Post by thebestboxever on Mar 30, 2006 18:07:17 GMT
This is the report i posted on Maggotdrowning.com, and now it's here: enjoy!
Went to Partidge last Saturday, for the second time ever (but in less than a week). I wasn't really expecting much, what with the cr*ppy weather, but, what with it appearing to change from frezzing and bright to dull, wet and warmer literally overnight, I had some hope.
Anywho, I was also fishing with my new box (!), so was wanting some action, and was hoping it would bless me, so to speak. I fished peg 4 on the marsh canal. First put in, 2oz roach on red maggot from opposite bank tight against the reeds. Then, after five mins, another roach, about 3oz. then nothing really for about 20 mins, during which time one of the dudes came past and said: you wanna be on pegs 8 or 9: they're the best (not entirely surprising: I pick pegs purely on looks, rather than past glories, and peg four screams fish: under a tree, lots of reeds and constant far bank changes in shape and structure, and okish depth of about 3.5 feet (if I remember correct).
So I naturally ignored him, and carried on. During this time, I had been constantly feeding a mix of micro peellets, 6mm expanders, corn, maggots on the far bank swim, with every other put in a small ball of groundbait (equally anmounts of VDE supermatch, the red one, and the black one, mixed relatively damp). I know, I know, I feed the fish, like I feed me: a lot of every thing. Down the side, on both sides to reeds, I fed (to the left) a good bit of groundbait and some corn, and to the right, chopped worm and a veyr small amount of gbait, and flicking maggots over there occasionally. (This feeding more or less continued right through the day.)
Then the fun started!!
I put an expander on, and the opposite bank sprang to life big time (which is more than can be said for the margins, which led to nowt all day). Caught something, which took about a foot of No8 laccy out. I started to retrieve, thinking: pasty carp. got about halfway (the swim is about 10m wide), and all hell broke loose, with the laccy dissappearing, me peeing my pants, and wondering how much can a cheap 200 quid pole bend? What was it I'd got I thought? After this winter, i was convinced it was the kraken! Got it in, thought, bloody hell, a barbel. Now, I've never caught one before, at all (I started mmany moons ago in South Wales, so no rivers there...). And I have to agree, they make carp look like big girls: it's like they're on speed!
This then was basically the story: barbel on pellet, mental chub on corn, with the odd carp thrown in for fun, and a tench (you know it's spring when the tench compete for food with other fish...). it was more or less a fish a chuck for the rest of the day, which was nice. I ended at 5 with a nice 4-5lb carp, with a huge swollen belly (spawn methinks), and went home pleased, despite it micking down for half the day.
May well be back there soon...
Any who, I hope my attached picture works: this was basically the average size of the barbel: not huge, but hell of a fight and lovely looking fish.
For picture go to: i37.photobucket.com/albums/e98/srt11/DSCF1321.jpg
...catching fish is as incidental to fishing as making babies is to f***ing. ~William Humphrey
Went to Partidge last Saturday, for the second time ever (but in less than a week). I wasn't really expecting much, what with the cr*ppy weather, but, what with it appearing to change from frezzing and bright to dull, wet and warmer literally overnight, I had some hope.
Anywho, I was also fishing with my new box (!), so was wanting some action, and was hoping it would bless me, so to speak. I fished peg 4 on the marsh canal. First put in, 2oz roach on red maggot from opposite bank tight against the reeds. Then, after five mins, another roach, about 3oz. then nothing really for about 20 mins, during which time one of the dudes came past and said: you wanna be on pegs 8 or 9: they're the best (not entirely surprising: I pick pegs purely on looks, rather than past glories, and peg four screams fish: under a tree, lots of reeds and constant far bank changes in shape and structure, and okish depth of about 3.5 feet (if I remember correct).
So I naturally ignored him, and carried on. During this time, I had been constantly feeding a mix of micro peellets, 6mm expanders, corn, maggots on the far bank swim, with every other put in a small ball of groundbait (equally anmounts of VDE supermatch, the red one, and the black one, mixed relatively damp). I know, I know, I feed the fish, like I feed me: a lot of every thing. Down the side, on both sides to reeds, I fed (to the left) a good bit of groundbait and some corn, and to the right, chopped worm and a veyr small amount of gbait, and flicking maggots over there occasionally. (This feeding more or less continued right through the day.)
Then the fun started!!
I put an expander on, and the opposite bank sprang to life big time (which is more than can be said for the margins, which led to nowt all day). Caught something, which took about a foot of No8 laccy out. I started to retrieve, thinking: pasty carp. got about halfway (the swim is about 10m wide), and all hell broke loose, with the laccy dissappearing, me peeing my pants, and wondering how much can a cheap 200 quid pole bend? What was it I'd got I thought? After this winter, i was convinced it was the kraken! Got it in, thought, bloody hell, a barbel. Now, I've never caught one before, at all (I started mmany moons ago in South Wales, so no rivers there...). And I have to agree, they make carp look like big girls: it's like they're on speed!
This then was basically the story: barbel on pellet, mental chub on corn, with the odd carp thrown in for fun, and a tench (you know it's spring when the tench compete for food with other fish...). it was more or less a fish a chuck for the rest of the day, which was nice. I ended at 5 with a nice 4-5lb carp, with a huge swollen belly (spawn methinks), and went home pleased, despite it micking down for half the day.
May well be back there soon...
Any who, I hope my attached picture works: this was basically the average size of the barbel: not huge, but hell of a fight and lovely looking fish.
For picture go to: i37.photobucket.com/albums/e98/srt11/DSCF1321.jpg
...catching fish is as incidental to fishing as making babies is to f***ing. ~William Humphrey
