Transient Towpath Trudging - Pt.44

For the real back-to-nature angler, there's nothing to beat Worzel Gummidge's scruffier brother, of whom it is often said that he keeps coming back like a pong. This is for the knowledgeable angler who once read somewhere that fish are allergic to the taste or smell of soap. So at weekends you take very good care not to use it. 

Superstitious and a great believer in tradition, you refuse to have anything done to render your fishing outfit habitable by a normal human being. 

Your lucky socks were those in which you won the club individual trophy in 1996, and you have never had them tubbed since. The lucky long johns took you to a victory in the needle match of 1997, and since then never have they felt the action of an enzyme. 

Your jumper, alas now severely holed by the depredation of moth and continual scratching through years on the bank, saw you only just miss the top weight in '98. Or was it '99? And your Irish tweed thornproof trousers are held together at the flies by a series of safety pins. 

So what? Where can you buy a pair of trousers like that these days? And who makes zips strong enough to so attired, you make the odd bob or two on the way to the water from old ladies and well-meaning clergymen who press some small coin of the realm into your grubby mitt and implore you not to spend it on the Demon Drink. If nothing else it will cover your fare on the bus (dread the thought !!), on which you seldom have trouble getting a seat or several seats to yourself.

At the water, you indulge in a few odd habits, such as the old matchfisher's trick of keeping maggots warm under your tongue on cold days. Keeps 'em lively, you see. The fact that they turn comatose as soon as they hit the ice-cold water is neither here nor there. Instead of packing a conventional lunch, you nibble happily at whatever bits of old cheese are lurking about among the fluff and unknown rubbish in your pockets. 

Animals on the bank show no fear of you, in fact are strangely attracted, perhaps because you do not smell like the dreaded enemy, Man, but more like a heap of maturing compost, the bilges of a dredger or a sewage farm clearance sale. It is annoying to conventional anglers that, in spite of an aura that could bring a rhino to its knees at ten yards, you still manage to catch fish. It would be a very suspicious fish indeed which associated the flavour of a skunk on heat with any threat to its wellbeing.

Anyway, "wellbeing you say", back on the canals it is then !!! Not for everybody I must admit because you are now back sharing the banks with the great unwashed, wayward dogs and and novice tiller twirlers and that is never good, but look at the positives Mick, plenty of exercise you just have to avoid the ever growing amount of landmines.

Talking of which an item that has been in my armoury for a couple of years now is some marker paint to point out the to toxic toxocariasis turds that blight our towpaths. Over the years I'd stood in it, put my rod in it, hand in it, bag in it you name it, it's all been tainted by this wanton disregard for our shared spaces. If I can warn a potential citizen of impending doom , why not ?

Anyway to the fishing !!!

I am lucky that I have Zander on my doorstep so for this short after work session, I dusted off the rods, sorted out my canal bag and headed to a stretch literally 5 minutes away. To be honest since the canal and rivers trust have been overly active with their shears and chainsaws the Zander fishing has become harder and harder. That cover where they used to hide up in removed in huge quantities and they did the fishing no good whatsoever.

There are dribs and drabs though and those are the areas I would be targeting with my light over depth float set-ups. Manky past their best roach deadbaits that have been out the freezer more times than I'd like to admit, but I'm targeting Zander they are more than happy with a turkey twizzler and a can of tramp juice, they really are not that fussy.

I spotted a fellow Zed anglers car when I got to the parking spot and after a WhatsApp message he had already managed a couple of fish in the area I was going to target, so I started off there and leapfrogged a few spots but there was nothing doing for me, so I retraced my steps and set about the next section of cover to leapfrog.

Again nothing doing for an hour and a half in a few swims so I retraced my steps AGAIN and decided to stick it out in one swim before curfew time as the Wife was heading to yoga.

Not long after I had the baits out Buffalo Si from River Masters appeared from down the towpath and stopped for a good natter. Now he fishes probably more in a week than I do in a month or two, but always good to catch-up as he fishes the same waters.

An hour in eventually a bite on the left rod which after a confident run I tightened up to the circle hook and felt the nodding of a good fish, sadly though after the first proper bend of the carbon the fish came off leaving a decent boil in the surface. 

And that was that, no more bites and back to the canals with a rather damp squib, oh well on the positive note, at least I know the fish are still here, got to look on the bright side. 

All zander anglers suffer with poor hook-ups and circles are good, but you still lose fish like I did this afternoon. Si gave me a hook to try from his fully kitted out tackle box, as about the best he'd come across recently. Anyway on to the next one !!!

River Wye - Middle Ballingham

Best laid plans and all that, because prior to this last session of the season Nic from Avon Angling and I were up for a bit of trotting off the croy where hopefully the chub were up for a feed. 

Now a croy is a natural or man-made protrusion or jetty projecting on a river and used to manage river fisheries, providing an obstacle to slow down current, a shelter for fish, a funnel to net them, and a platform to cast from. 

The problem was that the croy with the recent snow melt and rain was going to be 3 metres underwater, yes 3 metres. The levels just kept on going up and up and up, so there was only one thing to fish for and that was a barbel.

I purchased recently a Korum Big River Rod which is 12ft and 2.75TC which hopefully would be man enough in these testing conditions. The problem was my feeders were inadequate so a quick stop off at Angling Direct in Coventry after work for some 5 ounces feeders and leads, and some Dynamite Shrimp and Krill groundbait I was good to go. 

Nic messaged me when I was on-route to say the river was fishable which was a relief and when I arrived 15 minutes later better get fishing hadn't we. It had broken it's banks in places but thankfully the 60 mile drive wasn't a waste of time. 

A walk down the cardiac testing hill, not so bad down if a little slippy and precarious but getting back to the car is a fitness tester, as for those less mobile it would be a challenge. The Wye and Usk Foundation should be more transparent about the access, it's not brilliant lets put it that way especially when you have to lug all the gear down there.  

Nic knows this stretch very well so those swims you think you could just drop a bait in close you'd actually be fishing on a bramble hedge. Finger in the air to actually guess where the river bed actually starts. 

The wind was baltic, proper cold and through out the day the wind was some of the worst I'd experienced when fishing. Not so much the intensity but the wind chill, which despite wearing four layers of clothing, I could have easily put on a fifth. 

After a walk up and down the stretch to case some of the swims a dunk of the thermometer showed that it was 8.1 degrees, certainly fine for barbel to feed but with the river still rising for much of the day with loads of debris coming down (including whole trees) I knew it would a tough and testing session.

Still worlds away from Gary Lineker's twitter echo chamber and life in general whatever the outcome these whole days fishing, which I find hard to do remember, would be most welcome.

We both went out separate ways and there is only one option for this type of fishing and that is travel light and rove from swim to swim try and find any fish that were feeding.

The stretch is a half a mile long and we both covered that and more, having to negotiate a style and a bridge and a gate in pursuit of our quarry. (I covered 15k steps) 

I lost 2 lots of gear in the process but with Nic's guidance managed to find a couple of nice swims which gave a satisfying dunk of the lead to at least you knew the bait was presented ok.

A longer cast with the 5 ounce feeder in to the mosh pit had the feeder pulled out of position easily even when using a bow in the line to try and ease the tension on the line. It was fishable though and it was just a matter of waiting for that rod to jump in to life. 

A good few hours in without a nibble though this wasn't looking good. The debris coming down was relentless and frequent casting was required to prevent the build-up.

We were both using the same baits with paste wrapped glugged Dynamite Baits Hot-Fish Boilies. Chub on the Wye do seem to love meat and I alternated between the two as hook baits even adding a few maggots on my size 10 hook to at least try and get a bite. 

Not even any chub pulls though so as the session was panning out this could well be a one bait affair. Around lunchtime Nic came for a natter and he was currently biteless like I was. He was in the swim we both said looked the best and 10 minutes after he returned, he had some great news. 

He managed to get a bite and a 6 or 7 pound Barbel decided he wanted to get in one one of Nic's YouTube videos to show off its recent scrape with an otter. 😀

And that was that really, I fished until I had enough which was still around 10 hours of fishing and had literally nothing to show for it apart from a weathered face and a couple of lost feeders. 

Some cold rain was due half an hour after I left and boy did it tank it down when I was driving back. Nic stuck it out to his credit but no more fish for him. 

So not the end to the session I wanted but good company and another Wye stretch ticked off the list. So  2 rods, twenty hours of a bait being presented and only one fish to show for it, as expected slim pickings. 

The river was on the drop and as I type this over one meter down 24 hours later, I bet those barbel are switched on already bet get on it, then again we cannot can we, unless my last name was James and my first name is Bob. 

Back to the canals it is then, I'll be back on the Wye, soon enough, what a place !!!!

The River Arrow - Loafs and Logocentrisms

I checked the river levels the evening before and the Arrow a ten minute drive away looked like it would be fishable so in the morning it was out with the John Wilson rod, liquidised bread with garlic and cheese flavouring and bread on the hook.

The river was turbid when I fought through the waterlogged country lanes and I did think if some worms or maggots might have been the better option, but then a bite came quick in this swim which sadly I missed put pay to that theory. 

Bread for chub is such a wonderful bait and they seem to love the stuff whether it's fished hard on the bottom, suspended off it or when floating on the top.

In these strong tea coloured conditions bread is about as visible as a bait can get so small rivers like this where roving from swim to swim bites can often come very quick indeed. Roving is the key to success this isn't a river to chose your peg and set-up station in it.  

So travelling light is the key and move from swim to swim to try and winkle out a fish or two. The water temperature was 6.4 degrees which wasn't as cold as I thought but it's a fair shallow river in the main and I think that helps.

The first chub was a feisty 2 pounder but as the session panned out it was clear the bigger chub that reside here were not up for feeding. This section of the Arrow seems to have a good head of chub and that was also one of the reasons why I headed here because it often is a decent stretch to get a bend in the rod.   

One out of three swims produced bites and like I said bites can come quick when you stumble upon fish in the swim. 

In one of those with a tree to my left and a slightly deeper trough produced two chub within subsequent casts so overall it was a pretty decent session. I reckon 7 or so chub were caught with the biggest just under 3 pound as a guestimate. An enjoyable morning and with only 2 more days of the river season left I'm hoping to cram another couple of sessions in. 

I'm unlikely to renew this ticket for next season even though it's a convenient stretch because I do like to mix my options up year on year.

I do like the Arrow though so I might look in to other stretches where those Arrow barbel could well be hiding. I have caught barbel on the Arrow in the past and although their numbers are dwindling I'm sure there are some big'uns still lurking about I'm sure of it.