Improve Your Coarse Fishing (UK)
Bob Roberts
My monthly fishing diary
Week one...
BUOYED by the success of our previous trip to Sykehouse Fisheries, Brian Skoyles and I couldn’t wait to return. That fifirst first trip, while relatively successful, had thrown up so many unanswered questions. Why did we only catch in the fifirst first hour? Did we move away from a hotspot in our quest for bites? Was Brian’s big perch simply a flfluke? fluke? We both set up a flfloat float rod and a straight lead rod giving us opportunities to cover near and far lines but neither of us had so much as a bite on the flfloat float so it wasn’t long before we abandoned that approach. Brian caught a couple of perch early on while I blanked at the far end of the lake, so common sense suggested I move. By leapfrogging him we would be fifishing fishing close enough to swap ideas and compare notes.
In mid- morning we were joined by Kevin Clifford who was on a scouting mission. Like many this season, he was struggling to locate the big perch it is renowned for. His timing proved to be immaculate as Brian hooked into a serious perch on a raw prawn. It went 3lb 6oz. This was followed by a carp each and a couple of smaller perch to Brian on double lobworm.
Meanwhile I was struggling for bites on cooked prawns and was eventually reduced to raiding Brian’s bait boxes for alternatives. Through the afternoon Brian experienced a number of sharp plucks that failed to develop into proper bites. It was frustrating, so we compared rigs and discussed alternative presentations.
I was using a lead clip, which was okay for hooking carp but perhaps wrong for perch. Brian was using a free running paternoster rig that was an improvement on my presentation but still not that efficient. I suggested he switch to a fixed paternoster with a longish hooklink. Bingo! He was suddenly getting hittable bites, so I switched one rod to the same rig and sure enough my hair- rigged double lobworm was taken confidently by another huge perch, this one weighing 3lb 8oz. You can’t fault a trip where two key lessons are learned – preferred baits and successful presentation. There are large areas of this lake that we have yet to try, nor have we considered the other two longerestablished lakes on site.
Our biggest drawback is we started this project too late in the winter. Carp are starting to wake up and very soon so will the myriad roach and bream. But we won’t make the same mistake next winter. It sounds mad to be saying this, but roll on October and the first frosts!
Week two...
With the weatherman warning of significant signifificant snowfalls in the coming days and rivers already so high they were frankly dangerous, I was now pretty much reduced to fishing fifishing for bites.
Wednesday looked like being the best day for a while but a maximum forecast air temperature of just three degrees and a wind gusting to 20mph meant it was definitely a case of wrapping up really warm.
It had been a while since I last visited Springvale Lakes at Bevercotes, just off the A1, a delightful setting in rolling Robin Hood countryside. Be in no doubt that this fishery is going places. There are now six good- sized match lakes and a couple of smaller ones, well- spaced pegs, manicured lawns and parking behind every peg. The first thing that a new visitor sees is the imposing cafe that is being built right in the centre of the complex with picture windows looking out over Newcastle Lake, named after the Duke who’s estate the complex lies within.
Newcastle is like a sea compared with a lot of modern commercials with 50 pegs, 25 down each side with a decent chuck required to reach a string of central islands. What a pleasure it was to park on dry ground and set up my box on a good- sized flat concrete pad. I’ve spent as much time cleaning my gear this past month as fishing with so many of my regular haunts turning into replica paddy fields.
Springvale’s owners are waiting for a break in the weather to concrete the final 25 pegs on the far side of the lake, which meant I had Hobson’s choice about which side I could fish. fifish. With a gusty wind blowing I took peg 1 which was less choppy than the far end.
No point in trying to be clever and use a light float or small hooks. Presentation would matter but landing fish while the pole was being buffeted around meant a size 18 hook was as small as I dare risk. Feeding was fun. I could probably throw maggots three yards into the wind before they stopped in mid- air, did a complete 180 and fell in the margins! I suppose I could have used a pot but hanging on to the pole would have been a nightmare so it was a case of trying to catapult accurately into the wind.
I started out on seven sections but as the wind picked up I had to drop back to six. I catapulted pouches of maggots wherever the wind would let me but the feed still went all over the place, sometimes straight in front, more often somewhere to the right, short, long, I just had to hope for the best! But I persevered and it really didn’t matter, the swim was solid. Indeed I had plenty in just four hours. A bite practically every drop in – tiny tench, crucians, chub, small carp and loads of ide. Winter days don’t get much better but I was glad to pack up when I did.
I can take frosty days, snow even, but a stiff wind on a cold day takes away so much of the fun.
Week three...
There’s an old song by Allan Sherman called ‘ Hello Mudda’. I’m sure you will have heard it, about the kid at Camp Grenada – they say we’ll have some fun if it stops raining...?
Well stone me, it’s stopped raining and river levels are dropping rapidly. The bigger rivers are still too high and the lower reaches are quite coloured but up above Sheffield, the Don is almost back to its normal levels. Even a sharp frost was not going to bother me today. I drove through the Pennine foothills with great anticipation. Crocus and daffodils were out. Dippers and yellow wagtails danced around me as I stood knee deep in water, walkers had smiles on their faces, dogs wagged their tails and I was doing what I love best, running a stick float through pacey water and getting bites! Oh what a joy to be back on a river again. I travelled light, a bait apron, one rod, landing net and very little else except a few bits of terminal tackle.
Bites came in every swim I tried. The further I walked away from where I’d parked the more fish I caught. At one stage I was fishing half depth and catching on the drop. The sun shone down on me and I felt refreshed and properly alive again. Heaven must look something like this.
Week four...
As the fat lady cleared her throat, ready to sing out the river season, guess what? It rained again, heavily. On fields that were already saturated the rivers were only going to do one thing and that’s rise.
With time of the essence, I grabbed a bit of gear and headed off to the middle Don where I felt catching a few bream would be a formality. Nothing complicated, just simple groundbait feeder and a few old maggots.
The river was fairly high with a good tinge of colour but the predicted rise was still a few hours away. Swim choice was a problem. I had the whole river to myself. The bay to my left screamed bream but there was sludge everywhere, a couple of inches deep on the platforms making them potentially treacherous, so I dropped in a short way downstream. Big mistake.
Yes I had bites, in the end it was a bite a chuck, but all were from roach and dace. Difficult to hit and definitely not the target species. And then the rain started, so it was time to say goodbye to the Don for another three months.
With the season almost over I figured on a final afternoon trip to the Trent was in order, even if it was carrying an extra three feet of water. The conditions screamed barbel but I decided that as I’d hardly been able to chub fish all winter I would fish a cage feeder and bread regardless. Chub were unlikely to show to be honest, but surely a few bream might.
My biggest shock came when I spotted another angler. Chris Knapp had obviously had the same thoughts as me as he too was roving around fishing the same tactics. More of him later.
I settled on two swims, just off a bend where the current was relatively steady. It wasn’t long before the first bites came. Twitchy knocks rather than bites, no doubt from small stuff. I ignored them until the tip whacked over and bream number one was hooked. Not massive, but a fish and for that I was grateful in the conditions.
Eventually I lifted into an altogether different animal.
It didn’t move, just sat there banging against the rod tip trying to shake the hook. This was clearly a serious bream.
And I was planning on how and where I’d take the pictures when the hook flew out. Damn! And that was it for this swim. Game over.
No more bites. I’d spooked them.
Time to move to my second choice of swim.
First cast, the tip pulls round and I strike into what feels like the identical twin of the previous fish, only there’s more pace here and the fish turns broadside on to the current which gently arcs it round into the trailing branches of a downstream tree. At least the hook pulled and I didn’t lose a feeder.
I sat there, bemoaning my luck when Chris appeared on the bank behind me. Did I want to photograph a carp he’d just landed? Of course. What amazed me was this was his second of the day, plus he’d lost another, from three different swims in the space of a few hours! All on quivertipped bread and 4lb line.
As evening approached bites came more frequently and several bream hit the net. I could have caught more but a gamble on a last gasp barbel was called for, so, I walked the half mile back to the car and drove to what I felt was a banker swim. My first cast was made as the light went. Surely it was now only a matter of waiting.
Alas two casts, two lost leads and I sat there pretty much unsettled. Should I continue wasting leads in a snag that the winter floods had obviously deposited, or move? Light rain began to fall and that made my decision to quit easy. It has been an interesting, if tough, season. Sometimes enough is enough. Another barbel was hardly going to change it. Time to say goodbye to the rivers for three long months and start planning for fresh challenges on stillwaters.