Variety is the spice of life.

It’s been a strange week of highs and lows, catching fish and blanking in other words.  At the start of the week I went after perch on a venue that has done a number of good fish.  I went in with maggots since that seems to have been working well and even with the cold north wind blowing in my face I caught a couple of nice specimens.  The rig used was a straight forward helicopter rig fished just above a standard oval Drennan swimfeeder.  The hooklink was 5lb and the hook itself was a size 12 Super Specialist loaded with a nice bright red artificial maggot along with two other red naturals.  With a bright sun beating down I took a 7lb-8oz hybrid and a 3lb-1oz perch that was busting at the seams, a very pleasing day.

                                              3lb-1oz perch ready to spawn.

                                                   Nice specimen hybrid of 7lb-8oz.

The next day I had to stay home as we have builders in doing alterations and dad had a hospital appointment for a check-up.  I did not think it would matter, but perhaps it did.  I returned for the perch thinking there must be some very big ones about if they are that shape, but although I caught three they were all back to normal, or even below normal shape, they had spawned.  The weights were 2lb-2oz, 2lb-14oz and 3lb-4oz and it left me wondering what they would have weighed a day or two earlier.

                                                         

                                                        3lb-4oz best of the three.

My next visit was after the tench since the previous trip I had suffered a blank while the lad next to me had several fish.  The tench themselves where well under their ideal weight but now is the time to refine your catching methods and yet again I failed to do so.  Worse was the fact that again the lad next to me had several fish up to about 6lb.  Back to the drawing board and I’ll try again next week with different tactics.

Now we are up to last night and that was a good one.  I decided on eels and although the night went very cold, probably close to freezing the fish appeared to be feeding.  The strong wind did not help and coming from the NE it chilled me to the bone each time I answered a run or indication, there were plenty of them and before dark I had a nice perch that had taken a fancy to the bait I had sent out for the eels.  Throughout the first few hours of darkness I was getting drop off runs that were either small eels or maybe small silverfish that could not manage the bigger bait I was using.  Amongst the takes there was one that did stick when I struck and I was shortly netting a nice 4lb-2oz eel as my first of the new year.

                                                      A nice trio on the night.

                                                       4lb-5oz best of the night.

This was just before 10:00pm and I waited until about 3:00am before I contacted another eel, this time slightly larger at 4lb-5oz.  As a serious eel fisher I set my eel target at 4lb plus, so to get a brace of them was very pleasing and just after dawn I added yet another though this was smaller at 2lb-13oz.  It was quite interesting to note that on the web there were a number of lads reporting eel captures and it makes you wonder what made that night different.

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

         

Monster eels come to the net again.

When I paid a fair amount of money to join a carp syndicate to fish for eels it was a bit of a gamble as I had only one report of eels being caught in error and that is not really a good sample.  Of course as regular readers of this blog will know it was proven a good decision on my first visit with eels of 6lb-4oz and 4lb-3oz being caught, even though I did balls up the photos big time.  Following that night I began to wonder whether it was a flash in the pan since the next nine nights only produced two eels in the 2lb range and those are almost of bootlace standard.  Then I returned last night!

I had slipped whilst descending the stairs while bringing tackle down for this eel session, for a time I wondered whether to go since my back was giving me quite a bit of agro, but in the end I decided it would hurt either at home or fishing so I left for the lake.  My eel fishing has been quite social in that I arrive at the venue about 8:30pm and can be set up fishing by 9:15pm well in time for the dusk to descend and the eels to begin their nightly wandering.  With the very hot weather we have had this was far more comfortable than fishing through the day and melting in the sun.   I decided to fish the same swim as the previous night since it was the most convenient to fish from the van, normally I would try a different area but the back said make it easy so this swim it was.   I park the van right next to the lake and have one rod directly in front of my position and then a rod about six yards or so either side of that.  Previously I had been fishing the margins and this time I had decided to fish just little bit further out into the lake, perhaps 15 yards or so.  At the same time I increased the length of the hook link to about 3ft and dropped the hook size down to a size 6.  These changes were an attempt to try and beat the missed runs that had been happen with all too frequent regularity.  With two good size lobworms on each rig I soon had the baits out and it was just a case of waiting which fortunately did not take too long.  I got a good run and struck into a fish, unfortunately it was a little perch which I had thought would have been responsible for many of the daylight indications, but now we went into proper darkness and the next run I struck into something much stronger.

Eels have a very distinctive fight where they pull and then you get what can only be described as a shudder where I believe they are trying to swim backwards away from the angler.  It is also an indication of their fight that they rarely kite to either side during the fight, just straight towards you or directly away from your position.  This fish was classic and after a nice scrap I could see the eel undulating in the torch light and I could see it was a very good fish.  I know from previous experience that it is very easy to overestimate the size of an eel while it is still in the water, both the dorsal and anal fins are extended and this increases its appearance quite considerably but I had allowed for this and it was big.  The next worry is the size of the landing net though at 50 inch it did prove satisfactory and the eel was soon engulfed in its folds.

                                                45" long and 5lb-10oz in weight, happy days

 

I lifted the fish out of the water and took it well away from the water; this one was definitely not going to escape.  The hook was placed right at the front of his jaw and could be removed with any effort, if it had been out of sight I would cut the line as close as possible since it does not help to muck about with eels too much as many of the organs are towards the head end of their body and can easily be damaged.   The weight came in at 5lb-10oz and when measured later on it showed figures of 45inch long and 8.25inch girth.  This made it the longest eel I have caught although the girth is well down on the largest which went gave 10.75inch for one of my sixes.

                                                   Second of the night at 4lb-9oz

 

Already a great night’s reward but an hour later I was playing another eel the proved to be 4lb-9oz and 39” x 8.25” and a terrific follow up.  The time was now about midnight and nothing happened until just after 2am when yet again I played and landed an eel of 4lb-2oz with dimensions of  38” X 8.0.“

                                                Last of the three at 4lb-2oz.

 

With the many twitches and false runs I had there was very little sleep this night and when Baz Fisher came round to help with the photos I was well ready to leave and get a few hours in bed knowing the dreams would be of even bigger eels I hope are waiting to be caught over the coming weeks.

Return to the rivers and barbel.

This has certainly been the longest break without an update to the blog that I’ve had though that only suggests my lack of results and different things to write about.  As can be seen on the previous blog entry I had begun an eel campaign and then with the very high temperatures we have had over the last few weeks I stayed on that effort for longer than previously intended.  Following the first nights results with a 6lb and 4lb eel I thought I had stuck gold and indeed with those results I had, but disappointment was to follow.   I have now completed nine overnight sessions and have fished off three of the four banks available using different swims along each bank.  The depth has ranged from 10ft to 2ft, though in the main I have only fished the relative margins, perhaps 20ft from the bank maximum. 

 

                                                    Eels, on your marks, get set, go!

The problem with eel fishing is the tackle is very basic, a running leger with a size 6 hook and a single worm for bait.  I put a pva bag of maggots on the hook and cast out having checked the bottom contours with a casting depth sounder [very useful bit of gear].  This has been my fishing from the last blog until this report and with just two eels between 2lb and 3lb there was not much to write about.  Hot – blank – not really an interesting write up.

 

                                                Small but perfectly formed.

 

Now with a bit of rain about I decided to try the barbel again, so I set out for the River Nene to chase yet another river double figure specimen.  The Nene is definitely a river with two distinct faces in the lower reaches that I was going to be concentrating on.  The main river is wide and generally slow and being deep quite difficult to read and locate barbel swims.  The saving grace from my point of view is the large number of backwaters, narrow with fast flows with lots of character in the form of rush beds and bends along with variations in depth, perfect for locating barbel swims.

 

                                                 One of the many back waters on the Nene.

 

Not wishing to fish under the blazing sun I arrived late in the afternoon, still very hot but at least the sun would be losing some of its strength by the time I was fishing.  I had taken a variety of options but my main effort would be with castors and hemp so the first job was to bait drop a couple of pints of these two ingredients mixed together.  I could then sit back in the shade a wait for the fish to hopefully appear which I pleased to say they did.  Not with mad abandon that I have seen at times but at least it did show the swim held barbel and I was confident I would catch my first one off this river.  When I eventually cast out with three artificial casters on the hair rig I was hopeful of a take in fairly quick order but I was to be disappointed, nothing happened and it continued not to happen for an hour or two.  With an hour to go until dusk I decided to change ships and on went on to a pellet rig with two Elips pellets for bait.  It was noticeable that I started to get taps off the small fish but that is expected since they leave the artificial casters alone once they have tried them.  As the minutes ticked past the indications got more and more as chub moved in, I had left the hair quite long on purpose to lessen the chance of a chub hook up and it seemed to be working.  Then at long last I got the long awaited wrap round and I was playing my first barbel on this new river.  The fight was impressive and I certainly expected a larger fish than the 4lb-15oz bronze fighting machine that finally came to the net.

 

                                    It was actually light but the flash gives it dark  4lb-15oz.

 

These fish will equal the scrap off the well names Teme Tigers and when a second fish fell to the same bait just minutes later I was well pleased with the session.  At 5lb-9oz this was slightly larger than the first but I was sure that over the next few trips I would get my chance of the double so I left well happy.

                                               Second of the brace at 5lb-9oz.

 

Monster eels - the highs and lows of their capture.

With this current heat wave and the long awaited arrival of a ticket for an intended eel fishing venue I though the Gods of Angling were sending a message, get out after those eels Phil!  One advantage of this intended session is that it was just overnight and I could avoid being out in this blazing sun through the day.  I left home late in the evening in order to arrive about 8:00pm, plenty of time to set up since the rods and rigs were already prepared and just needed to be unfolded.  I would be using simple rigs with a free running lead to present either worm or fish heads as bait.

Since this would be my first visit to the venue I chose the swim purely on its comfort, I could park my van behind  position and sit in the side doorway just waiting for action.  I started with worm on each of two rods and a fish head on the third, the worms would also have an additional pva bag of maggots just hung on the hook as an extra attraction to any passing eels.

                                                          Eel time on a new venue.

 

Once it got dark the swim came alive and the worm rods gave lots of indications of fish being present, mostly just one or two bleeps but on several occasions the line just screamed out and I struck into nothing.  Then just after midnight I struck an indication and this time the rod buckled over with a fish hooked.  At first I thought it would be small, just that typical shudder that comes from the eel as it swims backward with its undulating action.  Then as it came more right in front of me it decided not to come and I felt the full power of a big eel, exciting does not do it justice.  I was using a 50 inch landing net, but even that was too small and I had one hell of a game getting it to go in and stay in.  I had forgotten just how active a big eel can be and this was to prove disastrous later in the session.  With only the smallest amount of its tail still over the drawstring it was back out of the net and I was fortunate not to foul of the hook as the head went back out.  Eventually I succeeded and I was certainly glad of the heavy tackle being used, 15lb main line and more like 80lb braid hooklink to a size 4 hook. 

I got the eel into a zip up sack having zeroed the scales before doing so and the weight showed I had caught my target fish with the first one off the water, 6lb-4oz my sixth over that magic 6lb weight and I hope for the 7lb specimen over the next season or two.  My intent was never to try to get photos in the dark and I placed the sack safely into the water checking the eel could move freely within it.

The rest of the dark hours passed quite quickly and the adrenalin kept me awake without any effort.  Then as dawn came the same rod went again and this time I landed a good eel of 4lb-3oz which I just unhooked and weighed, then I  left him in the landing net to wait the hour or so before the light would be ok for photos.

In the 1970’s when I last made a serious assault on eels I had found out about a treatment as used by the fishery people at Liverpool university to calm fish whilst they did their study work.  It is called Sandos MS222 and a small amount is dissolved into water and the fish is then immersed into the mix.  This does indeed have an amazing effect of making the eel easy to handle and once returned to fresh water they quickly recover and swim off.   Since the packet I have has an expiry date of early 2012 I thought I would check if it still had the required effect on the smaller eel first and it did.  I got the photos and measurements 37”X8” and put the eel back in the landing net to recover.

                                                              Second best at 4lb-3oz

I had prepared the mix and checked the effect on the eel at the top of the bank away from the water, but once that was done I took it down to the water’s edge to take the photos.  Now I lifted the bigger eel out of the water and placed him into the mix while still in the sack.  Having allowed what I thought was enough time I unzipped the sack and tipped him into the bin I was using but then disaster!  The mix had not worked enough to disable him and with his tail just over the edge towards the water I was as in the blink of an eye he quickly disappeared back out of the bin and into the nearby water’s edge.  I stood the dumbfounded and cursed how I could have been as stupid as to play with a big eel near the water.  I have the satisfaction of having landed him and at least I got the weight, but no photos or measurements I will have to catch another one for that.

I returned the following night but it was chalk and cheese, a few twitches and I moved swims about 11:30pm but no real action, maybe next time.

 

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