The Fishing Coach

As promised last month I am going to continue with my float fishing for barbel saga by talking about hooks and floats. When using small baits such as maggots, casters, corn or tares then small strong hooks are needed, no place for fine wire match hooks here and size sixteen is the smallest you will need.

When using bunches of maggots or casters (my favourite baits), I will put three or four on a size twelve or fourteen. My favourite hook is a Drennan Super Spade and I have never been let down by one of these, but many of the hooks designed for commercial carp fisheries will do.

When using larger baits your choice is more limited as many hooks over size ten are designed to cater for the specimen carp angler and are very heavy in the wire. Drennan Carbon Specimen hooks are ideal when you can find them, but I am sure there are others. If I need a size four hook for a large piece of bread flake or a piece of luncheon meat then I don’t want something that is so heavy it could support a side of beef and will necessitate the removal of two or three split shot from the bulk shot.

That brings me nicely on to floats - big ones. Some of the guys who see my barbel trotting floats for the first time are amazed at how much shot they take, particularly if they are not used to fast water. I have found that barbel like to feed on the bottom and the current down there is often much slower than it is at the surface. A bait that is being towed through the swim by a float in the surface current is not behaving naturally and the float is liable to cast a shadow over the fish before the bait gets to it. The water on some barbel rivers can be clear and the fish are likely to be wary, an overhead shadow will not improve matters. The float fisherman needs to slow the float right down to prevent this happening and to present his bait at the same speed as his loose feed is being carried. This needs more weight down near the hook than most people would believe, if the bait is not to rise above the feeding fish. The minimum size float I will use carries 3 AAA and I will go up to five or six swan shot or more if conditions dictate. Barbel really do not mind towing a big float under, they will take the rod out of your hand if you are not careful, bite indication is not the difficult thing, bait presentation is!

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This month has also meant the beginning of the grayling fishing on the Lower Itchen Fishery. This is an exclusive fly only trout and salmon fishery during the summer months but on the 14th of this month allows bait fishing for grayling. These run barbel a very close race in my favourite fish category and if they grew to ten pounds no-one would fish for anything else. Like barbel they only prosper in clear fast flowing rivers and these tend to occur only in pleasant surroundings. They also freely take a trotted bait and fight like tigers when hooked.

A three pound hook length is usually enough and coupled with a fairly through action match rod you can really enjoy the fight. Once again I favour a centrepin reel, loaded this time with four pound braid. I use Berkley Fireline in these low breaking strains as it’s filaments are bonded together with a resin to make it stiffer and less prone to tangles. A four pound fluorocarbon leader and a three pound hook length are suspended under a loafer type float and red maggots or sweetcorn are the bait on a size sixteen or fourteen hook. Keep moving from swim to swim as grayling don’t seem to shoal in very large numbers and are soon spooked after a few of their number have been caught. I have caught more than thirty grayling in a day on this venue, eight of which were over two pounds. There are also some good chub here and five pounds six ounces is my best. Gordon would have loved this river.

A local tributary of the Thames has been producing some good chub fishing this autumn My best is five pounds fourteen ounces but I have had three or four over five pounds. The best bait seems to be rump steak on the hook with minced beef in an open ended feeder, although I am sure that the bread flake and mulched bread approach would work as well.

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My pike handling courses have started and the lads have caught quite a few pike and hopefully have learned to unhook and return them without harm. Mother Nature is full of contradictions - pike are probably our most voracious freshwater predator, but also seem to be the most fragile of fish and susceptible to bad handling to a fatal degree. I have seen, so often, in my many years of angling a new pike venue discovered which produces good fishing for a couple of years before the pike disappear. They’re dead, that’s where they’ve gone, not all dead fish float on the surface. They’ve been killed by bad handling, often caused by fear and lack of knowledge, and by deep hooking!

Have you ever wondered why so many managed fisheries and angling clubs do not allow pike fishing until September? I have heard it is because pike take a long time to get over spawning and don’t fight very well. This is rubbish, summer pike fight much harder than they do in winter although they do tend to be leaner and weigh less in summer. No, the reason pike fishing is banned in the summer is to stop inexperienced anglers catching them and damaging the pike stock with bad handling.

The aim of my Pike Handling Courses is to teach students young and old how to handle pike on the bank without harm to the angler or the pike, how to catch pike without hooking them in the stomach and what to do if this happens. I show them the tackle to use, techniques of bait presentation, bite indication and when to strike. They also learn to use the proper tools to remove the hooks, on an unhooking mat and how to hold the fish in a way that will not damage the fish. All my students have gone home with all their fingers.

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