Plan B: A Change of Plan - Another search for the Lady of the Stream

The plan originally, was to meet up with my friend Mark and go in search of chub, but it was evident that yesterday's overnight rain had quashed our plan. With money also being tight at the moment, I thought the best call for action was to just grab a few hours on the local river. It was, as expected, up and carrying colour. After feeding a swim with a few grains of sweetcorn, I managed to hook the first of the day. This was a nice conditioned young grayling and a very encouraging sign for the future. Another very light sprinkle of grains and the float was moving beautifully through the swim. As I held the float back slightly and let it go down the current, the float buried. I struck and a good fish was on. After lots of digging, I first assumed that it was a trout, but then the telltale dorsal graced the surface. I made my way slightly downstream and landed the fish in a patch with slacker water. It was a very healthy looking grayling and I warily took a quick shot, as there were a few individuals around who quite frankly, I would rather avoid.

Feisty Lady of the Stream (1-9)

I wandered elsewhere to somewhere a lot quieter. Arriving at a nice deeper pool, with a sweeping flow down the middle, and both sides consisting of slacker water. After feeding a few grains of corn, I was soon letting the float whirl towards the slacker water before it buried. I was into a lovely looking grayling straight away. I gave it a good half an hour or so, and it was soon evident that the grayling were there queuing up (the biggest from this spot being on the title image). I also managed a few out of season trout which dived in for the corn on a few occasions. After fishing my way down and picking up the odd fish, I decided it was time to quit whilst I was ahead.

Certainly chose a nice day for it...

My last write-up talked about the problem with 'Joining' or following this blog. There is a simple solution and to those who have read the last write up I would like to reiterate the simplicity. There are two interlinking squares on the side of the 'Join this site' panel. If you click on those it will allow you to follow the blogs in whichever way you choose...

Tight Lines,

Tom

Following this Blog...

Unfortunately this is not a write-up about a recent fishing trip, but to show how to follow this blog so your are more readily informed if you enjoy them. The route I have found round the issue of not being able to join the site, is to click on the two overlapping squares to the side of 'join this site'. This will then give you the options as to the way you choose to follow the blog and its write-ups...

Click where circled...

Bread vs. Cheesepaste - More Mild Chubbing

Cheesepaste has always been one of those baits which has been readily hyped among the angling community when it comes to chub. I, personally, have not used it as much as I possibly should do, therefore I thought now was as good a time as any to buy some ingredients and experiment further from previous attempts. Popping off to my local Sainsbury's, I purchased some Danish blue cheese, some bread and a bit of good old faithful cheddar. After dampening some bread and mixing it with some blue cheese and grated cheddar, I was soon getting a consistency which I was reasonably happy with. I added a small bit of lobworm extract which was kindly given to me by a friend, which left me with a very pungent, amino paste. A bit of margarine also aided a nice consistency.

Getting there...

I headed to the river late morning, and arrived to see that it was carrying a nice green tinge - ideal for chub. My setup consisted of my usual choice of a small cage feeder with a float stop on the line dictating the length of the tail I was fishing. In regards to hook sizes, I stuck on a 6 for a large bait. I started the day fishing the feeder straight-in and after missing a bite in one of my banker swims, as well as having little response overall, I found myself in the swim where I managed the 5-10 last month. A quick flick of my bread offering upstream between the branches, and taps were instant. A few vigorous shakes on the tip and I struck into a good fish. It swum towards me and hung low, juddering its head with vigour. After watching the line whizz from side to side, a lovely brassy chub topped. Excitedly, I guided her into her into the waiting net. After a well earned revival, I put her on the scales and she went 4lb 11oz, a very nice stamp of fish for this river.

A stunning 4-11 chub, very nice fish for this river

After releasing this stunning fish, I decided to chuck some liquidised bread and some lumps of cheesepaste in some swims downstream, prior to fishing them. Meanwhile, I continued on some swims I left free to continue with my straight-in method. I felt by the time I fished these final swims, I the time had come to try the swims I had baited. The swims I piled the most bait into were on some deeper bends, therefore I opted to save those two swims to the very end. After no response in most of the swims after a good amount of time, I found myself at the first bend with a very nice overhanging tree on the far bank. I had a good feeling about going in with the bread rather than the cheesepaste on this instance, therefore I eased on a nice fluffy lump of breadflake and waited. The first tap knocked me completely off balance and a violent bite was to follow. Sadly I was a bit slow on this one. On a recast, thinking I'd lost my chance, I received another series of vicious, snatching taps. This was followed by an aggressive pull round and I was into another chub. This one, although clearly smaller than the 4-11 was certainly giving a good account of itself. Another nice looking chub was in the net.

2-14

After missing another bite in this swim, I felt it was time to move on to another swim upstream of here where I've had a few chub in the past. On arrival at the swim, I balled in a few lumps of cheesepaste in the current whilst I moulded a generous piece onto the hook. Just as I put my rod on the rest, it flew round, and a very small chublet had taken this massive lump of paste - crazy stuff! I moulded an even more generous lump of paste on this time and within minutes of casting I was getting an instant response. After some good taps, I had a flying take and connected with a good fish. This one stayed nice and deep, taking line off the drag with ease. It was certainly nice to finish the day off with one at last knockings!

Tight Lines,

Tom

Last knocking often does produce the goods! (3-10)

After College Grayling

Lovely section of River

With a frost on the ground and my gear on standby, I decided to head out to the local river after college. Choosing a different section to the one I fished with James on the Saturday, I had a few swims in mind where I was sure a few bites would be on the agenda. The first swim was a dead loss, especially when an otter topped just upstream of me... I walked upstream and knew of where the river narrowed and had a bit of pace. Very inviting to the likes of grayling and a nice crease on the far side where one would expect roach and patrolling perch on the prowl after minnows. After steadily trickling in some grains of corn, on my 5th or so run down, I hooked a good fish. Although it is always hard to tell how big grayling are when first hooked, I was disappointed when it bumped off. After bumping another on the next trot, a few more runs through and I managed to induce another take. I struck more positively this time and a nice grayling was on the end. After the typical fight from a grayling, twisting and turning in the current and gyrating, I slowly guided the stunning fish into the net. It was certainly a good pound at least. I gave the fish a good rest in the net, and carried on running through. It was not long until I managed another couple more stunners in that sort of stamp. I took a quick shot of the trio before a prompt release.

A fine trio of ladies - same setup doing the business...

Giving the time for less hardy fish like grayling to revive is something I have done in recent years and in a net with depth, allows the fish to properly revive and go back more resiliently. Some people release them without any form of revival, which can mean they go belly up and get disorientated - this does not do them any favours. I continued on running through and managed quite a few fish of the same sort of stamp with bites being, at points, very regular. Even though nothing larger came of the day, these fish certainly give great accounts of themselves. An out of season sea trout did turn up as well which did certainly give me a good run around on light tackle. All in all an enjoyable afternoon after college...

Tight Lines,

Tom

Pleased with this shot - two fine looking ladies of the stream going back...

Mending the Flow - A Cold day's Grayling Fishing

On the previous evening, my friend Ollie Johnson dropped me down some more Clearwater floats to go down and give a go. I have been very impressed with these floats on the sessions I have used them and was very keen indeed to try some in different shapes and sizes. As mentioned in previous write-ups, the float I find the most versatile is the Wire-Stemmed Avon. The reason for this is the buoyancy is absolutely spot on and it makes float control in some of the more turbulent swims in my neck of the woods much more of a doddle. Even for holding back in shallower water and running through on some of the deeper runs is a joy.  I have also used the chubber float for my grayling fishing locally and has also performed very well for most scenarios. It has also been enjoyable using them for trotting for perch with minnow live baits. I also look forward to putting them to test when going in search of chub on methods such as trotting breadflake. My setup for the grayling locally consists of either a 4g Avon float or a Chubber with either a bulk of shot or an Olivette. Coupled with this I put a dropper or two down the hooklink for more bite sensitivity (especially when the likes of finicky river roach are present).

Great addition to the armoury!

Struggling to get out of bed in the freezing cold, I headed down the hill to purchase some corn and a spot of lunch. I met up with James Denison and his father a few minutes later and we headed upstream as the first stretch we fished was seriously lashing through and the only results to come were a few small trout. James and I chose to fish a nice pool with a nice eddy in close which meant that the concentration of feed would spread throughout the pool, hopefully enticing a resident group congregating. James's father remained just below us. James sprinkled in some maggots, whilst I sprinkled in a few grains of corn, and soon enough, we were both getting bites. We had a fair few fish between us to just over the pound mark, chopping and changing from maggot to corn.

An enjoyable morning!

After fishing a few swims in rotation, with less response, we all returned to the pool after resting it and we managed a few more lovely silvery grayling. James's father also kept working on his swim downstream and picked up a few nice fish also which was a nice result. It was nice to dust off the centrepin again. I felt on the day, I was getting more accustomed to Wallis Casting and felt also I should be using it more, as I feel that it's the one of the purest forms of trotting Small rivers, especially when grayling are present.

One of the grayling I had that was a sucker for the corn - one of the prettiest species in UK freshwater!

We roved on downstream and with James kindly letting me pinch some maggots, we fished a slower, steadier section where I managed the larger grayling of 1-15 last week. James's father and I opted to fish the pool swim at the top, whilst James checked out a nice slow, steady, run with some depth downstream. It wasn't long until we came across more pockets of grayling and catching a few. Not as regularly as upstream, but bites did come at reasonably regular intervals and with a few small trout thrown in for good measure it was very relaxing to get a bend in the rod. The bigger few grayling were all of a similar stamp, scraping a pound, but it wasn't going to be the day we were going to get through to any larger specimens.

Overall, a very enjoyable trip out and what better way to spend a cold day than trotting for a few feisty grayling? It was also very nice to have James and his father down who were great company! If you get a chance, please check out the new Clearwater website for more information on the floats...

Tight Lines,

Tom

2016 - Not too bad a Start!

Loads of small grayling about when we were trotting for the roach!

Mark Lindsay and I pencilled in another trip after some roach and given the current conditions, we opted to fish my local river. What was on our minds from the beginning was going after the big, skitty roach that live on a slow moving section on my local river and opting to target them first of all on the feeder. Mark brought a couple of feeder rods and I brought the one, using a mix of maggots, caster, hemp and good old faithful bread. After balling up some liquidised bread and throwing it in the swim prior to fishing, Mark opted to fish maggots and casters, whilst I gave it a good go on the bread. Mark was getting instant responses on his maggots and casters managing some grayling and trout almost instantly, a roach angler's nightmare. This is the problem with chalk streams as they contain quite a head of greedy game fish! I managed just the one bite, which was a savage take and somehow managed to crack off which I assumed to be a trout charging off. We gave it quite a few hours, but the only fish to show for our efforts were gamefish, therefore we headed elsewhere and let the bait we chucked in settle in the swim.

I think the key is to feed these off to draw in the roach!

We tried a few different swims, but all we could tempt was some more gate-crashing trout. We decided between us, as we felt enough time had passed, to fish the swim we had fished to have rested up a little. We both set up some float tackle and were soon picking up some grayling on our trotted maggot offering. I opted to fish a Avon style float with a nice size 18 spade end hook for a nice presentation when using single maggot. After some feeding near a crease, I was soon getting bites, one of which absolutely slammed my rod round - the culprit being a big old trout. A few trots later, I watched as the float edged through the swim with the centrepin spinning beautifully as I kept in tow with the float. Just as the float started to sway slightly in the current, it buried. I struck and felt a decent weight on the end. This fish was really hugging the bottom and I couldn't help but think it was a trout putting up some resistance before topping. This fish though was plodding along, even gyrating at times, which gave me a second thought that it could be a half decent grayling. As my float carried on digging away under the surface I kept the rod low and took the fish very steady. As the fish started to come up, I slowly teased the float up and saw the tell-tale sail fin as the fish dived back down in its bid for freedom. A few nerve-racking head shakes, to my terror on a size 18, and it was ready for Mark to nervously scoop her up. It was a short, but chunky fish with beautiful dark colouration and turquoisey tints to its flank. We put her on the scales, noticing she was slightly empty, and she tipped the scales to an honest 1lb 15oz, not quite a 2, but an absolute stunner nevertheless.

Although pictures do not do them justice, a fine example of the species!

After getting a few picture done, I revived the fish in the net and she was soon ready to go after taking a second to orientate itself.

Just getting orientated before she goes!

This had completely changed the tone of the day, as it was quite a frustrating morning, not being able to get away from gate-crashing trout and catching grayling on the feeder, which I, personally, do not see as cricket. Mark and I continued to have a few trots and managed a few more smaller grayling, as well as this nice looking trout Mark hooked which unfortunately trashed the swim.

At this point, we had a few options open, but the one which tempted us the most was to try one of my banker swims where we were pretty much guaranteed some roach sport. We arrived to discover it was carrying a nice tinge of colour, and after putting a ball or so of liquidised bread in, Mark was soon trotting his stick float down. Its was not long until his float bobbed, a tell-tale sign of roach about, before slowly dipping under the surface. A positive strike and Mark was into the first roach of the day, not anything massive but absolutely lovely, as all the roach are in this section. We continued, fishing in alternation, and it was not long until Mark and I were catching some lovely roach between us, all of a nice stamp.

Nice little roach, lot of them like peas in a pod

Mark's face continued to light up as we continued to bag roach, getting a bite a chuck at many points. With a steady feed of liquidised bread and hemp, we were continuing to draw the fish up from downstream and we managed plenty more roach and the odd little grayling before running out of liquidised bread!

Couple of nice redefins on the stick float

Overall, a great day out, despite the bigger roach being far from forthcoming! Big thanks goes to Mark for coming down to join me. For more updates and pictures, check out our Instagram profiles:

@hampshireanglingtv
@chapsout

Thanks for reading,
Tight Lines,
Tom

2015 - A Year in Review

Well, 2015, what can I say? Certainly a very enjoyable year targeting some new species, making new friends and some memorable collaboration trips. It has also been very enjoyable to have fished some new venues thanks to some very kind invitations, as well as enjoying and sharing the sport in my neck of the woods.

One of the very enjoyable summer trips!

The year started slowly in terms of getting out, due to the fact that I spent the remainder of the last Christmas holidays in Japan seeing my relatives, therefore I was jet lagged after this. January was only odd 'bits and pieces' here and there, catching a few little jack pike on lures and a single trotting trip for grayling with my good friend Mark Pilley. February was a time where I found the opportunity to get out a few more times. A couple of parallel trips which stood out to me, were on my favourite little Thames tributary, taking my good mate Oscar Bates out to see if we could catch some nice chub and dace. It was job done for Oscar on the first trip with a couple of pristine chub to 4-2 (a new PB for Oscar) and a few quality dace for us the trip the weekend after.

Couple of enjoyable sessions!

As February continued I did a session on another Thames Tributary where I have rubbed shoulders with Mark Erdwin, managing some vividly coloured perch to 2-4 and a few nice chub for good measure. This led onto another river and area we have done collaborated groundwork on, a few weeks later, and I had an absolute red letter session on the river with some stunning 4lb chub with a lovely one at 4lb 8oz on feeder-fished bread. The sport throughout that session was absolutely fantastic!

Lovely couple of fish caught roving!

February was gone in an absolute blink and this left me with the last half month of the river season. It was an absolute honour in early March, to be given special dispensation for a one-off fishing session on a very exclusive section of my local River Itchen. The target species were roach and it was nice to have a very relaxed trot for the day with no one bothering me at all, landing some quality roach to 1-10 and some lovely looking grayling to 2lb. Big thanks goes to Mark Sankey, the river keeper, for giving me this fantastic opportunity and Robin Chute who co-ordinated it. I did do a few more sessions on the free stretches after this session, and managed a few more roach towards the pound mark.

Very enjoyable session!

The final session of the season saw me head to the same Thames tributary section, where I had the red letter day, after more quality chub. Although this session had a bit of a wounding start losing a river carp right by the bank. I continued on and fished roving methods and in the final swim a bait and wait approach. The roving paid off on a switch to the luncheon meat which resulted in what was then, a venue Personal Best at 5lb exactly with a couple more much better stamped chub at 4lb and 4-12 (caught over the pre-baited spot).

Target achieved!

After the season ended it was head down on college work, and I took the opportunity to finish March with a little session after some carp on my local club water - this resulted in what was my PB tench at 4-10. The weather started to warm up in April and I did a bit of stalking for carp on my local club lake. The best result being a nice, lean double figure Common off the surface. Over this period though, it was only the odd night trip and stalking session due to the demands of college work. I also had a fantastic trip on invite from Duncan Charman, where he showed me the effectiveness of helicopter rigs when targeting bream.

Some good sport in April!

College work continued to be hectic at this point with various mocks, scraps of coursework and all sorts of tasks emerging, therefore finding the time to seriously go out fishing and target anything was a real effort. It got to a point where I felt it was critical to get out, and it was massive thanks to my mate, Lee Chatfield, for an invite to a little lake in Surrey where he has managed some very large Golden Orfe. He has become an expert on these amazing looking fish and he kindly offered to take me and my friend Mark Pilley along to impart his expert knowledge on the species and waggler fishing. A big thank you also goes to Mark Pilley for coming down to pick me up which meant that we could get a good day out of it. We all managed some nice looking tench and a trio of stunning Orfe, with Mark breaking his Personal Best at 5-2, Lee managing yet another stunner at 4-11 and I also managed to break my PB with a lovely fish of 4-10. All in all a great trip!

What a trio of swimming carrots!

Exams started to approach and the only time I got out was a few trips walking the riverbank, meeting with Mark again to explore one of the areas of river we have done some pioneering on. The rest of the time was fly fishing with a couple of enjoyable sessions with Chris Purdie and a few trips on my own on the local river. Huge thanks goes to Chris for such enjoyable trips wading some beautiful miles of chalkstream and being great company.

Bliss!

It was then full on exams and very little fishing time apart from the odd hour here and there... The next main trip was after my exams and is probably my favourite day of the year, June 16th. I spent it this year with my friend Hannah who was keen to give fishing a go and I thought what better way to get a taster of the sport than trying a bit of Summer Chub fishing... It was thoroughly enjoyable, despite the chub being very finicky at first, we managed some nice ones with Hannah managing the largest at 3-14, a lovely roach, some lovely little dace, as well as some gate-crashing trout! I realised two days after that, my afternoon lessons at college were cancelled on this given day, therefore I headed out with a substantial feeder rod and 8lb line hoping to stalk some chub and river carp. This is the session that stood out most for me, as I managed a cracking venue Personal Best chub at 6lb 1oz on simply a free-lined piece of fluffy breadflake - think it's fair to say that this is so far my fish of the river season!

Summer Chubbing!

After a final effort of college it was the Summer holiday I'd been waiting for. It was a nice break spending time on the river bank, collaborating with friends and generally having a nice Summer. There a quite a few trips which happened in the Summer with thanks going to Duncan Charman, Simon Daley, Steve Dedman, Paul Greenacre, Ollie Johnson, Mark Lindsay and Roman Vann.

Couple of red-finned beauties

With the Summer ending nicely with a couple of roach sessions, one of which with Mark Lindsay, it was time to go back to college for the second year of A levels. I only at this time managed a few trips on my local river and a great few hours fishing on Ollie's local stretch catching a couple of nicely marked pike. For my birthday, in October, I had a thoroughly enjoyable weekend on the Middle Severn with local expert, Robert Mitchell. It was a very enjoyable way to spend my birthday weekend and made for a memorable one with a birthday barbel!

Birthday barbel!

A bit more time working hard at college and it was half term. The highlights being a great trip on Ollie Johnson's local river on his kind invite resulted in a couple of cracking looking pike to 18-8 which levelled my Personal Best. Another fantastic trip was my urban river mission with Mark Lindsay on this secret little urban gem that he has had an exceptional season so far on. The best fish of the day being a lovely 1-10 roach, and Mark managing a corking 5-8 chub.

What a couple of sessions!

I finished the year with various Small stream chub trips and managed plenty of lovely looking chub with the biggest going 5-10, a hollow recapture of my 6-1 from Summer. It was a nice way to spend the Christmas holiday, after a tough term at college, it was also nice to fish with Mark again and it was very kind of him to share another beautiful little waterway. All in all a very enjoyable year and thanks goes to all those who I have collaborated with who have been there to help me out and be in general great people and company...

One of the highlights of the small river chub trips!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and Happy New Year!

Tom