A Mixed Bag

What has your fishing been like over the past few weeks, my fishing has been very good either on the River Ribble where I have enjoyed some very good trout fishing using dry flies, occasionally I have also turned up a decent sea trout and the odd grilse which have put up a great fight on a 10 foot Thomas and Thomas 7 weight Helix and floating line. For trout fishing I have been using the new Thomas and Thomas Whisper-lite five weight rod with a floating line and a 12 foot leader with a foot of fluorocarbon tippet. Most fish have been caught on a size 14 black buzzer pupa which have been taken in a savage manner. Fishing two or three hour sessions I have had as many as eight fish. I have also targeted the chub using float tackle and bread flake or crust as bait enjoying some fine sport with chub to about four and a half pounds. I feel if more anglers would leave the leger rod at home and switch to float fishing they would be pleasantly surprised at the good sport they could enjoy.

I have travelled down south to fish the delightful Wasing Estate waters Tel 01189-714140 for details of membership and fishing available. On my latest trip I targeted the barbel and chub catching fish to 9-14-0 on a Wraysbury soft paste bait. I fished every day catching fish each time. On one occasion I baited two swim then went off litter picking, not anglers litter I must say, but rubbish that had come down from upstream, the normal dross thrown in the water by some members of the general public. I spent a couple of hours clearing a mile or so of river bank, at the same time looking for interesting bits of water to be fished in the winter months, and of course talking with other anglers. I watched an angler trotting meat at Dalston who caught six nice barbel. As mentioned before I reckon more anglers would perhaps catch more fish by trotting when conditions were suitable, rather than sitting in one spot legering.

When trotting the stream you will cover more water giving more fish the chance of seeing your bait. It seems the barbel fishing this season has been very good, with anglers making multiple catches. Though the river was very low it wasn't a problem getting bites, I used sausage paste, bread crust and flake, also as previously mentioned Wraysbury soft paste. I have always rated soft paste baits a far better bet than pellets or boilies. Sometimes my paste is that soft it just about hangs on the hook. Colin Culley who fishes the same Wraysbury bait has also caught some good barbel. Both Colin and myself have found a roving approach to be the best. A beat on the Wasing Estate fishery that is little fished is the Woolhampton beat. Where you can expect good size barbel roach perch chub and even good bream are occasionally caught. Its a good stretch of water for trotting, rolling paste, bouncing crust or stret-pegging. The latter style of fishing works extremely well when practised alongside the prolific cabbage pages which stretch along the nearside bank for many yards in some places. We all know how attractive cabbages (curled leaves of under water lilies) are to most fish and especially the roach.

Another beat that has proved attractive to many barbel anglers is Aldermaston where some good barbel have been taken, sadly we have had some people who bivvy up, then put in a lot of bait, one person told me he had fed his swim with five kilo of pellets. How crazy can some people be, all it does is ruin the area for other anglers. I have seen the same practise of dumping loads of pellets in the River Ribble. It doesn't seem to do them any good apart from the odd barbel or chub, but perhaps to them that's a success story, but it doesn't do the river any good or help the next person who chooses that swim. While I was on the Wasing Waters I got to chatting with Michael Brown a landscape gardener of Berkshire who has caught some super bream the best at 18-6-0. During the same session on Shalford Lake he had a 31lb mirror carp, also bream of 15-2-0 15-4-0 and 17lbs. Roger Priddle fishing Bottle Lake had a good catch of tench some twenty fish to six pounds when I spoke with him. Roger was fishing a swim feeder rig and gentles.


Dorset Visit

During my trip photographer Will Carter and me paid a visit to that delightful county of Dorset, if you want to catch a big chub 7lbs plus, the Dorset Stour is a river where you need to spend some time this autumn and winter. Will and I were in the county to visit Kingpin Reel then meet up with Hugh and Sue Miles to record an interview about the new series Catching the Impossible. We were most impressed with the set up at KW Engineering where we met Keith Ward MD and Stuart Arnold who is project manager for the centre pin reels project who showed us around the various productions units ending up at the final inspection bench where the chief inspector still uses a slide rule and micrometer. Will and me were pleasantly surprised at the high quality of engineering and care that goes into making a British centre pin reel, which has 31 separate items of quality engineering. Its nice to see we are taking on and beating the Oriental's with quality engineered centre pins, Remember if we buy a quality British made reel we are keeping British people in jobs. You can hear the programme I record at the works on Thursday 1st October at 19-05 hrs or via the internet for the following seven days click on listen again then At The Waters Edge this is the link. http://www.bbc.co.uk/lancashire/content/articles/2005/12/05/radio_martin_james_profile_feature.shtml

Catching the Impossible

Having left Keith and Stuart at KW Engineering we made our way to Hugh and Sue Miles delightful home set in some magnificent countryside where I recorded an interview which can be heard on Thursday 8th October at 19-05 hrs or via the internet for the following seven days click on listen again then At The Waters Edge this is the link. http://www.bbc.co.uk/lancashire/content/articles/2005/12/05/radio_martin_james_profile_feature.shtml Last spring the first three one hour programmes were released with great reviews, it was stunning filming, and not all fishing, there are some dramatic shots of wildlife. The underwater footage of barbel feeding is awesome. The next three one hour programmes are now available.

Number 4 A Sport for All Seasons Exploring our rivers and lakes through the seasons provides the angler with endless variety and excitement. Martin Bowler and Bernard Cribbins are joined by a host of famous anglers as they enjoy catching lots of really big fish.

Number 5 Going Against the Flow A glorious journey down the famous Hampshire Avon from source to sea. Observing the underwater wildlife and catching grayling and roach, carp and barbel, salmon and mullet as Bernard, Martin and friends travel from source to sea.

The final one hour show in this set is number 6 A Winters Gift. The winter season provides some of the best fishing of the year as Bernard, Martin and friends enjoy catching zander, pike on the fly, barbel in a flood, chub, grayling, perch and roach with some of quite "impossible" size. Having watched this latest three parts I will say this "Hugh Miles has given us some great entertainment and the best footage of angling I have seen starting with A Passion for Angling first shown some sixteen years ago. He is the best in the business"

On A Gloucestershire Gravel Pit

Having left the River Kennet I travelled into Gloucestershire to fish an old mature gravel pit, where I would try to catch pike on the fly also bream and tench, my mate Brendan Ince travelled down from Lancashire and we planned to meet up at the cafe on Lake Pochard on Wickwater Lane South Cerney. After a good breakfast and a couple of mugs of tea, it was time we headed off to Heron Lake some fifteen miles away along twisting country lanes. The pit had been dug many years ago for gravel to build either motorways or airfields. it was set in a delightful location surrounded by many trees and hedgerows, There were deer, badgers, foxes, rabbits ducks geese, coots, moorhens, what a delightful waterside bird, they always give me an impression of peace and solitude. There were swans and kingfishers in profusion. The fishing can be good with double figure bream quality roach tench and perch, some big pike and carp. Phil Chun had a common carp this season weighing in at 36lb 1oz. A fish that had never been caught before and Phil took his fish on float fished bread flake.

The first job was to erect the bivvy for our stay, I left that to Brendan, I am better making the tea and coffee. While Brendan got to work, I sorted out the bed chairs and food, before making up a big bowl of ground bait. This consisted of eight loaves of mashed up stale bread, five tines of corn, a large jar of hempseed with lots of molasses. I then added some vitaline to stiffen the mix. Job finished, I baited up a couple of swims some twenty yards out from the bank. An hour later I climbed a tree to take a look at our baited swim and was surprised to see some tench in residence and feeding. It was time to sort out out tackle and decide on the rigs to use.

Back at the bivvy I put on the kettle, then made some toast, Brendan didn't want tea and toast, just a mug of strong coffee, I ate his share of toast. we both chose to leger with 1.75lb test curve rods, fixed spool reels, 8lb Gamma breaking strain line with a running leger rig, I decided to use hair rigged plastic gentles on one rod, casters on the other. While Brendan chose popped up corn on his left hand rod, while the other one was baited with plastic gentles. After casting out and clipping on biter indicators we sat back to wait for some action. Occasionally a fish could be seen rolling in the baited area. At tea time with no sign of action I elected to be cook, while Brendan watched the rods. Soon we were tucking into mash potatoes, hot pot and vegetables. Apart from the indicators moving up an inch then dropping back nothing happed. At 10 o'clock that night with no positive takes I crawled into my sleeping bag. Brendan continued to watch the rods for an hour then he too crawled into his sleeping bag.

Next morning after breakfast I decided to try and catch a pike or two on the fly, choosing to fish a deepwater area, I was soon catching some nice perch around the one and a half pounds, at lunchtime with the wind increasing to gale force I called it a day and returned to base. Apart from some nice perch I had just one pike about 6lbs. After lunch I made up another big bowl of ground bait then we baited our two swims. We decided not to fish for a couple of hours so as to give the fish a chance to get their heads down. Walking around the lake we spotted a couple of gravel patches well out from the bank that looked interesting. We decided to put some feed in the areas and keep a close watch. An hour later some fished showed over the first gravel patch, we decided to float fish for them using a cocktail bait of gentles and corn or gentles and flake. Soon I was into a good fish, which after a couple of minutes shot off to my left throwing the hook, then missed a couple more bits as did Brendan. Thirty minutes later I had a tench of 5lbs. Half an hour later with no signs of a bite or seeing fish in the swim we called it a day and moved back to our base swim.

After tea Phil Chun called to see how we were doing at the same time fish started to roll in our baited swims, at last we might get some action. Phil had a look at the end rigs and made some slight adjustments to Brendan's rigs. Within fifteen minutes Brendan had a good take hooking a nice tench. I decided to let Brendan take any bites which might happen on my rods to give him some experience of catching tench. He ended up with six nice fish all on plastic corn or red gentles. As darkness enveloped us I got my head down and an hour later Brendan followed. Next morning we were up as 6 o;clock ready to break camp and head off home. Phil turned up around 8 o'clock after telling him about Brendan's fish we all headed out of the fishery onto the twisting country lane. Phil to work Brendan and me back to Lancashire. I arrived home to find the River Ribble with four feet of extra water, ideal for barbel fishing.

Grubjuice - A New Additive from Eurobaits

Last week I met Roger Clifford from Eurobaits a company that breed thousand of gallons of gentles a week with many of them being exported to Europe and America. In the USA they have become very popular as a bait especially with ice fisherman. Grubjuice is a revolutionary new bait additive and dip which has been developed over a 12 month period with the help of 2 leading scientists. It uses only the freshest maggots. Opening the bottle of Grubjuice reminded me of an article Dick Walker had written back in the 1950's about liquidised worms could be a good fish attractor especially for perch. Dick told us to pack a 2lb jam jar with as many worms as we could then store it away in a garage or shed for a few months. I was one of those who followed the instructions to the letter.

Come late November I put the jar of liquidised worms in my basket, they looked like a thick soup. As we sat on the bus s we made our way to the River Beault, Billy Race said " Have you got those worms" reaching into my basket I took out the jar unscrewing the lid and saying "Have a look at this worm soup" for a few seconds nothing happened, then the smell hit us. Up and down the bus people were looking around, then down at their feet. The smell was evil. I stuffed the jar back in my basket. No air freshener if they were available. Wouldn't have got rid of that smell. At the waters edge we tipped some of the fowl smelling stuff into the water. For a few minutes nothing happened, then perch seemed to appear from all directions. That day we all caught, not just perch but also roach and bream. At the end of the day we tipped the contents of the jar in the river. It certainly took some scrubbing to get the smell off our hands.

Grubjuice is derived from maggots, not worms but I feel it might work in a similar manner, I look forward to trying out this new additive over the next few weeks and will report back on my results. I also plan to put some neat liquid in a few gin clear waters and see what reaction I get from the fish. It could be an interesting few weeks.