Queens Birthday and Project Nostalgia

Thanks to the Queen for I (as a Civil servant) had the day of today for her birthday. Sometimes nostalgia gets a hold of me.  I long for the days when I strapped my rod and kit to my pushbike.  Loaded with worms, mothers pride and a few precious maggots raced off to Elizabeth Gardens or Peters Finger lakes to sit in the shade of a willow, fishing.

Key ingredients’ of the time were kit of the day Avon mark IV rod efgeeco net and landing net and Diawa spinning reel. Folding stool (couldn’t afford a wicker basket)

Bottle of Corona, (bought and paid for by saving up 10 p returns on collected bottles), paper bag of Fruit salads, Black Jacks and a sherbert dip.  This was the extent of my universe, and probably why I am today a sugar bloated diabetic lard arse. 

The other thing to live for was football and the  the mighty Leeds with heroes like Billy Bremner, Johnny Giles and Peter Lorimer, the Gray brothers Frank and Eddie; Sniffer Clarke Mick Jones and Norman bites your legs Hunter.  Other football associated heroes QPRs Stan Bowles my absolute favourite, oh and Rodney Marsh.  Managers like Cloughy, Malcolm Alison.  There was “Charlie boy” Charlie George, just cannot force my fingers to type his teams name.

The fairer sex came into focus for the first time with Charlies Angels and the glorious Jaclyn Smith (right in pic).

Anyway why this trip down memory lane, well I had other heroes as well. Kevin Ashurst, Ivan Marks, Phil Coles ,Ian Heaps, and later Kim Milson. Having recently finished a book on “Ivan Marks and the Likely Lads “.  It inspired me to dig out the older tackle and go as if I was a kid again.

So with a minimum of kit I set forth.  Barnmoor was the intended venue.  Bit of a risk after the long weekend at which Barneys annual festival would have hammered it.   Modern version of a deck chair a Ian Heaps (world champ 75) rod. ABU 506 reel, maxima line and Mustad hooks; and of course Ivan Marks floats.  Trying to stick to the period the smallest shot will be a no 8 and maybe what was known as dust shot (10). Bait worms, white maggot a few casters. Delivered by hand “thrown” yes thrown ground bait (mix of white and brown crumb no additives)

I would allow a maggipult but other than that it was minimal almost stalking kit to carry.  No Corona but can of Lemonade. Project Nostalgia underway would I catch?  Because as a friend said to me recently, when I moaned about my lack of bites “that’s why it’s called fishing and not catching”.

It was a strange feeling knowing I didn’t have any back up gear like the pole kit or multiple feeder rods.  No massive selection of hook baits to try just the basics.  That said the day progressed and I made tiny alterations to shotting patterns  to encourage more positive bites. 

I do recall the first time I really considered small hooks, shot and light lines.  It used to be (on Still water) the bog standard 4 or 5 lb. main line either straight through to a 16 or 14 eyed hook, or on tough winter days 3lb maxima mainline down to 1.7 Bayer Perlon  and a tiny size 18 hook.  What a difference today.  

At the time you either came from the Dick Walker school of robust kit (knowledge gleaned from the Angling Times or the new Anglers Mail – the only fishing publications I could afford) or you followed Marksy who went for qty rather than quality.  Fine lines small hooks etc certainly produced more bites; and quoting from the book I mentioned earlier, Ivan said you need bites first then you get the fish.  Makes sense, so obvious now, but at the time I did follow Walker and the sit and wait school.

So back to today and well not really too different today its 3 lb Maxima straight through to a Mustad spade end size 20.  Experiment or not to go lighter on this lake would be a mistake and put the fish at risk.  Fish at risk was not a commonly heard term when I was young; but again anglers today realise the need to protect fish stocks and quality for the future.

Of course my brother was well ahead of me and seen as one of the guys to beat along with John Stephenson, Dave Moody, and many others.  When my brother was there he would always check the tackle and offer advice as to how I might improve.  When he wasn’t there I was lazy and would slip into the sit and wait mode. 

Eventually though, it became second nature “to work at it”, don’t sit there make something happen.  Don’t sulk , work it out.  Think, do something different to the rest of the sheep.   Methodically go through your set up, change depths, go further out maybe the fish have backed off.  This was especially true after a struggle with a big Tench or Carp (big being 3 lb for the Tench and 5lb for the Carp).  Feed little and often and draw them back into your swim.

It was surprising how tiny changes to the bottom “dust shot” would make a difference, suddenly you had bites that would pull the float under or (depending on the pattern) lift it clear (see later).  

The difference in float was also key, wagglers, pacemakers, drift beaters, sarkander reed, hardwood Lygnum, softer wood cane, wire stemmed or even copper stem canal darts.

The one thing I couldn’t get right in my head was my brothers’ advice for stealth and a noiseless approach to the match bank or towpath.  

Set up your kit, stretch your net out, roll the net gently in off the towpath and walk away from your peg - get off the horizon.  Of course pleasure sessions were different you had no need to walk away but the principals were the same.  Where I couldn’t get my head around it was whenever I saw Ivan in the AT.  He always had a huge crowd of spectators behind him.  Yet he still caught despite the noise.

So to the fishing its now 10.15 and peg chosen (6)  

Little aside story here as I am setting up opposite the white post (end of the island) a carpy boy comes along from the 4 pegs to me right.  Excuse me he says alright, yes says I .  I want to fish off the end of the island.  Well says I you need to be sat here then, not 50 yards away.  But he says I have a bait on the end of the island and your going to mess that up.  Mate says I, suggest you go back to you bivvy and reel in the rod you cant fish three rods across 5 pegs  to the determent of everyone else.   Disgruntled he shuffled off. I thought about for a second and called him back .  Look says I as long as you are accurate and get it on the end of the island , I wont be fishing right across we can both fish the swim.  He was pleased and agreed to the compromise promising to be more thoughtful in future.

I thought back to my first visit to Withy some time ago when a fella used to come around on his mobility scooter and you would pay him for the day ticket.  In addition he took to supplying hot pasties and sausage sarnies etc right to you peg – luxury, sheer luxury.

A click of the close faced bail arm and I lobbed a high curving terminal tackle a rod length past the baited area, dipped the rod tip in , sunk the line …….. OK that’s what was supposed to happen, but the line had looped behind the spool, and the whole lot jammed like a Rottweiler reaching the end of his tether, and dropped into the lake short.

4 minutes passes and I have untangled and wiped the line free of grease and WD 40.  So smooth as a baby's bum my metronomic action sent the whole lot a rods length past the baited area , sunk the line and reeled back to the baited area which was beginning to fizz nicely. Kevin Ashurst would have been proud.

So lets not muck about 8 orange size balls of ground bait stuffed with half a kilo of worm and a few dead pinkie from yesterdays canal match, all in a tight area at around 15 meters.  The throwing arm still good and accurate. Leave alone for 5 minutes why I go back into the tackle shop and get a sausage sandwich and a bottle of pop.

Before long the float is dipping and bobbing and I am missing bite after bite as the swim is so full of fish that the float wont settle.

Twenty quick fire Rudd.  

Already I am thinking how can I get through these to the Bream.  On cue Mr Dave Moody (God with a rod) turns up to sit behind me and offer no tell me how I am going wrong.  Need another number 10 shot on that float, you need to be fishing closer, you need to be on worm not maggot. Yes thanks Dave but I explained the Nostalgia project I am in no hurry I am pleasure fishing 70's style.  Well says Dave I wouldn't have done that in the 70's and neither would my mate Ivan Marks, you need worm or pellet, and off he goes.

He did of course have a point, Ivan would have been looking all the time to get onto the Bream, and whilst there was no Peter Drennan to supply all your needs then, I caved and went to the tackle bag and back to the shop. 6 mm soft hookers as a last resort, match pack of dendrobena and some wide gape Drennan 18 hooks.

Back on the peg I continued to fish 15 meters, but the voice of Dave saying come closer on this peg made me try at 13 meters.  He wasn't wrong but I wouldn't tell him that. But in fact 14 meters was about bang on.  A final change to the tackle by replacing a number 4 shot with 1 number 8 and 2 number in 10's on the bottom 14 inches. Meant I could see the lifts better as they developed.

They were the bites I remembered and although modern tackle and floats would show them better I am sure .  This was just what I wanted today. Old fashioned rod in hand fun.

Sweeping the rod hard left which is my style , I bumped a few the older Rod and tackle not as soft in the middle section of the rod.  It was an Ian Heaps (1975 World Individual Champion) Silstar Match a good Dace rod very tippy for the river , but not quite the right tool here.

Even the local bird life was getting in on the act watching this old fella reliving his childhood

 I was loving it Dave's option of a Dendro tail was discarded , I found that got the small skimmers.  I was now using a whole dendro and the bites were so much better.  The Bream were replaced with smaller Roach Bream hybrids for ten minutes before the 2 and half to 3 and half pound were flying high like Sail fish in all directions great fun.

Many of the Bream and bigger skimmers were sand paper rough and a lot of blemishes and sores, It took the edge of it a bit ; but the spawning over they were feeding in overdrive.

A nice pound Perch shook up the variety along with the occasional 10 oz Rudd.  Then a weird fight from a "jiggling" fish that I hadn't had for a while.  It was a bloody Eel.  Another memory revived from fishing for the huge Eels, on the river Nadder at 14 Hatches (edge of Pembroke estate) Quidhampton. This one maybe six to eight ounces.

 I untangled the Eel wristband as Dave arrived to each his lunch.  The sun came out and Dave said that's the last of the skimmers they won't feed in these bright conditions.  We chewed the fat, He told me of his weekends disasters and one that happened to a friend of mine Mark Blake, during the weekends Barney Festival.  It would be unkind and not right for me to go into detail, but I thought I had bad luck; but after hearing that tale I am sure Blakey has out done me this weekend gone.

Dave finished his lunch sure he was right the sport had slowed in the midday bright conditions but I was still catching.  At around 2.15 (4 hours in) the bites had slowed to around 1 every 10 minutes, there was rain in the air and I was getting hungry again. Time to pack it in and go home dry and happy.

Fish count for the day 26 Bream / Skimmers between 2.5 and 3.5 pound, 6 smaller skimmers/ roach hybrids. 35 Rudd half of which were between 6 and 12 pounces. 1 pound plus Perch, one Eel and two snap ups on Carp over 9+ lb. A conservative 65 lb of silvers, not to be sniffed at.

Thank you Barnmoor a beautiful day, thanks to Dave Moody, glad I avoided catching on the pellet ( not strictly true - the two lost Carp were on pellet), but that aside, for the majority of the day I did it the old way and had a smashing time.

Back on the cut this weekend.