The Fishing Coach

On Thursday I held my first course of the year at Twynersh Fisheries Complex. My student had fished when he was a young boy and was returning to the sport on his retirement. Roger had fished a couple of times with some friends but had experienced some trouble with modern techniques and felt that he was not catching as many fish as he ought to.

I took him to pit one ( the lake on the left as you enter the fishery) and quickly found that he already had some skills and knowledge. He was able to cast quite accurately and was soon asking all the right questions. We started off with a standard waggler set-up and I showed him how to fish the bait on the bottom. This is difficult at Twynersh as the water is very deep (nearly fourteen feet under the rod tip). Bites came instantly and a few small rudd and roach soon showed me that he could handle a rod and reel with some confidence.

Constant loose feeding of hemp and maggot had the larger fish feeding very near the surface, so I set the waggler very shallow and Roger was soon into the better fish.

He caught a lot of this size fish each giving a good account of themselves on fairly light tackle and his confidence grew. Meanwhile I had set up a fifteen foot Shakespeare Aerial Gold carp waggler rod with six pound line on one of the Shimano reels I spoke about last week. This rod was set up to fish the lift method but I was trying out a new hook to nylon from Middy.

As you can see from the picture these are hooks ready-tied to nylon with a metal wire coil on a “hair” (or short extension of line comming off the shank of the hook). This enables a ball of paste to be fished moulded around the coil and clear of the hook, to enhance hooking. As you can see the size twelve hook we were using is tied to six pound line also.

This method produced a couple of tench that put up a better fight but small fish were making bite indication a problem.

Since the beginning of the lesson I had not only been feeding close to the bank but had been firing balls of pellet laced groundbait thirty yards out with a heavy duty catapult and I set up a Harrison heavy float rod with another Shimano fixed spool reel (a 5000GT bait runner) loaded with eleven pound line. The float I put on is called a “baggin waggler” and Roger had never seen anthing like it.

This float is attatched to the main line justlike a normal waggler but is fished with a very short hook length (four inches of ten pound flourocarbon). I used a size eight hook with a hair attatched by a knotless knot. A ball of ground bait again laced with pellet and consisting of a high percentage of powdered pellet was moulded around the coil at the base of the float. A special groundbait can be purchased for this, it is called Method Mix but dampened pellets can also be used instead of ground bait. A soft hooker pellet was then mounted on the hair and I cast it out to the area where the balls of ground bait had been fired. I did the cast because a gentle lob is required or the ball of ground bait will break up and Roger was not an experienced enough caster.

The result was the ugliest carp I have ever seen but it did give Roger a good fight and I was able to give him some advice about his playing techinique.

The rest of the day was spent with the paste rig on the fifteen foot rod fishing an area I had been constantly feeding with hemp, pellet and the remains of the groundbait. The paste we were using was made from Dynamite Baits Source base mix and raw eggs with a little of the Source liquid flavour. I have caught tench, carp, barbel and chub on this paste.

Roger caught another tench and then the rod really arched over and a fish began taking line. As the fight developed Roger followed my instructions to the letter (so much easier when a student does!) and even on only six pound line was able to bring this lovely mirror carp to the net.

It weighed sixteen pounds ten ounces and more than doubled his previous personal best.

I have since had an email from Roger and I think his words sum up the reason I do this job.

“Martin — Thanks for an instructive day out — I not only learned — I also caught — especially the double figure Carp & the nice Tench. Very enjoyable day helped by the nice weather.”

I hope I have set him on his way to a hobby that will enrich his retirement.

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Chris Clark, a musician friend of mine, is one of the founder members of the Molesey Anglers Curry Club and wanted to end his winter fishing fast with some tench fishing. With permission from Weller of the Yard I took him to the private Surrey lake that Les manages.

Prior to his arrival at my place Chris telephoned me to say that he had just realised his rod licence had expired and because this would be his first outing this year he had not yet renewed it. As we had planned to be at the lake at 8am the local post office would not be open and he thought we would have to wait until it was. I suggested that he bought his new licence online at the Environment Agency site and as soon as he arrived he did just that. Well done the EA.

The day was overcast with a brisk south westerly wind that brought quite a chill to the morning and would have made fishing with a pole float on running line tackle impossible. We both set up with quite heavy wagglers, Chris with a fixed spool reel and me with my favourite centrepin. He fished with soft hooker pellets and I used bloodworm pellet paste in adjacent swims.

First cast produced a nice common carp for Chris that was about eleven pounds.

Despite a severe drop in temperature and a light shower we fished on until 3pm, catching fish after fish. We caught tench to four pounds, carp and bream. I lost a beautiful mirror carp that we saw on the surface shortly before it threw the hook, we estimated it to weigh about fifteen pounds. It would have made a lovely photo.

In all we caught about twenty fish between us, Chris was pleased to get “his string pulled” again as he had not fished since before Christmas.

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With the spring making further inroads in the dreadful winter and my sucesses with the tench fishing I decided to try for the large crucian carp at Marsh Farm. I did really well there last season and I thought the weather should have warmed up enough for the crucuian carp to be feeding.

I arrived at about 7.30am to find that every other angler in the south east of England had the same idea, I have never seen it so crowded in mid week but I managed to get my favourite swim on the back lake. The first thing I did was to put in some bloodworm and trout pellets about a rod length and a half out with a liberal helping of hemp on top. I then set up my fifteen foot Harrison GTI match rod with a light weight centrepin reel loaded with four pound line. A small pole float and a size twelve hook on a three pound hook length completed the rig.

I measure the depth with a plummet, found the ledge where the depth dropped off into slightly deeper water and set the float to fish the bait just on the bottom. The bait was bloodworm pellet paste and after resting the swim for about twenty minutes I made my first cast. The float hardly settled before it sailed away and I was playing my first fish. I soon netted a crucian carp weighing exactly three pounds, a good fish for anywhere else but only average for Marsh Farm.

The wind then picked up and made the pole float redundant so I switched to a small waggler to combat the surface drift. Over the next four hours I tried everything I could think of, different rigs, different baits and various presentations but i never got another bite. I can only assume that in my enthusiasm I had put in too much bait but very few fish were caught by the other anglers. Perhaps I had just dropped on the one fish that was hungry.

I will be going back to this fishery.

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I was so pleased with my first day’s tench fishing this spring that I was desperate to get back onto the water, without the gale force winds, so that I could use one of my centrepins to catch these hard fighting fish. I called the manager, only to be told that the owner’s family would be using it on the Saturday. He called me back a few minutes later to say that if I didn’t mind doing a bit of coaching I could join them for the day. No problem, I love sharing our sport with others.

I arrived at 8 a.m. Saturday morning and had three hours fishing before the family arrived. The first fish I hooked was a beautiful common carp weighing nearly thirteen pounds. I was so glad I was using a centrepin as this fish knew where all the snags were and tried for each one in turn. I wish I could have captured the sunlight highlighting the burnished gold of the scales of this very attractive fish.

This was followed by eight or nine tench and a smaller common carp. All the fish took bloodworm paste fished under a float over a bed of bloodworm and trout pellets. These fish were kept for a very short time in a large “carp friendly” keep net to show the owner and my two students, his brother and brother-in-law. When they arrived I suggested to Steve and Jeremy that they use my tackle as it is easier for me to coach when the students are using gear I know is suitable for the job in hand.

Just before Christmas I had bought four new Shimano Nexave 2500 FA reels from Bob and Brian at BB Angling, they have a stall at Kempton Park market on a Thursday and I have known them for years (they both featured in the “Itchen Incident”).

I chose these reels especially for coaching as they have an excellent front drag which is very sensitive and can be finely tuned to suit the less experienced angler. I have only just loaded these reels with line due to the wrist problems I have had over the winter and I was amazed by the perfect line lay I achieved with such low priced reels. Another triumph for the Shimano stable.

Steve and Jeremy were the first to use these reels, loaded with six pound Diawa Sensor line (also from BB Angling) and carp waggler rods. I expected that this would be a good test for the drags (or slipping clutches) on these reels, as hard fighting fish and inexperienced anglers are hard task masters for any reel.

They caught ten tench between them and most of them were males so they fought really hard - a good test for the new reels which they passed with flying colours.

A strong east wind picked up shortly after they arrived and the tench stopped feeding so enthusiastically but various changes of bait maintained the bite rate. Fish were caught on bread flake and worms, it was nice to see that good old fashioned baits still work. Steve caught a nice linear mirror carp on bread flake that really tested the slipping clutch on the new reels, particularly as he would be the first to admit that he has little experience at playing big fish. it weighed 7lb 11ozs.

I can hardly wait to introduce some of my other students to this great fishery.

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Spring has finally dragged herself from the icy grip of winter and whilst it is still far from warm I decided to have my first tench fishing session. The venue had to be quite shallow as the deep gravel pits that occur locally warm up slowly and a high stocking density of tench would improve my chances. It was not yet time to try for the big fish, I wanted quantity rather than quality, lots of bites rather than a long wait. It had been a long time since I had done anything except pike fish and I expected to find my skills a little rusty especially with my wrists still not being fully healed.

The venue I chose was a small private lake in Surrey that is managed by a friend of mine Les (known here previously as “Weller of the Yard”). This fishery is only accessible to a carefully selected group of anglers by request of the new owner. Some of these anglers are not very chatty, this miserable bloke sat in the next swim and never said a word all day!

Scarecrow to frighten off the cormorants

On my arrival on Thursday morning the sky was overcast with a strong breeze from the West. I fished the swim Les had recommended near South East corner of the lake and set up a long rod (twenty feet) with a centrepin. With a pole float and a plummet I searched for the remains of last summer’s weed beds and located a gap between them about seven metres from the bank. I fed this area with a mixture of hemp and trout and bloodworm pellets. By this time the wind was increasing and I was finding it difficult to handle the long rod but did manage my first tench on a soft bloodworm pellet.

This fish was far from the biggest tench I have ever caught but after that dreadful long winter it was one of the most welcome.

By the time I had finished taking the photograph and had returned the fish, the wind had increased further and the long rod became impossible to use. I set up my Harrison Stepped Up Match rod but had to use a fixed spool reel as I would have to cast into the teeth of what was rapidly becomming a gale force wind. I first tried a 2 swan shot Drennan Tench float as can be seen in the photograph and with six pound mainline and a five pound hook length was just able to cast to the baited area. The casting technique I was having to use caused the soft pellets to come off the hook so I switched to bloodworm paste and I started to catch fish. I soon had caught ten tench and a small common carp, the biggest tench was about four pounds and the carp was the same weight. Bites were difficult to spot with the waves on the water and eventually became impossible.

I had to change to a heavier float with a bulbous and therefore more bouyant tip with a “BB” shot on the hook length to anchor the float in place. I finished the day with fourteen tench and the carp and felt better than I had all winter. A good result under appalling conditions.

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Although I am not a typical carp fisherman and don’t do long sessions from behind a pair of matching rods with the associated electronics, I have always had a hankering after a radio controlled bait boat. Until last night at our monthly curry night when I heard the following story. I’m not sure if I got the exact details as it was being told at the other end of a noisy table but this is the jist of it.

A chap had just bought an expensive radio controlled bait boat and took it to his local carp lake to show it off to his fishing mates. He had carefully checked the club rules, there were many of them and they were strictly enforced by bailiffs and bait boats were allowed. He chose a swim opposite an island with over hanging trees and intending use his new boat to place his baits and some free offerings right under the branches. With a great flourish he launched his boat, loaded it with his baited rigs and drove it across the lake to the admiration of his mates.

He dropped his first rig at the open end of the island and then manoeuvered it along the island to the over hanging branches to drop off his other rig. He wanted to get his baited rig right under the branches and with some effort managed to do just that, giving a running commentry to his mates as he did so. When he tried to reverse his boat from underneath the branches he found that the aerial on top had caught in the branches and the boat was stuck fast.

This was a brand new boat and even the basic model can cost nearly £500 so he found himself in a dilemma, he donned his breast waders and tried to wade out to retieve the boat. He was soon shipping water over the top of the waders and to the ammusement of his pals he had to return to the bank in ignomy. The next move was to collect some wood and make a raft, this again caused great hilarity amongst his mates and against their advice he paddled of towards the island. The raft caught in some weeds and his frantic efforts to paddle free caused the break up of his handiwork and he slipped into the water. With his audience rolling about on the bank in fits of hilarity, he used the remains of the raft as a bouyancy aid to swim back to the bank. Did I tell you our boatman couldn’t swim?

Back on shore and soaked to the skin one of his mates volunteered to drive to the local camping shop and buy and inflatable dinghy, this he did and our hero was handed a bill for £58 on the delivery of the dinghy. It was duly inflated and the bait boat was recovered. The laughter had died down and the group was well into the self congratulation stage when the bailiff turned up and administerd a formal warning to our hero for swimming in the clubs waters (against the rules).

No, I don’t think I’ll get a bait boat.

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Last week I attended the AGM of Taywood Angling Society, a club that has been having some trouble. A couple of years ago they suffered a massive fish kill on one of their waters, their prime carp fishery at Staines and since then their membership has slumped. This water was not the reason I joined the club three years ago, I was interested in one of their lakes at Chertsey. This lake is gin clear and heavily weeded but full of natural food, it has a very low stocking level and very few small fish. It is a hard water to fish but holds carp, bream and tench to very large sizes and has very little angling pressure.

I fish this lake about a dozen times a season and blank more often than not but I have had a few of the smaller tench and one monster that weighed 9lb 4ozs. This lake is possibly capable of breaking the tench and bream records so I fish on in hope. I wouldn’t dare guess how big the carp are but I have seen some huge fish.

The club also has a stretch of the Thames at Sonning which I will get round to fishing this summer. They have now gone into partnership with Mid Kent Fisheries who have promised to help with the problem with the lake in Staines. They will be doing a fish survey with a view to restocking if necessary.

To recruit new members Taywood AS have dropped their joining fee this year so if you fancy a challenge and have a little time on your hands, why not join?

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Once again, this article first appeared on the TryAngling website but we’re in the process of redesigning that site and part of the plan is to move tackle reviews, catch reports and so on to this blog for instant publishing.

It being mid April I should be able to say “file this away until next November or so” but having just seen the UK weather forecast for the next week (snow!), perhaps it’s a good idea to read this right now.

Winter is nearly on us again and Gordon and I will continue to fish through all but the most severe weather but in order to fish effectively it is important to be as comfortable as possible.

To achieve this the most important thing is to keep dry - not easy in our climate, especially if you do your winter fishing on the move. I find it very difficult to fish from underneath an umbrella and usually use mine to keep the tackle bag and bait dry.

Firstly you will need a waterproof outer layer. If you can afford it something made of one of the modern man-made fibres such as ‘Gore-tex’ is favorite as the fabric will ‘breathe’ and allow the circulation of air around the body to prevent perspiration wetting the inside of the garment whilst keeping the rain out. These are not cheap but I feel they are worth the investment unless you intend to remain immobile inside a bivvy.

I prefer to use a two piece outer layer, i.e. jacket and trousers rather than a one piece suit because in the later if you need to ‘empty your bowels’ you have to do so practically naked (not a pretty sight for passers by).

Underneath this it is often necessary to wear two or more further layers. These layers should be natural fibres where possible, i.e. wool or cotton particularly those next to the skin. Man-made fibres such as nylon or polyester will cause you to sweat as they inhibit the circulation of air. Modern fleeces can add a very good insulating layer when worn just under the top layer and can be used on their own when the weather is dry.

In the really cold conditions usually associated with Grayling, Pike and Chub fishing I will wear the following: a cotton long sleeved vest and ‘longjohns’ as the layer nearest my skin. On top of this a cotton shirt with long sleeves and a pair of cotton trousers, jeans or cords will do. The next layer is a pair of fleece material jogging bottoms and a fleece jacket. I find the fleece material particularly good as it keeps the warmth in but the furry inner part draws out the moisture away from the body and keeps it dry. An outer layer of ‘Gore-tex’ jacket and overtrousers completes the ensemble but all layers need to be fairly loose fitting as tight clothing eliminates the layers of air that gives insulation and can make free movement of the limbs difficult.

I prefer any garment that is liable to be worn on the outside to be dark in colour, ideally olive drab green for camouflage, so some of the more brightly coloured garments designed for ski-ing should be avoided.

Always wear a hat or wear a jacket with a good hood as 80% of heat loss occurs from the top of the head, especially if your hair is getting thin like mine. A wide brim on the hat will act as a small umbrella and keep the rain away from the neck of the jacket.

Feet are always a problem in cold wet weather and ordinary wellington boots are useless for keeping the feet warm. Unfortunately the moon boot type of insulated rubber boot, whilst warm and dry, are difficult to walk any distance in. There are some new field boots on the market which combine the characteristics of a moon boot and a walking boot and these are good in all but the deepest mud or extreme cold.

A good pair of neophrene gloves with fold back fingers and thumbs will keep your hands warm and dry without taking away the ability to use your fingers.

So just because the summer is gone don’t stop fishing - some really good sport can be had in all but the most Siberian conditions but remember anyone can be uncomfortable- we are supposed to be doing this for fun. Don’t be like one famous angler who was heard to remark in particularly bad conditions “I’ll be glad when I’ve had enough of this”.

Finally, as the comedian Billy Connolly once said: “There is no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing”.

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I originally published this review on the TryAngling website but we’re in the process of redesigning that site and part of the plan is to move tackle reviews, catch reports and so on to this blog for instant publishing.

I will be the first to admit that I am no longer in the first flush of youth (anyone who knows me will be nodding their head at this stage, if they are not in hysterics) and that some of my faculties are no longer as sharp as they used to be. One of the first things to deteriorate are your eyes and whilst I can still see a quarter of an inch of the tip of a Drennan “Stillwater blue” at forty yards (it’s a float), anything closer than arm’s length tends to blur nowadays. This is aggravated by poor light such as first thing in the morning and last thing in the evening and means that the simple act of threading anything less than six pound mono through the rings of any rod slimmer than my barbel rods has become very difficult. When it comes to setting up one of my twenty foot match rods with three pound braided mainline then the air can turn blue, which is not a good idea when you spend as much time teaching kids as I do and the last thing I want is for young Rodney to go home with a colourful new non-fishing vocabulary.

I have found a new product marketed by Ultra Fishing Tackle that enables me to set up the long match rod in any light, even total darkness, in no time at all and it all but eliminates the risk of missing out one rod ring half way. (Isn’t it funny but you never notice you’ve missed one until you have finished shotting up your stick float shirt button style?)

This very useful little tool is in the form of a needle with an elongated eye, the line is threaded through the eye and pulled towards the blunt end where it is trapped by the taper of the eye. The pointed end is then passed through all the rod rings, pulling the line after it. Should you drop it, it will not be pulled back through the rings - which is an advantage when threading a fly rod with heavy fly line behind the leader. I now own three or four of these tools and use them every time as they speed up all operations, even with heavy line through large rings.

This item is an essential for every tackle box, even if you can still tie spade end size 24’s to 8oz hook lengths by hand under the stairs…! It will speed up the threading of any rod, particularly in bad light.

Update, 9 April 2006: If you have any trouble obtaining this product from your local tackle dealer, contact Shaun Stenton at Ultra Fishing Tackle Limited on 024 7671 6500.

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I originally published this review on the TryAngling website but we’re in the process of redesigning that site and part of the plan is to move tackle reviews, catch reports and so on to this blog for instant publishing.

As you may know one of my favorite methods of fishing is trotting a float on a river with a centre pin reel. The floats I prefer are fixed to and bottom usually with two pieces of silicon tube and are buoyant near the top. When fishing small baits in steady currents I will use a stick float but when bigger fish are my quarry I will use an avon or heavy balsa type float. The reason for using a top and bottom float is that they allow me to hold them back in the current so that the bait can be made to travel at less than the speed of the current. In order to do this effectively the line must float to give the sensitivity I need so that the tackle is not pulled off line during this process, this also assists when striking at long range.

If you have read the article on float fishing for barbel I wrote for Coarse Angling Today magazine you will have seen that I recommended Shakespeare Bionic Dynacord braid in 10lb breaking strain (4lb mono dia.). No sooner had the article gone to press than it was announced that Shakespeare were no longer selling it in the lower breaking strains. This braid was ideal for the purpose but had one drawback, it was so limp that it tended to tangle around the bottom rod ring on the cast.

I have found a new braid that is fused together with a resin and is slightly thicker than Bionic Dynacord and is slightly stiffer. Whilst this does not impede presentation, it prevents tangling. This braid is made by Berkley and is called Fireline. It’s available in breaking strains between 4lbs and 50lbs and is easier to use than ordinary braid and I know of anglers who use it straight through to the hook when legering. It’s more expensive than monofilament but is not adversely affected by sunlight and will last much longer. Like other braids it has very little stretch which makes it ideal for long trotting but should be borne in mind on the strike, I favour a few feet of monofilament of a slightly lighter breaking strain between the braided main line and the hook length. For example when trotting for Barbel with 10lbs braid I use four feet of 8lbs fluorocarbon between the float and a 6 or 7lbs co polymer hook length.

This winter [2002] I have been using Fireline in 4lbs breaking strain (1lb mono dia.) trotting for Grayling on the river Itchen with great success. It mends beautifully and sets hooks easily at long ranges. I have had no problems with cracking off on the strike due to using a through action rod but the abrasion resistance is not as high as some manufacturers would have you believe.

Another winner from the Berkley stable and if you want to try some, BB Angling do the best deal I know of. Contact Brian on 0208 640 3567. Elsewhere you will pay up to £20 for 100 yards.

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