Fishing tackle

Bdill93

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Carp that big in a match pool? Decide which you are going for, personally I'd set out for the carp. Boilies or pellets. If there are big bream like that, they too will have pellets and boilies, especially smaller boilies
Bream love ( need) groundbait. Look up how to do that accurately. Can make all the difference to the catch rate.
Fish away from snagging areas.
Normally fish at the end to which the wind is blowing ( Thermocline effect),
Unless , like me, comfort comes first?.
But as you are raring to catch, no doubt you can put up with the wind.

Try to find a tench water. Loveliest fish there is. Tench fishing is the best way to fish, the most aesthetically satisfying. Nothing like it.
Good luck.

Any tips on pelletts btw?
 

IanM

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I grew up next to the River Wey.

I now live near the River Wye! Never caught a barbel either, I haven't fished in a river for over 30 years! Booked for the first week of July. Decided the "guided trip" would be a good reintroduction and training. Next proper fishing is two weeks at Mill Farm in Devon. Not really a fishing holiday, but I a nip out for the odd hour. Hardly ever fished, but plenty of stock. :)
 

Bdill93

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I grew up next to the River Wey.

I now live near the River Wye! Never caught a barbel either, I haven't fished in a river for over 30 years! Booked for the first week of July. Decided the "guided trip" would be a good reintroduction and training. Next proper fishing is two weeks at Mill Farm in Devon. Not really a fishing holiday, but I a nip out for the odd hour. Hardly ever fished, but plenty of stock. :)

Ive only fished a river once! Did a day on the River Lugg - did catch a trout! I wouldnt even know where to start with river fishing too, so good call on the guided trip, be interesting to hear what you made of it!
 

Swinglowandslow

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Any tips on pelletts btw?

My local lake has a good head of bream, some big. Though they will take sweet corn, the best bait is pellets. Robin red is good, Guys on the lake us 8mm hair rigged.
Some 10mm boilies fished the same way might go. I've had big roach on those, as well.
18mm boilies are out and out carp bait really.
If it's now a lake "taken over" by the match boys, then pellet first, mini boilies, sweet corn .
Put plenty of 4mm pellets in the groundbait, for bream.
Are there good roach? Bread flake worth trying, if so.

If it becomes a favourite lake and you like the bream fishing and big roach are there ( lovely fish ,big roach) then pole fishing is nice way.
However, it is a niche way involves a bit of investment re seat box etc.
Before going down that route, go and watch a match and see how they fish the lake. If they pole fish, see what's involved. And,
There will be a reason why they will be using the baits you see them use?
 

Bdill93

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My local lake has a good head of bream, some big. Though they will take sweet corn, the best bait is pellets. Robin red is good, Guys on the lake us 8mm hair rigged.
Some 10mm boilies fished the same way might go. I've had big roach on those, as well.
18mm boilies are out and out carp bait really.
If it's now a lake "taken over" by the match boys, then pellet first, mini boilies, sweet corn .
Put plenty of 4mm pellets in the groundbait, for bream.
Are there good roach? Bread flake worth trying, if so.

If it becomes a favourite lake and you like the bream fishing and big roach are there ( lovely fish ,big roach) then pole fishing is nice way.
However, it is a niche way involves a bit of investment re seat box etc.
Before going down that route, go and watch a match and see how they fish the lake. If they pole fish, see what's involved. And,
There will be a reason why they will be using the baits you see them use?

Not sure how big the roach go, only spoken to the club sec and one member so far, they've given the overall picture of whats in there and the plans for years to come - but not the finer details!

Ill see if I can get up to walk around the match guys when theyre next on there and im off work - good tip actually! I had a lot of joy on the commercial last week following "match" tactics to some degree!
 

Slime

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I grew up next to the River Wey.

I now live near the River Wye! Never caught a barbel either, I haven't fished in a river for over 30 years! Booked for the first week of July. Decided the "guided trip" would be a good reintroduction and training. Next proper fishing is two weeks at Mill Farm in Devon. Not really a fishing holiday, but I a nip out for the odd hour. Hardly ever fished, but plenty of stock. :)

You should have stayed!
Lots of doubles being caught in Godalming from the stretch behind the library and mid-doubles from the Wey at Eashing!
 

IanM

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Wow!

I grew up on the Bowers Lock stretch at Burpham. (1970s and early 80)

Never heard of a barbel being caught anywhere. Used to night fish for club. The big ones were hardly seen in daylight, after dark simple ledgered cheese was deadly.

Some decent roach were had too, trotting with bread flake.

Did some Googling. My wife is from Elstead. That stretch of the river is also producing good barbel. Mum in law still there, wonder if i can sneak my rods in the car for next visit.

Downstream Woking AC's area also producing good barbel
 
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Slime

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Wow!

I grew up on the Bowers Lock stretch at Burpham. (1970s and early 80)

Never heard of a barbel being caught anywhere. Used to night fish for club. The big ones were hardly seen in daylight, after dark simple ledgered cheese was deadly.

Some decent roach were had too, trotting with bread flake.

Did some Googling. My wife is from Elstead. That stretch of the river is also producing good barbel. Mum in law still there, wonder if i can sneak my rods in the car for next visit.

Downstream Woking AC's area also producing good barbel

I was talking to an angler a couple of years back and he's convinced he saw one nudging 20lbs .................................. but wouldn't tell me exactly where!
He said it was in the Godalming area, Eashing would be my guess.
 

SteveJay

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I grew up next to the River Wey.

I now live near the River Wye! Never caught a barbel either, I haven't fished in a river for over 30 years! Booked for the first week of July. Decided the "guided trip" would be a good reintroduction and training. Next proper fishing is two weeks at Mill Farm in Devon. Not really a fishing holiday, but I a nip out for the odd hour. Hardly ever fished, but plenty of stock. :)

Am sure you will love it Ian. I grew up in Devon (so no barbel to speak of west of Bristol) but decades ago some guys from our club started going to Bewdley and fishing for barbel on th Severn for a week. In those days they were small, 1-2lb average. After a bit of a break I now go every year (missed last year obviously) and have 2 trips booked this year. We now fish around Bridgnorth and the fish average 4-8lb.

Once you have caught barbel you will probably not want to catch any other coarse fish. They just fight so hard in a fast river and are stunning fish. Never fished the Wye but it looks amazing with some fantastic fish. Hope you have a great day!
 

Bdill93

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Another day on the bank today - frustratingly lost anything that felt big today, silly rookie errors panicking a bit. All good education going forward though!

Couple of lovely Chubb, a handful of very nicely sized Rudd, couple bream and 6/7 carp that went up to 8lbs today!

Couple of pics below!
 

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Bdill93

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Me again..

Im getting quite frustrated - any time I seem to hook into anything of a significant size (albeit I cannot prove they are big) something goes wrong.

Twice this weekend I hooked on to something decent, once my hood was straightend despite letting it run and giving it significantly more of a free clutch. The other just straight up snapped my 20lb line just below the shot.. let this one run even more and look how it pays off!

Is it me.. what am I doing wrong... thoughts on a postcard

On a positive - I did land a very nice 3lb 2oz perch on friday evening, rumours that my new pool has perch up to a whopping 6lbs! So im now chasing a nice perch to share with you all whilst the other 2 rods are sat waiting on the carp!
 

Bdill93

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I think you my have just asked the equivalent of the "why did I miss that putt" question!

Could be MASSIVE fish, dodgy hook and or line, hit a snag in the water... without seeing what happened, hard to say... and not easy to say with seeing

They last saw the biggest fish in said lake 2 years ago.. was around 25lbs then and this is a commercial with 6 lakes. Probably good grub on offer daily!
 

hovis

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First of all why you using 20lb line? I use 12lb and land carp to 40lb.

If your hooks are being straightened then your using crap hooks. I'd recommend korda kurv shank and korda krank.

shot damages line. When you place your shot don't bite it on as tight as possible. Even so 20lb line shouldn't break because of shot. A good tip is to walk your line down the bank and peg it semi tight to the floor. Then, with the line between your fingers walk the line whilst looking and feeling for damage. I do this almost every cast where I fish because of zebra muscles
 

hovis

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I am about to get some new line on my reels before next months trip to Mill Farm. (currently what I have is very old, so time for a refresh)

I am not expecting anything over 20lbs, so sure 8lb line is fine for general stuff there.
8lb would be fine if your fishing a lake free of snags. A very good line is fox soft steel. Very durable and can take some stick
 
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