in the town centre of York in the winter months its great for fishing on the bomb with breadflake/punch for roach and sometimes the odd bream comes along ,classic fishing for roach just flicking in a few small bits of rolled up bread into very small balls,then fishing over the top with flake on the bomb/link leger,its a few years since i fished there but the memories are still with me catching 10/15 lb of roach in anywhere from the 3" to 10" class, great fishing ,and it was all done using an old shakespeare omni bomb rod made of glass , then and probably still now one of the finest bomb/link leger rods ever made in my opinion, one i sadly sold years ago for some reason, so today i have just bought myself the new version of the old rod with lined rings throughout unlike the old one ,and its cheap as chips to .... look forward very much to trying the new bomb rod out

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WHEN YOU LEAVE THE RIVER, TAKE NOTHING, AND LEAVE ONLY FOOTPRINT'S!!!

THA CAN TELL A YORKSHIREMAN ,BUT THA CAN'T TELL HIM MUCH !!

Nice one Bruce. Ever get the feeling we get ripped off with fly gear? My favourite bomb rod was a fibreglass Auger 10' swingtip rod but it got nicked. I replaced it with a carbon Shakey Black Mirage leger, still with straight top and threaded tip ring but eventually I stopped used the swingtip and spliced in a quiver. Still use it occasionally but regret "modifying" it now

Quality roach fishing is increasingly hard to find. In fact the last time I caught a number of quality roach was fly fishing on the Cumbrian Derwent - didn't mind at all that they weren't trout, they were absolutely mint 1lb+ fish

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dont get a feeling Jeff i know we do mate , stick fly on it and it trebles in price , in my fishing cupboard upstairs i have a shakespeare clubmaster 10ft swingtip rod used once then stored away, a rod made truly for swingtipping ,have you tried to find a proper swingtip rod lately proper ones are as rare as rocking horse sh!t the original omni quiver tip Jeff had a lovely soft action and you never bounced any fish off ...

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WHEN YOU LEAVE THE RIVER, TAKE NOTHING, AND LEAVE ONLY FOOTPRINT'S!!!

THA CAN TELL A YORKSHIREMAN ,BUT THA CAN'T TELL HIM MUCH !!

The old Shakey sigma wand was also an iconic and very poular piece of kit as well.
Steve.

that might of been the one i was thinking of Steve , was it a black blank ???

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WHEN YOU LEAVE THE RIVER, TAKE NOTHING, AND LEAVE ONLY FOOTPRINT'S!!!

THA CAN TELL A YORKSHIREMAN ,BUT THA CAN'T TELL HIM MUCH !!

I think that may have been the one Bruce - black blank, gold Greek sigma logo with red trim, they did some nice reels in the same livery. Thats just reminded me, I still have a Shakey President Excel Quiver which you can fish at 9' or 11', lovely soft rod, quality blanks, only problem with it now is that it has sliding plastic/nylon reel fittings and they're too lose on modern reels hence hardly use it (and had forgotten I had it). Some day I'll fit a new handle with screw fittings or alternatively get an old Mitchell reel to use with it (my Mitchell's also got nicked with my other gear at the time).

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Out of interest, whereabouts on the Derwent were you catching these roach? I've fished around cockermouth on and off for a few years and didn't even know there were roach there (had i known the flake and stickfloat would've been out in a flash ).

I absolutely love roach - probably my favourite coarse fish (along with chub and perch... and maybe carp depending on my mood ). In summer I often get up at the crack of dawn, dig some redworms from the garden, shove them in a backpack along with a travel rod and some light line, then cycle/run the half hour down to my local canal which it stuffed with them (and perch, of course). Never had one over 10oz, but they still fight brilliantly on the ultra light tackle and they're beautiful fish... in fact as soon as the water warms up I think I'll go after some . I've often wondered about catching some on my little brook rod - I'm sure they'd be suckers for little buzzers... dunno if the cyclists on the towpath would appreciate it though!

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"With my silken line and delicate hook, I wander in a myriad of ripples, And find freedom."
My Blog : yorkshireflynovice.blogspot.com

This old Silstar matchpicker has caught me a fish or two over the years. It has a choice of butt sections (larger one not shown) to be fished at about 7' or about 9'.

Keswick Anglers water above the town. I'm told there are quite big shoals in Bassenthwaite lake and the river between Bass lake and Derwent Water, perhaps as a result of being used for livebaiting for pike in Bass lake. I fish that stretch every year late May/early June and it just so happened that year the roach had formed big shoals in the river early that year, prior to spawning. This was a little 'un
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Silstar...whatever happened to them? I had a couple of nice Traverse-X carp rods of theirs and a good float rod - all nicked along with other stuff of that era when my garage got hit unfortunately.

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That was a LITTLE one?? Christ, they must be a fair stamp of fish then - either that or you're a tiny bloke . Shame Keswick anglers are fly only - they'd make a great day's sport in the coarse season - what flies were you getting them on? I'd wager it's a good shout to suggest they're the ancestors of unused livebaits, as the only coarse fish in the rest of the derwent system are perch, pike and eels as far as I'm aware.

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"With my silken line and delicate hook, I wander in a myriad of ripples, And find freedom."
My Blog : yorkshireflynovice.blogspot.com