Lock what we did in The freeze!
THE THAMES WAS RUNNING HIGH AND DEATHLY COLD, BUT TWO FRIENDS FO UND A HAVEN FOR FISH AND ANGLER ALIKE
RELENTLESS rain was making the riverbank an uncomfortable place to sit – no wonder the drivers crossing the bridge were bemused as to why I was there.
“Fool!” they muttered from the warmth and comfort of their cars. But I had good reason to tackle a mud-stained river that in many places had breached its banks, spreading in huge puddles across the low-lying fields.
The chaotic scene had been created by El Nino-fuelled fronts sweeping in across the Atlantic, dumping rain and raising temperatures when they made landfall.
No matter how grim the conditions I try never to miss fishing at times like this because below the surface barbel will be on the move, feeding freely.
My reward on this occasion was an unmissable bite that rattled my 12ft carbon rod, followed by a fight from a fish whose ferocity was a match for the weather. Who were the foolish ones now? Those drivers perhaps? Certainly not me!
A few days later and the country’s rivers were still brimful of floodwater and looking very angry. It wasn’t raining as I stepped out of my hotel into the predawn air, but my spirits were low. The puddles in the car park now had an icy lid and the windscreen of my truck needed a scrape. Overnight temperatures had tumbled to zero, causing the water in the fields and ditches to cool at a rapid rate.
As this spilled into the main river the Thames suffered the equivalent of a heart attack – there would be little life on the move today.
However, weekend anglers get no choice and neither did I, as this trip to test tackle with Ryan Hayden from Drennan had been booked into the diary weeks ago.
I knew that the right choice of venue and species would be pivotal in getting the job done, and that meant barbel were off the agenda. Perch and roach seemed a far better bet and today, for a bargain £28.50, I could take my pick from a number of Thames locations on my EA annual lock and weir permit. What’s more, I could bring Ryan along for no extra charge, thanks to a buddy system that allows me three guests a year. So we decided to meet up just outside Oxford on one of the most difficult days of the year to catch a fish.
The car park was next to an aggressively flowing river that would have been very difficult to tame even if the barbel had been feeding – but just across the bridge was an oasis of calm where the swollen water lay almost still. Within this sheltered lock basin fish would be sheltering from the floods just feet away. All we needed to do was get them to feed.
To win a bite we both chose a static quivertipping approach. My feed was finely riddled liquidised bread, presented inside a cage feeder with a pinch of flake on a size 14 hook and a 3lb hooklength. Roach were my primary target, whereas Ryan was clearly eager for the perch, another classic floodwater species.
Lobworms are rich in amino acids and will win a bite from most fish when times are tough, so Ryan chose a lively wriggler which he impaled on a size 8 Kamasan B983 to 4.4lb Supplex flurocarbon line. He snapped the worm at the saddle and hooked on both pieces, knowing the fish would be drawn to the juices released.
Into his feeder went krill groundbait and liquid – another rich source of amino acids – and a few worm segments.
Like me, Ryan chose to fish a paternoster link. This is far better than having the feeder running directly on the mainline, as the bite is transmitted faster and with less resistance to the quivertip.
Now, fishing in front of us, were two classic baits – bread and worms. Only the weather remained to be beaten.
After my pessimistic forecast I was surprised to see Ryan with a bent rod from the word go. Then, in a comic-book ‘old boot’ moment, he wound in an old reel and part of a rod!
Real success would be achieved by regular, accurate casting, using the spool clips and introducing small amounts of bait regularly. By mid-morning, when the frosty air was no longer biting at our faces, we hoped the fish would respond. Meanwhile we stuck to the task at hand.
When bites did begin to register they were the minutest of pulls, and showed how close to a blank we had come.
Ryan caught perch and I roach, nothing approaching specimen size, but sometimes beating a hostile environment is satisfaction enough.
So remember, not all floods are the same. Learn their moods and fish can be caught even in cold, wet weather.