2014 A REVIEW

[Eddie]

That's another cracking report on a good season Stefan, well done.

[ianmc]

this is my first year on the leeds book. i joined to fish the swale for barbel as my local river has very few now:(  i've had a few memorable catches from the swale a 10lb barbel and a 10lb pike i did have a few pb's from my local waters a 6lb 2oz chub and a 5lb 8oz tench i also fished the trent a few times and had some good barbel to 10lb and also a river carp of 8lb which gave a good acount for  itself i hope to join this club again next year and beat a few of my pb's

[grford77]

Dec 15, 2014 21:07:41 GMT Stefan said:

Some great fish lads, well done!

I've really enjoyed my fishing this year, I've managed to catch Barbel up to 8lbs from a few stretches which are new to me and although I haven't had any doubles I have caught a lot more Barbel than I did last season. Here's one of the better ones



I also had my first ever river Bream and a new PB at 6lb 3oz



2014 has been my best year fishing for predators and I set a target of a 2lb Perch a while back which I finally managed with a fish bang on 2lbs which I caught on my first cast on my first visit to the stretch of river.



My first deadbait session of the year produced an 11lb 9oz which I was really pleased with as the last couple of years the vast majority of the Pike I have caught have been jacks.



The second deadbait session of the year went even better and I netted a fish of 14lb 2oz.



I then had a couple of blank sessions and one small jack. I only had a couple of hours to fish on my next session so decided to head to a stretch I know quite well when for some reason I chose to visit a stretch of river I have fished a few times before but never caught a thing. I fished a few swims which looked ideal but the float never twitched. I had decided to call it a day and walk back to the car when I decided to drop into a swim which looked like it could hold Pike but didn't look anywhere near as good as the previous swims I had tried. After a few minutes the float twitched and started moving off so I struck, at first the fish didn't do much and then it tore across the river and headed downstream, the flow of the river really added to the struggle but a short while later I had landed the fish, I knew it was a good double but when I folded the net back I was gobsmacked. A river 20 is another longstanding target of mine and I realised I may have actually done it. I weighed the fish and at 20lb 1oz I had just managed it. I took a couple of self takes which didn't turn out too great but I was still ecstatic.



My last session was on Wednesday in awful weather, myself and a mate got battered by the wind sleet and rain but I did manage my best Chub of the year so far at 5lb 9oz



Works pretty hectic for me at the moment with the run up to Christmas but I'm hoping conditions will be good for a bit of river Piking on Thursday and with my laptop having been fixed I'm hoping I'll have a pic or two to upload.

Some lovely fish there Stefan, glad to see you are still getting out and about and getting amoungst them bud! The 20lb pike is a belter and the last Chubh is a rite chunk. Well done bud.

[Eddie]

Nice report ianmc, some good barbel to be had on the Leeds book and not just on the swale! Good to see you got a double though well done, hope you join the club again next year it has a lot of good barbel and Chubb water to offer.

Eddie.

[nige_LS7]

Some inspiring reports here and total vindication of my decision to get a Leeds book for 2015!

I came back to fishing after 30 years this August and in 25 sessions (day ticket or free stretches) on all 7 big local rivers the best I've done is fish just under a pound - perch, grayling & trout all round 14oz at best (I don't usually weigh them at that size though, don't worry!) plus one jack under 2 pounds (in the only short session I had with a lure on the Wharfe).

2014 brought me one surprise over the last few weeks - I never knew the Wharfe grayling, not  a fish I'd really considered before, would provide such good trotting sport, and what they lacked in size they make up for in sheer non-stop action.

Had very little luck at all ledgering, often struggling to have any confidence in my ability to hold bottom, register bites etc (cos of the current moving the rod tip/line I reckon I was missing bites). Didn't catch anything bigger than 8oz roach or perch in feeder sessions on Ure/Swale/Ouse/Nidd).

So basically all I want in 2015 is to get me ledgering techniques sorted and catch my first ever Yorshire chub and/or barbel - any size will do for now (have caught chub in virtually unfished rivers on hols in France, but not in UK).

[rushy]

Plenty of lads on here will be more than happy to give you advice and help Meanwood.

Get your book and if you,ve not caught a fish bigger than a pound by the end of June drop me a pm . . . . I'm sure I can help you out . . Will a pound and a half one do

[nige_LS7]

Dec 18, 2014 17:05:45 GMT rushy said:

Plenty of lads on here will be more than happy to give you advice and help Meanwood.

Get your book and if you,ve not caught a fish bigger than a pound by the end of June drop me a pm . . . . I'm sure I can help you out . . Will a pound and a half one do

thanks Rushy.  think it'll be well before June that I'm asking all kinds of questions.

[av1nbarb3l]

take no notice of rusty the biggest thing hes had was a size 10 welly and he foul hooked that

[smithleback]

Yeah if you want to go tommybagging rushys yer man

[Stefan]

Cheers Glen.

Now is a good time to be trying for your Chub ls7meanwood, I went Piking today but when I saw the colour of the river I wished I'd grabbed the cheesepaste and gone Chubbing instead. I managed one bite today and as I tried to clamber down a very slippery bank without going straight into 8 feet of cold water the fish jumped and shed the hooks, it was a good fish too
If you're struggling to hold bottom and you're fishing to the far bank then try keeping the rod tip fairly high and letting out a little bow of line to reduce the drag from the current, I tend to fish near bank slacks when Chubbing though and very little weight is needed to hold bottom.

[rushy]

Dec 18, 2014 21:27:23 GMT Stefan said:

Cheers Glen.

Now is a good time to be trying for your Chub ls7meanwood, I went Piking today but when I saw the colour of the river I wished I'd grabbed the cheesepaste and gone Chubbing instead. I managed one bite today and as I tried to clamber down a very slippery bank without going straight into 8 feet of cold water the fish jumped and shed the hooks, it was a good fish too
If you're struggling to hold bottom and you're fishing to the far bank then try keeping the rod tip fairly high and letting out a little bow of line to reduce the drag from the current, I tend to fish near bank slacks when Chubbing though and very little weight is needed to hold bottom.

Eeeee Stefan you've cheered me up no end mate

I went Piking today from 12 to half 2 and despite the river beimg 3 foot up and dark brown I Got a right run on the deadbait. It shot off like an express train and I hooked into it as it headed for the half submerged tree . Rod bent double and gave it a bit of pressure . . . Next second the trebles were whizzing round my lug ole

It felt a belter . . . Certainly better than any I've had before.

To cap it all I then had to go,to the dentist for a root canal filling . . . Deep,joy

Anyway, as Arnie says " I'll be back ".

[rushy]

Dec 18, 2014 19:09:39 GMT av1nbarb3l said:

take no notice of rusty the biggest thing hes had was a size 10 welly and he foul hooked that

Err how da ya mean like pet ?

Is this the 16 stone 4 foot wide Geordie boy with hands like Desperate Dan and stubble Yooos could sand a door with , that caught a pound a half jack pike at Hammerton who screamed and nearly fell backwards into the river when the Pike twitched as I was taking the hook out for ya

Just get ya name doon for the Kippax Park match canny like and we'll see who's the Welly catcher pet.

I'll have you know I'm the reigning BRadford Forum commercial match champion and here's the link to the video to prove it if you've nothing better to do for an hour

youtu.be/yHdTIjfM7h8

[nige_LS7]

Dec 18, 2014 21:27:23 GMT Stefan said:

Now is a good time to be trying for your Chub ls7meanwood, I went Piking today but when I saw the colour of the river I wished I'd grabbed the cheesepaste and gone Chubbing instead.

If you're struggling to hold bottom and you're fishing to the far bank then try keeping the rod tip fairly high and letting out a little bow of line to reduce the drag from the current, I tend to fish near bank slacks when Chubbing though and very little weight is needed to hold bottom.

Appreciate the advice Stefan.

Next 10 days I'm not not going to be able to get out (got to go flat-sitting in Fuerteventura - it's a tough life eh) but yeah when I'm back I'll be after the winter chub, on the beautiful Leeds waters at the weekends - places like Nidd mouth that I fell in love with the other day on a day ticket, even though I blanked. Some gorgeous swims there, the sort of 'Mr. Crabtree' swims that when I was a kid reading the actual Mr. Crabtree cartoon strips I could only dream about getting to, and never did (we lived 20+ miles from a clean river and my dad was no angler).

I say I'll fish Leeds book waters at the weekends, 'cos on some weekdays I am actually hoping to explore the Aire in leeds city centre a bit in short sessions, after chub like those in this story 

www.leedsdasa.co.uk/html/news5.html

when I saw that story was from nearly 8 years ago I thought "well the predators (human & feathered) will have had 'em all by now", but i've since googled several more recent threads (on here & maggotdrowners forums) where there are still good winter chub reports from the city centre stretches.

[nige_LS7]

Dec 18, 2014 16:31:49 GMT nige_LS7 said:

So basically all I want in 2015 is to get me ledgering techniques sorted and catch my first ever Yorshire chub and/or barbel - any size will do for now

 
  Certainly achieved my aims and plenty more besides. Thanks for the advice from all on the forums who helped.

  If I had to sum up what changed in 2015 I'd say I just started to locate the right spots, largely from info on here, and then learned to fish heavier tackle and bigger baits.

  Bit frustrating that I only caught barbel between June 19th and August 22nd, but that's something to aim at bettering this year.

  Tight lines to all in 2016.