Tag Archives: river fishing

Trotting for grayling on the River Derwent What an unpredictable year for the weather last year was! With fluctuating water levels, and temperatures which never really stabilised for more than a couple of days, it was hard to know what best to fish for. My annual winter pike campaign was virtually a non-starter, with only a handful of jacks to show for eight or nine sessions! I’d been promising myself a return to a day ticket stretch of the Derbyshire Derwent ever since I last fished it, about three years ago. With my pike fishing being so dismal, it seemed like the perfect opportunity for some time-out, trotting for grayling on a crisp midwinter’s day. After entering the annual Boxing Day charity raft race on the river at Matlock only two days before, I was a little hesitant at fishing the stretch. I had witnessed first-hand the thrashing of the water with 300 paddles and an incessant hail of eggs & bags of flour; seemingly enough to support a small nation’s grain industry! Indeed, this was still very much evident when I arrived at the river. It was like an eerie, wintry war zone. The streets were very quiet; the …

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Spurred on by my recent capture of 3 x perch over 2lbs, and confident there were more fish to be caught, I returned to the same area for a few evening sessions lure fishing. Being so late in the year I could only arrive on the bank with about an hour of daylight remaining, so I had to make the most of what little time I had. I armed myself with a selection of my most successful perch lures of the past few years, along with a couple of wildcards, just in case. When lure fishing, you’re bound to have your favourite lures, but there are always going to be days when your favourites don’t work. So it’s always worth carrying a few patterns which have never caught you a fish before. All lures have their day, and you never know for sure when that’s going to be! One lure I was glad I had taken along was a Storm Naturistic Perch, which is a soft-bodied swim bait. This style of lure has a soft rubber outer body, with a heavy internal weight. They sink quite quickly and all the action comes from the tail, which is shaped to move …

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Big perch can be truly enigmatic characters. At times almost impossible to track down; at other times they giving themselves away with gleeful aplomb. Ignoring baits is an infuriatingly perfected big perch pastime. But get the timing right they’ll take anything you throw at them!

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By mid-August, I am usually well into my stride catching river fish, especially barbel. This year, however, I’ve struggled to even get a bite! The problem with becoming confident in certain methods, baits and even venues, is that it’s easy to become set in your ways with your approach. The old adage “If it aint broke, don’t fix it” springs to mind. But what happens when it is broke, and your tried and trusted methods fail you time and again? It’s so easy to dwell on glories past, sticking with the same setup in the hope that it will work eventually. The truth is, conditions change, swims change, fish can become wary of certain rigs and baits. If you find yourself struggling, you must start ringing the changes until you find something else that works. Two chance meetings earlier in the month inspired me to get out of my recent rut, and I’m so relieved! With very few bites, and a single measly 10 ounce chub to show for several after-work river sessions, I knew I had to change something. My initial focus, along with trying a variety of different swims, was to change my baits until I found one …

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In the past couple of decades one place in particular has become synonymous with catching giant sturgeon. It is, of course, Canada’s Fraser Valley in Southern British Columbia. Recently I was lucky enough to visit this region and sample its legendary sturgeon fishing for myself. The Fraser river itself is immense, running some 850 miles from it’s source in the Rocky Mountains all the way to the Pacific Ocean at Vancouver. The majority of sturgeon fishing is concentrated on the river’s lower reaches, with most charter boats being based in the “city” of Chilliwack. I had booked 3 days fishing, along with my friend Tim, with a local company called Aqua Ventures, which is operated and skippered by experienced guide Grant McCallum, who I met in person at the “Go Fishing” Show in Birmingham earlier in the year. When looking at the Fraser as an angling venue, don’t expect to have the river to yourself. You will see plenty of other boats over the course of the day, but the river is so vast that the angling pressure is hardly noticeable. Besides sturgeon, the Fraser is possibly the world’s most important salmon river, as it channels millions of pacific salmon …

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Filmed on location in Chilliwack, British Columbia, when Tim and I fished for the mighty white sturgeon on Canada’s famous Fraser River:

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At the start of the river season I had my sights set on catching my first double-figure barbel. To give myself a bit of confidence before tackling the “biggies”, I fished two sessions on a small river where I had a chance of hooking a few fish. Unfortunately, no barbel showed themselves on either trip, and I had to settle for 3 chub on the first evening and a complete blank on the second. Not an ideal start to the river campaign, but barbel often take a few weeks of the season before they start to feed heavily, so I was not too worried. My tactics for barbel have slowly evolved over the past 4 or 5 years. I started off quivertipping a swimfeeder, with casters and hemp. Then went through various groundbait mixtures, with luncheon meat on the hook, before eventually reaching my current tactics. Nowadays I have put the quivertip rods aside, in favour of Avon-style rods of 1.5 to 1.75lb test-curve. These bend to the handle and have stacks of power. I couple these with Shimano 5000 baitrunner reels to absorb the fierce takes which barbel are famed for. Because barbel often inhabit snaggy swims, I use …

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In the period between Christmas and the end of the traditional fishing season, I’ve struggled to catch over the last few years. Many species are at their largest, but they’re by no means easy to catch! I was hoping this year to buck this trend, but I’ve managed less late winter fishing sessions than I would have liked and the fishing’s been tough.  The unsettled weather has led to heavily fluctuating river levels, which made planning fishing trips very difficult. Despite this, I decided that my first session of the new year should be spent targeting chub on a prolific stretch of river… When I arrived, I found the river high, but falling. It was very coloured, but my confidence was boosted by news that an angler had landed a chub over 6lb on trotted breadflake earlier that morning. This was the size I was aiming for, to set a new personal best. Breadflake was a bait I didn’t have in my armoury; I opted instead to fish strong-smelling, oily baits, hard on the bottom. I fished hard all day, keeping mobile in an attempt to find the fish, but one very half-hearted take was my only reward. No fish, …

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Grayling fishing, on a day ticket, on the Derbyshire Derwent First of all, I can’t believe I’ve now been writing for Anglers Today for a year already; and what a year it’s been!  Thankfully the fish have been quite co-operative, giving me some material to write about and allowing me to notch up no less than nine new Personal Bests along the way. In the week leading up to Christmas I managed to fit in two fishing sessions on very different natures. I decided to fish for pike one day and, in the interests of diversity, grayling on the other. In Derbyshire and the surrounding counties, we are quite lucky to have various rivers offering the chance of quality grayling fishing on a day ticket. Many venues are fly only but some are mixed fisheries, recognising bait fishing as a valid method for catching ‘Lady of the Stream’. It’s almost two years since I fished for grayling, but it is a species I shall always long to catch. Firstly, to catch one you must fish clean, fast rivers. Once you hook a grayling, you are then treated to a terrific, spirited fight; where the fish will use all of its …

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Just recently I managed a days pike fishing on the River Trent and found the fish in a feeding frenzy! I started the day off lure fishing, using a home-made lure which had so far been my most successful home-made pattern. This time out, it wasn’t to disappoint. On my third cast, I felt the familiar ‘bump’, signalling a take from a pike. Before long, I had played my first fish of the day to the bank. Seeing that the hooks were held in a safe position, I decided to hand-land the fish, which I quickly returned. I estimated the weight at around four pounds. The new homemade lure I was using soon rewarded me for my hard work! On the very next cast, I had turned the reel handle only a couple of times when the resistance went solid. Upon striking, the rod took on a healthy bend and the fish stayed deep, signalling that I’d hooked a good fish.Because I use barbless trebles on my lures, I always keep a tight drag, which means that not many of the fish I hook on lures actually take any line during the fight. This fish, however, managed to power away …

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