March 2020 Blog

Fishing is my passion and it is incredibly important to me. Not in a million years could I ever concieve of a time I would say this, but it has simply faded into insignificance due to the events taking place this March.

Coronavirus has changed the landscape of this country make no mistake, not just the obvious effects of its damage to the health of the people, but the measures put in place to combat this pandemic have destroyed peoples livelyhoods and curtailed the freedoms we all take for granted. The long term economic impact both home and abroad will be nothing short of catastrophic.

Personally, as I write this blog toward the later part of the month I am no longer at liberty to go fishing anywhere (all the club waters are closed, so at least the temptation has been removed), or drive for pleasure down the queens highway, enjoy a pint in the pub or attend a football match, but I am still working cheek by jowel in an overcrowded office….go figure!!

I temper my loss of social freedoms with the thought that all the draconian government measures can be considered to be for the best for the nation, and have my support, yet I can’t dispel a feeling of foreboding. We are under a form of martial law in effect, and once in place it will be a stubborn stain, difficult to remove completely in the future.

There are no clear timescales or outcomes, but I sincerely hope once this horrible time has passed we can return to where we once were, maybe with a better and more caring social attitude, because I see evidence of heartwarming consideration and selflessness amongst the greed and profiteering.

It all makes reporting on a few fishing trips seem a little bit trivial, but here goes anyway…

06/03/2020 River Dane

A surprisingly tough day considering it was nice and warm (almost a hint of Spring in the air!), and the river still carried the tail end of the recent storms giving a decent amount of colour, maybe a little bit too much in fact!

I decided to try the new club stretch I fished last week, when the river had been substantially higher. I was hoping I would be able to get a better picture of its features now it had settled down a little. It looked very promising too, but failed to deliver a single knock on bread flake, crust or cheesepaste, from any of the first 4 swims I had carefully pre-baited. I began to lose heart, and made the decision to bolt to more familiar waters. At least I knew if I blanked there it could be attributed to the general conditions rather than the actual venue.

I only had a limited time because of the move so I went to my flyer; no luck there, and while moving on I came across another lad trotting, who was as disappointed as me with his lot. It wasn’t fishing at all well, so I was very pleased to get a nicely conditioned 4lb chub in the next swim, on a piece of flake smeared with cheesepaste. It came out of the blue and almost ripped the rod from my hand and was very welcome indeed.

 

Wandering toward the lower limit I noticed the recent massive floods had rearranged the bankside vegetation and created an interesting gap where once had been jungle; it was too tempting to pass so I dropped a ball of liquidised bread down the edge and moved on. The next swim proved fruitless and so I decided to revisit the new swim and if I blanked I would call it a day. It was challenging to actually squeeze myself into position and casting was very restricted, but I managed to lower my rig in the edge, and just a couple of seconds later a wrenching bite and I was in business. It was short and sharp as there were snags all around, hook and hold stuff, but soon a nice chub rolled into the net, again 4lb plus, so a good one for the Dane. I was quite pleased in the end and glad I had made the move.

11/03/2020 River Severn end of season trip

It’s become something of an institution to spend the last few days of the season down on the lovely river Severn. This year I would be on my own as my mates had no holidays left.

It was all last minute, but I managed to book the B&B no problem, however, from the moment I put the phone down the rain started to pour. It was seriously heavy and Wales took the brunt over already saturated ground. The result was predictable, and by the time I set off on the Wednesday it was perilously close to flooding yet again. The locals must be pulling their hair out; it’s been in the fields and streets of the riverside towns for months.

From an angling perspective I thought it would still be fishable, but only in certain swims and there was competition to get one! I know a few such places and found my first possible destination occupied by some Ribble lads on tour.

I tried my next option and was happy to find it empty and grabbed the swim I wanted. It looked perfect but the water was still rising slowly. I was doubtful I could stay the whole day because once it came over the top it would cut off my line of retreat. I decided to chance it and set up a pair of 2.25 rods, upstream a feeder, downstream the ever reliable flood bait of lobworm. Water temp was good, 8c rising to 9c as the day progressed, but the colour went from chocolate brown to a strange milky shade I didn’t like the look of.

I kept the pellet/boilie/hemp feeder working but nothing was remotely interested, but after half an hour the worm rod arced over and produced a decent Barbel of around 6lb that battled hard.

Coming fairly early I thought I would be on for a few, so just took a quick mat shot, but it was not to be. In fact my day was cut short when the banks were breached and I had to make a frantic dash back to the car, that was also in danger of submersion. Who said fishing is a nice quiet sport…that’s the third time this season I’ve had to get out of Dodge!

12/03/2020 River Severn, Stanley

The full effects of the flood hadn’t reached the area below Bridgnorth so I headed there and found it quite empty, just a couple of lads on the flyer swims. I went downstream and set up on the first likely looking spot. Again it looked good, but the Severn was really off form. Just a lively 6lb’er and a late splasher put in an appearance, both on fishmeal boilies on the feeder.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I tried 3 different swims over a mile of the river and generally felt like I was wasting my time, but the sun shone and there was plenty of wildlife to observe, Buzzards battling for territory with each other, followed by running battles with crows, and a spooky late encounter with a barn owl.

13/03/2020 River Severn, club water

A tad wet!

The levels had finally topped out and started to drop a little, but the colour was still there; unfortunately the temperature had fallen to 7.5C. I decided to go back upstream to a stretch I knew would be fishable at these levels, provided the swims weren’t already taken. Happily they weren’t so I jumped on and got started.

The deep slack in front of me made heavy leads unnecessary and 3oz was more than enough. I fished 2 rods and gave it my best shot, working the upstream crease with a feeder and pellet/boilie, but didn’t get a sniff. Downstream I fished the large slack and crease with straight lead and lobworm directly hooked on a size 4’s Drennan super specialist, with a rubber maggot to keep the worm in place.

Around tea time, out of the blue I had a sudden screamer and grabbed the rod hoping for a substantial Barbel to be on the end….well it was a Barbel but just a splasher, not very impressive but it was a fish at least. I hoped it would herald a few bites as dusk approached but it was to be the only action of a long, long day.

Now there was just one more day left until the season finished and I wasn’t optimistic of sport improving, so I drowned my sorrows in the pubs again and had a nice curry in compensation.

What could be nicer, a perfect pint of Wye valley with lovely warm feet!!

14/03/2020 River Severn, club water

Last chance saloon as the saying goes, the infamous 15th of March, last day of the river fishing season, but somehow I woke in a positive mood. There was an encouraging mild breeze, the river had continued to drop and it just felt more ‘fishy’. I headed back towards Shrewsbury where I would be spending the night at my lads flat, so I knew I had until 18:00 to try and salvage something from an awful few days fishing.

I was heading past the venue I had tried on the first day of the trip, and couldn’t help stopping for a look; surprise, surprise, the carpark was empty! Better the Devil you know I thought, and was on it like a flash.

After the week I’d had I wasn’t expecting much, and thats basically what I got! It was a long slow morning, but the river gradually fell and some of the colour dropped out, and it began to look a bit more promising.

Early afternoon I noticed a few small taps on the downstream worm rod, and was hovering over it wondering what was nibbling, when the top suddenly lurched downward furiously…I was in business!

I had a few close calls as the fish went for the submerged snags, but eventually she rolled into the net, the best fish of the trip at around 8lb. The fact that I was so pleased with an average Severn barbel showed just how tough the fishing had been.

Another couple of hours passed without incident and the fat lady was about to let rip; I was even packing some kit away when the upstream feeder rod finally wrenched over, and after a spirited fight a 6lb fish was in the net.

Like London buses you wait all day…even as I was releasing that fish the worm rod screamed off and another of around 5lb was bagged. Trust Sabrina to throw me a bone just as I had to leave…and on the last evening of the season! I am now convinced I would have had a few more had I been able to stick it out!!

 

That was that, the season ended with a bit of a whimper, but I enjoyed a great night out in Shrewsbury later with Alex. He doesn’t fish and was less than excited by my constant references to the Severn and how I was already missing it and couldn’t wait to see Sabrina once again in June!!

Apart from a couple of hours on my chosen Tench water for the river closed season, resulting in my first blank, I didn’t fish again in March. Boris saw to that!!

I hope this crap is over as quickly as it seemed to start, and with the minimum of casualties and inconvenience. To everybody I know (or don’t know), please take care of yourselves, accept the restrictions for now and spend time with your kin. I’m just going to pretend its the old days with a full fishing close season. Can you imagine the joy of that first day we can fish again, or the party when the pubs re-open??

Keep safe and well

Tight lines

Dave

 

 

February 2020 Blog

The calm before the storm!

Two huge storm cells, dubbed Ciara and Dennis dominated February, causing carnage across the UK. Any possible fishing opportunities promised by the influx of relatively warm water were destroyed by record breaking levels, with many rivers breaching their banks.

The practicalities of actually travelling to the venues, and safety issues once there, was bad enough to dissuade me from risking it for one weekend, but other than that I still got out and gave it a go when I thought it was safe to do so.

02/02/2020 to 03/02/2020 River Severn, upper mid

Saturday

I was fortunate to have my lads flat in Shrewsbury at my disposal for the weekend, so I gleefully planned a session on the Severn. My mate Kris was coming down on Sunday to meet me for the day, so I headed over Saturday morning, feeling really positive as the conditions looked absolutely spot on, with a warm air temperatures and a meter of extra water, but sadly my expectations were dashed in some style by a horrible blank!

I had recently joined a club based in the town, boasting several stretches of the river I was itching to try. I chose purely from the brief description on the website, but after a look around I felt confident I would catch. My first swim was in the woods on the outside of a sweeping bend, with deep water at a steady pace right under my feet, and it looked very promising to my eyes. However, despite ringing the changes, 3 hours later I hadn’t had so much as a tap.

A move was in order so I made my way with some difficulty a few hundred metres downstream, struggling through the trees with assembled rods and all the other paraphernalia, to my back-up swim, where my lack of success continued in much the same vein.

As mentioned previously, the conditions were so good, especially for February, that I was very surprised I didn’t catch, or at least get a knock or two on the lobworm from a Chub. I packed up slightly embarrassed, with my mojo in tatters, and even managed to stumble into somebodies back garden while trying to find my way back to the car in the dark….all things considered it was the proverbial ‘bad day at the office’!

There was only one thing for it; I drowned my sorrows in the fine hostelries of Shrewsbury and tried to forget, but I must have sounded very pissed off when I rang my mate to arrange the following days session.

Sunday

Thankfully I woke up in a more positive frame of mind (despite hangover!) and vowed to enjoy myself, with or without fish. With flask and snacks in my bag, things could only get better!

We met on the bank of another club stretch a few miles downstream of yesterday’s venue, a section I have only fished once before; on that occasion it was carrying 3m of raging flood water. It might as well have been a different river today with just a meter on, and in truth it looked a bit featureless. My mate didn’t fancy it much, but I talked him into giving it a chance. I headed downstream and found a decent looking swim where the main flow of the river came toward my bank. I figured the fish would be on the edge of it and I placed a feeder with pellet hookbait upstream, and a lump of flavoured spam on a straight lead rig downstream in an interesting looking slack area that I fancied might hold a few lazy barbel keeping out of the flow.

Half an hour in I had a change of heart and swapped that rig to lobworm, which has proved to be my most effective cold water Barbel bait this winter, and within 10 minutes the worm had worked its magic again, as the rod went off like a rocket; a nice 5lb’er was the culprit. This was soon followed by a larger specimen of around 8-8.5lb again on the worm. Both fish were in prime condition and really fought well, and after yesterday I was mightily relieved.

It went a bit quiet for the next hour or two, so I wound in and went for a wander to see my mate for a catch-up. He was perched precariously on a muddy bank, 10ft above the turbulent water. I suggested he came and found somewhere safer. This he did, and went a few hundred metres downstream of me, to a lovely crease swim hidden in the woods. I went for a look and it was so fishy, I really fancied he would get something before dark.

Back in my swim, as dusk approached another flurry of fish on the pellet feeder rod, 2 around 5-6lb and a very lively one that might have scraped 9lb if I’d weighed it. I have really fallen out of the habit of weighing my barbel lately, mainly due to laziness if I’m honest.

My mates swim finally exploded at dusk, he had 3 fish in 20 mins including a double hook up and a Barbel of 10lb1oz, his first Severn double, which illustrated the importance of being patient and waiting for that short feeding spell, whenever that might be, on these cold days.

He called it quits at that point but I couldn’t resist hanging on an hour and had 2 more, another 5-6lb and a larger one around 8lb.

Seven fish on a cold day, 3 of which were over the 8lb mark in my estimation, was a good return and I really enjoyed it after yesterday’s troubles.

Crampons

During the session the bailiff came along to check cards, and I was impressed with some crampons he had on over his Muck boots. The Severn had been bank high recently and everywhere was coated in silt; it was deadly underfoot and despite fishing a fairly flat swim and also wearing Muckboots, I was Bambi on ice, while he was like a mountain goat in comparison! It’s a sad fact of life that the older I get the less indestructible I feel, so anything that can help is welcome.

He swore by these crampons, and when he told me they were around £15 on Amazon I was sold! With the incredible volumes of water that were dumped by storm Ciara and Dennis, I’m sure they will be getting a good workout before the season ends. Watch this space for a review!

07/02/20 Mid River Dane

Hard frost Thursday night put the mockers on any plans for travelling too far; with the chances of a Barbel unlikely, there’s not much point driving 40 miles to the Ribble to fish for Chub when I can catch them more locally.

I went to meet a pal on a club water but found the carpark full, probably dog walkers, but there isn’t any alternative parking so I called him to apologise for my absence and headed further downstream.

The river was 0.1m up and still had a touch of colour, but the frost had done its worst. Nothing came from the first ‘banker’ swim, and nothing from the second…I was getting twitchy; then out of the blue the tip flew round in the third, a nice fish in fine fettle of around 4lb couldn’t resist the cheesepaste.

Another walk and another nice Chub of 3lb came from a slack under the overhanging trees, things were looking up now. I plodded onward to the lower limit of my swims, and suffered another biteless 20 minutes in a fancied lie…they were playing hard to get today!

By now it was getting toward dusk, and I had just one more spot above a copse of trees to try, strewn invitingly with rafts of flotsam from the floods… surely this would produce!

Just half a minute and I was in business, and it was a good one that lead me a merry dance, requiring maximum side strain to keep it out of the roots; it was touch and go on the light tackle, but the fish was turned and was soon in the net, the best of the day, again un-weighed but over 4lb, maybe a scraper 4.5lb.

The wind was numbing by now, the prelude to the visit of storm Ciara who battered the UK over the weekend. I called time and was glad I had taken my opportunity early. Three decent Chub, all fell for cheesepaste, and all were in great winter condition.

21/02/20 Mid River Ribble, club water

You may notice I missed out last weekend….it was all my own fault because I deferred my usual Friday session to Sunday, expecting to take advantage of the forthcoming storm Dennis, and the ‘warm’ rain predicted on the weather apps. Unfortunately I, (like most of the UK) totally underestimated just how much water was to come, and when the various rivers I fish all reached close to (or surpassed) record highs over Saturday night, I reluctantly had to call it off. I love a bit of flood fishing but not when the banks are breached and the rivers are in the fields.

Thankfully during the week the Ribble dropped fast and gave some respite to the unfortunate householders in the vicinity. I have sympathy with them but not with the government policy of building new houses on the flood plain…that is just madness, and the rapid drainage from all the other new estates in the valleys just passes the problem downstream to the next victims. Flood plains are nature’s way of dealing with heavy rain, allowing slow dispersal of the water and a place for rivers to expand into at times of critical flooding, but the powers that be seem hell bent on building on them, then profess surprise when they get washed out!!

The fast fall of the river gave me something of a false dawn, just under 0.8m above normal level and falling on the gauge was perfect in my book so I set off post haste to a favourite club stretch. I even chose to fish the furthest swim, but I couldn’t help noticing the rain just got heavier and heavier as I set up. It was a deluge of biblical intensity and it just kept coming; I realised my swim would turn nasty and I couldn’t think of any other on the stretch that would be ok if it flooded, so I had to make a decision. Just an hour after walking over a mile with full kit across swampy fields I was on my way back to the car!!

The second venue boasted 3 flood swims I have caught fish from with up to 2.5m of flood water, so I felt it was the right place to go. I was happy to see an empty carpark and set up in a swim with slack water nearside, but within an hour the river was behind me and I was in danger of being stranded. Once again I grabbed my gear and clambered up the bank and headed for the last remaining refuge from the storm, another near-bank slack swim.

This was my final chance so I stuck a huge lobworm on one rod, and a big paste wrapped boile on the other and under-armed them to the edge of the maelstrom. I withdrew to the shelter of my brolley and had a brew, I was drenched and freezing cold with the howling wind, and in truth I had no expectations other than trying to stay warm, and sticking it out until the traffic died down, but fate had other ideas…would you believe it, the lobworm rod walloped over and I was into a fish!!

It was a tricky fight because I was in all probability fishing over the grass bank where I would be sitting in normal conditions…today there was 4m of water on top of it but it didn’t stop the fish burying itself in the snags. I gave it a chance to swim out but it wasn’t happening, so I had to resort to a gentle heave and hope, and to my relief the lead came free and the fight was on again. Another couple of powerful runs that had my heart in my mouth, and she rolled into the net. Well that put a new perspective on a really difficult day, I was well chuffed.

There is no doubt the barbel are spurred to feed when the river goes skywards, provided the temperatures are ok; the problem is how to actually put a bait to them. The choice of fishable swims reduces as the level increases until there is literally nowhere left to try, but if you can find a slack on the nearside where you can keep a bait static on the edge of the flow, avoiding the debris that inevitably becomes the over-riding issue to presentation, you could be in for a treat.

If your rig is too light it will roll into the debris and tackle losses will be certain, there’s no place for subtlety in these conditions, 12lb line, 15lb braid hooklink, size 4’s super specialist. Worms are what the fish will be finding so they are always my go-to bait. Second choice is a big lump of flavoured luncheon meat, but pellets and boilies still work.

The Ribble rose from 0.8 to 4m in 4 hours, the ground was already saturated so it wasn’t a massive surprise, but the rapidity was a shock. My advice is to always put safety first, good footwear, sensible swim choices with firm banks, be aware of your surroundings at all times, especially if you are fishing into the dark; falling in won’t end well!

Ribble flood fishing…Safety First!

So February is gone, one of the wettest months in the soggiest of winters I can recall, but temperatures have held up and consequently the Barbel have kept on feeding. Happy days provided your house isn’t too close to a river!!

I have a few days off for the ‘end of season’ last fling. I plan to head for the Severn, currently just dropping into its proper place after spending a happy couple of months exploring the fields of Shropshire. Usually this trip is blighted with snow and frost but it looks more promising this year…. but please, no more rain now!!!!

Tight lines

Dave