October 2014

Introduction

The much maligned social network Facebook had provided me with an opportunity. A small fishing related group I am part of were having a fish-in. For a week I was met with the same look of astonishment from those close to me- "You mean to tell me you are spending a day with a load a blokes you've never met before?" said one work colleague. "Yes," I replied proudly. "Phil, there are people that have been here years that you haven't spoken to," she exclaimed. Should make for an interesting day then.......

Rutland Water

Rutland water is the largest Reservoir by surface area in England. It varies between 3,100 and 3,300 acres in size depending on water level. Usually a fly-only Trout fishery the water authority had opened it up to lure anglers to take advantage of it's increasing popularity. With a good stock of Zander I was keen to catch my first of the species. Ten of us had had arranged to meet on the Sunday morning.. As ever when people are meeting from all of the country there were a few hiccups and as it turned out we only filled three boats. With two anglers in each the cost for the day was a reasonable £30 each. That included the boat, life jacket and fuel. After a good chat with the other lads we headed to the lodge to pay and were soon in our boats and ready to go.......

My boat partner for the day was Leo, a friend of an old friend of mine. I knew from talking to Leo online how much he'd been looking forward to the day so I was happy to take a back (front) seat while he motored us out into the main bowl of the lake. We found a big aerator in about 80ft of water and made our first drift around it. I had a big green shad on while Leo fished with a feathered jig (Kogut's). Immediately I started to get plucks on the shad. After a couple of false starts I brought my first Zander to the boat. A fish of about a pound and a half. I was made up. Strangely I equally as happy when Leo got in on the action. His was prettier than mine too.....

Now a lot of anglers are a bit sniffy about Rutland as a serious predator venue."Too easy," they say. Well it wasn't for Leo and I, for after that initial flurry we struggled. Heading down the North arm we settled near a large concrete water tower. Despite several passes we couldn't get a take, unlike the occupants of another boat that had landed a massive Perch. We looked at it longingly through Leo's binoculars which encouraged us to persevere for another hour or so. With no luck we finally gave in and headed near to the shoreline to throw some big lures in the hope of tempting a Pike or two. We drew a blank there too. We motored around to the water sports creek where I finally connected with something that hit my Pike lure hard. It gave me a great fight but alas it was a rogue Trout, not quite what I was after.......

Shortly after we got turfed out of the creek by a ranger and headed off to find the others. Nate and Carl were having similar results to ourselves in the North Arm while the other pair of Andy and Dave were faring slightly better near to the aerator Leo and I had first fished. They were taking small Zander nearly every cast. We joined them but we were a little late to the party as the fish switched off. Leo managed one first cast while I couldn't buy a take. Despite the relative lack of action we couldn't have wished for a better day weather wise. It really was glorious for October.

It wasn't until the last hour or so that we had any success and it was all down to a phone call from Andy and Dave. They had found some fish again and very kindly invited us to join them. With Leo at the controls we were soon in position and had a great time pulling up Zander and even a couple of Perch from around 40ft of water. My best Zander of the day........

All to soon though it was time to head in and the journey back gave me time to reflect on the experience. The whole day was brilliant, the guys were all great and it didn't matter that I'd never met them before, the fishing united us. The only downside was one of my perch died. Bringing fish up from such deep water is dangerous and they find it difficult to cope with the changes in pressure. After doing a little bit of digging and listening to Andy if you do happen to go there is a relatively easy way around it. Simply bring the fish up to around 10-15 feet and let it adjust for a minute until you bring it to the boat. Quite why the authorities at Rutland don't tell you this is nothing short of a disgrace. Let's not end this section on a negative though. The reservoir looking beautiful at dusk.......

Back at base and the end of a day to remember.......

 

 

Back to Lincolnshire........

 

Apart from some great Bream and the elusive Swede (a huge Chub) the rivers have been tough going and as you know I had kept trying them but the weed made the fishing just too difficult. I'd been waiting for the nights to get colder and some rain to flush them out. Luckily in the days after the Rutland trip we had exactly that. On my next day off I headed to the secret River.

A large weed raft had collected in a particular spot over the summer. I knew as soon as the it dispersed the bottom would be reasonably clean to present a bait. Most plants require light to grow, this spot hadn't seen any for months. As luck would have it when I arrived at the river the spot was clear. My main target was the Roach, Rudd and giant Hybrids that inhabit the river. They don't get fished for often so I tackled up strong- 6lb Double Strength line tied in a link with three swan shot coupled with a size 12 hook baited with three red maggots. Some of you will remember the 4lb 9oz Hybrid I had last year, trust me, they pull well.

Opting to fish just one rod it wasn't long before I had a bite. Strangely it didn't feel like a hybrid but it was obviously a good fish. The line cut through the surface film as the fish powered upstream. moments later a big, spiky dorsal fin appeared. It was a Perch, and a big one too. After a few more lunges it was in the net. I quickly weighed it- 2lb 15oz. I was elated and cast out again expectantly. Sure enough the tip wrapped around again, another Perch was the culprit although barely a pound in weight. I switched to a worm straight after this fish and added another small Perch straight away.

About half an hour had passed without a bite. How odd? I was frustrated and wound in with gusto. A massive bow wave followed my rig for a short distance before the head of a Pike emerged, slashing at my swan-shot. I had the answer to my problem and reached for my lure rod. First cast the pike struck and a short, spirited fight later I deposited it safely downstream. It was only around eight pounds but it was sat right where I had been getting bites. Not really any danger to a big Perch but they still won't swim under a Pike to get at a worm, no matter how enticing. 

After that I have to admit it was a bit of a blur. I had thirteen more Perch and lost four. Seven two-pounders to 2lb 15oz and three three pounders- 3lb exactly, 3lb 4oz and one at 3lb 8oz. On two occasions when battling with a Perch one of its mates would follow it all the way in which was most disconcerting. The biggest fish fought amazingly well. I even had to follow it a short distance upstream. These were fit fish and in great condition. As sods law dictates I saw some big Rudd topping upstream for quite a while but I couldn't leave the Perch. With sixteen of my spiky friends in the net I decided to call it a day. All those wasted summer visits were a distant memory as I took a few snaps before slipping them back. Here are my best two.......

Two days later I was back for those Rudd. I never had a bite. The following week I went back and fished several likely looking spots with exactly the same result.

Time for a change

With my favourite river being its usual moody self I headed for the Bream river. After some heavy rain though it looked horrible. It was a struggle just to get a bite but for some reason I persevered which is most unlike me. Usually after a couple of hours I'm off. Good job I stayed though because I had this lovely Chub of just a shade under 5lb on some blue stilton........

The following day the river was still heavily coloured and this time I didn't stop long. Despite this I managed to get another fine Chub of around four pounds.......

I hadn't been to the upper reaches for a while so it was time to get re-acquainted on my next day off. It looked as lovely as ever.......

Although the fish were significantly smaller.......

One last go.....

There are some big Pike in my favourite river. Wouldn't it be great to round off this months diary with a big Pike picture I thought as I headed out. Now I freely admit I'm not a particularly proficient Pike angler but I'm enjoying the learning process......sort of. My first take on a smelt resulted in a terrific fight and to be honest it took me a while to get the upper hand. It was a big fish and I gasped as I caught sight of its flank as I positioned the landing net. With one final burst it shot downstream and my line went slack, the hooks had pulled. I was gutted. When it happened again albeit with a much smaller fish I was cursing loudly. At least I now have a bit of confidence in my method and baits. The presentation and striking just need a bit of fine tuning.

Something else strange happened that day too. Apart from the Pike the river seemed dead. I had trotted a float through various swims with no success. I switched to the tip to try and catch a Perch and indeed I did eventually get one and then everything changed. For the next hour the river was alive. Fish were topping all over the place for a hundred yards or more, as far as I could see in either direction. I couldn't even tighten up before getting a bite, mainly from Roach with the odd Dace in between. Quite were these fish had come from is a mystery. Maybe the fading light brought them to life. You'd have thought a bite would have been forthcoming before that though with so many fish present?  Typically for the river it is either spirit-crushingly hard or embarrassingly easy. One day I'll figure it out.............

My Secret Weapon

Being possibly the unluckiest Pike angler in the country I decided to throw the crafty buggers a curve ball- lady luck. It was the usual trick- an hours fishing masquerading as a romantic walk with the dogs. Mrs P looked at me sternly as I cobbled together a couple of light lure outfits to take with us. Fast forward a bit and Mrs P cast her lure across the drain. As soon as it landed the water erupted and she took two steps back in shock. She'd have taken more but she was attached to a blooming great Pike and it wasn't happy. I'd set the clutch quite softly and Mrs P played it brilliantly. After a couple of tail walks and head shakes the Pike was ready to be netted. I saw it below me as I made my way gingerly down the steep bank, my head said 15lb plus, my heart said 'maybe 20lb'. The Pike was in an awkward position for netting and to be fair I should have been ready a bit sooner. My delay gave it one last opportunity to escape which it took with an impressive display of power........which straightened the hook..........

Tackle talk

A small boat came up for the right price so I bought it. The low price meant it needed plenty of work. A few coats of paints and a bit of patching up later and it was ready to go. Almost immediately I realised painting it white was a mistake so it is almost back to square one. Mrs P came on the maiden voyage and I'm having doubts about it being a serious fishing tool but at least it should be good fun in the summer........

Contact

As ever you can contact me via e-mail, 

the.power@tesco.net

P.S If local (ish) Pike supremo Mick Brown is reading this feel free to come and give me a lesson, I'll even take you to the secret river. (got to be worth a try surely?)

Pictures

Thanks for reading

Till next time......

September 2014

Lincolnshire.....

We left off last time with me catching a decent pike from a local drain. With the exception of the day it had been dredged I haven't failed to get a take off a hungry Pike. With this in mind I rang my friend and Pike aficionado 'poacher' Ken. You may remember me telling him about dead-cert Pike venues in the past only for us to go and blank. Anyway at the start of the month Ken popped over after work one evening and we stopped off a Big Catch Tackle in chapel St Leonards on the way. I bought a few lures while Ken emerged from the rod room with a shiny new lure rod and a big smile. 

The drain looked in fine condition as we pulled into the layby and we both hurried out expectantly. Two hours and about half a mile of drain later all we had to show for our efforts was one dropped fish to my rod. I couldn't believe it, it was almost devoid of life, very odd. Fishing had made me look an idiot again........or was it Ken? I had suspicions about him being a jinx before and now I'm almost convinced. Seriously though, I'm not that superstitious but it is very annoying. I'll put him on some fish soon (please dear God). At least the sunset gave us something to look at..........

Where Next?

I quite enjoyed my lure exploits at the forgotten lakes so I headed back there on my next day off. As usual something pretty special was going on in the depression they sit in. You approach them high on a ridge and it gives a great panoramic view for miles around. It is like a amphitheatre for wildlife. I often see Deer, Rabbits, game birds and the occasional Fox. On this particular day all the action was in the sky. A big bird of prey (prob a Buzzard) was being chased and harried by a murder of crows. Fascinating to watch and it was cutting up pretty rough. How was the fishing Phil? Well, for want of a better word it was rubbish. Once again the sunset saved the day..............

Next up to try was my favourite river, surely I could tempt something from there? With one of the driest Septembers on record it was low but that wasn't the main problem. I had hoped the Environment Agency would have been and dragged the banks as they do every year for drainage purposes. Unfortunately they hadn't and even in the places I could get down to the river I either had to contend with floating weed.....

or a carpet of bank-to-bank streamer weed.........

It was a dead-loss and I was running out of ideas. As you can see it was a lovely day and I suddenly thought of the lake behind the farm where the Carp would feed off the top in warm weather. A quick stop off at the shop to get some dog biscuits and I was in business. I only had my nine foot lure rod but I was confident it could handle anything I was going to (hopefully) hook. The lake was devoid of other anglers but I did have company in the shape of the owners dog, a little dog-biscuit-loving terrier. He eagerly ate any spillages out of my catapult as I floated some biscuits across the lake. Sure enough after a few minutes the Carp started feeding sporadically. They were a bit far away but luckily they followed the baits all the way to the opposite bank. I made my way around and cast out a free lined biscuit on a size six hook to 8lb double strength line. 

The first fish I hooked was an absolute beast. It stayed deep and was fighting slowly but doggedly. I was sure it was a very big fish so took my time and tried to tire it out. The fish was having none of it though and after gaining a bit of line it kited left and tried to go around an overhanging tree. I sank my rod tip as far under water as I could in the hope the line wouldn't snag on the branches. It was however, too late and my rod was too short. A few minutes later I pulled for a break and the Carp had already shed the hook as it came free from the snags. I was gutted although luckily I did manage one more fish, a nice mirror of fourteen pounds.......

It was tough going. Carp are never easy fooled on the top, even less so at the end of the summer when they have seen every surface set-up there is. As you probably already know my ethos is simple- a nice reliable low-diameter line and a hook buried in a softened biscuit. Forget a controller, I can cast a wet Bakers Meaty Meal fifty yards or more. Even with these tactics the Carp would more often than not reject the offering at the last minute, sometimes comically. They would come up and brush past the bait, flicking it with their tail as if to say- I'm not falling for that, try again. Nothing spurs me on more than being taunted by a creature with a brain the size of a golf ball so I went back a few times (with a proper Carp rod) and luckily I managed to catch on every occasion. A nice Common of just over fifteen pounds.......

Another lovely Common carp.......

The biggest fell on my last visit. A Common again, Sixteen pounds seven ounces........

You may remember me telling you about some rumoured big Perch also in the venue. On each visit I had a few casts with some small rubber lures. It wasn't until the last visit that I had some takers. Unfortunately they were tiny but it gives me hope just getting a few takes. The fading light seems to trigger them into action........

Last chance saloon

The end of the month was nearing and was conscious of the fact that apart from some relatively unimpressive Perch I only really had some Carp to tell you about and that would never do. I decided to head over to the Bream river to see what was about. The river was desperately low but I did manage a few Roach on legered breadflake. Not really what I was after but nice all the same..........

As luck would have it a few days later I had been left in charge of the chaos twins so I decided to take them down to the drain were Ken and I had visited at the start of the month. With the dogs running riot in a freshly ploughed field I prayed they wouldn't get shot by the farmer while I had a few casts with some rubber lures. The drain was painfully low and clear but I had one of these little blighters every twenty yards or so............

It was a total turnaround from the frankly embarrassing visit with Ken. It was like a different place altogether. Seriously, I lost count of the number of Pike I caught. A better specimen.......

Biggest of the day.........

Tackle talk

I can't remember the last time I bought a brand new reel so with a few pennies saved over the summer season I decided to treat myself to a couple. As I am always getting sidetracked they would be used for pretty much everything. I've always stuck to a couple of well known brands too and I wanted to try and be more open minded about that.

First up is the Okuma Trio 30 in white.

On offer in most places at £39.95. A snazzy looking reel with aluminium in all the... places where you don't want flex (or so the marketing bumph told me). While the reel initially felt a little on the heavy side these thoughts soon faded when I turned the handle. Probably the smoothest reel I've ever used. It may even be too smooth because it feels ever so slightly anodyne. No doubting the materials though and I remain seriously impressed by the build quality. The bail is positive and the drag seems smooth and stable. Faults? Spool is slightly too small in diameter for my liking and the drag adjustment has no markings on it (am I tightening or loosening?). For the money I have to give it an 8 out of 10. In time if it proves reliable this could turn into a 9. Future classic? Probably.

The next one I bought was a Fox Rage Ultron 2500 for £49.95.

 Wow, what a looker. Could the performance live upto the looks? Sadly not. It seemed to tick all the boxes- light, good spool size, 6 bearings, drag markings etc. First up the reel isn't nearly as smooth as the Okuma. Mine even has a very slight 'click' on retrieve. Barely noticeable and fine by me, I like a bit of character. The foam handle (presumably a weight saving feature) is bordering on unpleasant to touch. Again something I could live with. The thing that really annoys me though is the bail arm. On a forceful cast it would occasionally flip over resulting in me looking like a novice with my rig/lure crashing into the water by my feet. It's had several outings (handling a double figure Pike admirably along the way) and I really tried to like it but for the fishing I do I can't live with it. For gentle work or jigging off a boat it would be fine. I put it almost straight back on eBay. A shame really. Overall a 4 out of 10.

Just a quick word about the Carp rods I used this month. A while back a pair of Shimano Perfection 2 1/4 lb test curve rods came up on one of those facebook local items for sale sites. They were at a second hand shop nearby for £30! The mind boggles at the price they must have got them for. A bargain and a real joy to use. Look out for some........

By far and away my favourite tackle story this month concerns a reel I picked up from a local car boot sale. It turned out to be quite rare........

"The 'Stanton' or 'Reynolds' Reel

by Ian Rotherham

Harry Reynolds made his first fishing reels sometime around 1938, selling them to his friends at the Stanton Iron Works, in Sandiacre near Nottingham, where he was an engineer. Local anglers referred to it as 'The Reynolds Reel'.  

It was made from three pieces of cast aluminium - the reel back, the spool backplate and the spool front. It was finished on his lathe (a Myford lathe made locally at Beeston in Nottingham) with brass drum pillars. It ran on two ball bearings around a central shaft, rather than a 'centre pin' like the Aerial or Young's reel. This made it spin very freely - ideal for trotting on the local river Trent. 
Harry Reynolds made the reels in his workshop - a shed behind his house at Twelve Houses and later at Queens Avenue, Ilkeston. He bought the sand and aluminium, needed for casting, from the Stanton Iron Works. The brass for the drum core pillars came from a local shop and the bearings from Ransome and Marr of Newark. The fact that so many of the materials needed to make the reel came from the Stanton Iron Works, has led to the theory that the Works management influenced Harry to re-name his reel 'The Stanton' - as collectors know it today.  

During the Second World War, the Stanton Iron Works joined the war effort and Harry began working in the Mould Boring Shop, making gun barrels. The green, or virgin sand, needed for casting his reels was now in short supply, so Harry was unable to make any more reels until around 1942. 
A man of many talents, Harry Reynolds made all the furniture for his large family as well as finding time to act as the local barber in 'The Checkers' public house at Stanton by Dale and mechanic to many local car owners!  

His two elder sons having joined up, his youngest son, Derek, began helping in the workshop, learning his father’s trade. They made a range of cigarette lighters from bullet cases, large nuts, and one called the book type, as well as his fishing reels, although neither were anglers. Derek's job when making the fishing reels was to make the drum spokes from lengths of brass rod. 
Harry made the reels in two sizes, a large 4 3/4" and small 4", with the options of handles and a check. Derek remembers his dad charging two pound ten shillings for the reels around 1955. He later offered the option of a black anodised finish to dull the shine of the aluminium of a newly finished reel.  

They would make around half a dozen reels, and then Harry, on a Saturday morning, would get on the train to Sheffield, and sell the reels around the pubs, only returning once all of them were sold. I am led to believe that Sheffield at this time, had one of the largest population of anglers anywhere in the country, so Harry had little problem selling his reels. 
Derek stopped helping his dad when he became pre-occupied, having met a young lady who later became his wife, whilst Harry carried on making his reels until his tragic death in a motor accident in 1968.  

A reel based on Harry's original design is still available today - the Adcock Stanton. 
Many thanks to Derek H. Reynolds, Harry's son and Tom Duro of Cotmanhay for their help in the research for this article." 

Final word

Wasn't that story about the reel just great? Unfortunately not great enough for me not to sell it. I needed to fund another little project which you'll hear all about next month and I really rather excited by it. As ever you can contact me via email here......

the.power@tesco.net

Thanks for reading and I'll leave you with a couple of picture of my fishing buddies and the usual errant self-take.......

Till next time................