River Medway @ East Farleigh nr Maidstone

[Bluesbro]

Well I had a load of maggots left over from earlier in the week and didn`t fancy waiting for them to turn into flies in the fridge so I decided that I would head down river to East Farleigh to see what was about.





Added bonus is that this place is free



This being my first trip without an experienced f/w angler and only my non fishing brother in law for company I decided to try trotting on my float rod. I decided that I should find a bit of cover and found myself a nice spot in between a few trees on the river bank.





Well I had two fish and missed quite a few bites as well, I was fishing at approx 3 ft deep (the bottom acording to my plumb lead) and I was using size 14 barbless hooks, tied straight to the main line.

My roach (i think)


My perch


As the sun started dropping I noticed the river suddenly was brimming with loads of small fish feeding of the surface, little silver and black things (gudgeon??) So I pulled my float down the line and fished at 3-4 inches of the bottom of the float, BANG straight into one first cast. Unfortunately it got off as I got it to the bank and when I rebait I then ended up with my float decorating the tree!!!!!.Thats the 2nd one I have lost in two trips!!! Decided to pack it in as I was losing the light and it takes me a week to get set up.

Still an enjoyable few hours fishing and im chuffed I managed to get some fish, I must be learning slowly lol. Next target is to get something over a pound, maybe I should try fishing on the bottom or spinning for Pike next time? Or can you still get nice fish trotting? Any help/advice always appreciated

Tight Lines all

Joe

[MRG2000]

Cracking report Joe ,nice few fish .....

[saladdodger]

Nice one, good report

Ive lost a few floats and maggot feeders in the last month aa

[chris.oldgit]

joe,
the 7th picture shows a bush opposite, that may hold a few chub, try fishing a block end feeder with bronze/dark yellow maggot, it looks like a bed just under the water from the piccy, fish at the bottom of the ledge,
cant see what trees are on the bank you are on, maybe an underarm cast could be better.

hope this helps

[Complete Tangler]

Originally Posted by chris.oldgit

joe,
the 7th picture shows a bush opposite, that may hold a few chub, try fishing a block end feeder with bronze/dark yellow maggot, it looks like a bed just under the water from the piccy, fish at the bottom of the ledge,
cant see what trees are on the bank you are on, maybe an underarm cast could be better.

hope this helps

This is how I would tackle that swim, also, that Weir looks very tempting.

Nice report mate, excellent conditioned River Fish.

[Bluesbro]

Originally Posted by chris.oldgit

joe,
the 7th picture shows a bush opposite, that may hold a few chub, try fishing a block end feeder with bronze/dark yellow maggot, it looks like a bed just under the water from the piccy, fish at the bottom of the ledge,
cant see what trees are on the bank you are on, maybe an underarm cast could be better.

hope this helps

Originally Posted by Complete Tangler

This is how I would tackle that swim, also, that Weir looks very tempting.

Nice report mate, excellent conditioned River Fish.

Sorry lads but what do you mean? Swim end feeder?? Is this on a float or ledgering, I thought that them bushes oposite would hold a few fish but the wind kept on pushing me out of them in a few secs.

Weir, thats the water fall drop next to the lock gates right?? What will this likely hold? I origionaly thought that this area may hold Barbel because of the high oxygen content in the water?

Cheers for the help, I am enjoying my river fishing and am keen to learn

[chris.oldgit]

joe,

a feeder is a container that you fill with bait to cast where you are fishing, there are open ended and blockend.
these have a cap on each end to hold the maggots in this instance, so when the feeder is on the river bed, the maggots crawl out of the holes into the mouths of waiting fish, open ended are used for g/bait or bread mixes, and the current empties them.

blockend feeders come with different sized holes, large for getting a huge amount of bait to the swim quickly, chub are greedy, likewise small holes restrict the maggots, so it feeds the swim slowly.
they have a lead strip or 'dead cow' attached, this enables you to have the right weight to hold bottom in the current, there weights of the feeders varies for conditions of the river.
this method of fishing is usually done with a quiver tip rod.

hope this helps

[Bluesbro]

Cheers chris this makes perfect sense to me now, I shall give it a go and report back on how it goes!!!!!

How much longer have I got to fish the river? Is there a good season or will the fish be there all year??

Joe

[chris.oldgit]

joe the season finishs on march 15th 2012 then restarts june 16 th 2012

most fish will be there all year, but a bit more difficult to catch, body system slows down as it gets colder, they will feed, but you need to feed little and often, so you dont overfeed them.

hoe this helps

[Greenheart]

Great read Joe, brings back many happy memories of times spent fishing there back in the 1980s....