because of water temperatures etc it I decided to take a trip to Coldingham.

good day was had. Caught double figures but the funniest thing happened. Never seen anything like it.

when it gets hot, the owners switch on an aerator which cools and oxygenates the water. A byproduct of this is that fish are attracted to it so it’s always worth having a bash for an hour watching the dafties chase stripped flies across the surface.

so third cast line went solid and this decent blue trout shot out of the water about 20 yards away like a bloody missile. Now leaping trout are not that rare but I have never seen one jump as high as this. Genuinely it must have been 6,7 feet in the air.….. And it continued to jump three or four more times until it calmed down a bit and I thought it was ready to come to the net.

Wrong. It was quite close in now and I could see it about four feet down still moving ‘with intent’. As I put the net in the water ready to draw it in I saw the tail blur in movement and it came out of the water about six feet from the boat six feet in the air and landed square in the middle of the boat. If I had been fishing with a partner it would have knocked his head off.

first time I have used a landing net inside the boat. Scooped it up and put it back in the water to recover. It did and as I let it go, it’s tail went again and kicked up enough water which I got full in the face.

Must have been all the bubbles from the aerator….

A flying fish! That will probably never ever happen to you again. Great story.

 

[Saddleworth2]

A flying fish! That will probably never ever happen to you again. Great story.

I have seen it happen before once, to a fishing partner, but in that instance the fish just kind of flopped over the boat gunnel. This was, as you say, real flying fish.

 

[idahoblues]

An evening float on the Teton, caught a few Brookies and one really nice native cutthroat, saw an Osprey nail a whitefish 20’ from the boat

 

[idahoblues]