Keith Speer
Senior Member
Hi Chaps
I must admit, I never just “Go fishing†these days, I always have an objective in mind and I don't just go with the idea that I will try and catch my target species, I always have to have a “minimum requirementâ€, that might be trying to catch a Barbel where there are few, or it might be a realistic size compared with the average size of fish found on that venue, whichever it is, I set a target and plan my session around that target.
Obviously, most days I fail, sometimes that failure is spectacular, sometimes not, but even if I do fail, I find the day worthwhile if I learn something.
I try and make my targets realistic, after all, you cannot get a pb every time you set a rod up and if that were the case I would probably take up another hobby, but I do try and make it a bit difficult, sometimes, in fact, often, the fishing gods conspire against me, for example, a hundred mile drive to a premier Roach fishery with carefully prepared bait can be banjaxed in an instant by a hard local frost, but even on those occasions I still try to make the best of it.
Today I visited a local fishery, I did not get there until mid day and to be fair 3 days of heavy frost and a recent drop in temperature did not fill me with hope, but today I had the bait, the time and the inclination so I decided to try and make the best of it.
As I suspected 3 days of heavy frost had banged the colour out of the river, it was not quite as clear as tap-water (St Albans tap-water that is, I have seen some fairly dirty tap-water in other parts of the world), but it was very clear and the deeper swims had all been taken, on the bright side it was not too bright, so I set up feeling that I had half a chance.
My target today was to be Roach and my objective was to try and catch a fish of over a pound, this was a fairly easy target as the Roach in this water go to over 3lb, but these big fish are difficult at the best of times, so if I could get a few of over a pound I would have been a happy chap.
I had plenty of bait, I had about three pints of Caster and five pints of Maggots left over from a trip to the Itchen on Saturday (first day of the heavy frost), so I didn't use much and a friend had given me his left over bait which was good of him, the Maggot I can save and use later, but the Caster would need careful maintenance so I decided to kick off with Caster and see if that would do the trick.
Caster can work well in clear water, but cold and clear usually points to the Maggot, but as I like to be frugal if possible, I went straight on to the Caster.
My swim was about 3ft deep, with an over hanging reed bed about 8-10yds downstream, the bottom is clean gravel, which shallowed slightly just down from the reed bed, it is a known Roach peg, but it is also a known Barbel peg too.
I set up my 12ft Microlite with an Okuma pin loaded with 0.13mm (4lb 12oz) main line, my hook-length was Preston Exceed 0.12mm (3.1lb) to a size 16 hook and I decided that a Dave Harrel 6 x No4 wire stem stick would do the trick.
To start I fed about 6 Casters every 30 seconds or so, while I had a cup of tea and a choccie digestive (McVities not the Aldi ones which I prefer, her indoors is now on a second warning), tea done I increased the feed to about 12 Casters and poured another cup, when that was finished I made my first cast.
As soon as the float hit the water I missed a bite which “shelled†me, but I had no more bites for about 10 mins, the next bite came from where the bottom starts to lift up, this was where I expected to get bites so I hit this one, which turned out to be a Chub of a pound.
Over the next ten mins or so I had two more “flakey†bites, one I missed, the other turned out to be a Chub of about 3lb, which I landed and walked down to the peg below me to ensure it did not spook the shoal.
The next put in resulted in another “iffy†bite, which I hit, but the Chub shot across the river and left my hook in a bit of rotting reed which broke away as soon as the Chub transferred the hook.
I expected that to be the last of the Chub for a while but the next trot produced a bite from a Chub of about 4lb.
Clearly the Chub were “on the munch†so I decided to increase the bait to about 12 Casters twice a trot, I was hoping that the Chub would miss some and bring the Roach on?
I was wrong, the Chub started to really feed and I had a series of Chub between 3 and 4lb, I did consider setting up a heavier rod, after all I did not search the in t' net for ages for my beautiful Microlite just to get it beaten up by bruiser Chub, but there was still a chance of a Roach and they were what I was after.
I decided to change to double Maggot and first run through, I held the tackle up just where the bottom came up and the float dipped, this bite turned into a Roach of about a pound, success, job done, I had cracked it, I was now going to get a few decent Roach.
Next put in, on Maggot, produced a solid bite in the same spot........................from a 4lb Chub!!!
As did every other bite I had until the light failed and my tea ran out!!!
All in I had 6 or 7 small Chub between half a pound and a pound and a half, I had the one Roach and 26 Chub between 2lb 8oz and 5lb 2oz.
So the day was a bit of a failure, when you consider my original target, ok I had a pound Roach and it was a beautiful clean silver blue fish with the lovely red fins that only Roach can boast, but it was the only one I had so not a huge success.
Did I learn anything, well I already knew Chub liked Caster, that too many Ducks can be a pain and that if you are real quiet, the 10lb Ghost Carp will come in very close to mop up any loose Caster!
Oh yes, and that the resident Robin is fat greedy pig that also likes Caster very much!
So, no, I did not learn a lot at all!
BUT...... I did have a superb day, that I enjoyed immensely, I enjoyed the company of all the anglers that I met and had a very interesting conversation with fellow BFW'er Mark Swaby, who took the photo for me, thanks Mark and good luck tomorrow.
It's not just about targets!!
Tight lines all.
I must admit, I never just “Go fishing†these days, I always have an objective in mind and I don't just go with the idea that I will try and catch my target species, I always have to have a “minimum requirementâ€, that might be trying to catch a Barbel where there are few, or it might be a realistic size compared with the average size of fish found on that venue, whichever it is, I set a target and plan my session around that target.
Obviously, most days I fail, sometimes that failure is spectacular, sometimes not, but even if I do fail, I find the day worthwhile if I learn something.
I try and make my targets realistic, after all, you cannot get a pb every time you set a rod up and if that were the case I would probably take up another hobby, but I do try and make it a bit difficult, sometimes, in fact, often, the fishing gods conspire against me, for example, a hundred mile drive to a premier Roach fishery with carefully prepared bait can be banjaxed in an instant by a hard local frost, but even on those occasions I still try to make the best of it.
Today I visited a local fishery, I did not get there until mid day and to be fair 3 days of heavy frost and a recent drop in temperature did not fill me with hope, but today I had the bait, the time and the inclination so I decided to try and make the best of it.
As I suspected 3 days of heavy frost had banged the colour out of the river, it was not quite as clear as tap-water (St Albans tap-water that is, I have seen some fairly dirty tap-water in other parts of the world), but it was very clear and the deeper swims had all been taken, on the bright side it was not too bright, so I set up feeling that I had half a chance.
My target today was to be Roach and my objective was to try and catch a fish of over a pound, this was a fairly easy target as the Roach in this water go to over 3lb, but these big fish are difficult at the best of times, so if I could get a few of over a pound I would have been a happy chap.
I had plenty of bait, I had about three pints of Caster and five pints of Maggots left over from a trip to the Itchen on Saturday (first day of the heavy frost), so I didn't use much and a friend had given me his left over bait which was good of him, the Maggot I can save and use later, but the Caster would need careful maintenance so I decided to kick off with Caster and see if that would do the trick.
Caster can work well in clear water, but cold and clear usually points to the Maggot, but as I like to be frugal if possible, I went straight on to the Caster.
My swim was about 3ft deep, with an over hanging reed bed about 8-10yds downstream, the bottom is clean gravel, which shallowed slightly just down from the reed bed, it is a known Roach peg, but it is also a known Barbel peg too.
I set up my 12ft Microlite with an Okuma pin loaded with 0.13mm (4lb 12oz) main line, my hook-length was Preston Exceed 0.12mm (3.1lb) to a size 16 hook and I decided that a Dave Harrel 6 x No4 wire stem stick would do the trick.
To start I fed about 6 Casters every 30 seconds or so, while I had a cup of tea and a choccie digestive (McVities not the Aldi ones which I prefer, her indoors is now on a second warning), tea done I increased the feed to about 12 Casters and poured another cup, when that was finished I made my first cast.
As soon as the float hit the water I missed a bite which “shelled†me, but I had no more bites for about 10 mins, the next bite came from where the bottom starts to lift up, this was where I expected to get bites so I hit this one, which turned out to be a Chub of a pound.
Over the next ten mins or so I had two more “flakey†bites, one I missed, the other turned out to be a Chub of about 3lb, which I landed and walked down to the peg below me to ensure it did not spook the shoal.
The next put in resulted in another “iffy†bite, which I hit, but the Chub shot across the river and left my hook in a bit of rotting reed which broke away as soon as the Chub transferred the hook.
I expected that to be the last of the Chub for a while but the next trot produced a bite from a Chub of about 4lb.
Clearly the Chub were “on the munch†so I decided to increase the bait to about 12 Casters twice a trot, I was hoping that the Chub would miss some and bring the Roach on?
I was wrong, the Chub started to really feed and I had a series of Chub between 3 and 4lb, I did consider setting up a heavier rod, after all I did not search the in t' net for ages for my beautiful Microlite just to get it beaten up by bruiser Chub, but there was still a chance of a Roach and they were what I was after.
I decided to change to double Maggot and first run through, I held the tackle up just where the bottom came up and the float dipped, this bite turned into a Roach of about a pound, success, job done, I had cracked it, I was now going to get a few decent Roach.
Next put in, on Maggot, produced a solid bite in the same spot........................from a 4lb Chub!!!
As did every other bite I had until the light failed and my tea ran out!!!
All in I had 6 or 7 small Chub between half a pound and a pound and a half, I had the one Roach and 26 Chub between 2lb 8oz and 5lb 2oz.
So the day was a bit of a failure, when you consider my original target, ok I had a pound Roach and it was a beautiful clean silver blue fish with the lovely red fins that only Roach can boast, but it was the only one I had so not a huge success.
Did I learn anything, well I already knew Chub liked Caster, that too many Ducks can be a pain and that if you are real quiet, the 10lb Ghost Carp will come in very close to mop up any loose Caster!
Oh yes, and that the resident Robin is fat greedy pig that also likes Caster very much!
So, no, I did not learn a lot at all!
BUT...... I did have a superb day, that I enjoyed immensely, I enjoyed the company of all the anglers that I met and had a very interesting conversation with fellow BFW'er Mark Swaby, who took the photo for me, thanks Mark and good luck tomorrow.
It's not just about targets!!
Tight lines all.
