Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks

by Keith Truscott

Having never written an article before and looking at some of the illustrious names that have gone before me it is a somewhat humbling task, but as they say if you don’t have a go then you will never know and the Editor has the final say so here goes. I would also like to dedicate it to Gordon Scott, as it was him that convinced me to have a go at it.

I would not presume to try and present an article that tells other anglers how to fish there are far greater anglers than me that have every right to do that, so to try and contribute something I will relate to some experiences that changed my attitude to our noble art and to one specific species namely Barbel and hopefully demonstrate that however fixed our ideas are on the correct way to fish something will always happen to change it, providing we take in and learn that lesson our catches and the enjoyment that we get from them should improve.

I am what we would all describe an average angler certainly no star but one who thoroughly enjoys his fishing and tries to think about my methods and to me it doesn’t matter how good my tackle is, it is about what is happening under the water and how the bait appears to the fish. I am 56 and have been living and working in Sri Lanka for the past two and a half years, my plan is to return to the UK permanently next April, but until then my fishing is confined to when I’m visiting the UK. I have been a few times over here but due to pressure of work that has been limited to a few trips to the local canal, just a whip with corn and bread, the locals think I’m mad using corn but it does catch fish and they are only to keen to have the fish off you to eat, as you always end up with a crowd looking at this crazy Englishman using a float and carbon pole rather than a bamboo cane. Luckily I have a friend who is a partner in Image and he gave me some sample floats before I came out as I keep giving away nearly all the floats, shot, hooks etc. just to see the smile on their faces (they probably sell them).

I have also had a go at sea fishing a few times for Seer and Tuna and apart from nearly getting shipwrecked in a violent storm when we were about 5 miles out I have caught nothing, but I am determined to catch a Tuna before I return. The story of the shipwreck is quite hilarious and I will relate in another article.

Being an old bugger I served my fishing apprenticeship the same as a lot of the older anglers did, starting when I was about 11-12 using hand me down tackle on the local canal in Rickmansworth fishing (if you could call it that) for anything that came along which as Peter Stone related in an article was usually a suicide small perch. I then over the years went through the whole spectrum of fishing, starting off pleasure fishing, I remember walking about five miles along the railway lines and across the fields to fish a small river on Croxley Moor called the Gade at every opportunity I got, the Roach and Chub fishing was superb despite the pulp waste that used to come down the river from the local paper mill, I also remember an older angler spending the time to show me how to fish it properly which improved my catches no end, I was later told by someone that it was Peter Wheat but how true that was I can’t be sure but I do know that I was mesmorised by his skill just watching him feeding and getting roach after roach, he made it look so simple.

When I was about 17 I joined a local club in Watford, we didn’t have any waters but used to have a coach trip most Sundays to different venues, leaving at about 4am and usually getting back about 10pm so I got to fish a variety of waters which was a good learning curve. Then another Rod! Takes over (if you know what I mean) and pressures of my first marriage and money forced me to pack it in for a few years, you know what it’s like, mortgage, DIY, nagging, etc. I started again when I was in my early twenties and soon settled in to trying for certain species, going through the Tench and Carp bit and then after a chance trip to the Hampshire Avon I got hooked on Barbel and used to spend every spare day and available penny making the journey from Watford and then Luton where I moved to after taking the plunge for the second time (one never learns, but that is another story) down to the Royalty and Severals as I had totally fallen in love with not only the Barbel but the Hampshire Avon as well. I still maintain the best day I had was on the Royalty standing in the water freelineing Luncheon meat at waters meet and taking 7 Barbel in a single day, (the biggest at 8lb4ozs was a new PB for me at that time) which was quite a feat then, unless you fished the Parlour which was alive with fish and had to be booked well in advance for the complete day, it was also well beyond my means in those days. Another memory of that time was seeing a young Chris Yates, dressed in his tweeds using a cane rod and a center pin with the Wallis cast placing a bait inch perfect into the runs between the weed on the Trammels. He made it look so simple I immediately went to Davis tackle and purchased my first Center Pin a Grice and Young that I still use today, but alas have never mastered the Wallis Cast.

I was definitely hooked as a purist/traditional type Barbel angler, I was also lucky enough at this time to be working for a fitted bedroom furniture company and had attained a reasonable position. I persuaded my boss that we should buy some Caravans for the staff to use as a perk, yes you’ve guessed it I chose Bournemouth and Christchurch as they had the best sites and of course I had to go down and vet them, so my fishing trips were not only more frequent but also paid for.

During this time my second marriage broke up (fishing has a lot to answer for, fortunately my third partner and I have been together for over 20years and she understands my fishing obsession) and I took up Chicken farming and we moved to Gloucestershire and took a farm just outside Tewksbury. Due once again to pressure of work and getting the farm straight I did not fish for about six months, then one day I decided after hearing and reading so much about the huge match catches of Barbel coming from the Severn I dusted my tackle of and headed for Bewdley.

After parking up and going in to Stan Lewis tackle shop for information I purchased a Worcester Club card and picked their brains on how to fish it, I was promptly presented with bags of the grottiest (sorry Stan) looking hemp and casters that I had ever seen, I had already brought with me a selection of my purist baits, lobworms, luncheon meat, cheese, bread etc. so I purchased two bags of each and as they informed me that there was going to be an afternoon match on west bank, I proceeded to try and find a swim on the east bank.

The river looked magnificent with runs, glides, rocks and weed. I settled into a swim that looked promising and within the next two hours managed to winkle out two small Barbel and as I am pleased to catch any Barbel and do not strive to catch the biggest in the river I was quite pleased with my success, especially after such a long lay off. About twelve-a-clock I saw the match men making there way to their swims on the opposite bank to get ready for the match. This guy came opposite me in a clump of bushes, placed his box in the water then proceeded to place a washing up bowl on a stand and rod rest in front of him, much to my amazement his rod was pointing straight up in the air I had never seen anything like it, it was also against all the principles I had ever been taught or read.

The whistle went for the match to start and he filled this washing up bowl full to overflowing with a mixture of hemp and casters (mine were still in my bag untouched) then he produced the biggest swim feeder I had ever seen, more like a Heinz baked bean can and emptied nearly two bowls full through his feeder into his swim. He then changed his feeder to a smaller one baited his hook and cast out, it hadn’t been in the water more than 30 seconds when I saw his tip drop back and he was into his first fish.

This fascinated me as he proceeded to catch fish after fish; I packed away my tackle, put it into the car and walked round to see what he was doing. Unlike a lot of match anglers and yes I was one fishing several nationals, only third division, not in the Bob Nudd class, he was very helpful and without breaking his rhythm he explained the various methods of fishing the Severn a most valuable lesson and one that has brought me many enjoyable hours on that lovely river. He went on to win the 3 hour match with 83lb, his name turned out to be Mal Storey and I believe he is still winning matches today, that is if Dave Harrel leaves anything for anybody.

This experience completely changed my attitude to the way I fished and gave me a much more open viewpoint, I still fish the middle Severn as often as possible it is probably still the most prolific for Barbel and providing you fish it sensibly you can always almost guarantee one or two fish which is good for the morale when you have been having a few bite less sessions on other rivers.

As my new partner originated from Newark we used to go and visit quite a lot which gave me a chance to fish various venues on the Trent. This was when the Trent was in it’s heyday and you could bag up on Roach and Chub with a stick float. I also remembered a swim that I used to fish for chub on the ledger between Fiskerton and Rolleston that I had also occasionally had Barbel out of so I decided that I would give this a try with my new found method as both the Severn and Trent are similar type rivers. The next time we visited for a few days saw me staggering along the mile or so walk to the swim armed with six pints of casters, a gallon of hemp, a good collection of Mal Storey feeders and a newly acquired feeder rod, luckily the two anglers walking in front of me stopped leaving the swim I wanted vacant with not another angler in sight (nobody else would be stupid to walk that far) I set up with all the anticipation and excitement of a child on Christmas morning, the river looked perfect with the willows on the far bank rustling gently and just downstream of them a well worn cattle drink, this was the hot spot. I placed my rod rest in the air and laid out my bowl of mixed hemp and caster with everything spread out around me within easy reach. I then proceeded to make about thirty casts with the feeder to the edge of the cattle drink before winding in putting my rod in its rest and pouring a cup of coffee, I lit a cigarette and just sat back and enjoyed the moment, there comes a time on the river when you don’t have to fish, everything just seems perfect and you drink in the peace and beauty of being there.

I picked up the new untried rod with its Mitchell 300 loaded with 5lb Maxima direct to 16 hook which I baited with double caster, filled the feeder and cast to the area that I had put the feed, placed the rod in it’s rest and waited, nothing! After 5minutes wound in and repeated the sequence. On about the third cast the rod dropped back then gave a savage lunge and I was into my first Barbel of the day, a fish of about 3lbs put up a spirited fight before being duly netted. I do not use a keep net these days apart from the occasional Roach trotting sessions preferring to release my fish as soon as they are caught but in those days I was still vane enough to want to admire what I had caught, I will admit to occasionally using one and I had brought two with me one of which was staked out in the river the fish was placed in this and the rod recast immediately it dropped back and I was into a second fish, slightly smaller than the first. This pattern continued with a fish a chuck, I had by this time staked out my second net and realized that even with two nets I would not be able to hold the amount of fish I was catching, I duly released twenty fish estimating the average weight to be about 3.5lbs.

I carried on fishing but although I was getting savage takes every cast I was starting to miss a lot before I realised that the fish were attacking the feeder as soon as it hit the water. My solution was to change the reel line to 8lb with 6lb bottom and a very short 6inch tail, still with a sixteen hook and double caster, this allowed me to overcast as though I was casting in to the field on the other bank and feather the feeder down so that it landed with a direct tight line. I then started to connect with the Bites again. To cut a long story short I finished the day with 52 Barbel at an average of 3.5lbs that is nearly 200lb of fish. Truly a red-letter day made possible with what I had learned from Mal Storey.

I returned two days later to the same swim accompanied by my eight year old son who proceeded to cast by himself halfway across the river and still catch Barbel, but my heart wasn’t in it so after a few hours and his arm aching as he insisted on landing them himself we packed up and went home, I had, had my day and I have never fished the swim again although I have fished many other places on the Trent and had some good Barbel out. These days I prefer to catch fewer fish that I have to work for.

About a year before moving to Sri Lanka we moved to Bedford which gave me a chance to renew my acquaintance with a river that I had fished many years before, the Great Ouse which by now was becoming quite famous for the quality of it’s Barbel. Being that I had always been very much a solitary angler (something I now regret) I set about looking for likely venues. After looking at the famous Milton Keynes and Vauxhall stretches I discarded these as too busy and sought out quieter stretches. For obvious reasons and out of respect for the regular anglers I will not name the stretches that I chose, but suffice to say that they were both smaller stretches belonging to two separate clubs. The first was a venue that I had always fancied for years and the other one a small stretch where I had identified two swims containing Barbel one of which contained quite a large number of fish but was very close to the road bridge so this was reserved exclusively for night sessions as it was difficult to feed and fish as you had to wade out in the river and approach it from directly above, I had a number of fish from there but not one of the two doubles that I had seen in there occasionally.

In the other swim I conducted a fairly long feeding campaign as this was a bit deeper and I had only seen the occasional fish flashing as they turned in the water. I arrived one morning intending to fish through the day and in to the evening only to find another obviously novice angler in the swim accompanied by his mate who was occupying the only other swim I fancied. I duly set up in a place I had looked at before which was a deep eddy created by the main flow coming through a narrow bridge. It was my intention to fish the crease that was created but if you have ever read a swim wrong I certainly did that day because no matter where I cast, the bait ended up going back up under the bridge, so after a few hours of rolling a bait around without the slightest sign of a fish I had just decided to move to the other stretch, when one of the anglers came to tell me that his mate had just had a 12.5lb Barbel out of the swim I had been baiting, Oh! Well the look on the guy’s face said enough, another angler hooked on Barbel. Needless to say I packed up and went home it was not going to be my day.

I was lucky enough to be in the UK this year for opening day and after walking the bank a few times I decided on two swims at one of my two chosen venues. I had fished my first choice swim before a few times without success but was certain it held Barbel as it was a deep drop off after shallows which created a nice hollow and I had seen fish in it before, the second one was further downstream, a clear patch of gravel that the fish obviously used as it was nice and clean surrounded by weed.

Opening night duly came and I was on the bank at 7pm armed and raring to go. Using the biggest bait dropper I posses attached to a Carp Rod I proceeded to feed 4pints of hemp and 2 tins of corn. I then fed it again with another 2 pints of hemp at 10.30 and sat back and waited for the magic hour.

I commenced fishing at about 12.30am using mussel and shrimp flavored meat and at 1.0am I had my first fish at 8lb 4ozs. I fed the swim again with another two pints of hemp and as I intended to fish this same swim all night I don’t personally see the point in resting it and then creating another chance of spooking it by putting a bait in later so I lowered another piece of mussel and shrimp flavored meat in at the same time and sat back to wait at 4.0am my starlight dipped and the ratchet on the pin screamed just as I struck and the second and last fish was landed at dead on 9lb. I fished on till midday without another bite but I was more than satisfied with the nights work as when daylight arrived there were Barbel everywhere fully occupied with nature in the process of spawning.

I had originally intended to finish here but feel I cannot sign off without adding my own short memories of Gordon.

I only became acquainted with Gordon this year, firstly through the various forums that we both subscribed to and was lucky enough to spend a day in his company on the Wasing Estate but I feel in the short time that I new him we became friends, one that I will sadly miss.

I mentioned earlier in my article that in my quest for Barbel and earlier Carp and Tench etc. I have been very much a solitary angler but after spending the day with Gordon and discussing his many views, both modern and traditional in the pursuit of his favorite species, it made me realize just how much I had been missing out on and how my fishing had suffered. He certainly taught this old dog a few tricks that day for which I will be eternally grateful and I will miss our lighthearted e-mails to each other and planned fishing trips.

Thanks Gordon we will all miss you, but rest easy you left behind a lot of better anglers through your knowledge, dedication and willingness to pass it on.

Keitht