The Fishing Coach

At the end of the previous two days courses I had chopped up the remaining dead baits and thrown them around the dead weed bed that had been the focus of our fishing. Imagine my frustration when on Thursday morning I arrived with another group from Slough, to find the pre-baited swim and the swims either side occupied.

We moved a couple of hundred yards up the bank towards a corner into which the wind was blowing and set up there. I had just got the four baits out when the sky went black and the wind stepped up to what must have been about force six. The temperature plummeted and it started to rain.

The next two hours were uncomfortable for me with my wet weather gear but a misery for those less well equipped. At their request we packed up early and retreated in ignomy, fishless. These are the chances you take booking days fishing in advance this time of year. I am sure we would have caught in the other swim despite the weather.

All the students are looking forward to further courses in the Easter holidays.

The saving grace of today in my eyes was that despite having to really punch the baits hard into the strong wind to get any distance and even with barbless hooks no baits were lost. The Solu-Ties were tested to the extreme and passed with flying colours.

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Back to the Predator lake on the Wasing Estate on Wednesday, this time with a group from Reading. The weather was much the same as yesterday but the young people were slightly older and some had a little more angling experience having attended my courses in the Autumn and at Christmas.

All the treble hooks I used today were totally barbless and not one bait was lost during casting thanks to the Solu-Ties. These are really a great find and have already revolutionised my dead baiting as I can use barbeless hooks and make unhooking so much easier.

The first fish was not long in coming and weighed in at twelve pounds twelve ounces but unfortunately the lad who caught it was afraid to hold it.

The second fish was hooked by a total novice who had never caught a fish before and as soon as he struck I knew we had something a little special. The fish tore about fifteen yards of line from the slipping clutch and kited across the swim in front of us over the top of the other lines. Luckily they had been sunk very deep to avoid the surface drift so crossed lines were not a problem.

Despite his lack of experience he did very well and followed my instructions to the letter.

It weighed exactly sixteen pounds and he gained a great deal of credibility within the group by being brave enough to hold it.

It was a little deeply hooked but this gave me a chance to demonstrate safe unhooking procedures and to explain the need for the proper tools.

During the day I received a phone call from the estate office passing on the apologies of the manager of the gravel extraction contractors for the boating incident yesterday and the offer of a cheque to the value of £50 for the charity of my choice. The ACA will be £50 better off as a result and is much appreciated.

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Once again the management of the Wasing Estate allowed me to use their Predator Lake for three days during the winter half term to run a series of Pike Handling Courses. These courses are probably the most valuable courses I run as far as coarse angling as a whole is concerned, as well as the most beneficial to the sort of young people I teach.

The value to coarse angling is that young people who would probably end up fishing for pike anyway, learn to do so safely and in a way less harmful to the fish. This preserves the stock of pike in any waters they may pike fish in the future and hopefuly they will pass on the skills I have taught them to others.

The benefits to some of the challenged young people are that they are often frightened of pike and gain even more self esteem when they conquer that fear and often that lack of self esteem is a major part of their problem.

We started on Tuesday with a group from Slough and I picked up the minibus from the Council Offices and collected them from the Haymill Centre prior to driving to the fishery. The day was mild with sunny spells but a strong south west wind made bite indication a little difficult. I solved this problem by sinking the rod tips very deep to keep the line away from the surface drift.

I used the Solu-Ties as mentioned in the previous post and when tied around the treble hook in the base of the tail of the frozen sardines allowed me to really punch the bait out without losing one bait all day. These are an excellent product and although they don’t dissolve very quickly in such cold water, this does not seem to be a problem. Tomorrow I will use some traces made up with all barbless hooks and try them.

The day started slowly with only the ducks feeding.

Then at about eleven thirty we had a dropped run - this is where a pike, usually a small one I believe, picks up the bait and then drops it after a short run. This got the young angler’s attention and the ducks had to fend for themselves.

An hour later one of my students struck into a fish and after a short but lively fight was rewarded with his first pike.

When we had arrived at the fishery I noticed that on the far bank, some three hundred yards away, a mechanical shovel was being used to extract gravel. I thought no more of this but as we were returning the pike a large tug boat type of craft came across the lake from the area of the gravel workings. The pilot drove his craft to within thirty yards of where the young people were fishing, right over the top of the dead weed bed around which I had arranged their baits. He motored up and down and then returned to the gravel workings but the damage was done and no more bites were forthcoming. I rang the Wasing Estate office and complained, they said they would look in to it.

After we had packed up and returned to the minibus I found the battery was flat and I was unable to start it, I suspect that my new electric cool box may have been the cause but I kept that quiet at the time. A call to the AA had us on our way in twenty five minutes, well done the AA.

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A couple of weeks ago I received an email from a company called PCI who offered to send me a sample of their products to help with my coaching activities in return for a link from this blog. Most of their products seemed aimed toward the carp fishing market and so I replied expressing my interest but explaining that I would be unlikely to be able to field test the products until the spring.

The result was a phone call from a lady named Becky Bailey who seemed very knowledgeable, pointing out that they had a product called Solu-Ties that may be of use on my pike fishing courses. I found the fact that she had obviously done her research and read this blog very impressive and most unusual in the angling trade, this is a company to watch!

I was further impressed when she offered to send some products to the Davies Angling Show the next week, by means of a friend who was exhibiting there, so that I would have the Solu-Ties ready for my pike handling courses the following week. So on Saturday a group of us attended the show where I collected a huge parcel from Alan of Kent Particles from PCI. This was too large to carry round the show so I left it with Bill and Virginia Rushmer on the Anglers Mail stand.

This also contained some of their bait buckets which I will review at a later date.

The Solu-Ties are like the plastic cable ties that you can buy in any DIY shop that when pulled tight around something lock in that position acting as a clamp but they are made of PVA which of course dissolves in water.

My favourite dead baits for pike are sardines but their soft flesh makes them difficult to keep on the hooks when casting and even when used frozen they tend to fly off during all but the most gentle cast. This product should keep the hook in the root of the tail in place and although I will still use the baits frozen they may enable me to dispense with barbed hooks altogether.

I’ll report further after the Pike Handling Courses.

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A couple of weeks ago I went over to Shepperton marina for a chat with fishing coach Steve Gray who runs All Things Piscatorial, a new website for and about fishing coaches. He introduced me to Bob from Hampton Court who had featured on Keith Arthur’s radio programme, Fisherman’s Blues on Talk Sport. Bob’s angling exploits as The Angling Apprentice are listed on Steve’s website. Steve suggested that Bob might like to have a day’s fishing with me and after some discussion it was decided that we would go to the river Itchen to try and catch Bob his first grayling and I could teach him a little about small river fishing.

Last Wednesday, after finding a mutually suitable date with a decent weather forecast, I picked Bob up from his home and we drove down to Southampton (stopping briefly for a big boys’ breakfast!) to fish the Lower Itchen Fishery. The day was bright and mild but a stiff North Westerly wind blew intermittently all day making float fishing difficult, especially for a novice. We have to make the best of things at this time of year.

The river was as low as I have ever seen it due to the lack of rain over the winter but it still had an unhealthy grey tinge untypical of a chalk stream. As soon as I saw this I knew that the fishing was going to be difficult but as the fishery closes on 14th February we decided to make the best of a bad job.

I set Bob up with a long float rod with a centrepin loaded with four pound braid and I started to explain the principles of trotting a float on a fast flowing river. He was faced with a steep learning curve because of his inexperience, the centrepin reel, braid and difficult wind but he struggled manfuly despite the past injuries to his spine and in fact made me feel quite guilty about the fuss I have been making about my wrists.

It became apparent that I was right about the condition of the river. We tried several of what I would have considered “banker” swims without result. Bob was beginning to get the hang of trotting but was having some physical problems due to his injuries so I found him a comfortable swim where he could fish sitting down.

A change from red maggot to sweetcorn produced the first bite of the day a brown trout that managed to shed the hook but not before Bob had experienced the shock of playing his first fish on braid. The second trout, a much larger fish, smashed his hook length but he was getting the hang of it and he landed the third fish a fine brown trout, his first on a centrepin.

Bob was beginning to tire and trotting was too painful so I suggested that he switched to legering with a maggot feeder and after a little work on his casting he hooked his first fish.

This proved to be his second trout.

A change of swim and we finally found the target species, a grayling of one pound four ounces. of which Bob was rightly proud.

Bob had done very well on a difficult river in very hostile conditions, he responded well to my instructions and tried very hard to master a tricky technique. He now has a love for fishing running water and is well on his way to being a centrepin freak like me.

A good day ended well.

Update: Bob has written an excellent account of the day - I’m glad you enjoyed the day and I hope this will be the start of many such happy days on a river.

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