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

Finch Farm 29-7-12

I fancied a change, a full day's fishing on the pole and a chance of a decent fish or two. Since my other choices were blocked by matches, I decided to give Finch Farm a go. It usually produced some small fish, but I fancied my chances of a lump or two. 

For a change I started on the Anaconda Snake lake, a thin channel that is supposed to hold some larger specimens, including some big barbel, so I thought I'd give it a go. 

I set up the pole at about 10m, angled to the side (it was that narrow) and tried a variety of baits over the top. I found the bottom to be very uneven (I suspected some reeds had been dredged out recently) and a little snaggy and weedy. Result was, one hour gone, a couple of vague (missed bites) and no signs of much happening. A chat with the bailiff (Lech) suggested it was hard fishing, so I bit the bullet and headed down to the other lake. 

The Snake Lake

Yes, it really is that narrow

Moving down to the main lake was a good idea. Three put ins on 6mm pellet next to the island produced three quick carp. Not big (half pound ish each) but action was instantaneous. 

And then, slowly it started to slow down. Left swim, right swim, off the island, on the island all produced fish, but not in great numbers. Previous visits suggested that light tackle and small pellets worked best, and so it proved again, but there was no bagging up to be had. 

I tried to get the inside line going - but without much doing. This surprised me, as this had often been a life saver in the past. So I kept on moving around the lines and picking up the odd fish. 

Island swim

Margin right hand swim

A second trip to the margin finally produced a decent bite. I struck and there was proper weight on the line. but no fight. I applied pressure and a big old bream lay there on the top. 5lb 8oz of it. First decent bream from the venue and at least some evidence that they do exist. 

At that point the two swims to my left became occupied and life got a lot more complicated. The inside line dropped off, and the far line became tougher. 

I carried on and continued to catch a few fish from the far side. I wasn't pulling up any trees, but the fish were ticking over. Apparently the open match held the previous weekend had only be won with 18lb, so I supposed I shouldn't complain. 

I tried a few things. Some worked, some didn't, but mostly only for a few fish. A couple of better fish pushed 2lb odd from the far side, but then that died too. 

I packed up as a huge thunderstorm threatened. Not a bad day, not brilliant, but nice to see one of the decent bream. 

Catch List:

Roach 6

Mirror Carp 3

Common Carp 20

F1 Carp 12

Goldfish 8

Bream 2

Total Weight: 30lb

River Colne 22-7-12

Having my usual few hours spare on a Sunday morning (only after extensive negotiation :-) ) I headed down to the local stretch of the river Colne for a few hours. 

My plan was to do the usual - rove the river with a pint of maggot and a stick float rig and see what would appear. I didn't have high hopes, but since the previous trip had thrown up a barbel, then anything was possible. 

First swim was my usual trotting swim. Wade out to the gravel bar (trying not to fill the wellies too much) and trot down to the bend. 

This produced a few small fish, and one better chub of about 3lb (result). However, the roach were awol - some bleak and lots of minnows were showing, but not much else. So, after an hour or so I headed upstream.

Next peg up was the weirpool. Normally I don't bother with this peg, it's shallow, wide, fast moving and best fished with the feeder. But what the heck I thought, why not give it a go?

After a couple of casts to get the depth right (somewhere around 18 inches seemed to be ok) I found an easy run through just behind the main flow on the near side. 

And a bite. 4oz roach. 

Next cast, bite, 3oz roach. 

And so on. 

Over the next 90 minutes I bagged nearly 70 fish. Lots of roach, a few chublets, dace, couple of perch, gudgeon, bleak and minnows. All-in-all, for a river with very few small fish, a complete revelation. A peg that I've walked past and ignored for years, turned out to be probably the best trotting swim on the river. 

Lesson learned I think.

Fish caught:

Chub 8

Roach 40

Perch 3

Gudgeon 5

Bleak 10

Minnow 30

Dace 3

Total weight: 15lb

Thoughts on Fishomania, 14-7-12

I’ve been an avid watcher of fishomania for over a decade, the one opportunity we get in the UK to watch real live competitive fishing on the TV. I enjoy watching the programme a lot, the opportunity to see what’s going on, who’s catching and the regular half hourly weigh-ins take the guesswork out of the proceedings. I’d promised myself that one of these days I will go and watch in person – each year it comes around and it’s too late to attend or some other distraction, and that’s that. Still, I will go one of these days. 

However, and there’s always a however, each year I always come away feeling a bit disappointed for a range of reasons.

1. It always seems so desperately unfair. Granted that Cudmore is so much fairer than Hayfield, it appears that post draw some of the anglers know they are on to a hiding to nothing. I don’t know that this could be fixed, but when you see that last year’s champion came in last this time around, it’s hard to remove the lottery element from the match fishing result. This, incidentally, is one of the reasons I don’t match fish regularly – I’d rather the best angler wins, rather than the luckiest draw arm. At least this time it wasn’t an end peg (and nor was it at the home internationals the next day), or even worse the same peg as last year (as happened all too often at Hayfield.
   
   
2. There is often a sense of anti-climax at the end of the match, whilst it’s good to get the regular weigh-ins there is a distinct lack of excitement going into the last hour. I know Sky would like to stage manage the process to the last minute (and I recall a close finish with Nathan Watson a while ago is memory serves), I think it might make life a little more interesting if there was no weigh-in 9 – leave the last hour free and let the experts try to guestimate what's going on. Maybe we could ask the roving reporters for a fish or weight estimate to keep the interest up. 
   
   
3. Show us some proper action. I want to see a float go under or a tip wrap around. I know this might not make for great television, but I don't need to look at the angler (some of them are note exactly oil paintings to start with), but isn't there some way we could split screen with what's going on at water level rather than some fat bloke sat on box. 
   
   
4. Shut Keith up. Just a little. I know he has a point of view on everything and like many anglers he thinks he knows it all, but actually, he doesn't. So from time to time shut up and let us see what happening. Contrary to his comments, there were crucians caught on day one (it was in on the many film montages) and please come up with some new anecdotes (fish cant swim backwards) , it's getting a little dull now. 
   
   
5. Think about some better demonstrations – how about showing how a pole/elastic set-up works, but pre-record it. Show some underwater footage of a fish taking a bait, just add a little bit more interest.
   
   
6. Improve the vocabulary of the roving reporters, please. Its a little embarrassing, and for goodness sake, give us some of the key weights (like bigger carp) in pounds and ounces as well as kilos. I know we're trying to be modern, but there's really no need.

Those are my main gripes. I'd like to see a few more fish caught and a fairer pegging set-up, but that would probably be asking a bit much. 

But big thanks to some of the changes – no celeb match was a great improvement, now we just need a way to make the home international a bit more of a competition.

River Colne, 15-7-12

I’ve written a number of blog entries that start in much the same way, typically “and now for something different” etc. This session is somewhat similar. I set myself a target this year of fishing at least 4 new venues, partly to force myself away from the same old waters and partly to get away from the same old pole gear, and, maybe, to catch something a little different.

Although, by some standards, I don’t have a brilliant list of personal bests, they are not bad. I don’t tend to want to put significant time into hunting specimens, but I’ve picked up some nice fish along the way. I have, I suspect, lost some big fish too, by not fishing for them on suitable gear, but this comes along with the territory. 

Anyway, enough of this background, and on with some fishing. And, by the way, if you think the preceding diatribe was in some way a set up to tell you I’ve caught a whopper, it is not. Sorry about that.

Sunday 15^th July was forecasted to be a nice day. Given the recent mixed to wet weather, this seemed like a good opportunity for me to nip out for a few hours on the bank. With it being Fishomania weekend, I did want to catch some television as well, so a short session to use some leftover maggots seemed like a good idea.

I’m fortunate to live near the Colne Valley, (the one down south with the big fish reputation) and membership of the local club affords me access to a number of stretches. I decided to have a go at one these that I’d not fished before. In fact I’d not even seen in. I had, however seen a few catch reports, and a few match results and this suggested that there were a few silver fish to be caught. Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t catch many roach on purpose these days. A combination of commercials and cormorants has seen to that. But the chance to catch a few by design always catches my attention.

I’d had a quick run through my gear the day before, this is my light travelling gear, and I had the remains of some maggots from a few weeks back to use as bait. These were not ideal, but they’d do for an hour or two. I had my usual light gear – one day I’ll run through this and for once I took my small chair, just in case I ended up on the feeder.

Anyway, ten minutes or so after leaving the house I was parked up and ready to go. There was one other car there already, but with 20 plus pegs this didn’t worry me. Wellies on, it had been raining a bit for the last three months, in case you hadn’t noticed, and it was over the stile and along the path. At this point, it struck me that I should have popped in one day to check out the venue (I drive past regularly), but actually, faced with the mud, I’d probably made the right call.

The first peg I came to looked sock on for trotting, nice glide on a bend, no obvious weed and decent access to the water’s edge. I decided that fishing the first peg was not the best idea though – what else might be up there? So I decided to head up towards the far end where I believe there was a weir.

I wandered up the stretch and looked at the pegs on offer. Most were weeded, overhung and offered difficult access, but you have to have a good look on your first visit don’t you? After a fair walk I found the other angler in residence, setting up heavy for barbel, the path was narrow, muddy and a bit tight overhead. This mostly ruled out fishing a few pegs in short stints. I was advised by the other angler that the weir was difficult to fish and the first peg was probably the best for trotting, he was right. I checked out the weir, on another day it might be quite good fishing, but the current flow rate was not an attractive proposition, so I started to wander back to peg 1 and hope that it was still empty. There was good news in that respect.

So happy that I’d had a good look around, I settle for a bit of trotting and set up. A 4 no 4 stick float fitted the bill, shotted short-button style with no 6s, fished on 3lb line to a 0.10mm hooklength and size 18 barbless hook seemed about right, trotted through on my 14ft match rod with the very soft action. I flicked in a few maggot as I set up, the river was only about 30 feet wide at this point (if that) so loose feeding was easy. There was about 3 feet of water out there, a few bits of weed in places, but all-in-all it felt fairly comfortable.

I started running through along the far side, just inside the weedy overhang, and then the float would cross towards the near side on the bend and towards and overhanging branch about 15m downstream. This overhang was perfectly placed so that however I fished I’d always send up with the rig or line caught in it. It was very annoying, and unreachable. But, I still had a decent clear trot until that point. 

The straight ahead line

The trotting run around the bend

Five runs through and absolutely nothing. I was starting to get a little worried. Had the cormorants wreaked there awful havoc down here as well?

Sixth run down and as the float started to drift towards the inside it sank. I struck, there was resistance. It wasn’t a big fish, but it tried to dive in the weeds on both banks. But a little constant pressure and a nice perch surfaced, maybe 6 ounces on a good day. That was a result – blank avoided. (I don’t blank often, but I hate it when I do).

Next run through and in mid-stream I got another bite, but this time a 3 ounce dace was the culprit. Nice. Maybe the steady feeding at the head of the swim was starting to pay dividends.

Next run through and a bite in a similar location. But this time a roach of about 4 ounces. This was very rewarding, as roach are a rare sight in the river. Now wall that was left was to see if it had a few friends.

I plugged away at the swim, a little bit of loosefeed, some targeted casting and more fish followed. And thankfully they were almost entirely roach. In fact after about an hour’s fishing I was up to nearly 15 fish. It was never frenetic. A couple of quick fish, then a lull; sometimes in mid-stream, sometimes on the near side by the overhang. 

Typical Colne roach for the session

Occasionally, I’d get the float to run past the overhang, and this did produce one perch, but more often than not I’d have to pull the line out sharpish, and this was not ideal.

I tried a few changes. Bulking the shot (since most of the bites were near the bottom) didn’t speed things up at all, deeper, shallower, holding back. They all got the odd fish, but nothing got me a bite a cast (I suspect a little more bait and a catapult for tighter grouping would have given me more options), but fish came in slowly, as the gaps between bites was getting longer.

Towards the end I picked up a couple of fish at the head of the swim. Just when I thought I’d relocated the shoal, these disappeared as well… maybe it’s just the kind of venue where you can’t catch in the same way all day. I dunno.

Soon the little hand started to point towards the 10 on my watch and I knew it was time to go. A two and a half hour session had produced a nice selection of fish. Nothing huge, but with my best bag of river roach for quite some years, I went home a happy man.

Catch:

20 roach

1 dace

3 perch

1 bleak

Total weight: 5lb

Small Victories - 1st July 2012

I'm all for adding a little variety to my fishing - it's all too easy to fish the same venues in the same way and, frankly, catch the same sort of fish. Now I'm not saying I don't like bashing out a big bag of match carp on the pole, because I do, but from time to time it's nice to mix it up a bit and remind yourself that there's more to fishing than just one thing. 

So, with two hours to myself early on Sunday morning I decided to do just that. Something a little different. 

Armed with a pint of maggots and my usual traveling light gear, I decided to dig out my 5 metre whip (something I don't think I've used for 5 years or more) and head to one of the lesser fished waters of my local club. 

It's an unusual water - a few years back there was a major fish kill (caused by icing over I believe) and now it's an intimate little pond with no more than 10 pegs, complete with plenty of weed and a few surprises. However, it is rarely fished and this was only my second visit. 

I quickly set up on one of the deeper pegs and found 3ft of water and weed at 10 metres out. So I shortened the whip down one section to find the a spot where the weed had been cleared. So that was the plan, a 0.3g float on 0.13mm line to a 0.10mm hooklength and size 20 hook, set just 12 inches shorter than the whip. 

A few maggots had been fed during the set-up and I got to work. First cast, bite, 3oz rudd. 

Stamp rudd - lovely clean colours

Second cast, bite, crucian carp. And so it went on. 

How can you not be delighted to catch a crucian like this?

In the first hour it was mainly rudd varying from 1oz to 3oz, a few crucians and a couple of tench. All delicious baby fish up to 3 or 4 oz mostly, immaculate condition and starving hungry for maggots. 

Tench like little bars of soap

After an hour the rudd seemed to back off and I started to put a regular run of crucians and tench together, the size didn't get any better, but it was great fun to fish and catch such miniature beauties. I had to wait a little longer for bites, but frankly I didn't care - it was a great way to spend a few hours. 

Eventually I managed to hook one of the resident carp - all 4oz of it - but this was the only example that appeared in the session (my previous visit had produced many more), but you cant complain. 

My only carp of the session

So after 2 hours it was time to go. 75 fish for about 8lb, but more importantly, a really enjoyable session. 

I don't know when I'll go back, but it made a really nice change to do something a little different. 

Catch list:

Rudd - 39

Tench - 20

Crucian carp - 15

Common Carp - 1

Total weight - 8lb

Local river 17-6-12

I have a love-hate relationship with my local river stretch – there are some fabulous specimens in there, but not much else. However, there are a few pegs where trotted maggot can produce, so this was my tactical choice for a few hours early on Sunday morning. I give each of my favoured pegs a bit of time and then move on – it's a nice way to spend a few hours.

I arrived at the venue at 6am and wandered down to the one of the bottom pegs – it's usually good for a few bites. A quick look showed the water level was up a good few inches and still tanking through. This was a bit of a shame as there is a gravel bar about 12 ft out that you can stand on in wellies to trot the far side, but with the extra water there was no way to reach it without waders. So I did the best that I could from the bank.

A 4BB stick float was paired with 0.10mm line and an 18 hook so I could attack with a single maggot. First swing in and the float landed short of the main run, however as I swung the rig back in it contained a ravenous minnow. Not a bad sign, there are some in the stretch, and some days this is all that shows.

A few runs through and I was starting to get the presentation I wanted, just tripping bottom and in and out of the fastest run. Towards the end of the run the float dipped, I struck and what I initially thought was a snag started coming upstream. A fairly long and difficult fight ensued, whilst flashes of flank showed I have hooked a small-ish barbel, landing it was a struggle. Although I had the fish beaten, getting it into the bank and towards the landing net was a game and a half. Overhanging trees, the gravel bank and a fish that kept reviving and heading back into the flow did not help. However, after far too long I waded down stream a little and found a slightly better spot, managed to get the fish above the net and finally landed (but managing the wrap the line around an overhead branch straight afterwards).

I spent a little while admiring my prize – 3lb of immaculate barbel – which still had plenty of fight in it. Duly weighed and photographed it recovered almost immediately and made off back into the river.

Try as I might, only two more minnows showed in the peg (it's normally much better), so I moved on upstream to some other favoured spots.

The 'inside' line swim, which is normally good for a few chublets and dace produced nothing.

The pub swim, where I normally blank, produced a minnow and then a bite and a half. Whatever it was weighed heavy and headed straight for the upstream snag, I did my best to arrest it's progress, but it was stronger than my hooklength and we parted company.

Next peg, 'the waterwheel', nothing.

Next peg, 'the ski hut', nothing. (Although I did see the back of a large fish tight to the nearside bank).

Next peg, '17', nothing.

Next peg, 'the confluence', nothing.

Last peg, 'above the weir', nothing.

At this point it was time to go home. One nice barbel, one good fish lost and a nice start to Father's day. Job done. 

Catch list:

  Barbel - 1

  Minnow – 3

Total weight 3lb