A Late One

Just over a week ago I had a rare chance of an evening session after work - in fact it tied in perfectly with me breaking up for a week off. My wife was heading straight from an afternoon works do to an evening do with friends over in Rugby. Relieved of my after work taxi duties I headed off down the Avon for a 6pm start, knowing that I needed to be in Rugby for around 11pm - perfect for a fish into dusk. It's a great time to be on the bank, but all too rare for me.

It was a glorious evening with the added bonus (if that's the right word!) of the last half hour of the test match on the radio, followed by a Warwickshire (or should I say Birmingham) Bears T20 clash. Fishing, cricket, decent weather and a river to myself - a perfect match.

 

As well as a general stick float approach, I'd planned to have a dabble for the large perch that can often be seen in this stretch, but I'd already realised during my journey that I'd screwed up. The worms I'd dug up barely 15 minutes before leaving home were sat on the green wheelie bin at home. Luckily I'd brought some prawns (marinated in a worm oil attractor) so they'd have to form my main perch attack.

A few balls of groundbait were plopped into place across two lines - one just off the platform for the perch line and another around a rod length out for the stick line. Dace were plentiful to maggot on the stick line and all the time I was feeding maggots on the perch line. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a decent (2lb+) perch moving amonsgt the maggots I'd just fed, so I decided to see what it thought of a prawn.

I dropped one above its head and watched it sink down through the clear water. The perch took it like a dream on the drop - but then spat it out equally as quickly. Bugger! Undeterred I gave it a go with the prawns but I never had a take - just a few sharp plucks that might well have been line bites. Maggots didn't do the trick either. Decent perch were in the swim throughout the session though - another time maybe...

The stick line continued to produce small fish throughout the session with roach, perch, dace, gudgeon and bleak all showing. Out of the blue I had a slow take that I thought was just the line dragging bottom, but the bottom began to move! It was a heavy fish, but certainly very ponderous too. On light tackle I could only let it take line as it swam out towards mid river. Then the hook pulled, followed by a few expletives.

I figured it either had to be a bream or perhaps a foul hooked fish that didn't even realise it was hooked. I upped the hook size to a 14 and gave it another go. Within 10 minutes I was into a bream which was hooked much better and this one made it to the bank. It was in the 3.5lb to 4lb range. Not a big bream I guess, but it's nice to get one trotting at close range on the centre pin.

For the last half hour I was piked out. Fish after fish was attacked and in all but one case I managed to pull the fish clear of the pike's jaws. The one fish that was grabbed had a lucky escape. I'd played the pike for around 2 minutes and I've generally found that if they stay on for that long, I usually get them in. Quite often in these cases the hook has transferred from the prey fish to the pike and careful playing will win the day.

In this case it just turned out that the pike was ultra stubborn and wouldn't give up his supper. Eventually it did let go and I swung the dace into hand. It was barely marked and still seemed to be OK. I popped it into the landing net to give it a breather and it then swam off with plenty of gusto.

I packed up when the bells of a local church chimed for 10pm and I could barely see my float. It was a pleasant evening session with lots of fish showing and hopefully I'll find an opportunity to repeat it soon - not forgetting my worms next time!

Dream or Nightmare?

Time for a catch up and after a week off to make progress with decorating the kitchen / utility area, I had the pleasure of a weekend away at Hereford. I always look forward to these trips which generally end up being more of a social outing than anything deadly serious in terms of the fishing. That said, the prep work in the week beforehand seemed never ending and despite seriously scaling down my gear, I still ended up winning the who's brought the most gear award!

We headed off on the Friday evening to allow us an early start the next morning. Having checked in to our hotel we headed off on the arduous journey to the nearest pub - all of 40 yards from our room to the bar I'd guess! A few beers helped me off to sleep and 4-50am came around very quickly. The rather inadequately sized kettle was swiftly into action with 4 flasks to be filled. Several boilings later and we were winding our way through the Herefordshire countryside in search of a small estate lake we'd booked for the day.

The lake (or pool) was Trelough Pool which is bookable through the Wye & Usk Foundation. Now it's not normally my bag to be fishing a pool when the rivers are open and perfectly fishable. I make an exception in this case though because the pool is seldom fished and having taken up all 3 tickets, we knew we'd got the place to ourselves for the day. It's a bit of indulgence that we wouldn't get to do very often, so we decided to give it a shot.

It was a beautiful pool with excellent access - parking right by the water's edge. The colour was a deep chocolate brown, which was a blessing because it was very shallow. Bubbles could be seen all round the pool and the bottom was being churned up in many places by feeding fish.

Eager to get started we unloaded the van. Brian was first off the mark and had a disaster before even setting up any gear. The flask that he'd lovingly prepared was shattered into pieces on the floor of the van. Aluminium - it's the only way to go!

We knew it was full of roach and we all caught plenty of them - but only small ones. We also knew it contained eels, but we didn't bank on how many. Again, we all had our share of them - Charlie being the eel king with no less than 16 of the slimy ones. Unlike eels I might encounter on my local Avon, these were very pale and silvery in colour - no doubt due to the murky colour of the water.

The pool contains carp and in mind at all times was our weekend side bet - a fiver each for the biggest carp, the biggest barbel and the most species. Anyone bagging all 3 categories would also get a bonus fiver, taking it up to £20 from each other angler. Game on...

I hadn't seen any carp but I flicked out a few bits of bread towards an island with overhanging trees. Soon enough a carp popped out and began devouring all the bread. I introduced a bit more and that went the same way. This was going to be easy I thought. My baited rig went out and didn't get taken. The carp was keeping tight to the island. I was too short of the mark and a braver cast was needed.

I gave it another fling and my bread hit the edge of the tree but plopped down into the water. I was in business and it didn't take long for all hell to break loose. To cut it short I was attached to a decent carp, but in the shallow water it totally bossed me and snagged me up, leaving me fishless.

The carp proved to be totally frustrating throughoput the day and one other similar encounter with an equally suicidical cast ended in the same fate. To add insult to injury for the last hour or two I had a nice carp continually ploughing up the margin swim that I'd been baiting throughout the day. The water was so shallow at that point, that when it fed hard on the bottom, its tail would stick up out of the water! It just wouldn't take my bait though.

No-one else managed to land a carp (Brian came close), so that side bet was void. Charlie snook ahead in the species stakes with 4 (roach, eel, perch, bream) with myself and Brian languishing on 3 (roach, eel, rudd). Sadly we had to leave well before dusk - just as the fishing looked set to really take off. The need for food and beer was greater.

After an unsuccesful attempt to get McDonalds to open at 5-45am on a Sunday, we managed to satisfy Brian's coffee craving at a garage with Costa facilities. I didn't go into the garage, but Charlie was on form apparently. They do regular and large coffees, but they didn't have any large cups - only regular - so no point opting for large. You know the rest - one flooded machine later and we were off on our way to the Wye!

Day 2 saw us at one of our usual haunts. This one isn't a WUF beat, but a private section that has seen some good improvements made during the closed season by the bailiff. It's now an even longer section (close on 2 miles) and almost half of it can be accessed by driving straight to your peg. It doesn't have the exclusivity of the WUF beats, but there's plenty of pegs to go around.

I always find myself in awe of this river. Whenever I arrive at my peg I'll always sit back for a few moments and just take in the surroundings. So much wildlife around and while buzzards can often be seen floating above the treeline, we'd actually seen one close up down by the water's edge as we'd driven along the bank.

As majestic as the surroundings were, the bailiff gave us the bad news that the river had switched off totally the previously day in the bright conditions - even the banker swim wasn't producing. Previously it had been fishing well apparently with over 400 barbel taken since the start of the season.

My swim was one I knew from a previous visit a few years ago - on my first visit to the Wye. On that occasion I was on the opposite bank and had a red letter day, taking 16 barbel and hitting the magical ton. This day was to be a little different - 16 barbel different to be precise. And no, I didn't catch 32! I totally blanked - a nightmare in dream surroundings.

The only barbel reported on the stretch all day across 13 anglers came from our party - Charlie taking one of 4lb 12oz fairly early on. He also sneaked out a chub of about 2.5lb. Some dace meant that he'd taken his species tally to 7 and at that point I gave up on trying to catch him. I just went all out for the barbel and it didn't happen. Fishing into dark might have seen a change in fortune, but we needed to get back and that wasn't an option.

 

Charlie plays a barbel

We're going to to repeat it later in the year when the conditions will hopefully be better for the barbel. Time will also be on our side and fishing into dusk will be on the cards. Hopefully I'll get my tenner back (and more) next time...

I've had one other session since the Wye trip - report to follow soon.

Opening Week

Opening week has been and gone and it was great to have a few sessions on both the Avon and Leam. The Leam in particular was a breath of fresh air and it reminded me of many happy hours I spent down on the Warwickshire Stour many moons ago.

It wasn't a massively prolific week but I did most of what I set out do - to fish lots of swims (many of them new to me) to build up some knowledge for the season ahead.

Pike were a pest on the Avon. They were never far away from anything being reeled in. I love 'em though and hope they fatten up nicely for when I target them later in the season.

The Leam is a more intimate river with many interesting pegs packed with features.

First chub of the season at 2lb 7ozs.

A few inquisitive spectators turned up!

For a brief moment I dared to dream that I might be playing a decent roach from the Leam but it was most definitely a hybrid.

I'm already looking forward to the next session. I'm not sure which river will get the nod but if it's the Avon I think the perch will get some attention (I spotted a decent one on my last session). Chub are a likely target for the Leam as I haven't really tested out the shallower more oxygenated areas yet.

Something Old, Something New ...

The new season is now within touching distance and it will signal the end of what turned out to be a 2 month lay off for me - the longest break I've had for many a year. I didn't intentionally mean to take such a long break, but it's given me a chance to do a few other things and to recharge my batteries for the new season.

Some new purchases are being readied for action and a few extra hand-made floats are nearing completion. The hemp is cooked and in the freezer. Some left over loaves are due to be ground up in the next day or so. A trip to the Wye is also in the bag.



Smells lovely!

Licences are mostly in place too. The Alveston book gets another renewal - I'm on the committee, so it would be rude not to! Aside from it being very peaceful, it's very reliable for winter pike fishing, with fish over 20lb on offer. There's plenty of fish throughout the whole section.

I've also joined the Coventry Godiva Angling Society, who run a 2 mile stretch of the Leam between Marton and Eathorpe. I don't know much about this river at all, but I've walked the entire stretch and it looks very interesting. It should offer plenty of options for winter chubbing and maybe a nice alternative venue for some piking. It sounds like some nice roach and perch might also be present.

The main thing I'm looking forward to is getting in some leg work and trying out as much of the river as possible. All too often I take the matchman approach and just extract what I can from a single peg, but this river looks like it will need a more mobile approach and I've put together an alternative set of kit to allow me to do that.

I'm also planning a return to the Warwick book for the first time in around 5 years. Saxon Mill and Hopyards are sections that I enjoyed previously and aside from general sport, both also have plenty of pike potential for the winter months. The main driver for switching back though is the lack of any backup stillwaters on my other club books and Warwick offers the racecourse reservoir. I know it's available on a day ticket (at a higher price), but I figure that I might as well get the book and have the extra river options throughout the season. It will be a useful back up in times of flood and also for when the season closes, when I'll be looking for some of those perch that it holds.

I didn't renew my Leamington book this time around, having used up my month's grace period a while back now. I like to switch things around from time to time and although I'll miss some of the waters (College Pool and Snitterfield Rese spring to mind), it's time for a change. I have more than enough options across the other books (as long as the rivers don't flood too much!), so I don't think I'd get the value from taking on anything else.

I have a bit of final bankwork planned for the weekend on the Alveston section and then a full week of fishing indulgence beckons, starting from the 16th. I always like to be off work during the opening week and this year it has worked out spot on. The weather forecast doesn't appear to be a concern and the local rivers are currently in decent nick according to the EA site.

I'm itching to get back on running water again and it's fingers crossed for a prolific season ahead. Good luck to all of you heading to a river next week.

Made Me Laugh

Reading my Angling Times today as per my usual Tuesday lunchtime routine. The article on estate lakes grabbed my attention and I had a look through their list of must try venues to see what was on offer locally that I might have overlooked in the past.

This made me laugh:

Similar to our local Coombe Abbey Lake, Blenheim observes the traditional closed season! Oops!

Close But No Cigar

I haven't done much fishing in recent weeks. A poor session at Snitterfield Reservoir a couple of weeks ago was the only outing since my last post. I had a morning slot available this Saturday and decided to give it a go.

College Pool was my choice to get back amongst a few fish and I planned to get there for 7am. Everything was going to order and I was sweeping my way southwards through the Warwickshire countryside. It was only when I reached The Pheasant Hotel at Charlecote that I realised my daydreaming had perhaps gone a little too far!

Seeing a dreamy looking river at Barford had sent me into autopilot and I was happily heading off to my club stretch on the Avon. Oh well, only a couple of months to wait! A quick U turn and I was back on the right track and heading towards Wasperton.

Arriving at 7-05, I was the first on site and I headed off down the far end of the pool. I figured that I'd be nicely out of the way down there. Wrong! Three chaps arrived just after I'd balled in and with the whole pool to choose from, they plonked themselves directly opposite me. In fairness, they were no trouble, but having other anglers in my eyeline all session is not my idea of a pleasant day. It's always a possibility on this water though.

I gave the bolo rod another outing and it caused a puzzled look from one of the onlookers. "What the hell's that?" and "That bloke's got a rod as long as your pole", were a couple of the remarks from one of the seasoned onlookers. Whilst perhaps not the most obvious choice of the masses, I quite like the control I can get from it when fishing a water like this (very deep close in). It's a little less subtle than a pole, but with a bit more peace of mind courtesy of the running line.

The set up was a homemade float fished 19ft deep, with a bulk of 4AAA shot 18 inches from the hook, with a number 6 about 9 inches from the hook. The hook was a Kamasan size 15 b711 attached to a 3lb bottom and baited with 3 red maggots. Main line was 5lb Maxima on a centre pin reel. Around 8 balls of groundbait were introduced (laced with half a pint of caster, some micro pellets and a dollop of liquid molasses) into a tight area.

It was a slow start but a couple of small roach and a perch got me off the mark, before a decent roach turned up. It was the best I've had from the pool by quite some way and at 1lb 3oz, it was only a couple of ounces shy of my pb.

Fish weren't exactly crawling up my rod though and it was the same amongst those opposite me. One had managed a bream while the other pair were blanking.

Eventually I managed another bite and this felt more substantial. Definitely a bream I thought, but then I couldn't seem to do anything with it, so maybe it was something else? With a 3lb bottom I couldn't give it too much stick, but to be honest the fish was battering me all ends up every time I tried to apply any pressure. For well over 5 minutes I had a strange battle and then when I saw a brief glimpse of the fish, I knew the score.

It was foul hooked in the pectoral fin and was an absolute nightmare to control. Every time I threatened to get top side of it, it would power off again. Eventually I managed to bank it in a clumsy manner, with it darting around, missing the net and pretty much beaching itself, with me smothering it with the net. It went 5lb 2oz and was sporting spawning tubercles.

Ten minutes later I was in again and this fish gave more of a stereotypical bream fight, finding its way into the net fairly swiftly. This was a better fish and at 6lb 1oz, was also just a few ounces shy of a pb.

I bumped off one other small fish and that was it for the action. Four hours after arriving I packed up and headed home. The three anglers opposite, all using poles, still had more keepnets between them than fish.

Like many others, it seems I'm not alone in waiting for my EA rod licence to show up. I renewed over 2 weeks ago and it's yet to find its way through my letter box. Some who renewed after me have received theirs, but some others who renewed before me are also still waiting. It sounds like a bizarre system to me.

Peace and Quiet

The chance to fish last week didn't materialise in the end and that signalled an early end to my river season (although it pretty much ended in mid December if I'm honest). To rub salt into the wounds I drove out into the Warwickshire countryside this morning and the Avon at Barford was looking in great nick - a far cry from the flooded scenes of recent months.

I only had a shortish 4 hour session planned for today and I was mulling over my options, but settled for College Pool in the end. With its deep water, it was the perfect place to try out a new rod I'd bought a few weeks ago. I'm gradually building up an arsenal of rods to cover various situations and I couldn't resist grabbing a bargain deal of a Stillwater bolo rod (£59.99) which came with a free baitrunner reel and was also sent free of charge. The reel was loaded with braid and was put through its paces a few weeks ago on a couple of pike sessions. It coped well enough.

The rod (just shy of 20ft) was teamed up with a centre pin reel. It allowed me to float fish with a fixed set up rather than having to use a slider approach. Some might question why I don't just pole fish to allow for greater comfort and flexibility, but I've been bitten with those tactics before. The pool contains some hard fighting carp and if you hook one on pole gear, you either need some very substantial gear or a huge dose of luck to get them out.

I prefer to have the back up of rod and line wherever possible and this is where the bolo rod gives me another option. I can fish a relatively light set up in a similar way to how I'd fish the pole, with excellent presentation. The difference is that any bonus carp or barbel would probably smash the same set up fished on a pole, but with the bolo I have a fighting chance.

Although I'd turned up with the rod already equipped, I took my time to get started. I balled out some groundbait not too far out (but still into 19ft of water!) and took time to have a wander around the pool, before taking in a coffee, then making some final adjustments to my set up. With no-one around it was just peaceful and relaxing on a gorgeously mild March morning.

It was a difficult start, with a few roach and perch showing, but with no great enthusiasm and bites were slow to come by. I was pondering whether my tactics were right and considering maybe reaching for the quiver tip rod. Then the float buried with more purpose and I bumped off a better fish. That was the signal that bream had finally found the bait and with it my confidence went up a few notches.

I patiently stuck to my guns and managed to catch four bream over the next couple of hours. None of them monsters - all between 4lb and 4lb 9oz.

It was a pleasant few hours and I had the place to myself for the whole session - just how I like it. I assume that Jubilee Pools reopening after their winter shut down, perhaps saw a few people taking that option instead. The rod performed well enough on its first outing and it's more than adequate for my needs in this type of situation.

I'm hoping to get down to Snitterfield soon to see how things are warming up down there, while I still have a ticket. I'm reviewing my plans for the season ahead and it's likely that some of my current haunts will have to bite the dust. I'm looking to expand my river fishing to include more of the Avon, along with other local rivers such as the Leam possibly. I just need to acquire a stillwater ticket for back up. Enquiries are ongoing...