It is amazing where you can find pockets of big fish, especially some of the smaller species that can often turn up in the most unlikely settings. So it was that on 01 December I found myself parking up outside a COOP supermarket and walking through a housing estate in search of a small day ticket pool that was reputed to hold some massive perch. I had arranged to meet fellow Peg One angler Alan Storey and mutual friend Tony Gee from Acorn Angling in Didcot for the afternoon on a small pool that they assured me would turn up the goods.
With some work to finish at home in the morning it was lunchtime before I arrived with the cameras but fortunately, for once, it seemed that everything was going to plan as the duo already had several big ‘Billies’ in the net. All I had to do was get some action shots and close-ups and a couple of decent catch shots before the light faded completely. Amazingly this must have been the only pool in the country suffering from low water but despite the surroundings it did indeed hold some real gems and with seven two-pounders and a good three in the net it was job done.
Tactics couldn’t have been much simpler really: whole lobworms with a small pinch of chopped worm were simply pole fished tight to the overhanging bushes that afforded the perch some cover and a place to ambush any passing prey. Despite the bitterly cold conditions the pool’s stocks, from small roach to skimmer bream, and of course, the perch, simply couldn’t resist a lob and a succession of fish kept the guys busy all day and although I didn’t fish the three of us would be out the following day, and then I most definitely would be getting the rods out.
The Rise of Big Roach
I haven’t fished seriously for big roach for a fair while now and this is something that I want to try and put right. What is very apparent is that quite a few commercial fisheries and carp lakes now hold big roach in numbers that make them a viable proposition. I guess it is simply because these venues have been largely protected from the ravages of cormorants over the years and this has allowed the roach to grow big. Roach do seem to respond very well to being properly managed as well, and I know a few venues where the regular removal of small fish has led to an increase in the size of the remaining fish. Certainly if I ran a carp fishery I would introduce a few hundred roach and then keep cropping their offspring back and in not a lot of years I am sure there would be some serious roach fishing.
I had taken a look at one such venue eighteen months ago and had put it on the back burner until there was time to have a proper go. I knew that the fish were present, having seen some pictures of proper big roach, and so it was just a matter of getting down there for a short campaign. Of course nothing is ever easy and the lake is a good couple of hours from home, so hardly on my doorstep, and with no night fishing allowed conditions were going to have to be right to justify the diesel.
So far I have only been once, but the results were encouraging. I was really there to try and shoot another magazine feature with Alan and Tony but it was too good an opportunity to miss, so whilst waiting for them to catch I cast out a couple of light feeder rigs baited with Nash Whiskey flavoured maggots and sat back waiting for the Siren’s to sing.
I had obviously dropped lucky as bites started almost immediately and in the first hour I had three lovely roach over the pound mark to a best of 1lb 6oz. Then the carp moved in, quickly followed by the hordes of smaller roach, and that was the end of that. Still, playing double figure carp on frail roach tackle is good fun and on a cold day it kept me busy in between snapping away. Hopefully the owner is going to net the lake over the winter and remove a lot of the tiny roach, which will make it much easier to target the bigger fish, time will tell.
River Piking
The rivers have been pretty much out of sorts now for a few weeks, and this has meant most of my river pike fishing plans have been put on hold. There have been a couple of days though when there has been a small window of opportunity as the flood waters have subsided and it has been worth the long drive over to the borders.
My one trip to the River Wye in December did result in a decent fish, a rather lean looking 16 pounder that fell to a legered BaitBox pollan in the margins of a river that was still quite swollen with extra water. Fortunately, the colour had dropped out and although it was up a little the river had that lovely green tinge rather than brown, which normally encourages the pike to feed. I was a bit surprised to be honest to have had just the one chance during the day despite working hard. Yet the dozen or so anglers who were trotting were reporting very little trouble from the pike, so it was obvious they weren’t really in the mood for whatever reason.
Pollan is very much an underrated bait on the rivers; not only are these baits naturally buoyant, so they sit off the river bed and move around in the current, but I also suspect the pike think they are big dace as they do have a similar shape and colour. Either way, if you are thinking of having a go for river pike then make sure you have a few packs with you.
The following week another opportunity arose when conditions were looking good, but with a trip away the next day I decided to stick closer to home and had a few hours perch fishing on a small commercial instead. This was definitely the wrong move as the river fished well and I blanked, at least as far as the perch were concerned, but it would have been pushing things to have driven all the way to the river and then got everything loaded for a planned trip north the following day.
I have a couple of new lure tactics that I want to try on the river, which should significantly improve my results and cut down on tackle losses, but at the moment it is just a matter of biding my time until conditions are right. Certainly conditions this winter so far have tested the patience of the river piker.
Scottish Adventures
With work just about wrapped up it was then time to load the van and head north with my old friend Gordy Howes from St Ives Lakes in Cambridgeshire. Each year we normally manage an extended fishing trip away somewhere. Past ‘somewheres’ have included a couple of trips to the Ebro in search of carp and zander and trips closer to home after barbel, but this year I had a hankering to head north – with pike were very much on the agenda.
Initially, the plan was to head to the Lake District and fish a few different venues but as the news from that area was rather mixed we took the decision to head up to Scotland for a few days instead. Now, the last time I fished for pike in Scotland was as a guest of a couple of the PAC lads on Loch Lomond, and a fantastic time we had, so it was with happy memories that we pointed the well-laden van up the M6 and hit the road.
Seven hours later we arrived, in the dark and after a slight detour, but with no way of getting our bearings and a hard day on the road behind us fishing would have to wait so we set about cooking up some grub and chucking the Titans up. Next morning we were up before dawn and the Loch looked truly stunning as the darkness began to lift. Jimmy the fishery manager soon arrived and set about sorting us out with a boat and filling us in on what had been caught.
We spent the morning just motoring about on the loch with the echo sounder getting a feel for the place. I had brought a map of the lake and an old bathymetric map showing the approximate depths with me and we soon found some potential fish-holding areas and before long massive shoals of bait fish were showing up on the sounder – game on!
Finally, we loaded the boat with a bit of tackle and headed out to fish the short afternoon; amazingly the surface of the lake was like a mirror with hardly a breath of wind and bright conditions. The temperature was still barely above freezing and the water just over three degrees centigrade, but it really was heartening to be out fishing on a new venue on such a fantastic day.
We decided to drift very slowly along a very obvious drop-off close to the bank where the water went from just a few feet deep to nearly 30 feet. Trout shaped arches were dotted around in midwater, but there were also some clouds of bait fish showing towards the bottom of the drop, so we reasoned that there might be a pike or two at home.
Despite the cold water we would mainly be lure fishing with a float fished deadbait towed out the back of the boat, just in case. The secret when the water is this cold and the fish are potentially laying up deep is to use lures that are fast sinking and can be worked back at an absolute crawl. The aim is to keep that lure, normally a soft plastic Hollow Belly Shad fitted with a heavy jig head, or a Castaic style lure within a foot of the lake bed at all times. I actually modify some of my lures just for this job by cutting away some of the tail root, so that it takes much less movement to get the tail wagging. The slower the better is a good maxim when fishing cold water with lures, especially in deep water.
After about twenty minutes of drifting maybe 80 yards along the bank I felt a delicate pluck and then a tap and struck hard. The rod tip bent over and something alive kicked back on the other end. The fish battled well, coming to the surface and thrashing the water, sending spray all over the place. It was a nice fish at a bit over 13lb and was a lovely dark shade of green with almost orange coloured fins – a belter whatever the size and a real confidence booster.
All too soon though the first day was over and almost in pitch dark we navigated back to the jetty and got settled in for the night. The original plan had been to bivvy up further along the lake and fish deadbaits at night, but with the conditions pretty cold and large amounts of ice floating about we decided to stay in the car park area and just fish the days. We were on holiday, had the lake to ourselves, and there was the serious matter of cooking up a three-course meal to be getting on with!
Day two dawned much the same as the first, although it was definitely a degree or two warmer. We decided to adopt similar tactics to the previous day to begin with, making use of the light wind to drift us about, and then to spend the afternoon fishing more intensively with float fished deadbaits from an anchored boat to see if this would bring much reward. By the end of the day both methods had scored, with a couple of single figure fish to Gordy, one on a lure, the other on a bait, and another 13 pounder to me, again on the new six inch Berkley Split Belly Shad. Although we weren’t catching any monsters it was nice just being out and we were getting enough action to keep us really working hard and trying to get as much out of the short days as possible.
By day three the weather was definitely on the change; the wind had picked up considerably and it was forecast to rain from mid-morning onwards. This was also to be our last day, so before setting out we packed away all the camping gear whilst it was still fairly dry and took out just the gear we needed for the day. On top of the change in the weather I was also feeling a bit crook, and my nose was absolutely streaming. To be honest I didn’t feel much like chucking lures about so decided that it would be a better option to fish deadbaits, giving each spot about an hour before moving on. We definitely had enough idea of the contours of the lake by now to have a good guess where the fish should be – it was just a matter of whether they would be hungry or not.
We didn’t have to wait long as Gordy had a jerky take that he pulled out of; most probably a trout. We were having trouble holding anchor by this time as the wind had picked up quite a bit and the forecast rain had also arrived – by the bucket load! In the second spot my float tipped up and moved off fast downwind, I wound down for what seemed like an age before everything tightened up and I set the hooks. It felt like another decent fish and after a cracking scrap a plump 15 pounder hit the net. The fish, like most of the action we had on deadbaits, had fallen to a BaitBox medium herring flavoured with lots of salmon oil – a bait I have been doing well with on a few different venues.
Gordy swapped to the flavoured herrings and soon had a nice brace of fish from a couple of different spots, including a lovely 12 pounder to round off the day. We did stick it out to the bitter end despite the wet weather but none of the lakes biggies came our way, but it really was a brilliant trip in great company and as we rolled up the track back towards the main road I was already planning a trip back in the spring.
By the time we got back home my cold had been officially upgraded to ‘man-flu’ and it took me the best part of a fortnight to shift the blasted thing. Whilst I could have tried to soldier on and fish there wasn’t a great deal of point as the rivers were over their banks again and with plenty to be getting on with at home that had been neglected over the last few months I decided it was time to get into the Christmas spirit.
And so, as I sit here writing on the last but one day of the year with the last of the mince pies it is time to start looking forward to 2013 – new venues to be fished, friends to share happy memories with and adventures waiting to be lived. I hope you have all had a great Christmas, and I wish you all a fantastic (and hopefully not quite as wet) 2013!
