Mid year blues

Well the new season is almost here and I for one can’t wait for it to arrive.   Last year I had a tremendous time catching a terrific range of specimen fish with regular consistency, this in turn lead me to win the Korum Cup in the Angler’s Mail; this year has been very different!

My usual early trip abroad with Joe Taylor went well, though the catches were below those of previous trips.  Fishing in Surinam my highlight was the capture of a golden lau of which we had seen, and knew of, very few numbers.  I returned to home and set my sights on catching a 15lb+ Warwickshire Avon barbel.   In this task I failed although I did photograph one for a friend, no problem here in that it is a difficult target and hopefully I will achieve it this coming year.  What was noticeable was over this period I caught very few fish and the two trips I did for chub on the southern rivers fared no better.   Each time I got flooded out and if I had decided to barbel fish instead I would have been ok, but I was in the wrong mind-set for that so I came home.

I then tried a new water for bream fishing over the next couple of weeks without success, not a surprise as I rate big bream to be the most difficult of our coarse fish to target and catch.  Now it was the beginning of April and the crucian fishing was the target.  The club had decided to alter the closing date and it would be closed for fishing from mid-April until the usual opening season date of mid-June.  

Fortunately this gave me the chance to complete two three day seasions, three days is a club rule maximum then you must leave for 24 hours.  Over that period I took six crucians with the best going 4lb-0oz, 3lb-15oz, 3lb-13oz and 3lb-10oz.  A pleasing result and quite probably two or three of these would go well over the 4lb mark just three or four weeks later. 

                                                      4lb-0oz crucian, the best of 2016 captures.

                                                            3lb-15oz beauty.

Unfortunately that was the highlight of the year so far, I went back to bream and now included tench in my efforts.  This was on a new water with unproven potential, but fishing there along with John Found we both felt the big fish should be present.  The ever present carp anglers told us of many big bream to very large weights along the tench that again would be interesting, none were weighed of course, and I am suspicious of carp anglers estimates.

One interesting highlight was that my first book 'Rainbow's End' was reprinted by The Little Egret Press and is once again available for those that missed it first time round.

I have a number of original paintings by the like of Pledger and Turnbull but having seen some of the pencil drawings by Pete Wilson I decided to commission one of his works.  Very pleased with the result.  .His site is found at https://www.facebook.com/pcjportraits/

                                                         4lb-6oz crucian in portrait.

Last week we had an interesting diversion looking at an embryo roach project undertaken by Del Shackleford who is the fisheries manager for Reading & District A. A.   Following the success of the Avon Roach Project the club has decided to stick a toe in the water and follow the guide given by that projects lead.  Del travelled down south to spend a day with the lads running the project and they kindly gave him results of their trials and experience over the previous nine years.  In Del’s estimation this fact alone saved him perhaps four years of trials.  He knows he still has lots to learn and his own mistakes and false leads to follow but he, and the club, are committed to success.

                                                Del gives some explanation as to the methods.

                                      Solar panel to give power and netting to protect stock.

Using club funds and help from the EA in supplying some of the equipment the trial has been progressing for well over a year and I say the resulting roach that have come through the system are small but progressing.  Tanks are under cover in a greenhouse type of structure and water is constantly pumped through from a nearby lake.  This turns the water over about every fifteen minutes and the overflow goes into the nearby four pools dug to take the maturing roach as they reach a suitable stage.  The water coming into the system from the lake also carries nutrients that the small fry can use and this is then supplemented by appropriate feed as they get larger.  By the time the roach have over wintered twice they have already gone past many of the natural predators that would have depleted their number substantially and are ready to be restocked into the chosen venues.  This is a long term project and the results will not be seen for some time, but given time those results will come and the clubs venues will benefit from fish that would not otherwise have existed.

Highs and lows of 2013.

Well we reach the end of yet another year and of course that means a review of some of the highlights and a mention of those low points.

                                              My third book continues to sell but copies are left.

January
With the very cold January it seems that lots of us anglers stayed home and read a good book, my sales at this time were quite reasonable but by the end of this year they had fell off dramatically and I've copies of both hardback and leathers still available.  With very little fishing done and no big fish caught I will move on to February.

February
Slightly better weather and with trips to Chew Valley and local waters the pike were the saviour of the day.

                                                  Chew pike, short and fat with small heads.

                                  At 19lb-14oz this would have been a 20lb+ but removed five sardines from its throat in order to remove a previous set of trebles that had been left there, this done before weighing it. :)

                                              The first of two local 20's caught this month 22lb-11oz.

                                                  The second pike at 20lb-12oz.

On the downside for this month we were reminded how fragile is life with the news of the death of the legend that was Terry Lampard, a good friend and one that will be sorely missed.

March
Normally the end of the river effort and the start of my bream fishing but this time South America's rain forest rivers called.    A trip to Guyana was too much to miss and although we struggled there were still plenty of big fish to be caught.

                                               One of my targets achieved 64lb Redtail Catfish.

April
Amongst lots of other fishing for this month the week at Lochnaw Castle always stands high, especially when the magical 3lb roach is landed.

                                                 A 3lb Lochnaw specimen roach.


May
May is always an exciting time though this year nature seemed well behind its normal state possibly by as much as 4 to 6 weeks.  fortunately the crucians at Johnson's Lake on the Marsh Farm complex did not seem to mind with good fish being caught over several trips there.

                                   At 3lb-12oz this was the best of 12 crucian on this session.

                                    7lb-3oz pb for the lake, one of 17 tench taken along with the crucians on this trip.

June
With a few local tench along with trips after bream and crucians the highlight of this month or even the year was the capture of a 12lb1oz tench, almost into the fish of dreams.

                                                Highlight of the year - 12lb-1oz personal best tench.

July
I had applied for a ticket for a carp syndicate in order to try for the eels after reading that two big ones had been caught by accident, it finally came through with a start date of July 1st.  The first night session was to prove both exciting and disappointing in equal measure.  At just gone midnight I hooked and landed a 6lb-4oz eel, weighed and safely secured in a Queenford tube I continued and took another eel of 4lb-3oz.  Through an amateur mistake the bigger fish escaped back into the lake whilst I was trying for a photo.  A later visit almost made up for the lack of the photo with the capture of a 5lb-10oz and two others over 4lb.

                               Normally I would be pleased with this eel but a poor 4lb-3oz consolation prize.

                              At 5lb-10oz the best of three eels the others going 4lb-9oz and 4lb-2oz.

August.
Plenty of fishing and a reasonable number of barbel caught, but the highlight for this month was my inclusion in the Barbel Challenge of trying to catch a double figure barbel of 14 different rivers in 14 days.  I joined Jerry Gleeson and Paul Floyd on four rivers and we caught on all four.  Dove, Derwent, Trent and Soar.  Over the total effort there were doubles caught off 9 of the 14 rivers, a remarkable effort by those involved and over £2500 was raised in the process.

                                             One of the doubles taken at 11lb-1oz.

                                         The largest of the doubles taken at 12lb-10oz by Jerry.

September.
Always barbel time and this month was no exception although I've still to get the hoped for River Nene double.  Sturgeon have always atracted me with the look and power so I was very pleased to capture a 42lb8oz specimen from a midland lake.

                                             42lb-8oz the best of four sturgeon on the day.

Over the years I've caught lots of 6lb plus chub along with four over 7lb, but I was very pleased to get a couple of big 5's off the local River Anker.

                                                    5lb-12oz River Anker Chub, one of the pair.

                                                5lb-11oz to make a very pleasing brace.

October
Along with lots of other fishing I got the chance to fish on the River Test for the roach again and fortune smiled in the form of a 2lb-4oz specimen as the best on the day.  Later in the month I was on the Chew Valley water again but this time it came up trumps with a 25lb-11oz specimen pike.

                                             2lb river roach are always that little bit more special.

                                                 25lb-11oz reward for a lot of effort.

November.
For a very long time I've not bothered to fish for carp having caught large numbers in the 1980's and 90's now I had decided to try and better my pb common with a fish of hopefully over 40lb.  I'm not a purist here so I was quite content to try for the shortcut to catch such a fish and booked with Catmaster Tours in Spain and they did not let me down.  On the first day our guide dropped us in a swim he thought offered the best chance and a few hours later I was looking at a 44lb-14oz specimen that met my target.  The rest of the trip was spent after the roach and again my companions John Found and Pete Reading all succeeded in getting into the 2lb plus specimens.

                                                Target set and Achieved.  44lb-14oz.

                                                 My 2lb-8oz best for this Spanish trip.

December.
This has been a very strange month and although I've fished in what I consider to be quite reasonable conditions along with those that were less favorable I did not catch any even moderate fish..  A small double figure pike from my main venue that has failed for all fishing there, small chub and no barbel, definitely not a good end to this year.  In just over a weeks time I will be back off to South America, this time Surinam after large catfish.  I might get wet but at least I'll be warm.
Tight lines for 2014 and I'll let you know how the year goes as always.
Phil

         

A monster tench and a new pb.

It has been a strange month with fish difficult to catch, not just by me it would seem the reports were a similar result on many different venues.  Once I had found the Johnson’s crucians had spawned, I turned my attention to the tench and I decided at that point that with the cold Spring I would stay on the tench until they spawned as well.  Of course I would drop the occasional river trip in once the season opened, but tench was to be the main target.  It was expected that the London venue I fish would be difficult, it always is, but I did not expect the local tench water that was so good to me last season to be almost as hard.  All the regular anglers on the lake reported the same; blanks became the normal result with just an occasional fish coming to the net.  It seemed the rivers had similar results with a few good catches as always, but many were struggling though that is not unusual at the start of the season.  Once a couple of weeks had passed and the picture was the same it did give cause to wonder just what the weather and fish were doing to each other. 

                                                 Opening day on the River Tame. 

I had a couple of evenings on the River Tame at Tamworth but other than a couple of knocks on the rod tip nothing happened and I returned to the tench.  Just looking at my diary for June and I can see that my day’s tench fishing were adding up, five days on the local water where nights are not allowed, and eight nights giving 10 days on the Bream/eel/tench water.  I fish for the bream and eels overnight and change to the tench at dawn, bit of a compromise but it seems to have worked over the previous seasons.  I think the bream are disappearing fast and both last season and this I have struggled to catch, previously I would make quite big multiple catches on a regular basis but that is no longer the case.  My best bream from this water is 14lb-2oz but I sure there will be 15lb + fish and maybe even the 16’s or 17’s left as the shoal dies off, all I’ve got to do is catch one of them.

This week I decided on one last trip on the local tench lake, that was Monday and I blanked.  Tuesday I got the gear together and at 6.00pm I left for London with a view to being on the lake ready for the dawn start on Wednesday. A friend had advised he had seen tench although they were on the least accessible section of the lake and it would be quite a job to get the tackle to the swim.  A public footpath passes right by the swims on this section so all the tackle needs to go in one hit if you are fishing on your own.  Leaving some in the swim and going back to the car would be asking to loose part or all of it!  Even with a barrow this trip near knackered me and I took three stops on the way, many years ago I would have done it in one and maybe run part of the way.  With method feed, maggots, worms, swimfeeders and flatbed methods, six rods [spomb and marker rods, three bream/ tench rods, and an eel rod] brolly camp, water and the other odd bits you need like cooking gear and food, it’s a wonder I survived.

                                                      Dinner time for the fish - I hope!

 

Once at the swim I quickly set up the marker rod and had a bit of a chuck round to see if I could find any features, I found a small bar about 30 yards straight in front of my position, about 5ft deep, off to the left it dropped off into a gulley at about 7.5ft, two rods in the shallow section and the third in the deeper water, job done and I left the marker on top of the bar.  Now it was a simple matter to cast out the Spomb to the marker and clip up ready for putting out my feed.  I now cast the tench rods out to the marker as well so I could put a little power gum on to the line as a marker for length giving the confidence that my bait would always be in the baited area.  Since I would fish both swims at the same distance I could now reel the marker in and start baiting up using the skyline marks I had taken to show where I would be fishing.  The method feed was based on crushed Vitalin with added Dynamite Silver Explosive X mix to give a guaranteed breakup of the mix once it landed.  To the mix I added hempseed, 10mm Source boilies, sweetcorn and casters along with a few glugs of molasses.  Using the large Spomb I find that it will take about my maximum handful of feed each load with it piled high before I snap it closed, I put eight of these out to each swim in turn and I was ready for the rods.

                                                      Rubber casters on an inline feeder.

                                                            Successful rig and bits to make it.

I started with three different hook arrangements, one on rubber casters, one on a maggot feeder and the last on a combination variation to that shown previously on the blog.  With a bait band tied on to the end of the hook link I slide a piece of artificial corn up next to it and then use a knotless knot to tie the size 14 hook on the rig to finish it off.  Leaving about 4 inches length I ties a figure of eight loop and attach a swivel, then I could place a 10mm Source boilie into the bait band and job done and ready to fish.

At dawn I reeled the eel rod in with the lobworm bait still perfect and untouched, now it was just a case of recasting each bait back out, two in front of me and the other to the left hand swim.  Two of the rods could be left for an hour but the swimfeeder rig needs working and this was recast at regular intervals.  The good thing was that the tench did roll, not at dawn but an hour or so later and they kept it up for about an hour before the activity almost stopped.  Then just an odd fish would show but no bites came to either me or my friend fishing the next swim along from me, very frustrating.

By the time that 10:30am came about I was being to wonder about the weed I was fishing in, perhaps that was masking the baits so a change was needed.  The artificial casters were already being fished popped-up but the other two rigs were on the deck so I set about lifting those as well.  A buoyant maggot lifted the swimfeeder bait and then for the combination rig I placed a slice of foam between the corn and boilie, now all the baits would lift the full 4 inch of the hook link and just maybe be showing above the gossamery silkweed that covered the bar.  Maybe one hour later I got my first positive bite on the water this season and struck into solid resistance, weed was my thought and I expected to need to bring the fish back through solid weed beds.  Taking my time I just gave a steady pull with the 1.25lb test rod wrapped round but no indication of a fish, no thumps or any other encouragement that the fish was out of the weed.  I began to worry since all too often the weed will take the fish off the hook and it is lost, but then I noticed it had kited to the left!  Weeded fish don’t kite – this was obviously just big and heavy and that suggested a nice fat female out there resisting my attempts with steady power.  When it came into sight the size 14 hook took on a whole new meaning and I wished it was more in the size 6 sort of category, but I need not have worried as the tench went into the net.

                                                                      Superb Tench

Just occasionally you look into the landing net and wonder just how big your latest fish would be; this was obviously very big but with the depth of its body just one inch either way in length would make pounds difference in weight.  All fish in this state so close to spawning need extra care and I took my time getting scales etc ready to make her time on the bank as minimum as possible.  First I weighed and use a tape measure to get the statistics, then she was returned to water to rest before I took a couple of photographs.  12lb-1oz with a length of 25.25 inch and a girth of 25.75 inch, a new pb and a real monster that compares very well with any of my other species pb’s.  I caught my first 6lb plus tench in the 1972/3 season and that went 6lb-10oz a real monster in its day, now I had nearly doubled that figure to get a real monster for these modern times.  When I caught that first six I did not think I could reasonably expect to improve it, time showed I was wrong, but can I improve this one, well that’s an open question though it will be very difficult.

                                                A perfect capture of 12lb-1oz tench

                                                       This shows the thickness of the body.

As a matter of interest it fell for the Source boilie rig and I soon changed the second rod over to the same set up but it was to be my only bite.  Fate or luck, call it what you like but with ten days on a 100 acre lake and just one bite and it’s the big one.  I chose this water to concentrate on because I knew that could happen, but how often does the plan work; most times you are on a blank and dreaming of what might have been.

 

Tench, bream, barbel and eels but only one of them caught.

My poor catch returns continue, but to some degree they are self-imposed in that I choose the venues to catch a fish I want to catch rather than just catching for the sake of it.  At the moment it seems that our sport is generally at a low ebb, of course some of the thousands of anglers that have been out will catch good fish, but a tremendous number did not with me amongst them.   As the Glorious 16th approached I considered if I would have a go on the rivers, there are many to choose from and some offer a better chance of catching than others.  Probably if just catching a barbel was my criteria then I should go to the Trent, but I wanted to catch a fish that would mean something to me so I went to possibly the worse choice I could make – the River Tame at  Tamworth.

                                                 My swim on the River Tame

 

I have yet to catch a barbel off this river though I know they are there all be it in very low numbers, at least where I fish.  This season I would hope to increase the number of rivers where I’ve caught a double figure barbel from, currently at 23 rivers I am going to target four more, the Tame, Nene, Ribble and Goyt.  I could catch on the first trip to each or totally fail on all of them, but that is the challenge and the fun of my quest.  With just a few knocks off chub the first trip was the first of many blanks I shall probably experience, but the satisfaction of success should it come will be far greater than just catching another barbel for the sake of it.

My tench / bream efforts suffered another blank as well, again the choice is more for quality than quantity but even the local tench venue is not doing too well at the moment going by reports I’ve had.  Along with most of the lakes in the Colne Valley my current choice does contain the potential for very big ells and this year I will be trying to improve my 6lb-10oz pb.  With a third rod out just in front of the marginal rushes I did manage my first eel of the season, at 3lb-9oz not a monster but a start.

                                                A pointed head on a worm eating 3lb-9oz eel.

 

                                                      What's in a photograph?

 

They say a photo is worth a thousand words, and the photo above needs a few to explain just what you are looking at.  The photo is a shot of my swim on the London Lake and I’m fishing three rods, two for tench and a third for eels.  The swim itself in a bay off the main lake which is about 100 acres in extent and my thoughts were that the tench and bream might have moved in ready for spawning, if they did the eels would follow for the feast on their eggs.

The water surface is covered with willow herb seed heads, a pain in the backside in that they are very difficult to remove off your line and can in extreme conditions jam the line when trying to reel in.  A good reason to use rods with large rod rings at this time of the year, a quivertip or match rod would not survive an hour of this.  My torch can be seen hanging off the back of the rod rest, though I normally sleep with one around my neck as well ready for action in the depths of darkness.  The second torch is just in case the first fails which I’ve had happen so I cover the possibility of it happening again.  You might have noticed the catapult laying on the floor and thought this was for putting out bait, but it’s not, a closer look will show a few pebbles lying next to it.  A family of coots had found my nearby baited area with easy pickings and they were making my life difficult.  I am not worried about the little amount of food they might gather but more that I would eventually hook one of them and the ensuing problems.

The blue bowl covers my method mix and groundbait against both possible rain and little creatures that might have come during the night, the maggots tub has casters in water ready to go into the swim at regular intervals and the smaller container has hookbait for the second rod, a mix of corn, pellet and 10mm boilies so I can ring the changes over the three days I’ll be here.

The more observant of you might have noticed the two handles in the photo without apparent use, one on the right going into the reed bed and one on the left going out of picture.  These are in fact the two landing nets.  I try to avoid leaving a net where a rat or such like can get trapped in it and usually bite their way out.  This means leaving the head of it held in a nearby tree or rushes.   The net on the left is one of 50inch and its next to the eel rod,   Eels are sods that only need the tip of their tail to be outside the net and they are back out again in no time.  The other net is more like 40 inch and it is much more manageable for the smaller and more cooperative tench and bream.  Lastly the unhooking mat still folded up tells its own tale; I had blanked up to this point.    Quite a few words to cover a simple photo just imagine if I had included the camp in the shot. 

 

                                                  Holiday makers set off into the sunset.

                                   Sunset over the main lake - no photoshop just sun and cloud

Tench or barbel? That is the question.

What a cr*p week of fishing  I’ve had, two days on my local tench venue and 48 hours over two nights on the London venue without a bite!  Although I read of the occasional good catch of tench it does seem that many tench anglers are struggling the same as myself, we can only hope that things are going to change.

                                          Very large bream and tench out there somewhere.

 

I did get the chance to look around the lake over the days I spent down London way and at least Spring seems to be setting in at last, the water birds are nesting and the waterside flowers are coming into full bloom, all we need are the fish to feed on our baits.

                                               Great crested grebe sitting on eggs.

                                                  Lot of colour on the bankside

                                                      The coot watching me watching her.

For me it is always a tossup at this time of the year as to whether to leave the still waters and go onto the rivers as soon as the season starts.  With the late season we have experienced I’m of a mind to continue for the tench, at least until the start of next month.  Of course I’ll drop in the odd river trip, but the main effort will stay on tench while I hope for those elusive doubles.

                                               Target double achieved from last season.

I have already begun to sort out bait for the rivers and I’ve decided on a three prong attack when using boilies.  With Dynamite Baits, www.dynamitebaits.com  dropping my favourite Monster Crab from their range I will change over to their very successful Crave boilie for the effort on some of the rivers I intend to fish.  Meanwhile I approached my local bait maker, Quality Baits, www.qualitybaits.co.uk where he will make up your own choice of flavour and base mix at a very moderate price of say £6 kilo for 15mm and £7.50 for 9mm.  I had him make a supply of a slight variation of the Monster Crab baits in both of these sizes which again I will used over a number of venues.  Last but not least, I picked up a supply of bait at the Barbel Society Conference based on a variation of the Teme Seven Lamprey mix.  This will be used on just one local very lightly fish river to see if prebaiting can work, being a bit closer to my home I can get there two or three times a week to put just a hand full of the bait in and perhaps attract a fish or two to like it.  This change of baits might seem strange, but I do fish a lot of different rivers and spend a lot of time after barbel, it will be interesting to see the different results.

With that mention of the Conference I would be remise if I failed to mention that the committee of the Society awarded the annual Gordon Scott Award for services to the Society and barbel in general to me.  With twelve previous names on the plaques around the base I am well pleased to be amongst such celebrated company.

                                       I've had a bigger brace of barbel but none more welcome.

 

Last, but not in the least to be ignored, is an invite I received at the conference from the couple that run the Angling Heritage site, http://www.anglingheritage.org/ to take part in an interview along with Peter Wheat discussing our life in fishing.  This would be part of a series under the title of ‘Recollections.’  The content of the interview would then be compiled into a high quality and very limited edition book along with cd discs of the discussion to complete what one would hope would be an interesting piece of history.  This will be the sixth book within the series, the previous versions being Fred Buller/Fred Taylor, Barry Rickards/Des Taylor, Len Arbery/Bob Buteux, Bob Church/ Dave Steuart and John Goddard with Brian Clarke.  I look forward to this effort with great interest although I’m told it does take a considerable time from the interview to the book being produced.

                                                          Boxed delux presentation set.

Big tench and the early worm.

I have been up well before 4:00am over the last two days in order to get the early worm [ they look like tench where I search ], it seems that the fish have all but stop feeding by 9:00am and with the sun beating down I don’t blame them.  The longer I fish the more I’m convinced we know nothing about fish behaviour, why they have changed from feeding all day, even if it was spasmodically, to this almost black and white situation is an unknown factor, at least to me it is.

 

                                             The dawn just tinges the trees opposite with colour.

                                          A nesting Oyster Catches looking for the eary worm

 

The water was coloured about a month ago, it went total clear and now it is coloured again, probably a brown algae.  As mentioned in the last blog the insect life is prolific but very few fish are seen on the surface, even that dawn activity seems to be missing.  All that aside I did manage four fish on both days before they shut off.  Each day it was two 6lb plus fish and other two in the 5lb and 4lb range.  Pleasing fish to catch but I am hoping for a couple of the bigger fish that are there.

                                                  6lb plus tench are always welcome.

I have been trying to compare the results on two different approaches, one of rubber casters fished over a bed of casters and method feed, the other using a corn/pellet combination bait fished again over a bed of corn and method feed both fished with short hook links and a flatbed method feeder.  So far over the very limited sample caught it is five three to the caster being on top.  Effectively that is only one fish difference since if one of the five caster caught fish had been on corn the totals would be even and I must note that corn and pellet is a lot less expensive than casters and when not used they keep better as well.