Category: <span>Uncategorized</span>

I always seem to be starting each blog entry by saying that it has been a little while since I went fishing and this one is no exception. Hot weather, sailing, being away, visiting my old mum etc. etc. have all got in the way of going fishing so when I suddenly had a free day I took the opportunity. I was going to fish a lake close to home as they have got roadworks everywhere and getting through the town to other waters is a nightmare. It may be OK going but coming back at the end of the day in the rush hour would mean queueing up for ages and I wasn’t going to do it. I hoped to fish the new lake but as it was going to be another hot day and it would mean facing the sun all day I had the alternative of going to a more sheltered lake next to it. When I arrived there was no one fishing my first choice and as I drove past I realized why. The water level was about ten feet lower than usual and the banks were steep like the side of a gravel pit, there was no way you could get safely down to the water to net a fish so I did what everyone else had done and left it. It has been very dry this summer with the recent thunderstorms missing us and as this lake is used for irrigating the fields the farmer had been using as much as he could on his crops.

Driving on I was soon at the alternative lake. This one is fed by a small stream and the water levels were normal. I walked round to where I usually fish which is sheltered from the sun only to find that someone was in my favourite swim. He said that he had a twenty pound carp but nothing else. I went back to the car to get my gear and took it back to another swim which had a few more snags in it but was also sheltered from the sun. Setting up took a few minutes, I put out a carp rod with a method feeder and pineapple boilie and also got my float rod out to try and catch some silvers. Ground bait mixed up and in the water and I was fishing. I hadn’t long to wait before the float went sideways with a typical rudd bite and I had my first fish, a little roach! This continued for a while alternating between roach and rudd and a single perch. I was using some maggots which had been in the fridge for a long time and decided to change to sweetcorn to try and get something bigger without any luck. The float remained still and I had time to look around and look what other anglers were catching. Not much was the answer, the water was still and oily and the heat was building and the larger fish seemed to be asleep. Then I had a visitor, a young robin came and perched on my rod near the butt and eyed my maggots. I daren’t move to get my phone and take a picture for fear of frightening him but after a few moments he flew into a nearby bush so I took some maggots and threw them on the ground for him, which he appreciated!

Then the guy in my first choice of swim came by on his way home, he had caught nothing further and was calling it a day. I decided to move into that swim and spent several minutes moving my stuff 20 yards along the bank. I quickly settled into the routine again and was pulling small roach and rudd out on the float rod. Wanting to catch something a bit bigger I decided to change rods and put out a feeder to try and get something on the bottom. It was lunchtime and time for a bite to eat and a drink and even this didn’t get me a bite. It is usually at the most awkward times that the float dips or the buzzer sounds but not this time. In fact the buzzer had been exceptionally quiet with just one beep for a line bite so I decided to change bait and put a white pop up boilie on. I found my baiting needles and chose the thickest one which is a plain needle to make a hole in the boilie then suddenly my hand slipped and the other baiting needle was sticking out of the end of my middle finger on my right hand. This needle has a kind of hook on it to pull though the line when threading your bait and it had taken quite a grip on my finger and wouldn’t come out when I pulled it. I tried twisting and wriggling it with no result. I wondered what to do as here I was a fair way from civilization with all my fishing gear spread around and a baiting needle sticking out of my finger and decided that I would just have to grit my teeth and pull until it came out. So that it what I did and it came free, pulling a bit of my flesh with it. It wasn’t bleeding too badly so I rummaged around in my rucksack and found some antiseptic cream and a plaster and patched myself up. It didn’t feel too bad so I decided to carry on fishing and was rewarded by the sight of my tip going round and landed a skimmer bream. I cast out again but the fishing was slow which gave me time to look around. I thought that I saw fish just under the surface some way out in the middle of the lake so got out my catapult and fired some dog biscuits out to encourage them and sat back to see what happened. Not a lot for quite a while but I did catch another skimmer then noticed that carp were rising for the biscuits and other food that they found on the surface. I decided to feed them a bit more for encouragement with the idea of trying with my stalker rod if they got enthusiastic. I sat down after catapulting some more food out and my chair slowly subsided beneath me and I was sitting on the ground! Closer examination showed that the metal brackets at the back had broken and were beyond repair. It was a cheap secondhand  chairthat I had already bodged up once but it is now time for a new chair. So, carrying on fishing standing up I could see that the carp were still feeding on the surface so it was a short walk back to the car to get my stalker rod. The great thing about this rod is that at 8ft long I can get it in the car already set up and usually bring it just in case.

I have had some luck with bread as a hookbait and had a few crusts left over from lunch so I carefully threaded one on, taking care not to stick myself with the needle and cast out. Nothing happened and my bread eventually drifted away from where the fish were so I pulled it in. I find that with bread you only get one cast as it usually comes off during retrieval so decided to have a go with the dog biscuits. They are a bit big for a fish to swallow until they soften up and tend to break if you stick a needle in but I managed to get half a biscuit on and cast out. I shot some biscuits out around it as I have noticed that carp are more likely to take your bait if there is other food around it. It gets them going or lulls them into a false sense of security or something. I waited for a few minutes and could see the fish coming up to the surface and then one took my bait and I was in. The fish swam towards the bank and I had to do some fast winding but played him for several minutes without getting a sight of him but it was definitely a carp as it was shaking its head the way they do, not enormous, perhaps high single figures. I was making headway keeping the fish out of the snags and drawing it towards me when suddenly the line went slack and the fish was gone. What a frustrating moment that is, you go from excitement to anticlimax in a split second. It was more frustrating as my tactics had worked and also I had lost some fish like this the last time I was fishing. Maybe I am doing something wrong.

I thought that I would give it another go but my heart wasn’t in it and the fish weren’t co- operating either and as I was getting fed up with standing up and it was nearly time to pack up I called it a day. My mood was not helped by walking past several fish basking on the surface as I took my gear back to the car. It was almost like they were mocking me! I left with mixed feelings, I hadn’t blanked, caught four different species, tempted a carp with my tactics, broke my chair and stabbed my finger, quite an eventful session really! Writing this a few days later I am pleased to say that my finger seems to be healing well but I still haven’t been able to get to my local tackle shop to buy a new chair as I can’t face the traffic. It would be easier to drive to a national chain in the neighbouring town but I really would like to support my local shop. Perhaps next week when the roadworks have finished I will get there!

During the winter my club lost the use of one lake, which was mainly a carp lake, and obtained the use of another. This was handy for me as the new lake is about a mile from where I live, just a few minutes by car, or at least it is at the moment! They are going to close the road for six weeks soon and I will have to drive about five miles to get to it passing several of the club’s other waters to get there so I don’t think that I will bother!

I wanted to fish that lake before the road closure and had a free evening so took the opportunity. The Club’s Facebook page was reporting good catches during the day so I was looking forward to a full net. It was cloudy and much, much cooler than recent days, I even needed a sweatshirt! I drove the length of the lake peering out to find a swim. I turned the car around and this time the driver’s door was on the side of the lake and in one swim I could see three carp nuzzling up to the very edge of the water. I couldn’t resist that so quietly got my stalking rod out which has the advantage of fitting into my car already rigged up, and crept down to the water. The carp had spotted me and drifted away but a few bits of white bread had them coming up to the surface and sucking them down. I put a piece of bread on the hook and cast out and within a minute or two a fish had taken the bait and was off! I pulled on the rod and there was a sudden “twang” and the line whipped back and caught the float in some bushes. I carefully retrieved it then saw that my hook length had parted so I had to tackle up again. This gave the fish time to settle down and a few more pieces of bread had them coming up again. I noticed that the fish were much shyer than other places where I have surface fished and would quickly rise, take the bread and be gone, none of the lovely slurping noised when carp are sucking in off the surface.

A new piece of bread and I cast out again. This time I had to wait, the fish were not coming to my single piece of bread and so I threw a few more pieces in which seemed to get them going and I was soon into what felt like a decent fish. Indeed it was a hard fighter and took line easily even when I tightened the clutch a bit more. He shot off in all directions trying to get away but eventually began to tire and I got a glimpse of him. A nice common, probably into double figures and a personal best. I was gradually getting him close to the net when suddenly the line went slack and he was away. This time the hook was still there, he had slipped it and really spoilt my evening, I have to admit that the air was blue!

I baited up again but the fish had gone really shy and I got no more surface bites so decided to change tactics and put a method feeder out and also my quiver tip with maggots to see if there were any silver fish out there. I had been baiting an area fairly close in with sweetcorn and pellets and hoped that I would attract some fish which had been on the surface. As soon as I changed rods I could see carp cruising just below the surface again!

I had just settled down when the buzzer sounded and I was in again. This time I managed to land it, a nice looking common of about five pounds, I didn’t think it was worth weighing and after a quick photo I slipped him back. At least I had caught a fish and felt in a much happier frame of mind. Then the tip on the other rod went and I was into something small, a beautiful looking perch, which made a change. Then it went a bit quiet and so I decided to move the method feeder to where I was fishing the quiver tip and to give my float rod a go. This wasn’t the best idea as the light was fading and I had a small float on which was dotted down. In fact it was dotted down so far that it sank at times! How is it that a float can sit nicely in one water then sink in another? Anyway, it was getting late so I decided to persevere as I didn’t really have time to change it and managed to catch another perch. This one had another much larger fish follow it into the bank, possibly another perch.

I had another fish on the method feeder and you’ve guessed it, it came off near the net making the final score Carp 3 – Angler 1. By now it was time to go so I loaded up and drove home with mixed feelings. I hadn’t blanked and I had seen a lot of fish but losing three was not great. I will have to have a think about that, was it the hook type, hook size or just bad luck? I am sure that I will be back to that lake as it feels like I have unfinished business there. It is also conveniently close when there is not a road diversion and the great thing is that the farm track runs alongside the lake so you can unload and set up without trekking miles with all your gear.

To finish on a different note, my blog about the little lake near me has really taken off and for some reason is getting hundreds of hits a day as well as several comments from readers. It used to be that my readership shot up for a few days when I promoted a new blog entry on Facebook etc. but wouldn’t reach a hundred then it would settle down to around ten visits a day until the next blog. Recently I haven’t fallen below a hundred a day for weeks at a time and I have no idea why. The internet moves in mysterious ways!

As for the pond, like all the local waters it is suffering from lack of water and the weed has taken over again. I will go over with my rake and see if I can make a clear spot and see what I can catch this time of year. As there is an interest I will keep you updated. 

Well, it has been some time since I last went fishing as life has been getting in the way but I finally found a free afternoon and evening so thought that I would try one of the other club waters as I had only been fishing the local pond recently. I did have a look the other day and the weed is taking over large areas of the water but there are still holes where you can fish. The club had a session for juniors recently and they all caught something, including the obligatory goldfish and it is great that the water is being put to good use.

During the winter the club has obtained another lake, quite big and a bit of an unknown quantity and I haven’t fished there so I thought that I would give it a go. That is until I arrived and found most of the swims taken with a stiff breeze straight into my face. Now I know that it is supposed to be good to fish facing the wind at times but I really hate it and it is not my idea of fun so I turned round and went to an adjacent lake where I have fished before. There was one guy fishing there so we had a chat for a bit before I found an ideal swim, not far from the car park and surrounded by trees and bushes where I could tuck myself away from the wind. I set out my carp rod with a method feeder and cast it across to the nearby island then set up the float rod and thought that I would have a go at catching silvers. The depth was set at only about a foot from the last time I fished the local pond so I thought that I would give it a go and see what happened. (It could have been that I was too lazy to change it after carrying all my gear and setting it up!)

Anyway, I cast out and the float was soon moving around, lifting, going sideways, ducking under but each time I struck I didn’t connect with anything. I was fishing double maggots so decided to take one off and was immediately successful with a small roach followed by a rudd and more rudd, none of them very big so I decided to fish a bit deeper to see if that helped. During all this I was regularly refilling the method feeder and casting it out and also catapulted some 8mm pellets that I had to try and attract the fish. I was getting the odd beep from the buzzer which sounded like line bites which was encouraging as it showed that fish were around.

I carried on pulling out the rudd at a fish a cast and for a change pulled out a tiny perch, they are beautiful looking fish, and was enjoying myself watching the float when the buzzer went for real and I was into a fish. I could tell that it was a carp by the way it was pulling and had to be careful as the swim had trees overhanging each side so I had to keep the fish directly in front of me. It is times like this that I find that I need more than two hands, and the arms to go with them! I had to take the float rod out of the water before I caught another rudd and get all tangled up, then I had to reach for the carp net, which was behind me on a flat piece of grass while all the time playing the fish and not letting it slip the hook. I managed to do all this and gradually brought the fish in closer and could see that it was a nice common. After a few minutes I got him close to the net when he did what carp always seem to do and got a new lease of life and was off again. However, he soon tired and I got him into the net and brought him close to the bank where I left him for a minute while I laid out the unhooking mat and got the scales ready. He weighed in at eleven and a half pounds and taking off the weight of the wet landing net was a good nine pounds. I soon slipped him back and he was away while I sat down for a well-deserved rest and a cuppa!

I put out the carp rod again and decided to have a change from float fishing and use my feeder rod to get the bait to the bottom and try to catch something bigger. Last season I changed from a cage feeder to a small method feeder as I was getting all sorts of tangles and it was still on the rod so I used that. I stuck with maggots on the hook and cast out into the swim I had been catching in and waited for the rod to bend around like it does in the YouTube videos. Unfortunately, all I got was some tentative nibbles which I wasn’t sure I should strike and even these died away as the afternoon wore on to evening time. In fact it all got a bit quiet, here I was expecting the fish to come on the feed but instead the opposite happened. I wasn’t even getting any line bites on the buzzer and noticed that the other angler had packed up and gone home so I was all alone. Not quite all alone as the sound of an aircraft grew nearer and louder until it passed overhead and I could see that it was the air ambulance. It made a couple of circuits and I could hear it landing nearer the town before shutting down. I love seeing aircraft but not the air ambulance as its arrival always means that someone has had a serious accident and can’t wait five hours for a road ambulance!

And that was about the last of the excitement for the evening. No more fish and when it got to eight o’ clock I thought that I would go home for my dinner. So, my first proper lake session of the year came to an end with a decent common and plenty of small fish to keep me busy! Nothing on the feeder rod though, I will really have to think about what I need to do to improve and now that I am back fishing think about what I want to achieve this year. I have had a couple of summers now and caught some nice fish. Time to ring the changes I think. 

If you read the beginning of my blog you may remember that I confessed that sailing, not fishing is my main hobby. I only took up fishing again during the first lockdown as it was something we were allowed to do when we weren’t supposed to be travelling and my sailing club was shut. Well, boats have taken up my time recently as I have downsized to make single handed sailing easier. This has meant my time has been spent getting one boat ready to sell after firstly buying another one, not the way you are supposed to do it! This, along with my week in hospital and strict instructions to take life easy for a few weeks has limited the time I have been able to go fishing but with one boat sold now I am hoping to get back to the bank and some different waters again.

I did manage an evening session at the local pond again and this time the weather was quite different, warm, muggy and sunny. I set up my float rod again and started fishing at about two feet depth and was catching tiny rudd on almost every cast. I only managed a couple of tench and no goldfish or crucian/brown goldfish and to be honest it got a bit boring and I started taking more notice of my surroundings. The road was busy but became less noisy as the evening rush hour went on and I did notice that there were fewer lorries than in the daytime. More birds were singing than on my last visit although there were fewer fish jumping or rising to the surface. I did try varying my bait from red to white maggot which the rudd enjoyed just the same although they didn’t fancy the bread paste at all.

When I first started fishing again I used to get lots of tangles in the line, in fact there was a time when that was the signal to pack up for the day! I haven’t had a tangle for a while but I managed to get one this time, I don’t know how, it was just as I was casting out again the line was all wrapped around the float and I spent a good ten minutes in the gathering gloom trying to untangle it before cutting the line and starting again. I set the depth to only about fifteen inches as I was catching weed and was hoping to fish above it. Then I found that I was scraping the bottom of the barrel for split shot but eventually got the right amount on the line with a hook of almost the size I wanted! I really must pay a visit to the tackle shop in town and stock up on supplies. Buying from Amazon or mail order firms was acceptable during the pandemic but now restrictions have eased I feel that we must support our local shops. “Use it or lose it,” as the saying goes and if I lose it where will I get my pint of maggots?

Anyway, back to the fishing. If I was fishing a match then I would have been pulling the rudd out as fast as possible but as I said earlier, it was getting boring. I always like having the possibility of catching something different and this was getting rather predictable. Then my evening brightened when a heron landed at the far end of the pond. It wasn’t happy about me being there and didn’t settle down to fish but stayed long enough for me to take a picture although the quality wasn’t great as I had to use the telephoto on my phone. I don’t mind herons, I know they eat fish but like kingfishers there are only a few of them around, unlike cormorants that seem to come in mob handed. Shortly after that I decided to pack up, which, as I was fishing light didn’t take long and I was soon home.

So, my reflections on my session? I really must go and fish somewhere else! I need a change and long enough has passed for me to be able to walk with my gear to other waters from their car parks. Perhaps I can persuade the missus to come with me if it is a nice day, I am sure that she would push my barrow and all my carp gear four hundred yards for me!

I felt well enough to have a session on my own so decided to go to the local pond again one evening. It had been a sunny day but there was a chilly wind so I put a fleece on and took a waterproof jacket in my rucksack. I had spent the afternoon going through my gear so that I would take only the essentials as although it was only a few minutes’ walk I didn’t want to overdo it. A flask of tea and I was ready. I managed the walk without any problems and soon set up my gear. I was using my float rod and had it set to the depth which I was catching fish last time which was about three feet. A single red maggot on the hook and a neat cast out saw the float bobbing a couple of inches out of the water. Far too high for any fishing especially with the shy bites in this water and the wind was blowing it about wildly. Clearly I had lost a shot since last time so I reeled in and looked in my box for a small shot. Not for the first time I reminded myself that I needed to get some more shot but after some searching around I found one which balanced the float just right with only the tip showing out of the water.

I waited confidently for a bite and began to notice my surroundings, the birds singing, the wind in the trees, the road traffic next to the pond and the pond itself. There were rings on the surface where fish were rising and one or two splashes where fish were jumping. It was idyllic if a little cold. As the sun went down the breeze was getting colder and I soon had my waterproof jacket on as well. I made a few casts without catching anything then the float bobbed and I was into my first fish, not a tench as I had suspected but a rudd. The fish were still rising and jumping but I was not catching as much as usual and it was a good ten minutes before I caught the next fish, another tiny rudd. I had put some groundbait in but it was not doing a lot of good so I cast into a different area. The float was ominously still so I brought it in with a nice lump of weed on the hook. This happened a few times in different places so I shallowed up to about two feet hoping that I was now above the weed. 

Then came a period where I was catching a fish every few minutes, mostly rudd but a few tench who didn’t like to keep still for their photo, curling themselves up and slipping out of my hand at the first sign of me opening my fingers so that I could take a picture. Then something different, the float rapidly shot away and I was into another fish, it didn’t put up much of a fight, in fact I wondered if I had caught another load of weed but I soon saw an orange flash beneath the surface, another goldfish! I have been catching one every time I have been to the pond recently and they have all been different. God only knows how many there are in the pond, obviously the local residents have been putting them in and they seem to survive and avoid the heron. I know that there are more than I have caught because other anglers have been putting them on the club’s Facebook page.

Then it went quiet for a bit, I tightened the zip on my jacket as I was feeling the chill and decided to take the rod around the lake for a speculative cast. Finding a clear swim was not easy as the weed is in full growth and the light was beginning to go but I found one or two but didn’t have a bite. Then I got to the far side of the pond which looked fairly clear and caught another rudd and tench before I decided to go back and sit in my chair, huddle up and try to keep warm. It was deep into dusk although I could still see my float and the fish had come on to feed again and it was a fish a cast. The temperature was dropping and I started shivering, I was wearing four layers on a May evening and was shivering, what a country we live in! I decided that enough was enough and quickly packed up what little gear I had and went home. It had been an interesting session and I was surprised how much activity there was on the surface and left wondering if I could catch them with a fly or small piece of bread, something to try another time.

I ought to start by thanking everyone who sent me their best wishes as I wrote my last blog from my hospital bed after suffering a heart attack. To bring you up to date I had an angiogram, a stent fitted and was sent home the next day with strict instructions to take it easy! Now, that is easier said than done especially as I was feeling better than I had for a long time and I soon wanted to go fishing again. For the first few days my wife didn’t want to let me out of her sight so she said that she would come with me, we took the minimum of gear and went to the pond over the road which the club had been renovating. It was a freezing morning for April so we were both dressed up to keep warm.

I decided that I would just use the float rod and try the usual tactic of fishing shallow and deepening up until I found the fish or the weed. It wasn’t long before the float dipped and it was the first of many tench. They don’t grow very big and the missus was amazed by the colour as they were the first live tench she had ever seen. I suppose there was a fish every few minutes, mostly tench but with the occasional rudd. All the bites were tentative so you had to keep a sharp eye on your float! I was fishing red maggot which I found works well on this water but towards the end of the session switched to white and first cast hooked a different fish. It began to take line as the drag was very lightly set but I soon got it to the net and could see that it was a crucian or at least a brown goldfish. I tried for another one but only caught another tench so decided that as the missus was complaining about being cold and it was nearly lunchtime we would go home. Still, it was nice to get on the bank doing something that I enjoy again.

The following week was one of those manic ones where you have something going on every day so much for taking it easy! I didn’t have time to go fishing but I did get time to think about it and one of my trains of thought was about lugging all my gear to a swim. Being in a fairly rural area our club waters tend to be farmer’s reservoirs or disused gravel pits and the car park can be a good walk from the water. Normally I can manage this with a secondhand barrow and a few stops along the way but as I am not supposed to be overdoing it I asked on the club’s Facebook page which waters had swims where you could park the car next to them. The replies I got showed me that I don’t know the club’s waters as well as I thought I did!

I also snatched a few moments to read and came across a paragraph by Arthur Ransome which seemed to sum up my feelings about blanking and whether or not the session was then a waste of time.

“It began, instead with a lesson on failure in general. Failure it seems, depends entirely on our choice of what we are to consider success. For just so long as I was full of ambition to fill a basket with large grayling the day was a miserable failure. As soon as I abandoned this ambition as fantastic the day turned into success. Until this moment of, if you like, resignation, I had not known that I was enjoying myself very much. That was because I had been ruling out all the pleasure except that of catching grayling and these were not to be caught. I was now open to pleasure of other kinds.”

Seems to sum it up well and I must remember that it is not all about catching and there are other pleasures to be obtained in going fishing. I wonder if I will remember that the next time that I blank!

I have been thinking about writing a general blog on my thoughts on angling for some time and now I have the ideal opportunity. Why? I hear you ask. Well, I woke up at five thirty last Saturday morning with a sharp pain in my chest which quickly tuned into an excruciating one and I was clammy and sweaty and began to lose my vision. By this time my wife and son were getting worried and urging me to get into the car and they would take me to A&E. That was all very well but I couldn’t move! Gradually the pain started to ease and I went downstairs and got in the car and soon arrived at A & E to find it mercifully quiet. For those of you who think I should have called for an ambulance I can only think that you haven’t had to do that recently, I would still be waiting!

Anyway, they triaged me and quickly took some blood tests and did an ECG which showed that I had a problem so I was admitted and the day was spent in taking tablets, having injections and blood tests and more ECGs. I was kept in overnight and transferred to the area specialist unit where I still am. I am much better but they are keeping me under observation and are going to do an angiogram some time. All I can say is that if you are going to have a heart attack don’t have it on a Bank Holiday! The emergency system still works but many of the other staff are on holiday and when they come back to work on Tuesday there is the Bank Holiday backlog to deal with!

So that is how come I have time to write about not going fishing, because I haven’t recently!

The catalyst for this particular blog was a discussion on a Facebook forum about how nice it was to go fishing now that the weather had improved and Spring was springing and it didn’t matter too much if you blanked or not. It made me think about my angling journey and how anxious I was to catch fish when I first started. I was lucky and did catch every time I went out and surprised myself with my first carp and some lovely tench and was really happy. How easy this fishing lark is, well until the day I got my first blank. Doubts set in, what was I doing wrong? How come I wasn’t catching in the same swim where I was pulling them out only a few days before? I was depressed and full of self-doubt and seriously thinking about giving up as I was just wasting my time. I chucked my gear in the shed and got on with other stuff.

It wasn’t long before I got the urge to go fishing again so I got my tackle out of the further recesses of the shed, checked it over, found my rough treatment hadn’t harmed it and went fishing. I had a good session and caught some nice fish so normality was restored. Some weeks later I blanked again and this time I took it better, it was one of those things that happened from time to time. It was about this time that I started to read angling books on Kindle unlimited and devoured one a week, books by matchmen, specialist anglers, carpers, etc. etc. and I began to understand just how many branches of angling there were. There are also some anglers who can only be described as eccentric in the finest British tradition. They don’t fish in the close season, even where it is allowed, they only use traditional cane rods, seek out waters that no-one else knows about or look for wild carp that have not interbred with modern strains, the list is endless. They talk about their lives and their friends and being in the country more than going fishing and what they catch.

This idea is not new, Arthur Ransome wrote a weekly column on fishing for the Manchester Guardian in the nineteen twenties and he was an expert at writing a weekly column on fishing without mentioning casting a line on the water! His articles were made into a book with the title “Rod and Line” which is available secondhand cheaply. Reading it nearly a hundred years later it is rather old fashioned, middle class and quaint but overall still as relevant today as it ever was.

Another guy that writes about fishing is Fennel Hudson. He is one of the eccentrics that I mentioned  and has gone through the stages of living and working in the country, moving to the city and joining the rat race then having a breakdown and moving back to the country to find tranquility. He wrote about this in a journal and has written other books and has his own website. He is another one who writes about the pleasure of being out in the countryside and not just what he catches. In one of his stories he takes this to extreme when he and his friends stay in a lodge next to their secret carp lake and spend the whole week without wetting their lines! Needless to say beer was involved!

These guys and others have helped me come to terms with blanking and seeing the bigger picture that it is not all about catching but is about being there and enjoying the environment, the flash of a kingfisher, carp cruising on the surface, moorhens and coots calling to each other, the robin that perches nearby comes and eats your maggots when you throw him some. The list is endless and not to be found sitting at home vegging out on the settee!

So, where does this leave my blog? Well, it actually gives me more to write about and gets away from the same old story of “went fishing, caught some fish, went home” which can quickly become boring. In fact I already seem to have started by writing this one in which I don’t go fishing at al!  I just hope that you will come with me on the rest of my angling journey wherever it takes me. 

Yesterday we dragged the small lake and removed loads of silt, leaves, branches and weed. Today it was time to see how it fished. The weather was lovely for the time of year and we were in the middle of a warm spell. I hoped that the water had warmed up a bit and that the fish were biting. It didn’t take long to get there as the lake is just over the road from where I live and I was able to walk there in a few minutes. I was the only one there and decided to fish in the central swim which was the one that I always fished before because it was the only accessible swim!

I took two rods, a feeder rod to see if I could catch anything on the bottom and a float rod. As is my usual practice when fishing this combination of rods I set up the feeder rod first and cast it out into a place that we had dragged yesterday and which I was hoping was weed free. Then the time for a float rod, a small waggler dotted down so about a quarter of an inch showed and a red maggot on a size eighteen hook then it was time to sit down and take a look around. The water was looking good, the only thing that I was worried about was the sun as I couldn’t find any sun cream at home which was surprising as we usually have two or three bottles around. Over the last few years I have developed some non-malignant skin cancers which have needed to be operated on and which were caused by sun damage to my skin, probably when I was a child as we all used to go out in the sun and get burnt without really thinking about it, fifty years later it came back to bite me! 

Anyway, I digress, I moved my chair to the shade and carried on fishing. After a few minutes the float slowly went under and I was into my first fish, a small tench. I have caught these before and I know that there are plenty of them but nothing very large so far. I waited for about ten minutes and another tench slightly bigger bit nothing to write home about! The fish kept coming about every ten minutes although it did drop off towards the middle of the day which is what other people have posted on the club’s Facebook page. Three tench then a roach, which was a much more definite bite then another tench then the float shot under and I could feel something a bit different on the line. I was easily able to see it as I brought it towards the bank, it was a goldfish! The body looked in good condition but the tail was suffering a bit from fin rot, still it made a change and I expect that it had been released into the pond by someone from the housing estate across the road when they didn’t want it any longer! Another tench then a little carp, possibly a crucian or hybrid, then a couple more tench before I decided to go home for lunch. 

So, a reasonable session in which I caught four species of fish although nothing very big. The tench were interesting as they have a lovely dark green colour and a habit of curling up as you try to unhook them or take their picture! I had nothing on the feeder rod, not a twitch which made me think that it is still too murky on the bottom for the fish to see the bait but I will persevere, there have to be some bigger fish in there somewhere, otherwise where did all the little ones come from? Actually I can’t make up my mind whether these are young fish or stunted adults. The lake has been neglected and weed choked for so long that I rather think that the fish have not been able to grow to full size. I have not heard of any predator fish being caught and except for the occasional heron the fish have been able to live in relative safety. One other thing that I noticed was that the traffic sound, which is very intrusive at first, fades into the background after a while and you hardly notice it, which is a blessing! Anyway I enjoyed myself and will be back as this venue is just the job when I have an hour or two to spare.

Once upon a time, because all good stories begin that way, there was a small lake on the edge of town, which belonged to an angling club.  Not many people fished there because you had to walk to it but those that did caught some splendid fish, carp, eels, crucians, silverfish, all sorts really. Then came progress, houses were built and a by-pass constructed and part of the lake was taken for development. The main road bordered one side of the lake and traffic thundered past, the lake was no longer the tranquil location it had been and people slowly stopped visiting it. The swims and the access paths became overgrown and weed choked the lake. In bad years blue-green algae grew and the lake was out of bounds. Drivers glancing at the lake as they passed by would have seen a sorry sight, occasionally illuminated by the odd angler or hopeful heron but for all intents and purposes the lake was an unloved wasteland. 

Time passed, the Angling Club got new blood and began to work with the Environment Agency, the lake was recognised as being in need of urban renewal or some such buzz word, funds were forthcoming, plans were laid. Then came Covid and everything was put on hold but with the easing of restrictions things started to happen. The first thing that was needed was to clear the access to the lake and so a work party was formed. People turned up for various reasons, they lived near or they had fished the lake in their younger days and were nostalgic. Brambles were cut, trees marked for trimming and by the end of the first day you could see the difference! The work party went home thinking that they had made a good start. Then came a delay, summer came and the odd person began to fish the lake which was full of small fish, tench and various species of carp, nothing bigger than your hand. Then the weed got too thick and it was impossible to fish, when the weed died down in the winter the fish had gone to sleep and fishing was hard.

During the winter several more work parties were held. One of the members used a chain saw to cut brushwood and trim the trees. A contractor dug out and levelled paths and removed some larger trees. By the time spring came the lake was looking much better with an open aspect and half a dozen swims, it looked like the place was being cared for but there was still a lot of weed to cope with. The club had a plan and the first stage was to use their newly purchased weed rake to try and remove some of it and so a working party was called for again. When the guys had remembered how the rake fitted together a happy morning was spent dredging the waters. Lots came up, mostly silt with oak leaves, weed, sticks and branches and a few fish which were carefully removed and placed in a bucket to be returned later. By the end of the session tons of stuff had been removed and the helpers were thoroughly splattered! All the guys stood round saying what a good job they had done and how the lake could now be fished properly. One of the helpers said that he would come back in the morning and give it a try but that is a story for another day! Everyone went home feeling satisfied with their efforts and with what could be done when people set their minds to it! 

It wasn’t meant to be a short session, it just turned out that way! For various reasons I hadn’t been fishing for a while so decided to take one last trip to the river before the season ended. It was mild and sunny as I drove to my usual spot, which I haven’t fished for several months as I wasn’t catching, but I decided to give it another go and see what happened. The first thing I had to do was to clear fallen branches from the bank to make room to set up my gear and try not to tread on the clump of snowdrops that were growing, although they were past their best. The first rod in was the feeder and before I could get the float rod set up there were twitches on the tip but nothing there, I put it down to minnows and decided not to continue with it. Trotting the float down a fairly slow moving stream with some colour I soon had a bite, a minnow! Followed by another one and another one and so on. The best part of the morning was seeing a kingfisher zooming along the river in a bright blue flash.

Getting fed up with this I had a look round and saw that a fence which stopped you walking upstream had fallen down so I decided to go for a look. The first problem was a small stream which I had to cross. I reckoned that I could jump it and put one foot next to the bank only for it to sink in the mud nearly up to the top of my boot! After a short struggle I retrieved it and crossed a bit further up where it was firmer. Then I had to find my way through the undergrowth and follow the river. My club does have fishing rights here but it is clear that no-one ever goes there. I followed the river along and found a couple of places that looked promising but couldn’t get too close as I was conscious of the sun behind me causing my shadow to fall on the water. Then there was movement and a decent sized fish of about a foot shot from my side of the river to the other. A bit further along and there was a shoal of fish jumping around in their haste to get away from me. These fish seemed very shy and I wonder whether the fact that I saw a cormorant in the river a while back had made them nervous! Then I found a swim which I could fish, it had some grass instead of jungle and a nice deep pool to fish. I decided to pack up and return to try my luck here.

Getting back to my gear was a trial, I found a large fallen tree across the stream and crawled across it looking very undignified for my years! I had just begun to pack up when I got a text message from my wife saying that the bank had been calling about unauthorised activity on our account and could I come home. Fortunately I was only about ten minutes away from home and as I walked through the door she handed me her phone saying that it was the bank. The voice on the other end was very well spoken and explained that they had detected a suspicious payment to Harvey Nicks for £700 odd and had we authorised it? He then asked if we had internet banking and when I said that we had, asked us to log on and check whether we had been debited for any payments we hadn’t made. While I was doing this he said that he had to check with his manager and while the phone was quiet I asked my wife if she was sure that this was the bank and he overheard this and came back with several reasons why they were including that he had not asked for any details of our account.

He then said that as our account security had been compromised they would have to open a new account with level three security and said that we would have to transfer our money to the new account. It was then that I got really suspicious as I reckoned that the bank could do all that from their end if they wanted to. When he asked us to open the tab to make a payment I had had enough and told him that he was a dishonest person and hung up! Even then he phoned back a couple of times, needless to say we didn’t answer!

Next we phoned the bank to check that our account was secure and after waiting for ages and getting fed up with being told how important our call was to them (though not important enough to answer the phone!) we finally got through and had a chat with a very nice lady who assured us that they hadn’t phoned us and it was a scam. She cancelled my wife’s debit card, which funnily enough had been used to try and make a purchase at Harvey Nicks and assured us that our account was safe. She then put us through to their fraud department and while we were waiting we had lunch, and a cup of tea and thought that they must be dealing with a lot of fraud when finally someone answered. He gave his name as Vladimir which made us wonder whether our call has been re-routed to the Kremlin but by what he said it soon became clear that he knew more about banking than invading a neighbouring country so we relaxed. Basically he repeated what the first lady had said and asked us if we had given the scammer any information or loaded any apps onto our tablet then gave us some advice on how to stay safe online. A bit of a waste of time really but I suppose it will get recorded somewhere and help someone improve things.

By now it was mid-afternoon and rather late to go back to the river so I didn’t. I was hardly in the right frame of mind anyway as these scammers are very clever. They know that you are all emotionally wound up at the prospect of losing money and in my case got me just as I walked into the house before I had a chance to talk to the missus, so you are vulnerable and then they sound so plausible that you go along with what they say. In the cold light of day you may think that you would never fall for it but these people are very, very good at what they do!

Still, it wasn’t all bad, I found a new swim to fish, even if I will have to wait three months to fish it and my wife has to have a new debit card so she won’t be able to spend any money until the new one comes!  So, all’s well that ends well. Although I didn’t get to do much fishing our bank account was safe and no-one died. So that is it really, fishing lakes for the next three months including a new one that the club has just taken on so that is something to look forward to. Now, I think I had better just check the balance in our account!