Purely for Pleasure

The emphasis on this new series is how to enjoy your fishing no matter where you’re fishing or what you’re fishing for.

PREPARED FOR OPPORTUNITIES

One of Stuart Bloor’s recent articles in his ‘PilgrimsProgress’ series was about maintaining the quality of yourfishing without breaking the bank. He quite rightly points out thatyou can obtain very good products and bait without spending a fortuneor scrimping on quality.

However, his article did start me thinking along the lines ofbeing aware of the dangers of over-economising or being toonarrow-minded when it comes to actually using your available tackleand bait.

After a poor day I realised I was making a mistake
Being an all rounder I am generally pleased if I catch any number ofany species. But just because I don’t dedicate myself to one speciesdoes not mean I grab the nearest rod, some bait and just go fishing. I do usually fish with a purpose, either targeting a particularspecies of fish or with the intention to use a particular method. Just what that species or method will be depends on what I fancydoing or where I fancy going on the day.

To do this I obviously have to pack the bait that goes best withthe intended species or method. For instance, if I decide I fancy abit of stickfloat fishing, then into the car goes the float rod,centrepin and terminal tackle to suit, and a trip to the tackle shopfollows for some maggot and caster, with perhaps some hemp andpossibly groundbait. And there I am, sorted for the days fishingahead. Or am I?

A while ago, after some poor days fishing, I realised that I wasmaking a mistake. Just taking the kit for my intended method andhaving that as my be-all and end-all for the day often led to mecoming home with a dry net. All very well and good if the method cameup trumps on the day. I would be a happy bunny.

But quite often I found I had the wrong gear or the wrong baitwith me to take full advantage of the conditions or opportunities Iactually encountered as my session progressed. I have oftenencountered days that, despite my initial predictions, just don’thappen the way I thought they would. Running a stickfloat through forroach that just don’t want to know for some reason is veryfrustrating and if I have not taken along another option I have foundmyself snookered, stuck with fishing an ineffective method.

Now I widen my options
What I try to do now is widen my options. For instance when I amriver fishing and I fancy a stickfloat session with maggot and casteras the expected hook bait, I will also make sure I have my quiver tiprod in the bag with an additional array of baits in my holdall. Iwill take along a ‘stock’ variety of baits just in case, includingcheesepaste, corn, meat, worms, hemp and bread. This means that ifmy intended fishing method fails to produce I can switch to anothermethod quite easily. I can also take advantage of opportunities asthey arise.

The baits I take are always readily available and will also eitherkeep for a few weeks as they are or are reusable with the aid a deepfreeze. So I do not waste money by having to throw unused baitaway.

A recent trip to the Bristol Avon
A trip I had to the Bristol Avon recently was a prime example ofbeing able to take full advantage of the conditions because I wasable to switch methods and baits quite quickly. On this occasion itwas not just once, but twice in the same day.

I had turned up on the river fully intending to fish bread forchub. The weather was cold and frosty, the river was back down tonormal level and the colour was dropping out of it. The conditionsscreamed chub. Surely nothing else was going to feed.

But as I walked along the riverbank I was surprised to see roachtopping and rolling. I did start off fishing mashed bread in a cagefeeder with breadflake on the hook as intended, convinced only chubwould be willing to take a bait. But straight away sharp bites wereencountered on the flake. The roach were obviously feeding andsnatching at the large piece of bread on the hook.

I scaled down to a 16 hook and punched bread and started to pickup a few roach, confirming my theory, but the hook-up rate was notgood. I was missing bites that were fast and sharp. Now if I hadonly had my quiver rod and bread for bait that day I would have hadno option but to persevere with the approach. But I had also broughtalong my float rod and some bronze maggots and a quick change to thefloat upped my conversion rate of bites no end as most trots downwere resulting in a positive dip of the float and a hooked fish. Ihad a pleasant few hours trotting for roach on a day when I hadn’texpected them to be feeding so well.

Then late in the afternoon, about an hour before dark, the roachbites became really finicky. I was wondering about the cause, as towhether I had spooked them or overfed the swim or something, when Ihooked into a perch. Not a big one, but enough to trigger mysuspicion that maybe a shoal of perch were marauding behind the roachand making them nervous, hence the now sporadic roach bites.

So again I switched methods back on to the quiver rod, only thistime with a bomb and a size 10 hook baited with a whole lobworm. Icast just beyond where I had been hooking the roach and settled therod onto the rest. Within a minute the tip gave a slight knock, thena confident pull round and a swift strike connected with a good sizefish. My suspicions were confirmed as a perch of over a pound cameto the net.

Casting out with the lobworm again and another confident bitepulled the tip round. This time a two pounder. To cut a long storyshort, in the last hour of daylight, I took five perch over a poundand two over two pounds, the best being a 2lb 12oz fish, with anotherfish of over two pounds coming off.

Take at least a couple of tackle and bait options
Now, had I not had a change of gear and a variety of bait options, Idoubt if the majority of those fish would have had to spend some timewith me on the bank. I am not saying take the kitchen sink with youwhen you go because that limits you in its own way. What I do saythough is take at least a couple of tackle options and baits with youto take full advantage of the conditions you encounter. Being narrowminded or scrimping on bait and tackle will more often than not leadto a limited days fishing.

Be prepared to think and change as the situation demands. It paysoff for me and has led to some very pleasurable days that might nothave been so without having several options available.