Lockdown v2.0 Day 7. Day off Monday, recovering from the exertions of spending 5 hours watching a tip not so much as flicker……I wasn’t absolutely desperate to fish on the Tuesday but the impending Atlantic storm scheduled to make landfall on Wednesday persuaded me to venture out, if only because I had in excess of 4 pints of caster.
Now I’m not naturally disposed to break the law, so I would much prefer to conform with the lockdown restrictions at least for now. My approach might change in the future if I feel that the restrictions are being retained for no obvious good reason. But for now, rules are rules. Unfortunately, Hendre Lake, which would be a preferred option, is in Cardiff rather than in Newport. It is literally only about 200m the wrong side of the ‘border’, but, as the old saying goes, ‘you can’t be a bit pregnant’.
So I was left with the inspiring choice of Morgans, Woodstock or, at a stretch, School Pool. The least unattractive option was Woodstock, so I trollied down to peg 29 to fish the waggler ov er a bit of groundbait and a lot of loose fed caster (I couldn’t stomach any more time on the tip for now). I wasn’t really expecting much but to my delight I was exactly right and didn’t catch much. 3 or 4 F1 C**p which were, at least, quite lively. 4 Skimmers but 10oz size not the near 2 pounders. Few Roach and a couple of Perch. Bit of a waste of time and bait really but I had nowhere better I could be. I fancy this is going to be a difficult lockdown if it lasts a few more weeks and I constrain myself to the legal options.
Peg 108 today which was fairly meaningless until I looked at the map to find myself at Bartonsham and on the Oak Tree. So do-able walk and a peg with some history. Unfortunately all Barbel history and the gin clear low river, chilly Northerly and bright sunshine didn’t fill me full of confidence for a Barbelfest. And, of course, Hereford have taken on 200 additional members, most of which have spent their furloughs down Bartonsham, so it has been absolutely flattened.
But I set out full of good intent, stripped down gear, two feeder rods and a waggler rod. Set up a 12′ feeder rod to fish a 40g blackcap and a 14′ Acolyte plus with a 6AAA speci wag. To avoid an overly long and needlessly technical breakdown, I fed caster and hemp through the blackcap and spent 3 hours on the maggot, including half an hour in two spells on the wag. Then I started feeding 3mm pellets as well and switched to an 8mm pellet on a quickstop. This made a huge difference, because I went from not getting bites on the maggot to not getting bites on the pellet. Not so much as a touch, a proper blankity-blank. Geoff had a very fine 54Lbs of Barbel and Chub off 104, then there was a 39Lbs at the top end of Bartonsham, otherwise blanks or bits. And apparantly there were some big Chub weights off the blockhouse at Breinton. The rest I don’t know except that there were several blanks to go with mine. And, bizarrely, I felt that I’d fished a decent match, felt my way in, gone for an all-inclusive approach, targetted the obvious line etc. And I didn’t miss any bites either!!!
So, yet again, I proved that crime doesn’t pay (I’d broken lockdown to fish the match……….).
Or in other words, Lockdown v2.0 Day 0. To be honest it has been a bit like watching a train wreck in very slow motion. I have to assume that the UK and Welsh Governments were privy to the same information that I was:- only 1 in 5 tested positive for Covid actually self-isolating, large social gatherings including illegal raves, holidaymakers visiting countries against Government advice and then not quarantining on return, reduced success rates for Track & Trace due to people giving false or no information. And some people questioned why the UK didn’t adopt the Sweden model of collective responsibility!!!
Once it became clear that although the Covid rate had reduced it wasn’t going to hit zero, and with a lot of the population acting as if it was all over, there was only going to be one outcome. Now if you decree that Pubs and Restaurants must shut early and only provide table service, then you are effectively saying that community transmission in pubs and restaurants has been significant and the establishments haven’t been managing social distancing. In which case, why not shut them? Probably something to do with the 3.5 million employees in the sector and the loss in revenue involved………but next time around maybe?….in about 3 weeks.
The next few weeks will define whether there is any possibility of an Autumn/Winter river campaign or whether I might as well pack the gear away until better times. I’m not overly optimistic.
Probably my last visit to this new match venue until next year. Skimmer (as opposed to Bream) fishing on a stillwater is a new one to me and TBH this shows in my results or lack thereof. Standard outcome has been to be chip-shopped to a greater or lesser extent and the weekend was no exception.
Day 1 – I’d already been pre-drawn to be on Pontsticill, and then the peg draw put me on 2, Railway bank. So two draws on Pontsticill and both in the same small area. I was slightly further around to my right this time, and remembering how my previous peg had plumbed up I was gobsmacked when I chucked out at 40m and found I only had a count of 6, i.e. 9′ or thereabouts. My 25m line was, not surprisingly, exactly the same but it was noticeably snaggy. And when I got the big rod and had a chuck at 60m that was also a count of 6!!!! Trying further out wasn’t really an option and certainly not when the wind picked up.
I basically went 40m almost from the start and it was absolutely miserable. 3 Lbs odd of mainly small Perch with a solitary Roach. And I lost a few fish and about 20 hooklengths snagging up on the retrieve. Peegs 1 & 3, which had counts of 10 or greater, managed about 10 Lbs each. When I had a cast around after the match the depth to my right went from count of 6 to count of 9 over about 5 paces, so I would live to see the topography of the bottom in that area.
But best weight on the day was 31 Lbs off dolly so everything to play for on day 2.
Day 2 – Dol-y-gaer peg 32, set out on the poit and with real form, not least the previous day’s winning weight. I set up to fish 25m and 40m, and kicked off short to a minimal response. Peter Williams was sat on 33 and was busy early doors catching wasps fishing longer at 40m, but after 30 minutes or so he started picking off Roach and small Skimmers, and his swim built and built and at the 2.5 hour mark I reckoned he had well in excess of 20 Lbs. In the meanwhile, I’d had a run of wasps and then started to catch a few Roach. Nice, dumpy fish, but I was getting slaughtered.
As the match approached the midpoint I finally caught a few Skimmers. Small, but very welcome. I was desperately chopping and changing to try to make an impact. Window feeder/cage feeder/no particles/live maggots/dead maggots/caster. The Roach and a small number of Skimmers had come to live maggot on the hook with caster feed in a window feeder. I had tried worm and worm heads with limited effect, but now I tried it again and nailed a Skimmer. I then gave it a blast of choppie through a medium window feeder then switched back to a cage feeder but feeding a pinch of choppie in the groundbait. And for the last 90 minutes I couldn’t get my feeder back in quick enough, plenty of Skimmers now albeit mainly small.
I was still catching strongly at the all-out, but I was conscious that I was lacking quality, and sure enough my catch went 11Lbs odd. In the meantime Peter had dried up at 40m but then started a new line at 60m and was soon catching again, ending up with 40Lbs to win the lake and (I think) take 2nd place overall in the Festival.
So I was properly chip-shopped on Day 1 but,I am absolutely certain that it was inevitable given the shallow nature of my peg and the fact that I was effectively contending with two end pegs. I was only battered one side on the Sunday (but well battered!!) but there was an obvious end peg effect going on (peg 34 had 30Lbs) and those Skimmers just didn’t move in until far too late. In most cases, those that had decent weights on the day were catching Skimmers from the off or very shortly after. Lee Edwards’ take on Dol-y-gaer was that there weren’t as many fish as people thought there were but they were hungry. And the Sunday sort of bore that out with clusters of pegs producing but the pegs in between struggling.
So, I’ll be back. Hopefully the access on dolly will be improved, because today was challenging!!!!
Postscript
Picked up some additional info after the event, the sort of stuff that you normally get at the draw or at the post-match gathering, but at the moment I’m staying as far away from both as possible!
Russell Henry had my Railway Bank peg on Day 2. He absolutely concurred wityh me that it is a snag-pit. In fact, he lost even more gear than I did, I was lucky enough to get away with just hooklengths. But had picked up that there are the remains of a wall at 35m, hence the snags, and if you push out further (he said 50m, but I suspect a little more), then the count of 5 in his case changes to a count of 10. And he caught 28Lbs of Skimmers in this deeper water. Don’t know how relevant this would have been too me on Day 1 as Saturday was much windier and I’m still not, and may never be, comfortable with the big chucks. Definitely something I need to practice down Hendre over the winter.
Andy Powell’s 31Lb weight on the Saturday had come from 33, not 32. So that peg had won the lake both days. My peg had produced about the same as I managed off it.
I’d been waiting, in vain as it happens, for some rain so that I could set up all my Bleak whips and dust off the cobwebs as it were. No chance, late Summer heatwave, temperatures up into the 30s. But after some incredible weights in Sunday’s Riverfest qualifier it was pretty obvious that it was a Bleak river despite being low and clear.
So I popped in to say hello to Woody, then parked up by the pumphouse to find that I had the choice of any peg. Clear sign that the Barbel are not playing at the moment. I had fancied 41, but that was way off the water unless I got a platform in, which I didn’t really fancy. Peg 40 was a little closer to the water so I opted for that. I set up one full set of whips- 2m, 2.5m, 3m, 3.5m and 4m, and kicked off at 3m. It soon became clear that being about 5′ off the water meant that the shorter whips wouldn’t work and I had to swap to 4m and 3.5m.
That worked OK and I spent a few hours playing around with a few options and tweaking rigs etc, but to be honest I struggled to fish it with the sort of focus that I’d have shown in a match, the stamp was a bit small (I reckon 35/pound) and the longer range and high stance were a real impediment. So I reckon I was nearer to 5 Lbs/hour rather than the 9Lbs/hour plus that Jamie had achieved the previous Sunday. But I was happy overall with the way it had gone. I even picked up a few bonus Dace early and some Perch later.
But after 3 hours I could take no more. I’d been feeding hemp slightly downstream and now I went over it with tares under a stickfloat. The initial bites were a bit tricky but as it progressed I had them lined up a bit better and the bites were easier to hit, although I was still obviously getting some noise off Bleak and small Dace on the drop. And I had a lovely couple of hours catching Dace up to about 4oz max and small chublets, plus a solitary small Roach. Oh, and 3 Bleak as well!! But that wouldn’t have beaten the Bleak weight achievable over the same timescale.
So, more affirmation than innovation. Being way above the water is a big issue for bleaking, so the current water level Vs the platforms is a challenge. In the absence of a platform getting down in the water is essential. And as I suspected there is actually already a reasonable head of small silvers in the stretch, but accessing them through the Bleak is a problem. I was a bit disappointed not to catch a few more Roach, but the venue will grow now over the next few weeks as the migratory fish come in.
I did genuinely try to get excited about the prospect of a Merthyr Open on the Sunday. I even did a bit of light prep in so much that I checked I’d be OK for bait, but in the end I just wasn’t feeling it and match fishing can become an expensive pastime if you’re not 100% committed. As it tumed out Dol-y-gaer fished well with no real surprises, Ponsticill was a lot harder.
So clear weekend, what to do on the Monday. Baking hot sunshine and barely a breath of wind, so I left it until early afternoon and then popped down to Woodstock, peg 38. It was almost unbearably hot and I didn’t really expect to catch. Well, no surprises, I didn’t.
Fished an 0.4g rig at 11m over groundbait and caster. Lots of fish movement, liners etc. and I foul-hooked an early big Skimmer. But basically I couldn’t buy a bite. Started a new line short at about 5m and it was solid with small Roach on the caster over loose feed. But I soon got bored with that. Three hours in the sun dropped below the tree-line and it was much more pleasant, and there was a lot of blowing up in my swim. I took three Bream/big Skimmers in three drops, but then it reverted to liners and half-hearted indications. I eventually nailed a small F1 C**p so that was my signal to wrap it in. So not brilliant but most venues would have been challenging in the conditions, and at least I was watching a float for a change.
I’m obviously still trying to adjust/recover from the shock of Sunday’s 4.00am start and 240 mile round trip, so Wednesday saw me wide awake at 5.30am. But not an issue, because I was planning a trip to the mighty Wye to practice my Barbel fishing and I was up and about early enough to avoid the Hereford traffic jam.
So I was parked up at the Pumphouse by 7.15pm (the traffic was noticeably lighter. COVID-19 isn’t all bad!!), and had the pick of the Ferry Field pegs, which I should have taken as a warning as these are normally Barbel angler central. Anyway, I opted for peg 40 just above the Ferry steps and set up to catch some whiskers.
The river still had some flow but was fairly clear, and disappointingly it was a lot sunnier than I had expected, although it did cloud over later. Anyway, I mixed together a small amount of Hemp & Hali crush, 3mm and 4mm Halibut pellets and Hemp……actually, not the Hemp, I’d forgotten it. So just groundbait and pellets then, and introduced them via a medium cage feeder with a hair-rigged 8mm Halibut pellet. Picked a line 2/3rds over and marked up with a chinagraph pencil so that I didn’t need to clip up….simples. And I waited……..and waited…….and waited………I actually did have a response, and managed to strangle a small Perch on the pellet, which was a first for me.
A little while later I had another bite……
But I was starting to wonder whether this pellet fishing for Barbel was a bit more complicated than it seemed. Mainly subtle stuff…….for example like how to get a bite off a Barbel………
I also had a Chublet on the pellet so I was really bagging! I opened a tin of meat and had a play around with the meat feeder, which got me a second Chublet, and with the impact bomb which looked very good but was totally ineffective. I’d spoken with Johnny Mac and Pete ‘voice of doom’ Pembridge who both confirmed that it had fished well during the recent lift but most of the stretches had been hammered and weren’t producing. So I decided that I’d stick it out until 12.00pm and, wonder of wonders, at 11.50am I had an absolute classic Barbel rap and found myself playing a kitten of about 4Lbs or so.
So, 4Lbs Barbel, big deal! But the whole experience from classic drop-back through initial run downstream through to late runs to avoid the net reminded me of exactly why, should I ever decide to pack in coarse match fishing, then Barbel fishing would be the only alternative option that would interest me in any way.
So, early days and in hindsight I understand why I was able to rock up and grab the best peg on the Ferry Field without competition. I need to sort out some more groundbait, tie up some more hooks and buy a stack of meat but other than that I feel as if I’m set up now and just need more bank time over the next few weeks.
The Monday after Tidefest is usually a wash-out and this year was definitely no exception. But by Tuesday I felt up to a fairly lightweight outing so popped down to Hendre for an afternoon/evening session. There was a decent chop on and I really fancied the carpark bank but that appears to have become occupied territory at the moment, so settled for peg 9 on the railway bank.
The reel was clipped up for 40 turns so I stuck with that, 28g Hybrid feeder with bandums/wafters on a bed of micros and fishmeal groundbait. I managed to snag up a couple of times and I should have picked up on the warning signs, but casting slightly right seemed to put me in a clear spot so I persisted. And 45 minutes in, dead on cue, I started to get some indications, followed by a series of pulls wwhich, in hindsight,must have been liners, because I failed to hook up on any of them. But very difficult to tell the difference between a method pull and a liner. I should have sat on my hands to see if the rod was really going to be pulled in.
Picking up on liners appeared to spook hem somewhat, but I eventually had a proper bite and nailed a smallish Bream. A better one followed, but I’m also certain that I hit a few more bites but found myself with the feeder firmly wedged up in a snag or snags. And all in all it was slow, at the 3 hour point I still only had 2 Bream and a decent Roach. But then it started to pick up and I nailed a further 5 Bream, all proper ones. But even then, I had two more ‘events’ where I picked up on what seemed decent bites only to find that the feeder was snagged. I can only think that I’d inadvertently landed myself right on the old Reen which is still detectable on the first couple of pegs into the lake. Anyway, whatever it was it was the snaggiest line I’ve ever fished there and it cost me a few fish and, even worse, two very expensive Guru Hybrid feeders. Fortunately I was using the X-safe system so the fish won’t be dragging a feeder around with them.
My seven Bream would have pushed 25 Lbs, so about half of what I might have expected in the conditions (altough the wind did have a bit of a bite to it), but that’s fishing. Plenty of times in years gone by when I would have killed for 25 Lbs of slabs.
Aka ‘Tidefest’ Always a bit of a watershed event for me because it falls at the end of the ‘Summer’ campaign, which for me has been predominantly about Evesham, and the ‘Autumn/Winter’ which will be Belmont with perhaps a little bit of Chippenham. So the next few weeks will see me dust off my float rods and rigs, switch from braid to mono and generally get into a ‘proper’river mindset.
7.00am draw, so that meant a 4.00am start and even then, thanks to two M4 closures I was just about OK on time. That very nice Martin Salter drew me peg 13, which I initially took to be below the railway bridge on the Kew section. Definitely OK. But in fact it was the end peg between the boats and Oliver’s Island, aka ‘FLYER’ because it is essentially the peg from which I won in 2016 and 2018. So no pressure then, because everyone assumed I’d win anyway………..simples…….
Six years down the road and it is a very well-rehearsed operation. Riggers barrow with a wheel on and two back legs. Rod rest, keepnet, groundbait bowl, rod holder and bait tray all attach to the riggers. Top of my Rive box for end tackle. Box of feeders and some tied hooks. Caster, worm, maggot and groundbait.
The event is somewhat constrained by the calendar and by the tides. It has to take place on a Sunday in September, but it also has to be fished on the ebb from a morning high tide. Today’s tide was early, at 6.20am but also a biggish one, at 5m. And to allow the anglers at Barnes a fair chance to compete over the same time frame it was decided to reduce the match to 4 hours, with a later all-in time of 9.30am. All absolutely fair and the right decision, but I have to admit that when I was on the gravels and set to go by 8.30am I was watching the tide receding very quickly and thinking that I would ideally have wanted to be feeding my intended line at that point with a view to holding any Bream there, i.e. as I had done previously.
But that was not an option and by the 9.30am all-in we were almost halfway down the slope. I targetted what was now a 30m line, and second chuck I had my first bite. A small Bream. Silly me!! What was I worrying about. This was Groundhog Day, which has always been one of my favourites, and the only real question to be answered was whether I would beat my 2018 total, or both my 2018 and 2016 totals………simples…….
Except that my next fish was a decent Roach, followed by another, but then smaller Roach and quite a few unhittable bites. And I was scaling down at a ferocious pace, 60g>44g>30g>30g small feeder to 20g small feeder. It wasn’t too long before I found myself fishing a dink rig to try to hit the Dace bites, and as I was heading towards the 2 hour (i.e. halfway) point I was becoming fixated on trying to build a small fish weight on the feeder. Madness!! And it would still have been madness even if I’d had a whip or stickfloat set up. I was effectively going down a section win rabbit hole, when the big sponsorship money was all attached to the individual frame.
So I had to give myself a metaphorical kick up the arse, bin the light rig, pick up the big rod and chuck a proper feeder 40m further out, on a river which was much lower than I’d ever seen it before, so I was basically in totally untried territory. Happily the tip soon started going over with some proper bites. Decent Roach to start. Then a second small Bream followed by some Skimmers. Then, miraculously, just over 30 minutes from the end I picked up on a proper bite and felt the nodding of a serious Bream. So serious that I actually had to play it a little bit. And sure enough, it was a big bronze dinnerplate that must have been pushing 7Lbs. I was seriously glad to get the net under that and managed a couple more Skimmers before the all-out although small Roach were becoming more of a pain and for some reason I was constrained to fishing maggot as the worm was totally ineffective, as it had been all day.
As usual my Son brought my two Grandchildren down at the end. They are both keen to do some fishing, especially the Boy, so it was lovely that they were there to witness the scales arriving at my peg.
Grampa, Bream, Hanna, Hugo and a photo-bomber
Best weight off the Kew bank at that point was 15Lbs, and I was fairly confident I had that nailed, as was the case when I tipped 19-1-0 into the bucket and that took the day.
So ‘Tidefest’ win no.3, all off basically the same peg/area, although Martin Salter was kind enough to point out that other anglers had had that peg for 4 of the years and nobody else had won off it. And in some ways, with the different tide, a more satisfying win because, instead of the early carnage of previous years which had seen me amass a winning weight then sit on it for a few hours, this time I’d had to think and work my way around the peg far more. In the previous two wins I’d assumed that the Bream had slipped away downstream as the level drained away. I’m now wondering whether they’d actually just moved further out, and this was the first year I’ve been kitted out to test that idea. I’d love to be able to have a play around with some ideas for fishing this stretch, but its fairly impractical, unless I can persuade my Son to invite me up for a visit. Hmmmm…….
Thursday started off a bit drizzly with moderate westerly winds but was forecast to dry up by the afternoon. So after the previous day’s F1fest I decided to go for something less commercially orientated and rolled up at Hendre. Fairly quiet now at the back end of the Summer although the carpark swims seem to be on permanent sub-let to some fairly dodgy looking ‘anglers’. I hope the syndicate are keeping a close watch on their precious C**p stocks.
I opted to stay well clear of their dubious anticsand trollied around to old peg 2, i.e. to the right of the sluice. Standard Hendre approach, 28g hybrid feeder, bed of micros covered by a skin of groundbait, and with various bandums and wafters on a size 16QM1. 8″ hooklength. Cast out, tighten up, wait for the pull.
At around the half hour mark I noticed a slight indication, and sure enough 2 minutes later a proper pull and Bream #1. Another followed and in the space of 90 minutes I took 6 in all, including a couple of the largest slabs I’ve taken there, easily knocking 4 Lbs, proper turkey plates.
It always amazes me how such a decent sized fish can manage to look so small in a photograph!!
After this run of fish I had a bit of a technical melt-down where a twist-up in my reel line formed a knot and rather than try to unpick it I opted to scrap out about 7m of line. Of course this meant I had to reclip and although I worked hard to regain the right line I may have been no more than a half-turn out. But either because of this, or perhaps because the Bream can get a bit ratty after a few have been taken, the next hour only produced 2 Bream, and then the following hour was practically biteless and I resolved to pack up at 4 pm as it wasn’t as totally dry as the forecast had predicted. Of course, after over an hour of nothingness the tip went round with about 10 minutes to go and then again on my last cast after I was mostly packed up. So 10 Bream, easily 30 Lbs+, simply lovely. Bit of light preparation now over the next couple of days to strip the gear back for Tidefest.
26 Year ITCH 