NTSC-UK fishing club

[losersclub]

Went Piking for the morning today, had a crazy period between 8-10am where i had 6 runs resulting in 4 fish on the bank. Had 3 rods out and had 3 bites at once at one point

The area i'm fishing is a little bay round the back of a gravel pit, i think they must have followed all the Roach there and are feasting away as all the Pike i've caught in this spot have been short and very chunky!


One from today..

[vanpeebles]

Some cracking catches there. Top stuff.

[losersclub]

Anyone been out? Fami??

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

Not lately mate. License ran out so gotta get a new one and try the canals now the weather is warming up a bit.

Might go out Saturday for a bit of sprat bashing with a couple of mates.

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

A couple of us went out on an all night session on friday, with great results.

Fishing mixed maggots over a bed of Sensal Lake 3000 groundbat mixed with crushed strawberry boilies and hemp, we managed to pull in 58lb of fish including a couple of Tench around the 5lb mark, a couple more over 4lb, a couple of 2lb+ Perch, the odd Bream over 3lb and a load of smaller fish.

Also managed to get my first 10lb Pike of the year, which went on a cracking first run, taking loads of line off the reel, but after that didn't put up much of a fight and came in pretty much straight away.

Not great pics, as my phone died before I could take any more.




Just happy that my favourite spot has suddenly picked up again after what was a pretty dismal 12 months. Hopefully it will keep fishing like that until september, like it used to.

Also lost a MASSIVE Tench, got it right up to the net and then it snapped me. I had 7lb line on, so it must have been a beaut to take my rig. Absolutely gutted as that was the only low point of the whole night.

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

Went sprat bashing this evening in the same spot as in the previous post and had to make do with a load of small Skimmers & Roach, plus a couple of Perch around the 1lb mark, then just as it was getting dark, my rod tip went absolutely crazy and line started coming off my spool at a rate that only one fish in there could take it.

Took me a while to land it, as I was only on light tackle, but boy was it worth it. The light was virtually non existant at the time and I'd said for the last half hour, 'this is definitely my last cast', but I'm glad I stayed now as I managed to get this beauty!



Luckily a few yards from where I was, there was a narrow boat, so I managed to get the guy to take a picture of me with what is definitely my favourite fish I've ever caught!

Just gotta wait for losersclub to post a better picture!

[losersclub]

Nice Tench mate! Some very good Perch as well

I've not been in a couple of weeks, off this friday night though

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

Yup, personal best too! As I said, I was very lucky to land it given the tackle I was using.

I'm hopefully doing an all nighter friday as well and with the way the canal is fishing right now, who can blame me?

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

Everybody meet Donald, the ugliest, most grotesque fish you ever will see. You cannot truly comprehend the ugliness of him until you see him in the flesh.



However I do feel sorry for the poor sod, having his snout turned up like that. No idea if it's a natural deformity or whether some scum fisherman mistreated him when younger. Just a shame as he was just pure muscle and went on at least half a dozen good runs despite only just topping 10lb. Would have been a beauty if he was in tip top condition.

[prinnysquad]

I like Donald. Looks like he's thrived despite everything. Plus, he's memorable in appearance and tenacity. You know you respect Donald. I bet you were sorry to see him go!

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

He certainly has character! It's one of those sad occasions where I wasn't sure about him - whether his deformity was causing him pain but at the end of the day I couldn't have killed him as I think it's wrong to do that unless you know a fish is going to die. As you can see from the size of him, he's managed to make it through life to that size, so he's obviously feeding well.

I think his deformity also helped with hooking him as the trebles weren't far down at all. It was just a pain unhooking him as it was like reaching round an s bend. However, he was returned to the water and swam off as if he didn't have a care in the world.

He really was a fiesty sod in the water, but surprisingly well behaved on the bank. If every Pike I caught fought like him, I'd be a happy fisherman!

He's also a bit of a local legend! Every time I mentioned to passing anglers that I've had a decent sized Pike, I always get asked if it's Donald, so now I can finally say I've caught him!

[prinnysquad]

Like you say, he's a well-fed beast. Doubtful that he'd be in pain, and even if he was, he's clearly coping. He fought like billy-ho against getting dodded, so he must love life!

So how long can a fish last out of water, d0dder?

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

Depends on the fish. I've seen people have them out for well over 5 minutes, put them back and they'll swim off quite happily as if they've never been caught.

With me, I like to land them, unhook, take a couple of pics if it's a nice fish and let them go as quickly as possible. Look after the fish and their environment and they'll look after you.

[prinnysquad]

Cool beans. Make good sense. You should make a scrapbook of all your catches. Or a picture diary of fish, location, experience, etc. It would be your equivalent of the beer book or kung fu movie tome.

ps - my missus said Donald is cute

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

I was actually thinking of doing that. Once the rivers open and the season starts proper next month, taking a picture of everything I catch, no matter how small and calling it 2011 A FISH ODYSSEY.