The Flying Tench
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Blog Comments posted by The Flying Tench
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I only blog when I catch!
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Thanks both of you. At Boddington it's barbless only.
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A great season, Chris, as the others have said. In terms of the pb stakes, have you thought of trying the Thames? I can't claim to have done well myself, though that may be partly because my eyesight nowadays isn't up to trotting or waggler fishing at a distance, or driving home after dark; but anglers I meet on the bank seem regularly (as opposed to frequently!) to catch 6lb plus chub and 15lb plus barbel! Surprisingly I don't meet many perch fishers, but I remember when I was still in Newbury seeing on AN that JV44 used to catch 4lb perch from Thames weir pools, admittedly on lives. I've caught a few 2 pounders this year, but no threes, but I met a lure angler about 3 years ago who got plenty of threes from one lock cut when the level was up.
Let me know if you'd like more detail on any of this, though I realise it's a different style of fishing and you may prefer a smaller river.
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Re the hybrid, I had a similar fish from the Warwicks Avon a few years ago, though the photo was hopeless. 4lbs 14oz. As I understand it a hybrid between a crucian and a common is the dreadfully named F1, and I presumed in the end that's what it was. Though the 2 or 3 other F1's I've had looked more like a crucian than your or my fish, both of which look to me more like commons, but of course without barbels.
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A lovely pike, BTG. How high did you find you had to paternoster the dead baits to avoid the crays?
John C
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My congrats, too, particularly for the chub, but also for the perch on lure a couple of days ago despite the cold weather.
And I'm enjoying your 'preposterous' book!
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Good for you BTG. Another thought you have probably already had is whether it would be worth contacting a local historical society. I forget what the Newbury one is called, but they might know of sources of info in the early period. I have had almost no contact with such groups, but when I was Vicar of Greenham I discovered the Thatcham Historical Society had researched and catalogued all the inscriptions on the gravestones in the churchyard which was a great help to the church. I don't know the background to this, but it left me with the impression that these are helpful people!
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Wow, as I understand it it's just your second year back to angling and you're already in it right up to your neck!
As to who will buy the book, presumably you are hoping for a reasonable take up from NAA members. When I last heard there were about 2,000. So if 25% buy the book, that would mean sales of 500. Clearly that could be higher or lower, but I should have thought that more or less defines your likely market. Who will bear the financial risk, you or NAA?
Would it be worth having a look at other angling club histories to see what they cover and where they got info from? I googled 'angling club history' and quite a few came up, but I didn't take it any further. It could give some indication of likely sales.
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Getting back to pike, I like your approach with the maggot rod fished close in line of sight. I'm so glad there's someone else than me who doesn't like just sitting there with nowt to do! And it seems to work well for you. My only question is what happens when half an hour goes by with no pike interest, don't you want to search the area, casting to different places? I've experimented (well once) with ledgering with bait alarm, one rod for pike and one for other fish, but too early to draw any conclusions.
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Well done with the pike BTG. At 9lb+ well over jack size in my book, as you say.
A question I always ask myself when gathering up enthusiasm to go pike fishing is 'one rod or two?' I assume you were the former? I associate dead-baiting (from limited experience, I admit) with sitting impatiently by the bank waiting for something to happen. So in theory two rods would reduce the waiting. But, you could argue that when they come onto the feed two pike could take at the same time, a bit like London buses. In fact I seem to remember NAA used not to allow you to have out 2 pike rods at once, presumably for that reason, though you were allowed to have a rod for pike and a rod for chub or bream. Does BTG or anyone else have any views?
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You may think it's 'not great' but I wonder who you are comparing yourself with. As a casual observer I think it's an impressive bag!
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Peterjg, would you be interested in leaving a blog occasionally? As a roach specialist it would be really interesting I am sure. One way is by leaving a blog like CP, BTG and me from time to time. There's also the 'A few hours out yesterday' thread started by Tigger a few years ago. It's mainly reports by Tigger, but it's also used by other anglers.
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It's interesting that the canal roach are so undeterred by the cold. What bait are you using? My reason for asking is that I'm in two minds about whether I should scale down and try pinkies, cos the roach don't seem to like my maggots! Although if course it could just be that there are no roach in the swims I have tried recently.
Happy Christmas by the way!
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Thanks BTG. I really appreciate the solidarity!
Re specific points:
First hour after dusk. Yes! And when I was in Newbury a lot of my best fish came then. I was struck by a comment by CP recently that the dinner bell rang at 4pm! And very recently I was speaking to an angler who had had several 6lb chub, and he was just starting to fish about then. The problem is that, post cataracts etc, I find it a problem getting home driving after dark with the car headlights in my face. Not totally impossible, but for the more middle range chub I'd have hoped I could catch in the day - though I do fish till the start of dusk.
Pike. True what you say, and I must say IMHO the piking here is very good, better than Newbury. I've had a few, but it's another ball game to get geared up for, and at present I feel it would distract from my current winter objectives of roach and chub. Though when the levels really come up a lot of prey fish and pike shelter in the lock cuts, and THAT will certainly get me interested.
Water temperature. Now here's a conundrum. I've discovered a swim (which used to be well known before Didcot A power station was demolished) where the warm water from the power station used to flow in. But what a lot of people don't seem to realise is that, to an extent, it still does, from the existing gas powered power station, Didcot B. I've taken the temperature there a couple of times, and each time it was about 20 deg C, much higher than the main river. It is ideal for float fishing, as you can sit on the hard shoulder above where the warm water goes in and trot down, though this is not viable for me as on grey winter days I can't see the float well enough. But of course I can ledger. The puzzle is that I went there a couple of times in Oct/Nov and only got tiny fish. Thinking it over it occurs to me that though you'd think the water flowing in would attract the fish because of its warmth, coming out of a pipe it won't have much food value. So where will the fish be? I've been casting over to a bush and also just under where the pipe comes in, where it should be warmest, but perhaps I should fish the crease with the main river which might combine at least some warmth and food? All views welcome!
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Thanks for entertaining write-up BTG. I am sure you are right about the million billion atoms! As Sherlock said, once the impossible explanations have been eliminated the remaining explanation, however improbable, must be the truth! It's interesting there were so many lure anglers at SM, I wonder if they caught? I did a fair bit of lure fishing, mainly for perch, in my last years in Newbury, but I don't think I caught anything at all in the winter, though that may have partly been expectations. Though I have caught from the Thames on ultra-lite gear, mostly small ones, but fun nevertheless.
Come to think of it, I don't think I ever caught from the canal in winter either, so I'm amazed by the roach haul. Presumably you have hit on one of those magic places where they shoal up in winter, so I hope there prove to be some biguns there in due course.
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So this all adds some realism as to what can be expected in cold weather. Re the match, presumably the rules said it had to be an NAA water, otherwise a trip to the Lambourne might well have won the match? I hope your foot recovers quickly now.
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I forgot to say, unless things have changed, you can only fish that little weir pool for 20 minutes or so. My experience was that I'd get a couple of bites very quickly, would land them or lose them, and then the remaining fish would be spooked and I'd need to move on. It's quite shallow there. In the conditions I fished the chub were at the tail of the weir pool. So I used relatively big baits. If I'd used maggot and caught small fish that might have spooked them earlier. I fished from the south bank.
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Was it such a poor day? Conditions were terrible, most people would have blanked, you moved on in your chub hunt with a modest chub banked and 3 good ones hooked (I'm assuming they were chub) and the consolatory trout and bits and bobs. As winter comes on it seems to me we have to be kind to ourselves in our expectations. In my case my last 4 trips weren't blanks, they were valuable experiments!
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Good idea, though may be a few weeks for me. Did I ever mention the little side stream that comes off the Kennet on the north side of the river just below the A339? In the little weir pool where it starts I never had to wait more than 10 minutes for a bite from a chub, though admittedly that was in summer using meat. Then 100 yds further down, fishing from the south side of the stream, there's a pool. One winter a shoal of 1lb roach took up residence there, but there were also chub out towards the streamy water.
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Hi Bayleaf
Interesting to hear you had a crack at link-ledgered cheesepaste. Having talked to one or two Thames anglers I intend to give it a try too, I'll let you know how I get on. It's interesting, successful chub anglers use and swear by different methods. Some invariably float-fish. Others feeder fish, often with bread. Others insist that chub feel the resistance of a feeder, and link ledger, often with cheese paste. Each to his own, I guess.
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As you say, Chris, a good start to your campaign. I shall watch with interest!
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Superb Rainbow, Bayleaf, congratulations! Surprised to hear the chub are evading you, though I must admit they are evading me on the Thames. When I was in Newbury a place I never heard talked about on AN but where I couldn't fail to catch a chub or two was the side stream north of the river/canal just below the A339. I realise you may already have enough on your plate, but PM me if you want any more details.
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You may have noticed there are one or two youtube videos on coarse fishing in Port Talbot, though I haven't checked them out.
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Bayleaf - no, no experience of the coarse fishing. I took tackle, thinking of Gowerton Lake in Swansea, but spent all my time in the Marina.
4, 7, 8 October 2022 - Willows, Bulls lock, knotts
in The Newbury & Port Talbot Blanker
A blog by Bayleaf the Gardener in General
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As per your note on my blog, a 14oz roach is a slab of silver!