Southern rivers chubbing.

A trip down south can always be that little bit special since both the Hampshire Avon and Dorset Stour hold specimen chub to make the mouth water.  The weather forecast looked good and time was running out for this year so plans were made, tackle and grub laid out and the alarm set for 4.30am ready for the off.

Although busy the roads at this time are not too bad and I get down to Ringwood area just before dawn and I’m soon making my way along the bank to the swim I had chosen for today.   A deep water run with a long line of bushes and trees along the opposite bank to give perfect cover for the chub that would be my target today.   I’m down for two days and have brought six pints of red maggots; I can always get more from the local tackle shops in Ringwood if needed.  My first task is to bait drop six droppers of maggots across to the head of the swim, that done I can take my time in tackling up the rod and preparing for the day.   My tackle is the same as I’ve used for several years while after chub.  A 12ft Drennan IM8 Feeder Rod is paired up with a Mitchell 300 reel loaded with 6lb line.   I will use a running Blackcap feeder setup and the 3” hook link is 4lb Fireline going to a size 18 Drennan Superspade hook.

Casting across the fast flow under my own bank gives two potential problems, the first is the amount of debris coming down the flow in the form of dying rush and streamer weed.  This at least ensures that a regular recasting takes place which can be all to the good especially when the minnows are about.   At the moment it seems that the grayling have also had a successful time and these can be a problem as well.  The second problem with that fast water is that of netting the fish once hooked.  This trip, as with so many others in the past the hook holds were right on the outside edge of the lips where the fish were very cautious, but could not resist the maggots.  Constant casting and the occasion top up with the feeder kept a stream of maggots going down under the bushes and I hoped that the chub would eventually respond.  They did and my first fish was almost at my target 7lb weight but fell short at a very pleasing 6lb-10oz, my largest for a couple of seasons.  The Avon is a magical river being crystal clear most of the time but seeing a monster fish fighting on that light tackle can give heart stopping moments.

                                                           Avon chub of 6lb-10oz.

That was my only action off the chub and I was sure that there must be others in the swim, to that end I changed my plans and determined to return next day to take advantage of the feed already placed in the swim.   One of the question marks you always have when you go fishing is that of whether somebody fished the previous day and hammered the fish?  I at least knew the answer and with just the one fish caught I also knew it was worth a return.

The morning was wet with drizzle coming down for most of the time.  With maggot fishing it just means you need to take extra care to keep them dry, the slightest sign of damp and they can crawl even upside down and around the lid.  With the same tactics as the previous day I soon had a few taps that indicated that the fish were there though nervous.  It took time but eventually one made the mistake of just taking the maggot too close and he was lightly pricked though enough for me to land him.   This fish of about 4lb was soon followed by one 4lb-10oz but then the next one slipped the hook which was almost expected so not too disappointing.

It went quiet after that but then I hooked an obvious big fish, it might have been a barbel but the fight suggested a large chub since it tried to get to the branches.  I thought I was going to land him and was well down from my starting point having followed him a little way downstream.  He held in the middle of the river though too deep to see and then he made a dive for the far side trees again.  I allowed a little way but then stopped him and my hook link broke.   Pete suggested it could have been a seatrout with their serrated jaw, it makes sense but I’m still wondering.

Monster perch and other bits.

For a few seasons now I’ve tried to improve my perch personal best of 4lb-4oz taken from Wilstone Reservoir in 2003, the nearest I’ve come to that ambition is a well spawned out 3lb-15oz fish that would easily have beaten the target just days previous to my capture of such a brilliant fish.

                                        Spawned out 3lb-15oz Specimen

Currently we seem to be in a vein of waters producing large perch and here I talk of 3lb plus being a large fish.  Most specialist anglers will fish for the day and if such a specimen comes within their catch they will feel it has been a successful trip, often such a fish will be joined by others of a similar weight since they do shoal together in an age group of their companions.  Many tactics can be used for the perch and the recent popularity of the drop-shot techniques has definitely led to an increase in the reports of large perch from our canals as well as other venues around the country.

In recent times many of the venues that were giving up a good standard of perch to my efforts seemed to have come to the end of their cycle.  It would seem that unfortunately perch are one of the shorter lived specimens that we pursue and once they get to and interesting size they do not stay around for too long before Mother Nature makes a claim on their life.  One advantage for me of the drop-shot rage is that it had shown the potential of many of our Midland Rivers and I felt I should at least try to take advantage of that before this age class disappears yet again.  All too often I have been involved in other target searches and though I would fish for the perch on another occasion only to find I tried too late, this time a strong effort over the later part of the season would hopefully produce the goods.

Arriving at the venue I chose a section that had a reasonable amount of cover on the nearside bank, this had given a number of slack areas downstream of their obstacle and the one I chose to concentrate on extended over some 15 yards or more, plenty of space for the perch to hunt in.  I had decided to use a quivertip rod rather than the float since it would give me more chance to flick the lobworm bait into little gaps and the outside edge of bushes.  A 2oz quiver on a Drennan Medium Feeder rod and 6lb line  to a size 6 wide gape hook gave plenty of power to beat the size of fish I hoped for, that being a 4lb plus  specimen.

I dropped into the first choice swim and cast right down to the bottom end of the slack.  Then I began feeding red maggots into the head of the swim, these slowly went downstream on the slight flow that still existed within the slack area.  My idea was to very slowly retrieve the lobworm by turning the reel handle just one turn at a time to cause the quiver to bend right over and then return to its original position.  I kept repeating this action every minute or so and in my mind I felt this was akin to the action of a slow motion drop-shot method with a moving bait to attract attention of the prey fish.  It was with some surprise [though I’m not sure why] when after several of these turns of the handle the quivertip straighten and then almost immediately pulled round again.  The pull round was nice and steady; I returned the favour with a nice and steady strike and pulled into a good weight of resistance.  Over the previous days we had been getting quite hard frosts overnight and I can only assume these were the possible cause for the comparatively poor scrap off this monster fish that came into the net.

                                                        5lb-4oz of monster perch.

I had hoped for a 4lb perch and as I looked I could see I had definitely got it.  That said, when the scales showed a weight of 5lb-4oz it was well beyond my expectation and it now ranks amongst my top three all-time personal bests.   I thought the dimensions would be of interest to many and these were length 19.125 inch with a girth of 16.5 inch.  One thing is definite about this fish and that is that the weight and dimensions cannot possibly portray the fish I was looking at on the bank.

Over the next week I did a bit of perch fishing on a local stillwater and took a good number of 2lb and 3lb plus fish though not the 4lb specimen I was hoping for, still a bit of time for that yet.  A trip to the Warwickshire Avon gave a nine fish catch of chub with two over 5lb, the target was barbel and with the addition of two of those at 3lb and 6lb it proved to be a very active day.

                                                      A good brace of stillwater perch

I had thought to let any interest in the big perch die off and now as the days on the river were running out I decided I would return to try for one of her larger relations, be it sister or brother I did not mind as either would be quite large.   On the previous trip I had used just one rod, this time I decided to include a second float rod which I would use to present a prawn bait in appropriate areas where possible.  That first perch had come within 20 minutes of me starting but this time I searched swim after swim without any indications and as time ran out I returned to the large slack where I began.  As my self-imposed 6.00pm deadline approached I put the float rod away and tidied up the rest of my tackle.  Still feeding the red maggots into the swim, along with the slow retrieve and with just 10 minutes to go the tip finally pulled round in response to a bite.  This time the fight was worthy of a big perch and all the time I was hoping the hook would hold as the fish was shaking her head in the normal fashion of the species.  It did hold and I landed another large perch but I thought it was the same fish and the weight suggested such was the case.  I took a couple of photographs to conclusively confirm this thought and they did just that showing a slight dip in the lower lobe of her tail.  Of course a pleasing capture, but I had hoped for a different fish and now that must wait until next season as long as these monsters stay around that long.

                                                  Still 5lb-4oz and worthy of a photo.

A review of February part 2

Over this week the weather was changing almost by the day, warm bands crossed the country only to be followed by a cold band the next day. Along with this change also came the rain and wind, so it was a real mix to try and gauge the best time to try again for the barbel.  I completed a work party on one of the waters I fish and that definitely showed my age as it left me with aching muscles when I know they would not have perhaps only five years ago.

Finally, I could see a window of acceptable weather and the Tuesday saw me making my way up the Derbyshire Derwent with a thought of fishing from midday through to about 10pm and hoping for a barbel.  The day was perfect, quite mild with a temperature of about 9C going down to 4C during the evening, no wind and just a light drizzle coming over during the dark hours.  This was shown by the number of lobworms that appeared on the field behind my swim, dozens of them but they quickly disappeared once the torchlight got anywhere near them.

As I had arrived on the bank I could see that Alan had already got there and was in the process of setting up, he took the water temperature as I passed and informed me it was at 5.9C.  This is not ideal, but at least it would be rising and yet again the river was carrying extra water that would help combat the lower temps.  I would be using the same tackle as used on the Warwickshire Avon the previous week, although I did need a heavier feeder to hold out in the stream.  As is my usual practice I fished one rod across to the far bank and the second rod more towards the near bank hoping to intercept and fish moving upstream.  I had pellet on one of the rods and Dynamite Crave on the other though it was the pellet bait that was taken at about 6.45pm.  Again the fight was not up to the usual standard although the fish did make a couple of powerful runs when I first tried to net it.  When it finally went over the net I brought it up the bank and Alan moved down to help with weighing and photos, so much easier and quicker than when on your own.  The fish weighed a very pleasing 12lb-5oz and the photos that Alan took proved to be very good and up to the normal standard of his shots.

                                                     First of the brace at 12lb-5oz.

There seemed to be lots of leaf matter coming downstream and I finally gave up trying to hold the far bank moving the bait into midstream and changing that rod over to pellet as well.  Alan had left just after helping me so when the next fish showed around 8pm I was on my own.  This fish gave a very good account of its size and it took me a little while to get it into the net.  Once weighed I could see why, it was only 1oz below my river best coming in at 13lb-4oz and also a good brace of barbel from any river.

                                                    Second of the brace at 13lb-4oz.

With the conditions still good I went back to the swim on the Warwickshire Avon that I caught from last week, I thought it should be good for more than just one fish.  The day was going colder and the wind had got up giving a significant chill factor but even so I hopes were raised when I took a fish of about 4lb within the first five minutes of casting in.  I’ve been at this fishing game for long enough to know that all too many times you catch that quick fish only to continue for hours afterwards without a twitch to show for the effort, fortunately this was not to be the case.  Again a smaller chub put in an appearance somehow getting past the long hair I intentionally leave to avoid such fish, then the barbel showed and this time it was fit and so fat I weighed it at 7lb-13oz.  I had no more indications of fish, but with two barbel caught on the day yet again I left the river well happy with the results on day.  I had now done three days after barbel in February and caught on each, but the following day it came back to normal and I had a total blank with just two weeks to go it will not be the last but we live in hope.

                                                       The last fish of February at 7lb-13oz.

A review of February - Part 1.

Arriving back from Suriname during the third week of January was a definite wake up call, I say ‘wake up’ but in fact it put my fishing on a definite sleep mode waiting for the temperatures to rise up again to something like normal.  Many years ago I would go fishing irrelevant of weather, but now I’ve gone soft and like it to at least be above freezing when I’m on the bank in daytime.

                                                From a time when I did go in freezing conditions.

After about three weeks of this layoff I decided I must go fishing and so I arranged with a friend to spend three days on the Hampshire Avon after the monster chub that live there.  It was still quite cold especially in the northerly winds, but enough is enough and I wrapped up well and arrived at Ringwood about midday on the 10thFeb.  I already had a thought as to where I would start providing the swim was free and as I drove down the nearby track I looked across the field to see it was indeed available, first part of the plan in place.  For me, winter fishing for chub is fine tackle, small hooks and either maggot or casters.  Cheese, meat and pellets and other baits will obviously work as well, but I love the feel of a very large chub on tackle that he could break with a flick of his tail, now that is exciting.  My tackle this time is a Drennan Medium Feeder rod and the usual Mitchell 300 reel loaded with 6lb main line.  The large maggot feeder is used with Drennan ready tied size 18 or 20 Superspade hooks to take either a single or double maggot.

                                              A smaller feeder than used but still a chub setup.

My swim is typical of the Avon in winter in that it is racing through on a very fast glide but my saving grace is that of slower water alongside the rushes on the far bank, with 30gram of extra lead on the 50gram feeder and the rod held high to keep most of the line out of the faster water I can just hold.  In these conditions the extra weight does not deter the chub too much, finely balanced against the flow the slightest pull on the bait will dislodge it and the tip is seen to quiver as the fish moves downstream with it.   With small hooks there is no need to strike, just pick up and play the fish, no problem in that, except the fish is on the other side of the raging river and I have got to bring it across on the tiny hook.

                                                  Opening swim on the Avon

I bait dropped both hemp and maggot at regular intervals and around 5pm I finally got my reward as the tip quivered and I began the heart stopping fight against a fish that initially was determined to run into the rushes by his side.  Fortunately I could pull him away or at least hold him in place, if I had been on that bank I would undoubtedly lost him since there would be little chance of stopping him moving the few feet to his side.   Holding him making the rushes was the first part of the battle and now as he moved away from them he was in the extra flow to help his already powerful runs.  This is where the Mitchell comes into its own for me.  I have used them for near 50 years and in this situation they become part of my arm, I don’t need to think when playing a fish on fine tackle and I rely on a backwinding method as I feel necessary.  With most reels if you set the clutch to cope with the sudden lunges on 2.5lb line you cannot reel against a powerful run, hence the backwinding method.  It has been over a year since I had seen a very large chub and as this swam past under the bank in crystal clear water I thought I had a 7lb specimen on the hook, when I finally landed him the scales showed my error in that it weighed 6lb-6oz, still very pleasing for the first day.

                                                              6lb-6oz Avon Chub

The following day produced just one bite again and this time it weighed in at exactly 6lb so good average but a definite lack of bites.  With a total blank on the last day it confirmed the local opinion that the fishing was hard at the moment, still with two 6lb plus fish not too disappointing!

                                                 The second 6lb of the trip.

My first river trip for barbel was in fact on the 17^th February and I went to the local Warwickshire Avon with the thought that just possibly a stray barbel might feed.  It had been very cold for some considerable weeks and now there was a definite increase in temperatures going 6C or even 7C during the day so worth a chance trip.  An extra bonus was the heavy rain a couple of days earlier and the river had rising noticeably, I’m a firm believer the floodwater can beat the cold when looking at whether barbel will feed or not so here goes.

I had gone onto a section of river that I had not previously fish and my first choice of swim looked perfect, a large obstruction mid river gave a big slack below it and fast flow down either side, surely a barbel must live here.  Several casts and one 2lb chub later I had found the problem, with the river well up it was not so noticeable but I’m sure a visit in the summer will show either heavy rush beds or cabbage beds all along the nearside bank and out into the slack area.  Each cast had been snagged on roots and a couple of times I thought I would need to pull for a break before it finally came clear at the last moment, time for a move.

The next swim was a narrow neck where the river came off a good size pool, strong flow along the far bank and a far steadier pace from the nearside bank out to just over half way across.  There was not a crease as such but the difference in the flow rate was noticeable and I felt hopeful that a fish would lie in the water just off that fast pace to conserve energy, worth a try anyway!

Tackle was as usual 1.75lb test Drennan Barbel Specialist with Shimano 5000RE reels loaded with 12lb line, a large swimfeeder to take my pellet mix and hemp goes down to a 12inch length of 15lb Pro Gold mono to act as a stiff rig and this is tipped with 6inch of 15lb brain with a size 8 Drennan Continental Carp hook tied with a knotless knot leaving a 0.5inch hair rig in place.  Two or three 10mm Elips pellets are then superglued onto the hair and all is ready.

                                                  My first barbel of 2015.

Fortune favoured my efforts and it was not too long before I was looking at my first barbel of 2015, a fish of about 7lb that did not fight all that well in the cold water, perhaps he had only just woke up from his enforce nap.  My next trip on a river the following week proved far more productive, but I will write that up tomorrow.

Fishing bonaza continues in Febuary.

Following the success of my previous three days fishing as reported in the last blog I took a couple of day off but the lure of the rivers and limited time left meant I had to return.  This time I decided on a totally different venue some miles away from the scene of my success, I didn’t want to catch the larger fish three times in a row.  I had been to this stretch while the rivers were in full flood but decided against fishing since there was just too much water going through, now it looked perfect and almost at normal winter lever with a colour that had me wishing I had brought casters and hemp rather than the usual mix of pellet/boilie and meat.

As expected the banks had the usual layer of silt that always follows floods as they recede, the one advantage of this is that you can see if the swim has been fished recently and this time there was undisturbed silt so at least that was in my favour.   One of the many factors that can affect whether you catch or not and how many fish you catch is the unknown thing of the swim being fished the day or night before your arrival.  It seems obvious to make the point, but if the fish have been hammered or overfed your result will suffer correspondingly.   With the sun shining and only the slightest threat of a shower I settled in place and soon had two rods fishing their respective baits.  One was using the Elips pellets and the other was on dynamite Crave boilies, both fished with a swimfeeder loaded with a mixed pellet soaked with 50/50 hemp seed that I favour for this situation. 

The river temperature was going up day by day and I was hopeful that the barbel would be on a proper munch so I kept the casting to a fairly regular pattern introducing feed all the time to tempt the fish up to the feeders and my bait.  The first indication came after perhaps an hour and that produced a chub of about 4lb+ and I was away for the day.  Not too long after that I was looking at yet another chub but this one was larger and deserved to be weighed.  As I previously mentioned a 5lb chub on the Warwickshire Avon is quite a good specimen and this one exceeded that figure by 7oz so I was well pleased with it.

                                                   An Avon Specimen Chub.

I was even more pleased with the next fish with it being a barbel of good proportions.  Both of the chub had taken the pellet bait and I had decided to change the boilie over to pellet as well and it was this one that was taken, maybe the fish would have picked up the boilie as he came across it, but that is one of those unknown things that make fishing interesting as we try to fathom the little fine points out.  At 11lb-7oz this  was my fourth barbel over 11lb in eight days, I’ll take those results any time the fishing gods want to pass them out it makes up for the blank spells we all suffer at different times.

                                                            11lb-7oz powerhouse of a barbel.

I was going to pack up quite early compared to my usual stay into dark and as my 5.30pm deadline approached I landed an 8lb barbel to round off a very enjoyable session yet again.  The next day was a very early start for a visit to Chew Valley hence my early finish, I needed to make sure everything was in place since at 4:30am I will still be in sleep mode and driving the van by remote control.

My boat partner for the day was Dave Mutton who runs his shop and web at Specimen Fishing UK.  It was an interesting day and we fished the shallow area behind the island in the hope that the big females would be around ready for spawning.  The nearest we got to one was when I saw a large fish roll between me and my float, I watched the floats with hawk eyes for a while after that but nothing happened and we retired beaten.  A lot of rubbish is written about Chew and how easy it can be to catch a 30lb+ pike, yes lots are caught but by far the bigger majority of anglers catch jacks or blank, it’s hard work and you need a very big slice of luck to succeed but I’ll be back as the saying goes. 

                                                  Always a welcome visitor on the bank.

A great 2014 start on the rivers.

It’s been a long spell since the last blog, but that just indicates the conditions and my lack of interest in fishing after the Suriname trip.  Last week I did a little perch fishing with just a few fish up to a best of exactly 3lb, the rain made photos difficult especially when the remote played up.

This week I finally got onto the river and a trip to the Warwickshire Avon last Sunday was the first river visit of the year, highly fishable but I suffered a total blank.  With the water falling I decided on another try on the Tuesday, this time the fishing gods smiled and gave me my first barbel of 2014 at 9lb-14oz when he picked up a large chunk of heavily flavored meat.  I fished into dark, but that was the only chance I had though it encouraged me to try again the following day.

                                                          9lb-14oz first of the new year.

On Sunday the water temperature had been 6C and now it was 7C a fact that gave a lot of hope for the fish to be on the feed.  With a good size river in front of me I was fishing two rods, one using Elips pellets as bait and the other on the same flavored meat that had given the previous fish.  Both were fished with just a straight running lead rather than the usual feeder that I use.  Following the cold weather and flooded rivers there had been very few anglers on the banks, I could see by the undisturbed mud in the swims that no one had been on this length of river since the water level had dropped.  My thinking was that although I thought the fish would be moving about I did not want to over feed them in these lower temperatures hence just single baits.  The weather was great, quite mild with just the very odd light shower that hardly dampened my coat.  Sitting the on the river bank again and watching the surrounding wildlife, it was terrific to be out whether I caught or not.

                                                     Spring is just around the corner.

Of course I wanted to catch, and when the pellet was taken by a hungry fish I was pleasing to hit into power as he screamed off against a quite tight clutch setting.  The high water gave him more help as if he needed it and I knew this could be something special, when he finally went into the net that thought was confirmed when its weight came in at a very pleasing 11lb-13oz, welcome to 2014!

                                                                      11lb-13oz barbel

The pellet bait was replaced and before too long I was playing another good fish that had picked up the meat, a different fight to the first in that it was slower and more powerful but the result was the same and it came to the net having been beaten in the fight for supremacy.   This one turned the numbers round to 11lb-6oz to give a very memorable brace for this river.  That was it for the day, but the long miles home seemed that little bit shorter as I replayed the events of the day.

                                                         11lb-6oz barbel to complete the brace.

One of the biggest advantages of being retired is the ability to take advantage of good conditions.  I well remember all those years at work where the middle days of the week were always better than those at the weekend.  With results so far and another fair day to follow I decided I must try again so the following day saw me back on the banks yet again.  I moved about 80 yards downstream of my previous day effort with the thought that I might have disturbed the fish there and events suggested I was right.  A slight point on the bank gave rise to a slack running along the nearside and I could see the remains of a rush bed just showing in the now clearing water out in front of my position.  The pellet rod went out to the outside edge of the rushes and the meat went down onto the crease of the nearside slack.  With a new swim, [I’d never even seen this one before], I always wonder if there are any fish present, since quite often the fish have not read the books to know that the features are perfect for them to be present.  As it turned out I soon had my answer as a fish of about 6lb or 7lb took the pellet bait with the downside being it was right in the middle of the only heavy rainstorm I suffered on the day.

                                                  First of the day at 6lb or 7lb.

Still that was a start and it was followed shortly after by one of those unexpected highlights that can make fishing such an enjoyable sport.  I got a take on the meat rod and for a while I played a fish I assumed was going to be a barbel of maybe 5lb, it held deep and ran upstream in the heavy flow and when a chub appeared I was probably just as surprised to see him as he was to be there on the end of my hook.   The thing is it was not just a chub, it was a big chub that eventually took the scales to 6lb-5oz.  Now I’ve had lots of 6lb plus chub and some going over 7lb but this is the equal of any of those coming off this river where 3lb and 4lb are the normal size fish you catch.  It had been caught on barbel gear, though very pleasing never the less.

                                                                          6lb-5oz gem of a chub.

That fish would have made any day but the gods were really smiling since just as dusk fell I hooked into another big fish that had taken the pellets and yet again another large barbel slide over the rim of my net.  The scales showed a weight of 11lb-13oz and being a realist I suspected it would be the same fish as the previous day and a check of the photos did confirm that point.  By using blinkers it is very easy to over estimate how many big fish are present in a stretch of river.  With weight variation and travelling good distances it can appear there are far more fish than is reality.  Still, I was not in the least bit worried, it took as much to catch him the second time as the first and it could well be I will never see him again, that’s fishing.  With five barbel and three of these over 11lb along with the big chub my 2014 river season was off with a bang I hope it continues.

                                                             Second time at 11lb-13oz.

With just two weeks before I’m off to Guyana it remains to see what that time has in store but I’ll let you know.

A little piece of angling history.

Browsing through some of my books I noticed this piece of angling history.  I have kept an angling diary over the years and this is one of the pages from 1968.   It shows my first holiday away after fish when I travelled to Scotland with my brother and fished on Lochmaben for bream and the River Annan for chub.  We did not catch the chub but we did have some bream which may have led to my lifelong love of them.

On the chub fishing comments it is worth the notice of the times fished, along with my then angling companion we fished every Friday night through to the following day and did this throughout the winter, we were hard men then!

The chub sizes mentioned reflects the difference in what is available now compared to those days, a 3lb plus chub was marked in red.

Last but not least is the small cutting out of the local Telegraph newspaper detailing the capture of the 4lb-8oz chub, a very big fish then, this was the first mention by name of my exploits, little did I realise how much of my life fishing would devour.

A nice brace of specimens.

I have had a mixed spell of fishing results over the last week.  A return to the sturgeon lake saw me catch two fish, one of  41lb-14oz which was the same one as last week and a second of 22lb-4oz, a good day’s sport but I still have to try for the 50lb plus fish I’ve seen from there.

                                                 Return of an old friend at 41lb-14oz.

My next effort was 48 hours on the River Wye at Hereford, lots of small chub between 8oz and 3lb but the only barbel I hooked was lost when the braid section of my hooklink broke.  There seemed no reason for this but it was probably a nick taken as the fish bores around on the bed of the river.  I’ll be back there in my attempt to put a few extra ounces on my river best of exactly 10lb.

                                                  The River Wye near Hereford.

Now I decided on a trip to the local River Anker, an easy session since it is only 18 miles rather than the usual 50 miles or so.  My target was barbel, but all I got was quite a number of knocks off the chub, two different swims were fished but I got the same result.  These fish were not hooked by the simple idea of leaving quite a long hair with the bait a good 10mm clear of the bend of the hook, not a problem for the barbel, but chub rarely take the bait that far into the mouth.

With the rain we have been having I still thought the chances of the barbel would be good so I returned to the river yesterday for another attempt.  This time I shortened the hair to put the bait right onto the hook just to see what size chub were knocking, it turned out to be a good idea.  I still got a number of knocks off chub that did not take the bait far enough to be hooked, they are far cannier than barbel when inspecting and taking the bait offered, but at last one was hooked and at first I thought I had a small barbel.  The difference quickly became obvious as this fish sort out the sanctuary of nearby rushes and for a moment I thought he had made it as they bent over under the pressure I had on him but then he came clear and was mine.  As I drew him to the net I thought he looked quite big and at 5lb-12oz he certainly falls into the category for any midland river where 5lb is the normal target.

                                                    A fine specimen at 5lb-12oz.

Less than thirty minutes later he was joined by an almost identical twin of 5lb-11oz, a well battered fish but with room to put on extra weight I’m sure either of these two specimens can make the 6lb mark later in the year.  Both fish fell to a boilie made up for me by a local manufacturer, Quality Baits.  I normally use the Dynamite range of product but they stopped producing the Monster Crab line and although I now use Source and Crave I still have a lot of confidence in the original boilie that put so many barbel on my hook in the past.

                                                 A battered warrior of 5lb-11oz.

Before the session ended I added yet another chub, but this one fell back into the usual range I expect and when weighed he sent the scales to 4lb-5oz, a nice ending to a successful day.

Variety is the spice of life.

As with most weeks it has been a mixed bag, both in target species and results.  On the Saturday following the Barbel Challenge I went back after the eels, a quick and easy overnight session that resulted in a total blank, maybe next time.  I had arranged to travel down to the Kennet region to stay with John Found for a three day trip so early Tuesday I arrived on the Kennet and we met up to give the barbel a hammering.  Not to be and even though we were prepared with casters and hemp just one 7lb fish fell to John, very disappointing and as with so many of these occasions without explanation.

The following day we were due to go down to Johnson’s Lake on the Marsh Farm complex, crucians are the target here and at this time of year a 3lb plus fish is the target weight.  We float fished from about 4pm through to 11:30pm but struggled just two crucians falling to John’s paste one smaller in size but the other at least 2lb plus.  One of the problems was the large number of one inch fry that stopped the normal fine tactics we know work.  We caught roach, rudd and tench in reasonable numbers but the crucian bites were probably amongst the dips and waggles that were occurring all the time, it needed a suicidal fish to show its interest.  With two days gone and virtually nothing to show for it we approached Thursday wondering what it would bring.

 

                                                                    These were the target

Choosing two different swims to those used on the Tuesday, we began the bait and wait tactics that were the order of the day.  I’ll run through mine but John would be duplicating the same with very little difference.  My swim was typical of the Kennet in that much of the river sections are left almost undisturbed and there are lots of features to fish to.  This one had a large bush going out into the river just downstream and on my bank, the opposite side had smaller bushes running along the bank these giving about two or three feet of cover over the river perfect for the fish to feel safe in.  There was a slight gap in the line that allowed me to bait drop across against the bank and lay a trap for fish moving up and down through the swim.   A pint of caster mixed with hemp went out and the swim was left to mature for an hour or two.

Unlike John I do use two rods and I had decided to fish a pellet alongside the near bank bush so having chucked half a dozen pellets in I cast out and could wait for fish to turn up.  Sometimes there is a fish already in the swim and this was such a time, after just a few minutes the rod top went round and I land a hard fighting 5lb barbel, nice start.   After perhaps an hour I baited up again with a similar amount as the first time, the hemp is the attractor and the casters will hopefully keep the fish in the area once they arrive.  If you cast out too early there is every chance you will catch but the fish you catch was one of the first to find the bait and now you need another to take the chance.  By leaving the area time to mature that first fish comes into the swim and then leaves, later he returns with a mate and leaves again.  Now other fish are picking up the signal that there is food about and apparently with danger so they tag along as well, on clear rivers I’ve seen this happen and when you cannot see in then your need the hope that it is happening just the same, sometimes it is not, but when it works you can bag up.  Today was to be such a day and when I topped up the swim again about thirty minutes later I cast out the baited rig.

 

                                                              The caster rig

 

This is a running leger and 15lb braid going to a size 10 Pallatrax hook, one artificial caster is threaded onto the hair and then three or more live casters are glued to that, nice and simple, but deadly.

                                                 Superglue shows but the fish don't mind

 

I did not wait too long before the first barbel made an appearance, often they take within moments of that first cast but maybe there are not quite as many fish here as on the Trent or some other rivers.  These fish are fit and healthy and the fight does remind me why I love to fish for barbel.  This one went 8lb-7oz and it was followed through the day by others of 5lb, 6lb and of 8lb-12oz and the cherry on the cake a 10lb-2oz fish that would not keep still for its photo.  All the time I would just give the occasional top up and break in order to give the fish chance to return but once they know the feed is there they are reluctant to give up completely, I’ve even seen barbel continue feeding while I’m playing one already hooked from next to them.

 

                                                      Pristine 8lb-7oz Kennet barbel

 

Meanwhile John had been keeping up with my catch rate; in fact his best fish until near the end was the same as my first one at 8lb-7oz.  Then he beat my running total with a 10lb-8oz fish, his tenth of the session with a bonus? bream.  The walk back to the car at dusk was certainly more pleasing this evening than those previous two, but then if you don’t fail how would you know you have succeeded?

 

                                            Lively 10lb-2oz hence too much fingers showing.

 

Back home and with all the rain being forecast on Friday night/Saturday I thought the river might respond so on the Saturday afternoon I made my way up onto the River Derwent with the intention to fish into dark.  Lots of people did have significant downpours but I didn’t and the river was still low and steady.  Today I would use boilies and had chosen to fish Source under my own bank and Crave on the far bank alongside a line of overhanging trees.  It was a nice night, mild and fairly still only being disturbed by the passing trains that run between Derby and Nottingham.  Trouble was I was also only disturbed by a single chub of 4lb-14oz and a snotty bream about 6lb that I did not weigh.  Always better than a blank since for just those few moments when the bite initially occurred it might have been a barbel and the heart rate jumps up in eager anticipation only to fall back again with the lack of powerful resistance that is the signature of a big barbel.

                                                            Bait to use for the Derwent

 

                                                           Near 5lb Derwent chub.

 

Until next time I wish you tight lines and lots of sport hopefully I’ll have the same.

Good fish to weigh at last.

It has been a very poor start to the year for me as identified by the low level of blogs I've published so far in 2013.  In fact although the weather has been uncooperative, it is a fact that I’ve fished over several days for pike, chub, or barbel where conditions were certainly good enough for me to succeed.  Rather than succeed, I totally failed to catch any fish that were anywhere near worth getting the scales out just for practice.  Several times I have had to cancel what would have been interesting days for either river roach, or the big grayling fishing that I’ve got planned, floods and deep snow can block any trip if common sense prevails.

                                                               Sunrise over Chew.
                                                            
 Now at last the planned trip to Chew Res has arrived and at last there are fish to be weighed.

 Having obtained tickets for two boat days, I invited Rob Thomson to join me in the February for those days, he confirmed it with his wife, and plans were made.  As the day drew closer I was concerned with the high forecasted winds that could mean the boat would not go out meaning that a lot of that day would be lost.  At the last minute we decided to fish from the bank and forgo the boat, I confirmed this with the lodge and all was ok.  As the dawn broke we were in place and the rods were ready and waiting the attention of the first pike of the day. It was cold and the strength of the wind convinced us we had made the right choice, although some boats did venture out, I was told by a friend that it got quite hairy and very wet in the spray.  Still, at about 7.45am I had the first take off a pike and went on to land a short fat fish of 15lb 14oz, a great start and the boats would not be out for another hour.  Weighing, photographs and the fish returned no sooner done than Rob had an indication.  He had just recast one of his rods and another few minutes would have brought the other one in to recast as well, how narrow is the window between success and failure.  Again a superb fish typical of trout reservoir pike, short and deep giving a deceptive weight when guessed, they just are shorter than expected and so weigh less than your first guess.  I guessed 28lb; it went 26lb-4oz and a new personal best by some margin for Rob.

                                                             15lb-14oz.  A fish to weigh at last!

                                                        26lb-4oz pb for Rob.

                                   It had been a bit chaotic but eventually all the rods were back out and we sat back for a cup of tea, not for too long though as yet again Rob was in action.  This fish kited to the right and crossed my lines before tail walking quite spectacularly before being safely netted.  She looked bigger and so it proved as the scales indicated another personal best at 27lb-10oz of perfect pike.  That proved to be the last of the action and nearly all of it before the boats would normally be about.

                                                              Another improvement to 27lb-10oz

We had a conference at the close of play and having heard of fairly dismal results from many anglers on the water we decided to stay on the bank since the swim did seem to have feeding fish present and that is a good start, maybe they would return the following day for another feast. Yesterday had been very overcast and the sun did not appear, this morning it was quite a sight as it peaked over the far bank and although there had been a heavy frost it lightened the spirit to see such a glorious sight.  We waited to see if that early feeding spell would occur again and sure enough at just after 8:00am my rod was in action again and I went on to land a very spirited pike of 19lb-14oz.   Just short of the 20lb mark but we had made the mistake of remove several baits whilst getting my hooks out of its mouth, it is often said that they are all just figures and numbers but some numbers have more kudos than others, this was such a case.  Following that we fished through to dusk with just a few indications that suggested trout would like out bait but they did not commit to taking it.

                                                                   Nearly 20lb

                                                          
I resorted to bird watching and following a miss identification of a duck I thought was a tufty at a glance - there were lots of them about - it was eventually identified as a goldeneye, the first time I have positively seen one.  With shelduck, mallard and lots of other water fowl about there was lots to observe so at least it allowed the blank hours to pass.  A good result for me and a brilliant result for Rob, with two more days booked in October I certainly look forward to that.

                                                          Two goldeneye males after the lady.

                                                       And the victor goes off with her.

                                                       

Welcome to a new year - it begins again.

Well, not enough fishing done over the last week and some great fish caught by anglers who got out.  Trips on the Derwent and Soar after barbel were no good for me and the rest of the time I was putting up dad’s Xmas present – bit of fun on my own but I got there taking nearly three days.

 There would have been a picture here of the assembled greenhouse but Blogger in their wisdom have changed the photo upload system and I cannot figure out how to get the photo from My Documents onto here.

The same as facebook why change what is working perfactly well - no photos until I get it figured out.

Well pleased with the result and hopefully it will produce lots of veg over the coming years and give pleasure at the same time.  I’ll get back to fish though it looks like the temps are going to fall again.  Once settled perhaps the big chub and perch will oblige, I need to catch a few good fish since it’s been a while since I had a fish worth weighing.

Of to the river for a big chub -I hope!

Another year to remember - month by month look at the year.

Well that is another year coming to an end, but what a year.  This blog has come of age with the followers now at 100 and the total pageviews at over 66,000, it makes it all worth while to keep up the effort of the diary.

I am considering publishing a book which would be a record of this blog from its inception and your thoughts on the idea would be appreciated.  Initial figures suggest perhaps £10 for B&W and £25 for colour.

Recent weeks have proven very hard to get any consistant sport and most trips have in fact been a total blank, fortunately the year has a whole has been quite satisfactory so lets have a look at the highlights.


The 2012 year has been an exciting year with both highs and lows that I have shared with you through this blog.   Although I’ve only caught one new personal best of a species, I have increased the number of rivers where a double figure barbel has been caught as well as improving other river bests.  Improving a personal best is only one measure of success, and I was very pleased with getting my target fish in chub, and tench along with the barbel already mentioned.  The crowning feature of the year was almost the last when my crucian claim was accepted as an equal British record at 4lb-9oz.  No BRFC certificate yet, but I am advised that it will arrive early in January and once framed it will find a place on the wall.  So let us look at some of the highlights of my year, month by month.

January.

The month had started much as the previous year had ended floods with very cold snaps to interrupt consistent sport.  I had been fishing the River Anker for a couple of seasons, not often, but enough to have hoped for better results in that I had not caught a single barbel up to date.  This visit towards the end of the month put that right in the form of another different river double and a river record at the time of capture going 15lb-4oz.

                                                                   15lb-4oz Anker pb.

 February.

We sometimes have mild months at this time of year, but this was not one of them.  I struggled to catch fish at all, a few perch and an odd smaller chub was the reward for a fair bit of effort.  Then I decided to go south to the Hampshire Avon for a few days and I got my reward in the form of a 7lb 2oz monster chub along with other fish made smaller by comparison.

                                                        Magnificent Avon Chub

Although not a monster by today’s standards I was pleased to land a 20lb-12oz Common Carp from a canal on a match rod using gear suited to the silver bream I was trying to catch – the rod broke but I did land the fish.

                                                                Canal specimen

March.

Not a particularly successful month by my own standards, a chub of 6lb-1oz caught along with a 2lb-7oz perch off the Avon and a 3lb-7oz perch caught from a local commercial being the better fish landed.

                                                               Best of the season at 3lb-7oz 

April.

Always a chancy month and this one saw the start of the tench fishing produce fish to 6lb-3oz for me, and a 46lb-9oz catfish caught by Curtis from Orchid Lakes.

                                                          With a little help to hold it.

May.

This month saw me get a brace of catfish at 41lb and 34lb-4oz, but the highlight by a long way was a 10lb-5oz tench from a new water, this being the third different venue where I’ve taken a double figure specimen.

                                                                      A real gem. 

June.

A good month for me with a 12lb-4oz barbel off the Dove and a brace of tench off a local water at 9lb and 9lb-4oz amongst a 15 fish catch, the first time the venue had done such a brace.  This was topped off by a brace of roach from Lochnaw at 2lb-13oz each.

                                                                  12lb-4oz Dove double.

                                                        Best of the tench brace  9lb-4oz.

                                                          First of the brace of 2lb-13oz roach. 

 July.

Lots of barbel from different rivers with yet another different river double, this being the River Soar and an 11lb-1oz specimen.  Although I had caught barbel from both the Ribble and Goyt they fell short of that double figure target ensuring I still had plenty to go at.

                                                                    11lb-1oz Soar double

August.
This month started with a bang when a trip north to do a barbel talk gave me the chance to fish the River Swale and I was rewarded with yet another different river double at 12lb-2oz, bringing the total rivers to 23. 

                                                                       Swale monster. 

September.

A return trip to Lochnaw saw me improve the previous brace from the last trip by one ounce with a pair of roach at 2lb-14oz.  Lots of barbel for me though nothing spectacular, but Curtis upped his personal best to 10lb-15oz from the River Severn, his first ever double.

                                                                       He looks pleased.

                                               The second of the 2lb-14oz brace.

October.
Again lots of barbel off different rivers topped off by three 11lb fish, two off the Kennet and one from the Severn all within a four day spell.  Very pleased with the barbel but a new English pb put extra dimples in the cheeks when I landed a very hard fighting sturgeon of 75lb-5oz.

                                                                   It was this long!

November.

My third trip to the north for roach finally paid off with a Lochnaw 3lb specimen taken along with a 2lb-14oz backup fish.  I did not know it at the time but that was to be the last of the better fishing for this year as the weather went haywire and floods and frost made fishing difficult. 

                                                                      3lb At last.

December.

As mentioned at the start of this piece my 4lb-9oz crucian caught in 2004 has been accepted as an equal British record.  This came about as a result of a correction of an anomaly where the current 4lb-9dram fish could not have been weighed on the scales being used.  That 9 dram only came about through the Weights & Measures Dept. checking scales in the metric system and needed a conversion back to imperial.  Whatever the reason I’m delighted to have my name added to a rather exclusive club having twice previously come fourth in the bream list, once from Queenford with a 15lb-14oz fish and then again with my 17lb-15oz Broadwater specimen.  Happy days, even though they fell short of a record.

                                                         A British record at 4lb-9oz.

 

Looking at the blog for last December I can see that this was a repeat in that there were very few fish with a lot of hard effort, but yet again the year as a whole has been kind, hopefully your results have met with your hopes as well.