The final two sessions of the 2009/10 season!

Firstly, I have to say it was great to just get a few days out on the bank at last!  For me, 4 full days fishing out of 14 is quite rare (if only it wasn't!), and I managed to actually relax into the fishing; not so-much-so that I wasn't thinking about what I could do to improve my chances (which, incidentally, I mainly concluded was very little!), but enough to actually enjoy just being there.


So, on to what I actually did...  I had two days fishing for perch on the rivers before they closed which - I suppose due to a combination of the size prospects at this time of year, the fact that most of my winter fishing revolves around toothier predators and also because perch are one of my favourite species - has become a bit of a tradition for me over the last few years.  So far and unsuccesful tradition, but this year had to be different.  For starters, last season I baited up a swim to return to later only to find upon my return that another angler had taken that peg (which there is nothing wrong with, it was only through satisfying my own stupid intrigue that I left the peg in the first place!) and proceeded to extract a 3lb+ perch, a 4lb+ perch and a 6lb+ chub from the exact spot I'd baited up, using the most basic tactics and double maggot!  So, now I knew exactly where to find these fish at this time of year (it is close to shallow water, vegitation and a side-stream, so it's the ideal pre-spawn hangout), I would make my triumphant return to catch at least one new PB.  Then the second day I had planned was a visit to the river Kennett between Newbury and Reading, escorted by a true local perch expert - Will Barnard - who not so long ago caught 10 different 3lb+ perch from 10 different stretches of the river in a SINGLE season!  Now that's some going!  But you know what they say about the best laid plans...


In reflection, I'm quite disappointed in the decisions I made on the first day.  I arrived at the peg which I knew had personal record-breaking potential, to find the water a bit on the shallow and clear side.  The main feature was a near-bank bush in a small eddy and my first impression was that it was too shallow for much to be sheltering beneath it, with at least 6 inches less water in the river than the previous year.  Still, I'd done a fair bit of roving the previous two years and it didn't result in any big perch, so I decided to keep a low-profile, keep feeding the swim and sit it out, hoping a perch would at least visit the bush at some point during the day.  When one did, I would be ready!  I didn't cast a line for the best part of an hour, instead deciding to feed small amounts of chopped worm, groundbait and molehill soil and a spray of maggots on a regular basis.  My visions of the gathering shoals of hungry bait fish flanked by even hungrier perch were maybe a tad optmistic, as when I eventually made my first cast the plump lobworm generated no attention.  I fished on, undeterred, and explored the rest of my swim by alternating with a float and a second, scaled-down feeder rod baited with maggots.  Still I got no bites and I eventually decided to feed the swim up and rest it for a while.  I had a lure rod with me and I couldn't resist a wander.


With my bait rods out of the water I took off with a few lures and tried some swims which have been productive for me in warmer weather.  At least if I could get a take from a perch somewhere it would let me know they were feeding, and also help me figure out where they were holed up.  Despite my best efforts fishing various lures in all manner of swims I couldn't find a perch keen enough to even follow a lure.  Before long I reached the upstream limit of the stretch, and a very under-fished peg with loads of natural features.  Casting from a high bank above an eddie, I watched my lure for the whole retrieve and just as I lifted it from the water, a pike launched itself from the shadow of a bush and didn't just swipe at the lure, it breached the water completely and took a snap at it mid-air!  Of course it missed, but provided me with quite a spectacle.  I chanced another cast, clinging to the slim hope that the fish would have another go and watched as it really aggressively pounced, paused and inhaled the lure!  What beautiful condition this fish was in; completely un-marked.  The condition and location this fish came from leads me to believe it was previously uncaught and I'm pretty sure in future it will treat curly-tailed lures with just a bit more cynicism!

I had to revel in this capture slightly more than I would have liked, because the perch never switched on and it ended up being the only fish I landed all day!  As soon as I'd packed up, I jumped in the van and headed towards Reading, to stay in a hotel close to the Kennet so that I could meet up with Will bright and early next morning.

To be continued...

Finishing with a flurry?

Well, the end of the traditional close season (which, in it's current form, I agree with 100%) is almost upon us.  I had the rare chance to go fishing twice last week and for the first trip I decided to follow my own yearning for a return to the Lincs drains (they can be frustrating at times and I hear many reports of fish thefts and that they're not what they once were, but I just love fishing them!) for a final try for a pike before the rivers & drains close on the 14th.  I made the 70 mile trip East and checked a few of my favourite places out, before settling on a very shallow drain, carrying only 18 inches of water down the centre.  The weather had turned and was much sunnier than we've experienced for months.  This wasn't ideal because bright weather can put fish off the feed, but on the other hand, the water was in need of warming up, so surely the sun couldn't do too much harm for my day fishing.  Plus, there were clouds dotted around and I have noticed pike and perch launch attacks on sunny days, just seconds after the sun goes behind a cloud, as if they have been patiently poised, waiting for anything which swung the odds slightly in their favour.

There were a few sporadic strikes up and down the drain, and the fish seemed to be striking in pairs.  There would be two strikes almost instantaneously, within feet of each other, then nothing for maybe half an hour.  That's the thing with fishing a shallow water; when a pike strikes, it has to create a bow-wave or break the surface.  In a deep water, the fish could be striking mid-depth and showing no signs on the surface that they're feeding at all.  So now it was my turn to be poised.  And frustrated.  The strikes would happen and each time I would have to sit on my hands to stop myself picking up the rods and charging upstream to cast there, because chances were that the next strike would be right in front of me!  I ended up mixing things up.  I fished two static rods and cast them either side of where I'd seen fish strike, give them half an hour, then move.  Other times I travelled up & down the drain with a roving float set-up, trotting a bait in the steady flow.  This turned out to be the winning method when, after several hours trying with no joy, my float darted under at speed.  With such a positive take I wasted no time in winding down to the fish and immediately caught sight of it, as it turned in the shallow water.  I could see the fish was easily into double figures so I took my time, but the fish put up little resistance and was soon in the net.  Then the battle began!  The battle between me and the muddy banks.  The banks on this particular drain are akin to a WWI trench and despite wearing boots with some serious grips, I found myself on my back, sliding towards the water, trying not to snap my rod, hurt the pike or let it jump back into the drain!  I eventually managed to claw my way out and found a slightly less precarious part of the bank to lower the net into the water to let the fish recover while I tried to pull myself together and sort out my forceps, camera & scales.

Often drains fish have taken some hammer from previous captures, but I was pleasantly surprised by the condition of my fish.  She had no wounds from hooks or lesions on her sides and all fins seemed in good nick too.  Either I'd done well to outwit this master of bait evasion or she'd recently moved in for a feast, from a more remote area.  Despite the time of year, this fish didn't appear to be carrying any spawn, and wasn't particularly bloated with food either, but she was thick set, with a large head and a broad back.  The scales told me she weighed 16lb 3oz so this fish was by far my largest of an altogether disappointing winter pike campaign, which had started with so much promise.  Still, a 16 is a very good pike and I'm really happy with it as a way to finish! 

I think the toll which the "unorthodox" pre-photo procedures had taken on me, showed on my face!...

I did go on to catch another fish of around 7lb using the same tactics, but when the action slowed I ventured off to find other drains with pike in feeding frenzies, but I'd have probably been better off staying put!  Except for seeing two Barn Owls, at two different drains a few miles apart.  I just managed a snap of one of them before it flew off...

A friend of mine tipped me off that after a lean winter, the tidal Trent barbel were on the feed and people were catching up to 4 fish during the day.  I've never targetted barbel in the winter - other species have always taken my fancy a bit more - but knowing where the fish were feeding was half the battle won, so I fancied getting myself amongst this late-season barbel action!  So, the following day I dug out my barbel kit and headed to the area these fish were reported from.  I spent a whole day doing... well, pretty much nothing!  I didn't have anything resembling a bite and nor did the chap on the next peg upstream, who specialised in winter barbel fishing.  So somehow in two days of the weather not changing much, the fish had either gone right off the feed or buggered off elsewhere to get their fill!  Roll on the summer, that's my kind of barbel fishing...

This week I've got two perch fishing sessions planned, on two different rivers in two different counties, in two days!  If I could land a decent perch on each session I will end this season smiling like you wouldn't believe!  I'll post the, no doubt disappointing results on here next week!

I've uploaded a new pike fishing article to my website.  It originally appeared as the front page feature article in December 2009 issue of Angling Star magazine.  I discuss the merits of chumming up when pike fishing and describe how to make a cheap and effective chum feeder to deposit the fishy mush near your hookbait.  Either visit the homepage or click on the link from the Article Archive or go Straight to it

Finally! (But was it worth the wait?)

Well, I finally got myself out fishing last Thursday! 

After hearing of a few pike starting to be caught around the country, I gave into my urges and decided I'd target them.  After speaking to the bailiff on a stretch of the tidal Trent, I opted to try there.  I haven't really done much fishing in general on the tidal, let alone pike fishing, but I made my decision based on the water clarity being better than the non-tidal stretches, and the changing tides forcing fish to alter their positions, which would hopefully result in them spotting my bait in the process.  With such cold conditions being set in for so long this winter, every species of fish will be lethargic - even those more associated with winter - so the fish will need a reason to move, be it hunger or the changing tide.  By doubling the possibilities, I'd double my chances ...I thought!

S..   L..   O..   W..  was the general pace of the day.  I arrived, just after dawn (Hit the "snooze" button a couple of times too many!), to find I had the entire stretch to myself.  Awesome; a whole stretch of prime-condition river filled with undisturbed specimen pike just queueing up to take my bait.  I settled on a swim with a deep slack and thought to myself that if I hadn't landed a fish by 8am there was something wrong for sure.  Well, 8am came around, so did 10am, then mid-day and I hadn't had as much as a dropped run!  I'd tried different baits, fished them hard on the bottom and paternostered mid-water and had a good cast around, all to no avail.  I had seen cormorants catching fish upstream, but it was inaccessible so I tried to cast as close as I could, which only resulted in my rigs getting dragged into snags which were stronger than my mainline.  I was having a stinker! 

There was the odd bait fish showing near the slack and I had some worms with me, just in case, so to save my sanity I set up a feeder rod to try for a perch.  Apart from the odd slight movement on my light bobbin, which I put down to tide/flow, I still sat bite-less and fish-less until I finally decided to reel in the feeder rig to check my bait.  Initially this was snagged, but after much tugging, the hooklength parted but I felt the weight of my swimfeeder was still there.  A few turns of the reel handle later, the rod tip jerked into action and it soon became clear I was battling a fish!  A few seconds later, I wasn't any more.  When I reeled in, there was my feeder, there wasn't my hook, just as I'd expected.  I'd had deadbaits in the area all day, which the predators ignored but now they were striking at my - seemingly more appealing - swimfeeder!  A lure was hastily deployed to the same area and first cast, BANG!  I was finally into a fish!  At four pounds in weight, it won't be breaking any records but it did provide a rare highlight during a less than remarkable day!

I'm out making the most of what's left of the season on Thursday & Friday, then next Wednesday & Thursday too, probably concentrating on predators but maybe I'll fit in a chub session somewhere too...

Can you troll for pike on a snowboard?

It's been another lean few weeks, angling-wise, for me.  I haven't fished for over a month now, but not out of choice.  I've been a little short on time, the weather's not been great (not that I'm a fine weather fisherman - not in the slightest - but during one of the warmest worldwide Januaries on record, we had one of the coldest on record!), etc. and I've also just returned from a week snowboarding at Les Arcs in the French Alps.  Plenty of snow, plenty of raclette cheese, plenty of overpriced beer and this year no injuries!  Unlike last years trip which left me with a permanently dislocated clavicle (collar bone) on my left shoulder, which (still) looks like this:

I also saw one of the best skiing/snowboarding shirts I've ever seen, which simply said on the front "Snow, Sex and Tartiflette"!

Back to fishing, I've been sent a few tackle bits & bobs to review, so expect to see those appearing on the website soon, and possibly on here too.  I've also just received a Korum latex spoon net, which on first impressions is absolutely brilliant for everything from bream, tench & carp fishing, right through to a roving net for barbel, pike & zander.  I can't believe how many leagues ahead of the pack the latex range of nets by Korum are!  It was my birthday a couple of weeks ago too, so I'm now the proud owner of a pair of the new Shimano 2500FA front-drag baitrunner reels, which I'm planning to use for fishing the lift method for tench & carp, and probably for the odd bit of close-range leger & feeder work come spring...

I'm hoping to get at least 3 full-day sessions in before the end of the river season in 6 weeks time.  I've been invited on a guided perch fishing trip on the River Kennet, with the goal of a fish over 3lb in weight.  I've never fished the Kennet, and it has great big perch pedigree, so it will be an honour to have a go for them.  Conditions permitting, this should happen in early March, so I'm really looking forward to (hopefully) finishing the season in style with a few Southern perch!

I see Robson Green's back for another series of lessons in what not to do to fish (if you have a humane bone in your body).  Great.  Although there's a part of me that's happy just to a fishing programme on a prime-time terrestrial slot.  According to a story I read in Anglers Mail a few weeks ago, the full-length versions of Jeremy Wade's River Monsters will be shown early this year on an ITV channel (the shows featured on ITV1 in late 2009 were condensed down from about 45 minutes to 30 minutes) and also Catching The Impossible (which I also got episodes 4-6 DVD for my birthday) should finally get a TV airing early this year.  So maybe there's a Robson Green knock-on effect which has opened the door for some "proper" fishing programmes featuring commited, talented anglers and (in the case of "...Impossible") directed by one of the finest in his field.

I happened upon a couple of fish-related stories on the BBC news website, which may be of interest to anyone who's into fish as much as I am.  The first is the discovery of how and why fish may have evolved gills (sorry creationists!), the second is some evidence to the intelligence of the humble stickleback!

Light shed on fish gill mystery
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8454592.stm

'Genius' claim for sticklebacks
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/8104759.stm

Happy New Year!

Happy 2010 everyone.  Let's hope that this year's a productive one, whatever we're fishing for.

As I write, the snow is falling and we already have at least 4 inches piled up outside that has fallen today on the Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire border.  This really has been an exceptional cold snap and while short cold spells can mean good fishing for some species, prolonged cold weather such as this tends to slow down pretty much everything that swims.  With all of the snow falling into our rivers and lakes and the continued cold temperatures (with many parts of the UK struggling to break above 0 C, even in daytime!) the water temperature will be extremely low and lower than most species require to enable them to feed and digest what they eat.  When we eventually do get a thaw, be prepared to head out and fish as you could be in for a red letter day.  There will be some very hungry pike, chub, roach, grayling and perch out there just waiting for a warm spell to trigger a feeding frenzy.  Location will be paramount to a good day's sport, but get this right and these species will be crawling up your line to get to your bait box! 

I ventured out into the cold for a couple of slow sessions just before new year.  First I fished for grayling; I started out trotting but bites were not forthcoming.  A switch to a crumb feeder did eventually bring me 5 or 6 bites, which resulted in two grayling landed - both around the pound mark - and a couple of fish lost on the way to the net.  Matt who I was fishing with also managed a good grayling and a couple of trout, but got smashed by something very powerful - possibly a barbel or a huge trout - on a big lump of bread flake.

One of my favourite species in both looks and fighting spirit departments, a grayling of just over a pound

The following day I fished the Trent for pike, and with the snow melt going in the river was very coloured and rose by almost a foot while I was there!  These were some of the worst conditions for river pike fishing, but I did manage one fish and had a few dropped runs which I'm pretty sure were chub, as I didn't connect with them and my deadbaits came back in sucked rather than chewed! 

This low double was my only reward on a tough day.  As you can see by the water on the lense, it was a damp old day!

I also found the complete skeleton and remnants of fur of a large, canine-toothed mammal.  I've brought the skull back to clean and identify but I'm 99% sure it's either an otter or a mink.  I've seen mink on the Trent before and whilst they're tremendous creatures to watch, I'm uneasy about this alien (very agile, adept, versatile & efficient - both in the water and on land) predator rampaging in the wild in this country, so I'm hoping it's not one.  If it's an otter on the other hand, I'll be quite impressed; I've never seen a wild one in the UK and whilst I know they're hardly an angler's best friend, I for one am in favour of their re-introduction and I'd love to see one up close.  They're one of our natural freshwater predators and whilst we may not like them eating "our" fish, they belong in our waterways just as much as kingfishers, pike and perch do.  If it wasn't for human persecution, protecting trout and salmon stocks, they'd still be abundant in the wild anyway.  I think the fact that they've been virtually extinct for a few generations, means that it's now quite a shock when we witness a large dead fish killed by an otter because it's not something we're used to.  I think this has caused a bit of a panic amongst some anglers and fishery owners but I seriously do not think that a rise in otter numbers will lead to any drastic decline in average or largest fish sizes nationwide.  Izaac Walton didn't seem to struggle and back then otters would have been a common sight in most of the country's waterways!  Being mainly a predator angler myself, I have explained on multiple occasions to other anglers the importance of the natural predator vs. prey balance, especially when condemning the short-sighted "anglers" who feel the need to kill/cull pike.  Well, suprise surprise, although they're furry rather than scaly, otters are also part of Britain's natural predator/prey balance!  I can think of one well known angler who has previously stressed the importance of predators, yet has also condemned the re-introduction of otters!  Cormorants (another can o' worms completely!) are a slightly different story because they now feed and breed much further inland than they naturally should, BUT it's still our fault as humans, for we have removed all their food from the seas surrounding us, so they have a simple choice:  Die on the British coast or adapt and find food elsewhere.  It's a natural survival instinct and much as I dislike the things (I've personally had cormorants completely wipe-out a lake more than once and have had to take extraordinary measures to prevent future gluttonous attacks), I can't knock 'em for their ability to thrive in adversity!

I did brave the cold waters of the river Derwent on Boxing Day to enter the annual raft race, which was even more of a laugh than last year although I'm glad we only found out about the dead body after we'd finished!  Here's our monstrosity of a raft in action, I'm in the fetching red cowboy hat!

Merry Christmas Everyone! (Rage Against The Machine Christmas No.1? Incredible!!!)

Best wishes to everyone for the festive period.  Here's to bulging landing nets for the New Year!

With the snow-melt predicted over the next couple of days it's seriously going to cool the waters down, making most species difficult to catch.  I'm hoping to fit in a grayling session and a chub session, but if it gets ever so slightly milder and the rivers don't colour up too much I might contemplate a pike session.  It's over a month now since I wet a line and I'm getting very itchy to do so!  I'll be paying close attention to the weather forecasts and EA rivercall messages to help me decide what I should target when.  ...Although I'll probably still get it wrong!

Before I can fit in any fishing, I'll be potentially risking life & limb for no good reason other than for a laugh, by entering the MATLOCK RAFT RACE on the River Derwent!  Had I thought about it earlier, I could have got sponspored for charity but as it stands I'm doing it for no-one's benefit, not even my own!  With the snow melting into the river it'll be a wee bit chilly on the extremeties, to put it politely.

Finally a quick word about the Christmas Nunber 1.  Rage Against The Machine have genuinely been one of my top 3 bands of all time, for a good few years now.  I'm staggered, elated, impressed that they got the Christmas number 1.  I think it was blown out of proportion as usual by the media and Rage seem to be lapping up the attention, but at last this hugely influential, groundbreaking band get some mainstream media attention.  They've backed various campaigns themselves in the past against political prisoners, oppressive governments and other political issues so there's a certain amount of irony that it was an internet campaign that got them a number 1!  To those who say "the song isn't very Christmassy" (of which there are many, it seems), how on earth is a cheesy re-hash of a song Hannah Montana sang in a film released in the Spring, about her supposed struggle against the odds at all Christmassy?  And as for those who feel sorry for the X-factor winner; surely the ones you should feel sorry for are previous Cowell show winners who undeservedly had a number 1 then vanished into abstraction?  At least this guy is at the start of his career, he has the chance to get many future number ones; who knows, he might even start his own campaign to beat next year's X-factor winner to top spot!  Rage's music has been around for almost 2 decades and it still sounds fresh and dangerous; surely this is more deserved of a number one than someone who's "struggled" and "climbed" for 12 weeks to be given a schmaltzy song to cover which has been cherry-picked to get him a guaranteed Christmas number 1?!!! 
"Killing..." is not my favourite Rage song, but as a number 1?  Hell, I'll take it!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Angling Star Magazine - December 2009 Cover Shot

Guess who's on the cover of this month's "Angling Star"...!

Available in all good (mainly Northern!) newsagents now!

Robson Green digging himself an Extreme deep hole down under!

Anyone familiar with my website will likely know that I'm not the biggest fan of Robson Green's fishing show, "Extreme Fishing with Robson Green".  I do explain myself further on my website, but my main gripe with the show is the inhumanity and contempt he shows towards fish and other creatures (moorhens, to be precise!).  Anyway, I received an email a few weeks ago from an Australian writer, who maintains a blog called Sting In The Tail.  She had seen a couple of episodes with her husband and made a few comments about Robson's treatment of fish on her Twitter account.  A baffling but hilarious exchange ensued, with Robson posting several knee-jerk responses to her comments.  I was aghast when I read it, and as a result Mr Green has dropped further in my estimation.  Before I thought he was a pillock when given a fishing rod, but it seems he's just a full-time pillock!  The full dialogue is detailed Here - Robson Green vs Sheila in Twitter verbal battle.  I'd recommend you give it a read; it's both amusing and enlightening!

As for fishing at the moment, I have no sessions planned.  The last time I fished I was out on the Trent 3 weeks ago on a 7pm 'til 11.30pm after-work session.  I didn't blank, but the results weren't exactly sparkling. 

I'm hoping to get a full day session in before Christmas, but I'm struggling for days off at the moment, and this weekend I'm off to the "10 Years of ATP" music festival at Butlins in Minehead!  I went to the "Nightmare Before Christmas" festival there last December and it was unbelievably good. 

For anyone who hasn't heard of ATP before, their festivals are aimed at "proper" music fans and tend to have eclectic bills heavily laden with seminal artits who have never really hit the mainstream or had songs on the radio, but their influence on other artists or the music scene in general has been noteworthy.  There's also plenty of new talent on show and a few of my favourites I discovered during ATP last year are Tweak Bird, Monotonix and Vocal Sampling.  Another perk of ATP festivals to a 30-odd festival veteran such as myself is the accommodation.  After a long day's drinking and rocking out a bed, a radiator and a hot shower are very welcome!  Well, I am getting old you know...

Next blog I promise will be a bit more fishing-related!

Hello blogsville!

Hi, this is not a proper blog post - I intend to post one of those very soon - it's just a test to see how my profile's looking.

Once properly up and running this is going to be a blog about fishing in the UK and abroad, updated whenever I've got something to say in between writing my Fishing Articles.  If you like to fish for specimen Barbel, Pike, Perch, Zander, Chub, Roach, Rudd, Grayling and occasionally Carp, then head over to my website to check out some of my instructional articles & videos, then check back here soon for new blog posts.  Thanks for checking my stuff out!