The Fishing Coach

This week I have been very busy, I’ve had three days coaching with Lee Blundell, who now works for Reading Angling Action. Monday and Friday saw us at Christchurch Meadows on the Thames at Reading with groups of people with various disabilities. The venue made this day more difficult than it needed to be as it was on a heavily used public footpath and full of bleak but Lee was limited to his choice of venue due to lack of transport on the student side.

Nevertheless, all who attended had a great time and many caught fish for the first time.

A very rewarding couple of days for me as a coach but hard work, especially in the intense heat. It was a little disapointing for me that having taken many more pictures than are shown here and having given my email address to most of the key workers, no one has yet bothered to contact me for copies.

On Thursday I had a day on the river Kennet. On the spur of the moment overnight I had decided to get up early and fish until the heat became too opressive. Dawn found me on the Warren beat of the Wasing Estate trotting casters with light tackle for the roach and dace. I tried a couple of swims including one I had not fished before and caught lots of roach dace and small chub.

On Saturday Lee had arranged for us to give the public some taster sessions at Paices Wood Country Parkland during a contryside day organised by the Pang, Kennet and Lambourn Valleys Countryside Project

Far to few people attended but those that did were rewarded with some good value coaching and Lee and I were able to catch a few of the local carp as well.

Sunday found me back at Twynersh with Angela and her son Ruudi. Two of my other customers had cancelled so I was able to give Angela and her son an intensive coaching session to prepare them for their forthcoming holiday. They both worked very hard and I wish them a smashing holiday.

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On Monday I was back at Twynersh with a new student but the aims were the same as always, lots of fish. James has a similar backgroud to me, we both joined the same corps (REME) as boy soldiers but he was seventeen years behind me. He now works in project management on the construction of the new terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport. He had fished a little and contacted me (at his wife’s prompting), she wanted to help him stop “just feeding the fish on the river Thames”.

As he lives near me I picked him up from home and we arrived at Twynersh before it opened at 6.30 a.m. in order to get my favourite swim on lake one. It was already hot and this foretold a real scorcher of a day. I deliberately left most of my instruction for later and set up one rod with a method feeder and one with a light semi-fixed bolt rig and two small boilies, both on bite alarms. The aim was to produce some decent sized fish for trophy photographs before the heat became unbearable and the fish went off the feed. A liberal application of ground bait and loose fed pellets soon had the fish swirling on the surface and a waggler fished very shallow on another rod produced the usual batch of roach with a couple to one and a half pounds on a variety of soft hooker pellets (I wish I could catch them that big on the Kennet!).

I had given up on the method feeder but the light carp rig produced a couple of male tench and a mirror carp a little over six pounds.

He was doing very well with the fixed spool reel and there were plenty of bubbles about two rod lengths out so I decided to try and get him his second carp on a centrepin reel. I set up my Harrison stepped up heavy float rod with an Arnold Kingpin loaded with eight pound line using paste fished hard on the bottom under a waggler float. The result was a beautiful common carp of nine pounds, James was hooked!

We had a great time as his smiles on the photographs show and we talked much about our army days as well as the fishing. I am still thinking about some of the memories this triggered. James finished the day with a fine female tench of three pounds and was really pleased with his day out, despite the oppressive heat.

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Friday was my final day of coaching with Paul from Slough and although I had told him that we could not go back to the river Kennet, things changed during the week. I had been given special permission to take him to this exclusive syndicate stretch of the Kennet last week and I did not wish to impose by asking again but during the week I had cause to speak to John Butler the head bailiff. Paul’s name came up during the conversation and I was asked when I was bringing him back - he had obviously made quite an impresssion.

So at 7.30 a.m. we were again eating bacon and mushroon sandwiches in Max’s cafe at Padworth on the A4 between Reading and Thatcham. We went to the Warren beat to the swim that Steve and I had fished earlier in the week. I had bought a pair of wellington boots for Paul so that he could stand in the water whilst trotting and I set him up with fifteen foot Shakespeare power float rod and an Adcock and Stanton centrepin reel loaded with six pound Drennan float fish line.

As this swim is much faster flowing than the only other swim he has trotted, I put on a two and a half swan shot loafer float. This is heavier than I would use but the extra weight would help him control the pace of the float without pulling it off line too much. He had forgotten little of what he had learned in the last lesson and was soon contolling the float on its way downstream as if he had been doing it for years.

He was catching roach and dace straight away, every trot down resulted in a fish and after about twenty minutes of steady feeding with maggots and hemp his rod arched over and he had hooked a fish that was pulling back.

The result was his first ever barbel, of about a pound and it was caught on a centrepin. He followed this with six smaller barbel during the day, all about the same size, like peas in a pod. This bodes well for the future sport on this river.

He had another fantastic day, ending up with about fifty or sixty fish, including some nice dace and roach.

I am very sorry that this is the last day that I have been contracted to take Paul out but perhaps next term we can renew our aquaintance. He has the potential to become an exceptional angler.

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On Tuesday I took Steve Gray from All Things Piscatorial to the Warren Beat on the Wasing Estate as a guest since he wanted to give the river Kennet a try. We met at Max’s cafe on the A4 and after a hearty breakfast we were on the river before 8 a.m.

The first swim I showed him was fast flowing and quite shallow but Steve had expressed a wish to trot a float whilst wading and I knew this swim would produce fish. His first fish was this tiny barbel, a real rarity, I think I have seen more ten pounders than fish this size.

We trotted for about an hour and both caught roach and dace and Steve caught another tiny barbel. I set up a light trotting rig as soon as the bigger dace began to show, three pound main line and a one and a three quarter pound hook length. I was smashed first trot down by what I assume was a big chub (well you’ve got to try) and changed up to a slightly heavier hook length. After we each caught more fish, mostly dace, the swim went dead and the bites stopped. I assumed that the bigger fish, perhaps even barbel had moved in and reached for the heavy trotting rod again.

One of my better decisions as this fish would have been a real handful in such a fast current on the light tackle I had been using. We then decided to move to another swim and loaded the rods still made up into my car for the journey.

In the next swim it was a fish every trot down until I over fed my swim in the hope of attracting some bigger fish. Steve, who was just downstream of me kept catching roach and dace but had a lot of trouble with pike who kept taking his fish on the retrieve. He lost about six or seven but did manage a nice roach.

In desperation I tried laying on with a hair rigged 10mm Source boilie just under my rod tip and was rewarded with a chub of about three and a half pounds just before it was time to pack up.

As I was packing away my first rod Steve, who only had one rod to put away, finally landed one of his tormentors, not the biggest pike he has ever caught but he seems happy with it!

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Last week I had a last minute telephone booking from a chap called David who wanted me to provide a day’s coaching for his Dad’s birthday. He wanted to bring his brother in law as well. I met them today at Twynersh at 8 a.m. and the day that followed was the most hilarious coaching session I can ever remember.

They are all Bangladeshi, although David and his brother in law Rashed were born here in the UK. It’s great to see people from the Indian sub continent on my courses as we see so few Asians in our sport.

Abdur and his son David are accountants and Rashed is an IT consultant. Not the recipe for a fun filled day, you might say as neither profession is noted for their uninhibited enjoyment of life. Well you would be wrong! We started laughing during my introductory talk and carried on through the casting exercises. The banter between the father and the two boys (to me, anyone under 40 is a boy these days) was in direct contrast to the false stereotype of the strict muslim father. What an infectious laugh Abdur had!

Anyone who has been fishing with me will know how I like to mix humour with the serious matter of catching fish but given such an appreciative audience I was in my element.

I set them up with 5 metre whips fishing very shallow with maggots, always a good method for beginners. The two boys started catching fish straight away as they were fishing each side of some lilly pads but Abdur had no cover for the fish in his swim and had no bites at all.

This earned him a few comments from the boys and after about thirty minutes I started feeding his swim with pellets and increased the depth he was fishing at. A soft hooker pellet replaced the maggots on his hook fished hard on the bottom. The result was these three bream all much bigger than the fish the youngsters were catching. He beamed with pride and the boys fell quiet. One up for us old ‘uns.

Throughout the rest of the course we laughed and laughed, casting lessons with the fixed spool reel really caused my sides to ache as the three students made fun of each other’s efforts, all without a hint of malice.

David had the last laugh with a bream from his Dad’s swim and all too soon it was time for them to go in order to avoid the traffic on the M25.

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Once again on Friday I was contracted to give Paul from Slough another coaching session, the fifth in as many weeks. He has learned a lot over the course, coping well with every challenge I have set him, so I decided to set him a really tough test. The venue was to be the river Kennet, a fast flowing river which meant he would have to control his float rather than just sit and watch it.

I set him up with a closed face fixed spool reel loaded with four pound floating braid. I hate these reels but I inherited this one from Gordon Scott, a friend of mine who died a few years ago. I keep it because it is the ideal tool to teach an absolute beginner to trot a float. He soon learned how to use the reel and was really enjoying trotting a float. He was catching a fish per cast, mostly small dace but with the occasional larger one.

Later in the day I set him up a longer rod with a centrepin reel and he was soon well on his way to becoming a competent centrepin angler, despite the pike that were taking the odd fish on the way in. Most of these bit through the line and at least one was well into double figures. Even the rain showers that had been promised in the weather forecast failed to dampen his enthusiasm.

Once again he caught over fifty fish including roach, dace, chub, gudgeon and bleak. A switch to a maggot feeder resulted in more fish once he had come to terms with bite indication on a quiver tip, a very steep learning curve all round but he enjoyed it immensely . I think we have another potential river angler on our hands.

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On Wednesday I had a new student from Slough Council, his name was Sam, aged thirteen and he had never fished before. I picked him up from his school at 9 a.m. and took him to Twynersh. My favourite swim on the Match Lake was free and despite a light shower of rain we started straight away. He was so enthusiastic he didn’t mind the rain and didn’t even baulk at the casting exercise with the plastic weight. He is a footballer and his muscle-eye co-ordination that the sport gives him helped a lot with what is often a difficult technique to master. He was soon swinging the weight back and forward with the four metre whip showing good control and I was able to take the lesson to the next stage.

As a total beginner I started him with a five metre whip and a pole float. He fished two maggots on a size sixteen hook to three pound line at about three feet deep. I loose fed maggots and hemp and soon had fish swirling at the surface. His first fish was a small bream and it was a pleasure to share the moment with him.

This fish was soon followed by a number of rudd, all taken just below the surface. He found the concept of striking, when he had a bite, a little difficult and missed a few fish by just pulling the bait out of their mouths.

After about an hour I decided that he was ready for some larger fish so I started adding some fish meal pellets to the loose feed. The ones I chose were the green Swimstim pellets from Dynamite baits. Shortly after I replaced the maggots on the hook with the matching soft hooker pellets. I replaced the pole float with a waggler float that carried more weight and altered the depth of the rig by sliding the float up to fish the bait right on the bottom. The extra weight helped to get the bait down through the smaller fish.This caused the bites to dry up and he went from “a bite a cast” to no bites at all. This resulted in a severe test of his patience, remember this is a thirteen year old boy and it was difficult to persuade him that it was for the best.

Patches of bubbles soon appeared in the swim and I knew the bigger bream were moving in, his next bite produced this fish, a common or bronze bream about three and a half pounds.

He followed this a little later by another about half the size and a few more rudd and roach.

It took some persuading to get him to pack up, he wanted to catch some more fish but I had to return him to school by 3 p.m. A good lesson enjoyed as much by the coach as by the student.

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It’s fascinating to occasionally look over the stats for this site and see where people are coming from, both geographically (from Australia to the USA) and what led them here. Sometimes it’s a mention on Steve’s All Things Piscatorial forum, other times it’s an interesting search engine quest. So I thought I’d sit down today and answer some of the questions posed by those arriving here by search engine.

1. Bored kids
I can’t help this particular visitor because he or she came from Plano in Texas but if your kids are bored this summer holidays, what better way to fill their days and give them some experience of their place in the environment than to encourage them to take up fishing.

2. How to hold a fishing reel.

There are three types of fishing reel that I use in coarse fishing and I will explain how to hold each of them. Firstly, the most common type of reel is the fixed spool, spinning or threadline reel. This reel should be held with two fingers wrapped around the rod butt each side of the reel foot. Note the thumb is on top of the rod to help lock the lower part of the butt under the forearm.

This allows the forefinger of the hand to be extended to control the line comming of the spool during casting (as shown below).

The second type of reel and by far my favourite is the centrepin reel. This reel is held extending the forefinger down the back of the reel for stability and by wrapping the remaining three fingers around the rod butt below the reel. The thumb is pressed to the butt just above the foot of the reel and can be lowered to control the speed of revolution of the reel by applying pressure to the rim.

I wind about forty yards of line onto my reels but I wind it on backwards. By this I mean that I reel clockwise to gain line (I’m right handed and reel with my left hand) and the line comes off the top of the spool instead of the bottom. There are two reasons for this, firstly the thumb of the hand holding the rod has immediate control of any loops of line that might be blown off the spool by a cross wind. If the line came off the bottom then any such loop would have caught round a handle before you noticed, with disastrous results if you hooked a fish. Secondly when a fish is taking line under pressure applied by the same thumb to the rim of the spool, then the movement of a clockwise rotating spool will push the thumb up and away from the spool, losing control. In my case a running fish will cause the spool to rotate anti-clockwise and an even pressure can be maintained with the thumb.

More of my thoughts on centrepin use can be seen here at Paul Whiteing’s site.

The fourth type of reel is the multiplier which I use primarily for lure fishing. This reel because of its design is fished on top of the rod to allow the thumb to control the spool during casting. All four fingers are wrapped around the butt below the reel. I prefer to wind with my left hand leaving my right arm, my strongest as I am right handed, for casting. This restricts the number of multipliers available to me as most are made for the US market and they prefer to reel with their right hand, holding the rod with their left hand. They still cast with the rod in the right hand and switch over before reeling in. What’s that all about? Is it anything to do with driving on the wrong side of the road too?

3. Best tench in 2006.

I have written much on this site about tench fishing as they are my favourite still water species. Here are five of the posts I have written about them in reverse chronological order:

• Season’s best tench
• First tench of 2006
• Using the lift method for tench
• June update
• Start of my tench season

4. Kennet syndicate.

What can I say about what is probably my favourite place on this planet? Take a look at their website and read these posts:

• First barbel of the new season
• Silver fish from the Kennet

5. Pike rigs how to.

What rigs to use for pike and how to make the traces etc. will be the subject of a future post, if not two or three posts.

Any more questions?

Finally, I get questions from anglers, both new and experienced on a regular basis. If you have a fishing related question, why not leave a comment and I’ll do my best to give you an answer.

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Friday was the fourth day of tuition I have given Paul, the young lad from Slough and in order to broaden his experience of angling I decided to teach him pole fishing. I have never claimed to be an expert pole fisherman but I have had some coaching from people that are.

I had arranged to pick him up early in order to get the swim we had last week so we were on the lake by 6.30 a.m. Once again his enthusiasm was infectious and despite my lack of sleep the night before I didn’t have to work very hard to enter into the spirit of the day. We got the swim we wanted but a short while after our arrival the swims either side of us were taken and the chances of luring the carp into the margins disapeared.

Paul struggled with the pole at first and had trouble with the handling of it at ten metres length, both physically and technically. He showed great tenacity and had soon mastered the technique of shipping out and unshipping the sections and he ended up fishing at nine metres which he found more comfortable physically.

The day was hot and bright and by spraying pellets I soon had roach and rudd in a feeding frenzy on the surface.
He spent most of the time fishing shallow (about three feet deep) and must have caught over sixty quality roach and rudd using a three pound hook length on a number eight elastic.

Every now and then he switched to a number twelve elastic on a spare top three and spent a little time fishing paste on the bottom in the hope of a bonus tench or carp, without sucess.

He was soon handling the pole as if he had been doing it for years and was netting, unhooking and returning his own fish. The biggest was about a pound and a half and very many were about the pound mark. If I could get a bag of fish of this quality from the river Kennet trotting a float with a centrepin I would be a very happy man.

Most of the fish took a new soft hookable pellet I had bought from the boys at BB Angling. These are far superior to the last lot I tried. They stayed on the hook well straight from the pot but I found that if they were allowed to dry a little in the sun they stayed on that little bit longer to defeat the frantic attentions of smaller fish.

These may well be the pellets I have been looking for to defeat the attentions of the small fish whilst trotting on the river Kennet.

The more observant amongst you may have noticed that I have centred the pictures on this post rather than leaving them left-aligned as previously. What do you think?

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