| MARK WINTLE |
| 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. |
RIVERS CRISIS PART 3 – GET OUT THERE AND HAVE A GO
Over the last two weeks, I’ve described the crisis facing our river fishing and what fisheries, clubs and the media might do to try and make river fishing more inviting and accessible. In this final part, I’m going to try and tempt a few of the missing faces to have a go at river fishing, whether for the first time, or to renew old and long lost habits, by looking at some simple approaches to river fishing. Last season, even my own fishing seemed to drift away from river fishing more than I would have liked. This year I have made more of an effort to get back on the rivers, and it’s slowly paying off, with a personal best Avon chub a few weeks ago, and fishing that is far more challenging than sitting gnome-like on a pond. First, find your river and what might be in it It’s no good me saying, “Oh yes, just go and fish a river”. It’s going to take a bit of effort on your part to find out where to go. Your club might already have river fishing available, or there may be local day ticket water, even free fishing. It may pay to ask in local tackle shops, especially those that are actually near a river. And having found your river, there’s more to find out. What type of river is it? What species do you hope to catch? What baits and methods might be effective? Some types of rivers, though far from all, are a mixture anyway. These include canalised fenland rivers like the Huntspill, Lower Witham, and Lower Welland. There are the similar lowland rivers, often with boat traffic, weirs and locks but more in the way of flow, like the Thames, lower Bristol Avon, Lower Severn, and Nene. Faster still, there are chalk streams like the Hampshire Avon and Kennet. Of a different nature, there are the upland, rocky rivers prone to flooding, including those in Lancashire and Yorkshire like the Ribble and the Wye. Finally, there are small rivers like the Dane, Windrush and upper reaches of many of the other types. Taking those types of river in turn, what species might be present? The fen-type rivers hold predominately roach, perch and bream, with surprising numbers of tench. The lowland rivers also hold plenty of roach and bream but also dace, chub, perch and barbel. Chalk streams hold dace, roach, chub, barbel with the chance of grayling and perch. The upland rivers hold chub and barbel plus dace and roach, and finally small streams may hold any variety of fish from trout and grayling to dace, chub and roach and even barbel and bream. These generalisations are only a rough guide to the main species, as most major rivers hold a wide variety of species. You will need to check out your local river for more detail. For instance, my local Hampshire Avon offers grayling fishing but very few perch yet the nearby Dorset Stour has plenty of perch but few grayling. Having determined what there is to fish for, you now have a better idea of tactics and baits. Some of the fish in these rivers demand a substantial amount of expertise and knowledge. Rather than try to run before you can walk I recommend that you start with simple floatfishing with bait like maggots or casters that are attractive to many species. Ditching the kitchen sink – Travel Light One of the side effects of the migration to easily accessible stillwaters is the tendency to take everything bar the kitchen sink. It doesn’t matter whether I’m talking about match, carp or pleasure anglers. I get asked why I persevere with my battered plastic Shakespeare box (or my even lighter Fox bag). It’s simple. It’s light and tough enough to be hammered around on riverbanks in the mud and brambles. When the AS1/Boss boxes came out, I resisted. They were impractical for long tough walks (you would need a trolley – not always practical when it comes to barbed wire fences), and simply too heavy. There are much lighter compact versions around now, and for pole fishing, it is essential to get level (I don’t see why you shouldn’t pole fish on a river?). It is a simple fact of life that river fishing demands much longer walks than that expected by many anglers on commercial carp waters. Though I rarely walk much more than a mile to a swim nowadays (my record is two miles on a match on the Thames, some did 3  When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission, which supports our community.
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