Fishing trips - upload your photos!

Thought I'd set this thread up as a place where we can upload any photos of recent catches.

Here are a couple of some little wild brownies and some grayling that I had great fun fishing for last week.

Beautifully coloured brown trout:

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The lady of the stream:

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And another (shame about the split in the dorsal):

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On her way back in:

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The small river where I fished:

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Very nice stuff - all on a worm?

Just using maggots mate. Trotting a stick float down.

Thoroughly enjoyable day out, beautiful fish.

I'm a total ingenu, do you fish for known fish, or do you fish a 'swim' or a likely place?

Firstly I'll choose a swim that looks promising, i.e. a faster shallower part of the river where the far bank is a deeper channel with slightly slower moving water. A cast just inside the deeper, slower zone is usually perfect.

Don't ever fish for known fish, more a case of 'that looks perfect, there must be fish there'.

I'll have an hour in one swim before moving on, as they often get a bit worn out and the other fish spooked after a while.

I meant to say as well, I was stood in the shallow part of the river with my waders on, and a salmon leapt all of a metre or two away from me. Scared the life out of me, but it was a decent size!

During your hour at a swim how much action do you expect to have, and if there are are fish there do you expect them to show themselves at the first cast or, at least very soon after you have started fishing?

A bite every couple of casts is expected. If fish are there, they generally let you know about it straight away, particularly the little brown trout. You almost know that a swim is exhausted once your float runs down 4 or 5 times without at least getting a tentative bite.

The good thing with the brownies and the grayling is they are often lip hooked. They hit the maggots hard and fast, allowing you to strike immediately, and as such it is nice and easy to get the hook out quickly and get them back in the water.

The grayling often require holding up (facing the current) in the water after the fight, as they expend a hell of a lot of energy. If you let them loose in the water they often go belly up and would likely die if you just let them float off down stream like that.

The trick is to hold them upright in the water, letting the water/oxygen pass through their gills until they kick away. It's bloody cold and makes your hand very numb at this time of year, but well worth it to ensure that such a lovely fish goes back safe and well.

Fists of Fury wrote:The trick is to hold them upright in the water, letting the water/oxygen pass through their gills until they kick away. It's bloody cold and makes your hand very numb at this time of year, but well worth it to ensure that such a lovely fish goes back safe and well.

I have returned a 19lb salmon to the water (not mine sadly) and that took about 20 mins to get him going! I held him facing the current and watched his gill case - I moved him backwards and forwards a bit too. The final flick of the tail when a big fish shoots out of your hands is fantastic (I have returned a fair few fish >10lbs to the water and it's a very good feeling).

Yeah the way you feel the power coarse through their muscular body as they kick off is great.

I've never caught a mature salmon (hooked one whilst fishing for grayling and trout on 2lb line once...it went off like a steam train and broke me moments later), but I'd take great satisfaction in returning them to the water. The salmon has begun to make a timely recovery in the UK of late, and anything to aid that can only be a good thing. A fantastic fish.

Yeah that's it, just get the oxygen through their gills any way you can. It's a worry that some less experienced anglers may just let these fish go without re-oxygenating their gills first, and that could ultimately lead to them dying somewhere down stream, which would be a huge shame.

Yes - you've got to wait until the fish let's you know it's ready, particularly if there's any fast flowing water around because they can get sucked into a current and trotted away whilst they lack the strength to adjust themselves, whereas at least in a slow current they can sit doggo on the bottom and re-oxygenate themselves quietly from a much weaker base. You see them doing that themselves if you are unlucky enough to lose a largish fish at the net.

I always believe that if there's a whiff of blood from the gills caused by the hooking (or unhooking) the unfortunate fish is cooked whichever way you try it and you may as well knock it on the head with regret.

That's a very rare occurence though, barry, particularly given the nature of that type of fishing. As I said earlier, they're often lip hooked (particularly if the fisherman knows what they're doing), and as such they can be returned with little to no damage.

I'm not sure bleeding from the gills kills them anyway, does it? Obviously if there is loads that may well be the case. Must admit I know little about it as it has never really happened to me.

Thankfully it is rare, and should not happen with barbless hooks. It's happened to me on a couple of occasions.

I use a micro-barb when fishing for trout and grayling, given that trout are prticularly lively when they're hooked and barbless tend to shake free when the line goes slack upon a leap.

Find that they're ok and easy enough to remove. I don't touch barbed hooks these days, really no need for them and they do the fish no good whatsoever.

Fantastic fish fists, sound idyllic,, think the barbed hook debate could have its own thread as I have strong views on them as I`m sure others do aswell,

Very good point (excuse the pun), go ahead and set it up

After my fish for the pot thread went down like a fart in a lift, i think my views on barbs maybe similarly received, but hey ho ill get one set up,
Will also post some pics of nice fish when i get a computer savvy friend to do it for me, last pike trip of the year this weekend so hopefully more to follow aswell

How'd the trip go, Sherm?

Looking forward to your views on barbs, I have pretty strong views myself, whether they're in agreement with yours remains to be seen

Very good thanks fof, caught a lot of pike and a 2lb perch so very happy, sat in the middle of a weir pool and didn`t see anyone all day, it was lovely
just watching the weather to see if I can go again this weekend. still trying to think of a way to put the barb article

Bite the bullet and write it man!