A Revised Approach.

Compromise is difficult to achieve successfully in the world of angling, it usually involves fishing with heavier or lighter tackle than you would prefer and can therefore result in either less bites or lost fish.

We targeted the roach on our previous visit to Stockton Reservoir and fished accordingly with float tackle and light line and maggots as bait, we were kept busy with each cast getting us a bite of some sort and we caught plenty of our target species at an average weight of around four ounces. The problem, we discovered, was that the numerous resident carp have a taste for maggots too and we hooked and lost three, leaving hooks in fish, albeit barbless hooks which are easily shed, is something we all strive to avoid and therefore we needed to reconsider our approach.

This time we opted to fish open water rather than anywhere near the islands thus giving any carp we might hook effectively nowhere to go, the main dangers being the nearside vegetation and other anglers tackle should the fish run straight down the bank. Our other change was to use stepped up reel line and hooklengths although we considered it necessary to continue with the size 18 and 20 hooks which we had used previously.

The fishing, as before, was brisk with a fair stamp of roach biting from the off and a bite virtually guaranteed on each cast. Keeping them coming in such circumstances is simple, by feeding a small pouchfull of maggots or, in this case, pinkies after each fish caught you can keep a shoal of small fish feeding for hours. As on our last visit the fish seemed to prefer a single yellow maggot on the hook while double or red maggot would produce either a slower response from the roach or a tiny perch.


Late in the session I landed a tench of about a pound and a half and then Dad hooked a carp which put his beefed up gear to the test with a series of powerful runs, the tackle held up well and he soon had a mirror of about six pounds in the net.

The compromise had paid off as we had caught numerous roach once again but retained the necessary power to tame the bigger fish too, a good days fishing all round then !

A Bite a Cast !

A long time ago, in the days when Great Britain still had a car manufacturing industry, footballers wore black boots and if you wanted to see a Tattooed Lady you had to visit the Circus, the lake known simply as the Blue Lias was legendary amongst my school mates and I.

It was rumoured that one hundred pound catches of tench were common place from the syndicate water and this at a time when such catches were almost unheard of in England in fact many anglers would make the pilgrimage to the largely untapped waterways of Ireland in search of the elusive 'ton'.



Nowadays, in the hands of British Waterways, Stockton Reservoir is a successful commercial fishery or baggin' water I believe they are sometimes called (for the younger anglers wot go fishin') heavily stocked with a variety of species with an emphasis on carp.

The perfect venue for a couple of knock about anglers with some old bait to use up in fact....

It was the first time I had ever seen the lake and it looks good with reed fringed margins, islands and other features to be explored, a wooden walkway has been constructed along one bank and each peg boasts a well constructed wooden platform each of which feature metal clamps for banksticks and a central hole for your umbrella, a nice touch.

We opted to fish at the car park end of the lake in an area sheltered from the wind and which allowed us to fish in a channel between one of the islands and the bank. Conditions suited a floatfishing approach and for bait we had maggots and pinkies left over from our canal trip last week. Dad and I both targeted an area halfway to the island looking to catch silver fish on single and double maggot.

It wasn't long before we were catching roach to about six ounces and some small perch, these came in a steady stream keeping us busy throughout the afternoon. I hooked a good carp at one point but found myself seriously out gunned and Dad was broken twice by carp too. In the last hour I stepped up my tackle and increased my feed rate determined to catch a carp but could only muster a small common of three quarters of a pound.

I like to try different fisheries every now and again, I enjoy the learning process, and my first impressions of Stockton Reservoir are that it's certainly worth another visit, there are a variety of species to be caught including crucian carp, rudd and chub and the carp are plentiful although there are no monsters to be caught.

Too Many Boats, Not Enough Bites

Canal fishing brings back alot of childhood memories for me, I remember on one icy winters morning being overjoyed to catch a single tiny perch from the stretch by Tusses bridge, one of the very first fish I ever caught, I also remember a match on the Ashby Canal when my Dad was the clear winner with a bag of tench, the rest of us returning modest catches of small roach.
As we grew up Phil and I caught lots of fish from the canal, his Mum and Dad owned a narrow boat and we had access to a dead arm where we could catch roach to a pound and a half, bream and some good sized perch with relative ease. Occasionally we would take the boat out for a few days, fishing whenever we stopped, wherever we moored for the night there was fish to be caught, the numerous ruffe, gudgeon and perch were always obliging and there were shoals of quality roach in every stretch.
I remember a day when Phil and I caught roach after roach, fin perfect and all between 6oz and a pound, wonderful fishing.
The cut saved the day many a time when the going was hard at Napton Reservoir and on one memorable occasion Phil landed a 4lb tench which he foul hooked in the tail with a size 24 hook.

Dad and I had decided to have a bash at the Grand Union Canal on Thursday, fishing near the Boat Inn. The weather was lovely as forcast and the surroundings were very pleasant too, I looked forward to catching a nice mixed bag of fish.

For October the boat traffic was horrendous, in between the boats the pull from the locks made presentation tricky but it wasn't too long before each of us caught a small skimmer bream then Dad caught two more and I had a reasonable roach slip the hook.

And that was that, the steady stream of boats kept up, the sun continued to shine and no more bites were to be had. Where were those obliging ruffe, the gudgeon and the small perch ?

Of course we'd heard the rumours before we decided on fishing the cut, the rumours of a wasteland, a zander ridden, silver fish devoid canal network. While it would be extremely harsh to dismiss canal fishing as useless on the basis of one short trip, there really didn't seem to be many fish where we fished on Thursday.
One cheerful boater told us we were the only anglers they had seen in a weeks cruising !

If it is the case (and I'm not saying that it is neccesarily the case) that the ruthless zander has decimated the canals it's a great shame as there was previously some great fishing to be had, although I realise that canal fishing in general was already in steep decline with the advent of the boom in commercial fisheries it is probably fair to say that this has bailed the Environment Agency out to some degree with regard the zander issue.

Nature, over a period of time, creates a balance and so it will in the canal system, although it is likely we will never see matches won with 6 and 8lb of gudgeon again it could well be the case that our canals are the specimen roach, bream and perch fisheries of the future.

Oi Oi, Whiskers Ahoy !!!

Phil rang me in the week to invite me to join him on the river on Sunday, he has been catching a barbel on each visit recently with fish running to eight and a half pounds.

The stretch that Phil fishes hasn't been a happy hunting ground for me and with Sky showing a double header of Arsenal vs Blackburn and Chelsea vs Liverpool it was a tough call but what the hell, I could do with the fresh air and the weather forecast wasn't too bad.

Phil arrived to pick me up at 1pm on a bright and fresh afternoon and, van loaded, we set off. On arrival at the water we headed straight for the weir which is one of the main features of a relatively short stretch of river and the area where Phil has been most successful recently.

Phil took the swim closest to the weir and I took up a position just a few yards below him where I could fish the oxygenated water at the tail of the weir pool, tackle choice was very much the same with both of us choosing powerful tip rods matched with 8lb line, the lightest lead we could get away with and size eight hooks. We were both using luncheon meat with Phil fishing his direct on the hook while I opted to fish mine on a hair.

With the water being low and clear and the nights much cooler I took the view that small pieces of meat should be the order of the day and, just to be different, I chopped them into irregular shapes.

On my second cast I had a twitchy kind of a bite which was un-strikable and appeared to be the result of one of the smaller fish attacking the bait but at least it meant there was fish in the swim.

Some five minutes or so after making my third cast the tip trembled again focusing my attention and seconds later wrenched round and I was into a fish which set off like a rocket in the rushing water, the runs were short yet very powerful and it was quite some time before we got a brief glimpse of the fish, a good barbel, we guessed it would go about 7lb.

After another bout of fighting the fish was subdued and as he appeared from the depths and slid towards the waiting net, it was enormous. We had been way off with our initial guess !

Simply perfect and shimmering in the afternoon sun a beast of a fish lay in the net before us, just what have I been missing all these years !




Phil performed the weighing ceremony due to my rather shaky condition and ....... 10lb 8oz ..... Fantastic !

After a quick photo the fish was returned, I held it for a while in the shallow water to allow it to recover and then with a mighty swish of the tail it disapeared into the darkness of the weir pool.

We moved shortly after as in Phils experience we wouldn't get another fish from there, I allowed myself a lovely relaxing time lying back in my chair enjoying the Autumn sunshine, watching a Kingfisher flying to and fro along the opposite bank and reflecting on my latest personal best.

We fished until dark and I did have another fish, a pristine 2lb chub but somehow it didn't really compare !

Lets face it you can watch football anytime but you might only catch one 10lb barbel.

.....One More Time !

Now we are into Autumn my Dad and I have been considering our options with regards venues for our next few sessions, at the moment a canal campaign looks favourite, but yesterday we decided to have one more bash at Jubilee and it's carp.

Again we were to take the gamble of relying on sweetcorn as bait with a single tin of luncheon meat as back up, we settled in familiar swims at the far end of the bottom lake and used straight lead tactics. With the weather being slightly warmer than last time out we both felt quietly confident of nabbing a carp or two and sure enough my first cast resulted in a fierce bite which in turn resulted in a twelve pound mirror carp on the bank after a powerful fight.

Two casts later I was in again after a similarly ferocious take but this time the fish sulked heavily near the bottom making slow and determined runs up and down parallel to the bank about twenty feet out. After a good five minutes the fish continued one of it's powerful runs into the lily bed to my right and everything went solid.

The only real option in these situations is to slacken off and wait in the hope that the fish will swim out again, doing this is surprisingly effective. Some minutes later the line floating on the surface began to move very slightly and, showing great impatience, I tightened up again. It seemed that the fish had moved up in the water as the resistance posed by the vegetation caused me few worries as I towed the carp through. Suddenly the fight resumed in open water and the fish slowly chugged out towards the centre of the lake taking line at will.

It was some time again before I felt that I was winning the fight, with the fish about ten feet from the bank and now doing it's fighting in the surface layers I finally saw it, a big mirror maybe twenty pounds in weight. Then disaster struck just as I was about to pick up the landing net the hook pulled out the end tackle flew into the air and I swore, swearing helps I find.

Meanwhile dad hadn't had any joy at all, not even a line bite and now my swim was seriously disturbed so to cut a long story short we struggled badly from there on in, the only other action came when a kamikaze 2lb hybrid hit my sweetcorn at a hundred miles an hour before going completely loopy during a short scrap to the net.

I'm looking forward to next Summer already !