The Fishing Coach

A couple of weeks ago I wrote here about a fly fishing lesson I gave at Syon Park to a Canadian relative of one of my pupils. Steve has since sent me an email about what he has caught at home since his return.

“Hi Martin,

How are you doing?

I have been going fishing for the past week and have been averaging around 8-9/night. These are pickerel that we catch here and are really good eating, especially at this size.

They are possible to catch in the daylight but a boat is really required to get them because they go deep in the day and are at the bottom. At night they come up and feed at the surface in shallower water with a rock or sand bottom. Currently I am fishing an area that is a mix but mainly sand with weeds. I am getting them on what is called mister twister, a plastic bodied bait that attaches to a jig head and is about 3-4” in length for this time of year. As the summer passes we will gradually increase the size of bait as water temperatures rise and they become more aggressive. People are catching them on floating rapallas as well but this is working for me so I stick to it. Glow head with white body and I don’t flash the head to make it glow. It just appears as a pearl or off white like color as I am sure you know.

We are only allowed 6 here as a limit/ person but I give them to others when I over catch to people that are not getting them, or I will release the smaller ones back to the river. I am in the great lakes system fishing the St. Clair river right at the mouth of Lake Huron which is at the bottom of Lake Huron.”

Pickerel, also known as Walleye seem to be very much like our Zander:

Picture courtesy Manitoba Fisheries

It’s good to know what other anglers are doing in other parts of the world.

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On Tuesday I had a day on my beloved river Kennet, fishing a swim on the Warren beat of the Wasing Estate. I took six pints of frozen casters and a couple of pints of fresh ones for the hook, bought from Davies Angling who always have excellent bait and give me a good price.

I spent the first part of the day in this swim trotting double caster and feeding hemp and caster in five feet of fast flowing water. I alternated between a heavy rig with a stepped up Harrison float rod with six pound line and my Drennan Stick float rod with two and a half pound line. The latter is not my choice of barbel tackle but is more fun for the roach and dace.

The first trot down, with the heavy rig, produced a chub of about four pounds followed by a small brown trout. These were quickly followed by a small barbel of about a pound. I then realised I had forgotten my camera as barbel of this size are rarer than nine pounders and I would have liked a photo. The swim then seemed to die and despite further feeding no more bites were forthcoming.

I switched to the lighter rig in hope of some silver fish and had another barbel, the same size as the first and a bigger brown trout, about two pounds. I also foul hooked a couple of larger fish at the bottom of the swim in the faster shallow water. Fortuneately the hook pulled out quickly both times. I shortened my trot to avoid the gravel shallows in case there were barbel spawning there and managed another small chub of just less than a pound. No roach and dace were showing and despite trying float fished pellet on the rig I described in my last post, I had no further bites. As I had feared, the bristle hair did not hold the pellet securely enough for the pressure of the fast water and I was never sure if the bait was still on. Take a look at the picture and avoid them!

By this stage I convinced myself that there were barbel spawning on the shallows below me, although the Kennet is still too turbid for me to see them, so I moved upstream to the Brimpton beat to my favourite trotting swim just above the bridge. I fished there for the next two hours with the light float rig and caught dace and roach “a fish a chuck”, the biggest dace was about half a pound and the best roach was a “pounder”.

This is why I love this river so much, not for the big fish but for it’s variety of sport in such lovely surroundings.

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I had bought a new brand of soft hookable pellets to try out with a view to using them for float fishing for barbel but every time I tried to put a hook through them they fell apart. I tried several different sizes and patterns of hook, all to no avail. These pellets are 8mm in size and look and smell great. I wanted to use them on my coaching session on Friday but the problem persisted.

I then remembered a book on tench fishing by Len Arbery called Catching Big Tench that I had read some years ago (it was published in 1989). In this book he describes a way of mounting a boilie on a brush bristle tied to a “hair” coming of the shank of a hook.

I left my student for a minute and returned to my car where I keep a stiff brush to clean mud off my boots and to sweep out the back of my car. I snipped a few bristles off the brush and returned to the swim. Using a Drennan Hook Tyer I whipped a bristle onto a length of 6.6lb bs line, having flattened the end of the bristle to make a spade end.

The hook is then tied on using the knotless knot and the tip of the bristle is cut at an angle to aid penetration of the pellet.

The pellet can then be mounted on the bristle without splitting and the hook is free of the pellet to enhance hooking. It worked for my student but whether it will work on fast flowing water, despite the attentions of little fish, remains to be seen.

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On Friday I took Paul from Slough back to Twynersh and we fished lake one in the hope of some of the larger carp for which this lake is famous. I wanted him to practice his fish playing skills further but I was told by Paul the fisheries manager that the carp had not been feeding for the last couple of days probably due to late spawning.

Paul started fishing with maggots and was plagued by small fish but a switch to paste produced a bite from a large tench which eventually broke his hook length. His second bite produced this fine male tench which he played well, once he had got the feel of the tackle again.

Switching between pellet near the surface and paste on the bottom he caught fish all day including thirty or so roach, which must have averaged nearly a pound each.

His biggest roach weighed one pound six ounces, a good sized specimen for one so young. I don’t like to think how old I was before I broke the one pound barrier with roach.

He is doing very well in these courses and I am looking forward to next week.

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Today I met Evaleen and her son Steffan and Angela and her son Ruudi for their second course at Twynersh. After a very slow lesson last time I made a special effort and arrived at the fishery two and a quarter hours early to get the swim I wanted. This is the last lesson I will be holding for Evaleen and her son as they are due to return to Canada in ten days so it was worth the extra effort.

The lesson started with a little casting practice and I found Ruudi much improved as he had been practicing at home and when all the arms were aching we started fishing. I had set up five metre whips and pole floats set to fish the bait very shallow. The perch and rudd had been taking loose fed maggots on the surface while I was waiting.

Steffan was the first to catch and soon everybody was catching fish. Twynersh was still on top form and the sport became fast and furious.

Soon both mums were catching fish as well and as I became busier all four students were putting on their own bait and unhooking their own fish.

Steffan managed to catch more than forty fish during the lesson and Ruudi was not far behind but once again it was one of the mums that caught the biggest fish.

Once again a wonderful day with this group but I will miss Steffan and his mum, he is well on his way to becoming a capable angler.

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On Friday I had my second day of coaching with young Paul from Slough and I took him to the private venue in Surrey that is managed by an ex police colleague of mine. After his sucess at Twynersh and his reluctance to keep the rod high enough whilst playing a fish I thought he needed to catch some fish that would pull back.

His previous biggest fish had been a rudd about three ounces and he managed his first bigger fish, a three pound male tench, very well. The smile says how pleased he was, my smile was even bigger!

We then saw some carp moving on the surface and I started firing some dog mixer biscuits out with a catapult. He was fascinated when they started taking the biscuits from the top and was very excited when I suggested he might like to try and catch one. The resulting fish weighed seven pounds.

He lost another fish that got into the lilly pads despite his best efforts to stop it. He was not disheartened and soon caught another tench, this time on the float.

He also witnessed Jeremy, another angler, catch a 15lb 4oz common carp, a beautiful fish.

This lad is a very enthusiastic student and is well on his way to becoming a fine angler.

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This morning I left home at 5.45 a.m. bound for the South Lake at Shepperton Marina hoping for one of the bigger tench that this lake is known for. I had decided to try a little ground bait instead of just loose feeding hemp and pellet as I had done on my two previous visits. I used a special mix that I have found effective for tench in the past, it contains a commercial ground bait called Expo which is marketed by Van Den Eynde. The rest of the mix is made up with brown crumb, powdered trout and bloodworm pellet and cooked hemp seed. To this I add sweetcorn, frozen maggots, small pellets and chopped worms. I keep the liquid from cooking the hemp, to which I add a little molasses, allow it to ferment for a couple of days and use it to mix the dry ingredients with.

This is a very effective groudbait but only on some waters, others I have found it to be “the kiss of death” hence my reluctance to use it at South Lake.

Today it produced one bite, which has been my average on this lake so far, not a conclusive result. The fish was a female tench of 5lbs 1oz taken on float fished bloodworm pellet paste in ten feet of water next to some lilly pads.

This is my best tench this season and was taken on my Harrison Interceptor float rod and six pound line. The reel of course was a centrepin (Young’s Purist).

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On Sunday I was back at Twynersh in the same swim that produced such good results on Friday. This time I was teaching a father and two sons. Their mum made the booking with me last week, although she didn’t fish. Steve, their dad, has not fished much since he was a boy and was delighted to be the first to catch a fish.

The boys, Jack and Alex, soon started catching fish just under the surface on a small pole float on a five metre whip and an element of competition became evident.

By the end of the day Twynersh had produced another bag of one hundred fish.

It is such a good idea for a father to accompany his sons on one of my fishing lessons as he will have to go with them for at least a few years. It is even better when mum comes too. I am really looking forward to my next lesson with this family.

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On Friday I took a young lad from a school in Slough for a full day’s coaching to Twynersh and he had the best day’s fishing of his life.

I picked up Paul from his home early in the morning and we were fishing on lake two at Twynersh by twenty past seven in the morning. He is a very keen fisherman so I started him off with a pole at eight metres. He coped very well with this new experience and caught a few fish but the small fish were soon feeding near the surface so we switched to a rod and reel with a waggler.

I have rarely had a student so young who learned so quickly, he even learned to “feather” the line as it left the spool on casting using his index finger. I have had trouble teaching experienced anglers to do this.

I really enjoyed the day with this lad it was a pleasure to coach such an enthusiastic student. He caught fish all day and ended with over a hundred roach, perch and rudd. We finished a little early due to the high temperature (30 degrees) but Paul’s enthusiasm was undiminished by the heat and I’m looking forward to our next day’s outing.

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Yesterday I was fishing for tench at Shepperton Marina on the South Lake, something happened that caused me to lose a fish and I think I should pass on the warning. I was float fishing with paste in about ten feet of water next to some lilly pads and hooked a male tench of about three pounds. He gave me a good fight but as I brought it towards the waiting net he dived under the rim of the net into the side of the mesh.

I was using one of the Middy paste hooks I have mentioned here before and the coil that the paste is moulded round caught in the mesh and the fish was able to unhook itself and escape. This seems to be a disadvantage of an otherwise excellent product.

This was the only bite of a hot and sunny day’s fishing.

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On Sunday I was coaching again at Twynersh. When I arrived at 8am nearly every swim was taken and the bank side was pock marked with bivvies. The fishery must have had the population of a small village overnight! I managed to get one of my favourite swims on lake seven and set up the tackle ready for my students.

A couple of months ago I had been contacted seperately by two mothers who wanted me to teach their sons and I suggested that as it would be a few years before they could let the boys go fishing on their own, it might be a good idea to learn to fish with them. One of the mothers was the sister-in-law of my fly fishing student.

We started with a talk about fish and fishing and I explained a little about the natural history of the fish and the ethics of angling. We then did a little casting exercise but the boys were keen to start fishing so I set them up with five metre whips and pole floats and explained the basics of striking and landing fish.

One of the mums, Angela, was the first to catch a fish.

She was a little worried about the pain she thought she might be causing the fish but I was able to put her mind at rest and explained that as fish are a very primative species they do not feel pain.

The sun was now very bright and bites became hard to come by, Angela caught the next fish also but gave it to her son Ruddi for the photo.

Bites dried up altogether and in desperation I took Steffan along the bank to a corner where water flows from one lake to another through a pipe. This area is always full of fry and the perch prey on them. By feeding maggots into the stream of running water I was able to tempt several perch out from the roots of the overhanging bushes, one of them was over a pound and could be seen in the clear water taking the drifting maggots. This sight renewed the interest of Steffan and Ruudi who was becomming bored and had joined us. (This never fails, boredom is an angling coaches worst enemy.)

I was able to help Steffan catch his first fish from this swim, a little perch but he will always remember it. We spent a long time in this pursuit but the water was so clear and the sun so bright that the fish became very wary but no more fish were caught.

The lesson was drawing to and end when we returned to the previous swims where the mothers had continued to fish and Evaleen caught the fish of the day.

Evaleen with a Bronze or Common Bream about 3lb 8ozs.

This fish made their day (mine too!) and it was time to pack up. The fishing had been hard with very few bites (most unlike Twynersh) but we all enjoyed ourselves which is really what this is all about.

Ruudi, Evaleen, Steffan (with bream) and Angela.

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When I first started coaching in 1999 I had a group of private students who started with me as beginners and later graduated to regular full days of coaching on special venues. As I became busier working with children from local government agencies, my days with “the regulars” became less and less frequent but a recent series of government budget cuts has reduced my workload of disadvantaged young people and I intend to spend a little more time with these lads over the coming months.

So yesterday I took three of my old students plus one of their friends to the fishery managed by Weller of the Yard. I hardly recognised a couple of them as they had grown up so much - two years is a long time in a teenager’s life! - but was really looking forward to coaching them again. The previous day had been so cold I was glad I had chosen a shallow lake rather than one of the deeper local gravel pits that take a long time to warm up and get the tench feeding again.

I equipped them with heavy waggler rods and six pound line because of the large amount of lilly pads in the corner of the lake where we chose to fish. I started loose feeding with hemp and trout pellet whilst we set the rods up and talked about all that had happened in the last two years.

James was the first off the mark with a carp of six pound four ounces, a notable feat considering the swim he had chosen between two patches of lillies. He has developed into a capable angler and I like to think that I’m responsible for much of the groundwork.

He followed it with a small tench which was closely examined by Les and his new puppy.

Russell was next with a fish, a small tench and soon my three old regulars were all catching fish. I was particularly pleased with Tayler Clark who did remarkably well with one of my centrepins after only a few pointers.

I was very proud of the way he was beginning to master what is quite a difficult art, especially because I wind the line onto my centrepins so that it comes of the top and this means he had to learn to reel in backwards.

For those interested the reel is an Arnold Kingpin.

The best fish of the day was caught by Russell and was a personal best carp for him.

Russell with the group and his nine pound fifteen ounce carp.

The new lad Aaron, who had never been out with me before, was struggling but showed great character and patience while everyone else was catching and eventually started catching bream, two of them about three pound out of only six or so believed to be in the lake.

An excellent day with some old friends, all of whom caught plenty of fish and I hope we can repeat it again soon. These lads are ready for further challenges and I already have some ideas for new venues.

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Steve Gray who runs All Things Piscatorial (”Your one stop coaching site”) is the manager of a syndicate on the South Lake at Shepperton Marina and had convinced me to join this season. After the way he showed me up when I took him pike fishing he should have let me join for nothing…

Anyway, today was the opening day of the new season on the lake and was to be the first time I had fished it. I met Steve at the lake with Nigel Botherway (also a syndicate member) and we had a chat about the lake. I would liked to have stayed and chatted longer as I know Nigel from his days at Heathrow and there were many stories to re tell but I wanted to get fishing. I imitated a News of the World reporter and made my excuses and left.

The swim Steve had recommended was peg one and had a patch of lillies to the right and an overhanging tree on the left but I was surprised to find it was thirteen feet deep. I just managed to fish it with a 3AAA Drennan Tench waggler float rather than a sliding float. The stop knot would have caused problems passing through the small rod rings when casting with the centrepin reel I was using. I fed some hemp and trout pellet. I was trying some tinned hemp from BCUK that Dave from Oham Lakes had given me.

It smelled good and was very oily but today was not the day for a fair trial. The wind picked up soon after I arrived and then switched direction to come from the North, it was very cold and we were soon shivering in its blast. More like February than “Flaming June”.

I had my fist bite after an hour but as is so often the case it came when I was talking to a passing angler and I missed it. How do they know when you’re not looking? You watch the float all day and it doesn’t even twitch but you pour a cup of tea or look up at a singing bird and when you look back you see your float comming back up.

Shortly afterwards my second bite produced a hard fighting male tench of about three pounds that justified my decision to use six pound mainline. It tried to reach the lillies and when I turned it it went for the overhanging tree.

It’s always good to “break your ducrk” on a new water on the first outing. I will be spending a lot of time at Shepperton Marina this summer - there are problems to be solved due to the depth and my lack of knowledge of this water but I’m sure that this venue has great potential and I’m very much looking forward to it.

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Life is so full of coincidences! Last week I had a very sucessful day on the river Test fly fishing for trout then towards the end of the week I was telephoned by a future student who asked if I could give one of her relatives, who was visiting from Canada, a fly fishing lesson. Normally I would have recommended that he find a casting coach and get some casting lessons first but he was returning home in two days and would not have time. I gave the matter a little thought and after a telephone call to Syon Park I agreed to show him the basics.

On Sunday I met Steven at Syon Park and began my first fly fishing lesson. Steve had never cast a fly but after about twenty minutes, with a bit of wool on the leader instead of a fly, was doing a fair job of laying the fly on the grass about ten yards away. He was either a natural or I have a better casting action than I thought. He was still making a few mistakes with his technique but all he needed was practice.

I tied on an epoxy resin buzzer and explained how to fish it slowly.

Steve had already done quite a lot of fishing in Canada, catching walleye and perch, sometimes through a hole in the ice but nothing had prepared him for the sheer speed of a rainbow trout. He got a take right under the rod tip at the end of the retrieve and managed to hold onto the fish for about forty seconds. He almost had control of the fish when it surfaced and saw us, it turned and shot away at great speed catching him by surprise, pulling the rod down and parting the leader before he could let go of the line he was holding.

I don’t know who was more upset, him or me. He had one more take during the rest of the day but alas failed to hook the fish. His casting improved throughout the day but I suggested that if he intends to take up fly fishing he should get some more casting lessons. Money well spent!

He enjoyed the day as much as I did but I was disappointed not to have got him a fish. He certainly earned one.

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