Tactics that suit you best.

[Mr Hinks]

Never mind if you fish river, canal or pond what style of fishing do you like best. Are you a float or feeder angler, are you against one or the other.

Fishing commercials from spring till autumn I favour method feeder or short pole if I know fish are within my range.

So whats your choice.

[dars35]

I think my favourite method (also my most prolific method) is without doubt pole & pellet (on the deck - not shallow), specifically for tench & crucians, the only frustration is that it's not exactly discriminatory, ie. I sometimes get far too many carp & skimmers, but still very enjoyable

 

it would be even more enjoyable if I could find a local venue covered with lilies & full of tench, where you can fish from dawn rather than having to wait until 7am for someone to come & unlock the gates... so far I've not found a venue like this & doubt I ever will

 

I do enjoy fishing the bomb or small method feeder these days as well, which I was never really a big fan of a few years ago, casting very tight to features is a pleasure when you hit the mark time & time again & even better when your accuracy pays off

 

for actual fishing enjoyment I think trotting would have to be no1, magical fishing & even small perch & roach are welcome with this tactic

going back 15-20 years the only reason I ever bought a permit for Tin Mill was so I could fish for grayling on their stretch, when I realised the grayling had spread all the way downstream I ditched tin mill & have been fishing a variety of stretches every winter since

 

having said all that, I had a morning's nostalgia fishing at damflask last autumn, just fishing the slider float. Really enjoyed that

 

I used to fish the flask twice a week as a youth with my crappy little spinning rod & 6lb line, porcupine quill set 3ft deep & size 12 & 14 hooks filled with maggots, casting as far as I could into water at least 10 times deeper that I was fishing - surprisingly it was 2 years before I actually caught a fish! That's what happens when the person 'teaching' you to fish knows less than sod all...

 

thankfully I've picked up a little bit more knowledge since then!

Edited January 23, 2015 by dars35

[charliewag]

During my match fishing days I gained a bit of a reputation as a good feeder angler,whether on the Trent or a stillwater such as worsborough. I like to fish most methods but when a groundbait feeder approach is required i'm in my element.

My least favourite method is the long pole (13 metres and beyond) because of all the shipping in and out and battling any cross wind.

[Mr Hinks]

I really enjoyed reading your post dars I think probably because your experiences roughly echo my own. I also was not really against feeder fishing but much prefered running a stick down the Trent and didn't really like it too much when the wind forced me to fish the feeder.

I was for at least a couple of seasons may be even more addicted to slider fishing. I used to fish various reservoirs around Sheffield mainly because the deep water drew me to fish the slider.

 

---------- Post added 23-01-2015 at 13:48 ----------

 

Do you know Charlie in my younger days particularly when fishing flowing water feeder fishing was always my last choice.

Nowadays I only fish commercials with the occasional canal trip. When I think back to all the times I should have used my feeder rods but persevered with float fishing was my loss.

Feeder rods are my first choice every time now and without doubt much more fun than fishing with pole. I have some kind of OCD now my brother sits laughing at me after I turn up to his house with my little method rod "he has a bigger garden" and cast continually into his daughters sand pit.

It took a while for the penny to drop but the key is accuracy, not the chuck and hope I thought.

 

Short pole is aclose second and margins drive me to distraction.

Edited January 23, 2015 by Mr Hinks

[dars35]

the flask was local to me as a youth born & bred in Stannington, with most weekends & school holidays spent on me grandad's farm at high bradfield

 

back then there was no such thing as a commercial & farm ponds were non existant round the area, so the flask was really my only option - we did have a couple of trips down rivelin, but at the time kids who went to Bradfield comp weren't welcomed lovingly by the myers grove gang who frequented those ponds so it was a bit dangerous to go (or so we thought!)

 

eventually got to grips with the flask though & even had a few trips to tin mill & the mill pond in the loxley valley, which at the time was owned by Barworth Flockton rolling mills - my dad managed to get me a permit for a couple of seasons & I absolutely loved it, I'd get up at 4am & walk down thru the woods along the course of the river to the pond, where I'd fish swingtipped worm with my beautiful ernest stamford swingtip rod

it was proper crabtree fishing, a secluded pond in the woods, that no one seemed to know about, almost overgrown with weeds & tench...

 

caught my first ever tench from that pond & ever since then I've been totally obsessed with them, to the point I won't fish a venue in spring, summer or autumn if there's no chance of catching one!

 

fished the pond again in more recent years when it was revamped & opened to day ticket anglers & although it was good for carp, especially the commons, the tench seemed to have disappeared - nothing lasts forever

[Mr Hinks]

Was the pond in Loxley valley at the bottom of Blacks lane? a lane that's off the main Loxley to Bradfield road, if so I had a permit for there.

[dars35]

yes that's right, it re-opened as Mill Dam a few years ago, they'd put a bridge in place to get across to the bank I used to fish from

 

last few times I tried here though the gate was locked with no sign of opening, so I don't know what the situation is now

 

when I first fished it I used to chuck a little waggler across to the edge of the lillies which grew out from the bank on the Loxley New Road side, only caught a few small perch in my first few visits, it was when I decided to try the deeper water near the sluice gate with a big old lobworm that I started connecting with the bigger fish

[Mr Hinks]

When I had a permit it was with the Robin Hood at little Loxley behind Myers Grove school.

I used to do quite well just a few inches from the wall with maggot, loads of Roach and Perch some of the Perch were of a good size but no more than 1lb. I mostly had a couple of hours every evening after work.

There were Carp that cruised the surface they could always be spotted near the lilies. Only about half a dozen that drove me mad, it was as if they never ate anything. Great fun from a small pond.

[SteveJ68]

I love stick float fishing on rivers, my dad used to take me to the Trent in the 80's and taught me how to fish. It's a method that sadly seems in decline these days due to the commercials.