November is a month of change and with dropping temperatures many older chaps like me decide to keep active rather than freeze on the banks waiting for that elusive barbel bite…With that in mind it has either got to be a trip to the Wye or the Trent for some easier barbel fishing, or indeed time to concentrate on the float and go after a mixture of fish…keeping warm with some action!
Sunday 03 November
Currently there is still a decent water temperature, so Mark and I decided to have a few hours on the Reading and District Upper Benyons beat of the River Kennet after a barbel or two. Mark had just lost a fish as I arrived and the signs looked good but we fished on from 2pm for a couple of hours without a single tap.
As dusk descended I was pretty sure the fish would become active, but I was startled by a noise behind me and realised that I had an audience watching my every cast in anticipation of a barbel master class that failed to materialise.
It’s quite amazing what an article on FM can do for ones importance in the world.
We fished on without success, although I got a call from Mark a few days later telling me he had just bagged a 14lb fish from the Trent – happy bunny!
Friday 08 November
I had an invite from friends Keith S and Dave to join the Verulam guys on the Lower Itchen Fishery for a day; it was a really nice group and, after a chat, we split up and I headed for the nearest empty swim opposite the car park.
It rained a little, then a lot …and then a lot more and within an hour I was soaked through. The river rose and debris started to come through and I fished like a novice with four bites and four lost fish.
Dave, who last season caught a national record-shaking barbel, had a few roach to over 1lb so I changed my approach from a size 18 and hemp and casters to a size 16 and maggot and also from shirt button shotting to a bunched group six inches from the hook. Meanwhile it rained a lot more and the wind howled.
The change of tactics seemed to pay off and finally I was into a few fish with a couple of decent roach to over a pound, a grayling and a couple of small chub. The debris continued to build up, the river coloured and a couple of the anglers packed up early and decided that it was a lost cause. Float master Keith also struggled and only had a roach and a couple of spotties and that seemed to be the general trend for most of the piscatorial group.
I managed a couple more roach and finally landed a chub over 5lb that took a long time to net in the fast pushing water and constant build up of weed on the line – it was not easy fishing.
‘Time for home’ I thought as the puddles formed around my feet and the maggots floated up to the brim of my bait pouch; a great day out with a great bunch of guys in monsoon conditions.
Thursday 14 – Friday 15 November
I met up with Keith T, who I hadn’t seen for quite a few years, and Richard W, who owns the Downton beat on the Hants Avon, to fish at Britford on the Avon near Salisbury for a couple of days. I was so pleased to see Keith again after so long and we spent much of the first day chatting about the past few years and his previous involvement with the Barbel Society and the ABF.
The last few trips to this fantastic fishery had yielded me some superb fish, mainly chub averaging 4lb plus, but it is famed for its magnificent roach and plentiful cracking dace.
On the first day the wind blew at storm force and it was all you could do to keep the float actually in the water…yet with the ever-helpful advice from the bailiff Stuart, who knows the water in the finest detail, we all caught a number of fish. Keith with a cracking chub, Richard a netful of dace with the odd roach and I must have ended up with over a hundred fish, mainly stunning dace and the odd dozen small roach. I did have a long tussle with a very large fish that took a minnow as I was reeling in; It eventually came off and left no obvious marks on the fish, Stuart’s bet was that it had been a sea trout.
A night’s stay at the Bull at Downton was planned and after a very liquid meal at the Old Beams, Ibsley, where the service was abysmal but the food good, we tucked in for the night after a couple more lemonades. The Bull was an interesting stay, and we did finally get a breakfast by 9am the following morning!
As far As conditions for day two were concerned there had been a hard frost overnight and there was bright sunshine but the wind had eased off so that at least made us more hopeful of an easier day.
The minnows at Britford are a real pain, so I always fish a triple maggot on a size 16 and a 4 or 5BB stick float and strike every bite hoping for some decent pressure on the tip and, if not, let the float continue its run down for 50 yards or so. I find that if you wind in after every bite you lose too much trotting time. I knew however that the favourite bait for the big roach seemed to be hemp and tares on the side streams but I wanted some fast paced long trotting action.
Dace came pretty much every other trot down, I fed heavily with a dozen or so maggots and some hemp every cast and held back much of the time. The odd smaller roach joined them, but they seemed to come in bursts of three or more fish then disappeared for an hour or so.
About 3pm I finally started to get some of the better roach that the river holds with a fish just under 1lb, followed by six over that weight with the best 1lb 9oz. These were stunning red-finned, deep-bodied fish typical of the Avon.
After Mr Pike joined me in the swim the bites pretty much dried up, but I did at least leave him with a sore tooth after he grabbed a nice dace!
It was great experience and one I intend to repeat more often by joining the LAA next season.
Monday 18 November
I spent a day on a commercial fishery at Royal Berkshire Fisheries. Yes that’s right – and if you want to you can bang two rods out with buzzers and cast tight to the islands in the three smallish lakes where, with a bit of luck, you will most likely catch a few carp to nearly 20lb.
You could, of course, take a match rod, use a small insert float and lay on, over-shotted and over-depth and enjoy some great sport with the roach and perch with the odd ugly interloper to test your tackle and skill to the limit.
I have caught perch to nearly 4lb, and roach to close to 2lb from the fishery, but bigger ones do exist and there are some roach x rudd hybrids that exceed 3lb. I’ve tried various baits: maggots, luncheon meat and casters but by far the best bait is usually prawn. Having said that on my best perch day there, with four fish between 3 and 4lb, I used one-inch luncheon meat cubes, it’s just less selective than prawns and you catch more carp!
I tend to feed hemp and casters or red maggots into a swim, about a pint of each to start and then wait about 20 minutes or so for the first bite but today I limited the free offerings to prawns to see what happened. I started off putting about twenty into a swim on the middle lake, I normally fish the first lake but took the bailiff’s advice as he had told me four perch over 4lb had come out last week.
The float lifted and slid away and a bream of 4lb came to the net, or it would have if I didn’t unhook it in the water. I had forgotten this lake is the only one with bream present in any numbers… After four more I thought about making a move, but remembering what the bailiff said I decided to sit it out.
Some good roach started to show, so I put out some hemp and caster to try and hold them in the swim and I netted a dozen or so to well over 1lb before they moved off, all of them in excellent condition
‘Where’s the perch’ I thought and with that the float lifted and at last I was into one – until it turned into a 12lb common carp that bent my Drennan Classic match rod into an alarming curve. Four more carp came to the net to about 14lb, and I had to admit that it was good fun, but frustrating all the same.
I packed up after a few more roach but, as they say in media land, here’s a perch I caught there earlier – don’t knock it (as I did for many years) until you try it.
Friday 22 November
Howard had invited me for a day’s trotting on the Wasing Estate on the Kennet and waking up early it was disappointing to see a really hard frost on the ground I thought it was going to be very tough, and so it proved.
I started off near to the Ferry Inn in search of a decent chub or roach and after about an hour’s fishing I had managed a single chub of around 3lb 8oz
We moved down onto the canal and river section where Howard at least caught half a dozen decent dace, a couple of small roach and a bream of about 4lb. He used a size 20 hook to 2lb bottom, whereas I never got a single bite from three tried swims on my size 16 and later a size 18 hook; an hour with trotted flake over mashed bread couldn’t buy me a bite either…
We moved back to the river for the last half hour where at least I managed a couple more dace and a miniscule roach to make me feel less of a Wally. It was an enjoyable time, but one of those days I felt I fished really well with little reward.
My thoughts on leaving were that I had better start to concentrate on the Chub from here on as the colder weather was really starting to hit.
Monday 25 November
I couldn’t really decide whether to get out in the cold today, but with a forecast of seven degrees and no rain, I thought I would have a quick session on a canal and river section of the Kennet to see if the chub were hungry yet. I arrived at 12.15pm and it started raining…but thankfully it stopped a short time after as the heavyweight brolly was still in the car.
My plan was to fish the pellet and mini Source boilies and to have a ‘lazy’ fish rather than my preferred mashed bread approach. I employed a PVA bag with some mini pellets and a few hookbait samples and cast to the far bank alongside the line of bushes and then just sat back and relaxed in the chair.
It felt very damp and within an hour I had downed two cups of coffee to keep me warm when the rod jagged around sharply and I hooked a chub. It felt like a good one too, or at least I thought it did but I wasn’t to find out as the hook pulled after a minute or two. I thought it might be the only bite of the day and cursed out loud, earning sharp glances from two ladies out dog walking whom I hadn’t noticed passing.
Two casts and an hour later brought a couple of small nudges on the rod tip; not the numerous, annoying leaves coming through as these taps were just a shade quicker, one more gentle tap and then the rod pulled around and once again I was into a cracking chub. This one, however, made it all the way to the landing net after an excellent fight.
Nothing happened for the next hour, so I decided to pack up and miss the rush hour traffic on the journey home. I had the intention to get out after the chub again this month but circumstances meant I had to earn some money!
As for this month so far December has brought the FM Fish-In on the Itchen, where I had a very unusual catch that included 11 different species and also met up with a great bunch of fellow fishers.
If the weather warms a tad I shall hopefully spend a couple of day’s barbel fishing for a change and I shall no doubt have a perch day or two and, for sure, a return visit to Britford for the dace and roach.
Have a fun filled Xmas and New Year all of you on Fishing Magic.
