It’s about so much more than just catching fish! I took this photo on the lovely River Teme, many years ago.

I was talking to a mate of mine the other day (a good match angler) and it brought home to me how we all derive different pleasures from angling. To him it was all about the competition and the sheer numbers and weights of fish, obvious really, has this is what is needed to win matches. To me angling pleasure comes from something totally different. After being an angler for over 35 years the need to equate everything to numbers has long since gone. It’s more about ‘just being there’. It’ easy to get drawn into the numbers game and easy to lose sight of why we actually go fishing.

I do like to fish for larger than average fish (for my area) but that only comes from the many years of fishing and thus building my way up from catching smaller fish. To get the most enjoyment I need to be on the right venue and to be catching ‘on my own terms’.

One thing I try to avoid is ‘over pressured’ stretches of river or lakes, unfortunately the presence of bigger than average size fish tends to bring with it loads of fish chasers and swim jumpers and at times a total lack of angling etiquette. I fished one of these stretches (on a small river) a couple of times about a month ago.

There were no anglers present at all when I got there at 4pm (nobody had been catching). On both occasions all remained quiet until between 9 and 10 pm when anglers turned up and jumped into the swim next to me even though there was still nobody else on the stretch. They then proceded in piling in more boilies than I would use in a month. I am not sure if it is a lack of etiquette or angling knowledge, but all this achieved was to spoil the fishing and any chances of catching (especially when you consider that the optimum catching time was between 10.30 and 11pm, so you wanted everything really quiet.). You really do see some stroke pulling on these sort of venues which is why I very rarely bother with them, preferring to walk a good way up or downstream instead.

A stretch on the Upper Trent – totally unspoilt and very lightly fished.

Therefore unless I can find some big fish that nobody else knows are present in a stretch I’m fishing, I have to accept that the very biggest (usually known and named) will remain out of reach.

For me the essence of river fishing is about exploring and finding your own swims and fish, and not just following the crowds and always fishing known swims or hammering swims that other people have taken the time and effort to find. To go down this route would take away my enjoyment, which makes it all a waste of time (this is ok if you are only interested in numbers and weights, but to me fishing is about so much more). The sort of the things I have just mentioned seem to be rife on the smaller rivers where the same barbel can be resident in the same old swims for season after season.

This is the biggest reason I’ve come to love fishing the Lower Severn (can’t wait to start around October) and Upper Trent so much. You can be fishing in solitude for good average size fish (plenty of double’s), always with the anticipation of that unknown ‘whacker’ picking up your bait, The fact that you still have that ‘factor of the unknown’ really adds to the atmosphere and the expectation of the angling experience. You are fishing for totally wild fish that can move up or downstream many miles if they so wish. Plus of course by fishing the quieter area’s you get to see so much more of the wildlife that the English countryside has to offer. I always find it quite funny when I see how fascinated people are whilst watching wildlife programmes on T.V. basically watching things that we has anglers take for granted (kingfisher’s, herons, otters etc.).

It can be hard work at times, with lots of hours spent fishing when you are uncertain even if there are any barbel in the area you are fishing. But this just makes it all the more rewarding when you do catch a good fish. You’ve done your own thing, found your own swims and fish and not just followed the crowds.

The Lower Severn (probably my favourite venue).

Fishing plenty of different swims / area’s / rivers definitely helps build your ‘river craft’ and catching from many different places helps you gain a lot of confidence. Gone are the days when you turn up at a venue and have your day ‘ruined’ because somebody is fishing in your favourite swim that you always fish (and therefore have little confidence in fishing elsewhere).  Catching from many different places gives you the utmost confidence in your bait and methods and so if you are not catching then it’s probably because the fish aren’t there, so it’s time to start looking elsewhere again.

Through doing this for the last dozen years or so I have managed to find several stretches on the five different rivers that I have fished (Severn, Trent, Dove, Teme and Warwickshire Avon), that more than meet my requirements, quiet unspoilt fishing, good average size barbel (I have been lucky enough to have caught 11lb+ barbel off all five rivers) and so am never spoilt for choice for somewhere different to go.

I did fish the same couple of swims on one particular stretch of the Lower Severn for a season or so (before I was confident to venture else where) and although I did catch plenty of barbel, after a while I felt like I was just ‘going through the motions’, as apart from the river levels changing, the fishing became pretty much the same every trip. As I say, fine if you are just into the numbers game, but I get bored doing the same old thing week in week out and now find I can no longer fish like this.

So just a few thoughts on what is basically the essence of my river fishing. If you are getting a bit ‘stale’ or bored fishing the same old stretch for those known fish, sit back and re-evaluate why you actual go fishing (is it a numbers thing or is it just being there?) and maybe have a go at a bit of pioneering. You may well find that you get much more enjoyment and sense of achievement from finding your ‘own’ fish and from fishing a variety of venues.

Cheers,

Pat Gillett

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sexymatt_123@msn.com

Message:

Hello I have recently started coarse fishing, the venue which I am currently fishing looks very much like a match fishing venue , although the fish are somewhat larger then match fishing size(2-15Ib), the main fish there are carp. My Question is what type and breaking strength of hook-link should I use, the water is slightly clear but in some-parts very muddy, and has around 5-7 feet of depth in some areas.

The rules of the venue have a ban of the use of braid and other heavy lines like lead-core and surface fishing. My mainline is 10lb filament line and i am mainly waggler fishing using maggots or sweetcorn on a hair-rig, with a simple rod and reel set-up.

Any advice much appreciated

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Just a quick question about the use of boats on French waterways, and that is do you need a licence for them? I have a sport yak with electric engine!!

Many Thanks

Robert Honour

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Sweet and sticky

Baits, but not as you know it!

Having recently gone onto the wonderful Liver B8 frozen baits I thought Id let you in on a couple of little edges that I’ve been playing with recently. After a good few blank sessions on my syndicate despite fishing really hard, I’ve finally managed a great result. At 3am, I moved swim onto crashing fish. Id promised myself that I would work hard to secure a bite. Id had some Glugged Liver B8 hard hookers soaking for 6 months, these would be the ideal hookbaits, lots of attraction with little disturbance as it would mean just two casts. I dispatched two single hookbaits (drilled and popped up) 50 yards apart, in amongst the showing Carp. I had to sit on my hands

I had to sit on my hands!

not to put any freebies out, Im not a great single bait angler. I needn’t have worried, at 8am both rods ripped off at exactly the same time!! Remember they were 50 yards apart, this is something that has never been done on this lake and something I’ve never done in 20 years of Carp angling. Pandemonium ensued however I managed to get both hard fighting Carp in the net. Both were stunning

Linear and heavily scaled Carp weighing 20lb and 25lb 4 oz. I was over the moon and although I only managed a photo of the smaller Carp, I was elated. The boosted single baits were enough.

The smaller of the two

By the end of my session, my baits had been defrosted and in plastic bags for 4 days, they smelt superb so I fired the remaining 5 kilos onto the spots before leaving. I got a call next day to say the swim was like a cauldron! Interesting….. Id kept a handful of baits in my bag when back at home and after 2 days I took a look at them. The baits were very active, smelling extremely sweet, toffee like even and showing releasing sugars. They looked awesome. I crumbed them up and sprinkled them in my pond at home. The fish went wild, ripping the bottom to pieces. Here was a bait that I would normally have thrown away and the Carp were going crazy for it! Id recommend having a play with your baits in the same way. Im off angling Tomorrow and with me I have some Liver B8 thats been defrosted for 4 days. Nearly ready maybe? Ill let you know!

Spencer

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The first two trips were to a stretch of the river I had never fished before. The first afternoon I fished an absolutely classic looking swim with two far bank bushes which were on the outside of a bend (meaning that the main area of flow would be pushing underneath these bushes, giving more oxygen in the water in that area

11lb 3oz – a good first trip

and also pushing any food items along with it), this was also the deepest area of the swim. We started fishing at about 4.30pm on what was a really hot day with my mate fishing about 300 yards below me.

At around 6pm the rod fished to the upstream bush gave a ‘delicate’ 3 feet twitch! , and I was attached to my first barbel of the new season. It turned out to be a nicely conditioned fish of 11lb 3oz. As I was just about to weigh my fish, my mobile rang with my mate informing me that he had just caught a barbel of 11lb 10oz. Two 11’s at exactly the same time, can’t be bad! This proved to be a very short feeding spell has the only other bite either of us had came from a very spawned out chub of 5lb 2oz that I had at about 8pm. We packed up at 11pm. All in all, a good first trip.

Next trip was a total blank. I fished another swim on the same stretch without any bites or fish movement whatsoever. My mate also blanked.

The third and fourth trips were to a stretch about a mile downstream. The third trip was again uneventful, but the fourth trip produced a really long hard fighting barbel of 11lb 12oz. This fish snagged me up solid under a tree for several minutes, but after trying various things (slack line worked) she eventually came out and then proceeded to fight like a demon all the way to the net. This is where it is imperative to use a line with a good abrasion resistance and once again the Pro-Tough had performed well. Just to prove how short the feeding

11lb 12oz – ‘fought like a demon’

spells have become, just as I was weighing my fish the mobile rang again with my mate informing me he was just weighing a 11lb 6oz barbel. These fish were both caught at about 10.50pm shortly before packing up.

The fish have now reverted to type (on a low crystal clear river) with little being caught before dusk. Therefore you need to keep any swim disturbance to a minimum from say 9pm onwards so that you maximise your chances of a bite during what can be a very short feeding spell.

The fish that I have caught have fallen to a feeder fished pellet, with the pellet wrapped in either Quest barbel chop paste or Special Crab paste. The feeder being filled with Quest Baits mini mixed pellets.

The main thing I have noticed different about the river this year is the vast amount of streamer weed that is in the water. It is the most I have ever seen, and from what I have been told the Upper Trent is exactly the same. I would have thought that this would have been exactly the opposite after such a long hard winter. Anyone got any theories on this one?

So there we are, 4 short sessions, not many fish caught, but those that were caught were of a good average. That’s really what my fishing is all about these days, ‘Quality over quantity every time’. Although I have no interest in chasing big ‘named’ fish, as long as I am catching good sized fish in fairly quiet surroundings then I am more than happy.

Cheers,
Pat Gillett

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One peice of none fishing tackle I wouldn’t be without is the amazing Mosquito Repeller. I have had a couple of these for a few years now and must say they reallyare excellent and only cost a few pounds off ebay. I used to suffer very badly by mosquitos but no more,
I’ve used these on very bad mosquito infested places in France such as La Horre and Salagou and they honestly work. Just 2 x AA batterys and they last weeks simply letting out a very high frequency tone which you can hardly hear. I find that one is enough for the places I have fished in England but I do use two in France and nothing comes in the bivvy. I also think they keep flys away. Very good product I wouldn’t be without.

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I have been asked many times how to go about making cork ball pop ups and fortunately the Quest range of readymade pastes make doing this remarkably easy. Simply take your chosen paste out of the tub – my preference is for Rahja Spice – and add some ‘liquid’ to this to make it damp. I prefer to add a bit of egg white and some bait glug or boilie dip at this stage. If you want to alter the colour then simply add bait or food dye at this moulding stage. Describing the right consistency of paste is difficult in words; I’ve messed about making various paste baits for over thirty years so I know what I’m after. But this initial phase needs to be very moist because the next key ingredient is egg white powder, also known as egg albumen. Most bait companies can supply this but I get most of what I need from Sainsbury’s or Tesco’s: it’s sold as Dr Oetker’s egg white powder as a baking ingredient and comes in convenient boxes of six individual sachets.

Anyway, back to the paste. The egg white powder needs to be thoroughly moulded into the damp paste until the consistency is just firm and dry to the touch. If it’s still sticking to the palms of your hands then it’s too damp and needs more egg white powder. Clean and dry your hands, add more egg white powder and carry on kneading until the perfect consistency is achieved. Leave this to stand for an hour or two in the fridge, just to let all the ingredients bind properly. If I were starting from a dry boilie base mix I’d add the base mix and egg white powder to any liquids I’m using and then use egg whites only. Adding egg yolks at any stage makes the final pop ups take on water and go soft too quickly.

Once you have the paste ready then it’s simply a matter of getting the cork balls rolled by hand. As a general guide I’m generally aiming for 15mm hook baits or slightly bigger, to be honest it doesn’t really matter. I will have a 15mm shelf life boilie as a guide while I’m rolling so I know roughly how big to make them. For a snowman pop up I prefer a 10mm cork ball centre. For a single buoyant pop up I’ll use 12mm cork balls and mould the paste round this. You can buy the cork balls in tackle shops but shop around on line – Ebay for example – and you will get them much cheaper. Now take the required amount of paste and mould it around the cork ball with your finger tips. Then move it to the centre of your palms and roll it to a round shape – use both palms in a circular motion. If it’s too big or too small at this stage then just take some paste off or add some more and roll again.

Now boil the pop ups just as you would if you were making your own boilies. About 90 seconds should do. At this stage they may swell up and seem bigger than you wanted. Don’t worry. I then leave them to dry out on a rack in a warm dry place for at least a week. I want them marble dry, totally rock hard. As they dry out they will shrink. The final stage is to put them in a bait pot and add a little boilie dip or Quest Baits glug so that the baits are just coated. I prefer the glug as I’m going to repeat this process three times. After a few days the shiny glugged pop ups will gradually soak up the glug and become dry again. When this happens I add a tiny bit more glug to the pot and repeat the whole process. The finished pop ups will last indefinitely. To use them on a rig either pierce them as usual onto a hair with a stop or tie them on with bait floss.

This might sound like a lot of effort when written down but actually the whole process is very simple. If you have ever wondered how to make your own cork ball pop ups then this is a method that has worked for me. Believe me this could make a huge difference to your results.

Happy fishing.

Elie Godsi

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Hello,  I would just like your thoughts on size of hooks for different sizes of baits, now I’ve always used a size 8 for 16mm baits, size 4 for 20mm baits , whats your thoughts ?

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My ‘river’ rucksack had just about seen it’s final days so I decided to buy a new one for the start of the river season.

Looking through loads of different rucksacks the one I decided on was the Gardner Barbel / Specialist Rucksack.

This has proved to be a cracking piece of kit. It isn’t to big, and because of the way it sits on your back you hardly know you are wearing it even on fairly long walks.

The bag has a fairly large main compartment which will take my flask and a water bottle along with a sandwich box, camera and bulb release in a hard case, camera tripod, over trousers and 2 spare spools of line.

There is an insulated top compartment which is a nice touch for keeping freezer baits etc fresh.

There are two side pockets which comfortably take my Avon scales and a weigh sling.

There is also a large front pocket which again is a really nice touch has it comes complete with a mini tackle box which sits inside a mesh inner pocket. I also put another bits box and my polaroids in this front pocket.

Because of the way the bag is constructed it always stays upright and doesn’t collapse in on itself, meaning that you can have all of your tackle to hand in seconds. I always try and make things as easy as possible and this rucksack certainly helps.

I would say that looking at the build quality it will last a good while, as the material is nice and thick and the zips are heavy duty all the way through.

My only slight gripe is that it would be better if you could remove the top compartment (zip it off) altogether has it is quite large, being designed to hold up to 5Kg of freezer baits. This would just make the bag even smaller to carry.

So if you are after a new rucksack, for your river fishing have a look at this one. For about £40 I think it will be hard to beat.

Cheers,
Pat Gillett

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I unwrapped my eBay prize and was impressed until I tied on a hook with my usual five turn grinner. My tests are definitely not scientific but I estimate the knot broke at around half it stated breaking strain. I was gutted, fluorocarbon is not cheap and I’d just bought four spools of it, so I went through my usual armoury of knots but only slightly improving the lines performance.

Then I noticed in very small print on the box that the manufacturer recommended the double clinch knot. I’d never heard of it, and hadn’t got a clue how to tie it. So it’s off to the internet and very soon I’m tying a knot that looks very similar to the first fishing knot I was taught, the blood knot. The only difference was the line is passed twice through the eye of the hook or swivel and the tag end of the line is passed through the two loops formed trapping it between the hook and the turns of line.

I found it difficult to believe that this knot could make a difference, but the change was astonishing. I found it difficult to snap the 17lb line and would have continued but was in danger of cutting my fingers off or pulling the door knob off. I told you it wasn’t scientific.

We are all constantly trying to get that edge, improve our performance. I’m a sucker and I’m constantly experimenting with new products, tackle manufacturers love people like me. What I will always remember in future that new materials require new techniques, don’t be complacent and just tie your same old knots, it could loose you a real lump. What’s the point in having a new hi tech line that is invisible and sinks like a stone if it won’t land a minnow? Every time you tie a knot you weaken your line, do your research and make sure it’s the right knot.

Ron Key

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