Hampshire Angling Adventures: Fishing for Bars of Gold with Duncan Charman

Sunday 2 August 2015

Fishing for Bars of Gold with Duncan Charman

On a kind invite from none other than rudd expert and specimen angler, Duncan Charman, I was on the road to one of his classic rudd waters where Duncan has taken fish to over the mythical 3lb and magical 2lb mark. We arrived at the lake at around 5.30pm with Duncan informing me the swim he wanted to fish was available. We hurriedly brought the stuff over and started setting our rods up. I couldn't believe the size of the lake, it was a lot larger than I had imagined. After wading out and spodding a particle mix with plenty of maggot to hopefully draw the rudd into the area, we set up all our rods with short hook links and feeders on a helicopter rig setup as Duncan had introduced me to before. I used 6lb mainline and a 5lb 14oz Preston Powerline Hooklink; this was due to the fact that there are a fair few tench in the lake and this tackle gave us a chance to stop them. Duncan slightly tweaked the rig by adding pop up characteristics as the rudd's mouth is upturned and will not easily take off the bottom. It was now time to cast out the rods and wait.

As it was starting to get dark, whilst I was sorting out the mess of my swim, I noticed my bobbin had dropped to the ground and slowly ascending, I gently tightened into the bite. I felt a good weight on the end, as I waded into the water and could see Duncan smiling as he also waded in with the net in his hand. "Looks like a good rudd mate" he said as I kept in contact with the weight of what felt like a good rudd, shaking with excitement as he told me in this lake they are likely to be 2 pounders! As the rod was far out it took a while to come in. A few minutes of pure nerve-racking action and a huge gold bar popped up. On its final bid for freedom, ir started trying to get back down deeper. With a bit more steady pressure the fish was in the net, "that's a 2" Duncan said as I breathed a huge sigh of relief that the hook stayed proud. I looked in the net and saw an obvious personal best - a stunning bar of gold lying there filling a decent amount of the net. After reviving the fish we weighed it and it was my first ever 2lb rudd at 2lb 8drms. I waded out and gently placed it in the keepnet on Duncan's instruction and got my rig out straight back into the same sort of area, hoping there was more than one rudd there.

It wasn't long again until I heard a single bleep on my alarm and see my bobbin drop and then rise, another fish was on! Feeling more confident at playing these fish I kept in good contact and after another decent length battle, another good rudd was in the net. "Could be another 2" Duncan informed me as he put another quality rudd on the scales and this one was dead on 2lb which again I was absolutely made up about. Shortly after placing another fine rudd into the net and the light had now gone, Duncan's alarm bleeped and started to come to life; gently picking up the rod, Duncan was now into a good rudd himself. This fish was putting up greater resistance and we knew it would be a good fish. After what felt like a steady and intense scrap, the biggest rudd of the session was in the net. "That's a good 2 Tom,” he said, as we put it on the scales and at 2-7 this was a great result, with this being the biggest of the trio of 2s. Not long after Duncan placed his fish in the net, his alarm woke up again and he was into yet another good rudd. This was again an interesting fight and another low 2 was in the net.

Duncan with a quick shot of his 2lb 7oz Rudd before release

After a storm passed, we both got our heads down and apart from two strange takes on Duncan's rod, one of which mysteriously snapped his line and the other a good rudd coming off in the margins, it was a nice quiet night at the lake. I woke up at about 4.30am and gradually started to wake up and re-orientate myself after what was actually a good night's sleep. Just as I sat on the end of my bed chair after having a quick sip of what remained of my drink my alarm bleeped suddenly and hit the top of the rod violently, I was yet again into a rudd. The fish was agile and was staying deep and I was hoping that my hookpoint would stay proud. All I could do was stay in contact with the fish and it wasn’t long until another quality rudd topped and accelerated violently to the right to try and slip my hook hold. After a few painstaking seconds of the fight on under the rod tip the rudd was in the net. This fish was certainly a personal best looking heavier built than the 2lb 8drm fish I had earlier on in the session. At 2lb 4oz I was over the moon with this fish as a Personal Best and with big rudd, which are true being scarce, I was thrilled by the session I had had.

New PB of 2lb 4oz

After this time was running short so and there were no more fish to be had, but a huge thanks to Duncan for taking me on his local rudd water and putting me onto a few absolute colossal rudd! It was a very enjoyable session and if any of you reading would like to have a go at this with Duncan, you can spend a day with him by contacting him on duncancharman@icloud.com and checking out his website and Facebook Page!