Bluemoon Angling Thread

I’ve been getting about a bit. A mate and I went stalking carp on a lake near his house in Yarm and he whittled out a 12lber on a freezing morning in early April.

Several short lure trips on the canal system has been extremely unproductive for perch. Odd little one and a chub.

I’ve taken on a new spring project which is a bit more interesting. There’s a park lake nearby, full of the general public, which you can only fish days. Having walked round with lures I started spotting decent fish so decided to have a go for tench, having been given a whisper there are specimens in there, along with double figure bream and a few carp. I went on Saturday morning but was too hungover for a dawn start. I leaded around and it is full of blanket weed but I eventually found a clear area at 60 yards. I spodded a bed of bait out, clipped up a single rod to the same spot and the sun came out and killed my chances.

Last night I went back with the rods still clipped up to those spots. It was overcast and breezy and felt better. Hair rigged corn was the bait. I sat it out for a few hours and the rod finally went, resulting in this nice fat tench. I’m going to do some time on this lake this spring. It’s a nightmare getting hassled by walkers and dogs but it is hardly fished and contains surprises. Ive seen them.D6CFEB35-42FA-4216-935F-EB81D1CFF977.jpeg
 
I’ve been getting about a bit. A mate and I went stalking carp on a lake near his house in Yarm and he whittled out a 12lber on a freezing morning in early April.

Several short lure trips on the canal system has been extremely unproductive for perch. Odd little one and a chub.

I’ve taken on a new spring project which is a bit more interesting. There’s a park lake nearby, full of the general public, which you can only fish days. Having walked round with lures I started spotting decent fish so decided to have a go for tench, having been given a whisper there are specimens in there, along with double figure bream and a few carp. I went on Saturday morning but was too hungover for a dawn start. I leaded around and it is full of blanket weed but I eventually found a clear area at 60 yards. I spodded a bed of bait out, clipped up a single rod to the same spot and the sun came out and killed my chances.

Last night I went back with the rods still clipped up to those spots. It was overcast and breezy and felt better. Hair rigged corn was the bait. I sat it out for a few hours and the rod finally went, resulting in this nice fat tench. I’m going to do some time on this lake this spring. It’s a nightmare getting hassled by walkers and dogs but it is hardly fished and contains surprises. Ive seen them.View attachment 119979
Good angling that.
 
I’ve been getting about a bit. A mate and I went stalking carp on a lake near his house in Yarm and he whittled out a 12lber on a freezing morning in early April.

Several short lure trips on the canal system has been extremely unproductive for perch. Odd little one and a chub.

I’ve taken on a new spring project which is a bit more interesting. There’s a park lake nearby, full of the general public, which you can only fish days. Having walked round with lures I started spotting decent fish so decided to have a go for tench, having been given a whisper there are specimens in there, along with double figure bream and a few carp. I went on Saturday morning but was too hungover for a dawn start. I leaded around and it is full of blanket weed but I eventually found a clear area at 60 yards. I spodded a bed of bait out, clipped up a single rod to the same spot and the sun came out and killed my chances.

Last night I went back with the rods still clipped up to those spots. It was overcast and breezy and felt better. Hair rigged corn was the bait. I sat it out for a few hours and the rod finally went, resulting in this nice fat tench. I’m going to do some time on this lake this spring. It’s a nightmare getting hassled by walkers and dogs but it is hardly fished and contains surprises. Ive seen them.View attachment 119979

Very good fishing indeed.
 
Very quiet on this thread, especially seeing the rivers are now open.

I decided to revisit my favourite stretch of the Avon, the one where I, once had an 11lbs barbel and loads of bream but which was polluted a couple of years ago.

Fished on maggot last night and caught plenty of chublets and tiny dace. Tip was twitching as soon as the feeder hit the water so lots of small stuff about. A pike took a chublet as I was bringing it a in and wouldn't let go for about 2 minutes after which I brought in a very mangled little fishy. Talking to a chap just before I left, turned out the EA had put 20,000 small fish in the the stretch. Cheers for that. Anyway, as the maggots were attacked as soon as they hit the water, I decided to come back later on and bait up, then come back this morning at dawn and fish a pellet, see if any bream survived. So that's where I am now.

Arrived at 04.30 and haven't had a knock. Not even a chublet on 8mm pellet. Nice enough morning in a beautiful spot. Seen a tree creeper close up and there's a cuckoo somewhere around which is a bit of a rarity these days. Funny thing about cuckoos is that even when they stop calling, you can still hear them in your head. Or maybe that's just me.

The song goes "you don't know what you've got til it's gone". Well, I knew, and I miss it terribly.

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The rivers around me are all flooded and blown out due to big snow this spring, I haven’t even had time to hit any of the lakes either. That along with my thumb being messed up, probably need a small surgery done means fishing doesn’t look likely for me until autumn:(
 
Have to admit, I don't fish the river stretches Docklow offers. Not sure I would know where to start. If I can't pole fish I am lost :-)

I'm the opposite, I don't possess a pole even though I know there are times when it would be a killer method. The reason is that I'm too old to learn new tricks. I'm learning fly fishing but, even though I'm now fully retired, I just feel I'm running out of life time and too much to learn now.
 
I'm the opposite, I don't possess a pole even though I know there are times when it would be a killer method. The reason is that I'm too old to learn new tricks. I'm learning fly fishing but, even though I'm now fully retired, I just feel I'm running out of life time and too much to learn now.

There is a bit of that in me too, but really I am just lazy. Pole fishing is really simple mate, you would pick it up in a heartbeat.
 
I do like the waggler, it's probably how most of us started. I even play around with a light feeder rod once in a while. But I always revert to pole. I catch so much more.
Just so accurate. My go to as well but worked hard on my bomb and feeder fishing too over the last year as they deffo have their place at times.
 
I'm off to Hereford on Monday for my annual trip to the Wye. @snorky hasn't commented on the state of the river lately so I'm not expecting much. Think I'll just chill for 5 days.
Haven't heard anything on coarse fishing mate. I will keep my yugs open and let you know.

On a sadder note my good friend and retired Ghillie of the beat I fished until this season, Tony, sadly passed away last weekend.

Great bloke, top mate, and a fantastic angler.
 
Haven't heard anything on coarse fishing mate. I will keep my yugs open and let you know.

On a sadder note my good friend and retired Ghillie of the beat I fished until this season, Tony, sadly passed away last weekend.

Great bloke, top mate, and a fantastic angler.

So sad. Seems to be a lot of bad news about at the moment. Maybe it's our age.
 

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