Mark Wintle, an angler for thirty-five years, is on a quest to discover and bring to you the magic of fishing. Previously heavily involved with match fishing he now fishes for the sheer fun of it. With an open and enquiring mind, each week Mark will bring to you articles on fishing different rivers, different methods and what makes rivers, and occasionally stillwaters, tick. Add to this a mixed bag of articles on catching big fish, tackle design, angling politics and a few surprises.
Are you stuck in a rut fishing the same swim every week? Do you dare to try something different and see a whole new world of angling open up? Yes? Then read Mark Wintle’s regular weekly column.
HOME WATERS
Do you have a water that you call home? Somewhere that you return to time and time again? Or are you one of those anglers that constantly flit around from water to water, always seeking somewhere new? Or have you ever wondered about getting to really know somewhere new on a regular basis, so that each year you can look back with the satisfaction of having mastered a new water or two?
The Upper Stour
For some a local water that may be a mile or two from home is enough. Over many years, these anglers get to know every pebble, every fish. No matter what the conditions they know exactly where the fish are and how to catch them. Content with the best that their home water can produce, the urge to sample different challenges is simply absent. There is nothing wrong with this approach, and I guess that the majority of anglers do just this for most of the time. Over the years, even their tactics fossilize so that a familiar swim, method and bait is used every time. But the confidence that comes from knowing exactly where the fish are and when and how they will feed makes up for tactical shortfalls.
Crude or refined? Just how well some locals get to know their own water was first demonstrated to me nearly thirty years ago. As a budding match angler on holiday in Oxford, I had a day on the Oxford canal at Wolvercote. There was the OAPs Wednesday match about to start. “Would I like to make up the numbers?” I was asked. I joined them. Laughing at their crude porcupine quill set-ups with size sixteen hooks, I thought it would be a no match. My finesse would surely outfish their outdated tactics. Alas, their method of fishing over depth, casting to midstream and letting the gentle draw on the canal bring the bait to rest still at the bottom of the near shelf was deadly. My catch of little roach and gudgeon was very much an also-ran to their nets of decent roach and tench. They didn’t need modern floats and tiny hooks just the confidence that they knew exactly what they were doing. It took me several sessions to emulate their success, and even then, I had plenty to learn. There was much more than just the set up and how it was fished. These old guys knew where and when to feed, and just how much was needed.
The challenge of match fishing It is exciting to fish new waters from time to time, and this is something that I intend to do as a challenge to myself for FISHINGmagic. But there is always a danger that in doing so one doesn’t ever get to know a water well enough to really understand it. My advantage over most is that I spent many years match fishing, including opens, winter leagues and Nationals. This meant that I simply had to be able to adapt to strange waters. It was not unusual to see a water for the first time on match day. This is not always the disadvantage that it might seem for a competent angler. With an open mind and an attacking approach, and with a willingness to try tactics that were different to those used by the locals, I found that it was possible to win in these circumstances. Of course, you need a decent peg.
Many anglers become set in their ways, and most match anglers are no different to the rest, so that after a while nearly all of the anglers in a match are using similar tactics. Furthermore, the fish have probably wised up to those tactics, so that with no inclination to follow the herd I could work out my own tactics based on what I was actually faced with. So if you’ve ever wondered why some travelling match anglers are able to plunder waters far from home now you know. Match fishing success is all about catching fish, not doing what is supposed to be correct, or looking pretty.
Going against the crowd, by accident I’ll give you one final match fishing example before I return to more general fishing. Twenty years ago, again at Oxford but this time on the Thames. I booked into a 50 peg match on a stretch that I hadn’t seen before about three miles above Oxford. I wasn’t even sure where the draw was until Saturday night. Having spent the Saturday bagging up with roach on the shallow Medley reach, I assumed that a simple stick float approach with caster would be fine. As it happened I knew the angler on the upstream peg, separated from me by a fifty-yard rush bed. When I asked about the depth on the stick float line he replied that it was about six feet deep. He was going to fish a feeder against the far bank. For reasons that I couldn’t fathom he did seem to be giving me a slightly quizzical look.
As it was 6am, I wasn’t awake enough to worry too much. I didn’t bother plumbing the depth…… First cast, the float went down a hole; two pound chub. Another the next cast, followed by two more in the next half hour. The swim was fourteen feet deep and I was catching, fishing it all wrong two-rod lengths out, at less than half depth. With a few perch caught later on, I won it with nine pounds, four pounds clear of second place. No one else in the match had fished the float. It was certainly food for thought.
The teachings of Dick Walker Whereas the match angler has to master a new water, what about the angler that just wants to fish somewhere different? Rather than flit from water to water there is much to be said for picking a new water each season and really learning all about it. It is probably best that it is a water that isn’t too far from home. This is one piece of Dick Walker’s writings that has stuck in my mind for many years. By trying different methods and swims, in all types of conditions, and by trying to catch different species it should be possible to get a good feel for that water. Some waters are better in the summer rather than the winter, or vice versa. Or it might be that it is better to fish for, say chub in the summer, and roach in the winter. Walker advocated sticking with that one water for a whole season, and for good reason. At times, the fishing is likely to get tough but by experimentation and perseverance, one ought to get equal satisfaction from the difficult fishing as from when the fishing is relatively easy. In addition, Walker reckoned that by learning the watercraft and angling skill in finding out how to fish a particular water in a variety of conditions one would become a better angler.
Dick Walker – he practiced what he preached
About 1981, I had a break from match fishing for about six months. At the time, I had only just begun fishing the Dorset Stour on a regular basis. I decided to put Walker’s teachings into practice by visiting a particular stretch of the upper river as often as possible. At first, my catches were modest but as time went by, I got to know where the fish lived and how to catch them. During the summer, I did best using float-fished casters. When autumn arrived, the water underwent a dramatic change as the weedbeds were swept away and the current became considerably more powerful. The water was often coloured rather than gin clear so that I could no longer see the fish. I adopted different tactics and gained experience of using bread as bait. I learnt when maggots were better than bread and vice versa. I also learnt how the fish moved around in the different conditions.
Walker, of course, practiced what he preached. In a number of instances, he selected a specific water and fished it hard as often as possible. He often did so in the company of other anglers such as Peter Thomas, Fred J. Taylor and Peter Stone, and reckoned that this had a double bonus in that two heads are better than one in sussing out a water as well as fishing being so much more enjoyable in the company of like-minded friends. Campaigns on Redmire, the Arlesey Lake, and the Beane all provided him with challenging conditions but ultimately he developed methods, tackle and tactics to overcome them, and capture his best carp, perch and roach respectively. These campaigns also gave other anglers the inspiration to try for carp especially, as well as better specialist tackle including the first properly designed carp rods and landing nets, and the Arlesey bomb.
Conclusion Why not select a new stretch of river or a new lake and really get to know it over the next year? Find out all you can about it. Sort out what tackle will be best suited. Spend time just walking on the venue in different conditions to see how it changes. Go fish spotting. And best of all get fishing. Try different swims and methods.
