Urban River Mission with Mark Lindsay

My friend Mark Lindsay, has been extremely proactive this river season with some absolute quality chub, bream and perch from this tiny little urban river hidden in the suburbs.

Mark has founded a little angling group which is expanding rapidly called Team MAG (Metropolis Angling Group), and clearly conveys, whether it is through Instagram or Facebook, the hidden beauty with fishing urban venues - what he refers to as 'urban gems'. I have this mutual interest with Mark, being intrigued by what can be found in what is assumed to be neglected, forgotten waterways. Although it isn't always for the faint-hearted due to possibly feeling less relaxed and self conscious in these more public areas, it has proven to have rewarded both of us and other anglers who dare to venture.

One of many quality chub Mark has caught from this venue

I woke up early and travelled up a couple of hours to meet Mark. After this long journey due to roadworks and traffic, we got the gear in Mark's car and headed for the river. We were both buzzing with excitement and filled with uncertainty as to what the river was looking like after receiving a fair bit of rain. After weaving through more traffic of the busy city, we parked up and headed for the river. We strolled over to a more tranquil part of the suburb, and greeted by a river which was still clear carrying a nice little tinge of colour. In the first swim Mark informed me there were some big bream living there and he kindly let me try for them. After catapulting maggots in, on Mark's advice, I free-lined maggots with a single shot and within seconds, I had a couple of subtle, but definite taps. I struck and there was a nice swirl on the surface and a broad flank emerged as clear as day. After a good fight on my feeder rod and 6lb line in the flow, the bream was in the net. I looked into the net and it had easily smashed my personal best on a river. At 5lb 8oz, it was a lovely fish and the colours were absolutely stunning. At just an ounce under my PB, I couldn't believe how good a start to the session this was. Mark took some great photos and it was nice to watch the fish swim away in the clear water.

Fine coloured river bream and a lovely way to have caught it!

After losing a couple more bream to hook pulls afterwards, we could see them, but they were clearly more cautious than before. This meant we moved on downstream, continuing to fish maggots free-lined and trundled about to various snags and likely looking areas. Despite seeing some chub skulking about and being tight in the snags, we were unable to tempt them, so we decided to return to this particular section later in the day and explore upstream. After having a good walk about past a busy road, we arrived at a nice section which was predominantly shallow but gravelly, and consisted of some very nice looking deeper holes. After spotting one big bream that spooked, Mark beckoned me over to join him and informed me that in this particular swim, he had seen and caught some nice roach and chub. With the polaroids on I spotted a couple of chub, and keeping a good trickle of maggots going in, they were soon moving about. Mark did manage to prick one but not properly connect with it but after this, the chub did certainly seem to be on guard. After walking a few more yards, we arrived at the end of a bridge where there was a pool formed by the steady current from underneath. Mark informed me that this was a good chub and roach holding area with him having chub to over 4lbs, and spotting some rather large roach. With that in mind, we both tried to start with, free-lining maggots like we had been. Simultaneously, we both were trickling in maggots upstream to endeavour to entice some chub or roach into feeding. After no luck in the earlier parts of the pool, I tried the tail end and started to receive taps. After having a couple of taps, I reeled in and had a sucked maggot - this had roach written all over it. With my hand close to the rod, I waited for some delicate taps and after a minute or so, I had a couple of decisive taps and struck into a lovely little roach.

Lovely little redfin

After releasing this fish just downstream, Mark flicked in his freelined maggot rig and received a good bite instantly. He struck and felt a good weight on the end but unfortunately the hooklink parted. Mark was fearing it was a big roach, but I personally thought it could have easily been a chub by the way it went straight for the cover. I decided at this point to change to a maggot feeder to ensure some more concentrated feed. Attaching a hooklink, I flicked the feeder in pretty much the same spot to where I had the roach. It was not much more than a minute until the tip bounced aggressively and I lifted into a good fish. The flash of silver and the distinctive red fins and the flank of this fish got me and Mark's excitement levels through the roof as we knew this was a half decent roach. After taking it steady on my feeder rod I thankfully managed to guide the fish into the net. It was a very nice, solid river roach, and as we prepared the scales, we were both so excited as it was a fantastic bonus fish and easily one of my best from a river. At 1lb 10oz, it was level with last season's biggest roach and 3oz off my personal best! What a great result for a lovely tiny river in the suburbs!

What a bonus, my roach of the season so far!

After this I gave Mark a go on my feeder setup as I was convinced there was a chance of another bite and we were both hoping it more roach would turn up. Here's what happened next in Mark's words:

"Gleefully, I jumped at the chance of a cast or two on Tom's feeder set up and quickly cast back into the same spot I had lost a nice fish earlier on. With a few small taps on the tup over the next few casts that I missed, I felt a third cast could be the lucky one, so I gave my full concentration. A small wobble on the tip was enough indication for me and I lifted into a fish. It zoomed straight towards the main snag in the swim, an old shopping trolley. Monster roach though were quashed quite quickly as it was clear that it was a chub, burrowing hard for every snag in the swim. Tom did the honours with the net and a short yet chunky looking fish was on the bank. A quick removal of the hook revealed another hook and short section of line in his top lip. Tom remarked, "that's the fish you lost earlier on, was pretty sure that wasn't a roach." On inspection of the style of hook of course he was right. The swim then typically died, as the chub had no doubt spooked every other fish from this tiny little area. We moved back to a swim that had beaten us earlier with Tom deciding to put another test to his maggot feeder setup..."

What a fight on the light hooklink!

After this breakthrough with a nice chub finally falling to one of our methods, I thought this tactical switch could easily buy a bite elsewhere. The swim now appeared to have died, most likely due to the disturbance from the feisty chub! As this was the last swim of the section, we headed back downstream and the idea being, gradually working back to the car. We decided to stop back at the spot where Mark and I had fed the cautious chub which were seriously on guard earlier. I casted the feeder and the tip was knocking instantly due to all the autumn rubbish coming downstream. I was deceived as the tip suddenly started to come to life and pull round aggressively. Instinctively I struck and I was into a chub. The fight was incredible on the lighter hooklink and it was unbelievable how many times the chub tried to get me buried under the bank! The fish topped and was absolutely pristine, and I was very happy when we managed to net it as it was yet another chub from a new river - this was my main objective for the day. As we unhooked it, it was unbelievable how many maggots it was spewing out! Mark took a lovely photo and we watched the chub swim back into the water that was getting clearer by the hour.

Fin and scale perfect, lovely young chub!

We now realised time was getting on and we returned to the first section we targeted for both bream and chub and it was coherent that Mark certainly had a good chub in mind. I started off in the swim where I had the bream with no luck, therefore I moved downstream to where Mark had found some big chub and he was trying to gain their confidence by spraying maggots. We go back to Mark for the last part of the session:

"I fancied a sneaky little swim downstream of Tom and started to regularly feed a small handful of maggots into a dark tree-covered area. In my experience, I see it as pointless making a cast in this swim until the chub give themselves away by creeping from the shadows to intercept the grubs midwater. It took a while but finally three good sized chub were willing to feed. I carried on feeding for a further 10 minutes and by this time the chub were competing for the bait, zooming in front of each other. On the first cast the fish didn't appear, I thought possibly that I had moved into the view of the fish. Another feed without my hoo bait did the trick and I nervously flicked my double maggot over the top of the free offerings. Again, the fish had disappeared but just as the maggots moved into the shadow water, I saw a shadow moving over my bait, just as I saw a white mouth chomping my white grubs... A swift strike of carbon and the rod hooped over with the chub powerfully ripping line off of my spool. Four strong runs for the snags were successfully thwarted and as he wallowed in the fast flow, Tom hurriedly grabbed the net and ran over. Once in the net, Tom instantly remarked: "that's a decent size mate, could be close to a PB". A great end to the day and as the light faded further, we weighed a snapped a few pictures of this wonderful chub which was in absolutely lovely condition."

A lovely girthy specimen!

"Sadly he wasn't quite the PB beast, but a solid 5lb 4oz, so I could not be happier. It had been a great day for the both of us and a lovely introduction for Tom on this amazing little river, I'm sure he can't wait to be back again soon."

With this fine specimen of a chub landed at the end of the day, I felt we had pretty much the 'full set' that the river was capable of, bar a couple of predatory species. I was very happy how the day went and really appreciated Mark inviting me to one of his 'urban gems.'

Thank you Mark and look forward to meeting up again soon!

Tight Lines,

Tom Aldous

Final Roundup of an Enjoyable Summer

What a summer it has been!

Today was my first day back at college and grim as it may sound, I have been able to reflect on a fantastic summer from my usual on the rivers for chub, a bit of barbel fishing on fantastic rivers in the South and of course my trip to the Wye, to targeting mullet in a kayak and having some fantastic trips with Duncan Charman including the fantastic night session for rudd and a day on a lovely crucian water.

Brace of chub from a difficult roving trip in the Summer

My first trip after my great family excursion to the Wye was to cover some ground for some elusive barbel not too far from home. With thanks to a couple of good friends, I saw these barbel, which are seemingly invisible during the day. This was done with the aid of a head torch after dark. After trying several trips before with a pellet and boilie approach with little success apart from sighting the barbel on the way back to the car, the next approach was to try maggots. This certainly was worth a shot as plenty of maggots get thrown into this certain bit of river and the barbel in their lies are inevitably going to hoover them up with ease. I rigged up with a maggot feeder fishing with a reasonably substantial feeder rod coupled with 8lb line. I started this particular evening fishing the feeder tight to a bush I took a liking to seeing it as a pretty likely looking feature. After an hour or so past, with the aid of the torch (which never have seemed to spook the barbel on this particular stretch unless shone directly at them) I spotted a couple of barbel together. I lowered the maggot feeder and a bunch of maggots on a size 10 hook in their path. I had a good feeling if the fish were still there, that a take would be likely. Fifteen or so minutes past and it wasn't long until the tip on the feeder rod bounced and the rod arched over. I excitedly picked up the rod and lifted into what felt like a decent weight. The fish wallowed on the surface in confusion, almost unaware it was hooked and with a bit of steady pressure I started to guide the weight towards me. Then it woke up, by which point I knew it was a barbel! The swim was shallow so all it could do was charge off with its agility, which it did and gave me a real run around. After some immense lunges and surging runs with the rod and drag cushioning the fight with ease I managed to finally guide the turbo charged fish into the net. Although it isn't the biggest barbel you'll ever see it was a fine prize for the waterway I was fishing.

The last week or so, I managed to fish a few scattered venues, first being the Dorset Stour. After seeing a barbel in my swim on the zone where the left hand rod was, that suddenly the right hand rod swung round and the bait runner zipped off. The culprit was this gorgeous little Stour chub. I also later managed a lovely coloured river bream which was around 4lbs I would reckon.

I was also lucky enough to be invited to fish the Royalty on the Hampshire Avon, however the barbel did not turn up in the swim I chose and the consolation was another river bream.

Avon bream

The barbel did turn up in the end on one of the venues I knew I had a good chance. With this certain river up and coloured I flicked a crab and cray barrel to a snag and fished on top of a bit of scolded pellet and hemp groundbait. It wasn't long until I had a drop back and had another muscly fighting machine on the end clinging to the bottom with its huge pectorals!

8lb 9oz of pure muscle

Also thanks to Duncan Charman on the last few trips where I managed a new personal best tench and crucian carp.

PB Crucian at 2lb 8oz 8drms

The final trip of the holiday I met up with Mark 'Chapsout' Lindsay and took him to some of my local roach spots with him managing some absolute stunners to a cracking 1lb 6oz.

Mark's well earned prize, a 1lb 6oz beauty

I also sneaked a cast or two in the end and managed this lovely 1lb 5oz redfin. A big thanks to Mark for coming down and was nice to have some good company for the day. Look forward to another trip soon mate!

Hope all who had a summer break or a holiday had a fantastic time and roll on for next year!

Tight Lines,

Tom Aldous

A Day with Duncan Charman After Bream

After getting some bits done for Angler's Mail with Duncan, he kindly offered to guested me on his local Badshot Lea Complex. Duncan knew my Personal Best Bream was nothing very impressive, so the intention was to beat this. Duncan showed me a Helicopter rig setup which consisted of 6lb mainline with a short hook link (Duncan uses 5.14lb preston powerline). The hook bait was maggots and the ground bait consisted of a mix with some crushed up Boilie.

After being kindly dropped at the complex by Duncan's father, Duncan had already managed a few bream from 4lbs to just under 6lbs by the time we had got there. Without further ado, we casted out the helicopter rigs with one closer in and the other considerably further out. It wasn't too long until the bobbin started to rise with the alarm sounding with the first bream going exactly 5lbs. I learnt on this trip, that when hitting into a run on this method, you merely have to pick up the rod calmly, otherwise the fish are likely to 'crack' off. After a couple of bream which were likely to be under 5lbs, the close in rod's bobbin slowly rose and then smashed the top with line screaming off the reel. "Get the backwind on mate" Duncan said, as he knew what I was into was a considerably better fish indeed. The fish went on a unstoppable run, literally rocketing into the middle of the lake. After taking a lot of line, I managed to start guiding the fish towards me. This of course had to be done gently as it was a light hook link. After a few more minutes of arm-aching action and the carp kiting aggressively from left to right, I managed to guide it into the waiting net. After giving it a deserved amount of rest, we realised the carp was a good double and despite it seeing better days a fantastic bonus on this kind of tackle!

A Double Figure Carp

I was very happy with this result and it was great to see the fish swim off as strongly as before! Quite a few bream came to follow after this including this fine fish being the biggest of the day and my new Personal Best at 5lb 9oz, still not massive but a considerable improvement from before.

5lb 9oz Bream

Duncan's father Tony was running low on maggots, therefore Duncan headed off to get some and left us both to fish. Tony had managed a few good bream too already. Just after I whacked out the far out rod, it was long until I got another lively take after this more dry spell I was having. I was into a good fish which was kiting from left to right and even managed to go over Tony's lines. After starting to guide it from the margins, the hook unfortunately pulled. A bit of slime was left on the line and it was a shame to have lost what I reckoned was a nice Tench. Not feeling too disheartened though I got the rig back out. After a very, very quiet spell with Tony only managing a couple of bream and a nice tench of 4lb 12oz, I got my first run for a while. This was another nice bream of round the 5lb range. After a couple more smaller bream, I had another take. This fish fought very differently and topped almost straight away. When we got it in the net, it turned out to be a large roach/bream hybrid, which for me was definitely a PB of sorts. The fish weighed 3lbs 10oz, a cracking looking fish and by the time we put it back, we decided to call it a day as the lake usually goes dead around 2pm for the bream and tench anyway. I thoroughly enjoyed the day and I certainly would recommend a day with Duncan Charman as he certainly knows what he is talking about, and you can book a day or two with him by just sending an email to duncancharman@icloud.com.

3lb 10oz Hybrid

A big thank you to Duncan and Tony Charman for a Great day!

Tight Lines,

Tom

More Stalking Carp & Night Session

During the next few days on my angling adventures, my aim was to catch a carp from one of the harder lakes on my local club complex. The days were getting warmer and I was rather excited, deciding to target these carp from the harder lakes with surface or slow sinking baits, as well as bringing a few bits and pieces for some opportunist bottom bait fishing in the edge. I arrived the day after I had that enjoyable session with Ollie to find that a few carp on the middle lake were yet again cruising and basking. I tried again to gently lower baits into their path but all I was greeted with was the fish spooking and also completely ignoring my bait. I couldn't believe it at some of the points as I managed to gently get the bait to kiss the water and hardly leaving a dimple on the surface but they were still spooking. After a few hours of frustration, I placed a bottom bait in the edge on the middle lake on a small barrel bait which eventually was eventually engulfed by a bream. After this, I felt I should call it quits and go home and think about how to tempt those fish that were showing.

I again returned and tried the two harder lakes which again was a frustrating affair. This time I had stocked up on more dog biscuits as lose feed, therefore I opted to go on the slightly easier lake in search of getting off the mark. After a few minutes of trickling in dog biscuits I managed to get a few nice carp coming up and taking a few mixers and then dropping down again in the pads. It took a while to get one fish confident but with little helpings of mixers now and then one fish started to slurp a fair few up. I saw this as an opportunity, so I casted just above its path and tweaked the biscuit back slightly. This was a painstaking moment as the fish continued to slurp and coming rapidly closer to the hook bait. The first turned and slurped in my mixer along with another; this was met by a firm strike and I had a good fish on. I instantly put some steady pressure on the fish in order to guide it out of the pads, but unfortunately it kited at an unexpected time and therefore consequently pulling my hook. As you can imagine, I was disappointed as I was pretty sure it was a double figure fish, which to me would have been more than welcome. Not feeling too sorry for myself, I chucked out a few more mixers in the pads to see if I could re-gain another carp's confidence. After just over half an hour of watching the odd carp come up now and then and take the odd mixer, I noticed one fish quite happily helping himself to quite a few of my freebies. This I felt was another opportunity and as it was continuing to feed, I managed to cast perfectly over it and gently tease my biscuit bag with leaving barely a dimple on the surface film. This fish hurried to my biscuit in the appetising position it was, and with no suspicion whatsoever, took the bait as good as gold. I lifted decisively into a nice carp and I was ready to cup the spool when it tried to charge in the pads. After a mental battle of kiting left to right and diving down deep, putting my barbel rod to test, I managed to guide it into my waiting net. This was a great result and I punched the air with delight as I was so happy to get some great sport. This fish was no monster but decent enough for my liking! After this quick picture I slipped the nice common back to its watery home and after that I decided to head home and get some revision done.

Low Double Common off the top!

A day or so later, my good friend Oscar Bates and I chose to do a night on the middle lake. The lake itself is shallow and silty and has a good head of carp to over 20lbs (rumours of 30s), Tench to around 7lbs and some nice bream. We opted to fish bottom bait rigs with one rod each after carp and one rod each after bream or tench. Oscar had managed a rather large tench specimen from this swim from the reeds straight ahead, therefore we opted to put our tench and bream rods towards this zone. The carp rods we aimed at the pads nearby on the left after spreading a generous helping of bait in the area. I managed to hit the areas I wished first attempt and after a couple on his carp rod Oscar got a perfect cast on this carp rod. It was just after he had sunk his line and put on the bobbin his alarm screamed off, but when this was met with a positive lift into the take there was unfortunately nothing there. After Oscar put his rod back in, we had a good chat about various things and watched the light fade. It wasn't until midnight but after a few bleeps on my carp rod, it slowly started to rip off and I was also connecting into nothing. We both found this somewhat confusing as there was nothing wrong with our rigs or bait presentation. We assumed it was tench or bream picking up the bait and not being hooked properly but I still do wonder whether it wasn't carp getting away with it.

After a reasonably cold night and the light starting to arrive again, I re-casted both of my rods and it wasn't long after this until I got a run on the tench and bream rod. I lifted into a weight of some description, but this was a leaping bream! I was pleased to be off the mark. I re-casted again to the same spot and again, it wasn't long until a bream had latched onto my bait. After doing another quick flick into a similar position, the next take was a slow but decisive take with the bobbin shooting up. I was again connected to a small fish, but the way it was fighting would to me suggest it was a tench. Sure enough, a small male tench popped up which was great to see as it shows a hopeful sign of new big tench for the future. Oscar had also managed tench similar to this size, which is a good sign of flourishing recruitment for future bigger tench. One more bream was to follow, but it was a nice little session and social with Oscar and certainly looking forward to having more trips with him in the near future...

Tench for the future!

Tight Lines,

Tom