Articles

I got this season’s predator campaign off to a great start last week, when I tackled the Trent near Nottingham.  After fishing elsewhere all day to try and catch perch, river carp and barbel, I arrived at the river about an hour before sunset, having caught none of the species I‘d been trying for.  I hadn’t managed to catch any fresh deadbaits either, so all the zander bait I had with me was a frozen pack of 5 small roach.  It was going to be tough to make them last, but targeting zander I was only expecting a couple of runs anyway. My simple deadbait rig for zander, incorporating a buoyant leger boom I setup two rods with low-resistance run rings, which I’d adapted and added some small pieces of foam to pop the rig up and keep the line out of the Autumn debris on the riverbed.  There are similar items on the market, called leger stems, but I’ve never been happy with their quality so I make my own.  They’re simple and cheap and I’ll go through exactly how I put them together in a future feature.  The run ring rests on a run rig rubber, which incorporates …

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The streets and riverbanks of Riba Roja resounded with the laments of disgruntled guides and disheartened anglers.  It was our fourth day of six fishing the Ebro and hardly any catfish were being caught by anyone.  We had a sense that the catfish were starting to wake up a bit, but I shall start with how our week began… The first morning we were understandably high on a heady cocktail of anticipation, intrigue and enthusiasm.  We wanted a good start so the pressure would be off, but none of us had seen the Ebro before, let alone fished it, yet its legend gave us high expectations.  We boarded Carl’s California skiff, headed out to an island at the far side of the river and anchored up to cast our rigs for the first time.  These were straightforward sliding floats through to heavy braided traces holding single size 3/0 heavy-gauge trebles.  The stop-knots were set at around 80% depth and we lip-hooked bleak and trotted them downstream.  We moved every 45 minutes or so and the third spot we settled in was full of features and looked perfect. As we watched our floats steadily trotting, Shane’s float jerked downward, then back …

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It must be the best part of two decades since I first gazed at photos of John Wilson et al posing with huge catfish they’d caught from the Ebro.  I’ve wanted to fish there ever since, but had been put off because in many popular areas such as Mequinenza and Caspe, the “fishing” has evolved into nothing more than sitting back while your rods are positioned for you by someone in a rowing boat, your hair-rigged pellet hookbait tipped over the side with several kilos of loose pellets.  When a bite materialises there is little more to do than winch in an overfed, pellet-addicted lump of a catfish.  This is a far cry from the traditional tactics employed on the Ebro such as “clonking” and boat fishing with a float or lure.  This is what fishing on the Ebro is all about to me – putting in the effort yourself whilst drawing upon the experience of a good guide – and I‘ve always felt the river could offer me more. Despite this watering-down of methods, there are still alternatives available if you can find the right guides in the right areas.  A chance conversation with Will Barnard a couple of …

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This post has been an awful long time coming, but finally – on a train on my way to a stag weekend in Liverpool – I’ve found time to patch together my account of a terrific day I had, doing something I do too little of these days; fly fishing. I received an email from Secretary of Errwood Fly Fishing Club, Ian Gould, offering the chance of “smashing your trout PB on fly gear”, if I joined him in the Spring for a day on the club’s venue, Errwood Reservoir. After taking a quick look on their website – www.effc.co.uk – at the quality of the scenery and the fishing on offer in the hills above Buxton in Derbyshire’s Peak District, I could not resist a visit! Ian emailed me again towards the end of March, informing me that the season had kicked off well, with some very large fish coming out, so I got down there as soon as I could. The week previous, Ian – who I believe still holds the venue record with a trout of over 14lb – had caught 3 double-figure trout the week prior to my visit. It turned out that I managed to pick the hottest, sunniest April day I …

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Lure fishing really is an enjoyable way to spend a few hours and if the predators are in the mood, it can be even more productive than bait fishing for them!  By frequently moving swims – and of course by fishing a moving bait – a lot of water can be covered in a relatively short space of time, meaning you’re sure to be pulling a lure past a fish before too long and if it’s hungry, it will generally have a go.  The range of freshwater species you can target with lures in is amazing; besides the usual suspects pike, perch and zander, you can also catch chub, trout, salmon (if you’re really lucky!) and if you get really adventurous, even carp, barbel and bream! Lure fishing in the UK has been a massive sport for a few years now and seems likely to continue to grow in popularity, but knowing where to begin can be bewildering.  As with any faction of angling, everyone has their own preferences toward methods, tackle and of course, lures; so with this article I’ll try to cover some basics of lure angling, so if you’ve never tried it you’ll get an idea of …

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Despite never pledging allegiance to any “specimen angler’s code” I consider myself, by-and-large, to be a “specimen hunter” – or the more modern term “specialist angler“. Although that very term can seem a little restrictive. The angling weeklies would generally have you believe that specimen hunting is a coarse fishing-only pursuit.  Surely a specimen is a specimen though, no matter what? So why limit ourselves to just coarse species and methods? I think that a spot of sea fishing or fly fishing now and then can be rewarding in more ways than one; it provides the opportunity to set some new PBs and pick up some new skills along the way. I’ve always held the view that improving on your skills with one method or species can be of greater benefit your angling skills in general.  Maybe “all-rounder” covers this philosophy better by definition, although I would hesitate to consider myself one of these, because it implies a certain all-round capability, whereas I’m more of a trier than an achiever!  Anyway, digressions aside, after neglecting fly fishing somewhat in recent years, I had a couple of tries for perch on the fly last year and managed fish up to almost …

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It’s been a while since I posted but the good news is that I did manage to notch up a session in February and I’ve already been fishing once in March but the river close season (which I back 100%) is looming ominously.  I am now faced with the dilemma of which river/stretch/swim/species to target for my final session of the 2010/11 season.  Not an easy one when I’ve got memberships of 5 clubs, all with their own merits, but I prefer to have plenty of options available (usually, but not when it’s down to choosing one last session!).  Anyway, that’s to come later this week, but for now I’ll tell you about my last two sessions, during which I have been reminded just why and how much I love catching pike from a natural river.The week or so preceeding the first session had started off with a lot of rain falling and relatively mild weather, but as my session grew nearer, the rain subsided, river levels dropped and clarity started to return to the water.  These developments had me changing my mind at the last minute; I’d originally decided to fish for barbel, but with the water dropping I had an urge …

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In the weeks ahead there will be many anglers stocking up on worms and for good reason. They’re a superb, bait all-year-round for all manner of coarse fish (including wels catfish) and while everything from a stickleback to a pike will take a worm, they can often be the bait that will sort out that specimen-sized fish; this is especially true during Autumn and Winter. Who needs a smorgasbord of bait when you’ve got these beauties?! Whether you go out on your lawn collecting worms by torchlight or if you’re lazy like me and buy them, in these difficult economic times it makes sense to look after such a precious angling commodity. Worms rarely visit the surface during the winter, so you’ll struggle collecting them and if you buy them mail order, it’s often cheaper to buy in bulk. So, it makes sense to stock up now and try to keep your worms alive and healthy, ready for use whenever you need them. I must admit that although effective baits, I’ve never really used or kept redworms, so the info below may not apply to them. Maybe someone with experience of keeping them could email me with details! I’ve tried …

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The majority of my predator fishing (although the term “predators” could be expanded to chub, catfish and eels, in this instance I’m talking perch, pike and zander) is spent on the banks of rivers, drains and canals. I have never done too much predator fishing on stillwaters, so rather than pretending I know something I don’t, I’ll leave that article to a more qualified person. That said, many fish-holding features are universal, so many that can be found in rivers, drains and canals can also be found in the margins of ponds and lakes. The relatively natural waters I concentrate on offer anglers a constantly evolving challenge, where fish can potentially move unimpeded for miles, making use of any features they come across, as safe refuges and ambush points. With the changing seasons and natural events such as floods, these features – and the significance of them – can change frequently.  This offers anglers both a challenge and a helping hand when locating predators on such venues. Predators can have very prominent feeding spells and often the only difference between a great day and a blank can be as simple and clichéd as being in the right place at the …

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After a few Summers of catching a decent number of 2lb+ perch on lures I decided it was time for a slightly different kind of challenge. I would still visit my favourite Summer swims which took many blank sessions to find, but now I know where the perch are at this time of year they’ve been very reliable and with only a few repeat captures. The main difference is that instead of conventional lure fishing (which I’m fairly proficient at), I would try for them with a discipline which I’m far more clumsy and out of practice with; fly fishing. I asked my good friend and fly fishing instructor, Kevin Miles, to tie me up some flies replicating perch fry, after seeing a good perch spit one out in my landing net a few weeks ago. The resulting flies – tied onto size 2 Nash Fang hooks – were really good too! I should have really taken some photos of them before I started destroying them by hurling them into undergrowth and such like! I was using my Fox Predator XS fly rod, which I bought when it was on offer a couple of years ago and it’s been gathering dust since, …

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