Improve Your Coarse Fishing (UK)
Brothers Carl & Alex, two of the biggest angling stars on YouTube, see out the river season in style with a productive and surprising session on the River Wandle
Last river session
Alex – In mid-March, just before the rivers closed for the spring, Carl and I managed to get out for one last river session. As with most of our sessions these days, we enjoy angling with other people. This time we were joined on the River Wandle in Surrey by Alan Blair, Olly Luker and local expert, James Buckley. Arriving at the river brought back many memories as Carl and I actually used to live nearby before moving to Sussex. For the first six years of my life, before I had picked up a fishing rod, my grandad used to take me on walks along the river. Little did I know then what amazing creatures lived below the surface. I was soon to discover that the River Wandle is a great fishing location. Barbel were the main target of the day, with chub, dace and roach also present. We had been told we may even have a chance of a carp but the thought of that was pretty much forgotten. The fishing here is free so unsurprisingly it’s a very popular waterway and the first few spots James took us to were already taken. However, James knows this place like the back of his hand and had plenty of swims to try. Soon enough we came across a swim which he reckoned would do a bite. He actually told us a story of when he fished this swim using KFC chicken as bait and caught an immense barbel! After hearing that, I was pretty confident my halibut pellet would produce a bite. As he and the other guys left me in the swim to find some other spots, James said: “See if you can spot the orange koi.” I thought he was joking, but I was soon to discover what he meant. After 10 minutes without a bite on the legered pellet, I spotted an orange shape in the water only a couple of metres in front of where I was sitting. I thought it was just a brightly coloured stone until it slowly moved further across the other side of the river! I grabbed my freelining rod which was already set up with a size 6 hook and squeezed on a medium sized shot. I moulded a piece of white bread around the hook and cast to the orange fish. It was hard to get the bait to fall in front of it due to the fast flowing water but after a couple of tries the fish took my bread and as I struck, an incredible orange koi rolled over
in the clear water and darted towards the snags. James was right about there being an orange koi, but what were the chances of me catching it! It fought amazingly hard for a fish of no more than 6lb but eventually the net was under it and Carl came over to take some photos of my surprise capture. I was in shock! After this eventful start to the day things calmed down and no more fish were landed for a couple of hours while we searched hard. Luckily, before we stopped for lunch, James managed a lovely barbel just along from a road bridge. We then made the long walk back to the car park and went into KFC for lunch where we planned the afternoon. For the last part of the day we chose to fish a slightly slower, wider stretch of water. While Alan fished the float and successfully caught a number of different species on maggots, I went walking with a freelining rod. My waist pouch was full of bread and with the sun out it felt like spring. I hoped that I might be able to see either a barbel or, if I was really lucky, a carp.
I walked along the bank looking through my Polaroids and after an hour of not even seeing a single sign of a fish, I came across exactly what I was looking for. In fact, more than what I was looking for. No more than a foot from the bank were four carp all in a line facing upstream. My eyes started watering as I tried my best to squeeze on a piece of bread. I kept myself low, creeping up on them as quietly as I could. With so much choice it was hard to know which fish I should go for, so I dropped the bread in front of the first one in the line. The bread touched the riverbed six inches in front of the carp. It slowly edged closer and closer to the hookbait before confidently sucking it in. I set the hook and a massive eruption smashed the surface as all the carp in the shoal darted off in different directions. The fish I had hooked was going crazy and a lengthy fight of it swimming up and downstream had me doubting whether I would land it. Luckily for me, I did eventually tire the fish out and was able to net it. This fish was the complete opposite to the koi I had caught earlier. It was a dark, old-looking mirror and a perfect way to end the river season. Now bring on June 16th when we’ll be on a very exciting river mission to hopefully catch more memorable specimens.