River Colne 11-11-12

After a couple of disappointing weekends when the world conspired against me, finally I was able to slip away for a few hours to drown a maggot or two.

So with 1 degree above freezing showing on the car, I was wondering down the banks of the River Colne at 7am on a Sunday morning with a pint of maggots for company, I must be mad.

Plan for today – catch something. Anything. And enjoy.

I decided to have a go on my banker pegs, where I’ve done ok this season, and then see how the mood took me.

First stop was ‘the weir pool’ – scene of some good roach and barbel a few months ago. However, it was tanking through a fair bit more now. Although we’d only had one proper day’s rain in the last few weeks, it appeared that that was sufficient to raise the water levels. 

The weir pool - casting over by the yellow sign was the only way to get bites

I set up a heavy stick float with an alloy stem with a single maggot on an 18 hook and started some runs through. Apart from snagging the bottom from time-to-time nothing was showing. I tried the deeper slack that was 2/3rds of the way across (nothing). As a final gambit I launched the stick float to the far side, it’s shallow, but stable, so maybe the fish would be sheltering there out of the flow. No sooner had the float settled than it went under – missed bite. A few more casts and the culprits started to appear – some of the tiniest minnows I’ve ever caught.

Giant minnows. Not.

A few more casts, a few tangles and a few minnows later, I decided to move on down the river. I could always come back if it was worse further down.

Next peg down was ‘the bend’, again the additional water was pushing through and I was not overly hopeful. I ran through on the main line (nothing), but if I was able to bring the rig back a little I could pick up the slower line where the mid-stream gravel bar drops off. This started to produce the odd bite. More minnows. Then a roach and a dace and more minnows. It was hard work, but it was cold and November – I’ll take anything that bites in those sort of conditions. 

A rare out-of-focus River Colne dace

The third of the banker pegs is the ‘disabled swim’ which features a nice wooden platform to fish from. Here the trick is to fish the far slack and try to avoid the nearside flow taking the float offline. I keep meaning to give it a go on the pole – but I’ve never summoned up the effort to cart all my gear that far. Anyhow, the far slack didn’t produce, but if I edged the rig onto the very edge of the flow I started to pick up the odd minnow. Bites soon dried up and a swan in the swim wasn’t ideal, so back to ‘the bend’ for a few bites. Some minnows, bleak and roach followed.

Working my way back upstream I tried ‘the inside’ swim. In previous years this produced chublets and dace on the inside of a bend, but this year I’ve caught nothing at all. Today was to be no different.

Next swim was opposite the pub. I’ve struggled here in the past, but I have had the odd fish (and lost a big lump) out in the last few visits, so I gave it a go or two. As the float neared an overhanging tree I’d get the odd bite, and the first of three minnows appeared. But nothing else.

Last peg was by the ski hut. This has a reputation as a really good area, but I don’t recall ever getting a bite here. It used to have lots of fallen trees on the far side which produced large fish, if you could get them out, but the trees have been cleared and it’s fairly anonymous now. Second run through and the float dipped as it approached a snag a good 15 metres downstream. I struck and all was solid. I was just about to call it quits when the tip of the rod started to vibrate and the snag started coming towards me. Being on a 0.10mm bottom and a size 20 hook, I decided to take it easy so I just kept on the pressure and wound in whatever line my underwater foe would let me have.  It was not long before the fish was under the rod tip and I was wondering what I had on the line and where it might go next, when without warning, it surfaced. Surprisingly, it was a chub – somehow I thought it was going to be a barbel – and in seconds it was in the landing net.

Monster chub

At that point I realised what a superb fish it was – very heavy set and with a real bulging belly. Almost certainly heavier than my previous best of 4lb 12oz. But how heavy was it?

Needless to say I didn’t have my scales with me and there was no practical way I could get my hands on a set. So a couple of photos had to suffice. Very pleased with myself (and slightly annoyed) I set off home. Time to buy another pair of scales (one for the seatbox and one of the roving outfit).

Catch List:

Roach 2

Dace 2

Bleak 2

Chub 1

Minnow 25

Total weight: 7lb

Makins, September 15-9-12

I used to fish Makins a lot, maybe 20 times a year for many years, which takes some doing when you live nearly 100 miles away. However, things changed and I haven’t actually fished there for the best part of ten years, not since it was sold off to British Waterways anyhow.

However, I just had the urge to go back for the day, so after a little planning (sourcing the Green Swimstim pellets is not all that easy round my way) and a fair bit of grovelling to SWMBO I was allowed to go.

I made a early-ish start leaving the house about 6am and arrived on phase 2 at about 0715. I think I’d have been there sooner except for the 50mph restriction on the M1 north of Luton that seems to have been in place for years and also seems to go on for ever.

On my way up I had already picked my peg, and if that was occupied I had a few others in mind to try to. Thankfully my first choice was free, the peg by the path on Lizard (or Lizzard according to the signs) from which you can reach the first small island with the pole.

This was my opening gambit, 13m of pole in 3ft of water, and the usual heavy gear and 11mm expanders. A pot full of 6mm pellets to kick things off and by 0735 I was ready to fish. First drop in got a knock, second drop in a proper bite. A rather dull, plodding fight followed (not like the carp at Gold Valley on my last outing) and a 6lb 8oz mirror carp hit the landing net. Not a bad start.

Hoping that this was a sign of things to come I shipped out again. And waited. And waited. In fact I waited a good half hour for another proper bite, another carp of 6lb. I was getting knocks and dips, but they looked like liners, and a couple of foul-hookers mixed in for good measure seemed to confirm this. End of the first hour – 2 fish for 12lb, not quite what I had in mind.

I experimented a little in the second hour, set up a lighter rig to a 14 hook, tried up in the water (nothing) on the deck, sweetcorn, banded 6mm pellet, cad potting instead, and nothing really got the fish into gear. Going back on the big pellet rig with the cad pot seemed to help for a few fish, but even that was sporadic. A few carp followed, a couple of skimmers in the one to two pound bracket showed on sweetcorn, but nothing really worked.

And yet, I was still getting dips and knocks signalling fish in the area.I was still adding to my weight, carp in the 3-5lb bracket mostly, but they were few and far between. Frustrating.

I plodded on, got up to about 40lb in weight and then it started to get difficult. In fact it was almost dead on everything I tried.

So at this point I thought I’d give the margin a go. (One of the regulars was fishing the margin down to my left and he seemed to be picking the odd fish off). I’d been feeding it for a while so although it was still early I thought I might as well.

First put in. line bite. Encouraging

Second put in. Bite. Elastic. 6lb common. Now that was interesting.

I played around with things, it appeared there were fish present, but not very confident, so I re-fed a new margin line further along and also on the other side.

The next 30 minutes were very productive with two 9lb fish visiting the landing net. However, this was as good as it really got. 

I was getting signs of fish, managed a small tench on the other margin, saw my fair share of knocks, but whatever I did, I couldn’t convert the liners into fish. (Much like the main line in fact).

Mid afternoon, I’d had enough and packed up. 67lb of fish was not to be sniffed at, but it should have been two or three times that. Chatting to the other anglers and looking online suggests that my frustration on the day was not unique to me, lots of others had experienced similar issues, so the recent cold night might have been a factor. 

So, on balance, a reasonable day, but another day thinking about what could have been.

Gold Valley, Bungalow Lake 1-9-12

I don't fish Gold Valley very often; it's a bit of a trek, quite expensive and you cant guarantee a good day. However, since I was still craving a good day out on the pole I bit the bullet and headed off to Aldershot ready to empty my wallet.

£11 for one rod, £3.25 per bag for some fishery pellets and I was ready to go (ouch). However I was also surprised at how it had changed since the last time I was there – building work, new roads, AWOL islands and serious slash and burn on the bank – not pretty.

I decided on Bungalow Lake for the day – I like Gold Lake too, but the fish tend to switch off a lot as the day goes on – whereas on Bungalow you can usually pick up some fish in the margins late on if all else fails.

I settled on about the 6^th peg along, a little before where the second island used to be, mainly because there were fish moving and it had a nice margin bush to go for on the left.

In went the usual pellet/pole gambit for starters, 11m pole line, 22 elastic, 11mm expander, 6mm feed pellets and 0.20 line to a size 8 hook fished on the deck. Sounds heavy, but I've found it's a good opener. After a few minutes there were bubbles in the swim, and eventually a bite for a 5lb 8oz common – nice.

The next fish took a good half-hour to arrive, a similar common of 5lb.

I had been getting some liners, so I tried a shallow rig with no success, there were fish cruising around just sub-surface, but they weren't feeding. So back to the deep line and a small skimmer gave me about 11lb after the first hour – not great but a start.

I then dug out some new cad pots for an experiment, I put the catapult on one side and tried to focus the feed over the float each put-in. It helped, a lot. Suddenly I was getting more regular bites (and hardly any iffy knocks) and although I wasn't catching just carp, the bream and roach coming in were excellent. Nice skimmers from 12 oz to 2lb, and some cracking roach around the 1lb mark, plus a few carp, with the best going 9lb. This pattern continued for a little over an hour and put over 35lb of fish in the bank. Normally I get a bit upset if the skimmers are getting to the bait before the carp, but on this occasion a fish was a fish and it seemed appropriate to just crack on.

Hour three started to get a little tougher. I was still catching the same mix of fish, but having to wait longer for bites. A few lost fish (foul-hooked) didn't seem to help either. By the end of this hour I was up to about 55lb, but it was looking like hard work.

I tried a few different things, including my inside line, but that ended up in a root and a lost hook, so it was back to experimenting on the 11m line. Cupping in heavy helped a little, but only for a few fish and it looked like the great mid-day switch off was here stay. Highlight up until this point was a series of roach – 6 fish for over 6lb, the best going 1lb 8oz. Now they may have a bit of bream in some of them, but some were definitely pure roach – nice fish. 

So I plodded on, tried a few thing, shallow, banded pellet, 8mm hooker - the works. Nothing really delivered, I was still catching but there were some long breaks in the proceedings.

By 2pm I'd edged up to 74lb, but I was not ripping up and trees, so I made a call to do a couple of things.

1. I went and helped out the ten-year-old kid on the next peg. He'd been fishing his heart out for a few hours, but only had a dozen small silverfish to his name. I changed his rig, showed him how to feed for the rudd, changed his seat set-up and then watched him catch 6 good rudd in a matter of minutes – him and his dad were well chuffed. He then showed his mate, and they both started catching. I also lumped some pellet in the margin for him – something for him to try in the last hour before he went home.
2. I went onto the margins (but a little further out, sort of 2 + 2, so as to miss the roots) using a mix of pellets and paste on the hook with 6mm pellets going in via the cad pot.

After five minutes I got a faint knock that was clearly a liner – but how big was the source of this? After the next five I got a proper bite and a good zing of yellow elastic. A brief, but hefty fight produced an excellent common of 10lb 8oz with a stunted tail. 

Ten minutes later a repeat performance resulted in a hook pull.

Five minutes later and the hook didn't pull as an 11lb common hit the landing net.

Ten minutes later and I was into an even bigger lump that was desperately trying the bottom out my 22 elastic (a rare occurrence). A longer fight and this time the scales went round to 13lb 8oz. Nice. 

In the next 30 minutes I had a few more bites, but I didn't connect with anything. Then it was home time.

I was admitting to 109lb of fish – a good day, but it could have been better if I'd have kept the fish coming in the middle of the day.

The kid in the next swim was up to over a hundred fish at this point and just as I left you could see the first tell-tale signs that the carp were moving in on the pellets. I hope he caught something off this line after I left.

At the risk of sounding a bit self-righteous, I actually got more pleasure today from sorting out the kid on the next peg, than from anything I caught myself – maybe there's a lesson in there somewhere.

Catch List

Common Carp : 10

Mirror Carp: 1

Roach: 7

Rudd: 3

Bream: 20

Total Weight: 109lb

Three Islands Lake, Stewkley, 29-8-12

Craving a few fish on the pole, I decided to head back to Three Islands for some easy fishing, since afterall it has been my best weight so far this year.

And, it didn't quite work out. For whatever reason the fish did not play ball, an 8lb common on the second put-in made it seem like it was going to be a good session, but that was the highlight of the day. Small carp (12 ounce to a pound) were the occasional visitors to the bank, but nothing significant and in no great numbers.

I won't dwell on the detail – it won't help you.

I did catch several gudgeon on an 11mm expander and size 8 hook – fair and square in the mouth – which is a new one on me, but that was about it. Enough said – give up, go home and lick my wounds. Not a happy chappie.

Catch List:

Common Carp: 25

Mirror Carp: 1

F1 Carp: 6

Rudd: 3

Gudgeon: 10

Total Weight: 35lb

River Cherwell, 27-8-12

Having been given the morning off to wet a line, I nearly, very nearly went to one of the local river sections. But then, at the last minute I had a change of heart and headed off towards Oxford to try my luck on the River Cherwell - a newly acquired bit of club water.

At this point, I should state that I'd never seen the venue and searching the internet turned up very little, so this was a bit of a gamble. Still, a chance to try a virgin water awaited. 

After a bit of a faff, I found the stretch concerned, but not the car park. It's clearly marked on the map, but neither of the two possible areas in real life were suitable, so it was the grass verge (albeit on a quiet country lane) that had to do. 

I'm glad I was traveling light and doubly glad I brought the wellies - over two stiles, through the long grass and there was the river. It was a deep chocolate brown (no doubt from the heavy rain of the last few days), about ten yards wide and a bit pacey in places. 

I walked down about 200 yards before I found a nice even looking swim on the bend - although I'd passed some other nice looking spots, access was a problem with most, this one allowed me to get close to the water's edge for a change. 

A quick set up - a 1 gramme stick float, 0.10mm hooklength to a barbless 18 hook - plumbing up gave me 6 feet of water, a fair bit deeper than I expected. 

One white maggot, a few loose feed and a gentle swing out. As simple as that. A few runs through produced nothing. Nada. And then on run three, a bite. And a 2 ounce chublet. Blank avoided (I could go home now without shame if needed).

Over the next few runs through I picked up a little roach, another chublet and then something that pulled back a bit. It wasn't huge, but steady pressure in the current prevailed and a chub of 1lb or so broke the service and the rather over-sized landing net was called into service. 

I have to say at this point I was impressed. My local river is good, but not for fish like this - it's all small or enormous and not much in between, and to get into fish so quickly was also welcome.

A few more runs through the swim produced some more fish - roach and chub mostly, then another chub of about a pound, then another that felt similar but shed the hook. Then it seemed to slow down. A few more runs through the odd bite, and a nice perch of about 6oz before I decided to move on. 

It was about 200 yards further down when I had another go, but the water here was pacey and the bank very steep, so after a few runs through it seemed that moving on was better. 

Just on from here was a wider area just before a bend where there was just 3 feet of water, but I had to stand on the high bank - not ideal but worth a punt. A few runs down produced a roach. Then a couple of missed bites, then a couple of gudgeon, but it was hard work. I was just thinking of moving on when the float dipped and after a brief fight this little fellow appeared. Cool.

I don't care what anyone else says, but I could catch these all day. There's something magical about barbel and in a real natural venue, these are a great prize. 

Next peg down looked absolutely perfect, slow, meandering river surrounded by trees (so good cover from cormorants), but no fish. Next swim, nothing. 

Next swim, nothing on the main line at all, but as soon as the rig drifted over to the near side, the bites would come. Roach, perch and chublets again. If only I'd had my pole gear I think I'd have caught more in this peg, but you have to make the best of things. 

With a little more than an hour's fishing left I decided to head back upstream to a bridge that looked quite interesting. It wasn't. Fast flowing and shallow, it didn't scream fish like it did at a distance. So 50 yards further upstream it was. 

Several runs through in the main current produced nothing at all, so on a whim I tried the inside line (just a little past the rod tip where I still had some depth of water) bite - and a roach. 

Next put in, another roach of a few ounces.

Next put in, a bigger roach (at least 3 ounces) when the rod tip was pulled down. I had a pretty good idea what was on the line, but I hoped for a big chub or perch. It was neither. Sat in the river with my roach across it's jaws sat a little jack pike. I wasn't hooked, it was just held on by greed. nervously I positioned the net downstream of the fish, and gently coaxed them into the net just as the pike gave up its prey. But they were both caught. 

  

The roach was returned, a little battered for it's experience, but still alive, and then the pike. Quite a nice surprise.

After this I worked the inside line quite hard and a succession of 30 or so fish followed, mostly roach, but with dace, perch, chub and the odd bleak thrown in. 

I did have a quick look at the bridge before I left, but two minnows were not a good enough return in what was shallow and fast-moving. 

So all-in-all a cracking few hours. No monsters, but not a bad session for a first visit and the secret was clearly in finding the slacker areas where the fish were happy to settle.

I never saw another angler all morning - a few dog-walkers in the distance, but that was all. I guess this is what river fishing should be about - fish, bites, variety and a sense of achievement. So I rather this as a nice little stretch of quality water with plenty of scope for future visits. I can see me becoming a bit more of a regular at this rate.

Catch List:

Roach - 30

Barbel - 1

Chub - 15

Bleak - 5

Gudgeon - 2

Minnow - 2

Pike - 1

Dace - 12

Perch - 6

Total weight: 12 lb

River Colne 5-8-12

I don't often target large fish, but every now and again I give it a go. At least initially, then I give in and revert back to my usual approach. Today's session might well have gone that way. 

I decided to have another go at the weirpool that I'd fished two weeks previously. The plan was to start on legered pellet for barbel and then, if it was too quiet I'd switch back to trotting the maggot. I mean, as long as I caught something I couldn't lose, could I?

I arrived at the swim about 0630, thankfully it was unoccupied (that was a relief) and I set about putting the gear together. A heavy feeder rod, 10lb line, free running method feeder with 4mm pellet and a size 12 hook on a 8lb hooklink to 14mm halibut pellet. Not subtle, but the swim was snaggy by the lip of the weir, so I wanted a bit of oomph should I need it. 

The weir side of the swim

The run out of the weirpool (trotting swim)

The plan was to give this about an hour and then see how things were going. 

First cast, and I got a couple of rattles, but nothing that suggested a bite.

Second put in and after about 5 minutes in the water and the tip rocketed down. Contact. The rod immediately hooped down to the right and I started to apply some sidestrain - there was some serious snags at the base of the lip and I didn't want to lose the fish. The fish bucked hard and strong, big lunges being transmitted back to the rod, but I felt I was just starting to win. Then it all went slack. 

Whether it was a snag, a faulty knot, or my natural cack-handedness, I will never know, but a brand new 8lb hooklength was no more. Gutted. 

Rerigged and rebaited and out I went again. Nothing. 

After another 45 minutes, having tried a few different spots with the heavy rig (to no avail) I decided to set up the float rod with a stick float. I flicked on the bait runner on the reel while I did so and just as I was about to put the shot on the line the reel whizzed off. 

I struck on the leger rod and there was a solid resistance. Nothing like as strong as the previous time, but a weighty fish never-the-less. The fish wandered a little downstream into clear water and after a couple of minutes my quarry was safely in the net. 

A Colne barbel of 4lb 12oz. Result. 

I decided to rest that line at this point and have half an hour on the stick float. Bites were taken on a range a lines and depths, which resulted in a range of small fish roach, chublets, dace, bleak, perch and minnows all showed up, but nothing over 4oz or so. But 20 fish in half an hour is not to be sniffed at. Then back to the leger rig for 30 mins. 

Nothing. A couple of tweaks on the line (but not often). So after 30 mins it was back on the float gear. 

By standing a few metres further upstream I found a better position to trot and feed and the fish started to flow. Not as good as the previous visit, but more fish came to the net and unlike the previous trip there were less roach and more perch, but there were a lot of minnows present.

After half an hour I decided to stop float fishing at the next roach. This took about ten fish and 15 minutes to do, and then I settled into the last 30 mins on the leger.

It was about 10 o'clock at this point, (I'd agreed to be home by about 11), so I didn't really fancy my chances, but just as I thought that was that, the tip whacked over and it was fish on again. This felt a little larger as it tried to burrow under the sill of the weir. I applied a little pressure (but not too much after my earlier issues) and after a few minutes the fish started to move into mid-river. 

After that it was easily netted, another nice barbel. 

Colne Barbel 6lb 4oz.

A cracking fish, in perfect condition going 6lb 4oz. What more could you ask for?

I finished off my 30 minute session, no more bites, but my two nice barbel and 60+ small fish wasn't bad for a few hours work. I just wish I knew how big the 'one that got away' was - it was certainly more powerful that the ones I landed, maybe one for next time. 

Catch List:

Barbel 2

Roach 20

Perch 6

Chub 6

Dace 2

Bleak 8

Minnow 20

Total weight: 20lb