HOW LUCKY CAN A WOMAN GET?

[Janet]

I had an exhilarating and fun day out on the River Aire over in Yorkshire on Saturday, once again being guided by Martin James from BBC Radio Lancashire's "At the Water's Edge" angling programme. I spent all last night writing about my experience, (and it was one heck of an experience!) only to find tonight when I went to edit it that the file's somehow corrupted, and I can't open it, so I'll have to start again! Aaaarghh!

 

I went into my local angling shop on Sunday morning, Padiham Angling Centre, for my usual brew and a natter, and let them know how I got on. Steve, the proprietor, told me about a lake he knew, where he thought I'd have a great day out. It sounded perfect. I'd heard him mention it before, but assumed with his love of carping that it was one of those anonymous looking muddy puddles full of fish with cute names that take turns to have their pictures in the angling magazines, looking just as miserable as their captors!

 

How wrong could I have been? When he shut the shop up at lunchtime, as he had a couple of hours free, he took me for a drive out to have a look at it. What a perfect little place. It's miles out in the countryside, with fabulous views across a lovely valley. Each peg has a perfect feature to fish to, whether it's a bed of reeds, bulrushes or some glorious islands of waterlilies, all of which were in full bloom and looking absolutely perfect. It's not huge, but it's stuffed full of roach, perch, bream, tench, carp, ide, true crucian carp (verified by the EA), mirrors, ghosties and goodness knows what other species. I was told, but I've forgotten most of them! I saw a kestrel hovering over nearby fields, a moorhen darting amongst the reeds, and some huge dragonflies and damsel flies that were all the colours of the rainbow. A beautiful place to be on a lovely summer day.

 

It's not stuffed full of monster carp, although there is at least one to over twenty pounds, but there are loads of smaller ones at various sizes that are growing on nicely. It's perfect for somebody like me. I only started angling last summer, and I have no desire to be constantly chasing bigger and better fish. Don't get me wrong, I get a real buzz when I get a new PB, but it's not the main focus of my fishing. I bought some scales when I first started, as it seemed to be the "done" thing, and used to religiously weigh every fish, but it didn't take me long to realise that it wasn't adding anything to my pleasure. I know when I've caught a nice fish, and all I do now is measure the length and girth and write it in my diary if it's worth noting. Any fish that puts a bend in my rod still gives me the thrill that my very first fish did. You never know what's lurking under the surface!

 

While we were there, we found only one other angler on the water, who was happy to chat to us as he fished on the pole. I watched him catch three fish in just five minutes, and he'd already had a successful morning. It was fascinating for me, as I have never seen pole fishing close up. I never quite understood quite how it worked! It's one thing reading about it, but another thing to actually see it in practice. One of the ones he caught whilst we were there was a lovely carp, one of the prettiest fish I've ever seen. It was only about four inches long though! An absolutely lovely scaled down version and perfect miniature of the "real thing"! If I could catch one of those, I'll be chuffed to bits! I'm glad I'm so easily pleased..... I don't think I'll ever understand anglers who come on here complaining that they've been pestered by "nuisance fish". No fish is a nuisance to me! Some are a tad inconvenient, such as a two inch perch that tries to swallow a five inch lobworm, but I wouldn't call them a nuisance!

 

Anyway, as the shop is closed on Tuesdays, Steve has kindly offered to take me out there as his guest for the day tomorrow. I can't wait! It's much too far away from here for me to travel to on the bus, (I don't drive, so I'm a bit limited in my choice of venues) so this is a one-off chance that I can't afford to miss. As the shop is open six days a week, I'm very lucky that he can spare the time. Cheers Steve! If you read this, you'll know I'm looking forward to it!

 

Janet

 

PS. Steve. No! My comments don't necessarily mean that you'll convert me to pole fishing! But you never know......

[nursejudy]

look forward to reading of your exploits Janet, your enthusiasm shines through your posts,its great you are getting such good encouragement and enjoyment,i dont have the chance to go fishing very often now,so I really enjoy reading your adventures.

Judith

[chesters1]

lucky? only one woman can marry me so your not.

as you say if your blanking nusience fish dont occur ,a fish is a fish to me

[Mister Toad]

"PS. Steve. No! My comments don't necessarily mean that you'll convert me to pole fishing! But you never know......"

 

Are you sure he doesn't just want you to buy a £2,000 pole

 

I hope you have a great day. Looking forward to hearing how you get on.

[Janet]

"PS. Steve. No! My comments don't necessarily mean that you'll convert me to pole fishing! But you never know......"

 

Are you sure he doesn't just want you to buy a £2,000 pole

 

I hope you have a great day. Looking forward to hearing how you get on.

 

Steve knows that I may be a bit mad, but I'd never pay that much, but after today, he also knows that I'm seriously considering learning a bit more about pole fishing! He seemed to do much better than me with the same baits. He was using a pole, I was float fishing with rod and reel. I'd really love to have whooped his ass, but he was consistently catching better fish than me. Although we caught roughly the same amount of fish between us, using the same baits, his were always just that bigger than mine. Bloody show-off!

 

What can I say? Between the two of us we caught a total of 12 different species today, some of them pretty reasonable fish, and all in all, an absolutely fabulous day. The best of days, and one of the most enjoyable I've ever had, or am likely to have. I must have landed over 100 fish today. I've never had a day quite like it, and I'm still buzzing from it. I'll write up a full report when I've chilled out a bit. I've caught my very first common carp today, (several!), my first Ide, two absolutely beautiful tench (again, a first for me, and both very decent fish) and to cap it all, two georgeous rudd. I thought my favourite perch were the best lookers in the fishing world. The second rudd I caught tonight was the most beautiful fish I think I've ever seen. I called Steve over to have a look, and he agreed, it was an absolute stunner. Golden scales and fins that could have been painted on.

 

God must have been having a Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen moment when he created that beauty!

 

Janet

[Mister Toad]

Glad you had a red letter day. Can't wait for the unexpurgated version.

[Janet]

Well, here's a full report of that fantastic fishing trip.

 

Steve picked me up at eight, to save me having to walk up to meet him, then we headed off to the tackle shop for him to pick up his gear and bait. I only took with me my rucksack/stool and small rod bag with just one rod, landing net etc. Steve appeared to pack the entire contents of the shop! A huge box full of bits and pieces, bait and stuff, a massive holdall that nearly gave me a hernia when I tried to lift it, several pole tubes, the kitchen sink and a comfy armchair! Well, it wasn't actually a real armchair, but what looked like a very comfy seat, much better than the stool I was using. He probably had his pipe and slippers packed too! Fair do's though - he did explain that it was easier and quicker to take the lot rather than to unpack and repack everything. Such luxury! I don't drive, so everything I take with me I have to carry. I should have taken advantage of the transport and packed an extra flask of tea!

 

Once we had everything in the Tardis, (you can hardly call it a car when it can swallow that amount of stuff!) we set off to the lake. It was a beautiful day, with blazing sunshine, even at that time in the morning, and hardly a cloud in the sky. Perhaps not the best of conditions for fishing, but certainly one of the best days we've had this year for just being out in the countryside. It was a nice drive through some beautiful scenery, but I couldn’t wait to get to the lake. This lake has a bit of a reputation for being quite windy, and it was quite breezy when we visited on Sunday, but yesterday there wasn't even a breath of air to ruffle the surface. It looked like a mirror, dotted with waterlilies, with a moorhen and some rather vocal chicks darting amongst the reeds. It was buzzing with dragonflies and damselflies of every colour imaginable, several of which decided, later in the day, to land on my peg and lay their eggs on the woodwork or the surrounding reeds. One huge beast even landed on my rod tip at one point. I was praying not to get a bite then, as it was fascinating to watch.

 

We unpacked the car, and I picked up my gear, but he told me to slow down! I was so eager to get started! On waters I’ve fished before, I normally take my time and have a walk round first, but I couldn’t wait to get my rod set up and get fishing! We left everything at the side of the car, (quite safely, as this lake is tucked away miles from anywhere), then went for a walk round, stopping at each peg to have a look, whilst he pointed out the best features to fish to on each one. Every one of them looked perfect, but eventually I decided to fish the one where I'd been chatting to the angler on Sunday afternoon. There were bulrushes and reeds to both my left and right, and some lily pads, also on the right, about fifteen feet away. There was also a magnificent group of while lilies about thirty feet in front of me where I could see fish rolling. In fact all over the lake we could see signs of fish activity. Peg choice on this lake didn't seem to be important. Every one had features to fish to. A very well maintained site, but still totally natural looking.

 

The guy who runs the lake came round later in the afternoon to say hello. I then saw him in his chest waders on the opposite side of the lake, carefully trimming back the rather overgrown bulrushes, moving and replanting beds of lilies and then wandering the path with a scythe. He looked rather like the grim reaper, but he was only tidying up the nettles and overgrown grass to ensure it was clear.

 

Steve picked the peg next to me, and we proceeded to get set up, surprised to find that on such a glorious day, we were the only ones there. More turned up later in the afternoon, but we had most of the day with the lake to ourselves.

 

I was using my favourite rod - a dirt cheap feeder rod, the first that I bought when I started fishing last year. I've since bought several more, including a new float rod, but I hate it! The butt is too long, and I'm just not comfortable using it. I've tried it a few times, and each time I end up going back to my favourite. I must get round to buying a hacksaw and making a few minor adjustments to it! Yesterday I was quite happy just to stick to something familiar, my trusty “lucky” rod.

 

Steve was using a pole, which I found fascinating, having only watched somebody fishing with one the other day. It may seem a bit odd, as I’ve been fishing for over a year now, but I always fish on my own, and like to find solitude, well away from other anglers. It did look surprisingly simple, even to somebody as non-technically minded as me, and seeing it in use, I could really appreciate how useful it is when fishing really close to features. No getting tangled up in the reeds as I managed to do on a couple of occasions! He may get me converted to the pole yet, although I remain to be convinced that it’s as thrilling as watching your rod bending when you hook into a good fish.

 

After being here the other day, I knew roughly what the depth was where I intended to fish, and was desperate for a cup of tea after the drive, so I didn't bother to plumb up. I just used the Spectre float that Steve gave me a while ago, baited with a single red maggot, and swung it out gently close to the reeds on my left. The float hadn't even settled before it was dragged under viciously, and I soon had my first fish of the day. A perfect mirror carp, about 5 inches long! Absolute perfection in miniature. After that it was just none stop for both me and Steve for the next three hours. It was getting silly at one point! If you wanted to light a ciggie or pour a brew, you had to take your bait out of the water or your float was heading out to the lilies! I was in fits of giggles most of the time, as I landed fish after fish! Bait alternated between maggots, worm and bread, with just half a dozen maggots thrown in as loose feed with every cast.

 

After the first couple of hours, it did start to die off a bit, then I had to start thinking a bit more about what I was doing instead of just sitting back and waiting. Plumbing up helped - I discovered I was about eight inches above bottom. I also introduced some bloodworm pellets as loose feed, which seemed to help. This got bites coming in thick and fast again. Yet again it died off after a couple of hours, but a change of loose feed to some tiny moist pellets that Steve had given me to try had them rooting around again, and all my larger fish came towards the end of the day. I tend never to use anything other than very simple baits – worms, maggots, caster, luncheon meat, cheese, bread etc. However, seeing the size of the fish that Steve was getting on his strawberry flavoured pellets may just induce me to try something different. Personally I think he should give me some on a free trial, as I was obviously keeping all the smaller fish away from his swim so that he could get at the bigger ones!

 

Most of mine were mirrors from a few inches long up to some nice ones approaching 2lb., but I also caught more than my fair share of very decent roach, and my very first common carp, which was probably about 1.5lbs. Steve was catching at the same rate, and every now and again, when I saw his elastic streaking out towards the middle of the lake, I'd toddle round to see what he'd caught. I can't be more accurate about weights, as we didn't bother to weigh them.

 

Occasionally I had to call Steve over, just to check what I'd caught was what I thought it was, as four of the species I caught were new to me. I had my very first common carp on my first cast, followed in the next hour by ide, tench and rudd. The ide was very similar to all the roach I'd caught before, but much slimmer and longer in the body, and it glistened like pure silver. My first rudd was brilliant. It was a good sized fish, and when I got it in the net, I thought with a quick glance that it was a very good roach. As I unhooked it though, I realised that I'd never seen a roach with fins of such a beautiful vivid red/orange colour. I called Steve over, and he confirmed that it was indeed my first rudd, and told me how to spot the difference. It's all very well learning all this from books, magazines and forums like this, but nothing compares to having someone with you to help out. My second one, towards the end of the day was even bigger, and seemed to be even more brightly coloured. I couldn’t stop admiring it, but thought it would be better to put it back in the water!

 

There was no doubt about my next first - a fabulous tench that took off like an express train, and put up a great fight before I finally landed it. I've never had a fish that took off with quite so much speed, and when I saw that huge tail, I realised where it was getting that immense power from. Steve heard my yell when it came to the surface and I got my first glimpse of it, and came dashing over to see what the bloody hell this silly woman was giggling at! I was grinning from ear to ear. I've spent many days on another pond trying in vain to catch tench, so I was just delighted. I practically did a little jig on my peg! One of my last fish of the day was another tench, twice the size of the first, which also put up twice the fight! My rod was bent almost double, and I was sure it was going to snap my line. I was only using very light tackle, as I wasn't after big fish. Luckily I managed to keep it out of the bulrushes and turned it just before it reached the lily pad in front of me. It zig-zagged from side to side, but eventually it decided it didn't want to play any more, and came to the net for me. God, that was fun!

 

There is another small pond right next to the one we were fishing, the two waters being separated by only a few yards. Steve decided to fish this later in the day, as it contains much larger fish, and caught some cracking carp, together with a lovely crucian carp (the first I've seen), and also a barbel about 12" long, again the first time I'd set eyes on one. I think all these fish were taken on lobworms. He also had a lovely golden orfe. Every time he caught one, he’d call me over to have a look. The carp was lovely, but that golden orfe was also a pretty little fish. The most beautiful subtle apricot/gold colour. The barbel was a lovely healthy little fish too, and it was nice to finally see what everyone keeps going on about. I must be mad. A grown woman getting all excited about seeing a fish that I haven’t seen before. Oh well, sanity can be SO boring!

 

Between the two of us over ten hours, we caught roach, rudd, perch, ide, mirror carp, common carp, crucian carp, barbel, golden orfe, gudgeon, tench and bream. Twelve different species! The only one we couldn’t get was the big chub that are in there, but they can wait for another day. Steve caught by far the largest fish during the day, including a massive tench and a couple of very large bream and carp to several pounds, although the huge ghostie managed to evade him. This fish is over 20lbs, and I saw it four or five times as it cruised past me towards Steve. Unfortunately, it must have decided to play at submarines as it approached the bulrushes that separated the pegs, as he didn’t get a glimpse of it.

 

Catching smallish fish all day may not suit everyone, but yesterday it was absolutely perfect. I never knew what was going to put a bend in my rod. I’m always teasing Steve about his love affair with big carp, but it was great to see that he had just as much pleasure out of the day as I did. (Ah bless, he doesn’t get out much!) Only joking, but no, actually he doesn’t get out fishing much these days. He’s too busy running the shop so that people like me can go out fishing instead. When I heard him talking to the fish (“Who’s a greedy little bugger then?”), I knew he was enjoying himself!

 

I must have landed over a hundred fish by the end of the day, and missed almost half as many again, every single one of them caught from no more than a rods length from my peg and Steve probably caught more. He also missed many as I did – his phrase to describe it was “couldn’t hit a cow’s arse with a banjo”. I assume that’s some sort of quaint Lancashire saying, or possibly it’s what he does in his spare time….I thought it better not to ask!

 

I stopped counting after thirty in the first hour! It was the one and only time I wished I’d had a keep net so I could view my catch over the day, as I doubt if I’ll ever be lucky enough to get a day as good as this again.

 

There was only one slight downside to the day, and in retrospect it was more funny than anything. Late in the afternoon, a guy approached me, after learning that I was fishing with Steve, who he knew from visiting the tackle shop. When he asked what line I was using, and I told him, he tutted a bit, and declared it far too light. 10lb minimum, he uttered, whilst he picked his knuckles up off the ground. I'd safely landed every fish, including a few nice ones that tried to snag me in the reeds. He then asked if I was fishing on the bottom. When I answered yes, he asked "Did Steve shot it for you?" He seemed most perturbed when I said, no actually, I did it all on my own. If I hadn't thought it would have disturbed my swim, I wouldn't have thought twice about shoving him in!

 

In conclusion (yes, I’m finally finished!) it was fabulous, so thanks Steve, and I’ll take you up on that offer to go fishing after work one day, when you have time! If I’d bought all my tackle on the Internet, I’d never have had a day like this, so please guys, even if it means paying just a little bit more, support your local tackle shop. If you don’t, one day when you find you really need them, they’ll be gone.

 

Janet

[Ian FG]

Good stuff Janet, thanks for taking the effort to entertain us, good content and good English. And remember that for everyone who posts a reply, loads more read, enjoy but don't post.

[Steve Burke]

As good as usual, Janet!

[gozzer]

Hi Janet, still maintaining the standard I see. Good report, of what seemed a good session.

 

I've a question for you. It relates to another thread, about beginners.

I know your fairly new to angling, and I was wondering how you think you would have felt, if this had been your first experience of angling?

Would catching a 'shed full' on what seems a 'fairly easy' water, have made a difference to how you feel now. IMO you've done it in what I regard as the best way, that's on a learning curve, with blanks and much harder waters, but still caught enough to maintain the interest?

Do you think that you would be filled with the same amount of enthusiasm, that you obviously have?

Or, do you think that, catching plenty on your first trip, would result in disappointment and disillusion, when you went on a harder water, or blanked?

 

I hope that makes sense.

 

John.