Bass, Bream & Blanks

Another tough night proved fruitless for the carp of Exeter Canal- soggy kit and soggy hopes this morning, although it hasn't been all downhill. A session on the Exe produced no carp either, but a beautifully solid bream of 7 1/2 Pounds.

The tough feat of catching a big canal carp remains an elusive dream. For all the small steps forward in presentation and fish location the one quality required seems to be simple bloody minded persistence, even if that means soggy nights and bleary eyed mornings at work.
Better luck was had with the bass however. We had one each around the pound mark at Dawlish and I had the thrill of taking mine on a fly rod. A shimmering sandeel pattern really does look the part when the estuary is clear here, and I had other nips and a fish chase the fly right to my position. Excellent fun! Rob took his on a small artificial eal on spinning tackle:

Wild Weekend in Wales

With Devon feeling increasingly like Blackpool, this weekend was time to find a little space and hopefully some interesting fishing. I had been eyeing up Pant y Llyn, a stunning wild carp lake near Builth Wells, for a while. It started with a long trip in Rob Darby's "classic" feel van, an experience in itself! The windows don't work, the stereo is long dead and the heating has stuck on max- it's the closest I've come to a sauna since Finland!
The lake itself looked about a million miles away from the average carp pond; remote, high up and weedy, a beautiful, weedy mire of a place that looked full of promise:

The lake required a fair walk around, and a fair bit of work with a weed rake and a bucket of bait to get things moving- in the afternoon sun all was motionless, except the occassional bulge in the thick of about seven acres of weed! After moving swims however, we were excited to see clouded up water and a fin emerge. Rob struck first- a simple float set up with hair rigged corn tempting a lovely wildie of around four pounds.

These are amazing creatures- hardly fished for, despite having been in the lake for centuries. They differ from stockies- the profile is leaner, the colour darker, with an elongated dorsal fin that nearly reaches the tail. I managed to catch the next, a smaller sample, before we exchanged puzzled looks over a trio of unexpected chub.

After a stay at the Lion Inn in Builth it was then time to hit the River Wye near Winforton with chub and barbel in mind. It was a dour day, but what a river. We saw salmon jump, gangs of swallows dipping and several good looking areas to try. A bed of hemp and pellets got some interest from chub but we never did find the barbel- a three pound chub was the best catch, a lovely fit fish if not a monster. Above all though, Wales delivers in seclusion and adventure- no littered banks, chavs or local know it alls to kill the mystery. We will be back!

Method Feeder for Sea Fishing?

As someone who is always coming up with hare brained ideas, it was good to test out a novel little twist this weekend. A method feeder incorporated in a sliding float set up? Sounds odd, but I reckoned it could work pretty well- a half ounce float using a method feeder and fairly short hooklength buried inside an oily, sticky mix.
Rob Darby joined me on a trip to Torquay harbour, to dodge grockle boxes (that's my Westcountry speak for touring caravans) and fish a windswept sea wall.
The going was fairly slow, with lots of the regulars biteless. Gratifying then, that this offbeat idea worked pretty well on the day- you get no annoying tangles and a potent groundbait mix right by uour hookbait on every cast. The mackerel were oddly scarce, but we had one a piece, along with garfish- that seemed to respond especially well to the method. Using fairly light specimen rods also provided a decent scrap from the gars, one of which was kept for bait.

In a way, I'd love to have seen the damage on a really productive day- but I guess tougher conditions are perhaps a better test. The method mix seemed spot on; sticky enough to stay put on the cast and release a constant scent trail, along with some chopped foulness to keep fish interested. In fact, the more I think about it, the more it makes sense- perhaps not such a crazy idea after all and I'm sure it will also score with other species like wrasse and pollack.

Caning it!

A sunny morning on a dropping river provided the perfect oppurtunity to test out something that has intrigued me for a while- one of Luke Bannister's beautifully crafted cane fly rods. Luke lent me a sweet actioned seven foot four weight for a crack at the wild trout at Wiggaton, near Launceston.


The fish were typically cagey in the shallow water, but a march brown or gold head nymph still picked out some beautiful trout, giving me the chance to enjoy a pleasing fight on the cane- which really does have a great feel when playing fish. Above all though, I was amazed at Luke's dedication- these blanks take a painstaking process of forty hours plus! Refreshing to see real craftsmanship in this age of mass produced tackle.

Earlier in the week, a trip to Exeter Canal for carp proved fruitless again- despite a decent sized bream. Rob Darby joined me in this thankless task. After three nights for just one lost fish, albeit a big one, I kind of hoped it'd be his night. If anyone desrves a fish it's Rob. Still, the sunset over the River Exe was reason enough to stick around for the evening and empty a can of cider or two. In spite of all of our talk of baits, tactics and conditions we both agree that only one factor will win this battle- persistence. Bags of it. The Lord have mercy on our souls...

Wet Weekend

Having had a real "holiday hangover" it's been a frustrating couple of weeks. No chance on the rivers with the usual downpour, but I was keen to try the canal to try to aim for an unfulfilled ambition- a big carp from Exeter Canal. I've hooked these elusive beasts before, usually with bream tackle, with obvious consequences!
I was joined by a friend who has spent about half the week by the canal, Norbert, who lost something big here previously, near SW Water.
A very wet night ensued, with only cider and conversation to keep hopes burning. Sure enough, I did get a run- but the slow series of bleeps betrayed the culprit immediately. Bream.
Talk about a hairy spot for the night too- on that thin strip of grass seperating river and canal. Slept surprisingly well, considering the ten foot drop to one side!

The next day offered the thrills and spills of some float tubing on Roadford Reservoir. This is usually permitted for special days only- but with a feature on the cards, permission was kindly granted. In a funny way, wet and breezy weather was preferable to flat calm and the fish duly obliged. Eight trout to just over the pound mark went well, mostly to a team of three flies with a zulu or daiwl bach doing the damage.


An experiment with black lures also got lots of action- from perch! A handful of slightly better samples were nabbed for a fry up- they are here in vast numbers and should make excellent eating.

Some Have Finns...

Having spent nearly a month in the wilds of Finland, it is something of a reality check to return to the UK. Returning to what exactly? So many cars, so few trees. So many roads, so few lakes!
Still, Finland has been an idyllic escape.
Pike fishing may not be at its prime come June and July in this land of a thousand lakes, but little beats a perfectly lazy afternoon, float tubing around the reedy corners of an immense lake and tangling with scores of lean and angry pike. Throwing plugs, softbaits, Kuusamo spoons and flies on a light outfit is a trigger happy way to ensure plenty of action. In the somewhat coloured water of summer here, bright and especially red offerings seemed the most effective. Slightly further out into deeper water offers the chance of somewhat bigger samples, albeit slower sport. I have to confess, most of the time though, it was the draw of classic pikey haunts and regular rod pulverising takes in the edges that had me hooked. Tons of pike then, nothing huge- but lots of beautifully marked predators to 8lbs.

This years adventure also saw new tricks. Lasakoski rapids are home to some cracking trout. Sadly our visit saw boiling hot weather and the best chance in the cool of the midnight sun- it never gets truly dark here in mid summer. Insect life wasn't at it's most active however. These trout are tough, supremely educated customers at the best of times and on the recommendation of Finnish sedge expert and all round bloody nice bloke Juha Vainio, we resorted to wind up tactics with streamers in the end. Just one sizable trout took a violent swipe at a big streamer- but missed and we had to be content with just a few smaller samples- gorgeous creatures all the same to one pound.
In fact the real highlight of the trip was the unexpected target of other species. Ide are fantastic predatory fish on a fly rod- attractive, broad sided beasts that proved obliging. We also caught roach, bleak, perch, pike and even bream in the slower water, all on flies! The ballistic, head shaking antics of an insanely fit seven pound pike provided further thrills.
The ide was a welcome new species for me then, but another must catch was a Finnish Zander. In spite of local advise that a boat was essential, I finally managed to take two from a float tube on a cloudy evening. Spinners tipped with worms seemed to get plenty of curious taps, before finally the ultra light rod hooped round and I landed a splendid looking 20" zander.
Of course, nothing beats local knowledge for these late feeders, especially given my limited understanding of the species. I tracked down two local anglers Juha and Kalle for an evening of trolling- less fun than casting perhaps, but highly effective. As well as sharing some beer and getting some expert lessons in Finnish swear words, we also took some lovely "Kuha", all to locally made plugs, topped by a superb 3.4KG specimen. Although I'm usually entirely catch and release I did also sample some Finnish fish- zander are absolutely delicious, although I'm certainly not advocating a fry up straight from the Gloucester canal.
It is the quality of life in summer that really appeals in Finland above all though. Late mornings, lazy afternoons and scorching hot saunas; beer, rice pies and sitting on the porch of our summer haunt taking potshots at the empties with an air rifle. Chopping wood with a fiendishly sharp axe. Spotting weasels, woodpeckers, hares and even a badger on the way to or from yet another unique, lost lake. In summer here, the living is certainly easy. The days are long, the woods and the waters are endless and the world seems as young and pure as you dreamed it could be.

From Hell to Heaven, Somewhere in Devon

How typical it is that life tends to get hectic just when you want to fish! Hot as hell and busy as hell don't sit too nicely together in my book. Still, squeezing in a few stolen hours where possible, I've managed to get back on the rivers, this time the Culm at Champerhayes, Devon. A "Westcountry Angling Passport" beat, this place is beautiful at the moment. We were hoping for mayfly, but saw precicely ONE lonely sample in the whole of a scorching hot afternoon. Things certainly took a while to wake up, and I spent most of the session shadowing Ben Garnett with my camera- with amazing light, green and lush scenery and mating damsel flies there was plenty to focus on while the fishing was slow. The fish did finally wake up though, with the best action in the heat coming from the pacier water. I stole Ben's rod to take one on a dry, whilst he quickly grabbed it back to tame a few welcome trout and chub, including a lovely foot long brownie:

So, some sunny sport, but I didn't get to field test my new tinkerings with Mayfly patterns- in particular I'm working on a pattern with a fly line body and deerhair wing. The idea is to make something not only pretty, but pretty indestructible! I'm praying that it won't be kept in the fly box till next May- we'll have to see.

Otherwise, an afternoon at Colliford Lake provided a pleasant afternoon for a party of three Garnetts, with five fish between us. I'm feeling smug because mine was the best, at around the pound mark, taken on a zulu. Just the ticket really- a scenic place, loads of space and a proper challenge for fans of wild settings. Photographer Frazer McBain continues to make me drool with his current crop of images for this grand, 900 acre lake: