The Flying Tench

Thanks everyone for your comments. Phone, 'vulnerable' is a term used in the UK Covid guidance. John

Like a number, I suspect, on AN I am over 70, and I also have a heart issue, so I'm counted as a 'vulnerable person.' How do others interpret the guidance? Is it OK to fish?

Thanks WNB. Actually I've just solved another problem by turning the computer off and on, so maybe that's all it was! I'll see when another Zoom meeting comes up. I see you are from Berks. I hadn't noticed that before. Where do you fish? I was in Newbury for 20 years fishing the Kennet and some lakes. Now I'm near Wallingford and fish the Thames and one or two lakes.

I tried to enter a Zoom meeting yesterday and I got a message that Microsoft Edge was an unsupported browser. Can I do anything about this? I tried googling the problem and it mentioned 'Chromium based Microsoft Edge' being rolled out to ME users. Is this the answer? If so, how do I get the Chromium based version? Is it free? Thanks John

Email received today. Maybe we'll follow?

Chesters, that is the most amazing video! Do you know where it was filmed? They don't look like UK carp, some more like skimmers?

Sounds good, Steve!

Hi Mark Good to hear re Anglers Paradise etc. I'd always assumed such places are mainly carp.Are there decent roach, rudd or crucians? The trouble is I don't think my wife would want to come, so it would just be me. I imagine that would work out expensive

The few times I have fished with pinkies have been when it's very cold and I can't get bites on maggot. But normally it's the opposite. Maggots are attracting too many tiddlers, and my assumption at least has been that pinkies, being smaller, would be worse. But there's an article in the 21 Jan Angling Times recommending fluoro pinkies and groundbait as against bread for quality roach when the water is coloured and there is some flow. The particular location was the Welland at Spalding. It surprised me. Surely, in coloured water, don't you want a big, visible bait? Doesn't that mean bread flake? Though I can see that smelly additives might help. So am I missing a trick. Do you find pinkies a good bait, and when?

Hey Cameraman Sounds like you've got it well sorted. Have any of the places you've been to produced good roach or, in summer, rudd or crucians?

sounds great, thanks BB

Interesting, BB. Barbel are great fish, but the problem is that in so many places you only catch them at night or at least dusk, so if you're on a fishing break there's the problem of what to do in the day. But roach and chub allow more flexibility. What time of year did you go? I remember someone saying that on the Stour you need to go in winter when the weed has washed away? Did the roach take big baits when you were chub and barbel fishing, or did you target them specially? Thanks John

Great stuff, BJ!

That's interesting BB. I'm planning to have a short trip to the south coast this year, and could well include Throop. What time of year did you go, and what did you catch? I suppose you can't remember the name of the guest house?

This is the time of year when I (we?) dream of holidays, but I'm a bit short of ideas for 2020. I got the Anglers World brochure, but for European coarse fishing they mainly have ads for B&Bs and chalets, and it's hard to evaluate or decide where to go. Has anyone had any good fishing breaks away from where they live in the last few years, or even good times fishing when on a family holiday? I guess I'm thinking UK, Ireland or continental Europe. I note there are quite a few Dutch fishing guides on the web, mainly for jigging for predators. A bit expensive for one person, or perhaps they will fit you in with a group? Has anyone had any experience of them?

Talking of fish jumping out of the net. When I was a teenager fishing for perch from a rowing boat on Loch Faskally, I had a tangle and the bare hook was hanging out of the side. To my amazement a small sea trout took the hook. I got him in the boat, but before I could get the hook out he somehow got free and jumped out into the water. Not really a problem as I'd have put him back anyway. But then he jumped back into the boat again!

That's interesting, Dales. Where do you do your fishing?

Andrew, that's interesting. You have far more experience of the Thames than me, but for what it's worth my experience on the lock cuts, though patchy, is different. My best pike, my only ever 'twenty', was caught in a Thames lock cut when it was very up and coloured. Though other trips to that lock cut when it was coloured yielded zilch so, admittedly, it was a fluke, so perhaps I shouldn't base too much on it. I don't think any of my other evidence is when it was coloured. But at a different lock cut some youngsters have assured me they have known people catch 10 or more pike in a session. I have tried a couple of times for a couple of hours when the water was fairly low and clear with no success. So I made a mental note to try when the level was up. So inconclusive so far, but something to go for. There are two lock cuts where I have been assured there are a reasonable number of 3lb perch. On one I tried a couple of times for an hour or so at dusk with worm with no bites. On the other I tried a bit with lures with no success, but had a 2lb 12 oz perch on wobbled smelt when after pike. My best Thames perch, though modest compared what is there, I realise. My best Thames roach fish was in a lock cut: 16 roach between 6-11oz, mostly at the top end, in just over an hour. Nothing to a serious roach angler, but compared to my generally failed roach fishing exploits on the Thames, good. So for a not-too-serious angler like me I feel the lock cuts do have potential, though I am still quite low on the learning curve. I'm reasonably convinced that, despite Gozzer's success in coloured water with lobworm and a roving approach, on the lock cuts I need to wait till it is fining down. Maybe bonanza time is when the flow is still fast enough to keep the fish in the cut, but when the colour has largely dropped out?

Has anyone any experience of fishing in Holland? There's just a possibility my wife and I will go to the Drenthe region (north east) to combine archaeology and fishing. I can't find anything on the web about the fishing there, though there's a small canal which goes through the area we'd probably stay in. A few theories: Perch. Holland is known for huge perch, but am I right in thinking they come from the big inland waters. Perch fishing in the ordinary canals is probably very similar to over here? Zander. Presumably they are present in all the Dutch canals? Rudd. I've come across a touristy video on YouTube which claims that '40 cm rudds are not unusual.' A 40cm rudd is about 3lbs, so it's obviously a huge exaggeration. But maybe there are more waters with good rudd in Holland than in UK? Any info would be appreciated. Oh, I suppose nobody knows of a Dutch angling forum similar to AN?

Thanks everyone for helpful thoughts. Ken, yes, thanks I check the EA data. The trouble is, unless I know an area well I'm not always sure what a particular level will mean in terms of flow and colour. But I've started to make notes which will pay off in due course, I trust!

Thanks both of you. I'll try it despite my lack of mobility when level drops a bit more

How do you decide where and how to fish when the rivers are up and coloured? Do you play safe and go to a lake? The problem for me with the rivers is partly that it's hard to get accurate info on what the river will be like. Also, I guess, I've little experience of catching when it's up and coloured. What species do you target, what method?

Has anybody had success with this? Any tips? I've tried it a couple of times, but not enough to give it a fair trial. The only fish I had was a jack pike casting out with a float and towing back the lob mid-water. I've had success lure fishing for perch in clear water, including ultra-lite with plastic lures moving very slowly on the bottom. I'm not too mobile now, though, but the thought occurs to me with jigged lobworm maybe I could stay in one swim and bait up with maggots. Might there be an advantage of lobworm, also, in this coloured water, that the perch would smell the bait? Though I know they mainly use sight rather than smell.

I was tipped off a while back that, when the Thames is up and coloured, a lot of the fish take shelter in the lock cuts, including perch. So a few hours ago I got some lobworms and descended on one such a place. It didn't feel right, though, because, as predicted, it was very coloured, and I can't remember ever catching a decent perch in coloured water. I didn't stop long because it started to rain and I didn't feel my prospects justified staying, so I guess I didn't give it a fair trial. I'm sure a lot of fish must have gathered in that lock cut, but are perch a realistic prospect despite the colour, or do I have to wait for that magical moment when the river is still up, but the colour has dropped out? Not easy to estimate from a distance!

This was a special fishing holiday near Pontivy in Brittany to fish the River Blavet and the Nantes-Brest Canal which it flows in and out of. I had heard from blogs on-line, and also a reliable report on Anglers Net, that the roach (to 1lb 8 oz) and bream (to 6lbs) fishing here was prolific, with nets of around 50lbs regularly available in a session. Also the locals mainly fish for predators, to be taken away and eaten, so I assumed the roach and bream wouldn't be too 'hook shy.' Alas, that is not how it turned out! In the whole week I had 6 roach (best 8oz, and the others small) and one tench from the canal of a bit over a pound. What was the explanation? Doubtless it was partly my lack of local knowledge and angling skill, but if the river had been as prolific as I had expected I think I would have caught more than I did. The reports were from 5 or 6 years ago, and I wonder if the river hasn't declined. The owner of the gite where I stayed said they had huge numbers of cormorants, mainly in the winter months. Alternatively, there was a story in the local press, apparently, of a mass of silt being let through from a hydro-electric station a couple of miles upstream. I don't see why this should have been such a problem, except for a day or two, but apparently there were dead fish. A side issue is that, particularly in the canal, the fish were more cunning than I expected, with expertly smashed maggots while there was no bite registered on the float or ledger. But that was not the main issue. I would be interested in any theories, but I guess the moral for me is to be wary of old information!