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Forced Hiatus

October 17, 2012 by nathanwalter


So its all been a bit quiet of late on here.  Unfortunately due to work commitments I have been unable to fish at all since my last session on the Thames tributary.  Most annoying because at times conditions have looked really good for a late Autumn barbel.

However the good news is that I have the opportunity to go fishing for 4 days next week and we have decided that after taking the weather forecast into consideration, that we will be heading to the upper Wye valley.  The river level looks good and hardly any rain is forecast between now and next Friday.  Hopefully, if that’s correct and stays that way, we should have ideal conditions for some grayling fishing.

I’ll also be packing a light Avon rod so that I can do some leger/feeder fishing for some of the big chub that inhabit these upper reaches.  Of course what I’m really hoping for is a few big grayling and I’d dearly love to top my current PB of 2lb 11oz but best not get ahead of myself I suppose.

Anyway its a stunning place and I’m really looking forward to this somewhat unexpected visit.

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Berkshire Bonanza

September 29, 2012 by nathanwalter


After a little bit of late summer crucian carp fishing at Marsh Farm I was looking forward to a new challenge.  I had been invited by a good ABF pal to fish his local stretch of river in Berkshire.  Its a beautiful, small, intimate river.  Quite narrow and rather pacey.  At each turn there was loads of overhanging trees and bushes and lots of thick reeds and vegetation.  The water was thick with cabbages and ranunculus which swayed in the fast water.  Underneath this exuberance of growth was a great deal of lovely clean gravel, which the barbel love to feed on.

We took a good walk along the stretch and each swim looked better than the previous one.  It was absolutely mouth watering and I couldn’t wait to get started.  We both opted for a swim for the duration of the session.  Mine had overhanging tress opposite, a thick raft to my left and a deep marginal run down to more overhanging trees to my right.  It just screamed barbel!

I set up a brolly as the weather was still quite unsettled.  The river was up a little with some good colour after the recent heavy rains.  It really looked spot on.  Tackle would be quite simple.  A running rig incorporating an Andy Witham cage feeder.  This would be packed with mixed pellet and plugged with groundbait.  I didn’t intend putting out a great deal of bait and would probably only recast every hour to an hour and a quarter.  I fished two rods.  One baited with elips pellet and the other boilie.  Around both baits I wrapped some of the Sonubaits barbel and carp hemp and spicy sausage paste.  This had been recommended to me and I have to say my initial impression was that it looked and smelled very good. Hooklength was around 3 feet and as always I like to use Sufix Camfusion in 10lb breaking strain to a size 10 hook.  I also incorporated 2 flying backleads to the downstream rod, just to make sure that the line was pinned down as much as possible.  I also tried not to tighten up too much to the rig.  Hopefully all of this was less likely to spook any foraging barbel.

To me the downstream rod would be my top pick to produce a bite and this is the rod I pinned my hopes to.  I very rarely fish two rods and I only did today due to the low density of barbel in this stretch.  Mind you if it did wrap round it was likely to be a decent fish at least.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable day where there was no real pressure to start fishing.  I chatted with Paul throughout the afternoon, enjoying a cuppa and a natter.  Several times I wandered back to the car and soaked up the scenery and atmosphere of this beautiful spot.  It just looked so good and my confidence was high.  Paul was great company and he’s such a good bloke that it was just a pleasure to be out enjoying a fishing session with him on his local water.

Eventually the light started to fade and out went the baits.  It didn’t take long either.  After 30 minutes the downstream rod arched round viciously and on picking up the rod, a big barbel pulled back.  This felt really good and the fish just hugged the gravel bottom in the fast flow.  I eased the fish upstream but every now and then it would surge back downstream.  After a few minutes the fish turned on the surface and both Paul and I knew it was a decent fish.  After several heart thumping minutes Paul slipped the net under this magnificent fish and after resting it hauled her out for unhooking.

A magnificent bronze flanked fish lay in the folds of the net, glistening in the torch light.  We quickly unhooked her and weighed the fish.  It went 13lb 11oz and was a new PB by 7oz.  A few quick photos and she was put back safely.  After being rested for a while she swam away strongly and I felt ecstatic. What a tremendous result from a stretch I had never fished before and within spitting distance of another spot that had once produced a previous PB of 13lb 1oz a few years before.  I could have happily packed up and gone home grinning from ear to ear but we had agreed to fish until midnight.

13lb 11oz

13lb 11oz

I hoped that Paul would also soon be onto a good fish but it wasn’t to be unfortunately.  However at around 11pm with my eyelids feeling like lead, my baitrunner screamed as a fish tore line from the spool.  This fish also stayed deep and went on several short runs.  It turned on the surface a few times before I eventually slipped it into the net.  I called for Paul and we weighed this second magnificent bronze beast.  It was absolutely mint condition and weighed in at 11lb 5oz.  I was so over the moon I decided to pack up and was going to sit with Paul.  However I don’t think Paul could cope with my inane grin any longer and so also opted to call it a day.

11lb 5oz

11lb 5oz

It’s been a fairly slow season barbel wise for me, so this was a real highlight of my year and one I will never forget. My thanks to Paul for his great company and advice.

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Midlands Madness

September 21, 2012 by nathanwalter


The lure of the Trent drew Geoff, Kevin and I back to the Midlands for another sortie on the mighty Trent.  The only problem was the forecast.  From a spell of warm sunny weather to windy, chilly and possibly even rainy conditions.  When I say chilly I actually mean bloody cold, it had the potential to drop to 4c overnight and with a top daytime prediction of 14c, it was set to be long johns weather.

Still we decided to give it a go anyway, mad fools that we are.  Some would say idiots and who am I to argue.  We camp near to the fishery and after setting up we headed to the river.  Both Kevin and I opted for the long slog to the top end whilst Geoff (who was feeling a little under the weather) decided to stay a little closer to the car park.  Its a fairly arduous walk to the top along a narrow and overgrown path.  Numerous overhanging trees create obstacles along with an awkward sloping path, however we overcame these minor irritations and eventually arrived at the area we wanted to target.  We soon selected a couple of swims and as the light was fading fast, got on with setting up as quickly as we could.

I opted for two rods, 3oz Andy Witham cage feeders, 14lb mainline and Camfusion hooklinks.  I intended to fish double elips on one rod and the other would be double boilie. I started to cast out into the respective area with both rods every 5 minutes to get a bed of bait out.  After an hour I slowed that down to 10-15 minutes.   The light very soon faded and it didn’t take too long to get some action.  I had three barbel fairly quickly, all about 4-6lbs.  Then the chub moved in and I took half a dozen all over 4lbs topped off by a real clonker that looked well over 5lb.  I should have weighed it really as chub weights can be so deceptive, but I was confident it was a 5+.

Geoff seemed to be struggling his end although he also caught a big chub which he estimated to be a 5, plus a couple of snotties.  Kevin had a bit more luck on the barbel front taking four to over 8lbs and a couple of chub.  By 1am it was freezing and we decided to call it a day.  When we left the river it was 4c and I think it got even colder early hours.

After a good lunch at the local pub we headed back to the river.  I fished a little lower down this time and had more daylight hours to bait up.  So again casting every 5 minutes with both rods, I put out a good carpet of bait over the next two hours.  About 6.30pm I had a spell of action which produced three barbel to 8lbs quite quickly and then it died.  I eventually caught a small chub and another barbel late on but then that was it.

Kevin had another 4 barbel and a couple of chub and Geoff managed 2 barbel and another bream plus a chub or two.  All in all not too bad considering the conditions.  During the afternoon the temperature had dropped to just 10c and it was bitterly cold.  The river was very low and clear and has been fishing very poor of late, which was also confirmed by the bailiff.  So perhaps it was a good result, although poor for the Trent generally speaking.

During the night we had some prolonged heavy rain and the temperature rose quite considerably.  Better fishing conditions perhaps but not so good for packing up the tents!!  Ah well, hopefully we’ll get another trip in before the onset of winter, although a Travelodge may well replace the tents next time.

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Association of Barbel Fishers Charity Fish-In

September 18, 2012 by nathanwalter


I’m very proud to be a part of the Barbel Fisher’s team (www.barbelfishers.com), which means I’m directly involved in the day to day running of the Association.  I’m proud because of the amount of charitable donations they make.  As part of the ABF’s constitution, fundraising for its various nominated charities, has become a very big part of the group and they raise large amounts of money for various Hospices and the MacMillan Cancer Support as well as Air Ambulance.  Sadly, cancer has affected many of our lives in way or another, so this is something the ABF’s members can do to fight back.

Recently we have just enjoyed a charity fish-in on the river Loddon near Wokingham and we have Simon Bartlett at Wokingham District Council to thank for his sterling efforts in allowing us to use this venue.  He wanted all profits raised by the event to go to MacMillan and we are more than happy to oblige.  The event ran from late afternoon on Friday  through to Sunday lunchtime and was held at Dinton Pastures Country Park.

The Loddon

The Loddon

The river loddon cuts through part of the park as it winds it’s way towards Twyford.  Its a beautiful clear river, with thick water cabbages and flowing ranunculus and a plethora of bankside cover.  Overhanging tress and bushes abound, along with numerous rafts and offers enticing cover  to the canny chub and barbel the stretch is famous for.

The Loddon

The Loddon

I arrived early to meet Simon Bartlett and Micky Holtom from the Barbel Angler website (barbelangler.co.uk) but prior to their arrival decided to enjoy the culinary delights of the on-site cafe.  After demolishing a full English breakfast (and jolly good it was too) I had a cuppa with Micky and enjoyed the sights of the park.  Lots of young mums to keep the brain active!

Simon arrived and he kindly offered to show us the whole stretch of river so we could start to gauge which swims we could fish.  A few of the guys had already arrived and so off we went for a recce.  It was a bit of a trek from the car park but without the gear hardly noticeable.  However once loaded up it was like trekking across America just to get to your swim!  We discovered lots of great looking swims that screamed barbel.  So we opted to list a dozen of the best looking ones and then have a draw for the pegs.  It worked well and everybody ended up with a peg they felt happy with.  In all there was 9 of us on that first night and we were joined by Paul Whiteing the following morning.

Fishing started in earnest as the light faded.  I think all of those leads and feeders being cast out in unison spooked the Hell out of the fish because only one bite came during the opening night to Crooky and he promptly lost whatever was on the end, although he felt it was only a chub.  The temperature dropped quite sharply overnight and so eventually I turned in for a decent nights sleep.

Early the next morning Micky was up and within a short space of time had his first barbel bite of the weekend.  A feisty 9 pounder being the culprit.  I felt this was a great result, for someone to catch a barbel in these conditions ( sweltering hot during the day with temperatures to upper 20s and bright sunshine to bloody freezing at night) was icing on the cake.

The following day was more of a social.  The cafe was the first port of call followed by the local pub and then back to the cafe for dinner.  It was an opportunity to chat, enjoy some banter and hear some great stories regaled in time honoured fashion whilst enjoying a pint or two.  I was also treated to a Wallis casting lesson from Paul Whiteing and with his guidance soon had something that almost passed as a Wallis cast.  Crooky on the other hand……well what can One say!!

Again as the light faded the serious fishing began.  Before long a call came through that Micky was in again.  This time it turned out to be an 11 pounder and really was icing on the cake.  What a great weekend for Micky and a good result for the ABF.  The only other bite was to Lee Sinfield who sadly lost a big fish on free lined luncheon meat.  Still it didn’t spoil what was a very enjoyable and very successful weekend.  The ABF raised another £150 for charity and we all got to meet both new and old friends alike.  That is the last of the planned fish-ins for this year but with more initiatives in the pipeline, we hope to raise far more over the coming months to support our nominated charities.

 

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A Thorough Soaking!

September 6, 2012 by nathanwalter


The last few weeks have been rather busy, so fishing has been limited.  In fact this season I have fished far less than normal.  Hopefully next season I’ll get the night tickets sorted out and start to put a bit more time in for the barbel.

I have managed a couple of sessions on the Kennet near Thatcham.  It’s a beautiful, overgrown stretch in places, with a really good, varied mix of shallow gravel runs, deep glides and pools and plenty of ranunculus.  The whole stretch has loads of bankside cover, lots of overhanging trees and bushes offering a safe haven to the barbel population.  Sadly a bit too safe of late, as most anglers seem to be struggling.  There has been the odd purple patch, but by and large the fishing has been tough going apparently.

During the first session I had set-up in a swim to fish a deeper run under some near side trees.  Further out there was plenty of weed fluttering and swaying in the flow but closer in and under the shade of the overhanging branches it was nice clean gravel.  This spot produced a most savage bite around mid afternoon and a really feisty barbel eventually found the folds of the landing net.  It was no monster but at around 6lbs had obviously been on Popeye’s spinach diet!

The remainder of the day had remained quiet and so eventually I decided to wander down into the jungle of woods and brambles and see if I could spot some fish in the shallow gravels lower downstream.  This area is a wild and overgrown area and rarely fished.  I soon managed to get a few barbel feeding on some pellets.  Eventually I had half a dozen barbel feeding quite confidently.  Most were only about 4 or 5lbs but one was a little larger and may have gone 8.   Of course I should have grabbed my gear and had a go for them but to be honest I was quite content to remain hidden by the flora and just watch the barbel’s behavior unmolested by a hookbait.

I returned to my rods some time later and remained fish-less until leaving time.  The bailiff popped down and it seemed that after visiting numerous stretches to check tickets, mine was the only fish caught so far that day.  That is rather solemn news when you think about, in what was once such a prolific river where numerous fish could be caught in even the brightest of conditions during the day.  Geoff sadly had no luck and so we finally called it a day.

The following week we had hoped to go to the Hampshire Avon for some summer roach fishing.  However the weather forecast wasn’t good with heavy rains and high winds the order of the day, which really doesn’t suit delicate float fishing.  Instead we headed back to the Kennet.  This time I decided to fish down in the jungles and see if I could catch one of those feeding barbel from last week.

So armed with just the bare essentials I set-up a rod and net and started to watch the river closely with some polarised glasses.  After about an hour or so I managed to get a few fish feeding.  So I finished setting up the rod and continued to feed the growing number of barbel that were now foraging just out in front of me.  It was then I felt the first few spits of rain.  The clouds looked dark and menacing but I decided to persevere.  I waited for the barbel to vacate the swim and then dropped a baited hook out and thew in a few more freebies.  Then the heavens opened.  The rain became very heavy very quickly and the river’s surface was soon pounded to a maelstrom of impenetrable white water.  I could no longer see what was happening or where to cast and water was cascading off of my hat and running down the inside of my waterproof coat.  Luckily I had put my Goretex trousers on and so at least my lower half was dry.

I rushed back to where I had stashed the remainder of the gear and quickly setup my brolly and then shot back to my swim and got the rest of my tackle under cover.  However by now I was soaked through to the skin on the upper half of my body.  The rain continued unabated for several hours.  It eventually eased off mid afternoon but by now the damage was done.  The temperature had dropped quite considerably and both Geoff and I were soaked through.  I had setup camp in a very nice looking swim though, with a lot of far bank cover and completely out of the blue, the rod top knocked violently and then dragged round.  Initially I thought I was on to a half decent chub and then the fish woke up and it was now obvious what the culprit was.  After a nice fight I weighed the barbel and it was just a tad under 7 1/2lbs.  It was the only action of the day and by 7pm I’d had enough and managed to persuade Geoff to call it a day and head to Max’s cafe for a well earned hot meal- 4 rashers of bacon, 2 fried eggs, chips and beans.  Lovely jubbly.

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Narrow Boats and Barbel

August 24, 2012 by nathanwalter


A return to the Midlands was in order and so Kevin, Geoff and I made arrangements to camp in our usual place and fish the Trent.  Both Geoff and I had already paid a visit to the Trent a while back but this would be Kev’s first visit of the season, so we hoped it would be a little easier than the last one.

The forecast was for some pretty heavy rain on the Wednesday but Tuesday sounded dry and the weather was at least warm.  By the time we set up the tents and arrived at the river it was almost 7pm.  I wandered upstream quite some distance and decided on a two pronged attack.  I would fish one round around half way and the other, more powerful rod, would be cast as far across and into the main flow as possible.  The closer rod was set-up with pretty much standard Trent tactics in mind: a large open end feeder packed with pellets and plugged with groundbait.  I used 14lb mainline and a 10lb Sufix coated hooklink, which was about 3 feet long.  The second rod was pretty much the same but because of the distance I was hoping to fish I dispensed with the feeder and used a shorter hook length.

Constant casting with the feeder rod every few minutes started to build up the swim, whilst the other rod would be left to its own devices.  If one rod started to produce good results, then I planned to mirror that with the second rod.  As it turned out the feeder rod at the half way mark produced the only action and eventually I brought in the distance rod and set that up with a feeder and fished the same area.

The fishing was fairly slow for me really.  I ended the night with just 5 barbel but one was a decent one at 9lb 15oz.  Geoff was finding it similarly slow going, whilst Kevin had not had a fish.  However that soon changed after midnight.  Suddenly Kev was getting a bite a chuck.  So we fished through until 2.30am when we just couldn’t fish any longer.  Kev ended up with 9 barbel to around 9lbs.

So not a bad start I suppose but not brilliant for the Trent.  The river was much lower and clearer now and after the high levels that it had for most of the last 2 or 3 months, was fishing understandably slower.  So the next morning we headed to the farm shop for breakfast (full English with chips…..yummy) and then we headed to the river again around late lunchtime.  Kev headed for the same swim as the night before and I headed to the upper limits of the fishery.  It was a bloody long walk but the area looked very good.  Here the main flow was about halfway and the river a little narrower.  Geoff ended up about halfway between me and Kevin.

Again I opted to fish two rods about halfway out into the main flow.  Both rods were cast every 5 or 6 minutes throughout the afternoon to keep plenty of bait going in and hopefully pull those large shoals of barbel in.  Two fish came to my rods during the afternoon, whilst the others struggled for a bite.  Kevin opted to fish a lighter set-up and hopefully get amongst the roach.  It worked and he caught numerous decent roach but lost one at the net that he thought might just go 2.  I also managed a nice roach which looked around the 1lb mark.

Throughout the afternoon and early evening we were subjected to some very heavy rains and a thunderstorm.  Luckily I had managed to set the brolly up just prior to the heavens opening.  Eventually the banks started to get a little treacherous and on one occasion I did a sort of Harold Lloyd impression and went arse over tit.  No harm done, just a bruised backside for my troubles.  Eventually the rain eased off and the remainder of the night was dry.

During the two days we were there, numerous narrow boats and big cruisers plowed up and down the river.  They are always respectful and remain about halfway out, thus avoiding angler’s lines.  However one decided to come through less than a quarter of the way across and by the time I saw it, it was almost too late.  Due to the trees to my right (upstream) I often couldn’t see the boats until they were almost on top of me.  Generally of course you could hear them coming but because of the heavy rain, my hearing was diminished.  So I managed to sink the line on the first rod in lightening quick time but as I grabbed the second rod, the narrow boat went straight through the line and started to take line.  I didn’t fancy my chances at landing this one, so had to pull for a break.  There was much arm waving and head shaking but I did manage to resist the temptation of hurling abuse at the man and his wife at the wheel.  She watched as I jumped up and down and shaking my fists like Basil Fawlty and must have got the message, because by the time they reached Geoff they had steered the boat across to the other side.

As the light faded so things began to hot up.  I started to get steady action throughout the night and despite loosing a couple of fish and missing a couple of wraparounds I ended up with a dozen barbel.  They were mostly small to medium sized barbel but a couple may have gone 7-8lbs.  Geoff also found a few fish taking 7 but unfortunately Kevin couldn’t replicate the action from the previous night and only managed one fish.  Sadly I think he lost a couple too.  By the end of the night I was getting knocks and twitches as soon as I cast out.  Unfortunately we were running out of time.  We had decided to pack up earlier than the previous night, as we were heading home early the next morning.

So ended another Midlands sortie and no doubt there’ll be a few more before the end of the season.  What I’d like to do is come up in the autumn and fish for those lovely roach…….

 

 

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Stoats, balloons and blanking

August 12, 2012 by nathanwalter


The last few weeks haven’t produced much opportunity to fish due to work commitments.  So I’ve had to do the work thing and the family thing, visiting numerous family members (which is certainly no hardship) and basically be Mr Grumps due to the lack of fishing.

I did manage an afternoon and evening trip a couple of weeks backs on the Kennet, which produced just the one bite and resulted in a small barbel of about 5lbs.  After that I did a short evening session on the Lea and despite the river looking very good and the swim also giving me those vibes that make you think you’re definitely going to catch, I only managed one bite which turned out to be a chub of about 4-41/2lbs, a small one for the Lea.

Again this week I found my usual two day session truncated and only managed to get out on the Wednesday.  I had planned a trip with Kevin and we decided on route to try Rainsford Farm on the Kennet.  As we pulled into the car park we realised we had a problem.  There were already 8 or 9 cars present.  We decided however to at least go for a recce and see where people were fishing.  The river looked stunning it’s summer finery.  Rich colours adorned the banks, as thick foliage offered an abundance of cover to wary fish.  The river was relatively clear and through the flowing ranunculus  we could see lovely, enticing gravel runs.  This was the first time we had seen this section in it’s summer regalia and we were very impressed.

However having walked the banks and discovered around a dozen people fishing, we felt a move elsewhere would be better and so we headed off to the Reading and District Angling Association’s controlled section of the Benyons.  We arrived around 2.30-3.00pm and so I decided to fore-go the meat rolling and find a couple of swims to feeder fish. Kevin found a nice spot quite quickly but I carried on downstream for some distance.  Oh for a pack horse in these circumstances, especially with this hot, sticky weather at the moment.  The sweat was pouring from my brow and stinging my eyes as I headed off to an area I had seen previously.  Luckily Kevin had offered to help, otherwise I might still be there in a heap on the banks.

I found a lovely swim on a bend.  The river flowed in from my right and under an overhanging tree and cut a deep marginal gulley right through in front of me and as the bend straightened out it ran under numerous overhanging trees down to my left.  There was a good flow and depth and I felt very confident.

The Kennet

The Kennet

I decided initially to cast downstream and let the bait swing in under the tress.  I used a light feeder and hoped that this would present the bait where and how I wanted it, or more importantly how the fish wanted it.  As I pushed in the rod rests I started to feel stinging on my legs.  I brushed the feeling aside but the stings were getting worse. “Bloody stinging nettles” I thought.  As I looked at the swim I started to realise two things.  Firstly there were no stinging nettles and secondly my legs felt like they were on fire.  It then dawned on my what it probably was and yes there they were-red ants.  I was covered in them and the ground was swarming with the little red blighters.  I had to whip my trousers off to get rid of them (fortunately no women were present, otherwise they may have swooned beyond the point of recovery) and move right back out of the way.  Eventually they calmed down and by moving across I manged to avoid them for the remainder of the day.  My legs were a constant reminder for some time that red ants are not to be messed with!

The downstream rod never produced so much as a twitch, so throughout the remainder of the day I tried numerous positions in the swim.  At one point I dispensed with the feeder and put on some swan shot and flicked the bait upstream of a huge overhanging tree opposite me.  The bait swung right under it and I thought this would give me a good chance of a fish.  However it was not to be and despite trying several other things, I seemed unable to tempt so much as a rattle on the rod top, let alone anything resembling a barbel bite.

As usual I found myself captivated by the scenery and wildlife.  I heard and then spotted a beautiful Red Kite soaring overhead and an array of other bird life.  Then a scrambling sound in the tall grass to my right drew my attention and out popped a stoat.  It stopped to look at me and with total disinterest carried on with it’s foraging.  A few minutes later more sounds of a similar nature pulled my attention to the left and I spotted two stoats running up the path about 4 feet from me.  They were squabbling in the way stoats do and springing into the air as they squealed and screeched at each other before disappearing into the thick tall grass of the adjacent meadow, never to be seen again.  Well by me at least.

Coxless Fours?

Coxless Fours?

Several times throughout the afternoon I was treated to the spectacle of swans plowing through my swim at breakneck speed, as they seemingly chased each other up and down the river.  I was amazed at just how fast they would swim upstream, let alone downstream.  Then a mother and 5 cygnets passed by.  I was convinced in the end they had been watching the BBc’s coverage of the Olympics with Claire Balding (I know how she feels!) and were all fired up for some canoing or kayaking of their own.  Still we have all gone Olympic mad, so why not I say?

As the evening arrived the familiar sound of a hot air balloon being fired up could be heard somewhere behind me.  Eventually the culprit appeared larger than life and steadily rose silently into the sky.  Just the occasional burst from the burners could be heard as the balloon soared high into the evening sky.  With barely a breath of wind it made slow progress through the still evening sky but eventually disappeared from my viewpoint.

Up, up and away

Up, up and away

Earlier on Kevin had contacted me with that delighted sound in his voice that indicated some action and indeed it was.  He had just caught his first Kennet fish of the season, a lovely 8lb+ barbel in near mint condition.  He was overjoyed and I was delighted for him. I wish I had been a bit closer to Kevin, so I could have seen the fish.  Nothing else happened and we had to depart by 9.30pm and head for home.

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Olympic Gold

July 26, 2012 by nathanwalter


I headed to the old Lea today with me old mate Jules, to have a bash at the ‘Green’.  The Lea is hosting some of the Olympic events from Friday onwards and I might add that the roads are already chaotic.

With the temperatures soaring to 30c I was in no rush to get to the river and after a late night in London watching Danny DeVito and Richard Griffiths in Neil Simon’s play the Sunshine Boys, which was such a rare treat to see two such superb actors in full flow, I certainly wasn’t going to be going early.  We arrived around 3pm in the sweltering heat.  We wandered along the river, checking out a few swims and found a couple that we both fancied for the evening.

So to start we decided to both have a go at rolling.  I struggled.  The water was unusually coloured and it was difficult to see where the weed was, especially without polarised sunglasses.  So after about 90 minutes and sweating buckets in the blistering heat, I decided to move into my chosen swim a little earlier than expected.

I had picked a swim where shallow water dropped down into a much deeper section.  The swim was only around 3-31/2 feet deep with loads of far bank cover.  Directly above me was a shallow, weedy section.  On a warm evening like this I could envisage the babel heading up to this area to feed…..well hopefully.

So after slowly moving the remainder of the gear into the swim I popped down to Jules’ swim  for a cuppa and a lay down in the shade and waited for the temperatures to abate.  At around 7.30pm I went back to my swim and tackled up.  I opted for an Andrew Witham feeder from cagefeeders.com and plugged some small mixed pellets with a little groundbait.  I fished a couple of large elips pellets on the hair.  I recast every 30 minutes onto the edge of the trees and into an area of smooth water.  As dusk approached I started to get a few knocks and taps and then had a persistent tap, tap, tap.  I decided to strike and it turned out to be a reasonable roach but it fell off near the net.

Darkness soon enveloped us and still nothing had happened.  Just as the light was fading I saw a flash of iridescent blue as a Kingfisher hurtled past.  I think it was in training for the Olympics!  Time was passing quickly and we had decided to call it a day at 10.45pm.  About 10.30 the rod top kicked a bit and then arched violently round.  I was quite taken aback but soon grabbed the rod, which was resting on my chair.  The fish pulled back a little too hard to be anything other than a barbel.  I called down to Jules that I was in.  He came up to net the fish….well hopefully.  At this stage I couldn’t quite decide how big it was but then it turned on the surface and we saw the size of her and she looked a good double.  The fight lasted longer than I thought it would but we soon had her in the net.

On lifting the fish out we both thought it was a mid double.  She was long and looked quite plump.  The scales read 12lb 10oz and although not a PB (although it is from the Lea) was my Olympic gold.  She was stunning.  Long, fin perfect and an absolute stunner.  I took a couple of quick snaps and got her back in the river.  After a few minutes she was fighting strongly in the net to get away and she powered off upstream on her release.

12lb 10oz

12lb 10oz

It makes those blank here all worthwhile when you get a result like that.  Wonderful.

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Rolling, rolling. Rolling on the River

July 26, 2012 by nathanwalter


Yes rumour has it that Tina Turner dedicated this song to Ray Walton and I can well believe it.  Geoff and I headed to the Kennet for the afternoon and evening and I was hoping to try out my latest acquisition:  the new RW rolling pin MKII.

Ray Walton Rolling Pin MKII

Ray Walton Rolling Pin MKII

It was a very pleasant day, overcast and with maybe an outside chance of some rain.  I tackled up the Torrix with the pin which was loaded with 20lb Power Pro braid and tied directly to this was a size 2 Korda hook.  I had molded some extra heavy tungsten putty onto the shank and covered it with some shrink tube.  This would hopefully mean that less plasticine would be required.

So off I went fully of expectancy, the mad fool that I am!  I tried numerous swims and failed in all of them.  For those that haven’t tried this method I shall try and explain.  Basically you put on a large piece of luncheon meat, by simply pushing the hook right through and then turning the hook and pulling it back into the meat.  You then cast upstream and put a large bow into the line.  This means that the bait can then trundle downstream, bouncing along the bottom, in a straight line.  If you keep the line too tight to the bait, it will obviously pull it off line and create an unnatural path down the river.

The beauty of the rolling pin is that you can turn the spool and cast out normally and then return the spool to it’s normal position and keep paying off line.  The idea is that that you feel the meat bouncing along the gravel bottom.  You just keep allowing the pin to turn to give line and allow the bait to travel downstream, under tree and bushes and between weed (if there is any).  If you feel the meat is going through the swim too quickly, then add a little plasticine 5 or 6 inches from the hook to slow its progress down.  Bites are often quite gentle plucks but you’ll know it’s different to the normal gravel bumps that you get.  If in doubt strike and strike hard.

The Kennet

The Kennet

Well as I said after a few bite less hours I decided to move into a swim for the evening.  I had found an area of shallow water but with a deeper margin flanked by reeds and heading upstream to a large bridge.  This seemed a good interception point.  So about 7pm I swung out a feeder and a couple of super glued Elips pellets.  10 minutes later the rod top slammed round and a feisty little barbel fought for freedom on the other end.  It was a nice conditioned fish of about 6lbs.  Thirty minutes later and the rod top did it’s thing again and this time it felt a better fish.  After a good scrap I weighed this one and she went 9lb 1oz on the scales and was a stunning barbel.

9lb 1oz

9lb 1oz

That was pretty much the end of the action for me fish wise at least.  I was treated to a rare sight though.  A barn owl swooped down at the back of my swim, no more that 8 feet or so from me, to grab a mouse.  The only sound I heard was as the owl’s talons as they grabbed at the tall grass.  Then it lifted off silently, empty taloned and worked it’s way along the water line in search of another tasty meal.    I also saw what I think were a pair of plovers in the field behind me.  They walked a bit like an upright pigeon and made a funny sort of call.  Having checked the RSPB book I’m fairly certain they were Plovers.

So, all in all a reasonably successful session.  I will persevere with the meat rolling but it may take some time to become even half decent at it.  Practice is the key.

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A Trenting we will go…..

July 26, 2012 by nathanwalter


The call of the mighty Trent was too strong to ignore and so Geoff and I made arrangements to do a couple of nights.  It’s a bit of a trek from Kent but the rewards and scenery well make up for the distance.  As always we got to see plenty of Goldfinches which just add some really rich and vibrant colour as they dart about, resplendent in their gold plumage.

Goldfinch

Goldfinch

Whenever I think of Nottingham, it always reminds me of that great line from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves when the Sheriff of Nottingham (played by the brilliant actor Alan Rickman) says to a young wench “You. My room. 10:30 tonight.” and immediately follows it up to another young wench with “You. 10:45… And bring a friend.”  Brilliant.

The weather forecast was (not surprisingly) mixed; sunny period interspersed with some heavy rain and thunder storms.  That pretty much summed up the whole of the summer so far.  Still undeterred by such things we arrived at the river early evening on the Tuesday.  She was carrying about 3 foot of extra water and looked really good.  We headed upstream and settled on a couple of swims.  After a few bite less hours in what looked a perfect spot, I decided to move lower downstream.  Geoff hadn’t had a bite either and we really couldn’t understand what we were doing wrong.   Just before packing up around 1am my rod finally slammed over and a small barbel of about 5lb was returned safely to fight another day.

So 1 barbel between the two of us was pretty appalling and we both felt rather inadequate.  Quite what we were doing wrong wasn’t glaringly obvious to us, other than maybe we hadn’t found the fish.   So Wednesday we returned after enjoying a rather hearty breakfast at the local farm shop, which had a superb cafe.  This time we opted to fish a little lower down.  I found a few fish, taking four during the afternoon and I moved lower down again early evening and managed a further two from close in on very small pellets.  Six was certainly better than yesterday but far from good.  Geoff still hadn’t managed a fish.

As darkness fell I got chatting to one of the locals who pointed out the error of our ways.  During high water the barbel shoaled up lower downstream leaving much of the upper stretches devoid of fish.  He proved himself right by fishing the evening and catching over 30 barbel.  We decided to try a couple of swims lower down and Geoff managed four and I had three more.

A lesson learned as they say.

The next morning the heavens opened and we had to pack away the tents in heavy rain.  We couldn’t even have an early morning cuppa.  So this is what Hell’s like then…..bugger!

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