Barrie Rickards’ Angling – Mullet and More

Professor Barrie Rickards is President of the Specialist Anglers Association (SAA) and President of the Lure Angling Society (LAS), as well as a very experienced and successful specialist angler with a considerable tally of big fish to his credit.

He is author of several fishing books, including the classic work ‘Fishing For Big Pike’, co-authored with the late Ray Webb and only recently his first novel, ‘Fishers On The Green Roads’ was published. He has been an angling writer in newspapers and magazines for nigh on four decades. Barrie takes a keen interest in angling politics.

Away from angling Barrie is a Professor in Palaeontology at the University of Cambridge, a Fellow of Emmanuel College and a curator of the Sedgwick Museum of Geology.

Every so often its good to receive a salutary lesson and I received one recently at the hands of mullet. I don’t know about you but over the years I have found catching mullet a real struggle. I’ve had them in several countries, but always it has been difficult, failing to hook, or even entice, far far more than I ever land.

I remember once really struggling to catch amongst hordes of mullet in an Irish estuary. Eventually I got one to take bread flake. It’s been similar in other places, and I think my best is around 21/2 lbs. Just recently though I have found some big ones. They are in amongst a series of jetties, in deep water, certainly thirty feet at high tide. I can get quite close to the fish before they get spooky and on several occasions I have got to within ten feet of them. Quite a few fish are in the 3-5 lb category, but a substantial number are much, much larger than that. So, armed with loaves of bread, good tackle, advice from Jim Gibbinson, and a little general reading on mullet, I spent last weekend after them. Not a bite!

Part of the problem is that our boat is parked at one end of the marina where, whatever the state of the tide, there seems to be no current at all. It’s some kind of eddy against a sandbank. Chuck in a handful of mashed bread and it sinks gently to the bottom. I was hoping to draw the mullet towards me and then trot a float down to them. Now I’ll have to rethink, but I will be back. Casting to individual fish will have to be tried, but as they can see you through the gaps in the jetty planks that may not work either. But I do have several plan Bs!

A Narrowboat on 12lb Line

Did you see the nice story of the carp angler who rescued a drifting narrowboat on the Thames? He hooked it with 12 lbs bs line and managed to pull it to the bank and tie it up, without waking the sleeping occupants. It seems that the latest yobbo antic is to untie narrowboats whilst the occupants are asleep and let them drift away during the night. Very thoughtful in this case as the boat was drifting towards a weir. And, of course, its one good reason for never banning night fishing: having bona fide people on the waterside at night can only be a good idea, as in this instance. The carp angler in question could not have exerted a pull of more than 12 lbs, probably a little less, but it is surprising how small a pull will move a boat. I remember hooking a pike on spoon once whilst fishing the middle of an Irish lough. My line was also 12 lbs, and that fish towed me half a mile or more – and my boat was a seventeen-foot clinker-built, Shannon longboat! Had I lost that fish I might have been deceived into thinking it a giant. But I didn’t, and it weighed 5lbs!

Zander Slander

I see zander histrionics has raised its head again, for example in a recent letter in Angling Times by one Zulfiguar Ali. I don’t have much of a problem with his general thesis, which is, in effect, telling people to leave zander alone. But you can weaken your case by daft statements, such as “where is the evidence that zander decimate fish stocks?” Well, where have you been this last thirty years Mr Ali? Try reading the second edition of ‘Zander’ by Neville Fickling and myself. And there is good scientific work on this too. Mr. Ali should seek it out.

Incidentally the word decimate, strictly speaking, means (to kill) one in ten, although common mis-usage has changed that recently to mean (to kill) ‘a high proportion of’. The zander certainly do that when introduced into a new, non-lake, ecosystem. And then he says, “The most important point is, who gives us the right to kill any defenceless animal?” Well, it would help angling greatly if you didn’t push this line too strongly Mr Ali; otherwise you’ll have the European anti-angling lefties after us! But as a direct answer to your question, try reading a very thoughtful book, namely Laurence Catlow’s “Confessions of a Shooting Fishing Man” (Merlin Unwin).

Where’s the Reality?

I was interested in a news report that said a man working at a landfill site has to untangle line from birds two or three times a week. What is interesting to me is that I also knew a man who worked at a landfill site and he told me that not once had he had to untangle fishing line from birds. I wonder where reality is here.

Not so Funny Funders

It was good to see Keith Arthur having a go recently at those strange people who are supposed to fund sport. Masses of money to fund our swimmers, and they reward us (because we pay) with three bronze medals from 18 swimmers. I see his point. Angling gets next to nothing in comparison yet continues to bring home gold medals galore. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the establishment is anti-angling or, at very best, couldn’t care less about it. I suspect we shall have to fight our corner, always, so we might as well get used to it. Support our own, make our sport safe financially, and when they want our help with something (eg, surveys, or access to our fisheries) tell them what to do with it.

Irish Carp are not the Answer

There’s a recent report, a so-called leak, that the Central Fisheries Board in Ireland are to introduce carp in an attempt to increase the declining appeal of angling in Ireland. This seems a strange step to me, because the angling in Ireland is rather special, and has been for decades, with very few carp waters there. Like others I rather suspect that anglers will not be attracted to Ireland just because of carp fishing, as most of what they prefer is more easily accessible in England and its appeal is an interesting and difficult subject.

Back in the 1960’s you went to Ireland for the big tench, bream and rudd, and sometimes for pike and roach. Tench over 5 lbs were common and much more common over 6 lbs than in the UK where only one or two fish made that weight each season. But whereas the UK fish moved on gradually to what we have today, Ireland hardly moved. The same is true of bream too. I remember getting one of 8 lbs 6 oz in Ireland when 6 lb fish were pretty uncommon. And I had a few 7 lb fish too. Those weights haven’t really gone up much. The pike fishing in general terms is much better in the UK than in Ireland and has been so since the 1980’s.

I’ll repeat what I have said before about the effect of boilies in the UK; it is a factor, but is not the factor that is making all species, all over the place, get bigger. Ireland has always had warm, mild winters, which could be a factor in its (once) big pike, but it’s puzzling that the tench did not grow on. Talking to experienced Irish anglers and long-term English visitors, it is clear that many factors have adversely affected Irish fishing, including dreadful drainage and farming practices. I can’t see stocking with carp putting Ireland to rights. It needs a much more fundamental overhaul.

Time to Shut the Stable Door?

Although I approve, broadly, of Defra’s recent pamphlet “Keep Fish Disease Out” there is a phrase that comes to mind concerning horses and stable doors. Anglers were not crying wolf when, decades ago, they drew attention to potential problems. Another bit of cheerful news this time concerning nine Poles escaping with a caution after being caught trying to remove fish. PC Hance was quoted as saying “…individuals will only be charged under the Theft Act if they are caught with large numbers of fish.” Great news that. Ordinary bog standard theft of ordinary people’s property doesn’t matter then? It’s tantamount to a licence by the police to go out and steal a few, with the emphasis being on the few. What happens if we retaliate by stealing the Poles’ mobile phones, which no doubt they are equipped with? I’m thinking of a few, naturally.

And then we have those recently published statistics about how many of the public think angling is cruel. As a rule the magazines crow that the figures show angling to be safe. What strikes me forcibly every time is just how much angling’s reputation has slipped in the last fifty years. More than 5% think angling is cruel, nearly 20% ‘agree slightly’ and over 20% are neutral. I make that 45% potentially able to be converted into voting against with 25% likely to do so. In the 1960’s I doubt if 5% were opposed to angling in even the slightest way, the most common anti-angler view you heard being of the kind that suggested we were short of a screw or two. I wouldn’t argue with that, of course.

Stung!

Getting slightly more upbeat now, I noticed that Nige Williams got stung by wasps recently. I’m just joking really because they can be a real menace to some people, like me. But Nige should try hornets if he is feeling at all macho after his adventures. Hornets are twice as big as wasps, and eat them for supper. Or me. I’ve been stung twice recently by hornets and last year ended up in hospital with half my upper body stiff as a board. I did the right thing after being stung, namely sat quietly so as not to circulate the venom, but after half an hour I seemed fine. I decided to drive home. Mistake. I didn’t get half way and had to be rescued at the roadside by an AA man and an ambulance. On another occasion I was tenching down in Kent, got out of my bivvy in the early morning and put on my hat – in which a wasp had been overnighting! He stung the top of my head and within thirty seconds the soles of my feet and my belly were itching quite uncontrollably. If you are really allergic to wasps, as I am, I advise you to carry the appropriate rescue kit. I can’t remember what it is, or what it’s called, because I haven’t done anything about it yet. But I will do soon.

Spinnerbaits and Adders

Still on the upbeat side. I had to go to Sweden recently for a conference and took along a couple of telescopic rods, reels and a few lures. I didn’t expect to have the time, but after the conference I did have a few days in southern Sweden, in the forest, and managed to find a boat I could borrow (no trouble finding lakes though). On a spinnerbait I hooked five small pike in thick reed beds. It was nice to see that lure working well on a water I’m certain had never seen one before. Also had ten minutes casting with the same rod and lure when I was supposed to be on a punting party. I caught a small pike within minutes, which caused little consternation among the punt poles. Not long afterwards a snake swam across in front of the punts and everyone was drooling about how exciting it was to see a grass snake. I didn’t like to tell anyone immediately, but it was an equally drooly adder! The first I have seen for some time, in fact, and right in the middle of Cambridge.