The Fishing Coach

I have recently had a question in the comments box on one of my older posts, I am always grateful for such feedback and I think that I should share my answer with all those who have nothing better to do than read my ramblings. Here are the questions.

“Will high or low preasure from the weather affect pike fishing?”
Comment by Jon Morgan-Parker — January 14, 2007

Most of my pike fishing is planned three or four weeks in advance so I don’t pay too much attention to air pressure when considering whether to go after pike or not but the major consideration as I see it is the temperature changes prior to your day’s fishing. Fish - being cold blooded creatures - cannot regulate their own body temerature and so are susceptable to sudden drops in temperature. These changes in temperature will cause their muscles and digestive systems to slow right down. They will feed very little and this will make them difficult to catch.

High pressure systems generally mean cold, bright weather and whilst the extra sunlight will help the pike find its prey and the cold water will cause the prey fish to shoal up, sudden drops in temperatre will discourage the pike from feeding.

Low pressure systems generally mean warm, wet and windy weather and although the river pike fishing can become difficult I prefer this type of conditions for my pike fishing. However do not discount the low pressure periods as most fish will adapt to the cold water and will start feeding again after three or four days despite the temperature if only for short spell each day. This is particulary true of pike and is not an exact science but that is what makes our sport so interesting.

“How long would you leave a bait in a swim before thinking of relocating with another cast?”
Comment by Jon Morgan-Parker — January 14, 2007

This is an even more difficult question to give a straight answer to as there are a number of variables. There are times when pike are active hunters and will go looking for food and there are times when you need to present them with an easy meal. The warmer the water the more likely they are to be actively hunting but even then they don’t need to feed as often as a mammal would so may not be hungry.

As a general rule I would say that if you haven’t had a run after forty five minutes then it is time for a move but not until you have tried twitching your dead bait a little. If you are lucky or hardworking enough to have located one of the legendary hot spots and are fishing in cold weather then it may be worthwhile waiting for a little longer for the short daily feeding spell that sometimes occurs. I used to fish a gravel pit where you could set your watch by the 1.15pm. feeding spell! If you didn’t get a run then you might as well have gone home.

Many thanks Jon for your questions - it really helps to motivate me whenI know that someone is reading this drivel I write, I hope I have been of some help.

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On Thursday I returned to Twynersh with Josh hoping to get my favouite swim but word had got out about Keiran’s carp. There were two other anglers in the swim but they were fishing normal carp tactics, boltrigs and boilies at long distance and had lost one carp in the snags. The biggest and often best feature in any lake is the margins - just don’t hammer your bivvie pegs in with a mallet.

Josh managed a couple of the quality roach that we have become used to at Twynesh but no bream and tench showed.

He is now ready for something more challenging.

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On Tuesday this week I took Keiran from Slough back to Twynersh in the hope of catching him some more bream or a tench like the one Josh caught just before Christmas. I stepped up the tackle a little in case of larger fish - he used a fifteen foot Shakespeare carp waggler rod and a Shimano fixed spool reel loaded with six pound Maxima line. I have been trying some new hooks from Preston, the PR 29 to 4lb 12oz hook length.

I also had a lot of casters I had bought for a day on the upper Kennet which had been cancelled due to extreme river levels. I had frozen them at the time but defrosted two pints for this coaching session. I fed heavily with pellets, hemp and casters and Keiran was soon catching the quality roach that we have been used to at Twynersh. The bites were very finicky and as the wind had dropped I set up a pole float fished two inches over depth just under the rod tip next to the lilly patch.

This improved his bite indication greatly and he hooked into a much larger fish that shot out into much deeper water. Keiran did not panic but held the rod tip up and let the front drag on the reel take the pressure. The fish seemed to cruise lethargically round the swim doing pretty much what it liked but at my direction he was able to keep it away from the snags by the liberal application of side strain.

He played the fish for about fifteen minutes - following my instructions to the letter - and did not fall into the trap of becoming impatient as so many young (and older) anglers would have done. When the fish first surfaced I realised it was much bigger than I had expected and knew I would have trouble fitting it in the landing net, but Keiran’s patience held and after three or four attempts it was in the net. My relief was immeasurable as I had been worried that I would knock it of the hook trying to fold in into the twenty inch pan net, we would both have been distraught had this happened but I would have taken the brunt of the guilt as his coach.

Twenty two pound seven ounce common carp

The result was this beatiful fish in excellent condition. We were both over the moon and had to sit for at least twenty minutes just drinking tea. He caught little else that day as the swim had been thoroughly disrupted by the fight but it just didn’t matter.

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Over the past year or so I have been working with Steve Gray of All Things Piscatorial and we have fished together a number of times as we share a love of trotting rivers. Steve had mentioned that he had never caught a grayling so on the 13th December I took him to my favourite stretch of the river Itchen near Southampton. After a cooked breakfast in a café in Eastleigh we arrived at the river at 9 a.m. and were soon catching trout.

I tried my favourite swim fishing from a jetty on a sharp bend and managed the first graying of the day.The fish took double red maggot but fish can also be caught on sweetcorn.

Steve soon had his first grayling and was very pleased with his achievement but I wish he could have fished here a couple or years ago when the fish were much bigger and more plentiful.

I had given him some floating braid to trot with and I think I have another convert. We wandered up and down the river with only a few more fish to show for our efforts but both enjoyed the day just fishing the way we wanted without having to worry about anyone else.

Unusually I caught the biggest graying of the day, Steve generally gives me a good hiding when I take him to one of my venues, he is a very good angler.

This fish weighed about a pound and three quarters and two years ago would not have been mentioned. What are we doing to our rivers?

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The mild spell continued and I took Keiran from Slough for another lesson. Once again Twynersh was the venue and after Josh’s sucess I fed some groundbait from the start with lots of frozen red maggots and pellets in it. Normally this would be the kiss of death this time of year but the weather had remained very mild, although wet.

The roach were feeding immediately and the the bream moved in shortly afterwards.

Keiran hooked six bream in all but only landed four as one came off the hook during the fight and another was taken by a large pike on the way in. We shall be back to see that pike later.

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The mild spell continues and Josh and I went back to Twynersh the following week, this time he used a rod and reel. Three years ago I bought four Shakespeare Valor match rods for coaching, each twelve feet in length and I have been very pleased with these rods ever since. I have even fished with them myself with my favourite centrepins when trees overhead would have made a longer rod difficult.

I set Josh up with one of these rods and a Shimano fixed spool reel loaded with four pound line and a three pound hook length. The hook size was sixteen and the bait was double red maggot. He soon started catching good quality roach.

I started to notice bubbles in the swim and as they were in quite small groups I suspected bream to be the culprits and so stepped up the feed adding soaked pellets to the menu. The result was this fine five pound seven ounce tench.

He landed this fish on his own without any physical assistance from me - a real achievement for one so young and lacking in experience.

I look forward to working with this lad in the future.

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First let me apologise for not posting for a couple of months but I lost my mother suddenly in the middle of December and I have also been waiting for permission to use some of the pictures I am about to publish.

Just before Christmas you may remember we had a very mild spell of weather and I took a new lad called Josh and his teacher Natasha to Twynersh. I started him, as always, with a whip but Josh had fished before and will soon graduate to rod and reel.

One of his first fish was this fine one pound four ounce roach, it is difficult to explain to the modern carp fixated angler just how special this fish is.

We also tried trotting the river Bourne which runs through Twynersh Fishing Complex, Josh was not quite ready for this but I managed to hook this chub during the demonstation.

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