July 2016 Update: Carp, Tench and Lure Fishing

A fine summer's evening

Last week, I decided to renew one of my Club Tickets to make the most of all the waters within walking distance from my home, and target stillwater species in conditions which are tougher from a river perspective. The species that have been on my mind of late are carp, tench and eels. I have also been contemplating getting into light lure fishing, which was also on the agenda for my local river. For the first outing, I decided to venture down for a short afternoon's session on my local club lakes after some carp and tench. As the light started to fade, and the workers on the peninsula of the lake had stopped strimming, I started to get some takes. The result of this was a few bream and tench, but sadly no carp were around to make an appearance in this duration. I think they key to catching these fish is to introduce some bait, so that the carp can potentially dominate the swim in their, at times, greedy fashion.

A powerful little tench!

On the next session, I set my stalls on another club lake to try and stalk a carp or two out. My choice of bait was a single piece of fluffy bread flake which I was hoping to trigger a couple of fish into slurping in. I arrived at the lake, brimming with enthusiasm as I saw plentiful carp, some of which were bathing and others were slowly cruising. There was also some slurping that was taking place with carp sucking naturals off the Canadian Pond weed. The first swim I chose, I saw a group of fish and a common which looked as if it was up for a helping of flake. After casting just over the fish and teasing the piece of ever-expanding bread towards the fish's path, a few agonising minutes were to follow. The fish carried on taking naturals off the weed and slowly made its way to my bait and paused. The mouth extended and sucked the piece of flake in. I let the fish take the bait and was baffled at the fact that I had managed to strike into thin air! This fish was well into double figures, which was a great shame as it would have been a lovely fish to start with. After missing another fish, cheaply getting away, I found myself right at the corner of the lake which was also thick with weed and a nice group of lilly pads. After drifting my bait to the edge of these pads, a small pair of lips came up and slurped in a medium-sized piece of flake. I struck more positively this time and connected. Despite this being the smallest fish that took my bait, the reward was a lovely dark little mirror.

An enjoyable tussle in the weed!

For the final session, I decided to head out and do some light lure fishing. Having chatted with a mate, Mark Lindsay, about fishing light jigs before, I decided to get myself a light lure rod and some braid for a 1000 sized reel. With the rod having not arrived yet, I decided to dig out a telescopic rod I had found in the garage from a previous holiday. After loading my reel with some light braid for some perch fishing and finding some abrasion-resistant fluorocarbon, I headed to a stretch close to home with some depth. This stretch is very weedy and boggy, but I knew that I was in for a chance of seeing some nice perch and pike in the gaps in the weed to cast to. After fishing a few swims and failing to tempt the perch, despite appetisingly pausing the lure in their field of vision, I headed to a stretch downstream of here. Within a very short amount of time, I had managed a few tiny perch which tend to congregate in this little pool which was certainly a start! Following the fact that I had seen a few little pike in the gaps in the weed and chasing minnows in the silty and stagnant areas, I decided to have a go for a few with my little jig. After getting a few chases, but failing to get a take, I casted the jig in a gap in the weeds which looked a likely area for a pike to be hiding. As the lure started to work, in light-speed a pike came out of nowhere and snatched the lure. The take was amazing through the braid, as you felt the fish crunch into the lure. With a quick strike, I managed to hook the pike comfortably in the scissors and it gave a wonderful little tail-walking scrap.

Maybe one day this will go from a minnow mincer to a duckling worrier!

It's wonderful with these small jigheads how easy it is to quickly unhook the fish and release them back into their watery home. I took a stroll onto a silty and stagnant section nearby and saw this tiny baby pike with a stunning green hue sitting boldly in the silt. With a little flick just over its head and the lure fluttering in its view the lure was absolutely devoured! With an energetic and lashing fight, it was lovely to see another one of these stunning juvenile pike in my hands. The immature markings on juvenile pike are wonderful to feast your eyes on, especially from my local chalkstream. By the time I had managed my third little pike, my lure had been bitten in half, so I felt with my family wanting to have some supper that it was a good idea to go home.

See what I mean about the immature markings?

Thanks for reading and tight lines,

Tom

Search for some Wily Chub!

James giving one of a few likely looking swims a crack!

On a last minute and very kind invite from my friend James Denison, the plan was to head to the Dorset Stour to go and check out a few stretches to see if we could manage some of the fine chub the river is renowned for. After taking a glimpse at some very 'tasty' looking stretches, we settled on a stretch which was brimming with features and some classic chubby-looking lies. I opted to take an ambush approach, hoping to be able to creep up on some chub, and James opted to fish lighter on a much more active, roving method. On walking the first stretch, I realised with my more static method, in terms of targeting these chub that are very wily in the daytime, that I should have implemented my small stream roving into this certain situation.

I did, however, have some interesting enquiries on some of the swims on the first stretch, but unfortunately these enquiries were pretty much 'unhittable'. It was clear that James certainly had the right idea for fishing this tough waterway in the daytime, as he had soon managed two chub to 4lb 4oz and had managed to cover far more water. After James's second fish, I decided to try and be more proactive and through this, realised that this was the most effective way of locating the pockets of fish before planning an initial ambush - pretty basic I know, but having fished other parts of the Stour where the chub have been, at times easier to locate, I had on this occasion not kept my options open. On the next stretch, the wind really picked up, making trundling a bait rather challenging and was therefore forced into static fishing again having located the odd pocket of fish. James managed another couple of fish in quick succession in a nice glide once the wind had started to die down, up to 4lb 11oz.

One of a few '4s' James had during the day!

I decided after being unable to induce a bite from a small pocket of chub that I'd wait until the light dropped after some bait had gone into a certain slack swim from James and myself, I decided to give this swim a go as it got dark. As the light started to fade, I got a sudden bang on the tip before the rod started jolting violently. I struck and was finally into my first chub. After several dashes for the reeds in close, I finally managed to guide the chevin into the net. For the Stour's standards it was no massive chub, but I was more than happy to have landed this beautiful fish on such a hard and testing day.

Aren't summer chub stunning? (3-10)

As the light levels dropped further, I had various other enquiries, but there was no 'hittable' bites to be had for me for the rest of the trip. James, having settled just below me within minutes had his centrepin absolutely tearing line and connecting with an unknown source as it absolutely mowed into the snag and parted his hooklink cleanly. As one can imagine, James was very disappointed, but he kept his head high and casted straight back into the same position. Just before we were due to pack up, James had another bite and landed an absolute corking chub of 5lb 11oz.

A great way to end the trip, much deserved for James's efforts (5-11)

It was a very enjoyable session and I felt I certainly had learnt a lot. Thanks goes to James for the invite, and being great company throughout the day.

Tight Lines,

Tom Aldous

Unfinished Business with the Prince of the River

Both rods out in the witching hour!

Over the last two seasons, I have been lucky enough to get a taste for catching barbel, and it has been amazing to have caught them from four different rivers. On a kind invite from my friend Simon Daley, there was potentially a chance to catch my first from a fifth river, the Hampshire Avon. On the last session I did on the Avon with Simon, he managed two stunning barbel to just short of double figures, which certainly showed in the flesh what the fishery was capable of. After an early start, Simon and I journeyed up to Christchurch in order to get our tickets for the Royalty Fishery. We hastily acquired them, before whizzing our way to the river bank. Following this, we propped our gear down and had a look around, admiring the plentiful cracking swims the fishery has. Simon pointed out a stunning swim to me with plenty of ranunculus cover for the barbel to dart in and out of and some lovely gravels which looked a perfect zone for barbel to 'ghost' about.

After introducing some bait, I casted the first rod out, whilst Simon set up and baited a nice swim upstream which also had some thick ranunculus and gravels where he had caught a fair few barbel before. I set up a rig which would be nicely pinned down to the river bed, in these clear conditions, with a supple hooklink and a couple of pellets on the hair. I had one rod flicked upstream, and the other flicked downstream between the weed, which gave me confidence I was covering both bases. Just as I had settled down on my seat and had just helped myself to my first biscuit of the day, the upstream rod's tip jolted as if the rig had been dislodged and absolutely tore line off on the freespool. I picked up the rod, and felt the pure muscular lunges of a barbel on the end, as I watched my line jolt in a zig zag motion going downstream. This fish absolutely clung to the bottom as I tried to apply pressure to keep it away from the thick weed. I retained this steady pressure, and managed to deter it from making a further rush. It remained deep and charged upstream with pure muscle, putting me through the mill with its sheer strength! I patiently continued to exert pressure, and the tell-tale shark-like fin soon graced the surface, as the fish turned and lashed back towards the weed - I always find this part of a barbel fight the scariest! After cupping the spool, as the fish had its final lunges, the stunning barbel graced the net. I couldn't believe the beautiful colours as I revived her in the net, an absolute stunning golden flank.

After some well earned minutes of revival and quickly unhooking the fish in the water, Simon had made his way down to my swim: "you didn't muck about did you mate?", he exclaimed, smiling. To say I was chuffed was an understatement, as this was my first barbel of the season and first off the Hampshire Avon. After quickly weighing the fish, which was an ounce under 6lbs (5-15), Simon kindly took some lovely photos. After doing so, I rested the fish once more before it had retained its strength and was ready to swim back strongly into its hideout of the ranunculus. It was really exciting watching the barbel swim back into the crystal clear water, as I have rarely been able to see this in the daytime before, and Simon remarked the sheer camouflage of the barbel against the gravel, as we both watched the stunning fish disappear into the weed.

Lovely golden-flanked barbel (5-15)

After freshening the baits on both rods, I flicked both rigs back out. Just as I was tidying a few things in my rucksack, my downstream rod absolutely whacked over. I scrambled to the rod before it had the chance to pull it off the rest! This fish charged straight upstream and attempted to make several dashes to the thickest beds of weed in the swim. Luckily with my reasonably substantial tackle in these weedy conditions, I was able to put a brake on these runs. After several more sprints, a lovely little barbel popped up to the surface. After a few final lashes on the surface, I safely managed to find an opening in the weed to land the barbel. Simon kindly did the honours with the camera again, and the young barbel was soon ready to dash back into the cover, after a few minutes of revival.

Little powerhouse in lovely condition!

It was a thoroughly enjoyable start to the morning, having managed my first two barbel of the season and off a new waterway! The rest of the morning, henceforth, seemed to be a lot quieter, with the sun starting to come out. After a few hours, Simon and I decided to go and look for some chub. I had been seeing the odd one about throughout the course of the morning, and it felt as if it was now time to see if we could tempt one. We arrived at a run with some nice depth and a slack at the far side, where we started to introduce some bait. It was not long until they were taking a few competitively, which meant it was perfect time for Simon to introduce his free-lined bait. As expected, action was pretty instant, with Simon receiving a snatching take. He struck sharply and connected with a decent looking chub. After a couple of surging runs, the chub was resting safely in the net. I was amazed by the sheer size of it out of the water: "looks a good five" I said, excitedly. At 5lb 9oz, it was a cracking chub for anytime of year, and what a way to have caught it!

A cracking summer chub (5-9)

The rest of the day certainly proved to be difficult, with the sun still high and it also seemed nigh-on impossible to avoid the plentiful dace which were picking up our pellets. Between us we must have had more than a dozen dace, chublets and we even had a roach each when switching to 10mm boilie barrels. As the sun started to descend, it was lovely to see a pair of terns diving in the twilight, with the odd salmon or sea trout crashing clean out of the water! It was nice to get back out, after several days stuck indoors.

Big thanks goes to Simon for inviting me for another shot at a Hampshire Avon barbel and imparting his knowledge of the stretch, as well as his knowledge of the barbel present.

Tight Lines,

Tom