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The Flying Tench

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Blog Entries posted by The Flying Tench

  1. The Flying Tench
    6.30-9.45pm
     
    The aim of the trip was a general recce as to how SM was looking, and also to try and catch a decent dace as I had heard some had come out recently. And my pb is a mingy 6.5 oz!
     
    The first swim was challenging with a swift flow, and as I was trotting and feeding maggots by hand the bites were all about 20 yds away. First trot down I though I had achieved my objective but, alas, the convex anal fin showed it to be a small chub of about 12oz. It was enjoyable fishing. I caught another chub and a roach, and then some swans moved in and the swim also seemed to go a bit dead so I decided to move on.
     
    I looked at one or two interesting swims, and wished I had thought to put waders on as much to defeat the foliage as the water. I ended up ledgering in the weir pool with maggot and worm - just one small perch. Waders would have helped me position the bait more precisely where I thought the fish would be.
     
    And somehow I managed to break the rod tip on my float rod!
     
    Ah well, the fishery looked in a good state. I shall be back.
  2. The Flying Tench
    Not much to report on the fishing. Yesterday, the glorious 16th, I just had time to check out a couple of swims - and discovered that they are unfishable unless I bring gardening implements. Worth knowing, at least. Then I spent an hour spinning for perch in what I thought was a banker area where the river meets the canal. To give me confidence I started with a small orange spinner, certain that I'd catch a few small ones and could then switch to a bigger lure, but even the tinies weren't interested. Ah well.
     
    Monday 7.30-10pm. Then today I decided to try something easy and went for some dace, fishing a crease near the town centre. Alas, when I arrived someone was just packing up, and had spent all day doing what I intended to do with little to show for it. He assured me a 'lot of bread' had gone in, so it was possible they'd switch on at dusk. I tried it for nearly an hour with not a touch, and had an uneasy feeling that his bread might not be quite where I thought it was. So I switched to a Mr Crabtree type eddy on a side-stream where I've had success in the past, but just had a few small dace. Not a blank at least.
     
    But now for two omens of the startling changes to our universe which are starting in my little town of Newbury. First, as I was fishing some teenagers were having a piggy-back race along the tow path. There was only one lad and he was being carried by one of the girls. Not that startling you may say. But then, as I was walking back to my car with my tackle - and I fish reasonably light - a young woman offered to help my carry my fishing tackle! Hah! I bet you don't get that happening in grotty old xxxxx (insert wherever you live if it isn't Newbury!)
  3. The Flying Tench
    5.30 - 8pm An attempt for some roach in a commercial fishery.Someone was saying in the tackle shop that the canal temperature at the weekend had been 2degC, and only perch had been coming out, so I wasn't expecting too much. In fact the WT wasn't too bad - 8degC - and I had about 25 roach on float-fished maggot. Mostly small, the best about 6oz, but at least I caught. And I wasn't carped once!
  4. The Flying Tench
    .....as the great French mind-angler Rene Dust-carts once said.
     
    I wondered whether to report on my latest blank, and decided that, if I didn't, you might think I no longer exist.
     
    Well I haven't caught much this winter - a mixture of other commitments, minor back trouble, and of course downright (and totally undeserved) bad luck! I've chucked a few spinners, impaled a few lobworms, caught one or two roach and perch, but nothing really worthy of comment. Yesterday was a typical example. The back was playing up a bit, so I went to a perch bush for a couple of hours before dusk. Nice warm day, so despite the clear sky I hoped the rise in temperature would bring the Sergeant out to play. Ledgered with long drop bobbin. Not a touch. The problem, I guess, was that the canal water temp was only 5degC still - and the clear sky.
     
    But despite all this I have not failed to read the exploits of certain other local anglers on AN. People have asked me 'Why are you wandering about dribbling and grunting incoherently, staring blankly into space?' Why indeed? It's the imagination, folks, the imagination of monsters!
     
    But I'm still here, and planning .................
  5. The Flying Tench
    A cloudy day and as ever the question 'roach or perch?' I decided on roach and went to a section of canalised river . I've been told you can catch reasonable roach there on bread, and a monster was caught there last year as well. By the time I was tackled up it was 3.30pm, and with the clocks having gone back that only gave an hour and a half. I started on maggot. I'd been warned that this would attract endless gudgeon and small dace, and that's exactly what I got, plus 2 small roach. I don't know why, but for some reason I feel more confident at a new swim using maggot. Must get over it, I guess.
     
    So with less than half an hour to go I switched to bread, trotting where the flow was very slow. No bites, so I put my rod down to chuck in a bit more groundbait, and of course the float went under. Drat, a missed bite. I put down the groundbait bowl and picked up the rod in a leisurely way, and to my amazement the float was still under, and something fairly hefty on the end. It was pulling hard with the jag-jag motion I associate with a decent roach - and this had to be a 2 pounder! For about a minute as I carefully played it in my heart was in my mouth, but alas, a nice chub of about 2.5lbs. It was now almost too dark to see the float, but I tried again and BANG, another fish, not quite so big but I could see it had a deeper body like a roach. Alas, this time a bream.
     
    Still entertaining fishing, and not bad to get 2 reasonable fish in 20 minutes once I turned to bread. I may well go back with a feeder rod and fish on after dark.
  6. The Flying Tench
    5.30-6.30pm
    After a few weeks 'off fishing' with a bad back I decided last Monday to find a swim where I could fish close to the car park. I heard that a couple of club members had caught some decent roach on maggot on BW, one of the local gravel pits, and decided to give it a try. Result - 'perched out.'
     
    Today I only had an hour available, but decided to have another try using maggot, because others hadn't found the perch to be such a problem. Chose a swim diametrically opposite. Put down some roach specific ground bait, and used maggot hook bait. Decided not to put in any loose maggots in an effort to avoid the perch.
     
    First 2 casts I had small perch, and was on the point of moving to another swim but decided to try one more cast. Bingo! A nice roach, and 2 more in successive casts, all about 8oz. I decided that the roach must have barged the little perch out, and I was surely about to bag up. Decided it couldn't harm to put in just a few maggots - 2 handfulls of about 8 a time. Result - 2 much smaller roach, then the perch took over, then it all went dead.
     
    Aaagh! Was it really those few maggots that caused the trouble? Ah well, maybe I'll go back once more and try hemp and caster, or bread. Or perhaps, with the river in such fine fettle, I'll 'call it a day' on ths pit, and give the river a try.
     
     
  7. The Flying Tench
    Decided to have a bash at the roach in a nearby commercial. I'd been told you could bag up in the summer on small pieces of meat, and this was to be my main tactic; but I started on maggot to boost confidence, I guess. I started catching roach up to 8 oz, but when I switched to meat the bites stopped except for ... the carp.
     
    So back to maggot for most of the session, and had about 20 roach, but none bigger than 8 oz. Tried bread for the last half hour, with a bit of groundbait, but spent most of the time trying to land a medium sized carp on the light tackle.
     
    The (owner?) who took the ticket money towards the end assured me that a lot of good roach come out on meat, but this time recommended winter. He said that a 4lber had come out from one of the lakes! But he also said that the way to get the roach was meat over micro-pellet! How on earth you'd avoid the carp I cannot imagine.
     
    Still, I might give it a go in the winter. I get in cheap as an OAP!
  8. The Flying Tench
    Family holiday near St-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie on the west coast of France, but took a couple of rods for some not-too-serious fishing. Based on trawling the web (despite my poor French) I had hoped for 3 possibilities:
     
    1. Catch a black bass in lake Apremont. I tried a bit of lure chucking, but really didn't know what I was doing - no luck.
     
    2. Catch some decent roach in the river Vie or Lac Apremont. In the former (a dam area about 10 ft deep at the lowest point of the river) I was bombed out by small carp up to 3 pounds. Amazing when you think it was free fishing apart from the rod licence. The most prolific small carp water I have ever known, and great for introducing someone to angling, but if there were decent roach there they didn't have a chance to get to the bait. In Lac Apremont the culprits were small catfish, I think Bullhead Catfish. I wish I knew how the French manage to avoid these blighters. So plenty of fish, but not what I was after.
     
    3. Catch a mullet in the sea water just below the dam at the end of the fresh water stretch of the River Vie. They were visible and prolific last year (when all I had was a few lures), but did not show up this year. Though I saw a nice bass from a bridge and tried jigging for him to no avail.
     
    So no success on any of my targets, but nevertheless very interesting to fish in another country, and I feel I understand the issues a bit better in case we go back next year.
  9. The Flying Tench
    On the way back from my Wye trip I called on an old friend in Moreton-in-Marsh, and after an excellent lunch went to try Lemington Lakes, a commercial fishery only a mile away. If nothing else it would be an interesting contrast to the Wye! I had seen a feature on the roach fishing there in an angling mag, though I think a lot of the roach have since been transferred from Westminster Lake to Priory Lake and Abbey Lake. After parking the car the first lake I came to was Abbey, and a carp angler told me he kept catching roach 'this big' on his soft mini pellets. I took his indication of length to mean about 12 oz. Sounded good. I then got confused and started fishing the tench lake till a lady came to check my ticket and advised me that I wasn't where I thought I was, but would bag up on big roach averaging a pound in no time in Priory Lake, which is really the crucian lake. Maybe I'm not the only one who is confused?!
     
    Priory Lake is a small but extremely attractive lake, and it is from there that the lakes' best crucian came - from memory 3lb 5 oz. Well! Crucians, hefty roach and also some nice rudd - it sounded too good to be true. After putting in some roach specialty groundbait I started on float fished maggot, and my bait had scarcely hit the water before a fine 12oz roach was in the net. My disbelief evaporated - this is Shangri-la!
     
    Alas, the next fish was a small perch, and it soon became clear that fishing maggot would not be feasible as small perch and tiny roach dominated the scene. I tried corn and bread. The first fish on bread was a nice 11oz roach-rudd hybrid (I think), but then some small tench up to 2lbs invaded the swim followed by...grrr!.. a horde of small commons of about 12 oz. I tried depth changes and bait changes to shake off these pests, but nothing availed and after 2 hours I decided to give up on Priory. I have no doubt there are good roach, rudd and crucians in there, but how on earth to target them? And why, why, why? These lakes are managed by people who know ten times more about fishing than me, but why stock a mass of small commons into a crucian lake?
     
    On to Abbey. I had 40 minutes left. I decided to try maggot feeder as I was fishing into quite a strong wind. It was all action, with a bite about every 2 minutes, but I had great difficulty hooking them. I landed a couple of roach of about 8oz, plus one common of about 4lbs. These were wily roach who could get a maggot off a micro-barbed hook without giving any indication. It's interesting they came in on carp tackle. Certainly there were plenty of roach there.
     
    Despite the frustrations with Priory Lake I found this an interesting set-up. The lady assured me there were 2lb roach in both lakes. Many commercials have good roach, of course. As to how Lemington compares I don't think my afternoon visit was enough to say.
  10. The Flying Tench
    Got to a Guest House in Ross-on-Wye late Sunday afternoon. Nice place, and close to the fishing shop, but this time they moved me up to the attic cos the room originally booked was full of used champagne bottles from a party, I understand. Went out for fish and chips.
     
    Arrived at river, town stretch. Flowing fast and very brown, but nowhere near the top of the banks. Looked a bit formidable to a greenhorn like me. Shall I fish from the top, and then if I get a fish will I be able to jump 6 ft down the muddy, slippery bank to land the fish without sliding into river? Decided to fish from muddy perch down below. All very quiet till 10.30pm when I got a good bite, which I missed. At this point expectation rose, and I was looking forward to a bit of night fishing, when I got caught up in a bush. Went to free the hook, but stepped in a mini quicksand and fell over, breaking the end of the rod. So much for night fish.
     
    Next morning had massive breakfast to stoke up, 4 times my usual, with lots of mushrooms as well as bacon, sausage etc. Managed to get back to attic, though on all fours part of the way. Reminded me of my room in college years ago which I was told had been the room of Samuel Johnson in the 18th century. He, apparently, needed others to push him up after an evening out, though I'm glad to say I could climb up unaided!
     
    Went to Caradoc (Wye and Usk Foundation) beat a few miles upstream. This has a reputation of being quite prolific, and I had to book up some time before, though the catch reports this year haven't been that good. You are advised not to take the car too far along the bank when it's wet, and there had been rain in the night. But it looked OK to me, and I wanted to go to the far downstream end where from memory the flow is less - and with my slight health issues it would have been too far to walk. Drat, the wheels start to spin in a muddy field. What to do now? Thankfully the owner was available on the phone and kindly arranged for someone with a landrover to come and pull me out. He was also a barbel angler and advised me on an area upstream where, apparently, plenty of barbel are caught, including a good number of doubles. (I was once told that the Wye has large numbers of barbel, but they don't run very big. But the chap in the fishing shop also mentioned that there were a lot of doubles coming out this year.) Back to Caradoc - after a bad start things were looking good. On closer examination most of this bit was unfishable due to fallen trees etc, but there was one swim where I worked out how to swing in a feeder by perching a bit awkwardly on a muddy bank, and sliding up and down as needed.
     
    Then began a longish wait. That's the problem with barbel fishing - what do you do? If I was a carp angler I could watch the telly, after all! I hoped for a surge of action around tea-time, which was when they turned on when I went with Rabbit 3 years ago. No surge, but one good barbel, plus a small chub. The barbel looked huge to me, and I thought it would be about 9-10lbs, confidently beating my pb of 8lbs. The scales told a different story - just over 7 lbs. I put the fish back asap, and then by the time I had weighed and deducted the landing net I realised that it only came to 5lbs 11oz. Then the thought came to me - 'dumbkopf' - perhaps the scales went round twice, in which case it was more like 11lbs 11oz!
     
    But there is no way to know. I didn't take a photo (I never do). Back home, picturing it in the landing net, I estimate the length at 29 inches, maybe even 30. A trawl of the web implies that a 29" fish could weigh 10lb 4oz, a 30" fish 11lb 12 oz, and a 5lb 12oz fish could measure 22.5". So from that point of view a double is most likely. But then anglers minds play tricks, don't they, and mental images of fish can grow. I can't count it as a pb - maybe a good thing as it would be rather hard to beat!
     
    What an eejit. You'd think anyone would know the difference between a 5lb 11oz fish and an 11lb 11oz one! How can I explain it? There are only 2 possibilities. Total insanity, or something unusual about those mushrooms. I'm counting a lot on the mushrooms!
  11. The Flying Tench
    7-10pm.
    Went to the town centre (cheap parking as long as you go after 6pm). I really felt like trotting bread for roach, but I had quite a few lobs left over so thought I should use them. So my strategy was to start trotting and feeding maggot, and then put on a bigger hook and fish bread or lob for roach/perch/chub as seemed best.
     
    Joy of joys, where are the swans? I only saw five, even when people were feeding them. Last year it was more like 40! I must say it is a mystery where they have gone, but it certainly helps fishing - although one theory is that the swans keep the cormorants away!
     
    For first hour fished a noted swim but it was dead as a do-do. Launching of motor boats may not have helped, but to be fair it was dead before they got there. Crossed over the bridge and saw that my planned perch swim didn't look viable, as the flow was too fast for them. So I walked downstream a bit and decided to trot a crease.
     
    Spent an hour or so trotting maggot and had 7 dace and 6 roach, not counting mini-fish. 4 of the dace were about 9 inches long (equal to my lowly pb), and 2 of the roach were about 8oz. Well pleased, a much better stamp of fish than I normally get on maggot in summer. Interestingly the dace, as well as the roach, all came from the slower water.
     
    For the last half hour I put on a size 12 hook and tried both bread flake and tail of a lobworm, while still feeding maggots (all I had). My hope, of course, was to bag a bigger roach. Zilch, I should have kept on with maggot. None the less, a reasonably successful trip fishing a new swim.
  12. The Flying Tench
    Mon 2 July 4.30-5.45pm
     
    Well having blanked a couple of times I decided to try something easy, but things didn't look too encouraging with light rain in the morning forecast to get progressively heavier during the day. Also the back was playing up a bit, so I wanted somewhere where I didn't have to walk too far carrying tackle, and could realistically fish for just an hour or so.
     
    I went to 2 private weir pools I am priviledged to be allowed to fish. The first is on what is really a fork of the Lambourn, and it used to have a shoal of resident decent-sized chub who were always exceptionally understanding towards the angler who needed a bend in the rod! Actually the shoal often had one or two trout, a bream, even a jack, all of whom acted as if they were chub just like the rest. They were very visible in the clear water. Then, as a result of an otter and a digger the shoal disappeared, so I hadn't fished there for a while.
     
    But I had a look today and there was one solitary (trout?) of about 3lb, which I thought would be a nice target. But I was amazed at how the pool looked. I have never seen it so clear. Much of the bottom is stones covered in weed, over which it is difficult to see if there are fish. But in the middle there is a pale yellow gravel area that had been scoured out by the current, and any fish swimming over it are instantly visible. You might think that float or free-line would be the best way of catching my target trout, but in the past I have found these methods spook the fish, but a ledgered worm gets a bite within a few minutes, so that is what I tried today.
     
    But first I chucked in a handful of maggots thinking it would get Mr trout interested, but it had the opposite effect. Instantly the gravely area was invaded by smaller fish, darting about, and the trout disappeared. Perhaps the activity spoke of danger? It made me think. I've always assumed it's a good thing to bung in a few maggots at the start, but who knows if, at least in clear water, it might scare off a better fish?
     
    I waited a while and recast to different bits, but there was no response, so decided to try a more sustained feeding with maggots to see what happened. There was a range of fish careering about - roach, trout, dace (I think), a small bream - but nothing over about three-quarters of a pound, and mostly much smaller, so I decided to try the other weirpool which is a Kennet mill-race, and quite churned up with no clarity to the water - so I had no idea what was there. I caught my best pike there a few seasons ago.
     
    I decided to trot maggot, but as the float moved along quite slowly through the choppy water it seemed unlikely that a fish would find my tiny bait but, amazingly, at the end of the first trot, it was gobbled by a chub of about a pound. After that it was minnow and mini-dace time, so I went back for a brief go trotting on the clear pool.
     
    This time I didn't feed any maggots, but out of no-where at the end of the first trot a nice chub of about one-and-a-half pounds grabbed the bait. After that I knew from experience the others would be spooked, and so the nice trout won the duel on this occasion.
     
    Excuse a long write-up on an uneventful trip in terms of fish caught, but I was pleased to have broken my row of blanks, and it was a fascinating place to fish, particularly in the clear water of the first small weir pool.
  13. The Flying Tench
    June 4, 18, 25
     
    Just for the record, 3 short dusk sessions. The first on Warwicks Water to try and get some quality roach, the last two on Dobsons to try and connect with the bream. Blank on each occasion apart from a few small roach.
     
    Beautiful evenings, though ............
  14. The Flying Tench
    8.30-10pm. What on earth to do on the evening of a hot bright day? I couldn't better Rusty's recent idea of trying for Carp on the top, though not being quite as perverse as him I went to the 2 lakes nearby that are supposed to have carp in them! I first looked at the bigger lake, but there was no sign of activity, so I tried the smaller easier one.
     
    I then realised I had left some of my tackle behind, so had to go back home and didn't start till 8.30pm. It was amazing - the carp were very active. It was immediately clear that only the most outstanding display of bad angling could result in not catching any fish.........
     
    Then the difficulties started. I had tied a couple of hair rigs, planning to glue 2 dog pellets together on each, but had forgotten the glue. Still, there was one tied with a 6 year old biscuit attached, so I tried that. 3 takes, but pulled out of their mouths, so I decided the hair was too long. I messed about with various adaptations but without the proper gear, and by this time the loose feed had drifted in right under my feet, and there were great mouths wide open sucking in food just 2 feet from the bank. They didn't seem in the least bit bothered by the strange creature sitting on the bank with a long stick in his hands. It was like enormous chicks in a nest wanting a worm from mum, so I took off the controller and tried dapping the biscuit wherever the carp were - it was almost a case of trying to lower it into their mouths! The problem was attaching the biscuit to the hook. I had half soaked some biscuits, and managed to nick the hook through the soft stuff at the edge, but a couple of times they managed to suck the bait of the hook.
     
    It was so amazing I really wasn't that bothered whether I actually caught one, but then, while I was looking down at something the reel screamed and I assumed that a carp had hooked itself - an ideal end to the evening. Alas, it was foul hooked in the tail, and took an age to land, and seemed to spook the others. Time to go home.
     
    A great evening - frustrating, enjoyable, idiotic - but great. The moon was high in the sky and it was quite bright still when I went home at 10pm. A lovely scene, and I was thankful to be an angler.
  15. The Flying Tench
    Two brief trips to follow up the surprising abundance of bites on jigged worm last week, even though the fish were only small.
     
    On Friday I had a crack jigging plastic lures. Only one small perch.
     
    Today it was back to jigged lobworm, but once again just one small perch.
     
    I think I must put last week down to a one-off, but will remember to try a bit of jigging or twitching the bait when float fishing or ledgering when things are slow.
  16. The Flying Tench
    I decided to try a local gravel pit where I know the perch run to over 4lb. I fished it at this time of year a couple of years ago and had one of 2lb 6oz, but when I tried it a month ago I blanked. Possibly the fish were spawning then, but after blanking I always need a bit of assurance from the fish that they are still around.
     
    WT 12degC - no change in a month. 7.10 - 8.45pm
     
    Float fished maggot for the first hour - just one small perch. Switched to lobworm and had one reasonable perch of about 12 oz just as it got too dark to see the float. Not exactly bite-a-chuck, but it was good to see the fish are still there! Hmm, I wonder if I should consider prebaiting as I normally pass this lake earlier in the day?
  17. The Flying Tench
    5pm to 8pm at local commercial fishery WT 10.5degC. Aim - to catch some reasonable roach
     
    When I came to this fishery 3 years ago (also at this time of year) it was easy fishing with plenty of bites, and I had roach up to 13oz. It started well this time, too. Within seconds of my first cast I had a nice roach of about 9oz, and I was expecting bite-a-chuck, but it turned out to be much slower.
     
    My initial strategy was to fish caster, and loose-feed caster, but not to use ground-bait so as not to attract the carp. But bites were very tricky and not very frequent. I had one or two more roach, and then the perch moved in - nothing too big, but hardly an encouragement to the redfins. So I switched to bread and, since the carp weren't showing, I decided to use groundbait after all. But I caught zilch on bread, possibly because the only size 12 hook I had was a great heavy thing that must have made the enticing piece of breadflake sink far too fast.
     
    As the magic last hour arrived I decided to go back to caster, and fished fine - a size 20 hook to 1.5lb nylon, and pushed the hook into the caster. Not the kind of fishing I normally do, but for once it seemed to work and I started getting confident bites. The trouble was the carp had moved in by this time....
     
    Ah well, I ended up with 4 very nice roach of about 9oz (and they looked much bigger!) plus a couple of perch, a small tench and a small carp and various small roach.
     
    On reflection an important issue for me is what you do when you get very tricky, unhittable bites. Too often I have seen it as a test of my reflexes, and spent a long time striking faster, slower, etc. But today I think the answer was that my 18 hook to 2.5lb line wasn't fine enough. I must try a bit more fishing really fine (size 20 is fine in my book!) when the conditions require it.
  18. The Flying Tench
    5.30-7pm
     
    WT lower than I expected at 6degC. AT also 6degC at start, but getting colder, and the wind was biting.
     
    Tried 3 swims in town centre where the sun, or rather West Berks Council, always shines, but never felt I was going to catch. Wasn't enjoying it, so cut my losses and went home earlier than planned.
  19. The Flying Tench
    3.30-6.10pm
     
    A nice grey day, and after such a warm week I thought it would be a great day for perch. But the news in the tackle shop was that the fishing was still hard, and my back was playing up which limited where I could get to. So I went to a free weirpool which I used to fish a few years ago.
     
    First thing I did was to check the WT. At 8DegC it was a rise of 3degC in just a week. My spirits rose and I thought the perch would be going wild, but it soon became apparent that things weren't going to be easy. There is a part of the pool where, in the past, if I allowed a float to drag a lob slowly along the bottom I could almost be certain of a fish, even in very cold weather; but there was nothing doing. I switched to maggot feeder, still with a lob on the hook, and rotated between three likely swims, re-casting every 3 or 4 minutes to get a quantity of maggots on the deck. Zilch!
     
    Then just before the final whistle blew I got one fat perch, just under the 2 pounds. No fish could have been more welcome.
  20. The Flying Tench
    3.30-5.30pm
     
    The plan was to fish with maggots and lobs for perch, chub and maybe trout. From which locals may be able to deduce the weirpool! But when I arrived, although the AT was 9degC, I was shocked to see the WT was still only 5degC, which I feared might not be to the liking of sergeant stripey.
     
    So it turned out. I started with trotted maggot to try and find out where the fish were, but didn't get a touch. Switched to lobworm with maggot feeder, and chose to try a number of places in the weirpool rather than slowly building up one swim. My theory was that, with the cold water temp, the fish were unlikely to move around and I had to go to them. A slow day, but got one nice Brownie of 1lb 8oz from fairly fast water towards the tail of the pool, which saved me from blanking.
  21. The Flying Tench

    Lambourn 13.2.12

    By The Flying Tench,

    3.45-5.15pm
    A welcome relatively mild day, with AT 6degC. My original plan was to go for perch on the canal, but in the end I decided the water temperature might still be too low, and went trotting on the Lambourn.
     
    There were a lot of people around, including some youngsters, being half-term. A couple of boys aged about 11 were fishing. One combined a 5ft float rod with waders to be an effective grayling catcher. The other, amazingly, was trying to fly fish with proper fly line but only a 5ft rod. Well, I admired the spirit, but in other ways they were a slight nuisance. One of their group had got a wooden contraption - not sure if it might have been a crayfish trap - and they were intent on smashing this thing open by hammering it with branches. Phew! It sure made a racket! It seemed to put the grayling off their dindins, so I moved to another stretch, and enjoyed fishing some swims I haven't fished before. Just 9 grayling and one trout. Several nice fish close to the pound, but I don't think I broke the pound barrier. I mostly fished double maggot, but tried sweetcorn a bit at the end, though with no success on this occasion. Back was starting to hurt, so went home a bit before the magic hour.
  22. The Flying Tench
    I suffer from a weak back which limits how far I can walk, and have been looking for a good perch swim on the canal that doesn't involve too much of a walk. I decided to try out the far western end of a main NAA stretch which ends just below Benham lock. The main aim was reconnaisance, but I took my tackle along. Hmm, not ideal in my view. Although you can park near the canal, there were no near swims which looked to my non expert eye as being particularly perchy. Still, I walked as far as the nearest 'canes', which were on the towpath side of the canal. It involved fishing 'under my feet', but there was work going on dredging etc just below the lock which made the water quite coloured, so I hoped at least I wouldn't be seen. But then a boat came along towing one of the quite deep barges carrying the excavated silt, and the water became like chocolate, and not surprisingly sergeant stripey didn't turn out to be interested in his 'dindins'.
  23. The Flying Tench
    3.30-4.45pm
    Cold and bright, so a short grayling trip on the Lambourn. I took some sweetcorn along in the hope it would winkle out a pounder.
     
    First cast in a swim I haven't found much use in the last couple of years, and a beautiful 1lb 3oz male grayling took my maggot as I was winding in. Perhaps he thought it was a nymph? Anyway, mission accomplished on first cast! Only the third pounder I've had.
     
    Then pretty hopeless fishing by me, and too many tangles not helped by the cold. Just 2 more grayling, and a couple got off on sweetcorn, one a decent one.
     
    Then I noticed the landing net had frozen up, and was covered with ice crystals - and an iced slug, which I am sure must be a delicacy in some part of the world! This one could speak, and I distinctly heard him say that it was time to go home for rice cakes (I know, I know) and jam and a hot cuppa. I did as I was bid.
     
     
     
  24. The Flying Tench
    3.15 - 4.45pm
     
    A mild day and nice grey cloud so decided to try for perch. I have identified several swims which I'd like to try, but most of them involve a walk, and I decided to wait till my back improves. So I went to a fallen tree in the town centre which looked ideal as I reckoned I could cast to the slack water at the upstream end of the tree, and leave the float there a bit (though on reflection I've never caught a perch in the slack water at the upstream end - would be interested in others' experience.) Then I could nudge it out into the flow and it would glide nice and close to the tree branches where a whopper would be bound to be lurking waiting to pounce.
     
    Alas, tried it for half an hour or so, but no luck. I was surprised by the rate of flow, which felt a bit fast for perch. My gut feel was that I wouldn't catch. The key downstream slack had so many tricky overhanging branches that I didn't risk it.
     
    Decided to switch to trotting maggot to see what came along,and to my surprise caught absolutely nowt - not even a bite. On reflection, even the silver fish will have shoaled up at this time of year. How on earth do you go about finding the shoals on canalised river?
  25. The Flying Tench
    Blue sky and cold. As others have observed, not the greatest. So I decided on a short session on the Lambourn after grayling - the less popular local bit as, being bank hol, I thought the other bit might be crowded.
     
    It had clouded over by the time I got there, so hopes rose until I started to tackle up and a storm most foul erupted. Not a thunder storm, just a shower, but a fierce wind blew in my face and the combination of wet cold hands, wind, tangles etc defeated me. Are we anglers mad, I wondered?
     
    Thankfully the car was near and I decided to sit out the rest of the shower. I nearly drove home, but for some reason didn't and found myself wading precariously to target a swim I haven't tried before. Nearly tripped over a root, and I must say I was REALLY glad not to splurge into that water! It was bite a chuck for a few casts. I bumped several - none large - and landed three, one of which was a decent fish close to a pound. Then decided to try further up and was surprised how slow the current was. Got snagged, broke the trace and remembered how cold I was and how warm a cuppa would be and called it a day after only 30 mins fishing.
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