‘Not quite the’ Closed Season Zander Quest Pt.100 – Pickthanks and Piscinarians

With Dan flying high after his 3rd place at the recent CRT international friendly we arranged to meet up on a local towpath to fish for some predators and for him to share his experiences and knowledge gained from that event.

We both enjoy treading these dog poo riddled waterways, because for starters there are some good fish to be had for the specimen hunter and for those that dare to subject themselves to the often dull drudgery, which for me certainly, can be testing at times.

The lure throwing length talliers can highlight some areas to target because despite the size of the fish caught, sometimes they do throw up fish worthy of a trophy shot. For me that’s a canal Zander over 5lb, that’s around 58 to 60cm, if I look at my weight to length chart of Warwickshire caught Zander. 

My canal Zander PB of 9lb exactly was caught two and a half years ago on Pt.28 of the quest, which is the challenge I set myself, which is to try and catch a cut double….

It is seemingly getting harder and harder. 7’bers, and 8’s have also been caught but the 9lber was a fat’un and came out the blue. I was on a roll and I thought I’d catch one sooner than later and yet, 72 sessions after than 9lber, I’m still going at it when I can, and I’m sure one day that fish will turn up when least expecting it.

These larger fish on the whole are transient travellers because all the fish over 6lb I’ve caught fishing the same swims once revealing themselves. The swim I caught the PB, I don’t think I’ve had a fish over 2lb since that capture, having fished it on many occasions since. I assume they are loners, or maybe pack followers, because let’s face it, Zander need bait fish to dine on, they go where the food is. 

When we got bankside the colour of the canal looked ideal for a predator or two, it was that inviting light green colour with a couple of inches of visibility that suits the Zander which has ridiculously good eyesight in the canals mucky waters.

The problem is with miles and miles of the canal network to go at is where do you start?, what do you look for ?, where do you target, well, to be honest in my experience, having a bait or lure in the water is a good start, because bank time is the key to success. Ok there is luck in fishing, but on the most part effort equals reward if you want to try and bank a decent canal Zander. 

Now I actively look for areas of little or no clarity, because this where they thrive after all, this is where they are top dog, where they have an advantage, and if I can give any advice for the novice fancy trying for them, that would be it.

For this session, Dan would be targeting the edge to maximise his time in the water with different sized lures on the dropshot and with a deadbait sleeper rod for hopefully a bigger fish, and I’ll be doing what I usually do, and that’s fish two over depth inline float set-ups, and for this session, one smelt, the other a roach. 

As seasoned Zed heads, we know when it’s time to move, especially when fishing deadbaits so it was a bit of a surprise when my right hand float had some interest within the first swim, and a fish was on. 

I thought it was a smallish Zander at first, but when it popped up, it was a surprise Pike, which considering the swims I’ve fish with deadbaits over this quest, they rarely turn up, due to the clarity of the water I usually fish. Dan had a small Zander drop off just up from me and we both thought, we are in to a winner here, but then, yeap, the swim goes dead. 

We moved quite a few times during the session and targeted the likely looking holding spots but the fish was tough considering the conditions looked ideal for a bite. Dan scaled down his lure and managed a Zed ‘30’ and also caught some decent score making Perch if he was in competition mode. I had another bite on the left hand rod this time, in a tasty looking swim tight against some cover, but it never developed properly, back to reality with a bang.

Having fished the rivers exclusively since the open day though, it was nice to be back in an environment I’m comfortable in, and to be honest, I cannot wait to get back in to the quest again.

 
I will catch that elusive double, I’m sure of it, I’m going to give it a bloody good go, I know that for sure.

Watch this space, well in March next year anyway, I’ve some river Zander to catch !!!!

Hampshire Avon – Hedge Whores and Hatchet Faces

One’s itchy finger was hovering over the confirm payment trigger, let’s just say I didn’t hesitate for too long, you see Undercastle Cottage near Fordingbridge had been under my radar for a while, I’d stumbled upon it by chance as I was perusing Google Maps after initially looking to book Sandy Balls Holiday Village but the horrendous reviews put me off. It looked such a unique property that I’d found from looking at the aerial satellite image that I needed to book it up if at all possible.

It didn’t take long to find a website that allowed me to book it, the problem was it was already blocked booked up for the next 12 months, so I kept my eye on the dates available and it was becoming booked up extremely quickly so I had to act fast and book it well in advance.

As soon at the Warwickshire Schools 2018/2019 term dates became available I was right on it, luckily Warwickshire had their October half term break later than lots of the country so it sort of all fell in to place really as it was much cheaper to book, not only that but it was available.

A Times travel article had named it as one of the “50th best cottages in Britain” and more recently it featured in the last episode of the BBC2 programme Mortimer and Whitehouse : Gone Fishing.

If you haven’t seen the series it’s well worth a look. It’s about “two old blokes going fishing” and at times as funny account of how to cope with those years when their bodies begin to fail and they had to accommodate some grim personal realities.

Paul had to have stents fitted and Bob had open heart surgery. Between them they were responsible
for a defining chunk of what has been funny on British television for the past 30 years and certainly I grew up with them in my youth. Obviously Paul Whitehouse best known for The Fast Show, and Bob Mortimer for the various incarnations of his on-screen relationship with Vic Reeves, but made up a big part of my life when I was a youngster.

All very apt, it certainly appealed to non-fisherman and showed just how many of us have it as our pastime. It had more viewers than they expected so they have been given another series apparently, so good on them, even my Wife enjoyed it and her eyes glaze over when I talk about fishing.

Anyway better get on track, the thatched cottage is found at the bottom of a wooded track in the heart of the New Forest and stands on the banks of the famous Hampshire Avon. There is immediate access into the woods and open heathland and nearly half a mile of private fishing.

Now I was sold on Fordingbridge looking at its location, a traditional Hampshire town on the banks of the river, and offers a good mix of shops, pubs and restaurants, a small museum of local history and a display of original work by the artist Augustus John, who lived here for many years. Talking of history the medieval Great Bridge, with seven graceful arches, is a major feature of the town and is conveniently situated for the magnificent cathedral city of Salisbury to the north, and the super seaside resort of Bournemouth to the south. 

We'd not ventured down to this neck of the woods that often., so a few trips put were planned as this wasn't all about the fishing, still plenty to occupy the diary makers with.

So anyway Undercastle Cottage came with two detached out-houses close to the main cottage providing additional sleeping accommodation, the Fishing Lodge (yes really) and The Hayloft (If I was in the bad books) and within the cottage bumph and blurb the comment, ‘the river is famous for large Barbel and also Chub, Pike, Trout and Roach’, so what’s not to like….? Oh yeah the family.

“Hey Sarah, have a look as this”

“Yeah that looks lovely, but you do know it hasn’t got any Wifi !!!!”

“Errr yeah, but there is 4G if need be and we can hotspot the kids ipads if we have to, the kids will love it as there is lots to explore, Sam will love the fishing”

“Oh and that’s another thing, I don’t like the fact there is direct access to the river”

“It will be fine, don’t worry !!!!, oh and anyway, I’ve already booked it”

"Errrrrrrrr, ok", “I thought we were having less holidays next year ?” (This being our fourth and my fifth)

“Yes I did say that didn’t I, we are only here for a visit I suppose, I’ll worry about the money later, it’s more than a year off away anyway”

“Oh and it’s not far from Bournemouth you know” “See it’s sounding better already isn’t it ?”

“Yeah, if you say so !!!!”

This was a family holiday after all however there would be plenty of fishing opportunities despite having to forget it's not all about me, but then I'm quite happy to work within the family routine. Not knowing that much about the Hampshire Avon I did a bit of digging and came to the conclusion that Roach, Chub and Barbel would be my main target, the Roach in particular got my interest up because of the size that inhabit this river.

I'd heard about and seen videos about before about the Avon Roach Project before but I did a bit more reading about it and what a fantastic project by some dedicated anglers and conservationists. The scale of the operation is massive and respect to those involved in it and I was hoping to benefit from the good work and catch something half decent.

'We all have our memories of roach, be it the first fish we caught as children, the sight of red fins and silver flanks in a clear stream, the catching, or not, of the whopper, or the stories told on leaned gates and bridges.

The common thread is that the roach is loved by all and remains the country’s favourite coarse fish species. The roach is welcome in any swim, and while the chub may be a nuisance to the barbel angler, and the carp to the tench man, the roach never is.

The roach has something that no other fish species has, but no man will be able to tell you exactly what that is. It isn’t the great size the roach grows to, or its power, nor is it the enormous distances it travels to breed, or the spines, the stripes, the spots, the teeth, or its speed. It is simply humble and modest, gentle and pleasing, but the absolute quintessence and personification of coarse fish'

I did think about just targeting the Roach altogether and maybe a decent Chub would slip up but then I saw some pictures of the Barbel that had been caught in the area, and that just wouldn't do especially when I could fish well in to dark if required.

I'm sure I could manage at least 1 PB....!!!!

So 4 rods (for me) in the end should do just fine for the week where I’d try and capture a decent specimen and maybe even a PB beater. So in the holdall went a 14ft trotting Drennan Acolyte Plus set-up that I’ve used on the Lower Itchen, 2 11ft 1.75TC Barbel rods and also a light(er) quiver set-up, my trusty 1.25 TC TFG river and stream rod with 3oz tip. All rods were fitted with centerpin reels as they seemed to suit the location and methods I’d be using.

Bait well the usual really, maggots, bread,casters, boilies, paste and a few small pellet and meat, errr yeah, the kitchen sink more or less.

The (meticulous) plan was, because you know I always have them, was to fish the ledger rods come dawn, dusk or dark and then trot light during the day with either maggot, caster or maybe breadflake.

The quiver rod I’d fish a small cage feeder with liquidised bread filled with a small amount of hemp and aniseed flavour .

Hookbait well I’d fish breadflake to try and tempt a big redfin from their streamer weed sanctuary or hopefully one of the greedy clonking chevin that swims within these meandering mesmerising waters.

The slim faced Barbel, how will I target them ?, well hardly a secret, my tried and tested method of a big chunk of garlic spam on the big hook and a PVA bag of freebies or a dropper of bait before fishing.

From time to time I’d swap the hooklink to one equipped with a drilled pellet or a boilie with paste.

The tangleator Sam would be fishing with me from time to time, so I’d have his well used little float rod with the gear, as well as the little F1 wand that would have a light link ledger set-up on.

The problem with these sort of the trips is the amount of gear that you need to take knowing that the family and clothes and bags for the week would be needed to be packed first before the tackle went in. So I had to be quite ruthless, slim the gear down and take really only what was needed. That’s easier said than done, however I found it easier by writing it down beforehand and cross off the essential items of the list one by one when I came to pack.

So the longest preamble I’ve ever written I think, how did I, sorry, how did ‘we’ get on ?

Well the weather decided to change quite a bit for the week we were going to be there, a considerable dip in temperatures could well put the fish off, fingers crossed it would be fine. So there were a couple of tweaks here and there to my approach, but largely the plan was unchanged.

A years wait since booking it all came down to this week, a week I'd been looking forward to, for such a long time.

What a setting, the river, the wildlife, birds the gardens....

As expected the river was tap water clear and after a quick nosey up and down the stretch I realised hmmm, this could possibly be a tough one, and boy it was. You can take the boat over to the otherwise which is what I did for one sunny afternoon and not one fish other than minnows were spotted, now we are talking nearly a mile and half, or something like that.

Cormorants active like they usually are at this time of year, so maybe they had driven the shoaled up fish off. There were plenty of minnows that occupied Sam, and he also managed a Salmon Parr, but for me trying every trick in the book, the fish were not having it.

Rolling meat, trotting maggot, bread, caster and lobworm, zilch. Even well in to dark with boilie and paste the fish were nowhere to be seen, nowhere to be spotted. I didn't fish during the day, well the odd time, mainly concentrating on dawn and dusk, but literally nothing topping, even with a load of floating bread going down.

The problem with static fishing at night was the debris floating down, which sometimes bordered on the ridiculous.

Eventually after appeasing the fishing God's an old warrior of a Chub of about 3lb's turned up out of the blue when I was trotting bread and that probably felt sorry for me. At least it was a blank avoided.

Luckily the weather was kind despite the hard frosts on most mornings, so we had a visit to Hurst Castle by ferry, a trip to Sandbanks and Bournemouth, Lymington and Mudeford. The cottage as well lovely and despite only being 18 years old which I didn't know, was built with plenty of character and warmth because of modern underfloor heating.

So I was expecting more a write-up with the fish caught, but sadly not, a disappointing trip to this magnificent river, maybe the Warwickshire Avon ain't so bad after all. The only saving grace of the trip, well I managed to get a cracking couple of picture of a Kingfisher that shared lots of bank time with me.

The fishing was all a bit horse sh*t (loads down here), so much so, I'm thinking of taking up knitting....

With a pin board in the cottage showing big Chub and a Barbel of 14lb, I'm sure there are so crackers to be had here, I'm sure the rain due next week and milder weather, the fishing would have picked up. Oh well, the holiday itself was really enjoyable, plenty of pubs, good food and decent weather, and the journey down to the new Forest was 2hours 15 minutes door to door, I'm already looking at the next trip down.

Warwickshire Avon - Shankers and Soss-Brangles

What a cheek, hand-cut chips my backside, I’d had better from McCain’s finest, those OCD levels of uniformity and mushy mediocrity you served up were straight from the freezer,  in to the fryer.

Pull the wool over the customers’ eyes at your peril, people vote with their feet round these parts. How hard is it to serve up a proper chip these days, not rocket science is it, or maybe it is, maybe the basics have gone out the window because things like cooking in water baths and placing chips in small baskets are in vogue now remember, obviously ain’t got time to peel and cut, yes you heard ‘peel’, a few potatoes.

“Here, take these back to the kitchen please !!!!”

I’m sure there is a franchise chain to be created just serving up what made up the staple diet when I was a kid. The beef dripping you be reused over and over again and ended up making the chips tastier and tastier after every fry.

Ok ones cholesterol levels could take a battering, but it’s not as if I’m eating them everyday is it M'lud.

Now leaving the French and the Belgians to argue among themselves but the first chips fried in the UK apparently were on the site of Oldham’s Tommyfield Market in 1860. 

 A blue plaque in Oldham marks the origin of the fish and chip shop and fast food industries in Britain. 

In Scotland, chips were first sold in Dundee, in the 1870s, that glory of British gastronomy – the chip – was first sold by Belgian immigrant Edward De Gernier in the city’s Greenmarket. It's a staple food that needs to produced properly, not half arsed that seems to be the norm these days.

Maybe I’m getting stubborn in my old age, but I like what I like and that’s decent proper food, a savoy cabbage needs to look like one for example, not something that has been pulled out of the ground way to early from a far off land, and still has loads of growing to do.

Supermarkets take note, they are just as bad as some of these plastic pubs….

Luckily in the area there are plenty of farm shops selling local produce where I can still buy a carrot that looks like a man’s bits, tomatoes that looks like a woman’s and some various sized markies or maris pipers still with actual mud on, mud, MUD !!!!!! yes really.

For this cobbled together short session I was down at a convenient area that usual has a barbus mooching around at dusk for a belly buster. Rather than the garlic canned cooked meat concoction where the greedy chub nicked it time after time last time here till I reduced the bait size. So for this session the processed pork was out, and it was replaced with only the finest of ingredients, (the packaging says so) contained within the finest of boilies and the pungent of paste.

The beauty of fishing a bait like this is that the chub can do their level best to strip, pull and pluck the bait off the hair but it’s only when the rod properly goes over there is any need to strike, re-bait the or recast. For short sessions like this it’s ideal as the minimum of tackle is needed, rods already baited, a tub of paste, an hooking mat and scales and that’s about it.

Preparation is the key, as is fishing at the right time. In-fact thinking about it, all the Barbel I’ve caught this season have always been on short sessions prior to dusk.

No long 5 hour session sat on ones backside to be seen here. I seem to be traveling lighter and lighter these days when I rove around, suits my style and such, I cannot remember the last time I’ve brought my seat along.

Now talking of traveling light, I used to carry a portable LED floodlight as the iPhone is pretty rubbish in low light even after the software change where when the front camera is used, the screen illuminates white with the strongest of contrast prior to the picture being taken.

The floodlight for was ditched for a lightweight clip on light that I wanted to try out in service so to speak. Can be used for either the front or rear camera and when mounted on the front hopefully the selfie pics will be much better.

I hate messing around when I’m taking fish pictures and I was hoping this was exactly what I needed, the LED light was a bit of a faff, because it was maybe too bright, leaving to overexposure and reflections from the fish.

So the preamble was a waste of time, an hour and a half before dusk the rods went out, it was low and very clear too and with barbel particularly being on the body clock, in these conditions it was when the sun went down things should start to happen. Things did happen but it the savage chub that gone in on the act. The left hand rods top moved around a foot in a split section on a few occasions but didn't materialise in to a fish sadly.

If the clubs restrictions were not in place I'm sure eventfully a fish would have turned up but sadly the light remained in it's bag.

A big fat blank, but then you cannot win them all !!!!