Onlookers while fishing a match.

[Marker50]

If fishing on a lake and there is a match on another lake at same complex
Is having walk round match ok.
Not chatting just a stroll round

 

[The Landlord]

On our new canal stretch the other week, it's behind a big residential area & next to the main dual carraigeway. Busy with walkers all day long & I didn't enjoy it at all. Much prefer the quieter countryside stretches

 

[2ts]

If fishing on a lake and there is a match on another lake at same complex
Is having walk round match ok.
Not chatting just a stroll round

Would be intresting to have your opinion.

 

[OldTaff]

My old club lake was in a park and as such we had people walking around all the time whether it was matches or pleasure sessions & would regularly get people dropping in behind you as you fished for a chat.

One of those things, just stayed polite and they usually disappeared after a short while unless you were catching regularly.

 

[Kojak]

I’m always polite and will chat with anyone, when they tell me how I should be doing it my reply usually goes along the lines of “best not do it your way as I don’t want to start hammering everybody and getting banned for being too good”

 

[Alantherose]

I can imagine that is properly annoying in a match as it’s bad enough when you get them pleasure fishing. I haven’t come across many complete wallies coarse fishing in fact most do have some interesting stuff to say so I don’t mind chatting for a few minutes. When like more than a quarter of an hour has passed it does start to get a little tedious but as long as it’s interesting I just put up with it.

Did have this like 15 year old Canadian lad sat behind me and a couple mates for what seemed like forever when fishing a dock in Florida a few years ago. He spent the whole time trying to coach us but I’m not sure him telling us to do what he does to catch Muskie in the Great Lakes a couple thousand miles north was of any great help when we were just catching a few snappers over a beer!

That was nothing like as bad as getting stuck with a complete twonk of a know it all who knows nothing on charter trips though as you’ve got them for hours. I’ll normally happily accept help on charter trips as I’m not terribly competent at such fishing but I don’t really want help from someone that’s clearly even less competent than me but thinks he’s Dave Lewis or Mike Thrussell or someone of the like.

I had this experience on a sharking trip out of Megavissey years ago. Fella droned on ALL day about previous catches (nobody was catching that day). Finally, about half an hour before we headed back, who should have a screaming take but Mr Gobby... which he proceeded to strike at with his spool disengaged and get the world’s biggest bird’s nest

 

[tincatim]

I generally don’t mind someone approaching for a chat when I’m fishing but that depends on who they are and what they want. Somebody just asking if I’ve caught much is fine, someone sharing a bit of their experience is fine as long as it’s an actual conversation, not just a lecture on how great they are at catching fish. I’m usually quite a helpful person so don’t mind answering questions, even though some are plain stupid to us anglers.

The people I can’t stand are the dodgy looking reprobates that wander by when fishing the canal or river, you know ones. Black can in hand, spliff on the go, sound like they’re off their face on smack or spice. They annoy me because they’ll stand behind you chatting s**t about fishing, or comment on your gear, making me feel uncomfortable that they might try and nick something, or worse.

Then there’s the silent stalkers, they sort of do the reverse ignorant angler on you. I’ve had blokes stand behind me as I catch a fish that have stayed there for ages not saying a word. I’m a friendly bloke so I’ll say something to them, but I’ve had occasions where nothing comes back. Yet they still watch on in silence. Bizarre really, but they don’t do any harm, just feels awkward when I’m trying to relax.

My favourite bank walker is the bloke that walks around commercials asking you what you’ve caught. What he means is have you caught any big carp. I enjoy telling them in great detail about the lovely roach, bream, perch, rudd, tench etc... that I’ve caught. Seeing them get frustrated as they repeatedly ask about carp makes me smile

 

[RMNDIL]

It certainly can be quite eventful! Tbh it's part of the attraction of river fishing for me. Whilst swimmers and boaters are mostly annoying the nice swimmers in bikinis, ladies university rowing teams, nerdy blokes in daft little sailing dinghies capsizing themselves, tourists running aground rented barges etc are all quite entertaining!

That's one of the reasons I stopped fishing Donnington. Too much going on in the water and too many people on the bank. You just cannot fish. Which is a shame as the fishing can be good.

I once had a woman strip off (I mean strip off) RIGHT next to me and then get in and swim off down to Iffley (I suspect as that's the next stop downstream) leaving her clothes Reginald Perrin like. Came back about 2 hours later !!!!

 

[dave brittain 1]

I don't generally let it bother me as it's part and parcel of match fishing, although I did get a little irate with one angler when he got too close and accidentally stood on two top kits crushing them both many years ago.

I also had a great wind up at Stafford Moor when I used to fish there a lot and an angler came around, stood behind me telling me that he'd come down to watch Dave Brittain on the pellet waggler and that he knew him well I'd never seen him before, so I just let him carry on round the lake until the weigh in when he said to me, "you're him aren't you" I said, "well you said you knew me well and I thought you looked like you knew what you were talking about so I let you carry on

Everybody was laughing and luckily he saw the funny side. We had a good chat where I took him through the method and gave him a few floats. He had chatted with me on-line on the forums several months before and I had said to him come down any time, however he never told me he was coming and just turned up while on holiday

 

[Silverfisher]

That's one of the reasons I stopped fishing Donnington. Too much going on in the water and too many people on the bank. You just cannot fish. Which is a shame as the fishing can be good.

Yeah same. Whilst there's a lot going on at places like medley obviously the footpath and the boat channel are a fair way off you in most swims and in most swims theres vegetation to separate you from the swims either side so you get your own space. But on donnington everyone is right on top of you in every way, at times to to a horrible extent. Only place that I consider fishable there is the grassy bit on the bend by the entrance of the weir stream.

 

[robert d]

Did have some German lady lay down for a nap behind my peg once which did make for a rather disconcerting half hour or so. Wasn't half as distracting though as the time a girl stripped down to her thong on the far bank then swam through my swim and said hello as she went!

Pics

 

[NoCarpPlease]

Generally have no problems with onlookers and will happily chat away as long as they don't move around or skyline me.
In some ways I miss the days of close pegging on the rivers as these days it's really hard to have banter with the person on the next peg!

The Only time I've had a problem was when I drew pretty much the best roach peg (at the time) at Hereford (92).
It was a horribly clear and low river in midwinter, but I'd managed to tempt three or four clonkers on very light gear down the edge.
I then became aware of a shadow on the water, turned round to see a bloke skylining and politely asked him to either crouch down o move back.
He just flipped in to an absolute rant - jumping up and down and yelling at me! it was very unnerving ... after a couple of minutes of me ignoring him he went away - as did the roach!

 

[Total]

........I also had a great wind up at Stafford Moor when I used to fish there a lot and an angler came around, stood behind me telling me that he'd come down to watch Dave Brittain on the pellet waggler and that he knew him well I'd never seen him before, so I just let him carry on round the lake until the weigh in when he said to me, "you're him aren't you" I said, "well you said you knew me well and I thought you looked like you knew what you were talking about so I let you carry on

Everybody was laughing and luckily he saw the funny side. We had a good chat where I took him through the method and gave him a few floats. He had chatted with me on-line on the forums several months before and I had said to him come down any time, however he never told me he was coming and just turned up while on holiday

^^ .....So our Chris recognises you now then?....

 

[grey]

I often have other anglers annoy me by stopping to watch me fish, but I find they can only laugh for so long before they tire and move on.

 

[dave brittain 1]

^^ .....So our Chris recognises you now then?....

It was somebody off TF, I still chuckle, it was one of those you had to be there moments

 

[crocky]

How do you get on with, bank walkers, or advice from pleasure fishing, experts,when fishing a match
One Match that comes to mind was this summer, the Club had booked twenty pegs on a local commercial.
Two hours into the match and things were going really well , when along comes our expert wearing a yellow day-glow
jacket, and starts telling me how wrong I am doing things, and how only the other day he had caught a net full of double figure carp
and a perch of 6lbs. ( yeh right they do not exist on this water )
I just new from that point on, I should not have got into conversation with this bloke, and just been a bit more anti social, because forty minuets
later he was still telling me how good he was , and telling me I should be doing this that and the other.
He might be very good who knows,but the feeling to me was, he just wanted to tell me these massively exaggerated stories, of huge bags of fish,
that he caught regularly, you know the angler that never has a dry net.
As a hint for him to move on, I mentioned covid and how we must keep our distance , so he then decides to move and stand over my brilliant
margin line waving is arms and shouting even louder telling me how the two match anglers over on the point are fishing it all wrong too.
When this chap eventually moves on from me he ends up two pegs away, telling that angler the same stories he had told me.
I did end up second in the match that day (even though as far as he was concerned I was fishing it all wrong)
Maybe if I had listen to his advice I could have won the match, who knows.
I know that there are some lads in our club, who would have in there own way, politely told him to get lost, for the want of a better word .
Match fishing on canals can be a nightmare, were we have to give a bit, our patience can be stretched to the limit at times.

had this once when on a certain venue ,caught sight of a chap standing to my right a couple of yard behind me to begin with which although i was fishing in around 9" of water that tight to the bank my float was near enough on the grass but i was catching every put in which he commented on saying you`ve got um going there son ,which to be fair he was right they were queuing up to be caught but he was edging forward towards my float his voice getting louder the nearer he got then to top it off his f***ing dog which was not on a lead came licking up the water inches from the float ,needless to say that was that as far as that swim was concerned , they seem to have gone son he said ,i can`t put in words what i said but it wasn`t nice

 

[Simon R]

I don't really mind onlookers providing they keep off the skyline and watch where they're putting their feet - oh and cute though Fido might be, I'd really rather he didn't cock his leg up against my holdall.

Many eons ago when I was but a slip of a lad (1979 or thereabouts I guess) I would spend most of the summer holidays fishing the local park lake day in, day out (it was within cycling distance) and being a public park you would encounter a number of 'interesting' characters, many of whom would offer words of advice. Looking back on it I rather think there were one or two who were possibly borderline paedophiles - one rather shady looking character in a long coat engaged my mate in conversation which led on to asking him if his father smacked him on his bare bottom and did it excite him. He made a sharp exit when my mate said "Here he comes now you can ask him" pointing at some random stranger 100 yards away.

I always remember this one guy who, upon hearing I wasn't catching a great deal, decided to assist me.
First he asked me if I smoked - nope - then he wanted to know if I had a KitKat - also nope, so he trotted off to the local corner shop (only 100 yards away) and returned with a KitKat wrapper in hand (greedy bugger had eaten the contents) - he grabbed hold of my hook and festooned it in bits of silver paper from the inside wrapper of the biscuit before adding a maggot. "The flash attracts them" he explained "you'll catch now"
Needless to say I didn't and fortunately he got bored after ten minutes and wandered off to give someone else the benefit of his advice.

Every year when we go on holiday I'll end up fishing some new venue - often a lake within a caravan site - about which information can be difficult to obtain (or very sketchy) prior to the trip. So I usually end up wandering around the lake trying to decide which of the half-dozen or so anglers present I can get some decent information from. I ignore the bivvy brigade or any instant carpers and generally the deckchair fisherman, so am usually left with the dead keen match angler - a walking advert for Preston, Maver, Guru or Rive - a dozen top kits set up, three rods and a huge trolley - completely necessary for the 10 yard walk to his static caravan and all for a three hour evening pleasure fishing session. Two things happen generally when you approach the local superstar (a legend in his own mind, courtesy of the single occasion he won the van owners match one Saturday about three years previously) he'll either grunt monosyllabic answers to your questions, deeming your presence an affront to his magnificence or give you his life story with intricate details of all his match victories and once it gets dark invite you into his caravan where he can continue the monologue. Fortunately I've learnt the tell-tale signs and, in the best Sunday paper tradition, can make my excuses and leave.

Hopefully I'll be lucky enough to find that the one remaining angler is the helpful type who doesn't try to baffle me with bullshit or look down his nose 'cos I'm not targeting the lakes single 20lb+ carp which hasn't been seen for three years. This chap will normally point out the better pegs, give me a heads up on the best baits and tactics and actually catch a few fish whilst I'm stood behind him - something that nobody else seems able to do. I actually found such a chap last year but unfortunately wasn't able to shoehorn any gear into the car without leaving either the dog or our lass at home.

Simon

 

[RMNDIL]

Only place that I consider fishable there is the grassy bit on the bend by the entrance of the weir stream.

Weir stream ? There isn't one at Donnington.

Small Cherwell mouth above the boathouses, main Cherwell mouth immediately below boat houses, ditch opposite Long Bridges bathing place in 'The Gut' (the far bank from the main Cherwell mouth to here is actually an island), the shallow inlet above the scouts where the old white boat has been moored for Donkey's years and then the concrete rain ditch at 'The Willows' below Donnington bridge. There's no weir on this stretch.

On your own bank is Hinksey stream coming out immediately above the small arched bridge & boat house and rear entrance to Four Pillars hotel. That comes from Hinksey park and under the Abingdon road (many, many years ago there used to be little matches on this stream !).

Right at the very, very top there is the small stream which comes out under the flat iron bridge which comes from the other side of Folly Bridge.

 

[warrington63]

Weir stream ? There isn't one at Donnington.

Small Cherwell mouth above the boathouses, main Cherwell mouth immediately below boat houses, ditch opposite Long Bridges bathing place in 'The Gut' (the far bank from the main Cherwell mouth to here is actually an island), the shallow inlet above the scouts where the old white boat has been moored for Donkey's years and then the concrete rain ditch at 'The Willows' below Donnington bridge. There's no weir on this stretch.

On your own bank is Hinksey stream coming out immediately above the small arched bridge & boat house and rear entrance to Four Pillars hotel. That comes from Hinksey park and under the Abingdon road (many, many years ago there used to be little matches on this stream !).

Right at the very, very top there is the small stream which comes out under the flat iron bridge which comes from the other side of Folly Bridge.

Is that the scout hut at Donnington bridge, ?

 

[Silverfisher]

Weir stream ? There isn't one at Donnington.

Small Cherwell mouth above the boathouses, main Cherwell mouth immediately below boat houses, ditch opposite Long Bridges bathing place in 'The Gut' (the far bank from the main Cherwell mouth to here is actually an island), the shallow inlet above the scouts where the old white boat has been moored for Donkey's years and then the concrete rain ditch at 'The Willows' below Donnington bridge. There's no weir on this stretch.

On your own bank is Hinksey stream coming out immediately above the small arched bridge & boat house and rear entrance to Four Pillars hotel. That comes from Hinksey park and under the Abingdon road (many, many years ago there used to be little matches on this stream !).

Right at the very, very top there is the small stream which comes out under the flat iron bridge which comes from the other side of Folly Bridge.

Well it's called the weirs mill stream donnington in the club book although I guess technically it has a sluice rather than a weir. Comes off the Thames at the bend upstream of donnington bridge then runs under the bridge itself to round the back of iffley meadows before joining Hincksey stream a short distance before that rejoins the Thames.