A Fishing ‘Big Year’

So 2017 has officially begun. There seems to be a lot of people (albeit in my limited sample set) that are glad to see the back of 2016 for one reason or another and I will admit that I am one of those people. I have no idea what 2017 will hold for me after some pretty serious and life changing stuff happened in the second half of last year, but I can only hope that it will be okay.

Over the Christmas break, myself and my partner were flicking through some of the movies available on Amazon TV and came across a film called ‘The Big Year‘. Staring Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson, it tell the story of three birders (birdwatchers) undertaking a ‘Big Year’. The idea is to spot as many different species of bird in a certain geographic area during a single year. While the film is a funny, easy watch, I wouldn’t say that it is the best film I’ve ever seen. It did get me thinking though about trying to do something similar with fishing. Could I try and spend the year catching as many different freshwater species as possible? In principle it is the same task that Matt Hayes and Mick Brown undertook in the Great Rod Race, but they had a much shorter time to do it in and were able to travel the length of breadth of the UK in order to do it without pesky things like work getting in the way.

In slightly more modest fashion then, I’ve informally set myself the task of trying to catch as many different freshwater species as possible in 2017. Below is a draft list of target species taken from the Great Rod Race and it looks quite daunting. I can say straight away that fish like an Artic Char might be out of my grasp but I’m going to have a blinkin’ good try at going for as many as possible.

Common Carp

Mirror Carp 

Crucian Carp

Koi Carp 

Ghost Carp 

Wild Carp

Grass Carp 

Catfish

Orfe 

Tench

Bream

Roach

Rudd

Perch

Pike

Zander

Eel

Barbel

Chub

Dace

Gudgeon

Stone Loach 

Stickleback 

Ruffe

Bullhead

Minnow

Bleak

Brown Trout

Rainbow Trout

Sea Trout

Salmon

Arctic Char

Grayling

My preferred style of fishing certainly does not lend itself to catching some of the fish on the list, I’m not really a stillwater angler and when I do go fishing on lakes I like to rove rather than sit in a swim all day. Thus I want to try and catch as many fish as I can from more natural waters such as rivers and canals and I think the challenge of trying to catch a carp from my local canal will be a big one but worth a shot! Proving that a lot of the fish on this list can be caught in waters that you wouldn’t expect would be an awesome outcome!

 

Sheffield & Another Small River Visit

So the past couple of weeks have probably been the most difficult of my life. I can’t go into detail but they’ve been even worse than when I lost my father suddenly before I had even reached thirty. I’m only really still coming to terms with that and I thought I was starting to get my life settled until yet again life has thrown me another curve ball & this time is threatening to take away everything I have worked for my entire life. ‘Live every day like it is your last’ seems like a cliche but after this last couple of weeks I would say that it is an obligation for everyone because someone somewhere will always want to try and make sure it is.

Anyway, earlier this week I had to travel to Sheffield for a work meeting. As the meeting was going to be a fairly early start on the Wednesday, I travelled up the afternoon before by train and decided to swing by the recently deculverted stretch of the Porter Brook in Sheffield city centre. Anyone who is familiar with the ‘urban fishing’ scence will have probably come across a mention of this place (http://urbantrout.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/a-previously-buried-section-of-stream.html?m=1). The works were carried out Sheffield city council in partnership with the EA and the Wild Trout Trust as part of their ‘Trout in the Town’ campaign. I had seen pictures of the tansformation beforehand but it still took a bit of searching to find as it’s hidden behind a car park. Eventually though I managed to find this little oasis of tranquility nestled not far from Sheffield H University.

Now, right there in the middle of this busy city is a beautiful little watercourse complete with an array of wildlife including wagtails and some small finned residents. It’s just stunning. I’m sad to say though that there has been some urban ‘push-back’ with graffiti on some of the stone seating and rubbish dumped in further upstream which included the obligatory traffic cone (some people don’t appreciate nice things). The whole site though is testiment though to what happens when you let urban areas breath a little bit.

This morning I returned to my local little river (see previous post). It was as picturesque as ever and the few hours I spent there just allowed me to forget about all the ridiculousness life is throwing at me and be ‘present’ as part of the environment around me. My first stop on the stretch was the swim that I know contains the biggest fish. From the bank you have to peer over a bush and just flick a little bit of bread into a clearing in a bush and watch it trickle along in the flow. If there’s any fish present they can’t resist coming out from under the bush and devouring a bit of Warburton’s finest. Today was no exception and the biggest residents were straight out for brunch. I added a few more free offerings to make sure they were dining confidently and then flicked my freelined offering in on a number 10 hook. Straight away my rod bent round and I was into a fish, certainly not the biggest resident but a very welcome and fighting fit fish eventually came to the net.

I wanted to rest that swim so had a quick cup of tea sitting on the bank and dangling my wellies in the river. Whilst having my tea I was subject to a barage of  missiles being dropped on me by the local squirrels. They were hunting for conkers and then discarding the spikey exteriors in massive chunks right onto my head! After leaving the furry little blighters to their mischief I took a stroll downstream to have a look at a small bridge over a narrow section of the river which leads into a field. The river there has a very narrow fast section off to one side and then a bigger slack flow on the other. I stood over the slack flow and just kept dropping a few rolled up balls of fresh bread (probably just a bit smaller than a marble) into the water. It wasn’t any deeper than about a foot but the glare made it difficult to see through the water. I could however see that the bright white pieces of bread were routinely disappearing out of sight before coming to rest on the bottom. A small disc of bread was slipped onto the hook and lowered in but it was initially left well alone so I replaced it with a pinched piece of breadflake and this time held it up in the flow and allowed it to disappear under my feet and under the bridge. My rod hooped over and  I was connected to a very hard fighting fish. For this fishing I’m only using 3lb mono straight through and an ultralight spinning rod so even the smallest fish offer an amazing fight. The fish I eventually brought into hand was much bigger than some of the ‘shadows’ I had seen moving in the water so was probably the biggest fish in this stretch. 

For a fish caught just by dangling some bread under a small bridge it was amazing. I’d go on to have a slightly smaller fish from under the same bridge later after giving the swim a rest for an hour or so. There’s another small bridge over another swim further upstream so I decided to try this same ‘trickle and dangle’ tactic there. This other bridge is made of wood instead of concrete so it’s really easy to spook the fish under it, as I have done on many occasions when walking onto it. Today though I just set up my rod and stood on the bridge and let them get used to my presence. Eventually they started showing up to devour my free offerings and their confidence grew over s period of 5 to 10 minutes. It was only now that I noticed a small wooden plate screwed to the handrail of the bridge..’make a wish’ it proclaimed!. How apt!! I did make a wish (I won’t tell you what I wished for) as instructed and then dropped in my freelined bread. I was soon holding a small but perfectly formed resident of the river in my hand.I could quite happily spend the rest of my days on this earth just catching fish like I did today and never tire of it and never lose the sense of amazement I get when I realise that I’ve learnt new ways and methods to catch even the spookiest of wild fish. Today’s fishing certainly helped me forget about my troubles and gave me space to clear my head and think in some beautiful surroundings, catching such amazing fish was just the icing on the cake really

Small River Perfection

So, after taking some time off work (probably for the first time in about three years), I had penciled in a few places nearby to scout out as potential fishing spots. Although I have done plenty of lake fishing in the past, it never really hits the spot when it comes to getting complete and utter joy from my fishing. What really makes me smile from ear to ear is fishing ‘wild’ waters, from rivers to small streams and brooks and during the close season in the UK, canals. Pretty much anything except commercial fisheries to be honest. I think it’s the challenge of finding fish in these often overlooked places, the not knowing what you might catch and to be frank, the joy of knowing that the fish are able to survive and flourish in these waterways despite all the stuff that humans do to mess up the environment (i.e. pollution, constantly building on green spaces, the list goes on).

Yesterday I visited one such spot that I had found on the map and was completely shocked at what I found. Right in the heart of the midlands was a section of smallish river with fast flowing gravel runs, deep and slow pools and all pretty much (more of that later) at wading depth. You would think this spot to be right in the middle of the countryside if not for the constant drum of a motorway about 50 metres away.

After walking the length of the section and earmarking a few spots for attention, I whipped out the trusty sliced white loaf (like Jeff over at Idlers Quest, I unhesitatingly recommend Warburtons blue) and Hobo Armour polarised glasses and proceeded to throw a few pieces of bread in. I do this obviously to see if they get any attention from fish but also to get a very visual indication of the flow and any swirling water. These first few pieces of bread got an immediate reaction from fish hiding out in a slow pool under an overhanging tree. Bread is a great bait for this job, because if you can’t see all the way to the bottom you can at least see the white bread disappearing completely or moving in a very odd fashion (the tell-tale sign of it being investigated by a fish). There was no hope of getting a cast into this area though so I popped on the wellies and decided to wade the 10-15 mins upstream to get to it. About 8 metres along I ran out of wellington boot and started taking on water but the perfect setting and prospect of waiting fish meant that I didn’t really care. When I finally made it close enough to get a cast in, I pinched on a piece of bread flake on a size 14 hook and gently flicked it upstream, bang, the rood hooped over and I was into a fish. The fight took me right into the deeper water but I really didn’t care at this point. After a very determined fight I brought a pristine chub to hand. For my small stream and river fishing I’m using an ultralight spinning rod (0-3g) coupled with a size 1000 reel and 3lb mainline straight through. The reason for selecting the spinning rod is that it has a really short butt section allowing me a full range of movement in and around tree and cover and also the ability to do a bit of impromptu fly fishing if needed. With the above in the mind, you don’t need me to tell you that the fight from a chub of that size on such light tackle is exhilarating.

After catching this fish, I waded back to the bank and just sat down with my flask and had a coffee and soaked in the sheer perfection of the place, the fish and the experience. I knew I’d just had one of those ‘bucket list’ experiences where the perfect cast in the perfect spot led to the perfect fish. I also sat thinking about how amazing it was that this fish was out there surviving and thriving despite all the of attempts that we make to disturb and disrupt their ecosystem. It’s shame that these kinds of spots are increasingly rare with no access to rivers as they pass through private land and because they’ve been penned in by buildings and development. After this break I had a few more casts in different spots and then returned to the first swim and caught a much smaller chub, again using bread but with a split shot to hold bottom instead of freelancing. I returned home after my few hours on the bank the happiest I’ve been in a long time.

Today I returned to the same stretch again but didn’t sight any fish in the main spot from the previous day. I took the opportunity to wade most of the stretch just to get a feel for depths and flows and any undercuts that I couldn’t spot from the bank. Again, I took the time to just sit and soak up the perfection of the place with my flask of coffee. I’ve not had many moments in my life when I’ve felt truly content and at peace but sitting next to this river and fishing in this river has certainly yielded a vast percentage of them, even over just two days. I was also kept company by a pair of kingfishers speeding up and down the river.

Wading further upstream led me to the furthest extent that I could  access in this section and right at the boundary the depth of the river dropped off into a pool under a tree. It was quickly heading for waist height (note I was still only wearing wellies), so I returned to shallower water and tried to get a better view of the pool from the bank instead. I had seen smaller fish heading in the direction of this pool earlier in the morning so I knew it had a good chance of holding fish.

I deployed some small balls of rolled up bread and kept flicking them into the middle of visible flow. After the first few they began to start disappearing or darting about oddly in the flow, excellent! I spent the next 5-10 mins continuing to trickle in the bread offerings and then after getting the smaller fish ‘buzzing’ for the bread a large pair of lips appeared from under the bush in a patch of light and made quick work a few pieces of bread. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts to pendulum cast a piece of bread into the middle of the flow I began getting on target and the big pair of lips appeared again and I connected with the fish for about a second and then it was off. This back and forth of free offerings and then casting in continued three or four more times, each time resulting in me connecting with the fish momentarily. When I was trickling in free offerings a large brown trout even appeared and made quick work of the bread. I then decided that I wasn’t connecting properly with the fish due to the size of the hook I was using. I stepped up from a size 14 barbless to a size 10 barbless and recast a fresh piece of pinched bread being careful to leave the hook point showing. Yet again the big pair of lips appeared from under the bush but this time all hell broke lose. The rod was hooped over double and the reel was paying out line as I was furiously reeling in and gently tightening up the drag bit by bit. After a spirited fight another perfect chub came to the net (I had run back to the car to get my stalking net). Truly amazing!

The fish was quickly returned to its spot under the tree and I let out a big gasp of air, I realised that I had been holding my breath on and off for the best part of half an hour watching my hook bait dancing along in the flow waiting to be swallowed up by an unseen ‘monster’. That was me done for the day, I walked back to the car with wellies full of water thinking that life couldn’t get much better.

 

 

Back to the fishing after a break

I seem to go through stages of forgetting about fishing and then every now and then going back to it and getting really into it again, it’s very odd. It’s been over a year since my last blog post and I have absolutely no idea where that year has gone. Some things have changed, some things haven’t changed in that time.

Looking back at my last blog post, I set myself the challenge of trying to catch fish on my lunch break from work. I work at a place where there are a few lakes nearby, along with few streams and I eventually got round to throwing some tackle in a backpack and heading to one of these lakes during a lunch break a few weeks ago. I don’t think these lakes see any angling pressure (although I found some old fishing line in the swim I targeted). My choice of tackle for this foray was a telescopic pen-type rod and small reel (as I knew I would only be targeting small fish) with some plain old slices of white bread for bait. On the first cast my float shot straight under and I connected with a small roach but after a few seconds the fish was lost. The next couple of casts yielded knocks on the float (I was using a small pole float for an unobtrusive cast and presentation) and then finally I connected with a very hard fighting (for its size) fish which was swiftly landed and followed in quick succession by a fish of similar size.

Both fish were in brilliant condition and essentially ‘wild’ meaning that my lunchtime stroll had turned into a bit of a red letter day. One of the other nearby lakes looks totally neglected but potentially a great spot for some tench and carp. The only problem is that it is heavily weeded over and has only one fishable swim at the moment, it is the epitome of a forgotten lake though.

I’ve also started exploring some of the local streams and brooks around work to look for fish and found a couple of brilliant looking spots and spotted what I think were three or four brown trout moving between pools which is brilliant. I’ve only managed a quick hour before work actually fishing in these spots using freelined worms (trout purists cover your ears) but didn’t manage to spot any fish. It’s quite distressing though to see the amount of rubbish that is deposited in this waterways even though the area is pitched as a bit of a ‘conservation area’. In the pictures below you might just be able to see the common ‘old tyre’ that always seems to find its way into these places. These forgotten brooks have really peaked my interest in the whole ‘fish where you live’ and ‘urban trout’ movement and I’m now formulating lots of plans (while exploring with google maps) to try and visit some unexpected places to look for fish.

Head over to the Urban Trout site (http://www.urbantrout.net) if you want to see how popular and exciting this kind of fishing can be.

First blog post in a while

So, first blog in ages. Will keep it brief for the moment as I should have more to report over the coming weeks.

I’ve been useless at getting out fishing of late, generally due to life getting in the way and a percentage of my own laziness.

However, I’ve started to focus on my fishing again now, planning some outings and doing some research. As much as I don’t mind fisheries, I cannot help but be lured to more natural waters! Where I work there are a few neglected lakes and some streams and brooks, so I’ve started to explore them. It was a bit of a dud to start with, as some of the brooks that should be there are long since dry due to so-called ‘management’ activities that he ended up diverting flows away or damming them up completely (how do these plonkers get away with it?).

Anyway, after finding some likely looking spots, I’ve set myself a kind of informal challenge for the coming months to try and catch a fish on my lunch break at work. With the potential for a fish from one of these brooks or lakes (one overgrown lake had hundreds and hundreds of fry in it!) I’m hopeful for success! I’ve started to try and put some backpack tackle together so I can just grab it and go, so we’ll see what happens.

Will update when I can!

Back to basics!

Not had chance to do a new blog post in while.

My recent visits to the local canal have been to a new location and using a couple of new techniques, one being dropshotting. I had set myself the task of trying to catch some perch and thought dropshotting would do the trick. Being new to it, I don’t think I’ve mastered the ‘feel’ for it yet as I’ve had little success. The new float fishing method I’ve been trying has also been frustrating but again I think this might just be me being new to it and maybe a little impatient.

So in order to try and make sure that I hadn’t lost the ability to catch a fish at all, I went back basics with my setup, indeed to one that always seems to pick out fish on difficult days. I use an 11ft Specialist rod, centepin reel, mainline straight through to the hook and the key part, a pole float. I prefer using a pole float when fishing in a mobile way as it allows you to quickly and easily adjust the depth you’re fishing at but by using a rod and reel it gives you the extra ability to mend the line easily without having to lift the whole rig out of the water as you would with a pole. Using such a light float also means that the rig makes very little noise when entering the water, avoiding spooking wary fish.

Going back to using this tried and tested rig (or maybe it’s just my confidence in it) gave me results straight away and I began catching some small roach and eventually my target perch using red maggots. All about the size I’ve come to expect from this particular stretch of the canal. There must be bigger ones in there though 😉 At least I can still catch more than just a cold!!

A journeying family of swans made for a very welcome change to the usual passing of plonkers in sailors hats on their converted coal carriers! 🙂

Canal raiding rod takes shape

So after yesterdays post, I thought I would have a go at building a short, 1 piece rod for drop shotting on the local canal.

So after some 3D design and printing (for another interesting use of 3D printing for lure fishing, see https://twitter.com/wishinforfishin/status/495150704865345536) to make adapter shims and then some gluing, the canal raider (this was my mental codename for the project) prototype is ready. At just over 58 inches from butt section to tip, it’s quite short but after a few test casts in the garden with a couple of split shot on the line I was astounded by the casting action and strength, it’s exactly what I was after. I definitely know that it can handle a healthy bend as the cat decided to ‘help’ and catch the swinging shot in mid-air!!

With very little effort the rod was able to fling the shot the complete length of the garden, yet be suitably sensitive for detecting bites. As for a reel, I had a small reel from a pen rod setup going spare and that seems to be ideally suited for it, although a 1000 size reel would sit on there nicely also. To me, one of the big bonuses of a rod this size is not having the break down the rod, even with rod bands, you can just pop it in the car, get straight out and be fishing in minutes!

Below is a photo of the rod under load (from me standing on the shot) to show the size and bend achievable. Definitely think a feeder rod is the key.
Will report back on how it performs later this week and I’m even tempted to pop a light float setup on there for a go!

Not much doing

So only got chance to get out for a few hours this week and only around lunchtime so the perch mission was distinctly unsuccessful. However, a few new bits of tackle should arrive tomorrow and improve my chances. Only had a 10ft margin rod and small reel loaded with mono to use for drop shotting, so my sensitivity to bites was somewhat rubbish.

Tomorrow (and the postie) should bring a short ultra-light spinning rod and matching reel along with a spool of braid so I’m able to detect the smallest of bites. Also, after watching a youtube video, I’m going to have a go at making up my own ultra-short drop-shotting rod. I’ve got the butt and reel-seat from an old telescope spinning rod and the top section from an old defunct feeder rod. The plan is to mount the top section of the rod in the short handle of the spinning rod to make a short highly portable ‘wand’ for chucking in the car. Should look quite impressive if I pull it off, will report back soon!!

Perch Mission

When visiting the CLA Game Fair recently, I naturally had to have a look round the fishing village and was very surprised with the quality and variety of stands and retailers. One thing I don’t think I really appreciated before visiting was the popularity of light lure fishing (sometimes known as LRF) in the UK. It certainly has taken off in the past few years.

After doing some research, I’ve decided to set myself a mini-mission of using this kind of approach to catch a few decent sized perch (if they are there) on the local canal. I must admit to only ever catching greedy micro-perch with a taste for red maggots before but I think using some small lures, light tackle and short sessions might yield some interesting results.

I’m off to tie up some rigs and will report back soon!