Fishing Diary: Summer 2020

Wiping the smile

As I crested the sand dune a sparkling vista greeted my eyes. A beautifully flat sea and sparsely populated golden sandy beach with just a few dog walkers and a couple of anglers present. I ran back to the car and removed the wife's pink camouflage kayak. When I bought it a couple of years ago I accidentally on purpose chose her a fishing model, with rod holders and a seat and the like. I excitedly dragged it from the car park and up the sandy ridge and on to the beach.

The two anglers were a reasonable distance apart and me being my smug, self-righteous self, strode purposefully between them. Some really lovely people dedicate themselves to beachcasting but all they ever talk about is how far they can cast. They even have casting competitions in fields, which seems to me to be a fairly pointless use of ones' time. Anyway, I glanced at my fishing compatriots while thinking to myself- watch this Fatima Whitbred and Tessa Sanderson, in two minutes I'll be further out than you could ever dream of casting.

I gingerly eased the kayak on to the water and carefully lowered myself into the little fabric seat. Just as I sat down on the craft a small wave crashed over the front and dragged it underwater, taking me and everything in the kayak with it. I was completely soaked from nipple to toe and after a couple of seconds to regain my senses I conducted a rescue mission for my bait and tackle that were floating about on the shoreline. Needless to say, I didn't look around to see my peers reactions.

Lockdown Lifted

One of the very first places I visited when the covid-19 restrictions eased was the wonderful Withern Mill Trout Fishery. I had a really great day with lots of hard fighting Rainbow trout coming to my ham-fistedly presented flies. I even managed a few from the river that runs through their grounds, the remarkable Great Eau.

Lake 1

Great average size

Going back

A 5lber released

One on in the river

Tench Envy

After a couple of fly fishing forays I had satisfied that particular itch and was keen to target something else. Specimen angling rules dictate spring is time for tench. The perennial problem I have with this particular species is lack of venues, or more accurately my reluctance to pay carp syndicate prices to catch them. My friends however, have a rather more pragmatic approach and they began sharing their catches with me. The bastards.

Martin Barnatt with a double-figure tench

Luckily for me I found a rather fabulous distraction- an exceptional run of bass on the Lincolnshire coast. Despite my more experienced counterparts telling me I'd struggle with squid as bait I took over thirty fish in a couple of weeks. Nothing massive but a couple threatening four pounds. I also started taking my mat although most sea fish are incredibly tough so probably unnecessary.....

Most were between one and two pounds

Shiny

Spiky

One of the best

Another better fish

While fun it got a bit samey, I was averaging three fish a trip and it was all getting rather predictable. The vast majority were returned but I took two home. My trout priest came in handy for dispatching them, far better in my opinion than letting them suffocate. They are incredibly tough fish, gutting a bass is a totally different to preparing a trout. They have a remarkably sturdy bone structure. Also I suffered a bit from bass finger. A little like perch finger but worse. My thumb and index finder looked like I'd been competing in The Great British Sewing Bee having handled so many of the spiky blighters.

Eventually the weather turned and the sea flattened off which saw the arrival of the smoothounds. In fact I was on the beach when they turned up, I caught a couple of Bass on the flood and nine hounds on the ebb that day. In the following few weeks I had four sessions which were those crazy ones where you can only fish one rod because the action is so brisk. I have to admit to cutting a couple of those short because while novel at first the stamp of fish wasn't really what I was after with most being between two and six pounds....

I tried various venues and enlisted the help of some local experts in my quest for a bigger fish and eventually I got a new PB thanks, in part to Skegness Pier Angling Club stalwart- Chas Tibble. Watching this fish swim off in the relatively clear shallow water was a really beautiful sight. She was so calm and serene, a great memory......

12lb 2oz

As is the norm for us I was keen for an even bigger one and there were certainly a few being caught up to nearly twenty pounds. I joined forces with reluctant local angler Paul, usually somewhat of a lone ranger. I kept up with him during most sessions but with an onshore wind and his wading and pendulum casting he had the better of me when the fishing was tough. In fact we went through a rather patchy few sessions with just one or two fish between us.

Paul with an eleven pounder

Now nobody cares how many hounds I caught but just for some perspective I had well over a hundred fish and only one of them was a double. That can be the reality of hound fishing, it certainly was for me this year. Others just seem to drop lucky and travel for miles away and get a couple in a single visit. It really is very frustrating. Anglers are like gamblers though, they only tell you when they win. That age old saying of comparison being the thief of joy rings true. I thoroughly enjoyed fishing for them though and probably the best thing was taking my friends to catch a few. The size to them being largely irrelevant. My really big one can wait a while longer although I had some better fish in my last attempt.....

Lee Fletcher with a small bass

Lee with a hound in the same session

Zac Flay with his first hound

Near double

Another close one

We might as well stay with sea angling for a short time while we're on a roll, bear with me. I'm ashamed to say I got rather caught up in the macho 'I can cast considerably further than you' mentality of some of the more successful anglers on the coast. Rather than spending money on new equipment and many hours I didn't have practising casting I found a solution in my garage- my boat. Having recently acquired a petrol outboard I carefully checked the sea conditions and went for an initial foray with big hounds in mind. It was a titanic effort to set up and launch on my own but I was soon out over grounds unreachable by any shore angler.

I set up two running ledger rigs with full squid as bait while at anchor about five hundred yards out. I was soon getting bites although not what I was expecting, constant little taps on the tips. Slightly intrigued I set up a dropshot style rig with a small hook and a sliver of squid for bait. I was immediately into fish, Mackerel and some good sized ones too. It was the first time I had ever caught any of these summer visitors and I found it absolutely brilliant. I also caught a few Scad, another new species for me. On the light outfit the Mackerel were great fun and I concentrated on catching as many as I could. For three hours it was a fish every drop down. I released most, crimping my barb down and being careful not to touch them but I kept a few for tea.........

All around a pound and a half

The opening of this blog was the day after my boat trip. Not wanting the effort of getting my boat out again, I took the wife's kayak. Eventually I did manage to get out and even caught a few more mackerel. With a 40 gram Lure rod, ten pound line and a two ounce weight it was incredibly entertaining. Like the best Perch fishing session ever with harder fighting fish. They really do pull back.

Never a bad day afloat

My final trip on the high seas saw me joined by Paul again. With two of us it halved the effort of launching from the gently sloping beach. Sadly the only two big fish hooked that day were lost by Paul. Frustratingly we didn't see either of them. Probably hounds but at least one could have been a big bass. Now a convert Paul messaged me a few days later to say he'd bought an inflatable. Watch out for him next year, he's going to get some belters. Me on the other hand got distracted by Mackerel again. Probably the least impressive looking fish in this blog it gave me a fight I'll never forget. They really are turbo-charged little tuna on the right gear. This one of 2lb 2oz convinced me I had more than one on all the way in.....

Coarse Roundup

Even though I was enthralled by the fishing opportunities the sea was affording me I was keen to mark the start of the river season, still a magical time for many, me included. A few weeks before the start I tested my new boat engine out on a local river. As usual I encountered several bream shoals while afloat on the crystal clear water. Two fish in particular spiked my interest, they must have been close to double figures. I made a mental note of their position and vowed to return with some bait to get them used to it.

On my return I made a schoolboy error. I parked up and walked downstream a short distance before I stumbled across a big shoal of fish over a clear area among the otherwise thick weed. I immediately stopped and put some bait in. Quite why I did this is a mystery, maybe I just got too excited by seeing some fish. These weren't however the really big ones I was after.

On the next visit I decided to do some gardening, cutting a peg out and raking the swim to ensure I maximised my chances. Again, this turned in to a bit of a disaster. I managed to let go of the rope attached to my weed rake and it floated downstream about three quarters of the way across the river. Bugger, I was going to have to go in I thought. Remarkably and despite never grabbing a rope in her life one of my Labradors, Daisy understood my frantic encouragement and retrieved it. I could have kissed her, I did.......

Good girl

Great work

The night before the start of the season I went again, sadly seeing another angler on the far bank with a spinning outfit. As I was accompanied by the wife she wouldn't let me confront him. He was probably just a local teenager who knew no better. Seeing him spinning from a bridge on my way back to the car with absolutely no hope of landing anything over a pound further disappointed me. Anyway, back to the bream. I stopped at the clearing and put in some more bait. Louise and the dogs wandered further downstream and by the time they returned the swim was absolutely full of bream, eagerly ripping up the bottom in a feeding frenzy.

I was back at first light and sure enough they were still there, a remarkable sight and I was raring to go. Sadly in the tap-water clear shallow water they didn't take too kindly to being caught and I only managed five fish before the remaining fish departed, not to be seen again. The biggest weren't even five pounds and I knew then I should have searched out the bigger fish I'd seen on their own. Despite this I had a lovely time and it was nice to see these never-fished-for fish on the bank.

After a fruitless couple of hours on the beach one day I headed over to another river and took a few roach on the stick float. This one looks slightly dodgy in this photo because of the way I'm holding it but I've got one on a mat that looks 100% roach. Not that it's big enough for anyone to get their knickers in a twist over....

1lb 11oz

Carp

Some carp anglers are full-on bat-shit crazy aren't they? One of my favourite and only places I fish for carp was getting a battering on social media. Word on the munga-mixing, lead-donking streets was that the place had been 'Ottered'. I did think to myself at the time if an Otter went in that particular eel infested lake and ate a carp it would be like me going in to KFC and eating one of their plastic chairs.

Sure enough and typically the first time I went the carp were highly conspicuous as they were spawning. I conservatively estimated between forty to sixty carp were present. Probably exactly the same amount as there always has been. Now usually I'd turn up on the spur of the moment and try and tempt a few fish off the top. However this year there was a booking system in place due some previous dubious behaviour of our carp angling friends. This made timing my visits slightly tricky as the spawning debacle proved. I did manage to go again when there were no other anglers present and wandered around and caught one of the old buggers a foot from the bank......

Another much maligned fishery is Chapel boating lake. Just to be clear it's been a great season so far there. Plenty of carp to just over twenty pounds and one of the regulars hooked what was certainly one of the catfish that gave him the run run around for nearly an hour before escaping. I've only been once to try for the roach and although I caught plenty the big ones eluded me. Just to prove a point I did get a carp gatecrash the party......

I'll finish this section off with a rather disastrous barbel fishing effort on the river Trent. I was rather surprised to catch one carp, specially a ghostie from the river but when I added another, albeit a less remarkable common I was aghast......

The mouth suggests an escapee

Barbel

As I write I've been on three trips to the Trent so far. The first a highly unusual blank on the tidal. My fishing partner for the day was our friend Andy Wilson. Obviously he needed all the help he could get so I put him in the best peg. He started off with a nice chub and then a decent barbel just shy of ten pounds......

The second visit resulted in the two carp above. It really is a most infuriating bit of river. The barbel become really active as the light fades so realistically you only have a half hour window where your chances are greatest as night fishing is prohibited. It's a long way for me to go for such scant rewards so I scoured the recent match results on other sections. One particular area stood out and I arranged a guest ticket for my friend James Truscott to join me. Sure enough within minutes of casting in I caught a barbel, albeit quite small. The next fish was a little better though......

I continued catching steadily all through the day and was absolutely delighted to catch a new PB........

13lb 6oz

I'm really pleased with this picture, mainly because you can the water droplets coming off the fish. Nobody has ever made it to the end of that turgid Barbel Society handling script. Just keep them out of the water for as little time as possible. Unhook them in the net and let them rest for a while before putting them back. They can't breathe out of water, the end.

Thankfully James caught a few too including one on my rod when I had a double hook-up at the end of a marvellous day, netting them within seconds of each other.....

Tackle Talk

Talamax Aqualine 230 Airfloor

Ok, for a few pennies shy of four hundred pounds you get a 2.3m inflatable boat, repair kit, hand pump, bag and adjustable seat. My other boat is a 2.9m hard floor and is right on the cusp of being manageable on my own hence my reason for wanting a lighter one. And lighter it is, maybe too light. I have only used it once and with my little 3.5hp Mariner it performed really well. It's massively uncomfortable though so I've ordered a proper seat for it. I've fallen foul of recommending stuff before and it turning out to be be rubbish so I'll reserve judgement on this one until I've had more use out of it. On its one and only trip though it did tow our friends Leo Heathcote and Jamie Potts up the river though when we went a bit far and they developed battery anxiety.........

Judgement

The elephant in the room is my PB barbel picture. The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed my hat which I want to touch on briefly. I'm an Otter lover and an a passionate angler. Despite whatever anyone says the two don't have to be mutually exclusive. The Wild Otter Trust is run by a lovely man and has the full backing of Chris Packham, so probably not a great idea for anglers to pick a fight with them. And why would you? We can like different stuff, life would be very boring if we didn't. David Attenborough recently revealed a pathetic four percent of mammals on the planet live in the wild, real food for thought and maybe a change of attitude towards some of them?

Anyway, enough explaining. During my furlough I had a chance to spend some time on my local river executing a fairly thorough clean-up. Time well spent and unbelievably I've had people mocking my stance on litter. It's incredibly simple- It relies on the fact that the if the number of people dropping litter remains constant then all you need is the same amount of people or more picking it up and the problem ceases to exist.