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The Flying Tench

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  1. The Flying Tench
    3 - 4.30pm. Tackle shop owners and anglers on the bank are saying the same thing. For some reason the Thames is full of roach this year, up to just under a pound. Chokka. Wall to wall. Brim full. It's so full of roach that I have found myself asking if there is even room for any water! And what is more they are unbelievably easy to catch. 'Bite a chuck mate, you can't go wrong.' The only problem is that not many of them have been finding their way into my landing net.
     
    So in sceptical mood I arrived at the river today near where I live only to find someone float fishing, which is not all that usual. It's usually ledger or lures. 'River's fishing it's socks off' he said, 'I've got 15lbs of roach in here, up to 12 oz.' Phew! So much for my scepticism. He was good at his art, and it was a pleasure to watch. It was certainly 'bite a chuck', though while I was there it was all small ones.
     
    So I set up some way along the bank in a super swim, 7 feet of water under the rod top and a nice flow for trotting. And near enough in for me to see the float despite my developing cataracts. I started with maggot, and the first fish was a nice roach of about 6oz. I was optimistic. But from then on, plenty of them, but all small. I switched to double caster to try and winkle out some better ones, but to no avail. Then to bread on a size 12 hook. Almost no bites.
     
    Ah well, an enjoyable session, and I'll certainly go back to that swim. But I'll have to think of other tactics to get the better roach. Not sure if hemp'n tares will work in winter? Or maybe a more purposeful bread approach.
  2. The Flying Tench
    Decided to visit the Warwicks Avon at Fladbury in the hope of getting a bream (my pb stands at a lowly 5lb 12 oz), though I wasn't expecting too much as there was so little rain in the river. Had a brief float-fish in the afternoon, and had a nice roach-bream hybrid of about a pound. Well, I think I had him, I think he touched the bank, but I never got him into the landing net. While I was fumbling about reaching for the net and looking in the wrong direction there was an explosion in the water, which I assume was Mrs Esox., though she never got him in her net either for some reason. He then somehow got off the hook and swam away, looking very good with the silver-white body and red fins.
     
    Night would be the important time for a bream. I had a BAA ticket but not a night pass, but the owner of the B&B said I could fish in his garden, which was very convenient! Also, It made setting up easier. I am no night fisherman, and it took me an age to set up two rods with bobbins and night lights inside them, but all was ready by 8.30pm. One bait was sweetcorn, the other was an 8mm pellet. 2 hours went by, and I was just thinking that night fishing wasn't my cup of tea after all, when the pellet bobbin moved a few inches. The fish was sluggish and didn't fight hard, so I though I had a bream, and it looked like one in the water, but it turned out to be a 4lb 14 oz carp. Or was it? It was very deep, like a crucian, and as far as I could see it had no barbules. I more or less decided that it must be a hybrid, but that would make it an F1, and don't they have one barbule each side? And do they have F1s in the Warwicks Avon? I can't honestly say, though, that it looked quite like a crucian either. I should have done various things of course. I should have checked more carefully if the dorsal fin was convex or concave. I should have double checked about barbules. And I should have had a camera that worked! Though I have genuinely now sent an order to Santa for a proper mobile phone with camera included. Maybe it was a commonal garden carp after all, and I just missed the barbules in the dark etc. But hey, that's my first River Carp! And it also gave me confidence to try sitting behind a couple of bobbins again.
     
    I then got in a tangle and packed up. I'd told the B&B proprietor that I'd finish by 11pm as I didn't think I should presume too much on his kindness. In the morning I spent a bit of time ledgering sweetcorn in some fastish water where a stream ran in, but didn't get any bites and the sun came out and said to me that I was unlikely to catch much during the day. So I headed back to Didcot to look up about F1s and barbules and stuff. I'll count it as a carp.
  3. The Flying Tench
    3-5pm, WT 7DegC
    I chose this lock cut to avoid the wind, but found it was in the opposite direction to the forecast, so did prove a slight problem. Plan A was to fish fine for roach (float, single maggot), as in my last blog entry on the lake, though I had a plan B (lobworms for perch.). But this proved unnecessary as first cast I had a nice roach of about 6oz. Then for the first half hour it was almost bite a chuck with quality roach between 6 and 11oz, ten in all averaging 8oz, so that was 5lbs of roach in half an hour! The bites were easy to hit, but hard to see. If in doubt I'd lift the rod tip, and sure enough there was often a roach on the end. I was fishing right under the rod tip, almost like a pole, and using it to stop the float being blown out of the swim!
     
    But the wind was getting up, and was creating tangles with the light float tackle. I decided to switch to breadflake to see if I could catch the monster of the shoal, and couldn't decide whether to persevere with float or switch to ledger. I chose the latter, but was worried that, with the bites being so minimal, they wouldn't register. The actual problem turned out to be different. I used my shaved down super-sensitive quiver tip, but they could still feel it. I was getting pulls of up to 6 inches, but unlike with the float they were very hard to hit. I had just one of about 8oz. So I switched back to float and single maggot, and caught 4 more decent fish, but by now I was getting a bit of trouble from mini-fish. So the finale was to fish breadflake on the float. It felt like a safe bet, as I had a least been getting bites on flake with the ledger, though not with the same frequency as maggot on the float. So the magic hour saw me fishing bread flake, surely the recipe for a biggun! Alas, it was not to be - just one fish of about 6oz. They preferred maggot.
     
    Still my best roach session on the Thames by a long way. 16 fish at a combined weight of about 8lbs on a very blustery day. I was very pleased.
  4. The Flying Tench
    Local lake, 3-5pm
     
    Plan A was to catch perch and maybe roach on prawns, which is a good bait on this lake. But, contrary to the forecast, there was almost no cloud, I got no indications on the float, and felt I had to boost my expectation. So I switched to double maggot on size 18 hook. One good bite which I missed and then dead. But might that be a tiny movement that was going on? I decided to do what the books say, and switched to size 20, single maggot, and shotted the float right down. Bingo, it made all the difference! It's never made any difference for me before, but then I took the water temp 3 degC! Doubtless the reason. The fish felt like ice when unhooking! From then on, steady bites, with mainly quality roach and perch. 10 roach and 4 perch. The perch all at dusk and slightly further in than the roach. The best roach was about 1lb 4oz, and most were over half a pound. 2 of the perch were between 1.5 and 2 lb.
     
    No world records, but easily the best day I've had on a lake as cold as 3 degC, so very pleased.
     
  5. The Flying Tench
    7-10pm
    Tried a new gravel pit known to have a good head of bream which should beat my rather low pb of 5.5lbs. Hmm, I have little experience of this type of fishing. Clear, plenty of weed at the edge, but I cast out to a random spot about 30yds out in 15 feet of water. The feeder wasn't coming back too weedified. Fished sweetcorn or sweetcorn/maggot on the hook with conventional groundbait approach.
     
    About every 5-10 minutes the bobbin would jerk up an inch or so, but I never got a good bite. When I had a barbless hook they had the corn and maggot off no problem. When I switched to barbed hook they would suck the innards not just out of the maggot but the corn. I've never seen just the skin of the corn left on the hook before! Who were the culprits? Monster bream, or more likely mini roach?
     
    What to try next time? Maybe 'modern' pellet approach?
  6. The Flying Tench
    I last went to this large and attractive lake about 8 years ago. It is mainly a tench lake, but also used to have some quality rudd. The first time I went there were small rudd everywhere, but I also lost a couple of good ones. Then the next year I went it seemed dead and no-one was fishing. Maybe it was too early in the year? For better or worse I didn't go back, and today was intended as an exploratory visit.
     
    3.30 - 6.30pm. The lake was full of weed, more so than I remember it. I started with float fished maggot just above the weed, and got not a touch. So I decided to try ledgering sweetcorn for the tench in the middle of the weed. Still nothing. I was almost ready to give up, and chucked my spare sweetcorn onto a patch of gravel in shallow water at my feet, before a final cast or two with the float.
     
    I shallowed up a bit, and had one bite - a 12 oz rudd! Apart from one mega rudd 7 years ago after a tip-off from a friend, this is my best rudd. So of course I was very pleased, specially after a blank session so far.
     
    Then some swans arrived with their offspring and proceeded to hoover up the sweetcorn I had foolishly thrown in, so I couldn't cast a float for nearly half an hour, and didn't think it wise to feed maggots either. I must admit the little swans were cute. Then in slight frustration I said to them 'buzz off'. And to my astonishment they immediately ............. buzzed off! I had a few more casts, but there were no bites, and then the swans returned and I .......... buzzed off.
     
    There were no other anglers there, and I can't say I found out much about the current potential of the lake vis a vis rudd. It is puzzling there were no small ones, but it was good to catch one nice fish.
  7. The Flying Tench
    Ladygrove Lake, Didcot 2-5pm
    This lake has some nice roach, but my last 2 sessions with caster and then hemp and tares failed to get through the small roach and ubiquitous skimmer bream. Put on a small bait and a small roach gets it; a bigger bait, and it is immediately gobbled by a skimmer bream, anything up to 3 lbs.
    I baited lightly with 3mm pellets and hemp, with hook bait alternating between 5mm soft pellet and sweetcorn. I noticed that the pellets were getting even more bream than the sweetcorn, so I put in no more pellets and baited with sweetcorn. Amazingly I went nearly an hour with just roach, perhaps one bream. Several roach were approaching 8oz, and there was one of 1lb 4oz! My second best ever roach!
    In the last hour the bream came back which slightly spoiled my theory, but I got a roach of 10oz.
    I was very pleased to have caught the 1lb 4oz fish, and I also feel I am beginning to see how to target the roach in this lake.
  8. The Flying Tench
    5-6pm Clear sky WT 6degC
     
    I had bought some new plastics, larger than the ones I have used on the Kennet for perch, and the plan was to try them out. But decided to start with my trusty gold lame worm to see if there were any perch about and also to check for snags. My back was playing up so decided to cast from sitting down, not exactly normal lure fishing!
     
    First cast an 8lb pike! A good start, but I somehow broke the landing net handle, so had to get another (smaller) one from the car. Decided I couldn't risk using the larger lures without an adequate net, so carried on with the plastic worm (has a big tail, maybe it's meant to imitate a crayfish.) Third cast had another reasonable pike on, but he somehow threw the hook. Then got snagged a couple of times and lost a swivel meaning I'd run out of wire traces. Doh! Was only fishing half an hour, but had 2 pike on so will certainly be back!
  9. The Flying Tench
    R Thames 2.30 - 3.45pm Wobbled smelt
     
    Cold and bright. High pressure, so decided to use a moving bait; but when I got there the river was very up and coloured. Wobbled very slowly in the slacker areas, and also left static for short periods. I didn't have high expectations, so used my smallest smelt! Then JV44 (Steve) turned up, and we had a chat, so I left it a bit longer than usual. When he moved on and I started to retrieve she was on, all 22lbs 4 oz! She was lightly hooked, so my guess is she took just as the bait started to move.
     
    Wow, smashed my pb by miles, my previous being 14lbs on wobbled herring.
     
    Steve turned up again just at the right moment, and helped me weigh it and also took a photo. As usual I didn't have a camera, so brilliant timing! Thanks, Steve.
     
    A brilliant and totally unexpected birthday surprise!
     

  10. The Flying Tench
    2.30-4.15pm First time on this little river. It was flowing though quite fast and coloured, so I wasn't expecting too much. I started trotting bread hoping for roach, and thinking that a big bright bait might be visible in the coloured water, but went 30 mins without a bite. Switched to 2 red maggots and immediately had 2 dace, one of 7oz - an equal personal best. Altogether had 1 small roach, about 7 reasonable dace and a chub of just under 3lb. A pleasing first recce on this little river!
  11. The Flying Tench
    4.30-6.30pm
    Visited a weirpool today said to be cram full of bream which don't mind feeding during the day. Felt like (and was) a complete novice. I was told you need to cast 50 yards to get to the edge of the flow, and I fear my casts fell short of that, and weren't particularly accurate either - always an issue for me with distance fishing. Still, I had a small bream of nearly two and a half pounds - a start!
  12. The Flying Tench
    6 - 9.30pm
    I started in a private Kennet weirpool. Too bright, really, but I had a good (chub?) on who snagged me and threw the hook.
    Then, towards dusk, I moved to a perch hot-spot on the canal. A beautiful still summer evening, and I felt in my bones I was certain to catch, but the perch seemd oblivious to my spinners and worms. As the evening wore on the fish activity increased. The canal wasn't as murky as I had expected, and I saw first of all a small shoal of 2-3lb chub cruising around just under the surface, then a few small bream and finally what at first looked like very hefty chub but I think were probably carp. There was a dreamy quality to it all and it didn't really bother me that they weren't interested in my offerings.
    Then the perch activity increased, with scatterings of fry and a few bangs as (I think) perch hit the surface chasing their prey. But they showed no interest even in my trusty Mepps No 3 Hot Tiger that normally is a sure fire winner with them.
    A magical evening. I was intrigued what the problem was, but it didn't matter.
  13. The Flying Tench
    7pm to 9.15pm
     
    Lovely weir pool, with the main flow the far side and inaccessible to me, but a nice back-flow under the rod tip (9-11ft of water). Beautiful with the church bells sounding across the fields. I had intended to take worms and maggots, but stupidly didn't leave enough time to get to the fishing shop, so went with bread and lures, the latter with perch in mind.
     
    No immediate response to the lures, but then I saw a suspicious splash under a bush, so I tried jigging a gold plastic worm. Bang, something was on, but only for a couple of seconds. I thought 'Could he be unwise enough to hit the same lure twice?' He was! Esox fought incredibly hard, and I probably didn't bully him in quickly enough, cos he seemed exhausted when I netted him. So I held him in the water in the landing net for 5 minutes, and he swam off OK. 7.5 pounds - nothing to a real pike angler, but I was very pleased.
     
    Then I trotted bread and just had one hard fighting skimmer of about a pound. A contradiction in terms I hear you say! Probably because I'm fairly sure he was a roach-bream hybrid. Someone told me they fight OK.
     
    A pleasing first trip to the weirpool.
     
  14. The Flying Tench
    7-9pm
     
    I went to a stretch of the Thames that has many hazards to put off anglers - a dicey bridge, rough fields to drive over, cows galore. But the guy in one of the fishing shops (a skilled angler) assured me it was a good place for trotting for roach, so I braved the hazards. All OK on the way there, but a bit trickier on the way back. There are gates at each end of the dicey bridge, and these are necessary to stop the cows crossing. I drove onto the bridge and shut the gate behind me. Problem - a herd of heifers were waiting just the other side of the next gate. I opened the gate, and they all gathered round. Clearly I am a cow celebrity! I decided I couldn't drive on (and force them to move) as it would leave the gate open behind me for them to go up onto the bridge, so I decided I had to sit there and wait for them to go away, with my car more or less blocking their way onto the bridge.
     
    What I hadn't foreseen was that the mad mingers decided my car was a big red lollypop! They jostled up and the 4 nearest immediately started licking the bonnet with their big tongues. Others were eagerly awaiting this thrill if there had only been room. Then the whole car started to shake. I couldn't quite work out what they were doing, but I think one of them might have been trying to eat the number plate! This went on a good five minutes and, such was their enthusiasm, I decided they weren't going to move in a hurry. I decided to go forward and push them out of the way and risk their going onto the bridge. Thankfully they ran off.
     
    What was the fascination? My wife reckons it was salt. 'It's so long since you had your car washed. Serves you right!' Ah well, these people who rely on human means to wash their cars!
     
    And the fishing? My aim was to make first contact with the Thames roach. I trotted maggot in about 7' of water. Enjoyable fishing. A mixed bag of chublets and small dace AND a 5-6 oz roach and one chunky dace of 4-5 oz. Mission accomplished even if the aim wasn't exactly difficult.
  15. The Flying Tench
    For some reason I haven't had much enthusiasm for lake fishing since I moved to near Didcot a couple of months ago, and have made do with trips to investigate bits of river (the Thames) in preparation for the start of the season. But the helpful guy in the fishing shop assured me today that LPL isn't just carp, but has quality roach and perch, so I decided to have a go. Just a couple of hours before dusk. I fished a small segment of lobworm over 3mm carp pellets, which said guy in fishing shop assured me would draw the fish.
     
    Hmm, my fear was that it would draw the carp! So I fished too heavy, I think, with 4lb line through to a size 12 ringed hook. After a few small skimmers the roach took over. Did they push the skimmers out? Mostly small, but 3 nice roach of 9.5 inches, each approx 10 oz. And I wasn't carped once.
     
    What might I have caught if I had fished finer? Will try it next time!
  16. The Flying Tench
    3.30-5.30pm
     
    Went to same swim as last week, where I was fairly confident there'd be some perch even if they weren't massive. Plan A was to try drop-shotting with a sparkly gold 'worm'. They weren't interested. But there was a submerged step about 2' under water, so I was able to get a very clear view there of how my lure was performing. Fine on the up stroke, but the down was hopeless - it didn't look like anything other than a piece of old plastic slowly dropping through the water. I put on an AA shot to give it just a little bit of weight, which helped a little, but I was left wondering if I need to get a different type of lure. A question for any drop-shotters reading this - do proper d-s lures have a bit of inbuilt weight to give some action on the 'down'?
     
    I next switched to a real worm under a float, feeding maggot as I had done with the drop-shotting. I only had 2 worms, which I pulled in half to make 4. Immediately the perch were onto it though, like last week, they were tricky customers adept at holding onto the worm but not the hook. I tried a size 10 hook instead of a 6, as suggested by Rusty last week. It helped a bit, but these were sly caddish perch. Later on they even chewed the ends of the maggot and succeeded in getting maggots of a semi-barbed hook - most un-sergeant-like behaviour! I had 3 perch fairly quickly on worm, all 6-8 oz. After a bit more of a go with lures, including a small spinner given the size of the perch, I resorted to my only remaining bait - maggots - 4 on the size 10 hook. The bait could hardly hit the water before a fish was at it, and I caught a few more perch and then, to my surprise, a 7oz dace. A pb! It's a while since I had one so of course I was delighted, even if it was a complete flook! I then put on a smaller hook with 2 maggots, and caught a few more smallish perch before dusk came.
  17. The Flying Tench
    4.15-5.20pm. Bright clear sky much of the time.
    I was shopping in Newbury last week and looked at a spot where 2 streams join. Most of the area was too fast for sane fish to hang out, leaving a small quiet triangle of water where in theory all the fish would be. So I decided to give it a try, fishing lobs from a float and feeding maggots.
     
    I was immediately into a small perch, and then a few more (about 6oz), but they were tricky customers, unlike my normal experience of the sergeant. These fish were masters at pulling the float down while holding the end of the worm so that when I struck the worm broke in half; and getting the worm off my microbarb size 6 hook altogether. I got 6 perch in just over an hour, the best being 1 lb 4oz. Then one of the blighters nicked my last lobworm so I had to give up just as the light was dropping. In all fairness I would have to say the perch were winners this time, but it was good to have located a convenient shoal virtually under the rod top in current conditions. I may go back and experiment with drop-shotting.
  18. The Flying Tench
    2.30-4.30 Private weirpool
     
    I'm lucky to be able to fish a private weirpool on the Kennet, and had a a tip-off from someone that had had bite-a-chuck success jigging for perch there. His approach was making half a turn of the reel handle at a time - a slower approach than the one I had (generally unsuccessfully) tried - so the purpose of the trip was to learn a bit more about jigging rather than to try and catch a monster.
     
    First cast caught a small perch, which was certainly a confidence raiser. The lure was a glittery gold 'worm'. Nothing like a worm, really, but it was a film star's dress kind of colour, so the perch certainly had taste! A few casts later I had a bigger one of 1lb 8oz. Then I decided to try jigging a real worm, but no success, nor when I tried a bright orange 'worm', though my trusty Mepps No 3 produced a very small jack.
     
    After that I ledgered lobworm with maggot feeder in 2 swims and ended up with a 2lb 9oz perch just as it got too dark to see the quiver tip.
     
    Certainly not bite-a-chuck, but I felt I had learned a bit about jigging. I shall buy one or two heavier jig-heads for coping with the fast water which is there for part of the retrieve, and will try again. An enjoyable session.
     
  19. The Flying Tench
    2-4pm. A beautiful grey day, should have been just the job. My plan was to fish Colthrop (a stretch of Kennet for info of non locals), but for some reason my key didn't work so I couldn't get through to the main part of the complex and was limited to a few swims on the back stream.
     
    My aim was to catch a reasonable dace, ideally to improve on my sparse pb of 6.5oz. I tried about 5 swims, but not a touch till the last, somewhat slower and deeper, swim where I caught a few very small dace and gudgeon.
     
    Did I learn anything? One of the issues I find with trotting at this time of year is that, if you fish really close to the bottom, you catch a lot of twigs. For this reason I was about 6-12 inches off the bottom much of the time in the faster runs, and it was only when I got so deep that I was regularly catching twigs that I got any bites. I'd thought that with dace you don't need to be too close to the deck, but maybe that's wrong? Something to experiment with another time.
  20. The Flying Tench
    Rainsford farm 3.00-4.45pm
     
    Nice cloudy day with slight mist. River quite fast, and turbulent in many places. Trotted for dace with single and double maggot. I decided to try downstream of the foot bridge, but with the frequent trees along the bank and also fallen trees in the river there were not many nice glides long enough, given the speed of the water. In the end I spent most of my brief stay in one swim, but the dace weren't interested. My honour was saved by a half pound brown trout!
  21. The Flying Tench
    5pm - 6.45pm
    My first Kennet ruffe. Not much else I can say about today! A nice, reasonably mild October day and I was shielded from the wind. The venue was a canal turning area where 3 streams come in as well as the outflow from a canal lock. I've been told specimen roach have been caught here, and a couple of weeks ago someone told me he'd had a big bream. I fished maggot feeder, and I thought I was bound to have some action, but it was not to be. 3 mini fish and that was all.
     
    I started by casting the maggot feeder to 3 different places to see if I could work out where the fish had gathered. No response, perhaps I should have trotted a float. So I put some groundbait in on the edge of the biggest flow about 12 yards out and fished the maggot feeder over the top. But the fish weren't impressed. I didn't fish on into dark cos my limited experience is that, if there's not much happening, with this type of fishing dark doesn't change things.
     
    Hmmm. I suspect the key is location given the rather complex flows. I guess that's what makes fishing interesting.
  22. The Flying Tench
    2 - 6.30pm
    I haven't been to LIF for 6 years! Partly straightforward neglect, but in recent years also cos I can only normally handle a couple of hours standing due to back trouble, which doesn't really give value for money. But the back was great today - I stood most of the time and fished 4.5 hours.
     
    The aim was to end a pb famine. My pb grayling is only 1lb 4oz, so as the grayling at LIF regularly go to 2lbs I felt I had a good chance - and of course a 2lber was the second aim.
     
    The river was in superb shape, and I ought really to have achieved at least the easier aim. It was not to be, but I had a great time and caught 9 lovely grayling, the best two at 1lb 2 oz. Most of the fish were close to a pound.
     
    A confession - I forgot the centrepin! Not only is this a serious sin in A.N. circles, but I suspect it affected my catch. I started off catching very few, but began to 'get the knack' as time went on, and holding back the correct amount was a key thing today. I found I needed to fish as deep as I could despite the weed, and hold back to avoid it, and the bites mostly came amidst false bites from the weed.
     
    But the ones that got away! A number got off, not the usual 'bumped' phenomenon, which I take to mean after a few seconds, but as they got close to the net. And I was broken twice, though in one case by a hefty trout, that started thrashing around on the surface as he came to the net. Two of the grayling that got off were definitely over my pb, and could have been 'twos'.
     
    Ah well, it will probably be a while before I go back there. But it was a great day, and the plus is that my pb is still breakable on the Lambourn!
  23. The Flying Tench
    5.15 - 6.45pm
     
    I went to the top end of the White House stretch of the Kennet to trot maggot. When I last went there there was a strong flow coming in on the nearside bank through the marina, and I was planning to trot the crease, particularly for dace. My mingy pb is only 6.5oz.
     
    This time the flow was much less which kiboshed my original plan, but I still fished the near bank. Somewhere at the back of my head I was planning to trot past some bushes where the fish were shielded from the passers by, but with the slow flow this didn't work out, and I was worried at first that the joggers etc might put off the fish. But it worked out quite well. About 30 fish in 90 minutes. A mixed bag of roach, dace and perch. The dace were all small , but the perch were chunky with one over the pound, and the best roach was about 10 oz.
     
    An enjoyable brief session, but I'm still looking for some decent dace.
     
     
  24. The Flying Tench
    The essence of perch fishing seems to be that you do lots of hard work finding where the fish are, and then have a bonanza when you feel like it catching them. The latter is not too difficult, but the former is. At least, I find it extremely difficult, partly cos health issues mean I can't stand up/walk for too long, and partly I guess lack of patience/skill/determination etc.
     
    Yesterday my plan was to spend an hour lure fishing the Hambridge section of the K&A canal, a stretch which I haven't really fished before but which produced a '4' a few years ago. A lot of underwater branches made lure fishing tricky, and also it clouded up reducing visibility. I caught nowt. I'd heard of someone doing well on this stretch last year, but there weren't any perch swims that 'stood out like a sore thumb', and I can't say I'm in a rush to get back there.
     
    Today I tried the CSAS stretch of the river at Hambridge. I was fishing unsuccessfully for the denizens of Pallets Pool a while ago and someone came by who said he did quite well lure fishing this stretch for perch, though I think he got '2's rather than '3's. The CSAS stretch looks gorgeous, real Crabtree stuff, but when you start to fish it you find (at least I find) that it's not an easy piece of river. I only did a few casts today before disaster struck, but it was immediately clear that the obvious perch swims had a lot of underwater branches. It's clear to me that the guy I spoke to must be a good lure fisherman. In fact I was fishing with float/worm, but on about my third cast I snagged on a branch and in trying to free it my John Wilson Avon Quiver rod broke. Drat! Though in all honesty I can't complain. It's served me well for almost 20 years, and the great news is at last I've got something to ask Santa to bring me for Christmas!
     
    I had an hour to kill, so (despite the back) went for a walk to see if any of the perch swims the EA destroyed on 'A' Canal had miraculously reinvented themselves. They hadn't. I don't know where my perch quest will lead me next, but some of the swims below Bulls lock looked quite appealing and I must say I haven't fished them for ages and don't know anyone who has.....
  25. The Flying Tench
    6-10pm
    I've always liked the idea of float fishing for carp in the margins, but have never done it other than by accident on easy waters when my roach swim has been invaded. So when an angler who has been having some success with this style of fishing on one of our moderate difficulty waters invited me to come along I keenly took up the offer.
     
    I fished 4 feet from the bank in 4-5 feet of water with luncheon meat over a mixture of shop bought groundbait and various extras. I baited and fished 2 swims and felt I was doing the real thing, and even stayed at the water 4 hours, unlike my usual ridiculously short sessions. Unfortunately it wasn't to be, and neither of us caught - but I guess that is all part of the game when you go up a notch in the difficulty of the water. I learned plenty, and it was great to get to Peter a little bit. Next time I use this approach, though, I will probably try it on an easier water, though will doubtless graduate to the slightly harder waters in due course.
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