tiddlertamer

I spent a pleasant afternoon on the Upper Lea today trotting maggots on the centrepin. As darkness fell I switched to quiver tipped lumps of tinned spam. Perhaps because I am a touch ham fisted and also because it was dark, I found hooking the spam quite tricky and often lost any that I did hook up when casting. Is there a brand of tinned meat which works particularly well as a hook bait? Are there brands which work better than spam or should I persevere with spam and find I have a bit more luck with it next time I use it...especially if I can see what I’m doing...

I fished the river Ingrebourne in Ingrebourne Valley park on the Essex/greater London borders earlier today. It’s a small river which I fished for the first time this winter. The first time I fished it I observed a mix of shallows and deeper pools with a great deal of vegetation on its banks. It contained quite a few chubby looking spots and seemed like an interesting river to get to know and one which I’d be spending a lot more time exploring. Today I was in for a shock. The river banks had clearly paid host to some pretty beefy JCBs and heavy duty digging gear which had carved their way around the park. Vast amounts of silt have been carved out of the river and deposited along the banks. To such an extent that plastic fences had been erected next to part of the river while signs warned the unheedy of the dangers of walking over this mud. Nearly all the vegetation has been stripped away from the banks. The river banks now look fairly uniform and any features on the river bed seem to have been stripped away. I guess this is some attempt to improve river flow/prevent flooding but it seems to have ripped the heart out of this little river. I looked online and discovered something called the East London Green Grid Vision which talks about ‘riverine improvements’ on the river Ingrebourne. Am I being overly pessimistic? Has the river’s habitat been destroyed or will this work, once nature has had time to play its role, and the vegetation grown back, be soon a thriving fishery. Perhaps, its long been a struggling river and needed some work to help desilt it... I can’t help but think it’s been disastrous for the existing fish stocks...

Is there anybody on this board who learnt fly fishing skills on a commercial lake stocked with trout? Who abhors the stocking of barbel in commercials. Anderoo please tell me you learnt on an old wild river? Are trout invariably river fish in their natural state? Sorry to raise this point Anderoo as I actually back to the hilt your traditional angling philosophy.

What about chub?

I agree with both Anderoo and Dales if that is possible. It's a sad thing if barbel are stocked in overcrowded stillwaters. It's also wrong to stock other river fish though such as chub. And it's also not good for any species to be stuck in overcrowded waters. Nobody seems to like the idea of too much regulation though and cries of nanny state will be hurled around. There appears to be a huge appetite for commercial waters. My own philosophy is to avoid waters that I don't like (ie overstocked commercials) and stick to the rivers. And the commercials' success leaves me the freedom to fish rivers which have very few anglers and a resultingly happy experience for those anglers that do tread their banks...

Tip top bit of angling. Brass monkeys in London though... Deffo not very spring like.

It was from the Suffolk Stour. I'm no expert on this particular river but I'm not aware of a crayfish problem. Regulars such as John Weddup would be the ones in the know. My local river - the river Lea - is stuffed full of them. From one of my favourite swims on a middle stretch of the river, on a day when the water was clear and low, I counted five of them! Vis a vis angling and blanks, after a successful summer and autumn campaign, my winter season had gone disastrously so I was happy to catch a couple of chub. Not quite up in the league of the ones you’ve been snaffling. More Isthmian League Division One South rather than Premier Division but fun nonetheless!

OK - drum roll please... The winner and undisputed champion of guessing the fish weight is Rusty! Shame he got the species wrong but a tip top bit of 'fishweightery'. The chub was two pounds in weight exactly. Elsewhere on the planet and showing us his great captures on this board is Anderoo who is snaffling five and six pound chub on a regular basis this winter. Well done sir! However, us mere mortals on other rivers are having successes but not nearly on his level. I had two two pound chub from a session on the Suffolk Stour and was a happy bunny! I'd blanked on my last four fishing trips... For people new to fishing, fear not if you chub captures aren't always up to Anderoo's amazing deeds. I picked this picture as I thought it might throw a few people. Although short, it was a plump chub. I wish it had been a two pound roach though...

Interesting. I'm sure it's 100 per cent chub but it does have the body shape of a roach... Sort of plump...

All will be revealed, (well the fish weight anyway!) at 9pm...

Everyone loves a guess the weight competition! So here we go... First prize is a day's fishing with me. Second prize is two days fishing with me...

Is it worth a few letters or emails from concerned anglers? They probably wouldn't listen but it might be worth a shot. Do you know the contact details of the Environment Agency in your local area? I'd be up for sending off a letter. Maybe a few letters might have an impact. Try to keep it rant free though Watatoad!

Go to forum options, then display mode and then hit standard. (Forum options is just under the new topic button.) I had the same problem as you once and I know how annoying it was!

What are the advantages of hooking lobs in the head and whereabouts in the head do you hook them? Through the very top or just down from the end? If fishing maggot on size 14 hooks, are you putting more maggots on than when fishing size 18 hooks for dace? ie three maggots on a size 14 but dropping back to double maggot for size 18...

Thanks for the information. What's the rationale for the Environment Agency's behaviour. Is it an attempt to minimise any risk around flooding in the town irregardless of any damage being done to the river's health?

I should have added the following capitalized word in the sentence 'Anderoo and Chris Plumb swear RESPECTIVELY by bread and lobs', as a result of Anderoo's fantastic Winter chub campaign on bread and you joining him with lobs to hunt down specimen perch. Do you use whole lob worm when trotting and a much larger hook, as opposed to when using maggot? I guess I always think a larger hook will put off many fish but perhaps the lure of a big fat juicy lob worm will override that particular problem.

So you nearly always use size 14 hooks despite the number of maggots? I tend to go smaller with size 18 hook with double maggot. I Occasionally go up to size 14 with three maggots to try and discourage minnows. It's interesting how you and me (you from the north and me from the south) are both big maggot fans whilst others on this board such as Anderoo and Chris Plumb (I'd claim they are both west though I suspect they might dispute that!) swear by both bread and lobs. Different rivers maybe responding diffferently to different baits. Cheese paste has always worked well for people I know on the Hampshire Avon but also been a bit pants on the river Lea.

My thinking is that maggots will catch you more fish than lobworms, especially with a constant stream of loose fed maggots attracting the fish. I therefore invariably and with almost depressing regularity always plump to fish with maggot as hook bait with a constant stream of loose bait maggot to draw fish in. But methinks a lob worm would attract a better stamp of fish. OK – there’s no hard and fast rules. But would fishing with big juicy lobworms increase my chance of specimen or larger fish whilst meaning I’d catch less fish? Or are lobworms a good natural ledgered bait but not so effective being trotted down a swim unlike the devastatingly effective maggot?

The stretch leading down from the Salmon Leap. Known to some as 'pike ditch'.

I fished the Suffolk Stour last week. I fished a normally fast flowing section of tributary, which isn’t the norm for this river, which cuts off from the main river not a million miles from Sudbury. When I last saw it in summer it had a good flow. After a wet winter, I came back expecting a high level and yet the flow had stopped completely. This didn’t make sense unless the local water board or Environment Agency has some sort of barriers/flood control in place and were using it. Anyone guess or know what’s going on? The change was quite dramatic and completely changed the nature of this stretch of river.

A big thank you to everybody for all their answers to my questions. (special thanks to Vagabond for such a detailed response.) Illuminating stuff. Two more questions. Is a good old fashioned drilled bullet a good weight for use when touch ledgering? And if using an Avon rod, (I'm currently using a five piece John Wilson Avon Rovex rod) should you leave a sensitive quiver tip end on, or a normal light float tip on? On the one hand, the visual aim of a quiver tip is a distraction from the feelings of a bite pulsing through the fingers, but then again, perhaps they offer less resistance than a light float tip? Any views appreciated.

I want to become a fan of touch ledgering. It seems like a tactic which enables the angler to be more mobile and has the useful side effect of not having to force rod rests into the ground which could occasionally scare fish off, especially on smaller rivers. No problems in windy weather either. I just need to build up the confidence to use this technique. Mind you, the first time I did try it in June 2010, I snaffled a barbel though I've yet to catch anything since on the tactic! A colleague of mine is a much better angler than me and doesn't get on with the technique and prefers quiver tipping. Other respected anglers on this board such as Anderoo have also said they have never adapted to the technique. Then again, both Vagabond and also a family friend of mine who I fish with and who learnt 'back in the day', swear by the technique and have had much success. What are the pros and cons?

A lot of anglers have understandably alluded to the pleasure of fishing in beautiful, scenic countryside and I'll back that concept. Up to a point... Occasionally though, a spell of urban fishing really makes for an exciting challenge. I have regularly fished a stretch of London's only chalk stream. And getting away from the main roads or the worst of the south London estates and the super-stregth lager, crack cocaine and heroin culture, big fish such as barbel, chub and carp are a possibility. As is walking away with all your gear intact. I'll probably regret posting this on the internet when next time I go to my favourite swim and find someone in it, but there are hidden gems out there. Even in big cities... Still, mark me down for a '1'. No tiddler is safe.

Just to reiterate my call for some advice from experienced touch ledgering experts. It seems like a delightful way to fish but I lack experience, and more importantly, confidence in the technique at the moment...

More six pounders! Tip top fishing. Well done. I haven't been able to buy a bite since the the start of winter. In between those whopper fish did you catch smaller ones too today, but just not bother to report on them? Or is it just a case of big fish or bust?