A day fishing locally

Interesting couple of days in that I went locally to try a bit of 'crucian' fishing.  Friday went quite well since I was catching lots of fish, bream, roach, but initially not the crucians, I had tried a large variety of pellets flavours and pastes until I dropped on the chocolate malt which seemed to be the crucian's favourite.  Not only that it also seemed to cut down the capture of the unwanted species as well and in the last 1.5hrs of my session I took 7 of the little gems to about 1lb-8oz.

Bait tub for size reference - that one caught bream.

Returning Saturday I went in with the chocolate malt thinking I had this sussed - how wrong can you be?  Catching loads of bream and roach again but then that thunderstorm moved in.  Lightening and very heavy rain stopped play as I held onto the umbrella in the strong wind that had also appeared then the storm moved through and the sun came out again.  Everything seemed back to normal but the bites had dried up almost completely, I stayed on for another three hours but other than the odd fish, but no crucians, I had no sport.  Maybe the sound of the large raindrops hitting the water disturbs the fish; perhaps air pressure does it, whatever it spoiled the day's sport.  Still there is always another sunny day to go out and try again to fool our target fish hopefully without that rain coming to spoill it.

Catfish heaven.

About a month ago I fancied a spot of catfish fishing and decided it would be good to have company so I invited a couple of fellow bloggers to come along.  Leo Heathcote  of the  ‘A Fisherman’s Journey’ blog, here and Rob Thompson of the ‘A Specialist Anglers Diary’ blog, here  both jumped at the chance and a suitable date was set in stone, 48hrs starting mid-day on the 19^th August.

The venue to be fished was the Club Lake on the Orchid Lakes complex near Oxford.   Famous as the Home of the 30's, refering to the numerous big carp that are present in the main lake, but well known to catfish anglers for the great fish that it consistently produces with numerous specimens present over the 40lb mark along with even more below that weight to give the visiting angler a chance at a big tadpole. 

It came as quite a surprise when Merv Wilkinson mentioned he would like to come along, he is 76yr old and to my knowledge he has not fished through a night for over 25yr, I’m not sure of the exact time he would have last done such a venture but the 25yr mark is definitely a minimum.  He had no suitable gear for staying on the bank, why would he? But I had sufficient and he was looking forward to the venture with enthusiasm not seen for quite a while.

For once a long term plan came together with good, and highly suitable weather conditions.  Normally I would not want bright sunny days with temperatures soaring into the higher numbers that are experienced in this country, but with cats it was no problem.  We set off loaded for bear, a good variety of baits and heavy carp rods capable of stopping the powerful cats that we both hoped would be waiting for us to arrive.  By late afternoon we were all four of us in place, Merv and I on the corner swim and Rob and Leo on the Green Bank.  The cats often get caught by the normal day ticket anglers after carp so obviously we got out various offerings out hoping one of the target fish would pass by and pick up our bait.  At least that was the plan but as darkness fell we were still waiting.

With the high overnight temperature I was still in shirt sleeves reading my Kindle story of dragons and goblins when just before 10:oopm I heard Merv’s comment ‘I’m in’ and I quickly made my way along to his position to help get his second rod out of the way before he brought his prize to the bank.  I had not needed to hurry as the fish powered away taking line again as soon as Merv took any up.  Merv swears that both Rob and I left our rods in his way just to hinder him landing the fish but either way he still got it coming to the net and it was safely landed.  I untangled the two other lines that it had picked up and then got into the weigh and photograph mode.  The scales indicated a terrify new personal best of 39lb-2oz beating his previous best taken in 1983 from Claydon Lakes, the catfish Mecca of that time.

                                                         Merv's new personal best cat.

What a dream start to the session, the first few hours and Merv has this pb followed at about 3:00am by Leo landing an even bigger fish of 43lb-12oz but I’ll leave that story for him to tell.  Nothing more was to happen through that night and the following day but as darkness fell we were all on edge hoping that yet again the cats would make an appearance.  Sure enough at around the same time as the previous night Merv hooked into a cat yet again but this time his elation was short lived as the fish threw the hook, not unusual as they have very bony mouths.  This was of course disappointing but it did give hope that the cats were yet again ready to feed and at just after 11:00pm I finally got a chance myself.  The fight was good but I knew it was not off one of the big fish, I stopped it running off the clutch a couple of times and you don’t do that with the big ones.  Once landed it went on the scales and came in at 22lb-5oz one of the home grown samples since all of the original stocking are mostly 40lb plus or big 30’s now.

                                                     Almost a kitten on this venue.

Unfortunately that was the end of the action and we packed up mid-morning with the old thought upper most in our minds – we’ll be back!

More gold medals.

Amongst the many species of coarse fish that I devote my angling hours in pursuit of specimens, the crucians hold a special place.  They can be the most frustrating of fish when fishing for them with float tactics which is my preferred method.  One minute they give suicidal bites and the next you are hardly aware of the floats movement even when the shot is applied to take it down to the slightest dimple on the surface film of water.  I was going down south in order to fish on a Barbel Society fish in arranged by John Found on the Kennet, so I thought to take advantage of that trip to drop in on a crucian water and spend thirty hours or so in an attempt to get the prize of a 3lb plus specimen.  No sooner thought than decided I loaded the van with the multiple types of tackle needed and set off mid-day Thursday.  

The early part of last week had been showery and overcast but the temperature had held quite reasonable, by the time I set out the temperature had gone into the high twenties and the sun shone out of a clear blue sky, not ideal conditions.   I arrived to find the lake well in use though most of the anglers were more interested in the king carp rather than the crucians so little problem there.  It was quite interesting to watch some of these lads casting 100 yards into the middle of the lake while carp swam on the surface 30 yards out in front of them, there must be a reason but I could not figure it out!

John had already arrived, but had not got set up when I walked up the bank and found I had left my landing net head in the van.  Having been back to collect it and returned to my swim I saw John had already completed his tackling up and was now playing a crucian.   The fish went 2lb-3oz and of course it gave both a big lift towards the expected catches, but that was to prove a futile dream as the afternoon hours passed without a single sign of a fish.  Several hours later we had a touch of sunburn, but no fish of any description to our name, so we went into darkness hoping that would make the difference.  It did to the degree that I took a crucian of 2lb-12oz but no other fish came our way.  As midnight approached John packed up with a great deal of disbelief in that earlier that week he had taken loads of tench, roach of a good size and four crucians, all in the same time as this visit.  It seemed the fish did not like the sunshine in a big way.

                                                                  2lb-12oz Crucian.

By 5am the following morning I was back in place having spent a few hours asleep in the van and then making two flasks of tea to get me through the day.  My tackle was the usual Drennan 14ft Matchpro Ultralight rod which can handle the bigger tench at the same time as allowing a good scrap of the 2lb crucians.  With a mainline of 4.5lb and a Kamazan B520 giving 2lb-12oz to a size 14 hook for taking the variety of bait I would be trying.  Various pastes and soft pellets along with prawn were tried and eventually fish were caught on most of them.   I had taken a bag of Dynamite Swim Stim Red Krill as a carrier for a few particles and although I did not use for the first afternoon I now set out my stall to include it in my attack.  Yet again the surface of the lake was quiet with none of the usual crucian showing them as they tail splash or roll over the ground baited area, I wondered if yet again I would struggle for a bite.

                                                                     My near gold medal fish.

At 6:40 I got my answer as a strike hit into a nice fish that surged all over the place as it tried to evade the hook in its lip, fortune was on my side and I slipped the waiting net under a fine sample of crucian that showed on the scales at just under that magical 3lb figure.  That gave me heart and throughout the morning a slow but steady trickle of fish came my way.  More crucians were joined by roach to around the 1lb-8oz mark and tench to 5lb to give an enjoyable session.  Listening to the Olympics on the radio and the gold medals that were coming Britain’s way with some frequency, I could not avoid the thought that each of the fish was so similar in a golden way.  I failed to improve that first fish of the day and hence did not get my hoped for 3lb specimen, but the next best thing was to be invited to photo graph a 3lb-10oz giant for a lad fishing along the bank, it did show they were there to be caught.  At the midnight hour I left the lake to the many anglers that had arrived for their weekend session and got my head down for yet another early start to join up with the lads to fish the Kennet the next morning.

                                                               At 3lb-10oz a real giant and proper gold medal.

Recent reports from the river had not been good with most anglers struggling to catch, as always if there are enough bodies on the bank then someone will either get a very big fish or alternatively a number of fish, but on average it was hard going.  The anglers attending the fish-in ranged from very experienced to almost complete novices, but it made no difference as all methods and anglers failed to put a single barbel on the bank over the two days we were fishing.  Following the summer floods of 2007 we experienced a dramatic drop in barbel catches; I’m hearing all too much that this is happening yet again as many rivers are not producing the expected catches at the moment.  I hope this is a temporary thing and the fish will return onto the feed shortly, but at the same time I’ll be keeping my ear to the ground to see if things change.

A known Kennet tree snag but no one home.

A northern gold medal barbel off the Swale.

Sometimes the reward for effort comes from an unexpected direction; this capture was such a time. As mentioned in the previous blog I travelled up to Wetherby to give a talk to the local Barbel Society members and that seemed to go down quite well. I had generated a new presentation and this was the trial run, so it was very pleasing to get several of the audience approach me when it finished saying they both learned a little and enjoyed the talk as well.

A big advantage of the bed fitted in the van is that I can stay anywhere without a problem, just a short piece of level ground that is out of the way - job done. I had been given the chance to go onto the River Swale, not a new river to me as I had fished it on a one day trip onto the then Barbel Society section at Topcliffe, on that occasion both I and my companion for the trip blanked.  This was a fair number of years ago and I welcomed the chance to try again if only to catch a barbel of any size.

The following morning I met up with the angler who had made the offer, Sean Meeghan, and then we made our way to a local tackle shop where we got the appropriate day ticket for the stretch we were to fish. The tackle dealer did not give much encouragement as he described very poor recent results off the river, but hope springs eternal. Following a trip that ended by going along a number of small, narrow country lanes we arrived and I got the first look at the intended section we would fish. It looked terrific with trees lying alongside the bank to give good looking snag swims but not too many to spoil the effect. Sean mentioned that the heavy rain of the previous afternoon and night might colour the water and sure enough as the day progressed I could see the peat effect showing in the flow.

                                       Typical of the swims I fished but I blanked in this one.

I had taken both pellets, and maggot/caster with hemp to cover the chance of extra water or low water conditions. As it was I felt happy that the maggots should work and I bait dropped several droppers of hemp along with a mix of casters and maggots across the river to my chosen tree snag. This rod would be my main attack and get most of the attention, but I also used the second rod to put a bait out well downstream with pellet on the hook, and a mix of pellets held within an open-ended feeder as described in previous blogs.

My first cast produced a perch of about 1lb but that was it for all my efforts. Both Sean and I had decided that the best approach was to bait up several swims and then try each in turn in the hope to find a swim with resident barbel. By early evening I began to fear the tackle dealer had been right and I would be returning home following a blank on this river yet again. Then about 5:30pm after several different swims I finally got a bite off a barbel. This time my rods were slightly different in that I had the maggot feeder on the inside line and the pellet bait presented more in the middle of the river. This was because the opposite bank was definitely dangerous being one long snag just waiting to give the barbel sanctuary.

When I hit the fish I thought it was a hard fighting good sample and just held on as it tried very hard to go into the tree opposite. I could see the water surface boiling just off the branches that reached into the water and feared that any moment I would get that sickening feeling as the fish got around a branch, fortunately he failed. Once away from the tree he made less effort and was content to swim up and down in front of me just resisting the pressure to come towards the net. Then at last he slipped in and I could call Sean as I had already seen that he was a very good fish. As he arrived the scales and camera were made ready, the usual guessing game was more a case of dropping the weight down as I convinced myself that he could not be as big as I had initially thought, but he was. At 12lb-2oz he was also one of the best the Sean had witnessed off the river and obviously well above anything I had expected. This now means I've taken double figure barbel off 23 different rivers, and since it was not one of my target rivers I still have the Ribble and Goyt to try this season.

                                                               What a beauty at 12lb-2oz.

I had been listening to the Olympics on the radio to sports men and women getting gold medals but I'll this gold medal specimen anytime as my reward. When I slipped him back into his watery home I said goodbye since with a 150 mile trip to the river it is unlikely I will return. I would like to end this piece with a big thank you to Sean who made the capture possible by taking me to the right stretch on the day.

A poor week for results.

Been hard work this week trying to catch barbel, a trip to the River Teme procuced one barbel of 7lb-6oz and I took a few photos to show the effect of the major floods there has been.  Then after downloading hundreds of pictures in the past years I somehow managed to delete them - lesson learned and fortunate not a big fish.
Days on the Trent and Severn did not produce any barbel, just roach and bream that took double 10mm boilies to at least put a bend in the rod.
Today I make my way up to the Wetherby Social Club to give a talk on barbel fishing.  Come along if you fancy it  post code LS22 7DN  and start at 7:00pm.

A barbel session on the River Ribble.

The sun had finally came out but for me it went from one extreme to another, the 14c or so that we have been getting along with the rain is definitely on the low side, but 30C in bright sun is too high for me.   I was pleased to note that the north of the country would be under cloud and as a consequence it would only reach the high teens for temperature.  That was the deciding factor and I soon arranged for a trip to the River Ribble in order to renew my attack on its mighty barbel population.

Midday Monday morning saw me heading the 120 miles up the M6 towards Preston and areas upstream of that town. The motorway traffic was reasonably mobile and a couple of hours later I was on the river bank looking at a low and settled river, time for some serious fishing.  This is my third trip to the river and the previous two were made in the colder months, would the warm weather favour my efforts, time would tell.

I’ve been fortunate in that a number of local lads have offered help in the form of conditions and sections of the river that have been on form, obviously it has been bit of a lottery this season with floods seemingly coming every other day.  A local bailiff, John Monaghan has been a real help since he lives right by the river and obviously has his finger on the pulse of local conditions and results.  With a new addition to the family he has not been out quite as much this season but even so when I met up with him he was a mine of information and I had soon decided on my swim for the next 24 hours or so.

I would be fishing off a pebble strewn bank that extended into the river and without the help previous warnings this could be a situation waiting to give problems as you will read later.  Travelling anglers like me are not aware of local river conditions and the lower end of the Ribble has one bite in the arse that would catch me out every time, it is tidal.  You’re sitting there looking at your rod tips high in the sky and before you know it your feet are no longer on dry land, the tide has come upstream like a silent assassin waiting for its target.  The rise can be from a few feet to several feet and obviously it happens twice a day so if you are fishing at night it can be even more of a problem.  Following John’s advice I had arrived just after the tide had turned in the mid-afternoon so when I settled into my swim I could watch as the water level receded back to its normal position. 

                                 A glug for pellets to help flavour and time in the water.

I bait dropped the hemp and soon had two rods out, one on a 14mm halibut pellet and the other on a boilie.  I would be using a dip for the pellets and this has a twofold effect.  First it obviously increases the pellets attraction with all the extra flavours that will leak out over the time it is in the water, second it also extends the time it takes to break down and hence it can be left in place that little bit longer.  I did not have to wait too long before I hooked into my first barbel of the trip, at 5lb or so it was not big, but even so it still put up a reasonable scrap on its way to the net.  It did not take too long to realise the school holidays had begun and I was not alone on the bank!  Kids of all ages walked, ran, some took the dog along sometimes on a lead, but most times not, you name it and they were there.  Being on the exposed pebble bank they left me alone, but those fishing the main bank had lots of problems mostly from the dogs in their tackle and bait.  My next fish really had me thinking I’d got the double as it powered back and forth in front of me and even as it came over the net my eyes still saw a potential double.  Unfortunately I had the same problem as often occurs and the scales knocked  1lb-8oz off my eyes and gave a weight of 8lb-8oz still a pleasing fish being in summer condition, long, lean and full of fight.

8lb-8oz of Ribble powerhouse.

Two more fish followed that one although I lost one when I got cut off on a rock, easily done on this river.  All these fish had come in daylight and even though I fished towards the midnight hour no more pulls occurred, so I retired to the van quite pleased with the afternoon’s results, roll on tomorrow morning.

With not enough sleep I was up early and on the banks again but throughout the morning nothing happen, not a knock.  With the tide due at 3.30pm I would have to move back off my swim and I wondered if perhaps it was the after tide effect that had given me my results of the previous day, but then with an hour to go the fish turned on and I took four barbel in quick order before I needed to move.  Two of these came together and to anyone watching it would have been a little bit of a comedy.  The first fish was being played and giving quite a good account of itself, during the netting I knocked the second rod off the rest when I swung the net around to put the fish on the landing mat and I had to leave the rod lying there while I dealt with the fish.  Having removed the hook I put the net and fish back into the water’s edge whilst I got the scales ready to weigh him and I thought to put the other rod back on its rest.  As I approached it I could see it was wrapped in a curve and line was being taken off the free spool.  In the time it had laid there a fish had taken the boilie and was making its way downstream, fortunately it had not snagged and I went on to land a second barbel into the net to join the first.  At 7lb-13oz and 8lb-4oz they made a fine brace and I took a quick shot of the pair before I’d weighed them since I returned each as soon as the weight had been confirmed.  Another advantage of the lower temperatures up north was that all the fish went back without any hesitation rather than the extra care needed on days like we are having now in the south.

                                                            A nice brace of barbel.

                   

With the way things had gone I decided that with no plans made for the rest of the week I might just as well stay here and so with the intention of trying another swim I went back to the van for yet another night.  One very useful advantage of a nearby trading estate is the use of a wash room for the toilet and a quick clean up, not always easy on the bank but nice when it can be done.

                                            The last day's swim on the Ribble.

The following day was fairly quiet with a few small chub that broke the hours of waiting for a barbel, then a 7lb fighting machine appeared that saved the day before I packed up at 6:00pm.  There was an interesting event in that there was a salmon angler fly fishing about 200 yards above my swim and he had left his tackle on a similar beach to that I had fished the previous day.  Standing right out in the river with chest waders I was sure he would be aware of the incoming tidal surge but he made no moves.  At this time I was chatting to a local lad who had come along to see me and we watched as the level came up and then went nearly over the beach that held his gear.  In the end I shouted at the top of my voice and indicated for him to look at the bank and he seemed to acknowledge the call but still made no move so I assumed he had all in hand.  Ten minutes later he was wading through the water along the nearside bank in order to retrieve tackle that was being washed away.  Strange, since I would assume if you’re up to your bollocks in the river you are well aware of the rising levels, it seems not!

                                                            Last day specimen to save the blank.

That was it for the session in the north and with eight barbel landed and one lost it was an acceptable result, there is always another day or days to return and try yet again for that different river double, this target has been set but not yet achieved, but it will be!

Blank sessions and talks.

Following my trip to the Goyt I've had a further two afternoon trips after barbel, one to the River Severn and one to the River Derwent, unfortunately neither lived up to my hopes and I left with no fish caught but as always there is always another day.

                                                  Severn in flood with 16ft of extra water

I have two dates in my diary for arranged talk/slideshow where I am the guest speaker.  These can be great fun and a good way to meet potential new friends and contacts so it could be worth your effort to attend.   My problem is that I need to sort out a new Powerpoint presentaion to give to the guests that come along, not too much of a problem once I've decided on the theme.  Since it is a Barbel Society evening I will use barbel as the subject, I'll go into how I approach my fishing when travelling to so many different venues all over the country in the search for double figure barbel.  With 22 rivers now completed it should be interesting to say the least.

The first date to put in your diary is 2nd Aug 2012.

Details as follows.

guest speaker will be
author & all round specimen hunter

Phil Smith

there will be trade stands on the night
confirmed are
fff fiskys fantastic feeders
Chris Lythe centerpins
Barbel Society merchandise hoodies polo shirts etc
also there should be a local tackle dealer attending

there will be the usual raffle with some great prizes to be won

doors open at 7pm for a 8pm start
come early to get a seat

members £3 with your card
none members £5
oap,s juniors and ladies free

venue
Wetherby social club
Sandback Way
Wetherby
Ls227dn

The second event is near Tamworth so more local for me and it is on 14th Sept 2012, I'll give details nearer that date.