MikeT

Smaller now, but still perfectly formed.

Oh, boy. Sorry about the size of that photo! It's at least four times bigger than I thought! M.

I had a great time on Saturday- fishing at the Bickerley Mill Stream near Ringwood. This lovely little side stream on the RDAA book is said to be a sensible place to go looking for fish when the main river’s in flood. I knew the Avon would be high and dark, and wanting as usual to trot a float (as opposed to using a beach-caster rod and 5oz lead), I though I’d give it a try. I found the stream very high but in excellent colour, and the fields were manageable- albeit very soggy; the bullocks’ hooves had made the going very soft. It was such a freakishly warm day I didn’t need a coat, despite a reasonably brisk westerly. I needed my waders because in a few places the water would have spilled over the top of my wellies as I sank into the sucking mud, but the millstream looked really good. I found a nice little pool just below a ford, which looked promising, so I chucked in a couple of handfuls of maggots on my way to a nice trotting run a hundred yards further upstream. I enjoyed a half-hour running a float through that swim, but, whether I wasn’t getting it right or there were no fish there, I had no bites. I didn’t mind, as there was a huge flock of fieldfares and a small flock of sweet long-tailed tits to delight me. I walked round to the lowest limit of the Severals fishery on the main river, and spent an hour at a gorgeous slack on the massive inside bend by the trees, and caught a dashing dace there. The magnificent river was in no mood for my petty attempt at angling her, and she intimidated me to go back to my comfortable little sidestream pool in a state of due humility. The flow was choppy as it emerged under the footbridge below the ford, and flattened out by the end of the pool where some supple branches and twigs overhung, upon which a robin was busy holding chipping territory. A big back eddy swirled slowly round in a full circle, and the spot looked very fishy to me. I fed some maggots for a while, watching how the current took them round, and decided on a line to trot my float. I baited my hook and flicked it out, watching how the current immediately pushed it off the line I’d picked, and into the slack at the top of the eddy. It took me half a dozen casts to get my float in the right place for the trot, and when I did it was carried right under the overhanging branches at the end of the pool, and dipped. As I brought in my first fish, a big flashing swirl announced a pike attack, but I managed to bring my chub to the net. It had three new scale-bare scrapes on one side, and two on the other, but I reckon it was the luckiest fish in the river. A pound and a half, maybe, and I was delighted to see it. It was very hard to find the right line to fish, with the back eddy trying to pull the float off-track and succeeding in four casts out of five, but I managed to hit the right spot enough times to catch four more cheeky chub in that pool, one of which was exceedingly pretty (I attach a photo). I felt very pleased with myself, because the challenge was to present the bait in just the right way, which required a precise cast and careful line control, which I felt was well rewarded with some fine November fish.

Sounds like a brilliant session- well done! Will do. Thanks to everyone for the great advice on this thread- you’ve helped me get myself what looks like a nice reel at a good price, and which I expect will be very useful. I shall take it along to Timsbury on Sunday, and will do a report on how I get on with it and how it compares with the Witcher- for which I hope it will be a good substitute. Cheers!

Bargain.

I’m sorry you seem to have taken objection to my little attempt at levity. I was of course joking, but my point was valid enough. Catseyes on the road focus the beam from your car’s headlights and efficiently reflect it back to your eyes, which is why they are of higher visibility than a leaf or a stone (which also reflect light, but less efficiently). My point was that, under ambient light conditions, a catseye looks rather dull because the light source is more scattered, and it’s only by reflecting light focussed from a source congruent to your eyes that they appear so bright (and that was presumably the particular characteristic Andy was particularly interested in). So, in daylight (and probably to a greater extent under water) catseyes don’t look bright, and would therefore offer no great advantage over any other object, like a stone or a leaf, as lures for fish. But all this is irrelevant, since Andy was talking about a different sort of catseye.

Well, yes please! That would be great!

I've just watched an episode of the TV series Day Ticket, featuring the River Test, and I suspect the venue shown is Timsbury. I also seem to recall the fishery appearing on a Matt Hayes programme too (in which it rained cats and dogs...) I've not been to Timsbury before, so I'm not certain. Can anyone shed some light?

Thanks, Tony. I look forward to watching you land a 3lb roach next Sunday, using a dead maggot for bait. I just had a thought. Since I do happen to have such an understanding wife, I'm going to try removing the cruddy sawdust by blowing it away from the riddling maggots with her hairdrier (which can be set to blow cold air). Genius.

Gad, you lot are practical fellows! So here’s a question. My tackle shop likes to sell really crap half-dead maggots which stink of ammonia, and which come in oily rancid sawdust muck to a ratio of about 50:50. So, I riddle them twice and only keep the least unhealthy ones. Trouble is, when I riddle them, almost all the nasty sawdust crud goes through the riddle too, and it’s a jolly painstaking business getting rid of it. How do you get rid of the old manky sawdust in order to replace it?

I’ve used both, and very much prefer PowerPro. It is certainly rounder in section, more uniform and less ‘crinkly’ than Fireline, and this makes it effectively more supple and smoother to use. I rate it very highly, though I believe it’s only available down to 8lb strength (and you can get Fireline down to 4lb). I bought the crystal Fireline in 4lb, and had to take it off my pin during its first outing because it broke off at the reel for no apparent reason, leaving twenty yards of undegradeable wildlife-murdering line in the Hampshire Avon, along with my favourite float. To my eternal mortification. <looks heavenwards> Sorry, Izaak.

Ah, yes. I see what you mean. It's very hard to imagine how fish see things, but we can be certain their sight is adapted to their environment- which of course is quite different from ours. It's likely the things we see in thin air therefore appear differently to their sight, and moreover those beads will look different to your fish in light which is filtered by the water they inhabit. By the way, the catseye beads in your link are not the same as the beads found in reflective catseyes on roads (which are basically clear glass, shaped rather like marbles with short fat stalks, I believe). Those beads are made of semi-precious catseye stone, as often used in jewelry.

Catseyes in the road work by focussing and reflecting the light from your car's headlights, so, unless the fish have little lamps on their heads I expect they appear pretty much the same as they'd look to your eyes underwater, give or take. [crossposted with DavyR]

Thanks, guys- that’s really helpful stuff. Well it certainly looks like I need one then. That one in silver looks remarkably similar to the Witcher Bisterne, just weighing in (at 250g) a tad heavier. I'd quite like an alternative workhorse so I can spare my Bisterne from excessive wear and tear, and I think the Gem would fit the bill very nicely indeed, providing the cost isn't prohibitive. I shall keep my eye on eBay... (Dear Father Christmas...) Does anyone have a rough idea what these things are generally sold for?

I feel your pain. For the last two weekends, the inclement weather has spoiled my plans for float fishing, so in a great sulk I haven’t gone. This weekend looks more promising but it’s still uncertain with only two days to go. If it turns out to be no good again I might have to give in and do some legering, but I really hope I don’t have to be that adaptable. Smashing poem, by the way- thanks for the link.

I’m trying to fight the desire to have one of these. I seem to recall Tigger and Alan Roe own them, and several other members here have other Carter reels. Although their reputation speaks for itself, I’d really like some opinion on how they actually measure up on the riverbank. I’d be buying it to use, not ‘collect’. Do I allow my heart to persuade my head that I really need one, or should I resist the Dark Side? Choices, choices...

Crikey, I'm there! Let me know when you find that venue. It’s hard to get the balance right between enjoying angling and having some fish-oriented purpose about it. As I approach the grand old age of forty, I find I’m getting more into the ‘journey’ part of Budgie’s equation than the ‘arriving’ part, but I’m also aware that it’s no good being there merely for the scenery- you might as well leave the rod at home, taking that to its limit. There’s a balance to be found, like Andy said. You have to keep an eye on whether you’re hitting the right balance to get the most out of this great sport. Too much focus on catching fish can eventually lead to a sort of disinterested fatigue, but too much obsession with the idealism of it all can make it pretty void of purposeful intent.

It seems to me there’s often a conflict between ideal conditions for catching fish and ideal conditions for pleasurable angling. For example, if you want to catch those big tench you ideally want a surface chop, but if you want to sit and watch a float at its loveliest you want no wind at all. Of course, it always comes down to what you actually want from your fishing. I guess you have to fish at distance with ledger gear if you want those biggies, but I’d hazard a bet that you’ll enjoy your tench fishing more next year, when you go back to the float- regardless of whether you happen to get a biggie or not.

Aye- it’s a damn good job we can’t, all things considered. But I like your perfect tench weather- all except for the 'reasonably strong wind'. I guess it helps fish get into confident mood when the surface is broken, but you just can’t beat watching a perfectly balanced float tip in absolutely mirror-flat water, with streams of tench fizz coming up all around it, in mist lit golden by the first rays of sunshine on a warm dawn in June.

Bang on, BB! Well said! Speaking with other anglers I’ve noticed how it is that perfect conditions for fishing always seem to be in our past. I remember fishing on the Medway in Kent whilst I was a student, and all my memories of those happy, long, lazy days were of perfect fishing weather. Maybe it’s just nostalgia, tinting my spectacles rosy, but we hardly ever seem to have such lovely conditions these days (so I have to fantasise about magic wands), and, of course, all the fish have disappeared.

Yes, I guess this is actually the default position for all of us, since perfect conditions come along like blue moons. Invariably, we must make the best of an imperfect lot in the UK, and take our fishing as we find it. But the nice thing about having an imaginary magic wand is you needn't be constrained by reality. You can have whatever conditions you want! So, if you like tench fishing in the early summer, your perfect conditions would be steady atmospheric pressure with warm dawns in high humidity, without a breath of breeze to disturb the absolutely flat calm of the water surface by the side of a massive patch of lily pads. Or something. Pike anglers presumably want their river to be running pretty clear, and getting cold. Don't worry about reality- it's a magic wand! Have at it!

Following the ‘How do you fish when it’s pouring with rain?’ thread, I’ve been thinking about what makes for perfect fishing conditions. I like trotting a float down a river (the Hampshire Avon or Dorset Stour) for roach and chub. The state of the river is drastically important for this- especially on the Stour, which floods spectacularly from late autumn (it’s currently unfishable, being just within its banks and going through like a dark brown train). But it’s also no good in the full oppressive heat of high summer, with levels low and weed high, and barely any flow in many parts. Ideally, for autumn and winter trotting, the river should be going through at a fair pace, with just enough colour to encourage the fish to feed confidently, its level having recently dropped from being up a foot or so after a period of steady rain. The temperature of the water is critical too- it must be no less than 7 or 8C, having been steady thereabouts for several days. Weather-wise, the wind must be in the south and west and very light (no more than 10mph), the sky must be heavily and uniformly overcast, with visibility reduced by the sort of air that makes ghosts out of trees in the quiet, still fields, all day long. In other words, steady, low pressure giving unchangingly mild weather for a week or so before my perfect angling day arrives. These conditions make for pleasant angling too, so even if the fish aren’t going bonkers like they jolly well should, at least it’s good to be outdoors. It strikes me that we only get these perfect conditions, all combined, once or twice a year if we’re lucky (and they always fall in the middle of the working week!). Obviously, different species and different styles of fishing require different weather and water conditions, so if you could wave a magic wand and create the absolutely perfect conditions for your ideal day’s fishing, what would it be like?

Regarding the numbering of Witcher reels, there remains some mystery about it. The Witcher Aerials (1920 pattern) were actually numbered up to 40, although the exact quantity Paul made is uncertain from his memory and contemporaneous records. The Avon Elite numbering series was continuous from the earlier models through the second generation (Elite II), so there were in fact around 47 of these in total (of which mine is the 47th). The Bisterne Aerials were numbered differently too, so I guess there will always be a certain ambiguity about the Witcher catalogue. Considering the mysterious enchantment of the reels themselves, I feel this is somehow appropriate.

I’ll find out for you, Chris. Paul uses a complicated method for numbering his reels- my Avon Elite II is numbered 47, but only around 15 were made of that particular type. Yes, the Bisterne Aerials are truly fabulous. I’m incredibly lucky to have the first Bisterne he made, Number 0, which was owned by Chris Yates for several years and which appeared in some of his articles at the time. Yates called it the finest Wallis casting reel ever made, and it's reputed to be Paul’s personal favourite reel. I want his Centenary, too. For that one, I’d murder him with my bare hands without hesitation, and happily go to prison.

The interesting history of Paul Witcher’s peerless reel-making has now been documented on his website, here: Witcher Reels History Now all I need is one of those lamps with a Genie inside…