A Tough Call

I spoke in my last update of the impossible task of judging a contest which includes a stack of different species, with all manner of sizes and scenarios. Talk about a headache! I had the most supportive of angling stars to help with Matt Hayes and John Bailey on board, both really keen fly anglers themselves and generous in their support. The trouble was, each of us had a different fish in first place, so it was down to second and third slots in the end. A huge well done goes to Geoff Hadley for his first placed bream, which wins a leather bound collector's edition of "Flyfishing For Coarse Fish" worth a cool £150.

How does a fish of four pounds beat others several times that size? There will be some who disagree, but the whole idea of the competition was about the fun, skill and challenge- not necessarily the figure on the scales. Every one of the panel agreed that to sight fish for bream and pick a fish off with a wet fly was a brilliantly unorthodox catch- and the captor hooked and lost another on the very next cast! Definitely a catch to demonstrate what is possible with a little imagination. So often I feel that the biggest barrier to such fascinating, convention-busting sport is in the angler's brain. But if you don't try something, how do you know it won't work? I feel like we've opened a door already with the "Fly for Coarse" project- and the more people give it a try, the wider this door will be flung open.

I have to say, I'm a little surprised that one of the huge pike captures didn't win outright. We had both John Machin (above) and Andy Cheetham, each with pike of over thirty pounds! Hugely impressive captures and they will both consider themselves a little unlucky, but at least grab themselves a prize for being high on our list.
The selection was also bolstered by plenty of other great entries. Mr Dorr's five pound plus chub on a dry fly is a wonderful capture too- as were several others. John Bailey's favourite was this double figure carp, caught on a sinking daddy longlegs (below). A fantastic fish, no doubt, and one that I think he wanted to highlight as an inspiration for modern carp anglers to try something a little different:

Anyhow, the headache of picking a winner aside, the competition has been really refreshing and thought provoking. I hope it at least shatters a few illusions and represents an ethos that's slightly lacking at present. A bit of fun and unpredictability surely can't go amiss? Talking of fun, I've just received the first of several nice mouthfuls intended for chub this summer, which I've designed for Turrall. This one's called the "Jasper" (a wasp, for those not of Westcountry bias):

And fun was also the main agenda for my last trip as I searched for somewhere not resembling trench warfare to fish. I surprised my old man with a pole fishing set for Christmas, which needed a decent trial. Say what you like about commercials (and most people do) but they do keep fishing regardless of muddy, horrible conditions. I tend to pick the ones that aren't purely stuffed with carp- and Shillingford is never too bad for variety. Even on a pretty cold morning, the first hour was good, although in typical style the very swim I wanted for the perch was bagged by a bloke who turned up at the identical time as us but had the foresight to whack his stuff down to reserve the peg. Never mind, the bites came quick- and the fish, while not huge, were nice hand sized roach and perch, the sort you would happily catch all day any day.


The carp inevitably made their appearance as we kept trickling the feed in. Dad was thrilled to bits with his new pole, (the romantically named 6m Browning "Pitbull") that provided some fun with the roach on the light top kit, but serious stopping power for some margin carping. The gift was just the thing in fact. When we started fishing as tiny kids, it was he who plonked a fibreglass whip in our hands; quite nice to return the favour three decades later with a more up to date pole!


Meanwhile, I also enjoyed a bite filled pole session. Why oh why do folks still fish with alarms and bolt rigs for match sized winter carp I wonder? I find it baffling, seeing as you'll catch twice as many on lighter, balanced tackle- and actually enjoy a bit of a battle. Our kit was typically 4lb rig line to a 3.3lb low diameter hook length, followed by a wide gape size 16 hook and a worm or two maggots. A little hempseed didn't seem to hurt either in holding both carp and decent roach in the swim. All good fun I guess, although I am already pining for spring and watching some fish rise so I can break out the fly rod properly.

Carping and King Fishers

Carp are one of those species that cause heated pub debates between angling factions. My own position? I love them, but I do feel like carp angling sometimes suffers from tunnel vision. There are so many ways to catch carp, and not all depend on multiple rods and multiple hours on the bank. Just ask Dan Sales and Ben Hayward, two anglers with intriguing and very different approaches to their carp fishing.


First stop on a mini road trip was on some gravel pits for a spot of fly fishing. Ben Hayward is one of those anglers who doesn't just imitate. Or perhaps I should say that's exactly what he does- he imitates fly life! As a Devon angler used to pokey little ponds, the pits are a different world. They're also fertile places when it comes to fly life. There's something rather refreshing about watching a guy with just one rod strolling past bivvies armed with a box of bloodworms, bugs and dry flies as opposed to boilies.

I'm not going to lay all his cards out here- that's a task for an in depth feature. But what I would say is that Ben is living proof that with some smart thinking and a lot of legwork, anything is possible with a fly rod. He doesn't always imitate specific hatches, but I noticed plenty of large nymphs and dry flies such as Hare's Ears, damsels and daddies in his box. In spite of only fly fishing for three or four seasons, he has picked up some impressive skills. Getting stuck in to tight corners and accurate roll casting play a big part:

The recent thunder seemed to have made the carp picky, but Ben managed to hook and land a battling eight pounder with the added pressure of my lens on him (and the added pressure of Fly For Coarse organiser Charlie Hancock making lewd comments to try and break his concentration). A great effort- and we didn't see a single fish taken by anglers with two or three rods per man.


Another angler with a refreshingly different approach to carping is Dan Sales. Being a total canal enthusiast I couldn't wait to hit the towpath with him and go in search of some commons and mirrors on his local cut. Again it was mobility and an open mind that stood out. Here's a line you don't hear often from carp men: "I can't stand sitting around in one spot!"
And it paid off. Negotiating ducks, boats and other obstacles, Dan managed to get into the fish on a tough day. Much of his approach is about free-lining bread and other simple baits, which certainly helps beat the crayfish. When ducks are a menace he also zig-rigs bread or slings out simple legered pop-ups. Again, there are too many ideas to pack into the quick scribble of this blog (and I have to save some of the choice bits for articles, because the tinned food is running out).

The camera has a strange effect on my fishing at times. You can't be an active photographer and a 100% committed angler at the same time, and vice versa. And I wouldn't grumble at this simple fact, because I find getting quality images just as rewarding as fishing itself these days. That said, I did manage to catch a small but scrappy common on a free-lined piece of bread.
Some wise guy said that a fishing adventure is not about the final outcome, but all the things that happen on the way. And so it proved on a sweltering afternoon. We saw quite possibly Britain's oldest female impersonator on a canal barge of all places. And exhibit B was this rather strange llama type thing with really odd mannerisms, which looked like something out of a Kafka story, all swivelling ears and curiously human scratching.

Talking of surreal experiences, do tune in to "King Fishers" on Monday if you get the chance (National Geographic Channel, 8pm, 5th Aug). From African war dances to humpback whales, it was a fishing adventure I will never forget. Looking at some of the friction in the series so far, I'm also grateful to have been competing against two really friendly (but still slightly nuts!) characters in Gambia's Tony Tabbal and Geir Sivertzen of Norway. These guys are legends. My rivals perhaps, but one of the best bits of the show was making two great friends. I've already been ice fishing since with Geir, while Tony has really taken to fly fishing after the hasty casting lesson I gave him in England. A true exchange of angling ideas and cultures you might say. Enjoy the ride!

Flying West

Back to more active fishing this week. You can only contain me in a bivvy for so long before I get seriously restless. I did finally get into some carp at Darts Farm on another night session, but must have had three of the smallest fish in the lake. I couldn't wait to get back to some more impatient fishing, which started on the Bude Canal (above). This is a crazy little venue; every chance of a flounder amongst the roach. Or indeed a trout, and I had three on maggot or caster.

I waggler fished most of a short session, catching rudd steadily. With hindsight I should perhaps have spent longer down the track for the bream. It's not the prettiest or most sophisticated method, but a small method feeder was deadly. In fact it can be downright unfair- you can be sat there presenting the bait perfectly on a pole and fine tackle and yet next door someone is hauling fish out on a horrendous chunk of groundbait and 6lb hook length. There is a certain pleasure in watching the tip go crazy I suppose, and I landed a cracking bream and lost another two in perhaps 90 minutes of trying this, although pedalo warfare soon slowed things down. Not a bad catch though:

I've also been back on the trail of new waters, first up at St Tinney Farm, which has several of the sort of ponds that take you back to childhood- cute, leafy and stuffed with carp, roach and rudd. I took one look before reaching for the fly rod.

The water was hardly gin clear, so I went for a size 10 black and peacock. The rudd played ball from the off, and I also had some cat and mouse style fun with the carp. I had one suck in the fly without getting hooked, another keep nosing it for several yards and then, finally, a nice mirror bolting off. Just shows, you don't need chum mixers to lure carp. It takes a little more patience, but the fish of mature ponds know exactly what insects are:

I'm hoping to do more with St Tinney in fact (about 20 mins from Bude). There are lots of great little streams and stillwaters nearby as well as the coarse fish on site. Some nice rudd could also form some great guided trips on sunny afternoons. For today's mission, visitors Karl and son Callum Salmon (great fishy surname) were keen to learn to fly fish, so I took them to Simpson Valley to try a half day session. Well versed in coarse fishing techniques this was something entirely new to try.

Some anglers take a bit of practise, others are just naturally good with a fly rod. Callum was definitely one of the latter. I always like to start the process on a nice flat space without the distraction of fish, water and trees. After an hour or so of pointers on grass, he was already creating elegant loops on the lakes. Both our intrepid fly casters caught fish and hopefully caught the bug:

A Week of Carp

Perhaps due to their sheer popularity there is an anti-carp current within some fishing circles. I love the species- it's the methods and condition of the fish that don't always inspire. Hence a big push this week to explore some different venues with methods high on excitement this week, from fly fishing to free-lining baits in the margins.

Abbrook Pond (above), run by Exeter Angling Association, is definitely what you'd call a classic, "old school" carp lake. Once visited by Dick Walker, it might be noisier these days with a local quarry and even the racket of a punk band's rehearsal at one point- but when all settles down, what a beautiful place. As per usual, I tried both old and new methods but found free lined or float fished baits by far the most effective. Sometimes I wonder if the modern era has gone bite alarm and static fishing mad. Each to their own, but it's so much more effective as well as more fun to use lighter tackle and be mobile. I lost a decent something on an overnighter, only to grab a beautiful common on float fished bread paste next morning. Nothing to write home about at eleven pounds? Not in my book- perfectly conditioned and ridiculously strong on a float rod.

The weeks other kicks have been on a fly rod, with the added pressure of fellow angling writer and film maker Steve Lockett on camera at Stafford Moor. The fish needed some coaxing, but eventually got going in the sun and gave a pulverising display on a fly rod. With the exception of one mirror taken on a terrestrial, the key on the day was regular loose feed in the right spot.

To cap off a fun week of carp I also took an evening ticket at Creedy lakes for some further action. Fewer but bigger fish here- and after seeing several good sized cruising fish on the top pond, I tempted a solid common on a good sized dry fly. Not a "bait" fly this time, but a nice bushy stimulator presented by overhanging cover. A fly that looks a little big and clumsy- until you see the size of a decent carp's laughing gear close on it! On an seven weight outfit the fight was nothing short of sensational another good reason to give this enthralling method a try.