The Carp Fishing Social Network

First session of 2010 was with BM fishing on the Rivers local to us. We have 2 Rivers, The Wallington (Wally) and The Hamble. Today we decided to fish the Wally, BM hasn't fished this River much so the plan was to show him a few new spots and hopefully tempt a few fish. We arrived armed with waggler tackle and red and white maggots. The first spot was one where in the past I've had Perch, Roach, Trout and even the odd Carp. We had a good few trots through but all we could muster was a couple of Minnows. Having said that, on a cold and frosty winters morning when everything looks bleak and you wonder why you bothered to get up, those Minnows were ever so welcome, and they were specimen Minnows of course!!

Here's a pic of BM stalking in a likely looking spot......



After an hour of so we decided we'd like to try somewhere different and try the rural stretch which usually has a few Carp present, so off we trugged. We arrived in the Car park and had a wander along the stretch but in the really clear water it was apparent that there was nobody home!! Next stop another stretch where I've had some good days with Grayling. A few trotts through here only produced one more Minnow so we opted next to try Carron Row, if its not frozen maybe we can have fun with silvers and Perch there. We got to the car park to find practically all of the water in all the pools frozen. There was one small section of margin on pond 2 which was fishable so we set up and had a go there for a while. But alas, nothing was interested!!

On the way back to drop BM off to his car at the tackle shop I thought there was one more stretch on the way back which could be worth half an hour as it was the section where the Chub usually tend to get caught. This stretch looked the best out of all the water we'd looked at today, nice colour, nice flow and plenty of deep glides to try. We fished there for half an hour without any action but did say that we'd return and spend a whole day on that stretch possibly with some different baits and maybe with maggot feeder tactics also. We only covered around a fifth of the stretch too so there will be many more Chubby looking spots to try out when we return. It was a great day out with a good friend, a beautiful crisp fresh winters day spent in the best way possible, fishing!!!

The Wally....

nice one dude better their that home tho

Great write up and photos SK

Nice one SK. Top read and quality photography pal.

nice 1 sk i had a really good time mate were go back when the weathers better and learn em thinking about saturday if ur up 4?

That'll be cool mate, text ya nearer the time!!

Truely excelent write up and pictures SK

WEll in

love it mate and so very jealous,

till the next time of SK and Friends.

Well I got out for a couple of hours today. Started off on the river with a view to targeting those Chub. The Chub there don't go big, 2lb is a good one, but they havn't been in there long and its only a trickle if a river. As I pulled up in the layby I saw just what I didn't want to see, the surrounding fields full of huge pools, the snow and ice obviously still lying around and I could guess what the river looked like. I was right, the river looked really angry, brown, fast flowing, all the things I don't like. Anyway, I toddled off to a known run and set up a feeder outfit with a small maggot feeder and a size 18 hook with 2 red maggtos on. I flicked it out into the crease in the flow and it swung round and settled near my inside margin. I sat there and watched the tip for any movements and within a couple of minutes the tip wrenched over, I struck and met a solid resistance, although it didn't feel at all fishy. Once I'd unhooked the large twig I rebaited and cast back out only for the same to happen again. Time to leave the river behind and head for still water, just hope its not still frozen!!!

The river.....



I arrived at Carron Row with Perch on my mind. There are a few in Pond 1 and apparently they go to over 2lbs so I was crossing everything that it wasn't frozen, luckily for me, although most of the pool was covered in ice there were quite a few nice deep margins to fish so I set up a waggler outfit and started to plumb the depth. Once the float was sitting pretty in the water I took out my lunch, cheese and pickle sandwhiches, and and quickly gobbled them down.

Every so often I threw a few maggots around my float, almost like a sacrifice to the angling gods, a sacrifice to Isaak!! I sat there longer and longer, gaze fixed on that float, almost in a trance. One minute you find yourself watching the small orange tip and the next you fall into a kind of daydream for a few seconds, then you find yourself not watching the float but the reflection of the clouds as they roll by, then its back to float, another few maggots and your willing the float once more to dip. A tremble, quiver or anything would have been nice but an hour later and I knew that this just wasn't going to be the day.

I did enjoy my time out today, from one extreme to another, from the fast flowing river to the solitude of the shaded pool corner where nothing moved except for the clouds above. Until next time, perhaps a longer spell of mild weather is whats needed.

Good to see you've started off 2010 SK.

Hopefully the weather these next few weeks will open things up for you and you'll be having some action.

At least you got out there fishing SK, good write up and photos too.