A QUICK CATCH-UP

Hello and welcome to my bi-monthly column for this new improved website. Before I begin to tell you what I’m going to write about, I should like to thank Sean Tidy (the brains behind this website) and Paul Bidmead (aka Bidders), my long-time friend and fishing pal, for asking me to be part of their new venture. They have spent a lot of time and effort trying to create a website for anglers in a similar situation to themselves that don’t have time to go out and buy the latest monthly magazine or pop down the local tackle shop to pick up a few odds and ends.

With the Internet being such a big part of so many people’s lives these days, and with the growing use of other mobile technology such as Apple iPhones and the various Android phones, I believe they might have just picked the right time to do such a thing. I’m pleased that they believe I can help them out. Well, at the end of the day if you can’t help a mate out, who can you help, eh?

Right that’s enough of the waffle, as I’m sure you would like to know about all things Carpy. Here’s a quick catch up as to what I've been up to of late.

Last year, my fishing had to take a back seat because I decided to write a book about my carp fishing life called “Living the Dream”. Little did I know how much time and effort such a project was going to take; and, before I knew it, days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months!

By the time the book was completed, it was mid September and the summer had passed me by, leaving my unused rods covered in a thick layer of dust. With the book finally at the printers, it wasn’t just a case of simply grabbing my rods and picking up where I had left off as I had got involved in a video project with a couple of good friends of mine, Terry Hearn and Jamie Smith. This latest project was yet another very time-consuming labour of love, but (after sifting through and editing hours of footage) we finally produced a DVD called “In pursuit of the largest”.

The DVD was completed in late November, and not only had the summer gone, the autumn feeds were ending too. Sadly, my carp fishing for the year had amounted to 20 nights angling (in the spring) and resulting with only a handful of carp to my name. Three of those fish came during late March from the Cemex Sandhurst venue, where Bidders is Head Bailiff. The other two came from a club water near Reading. It may sound like I’m not that happy about my results for the last year, but considering that my head wasn’t really on my fishing, I think I did well to catch the fish that I did.

Germ Warfare

Anyway, that’s enough of my sob story. So, what has the winter brought for me since my book release at the Sandown show, where my book was well received by all of those who had waited patiently for it?

Right after the show, I copped for a dose of proper man flu. I suffer from this post show problem on a regular basis. Over the weeks that followed, I was laid up in bed coughing my hoop up and in no fit state to go angling.

By the time I regained my health, winter had come early and the lakes were frozen solid. Not being one to let this beat me - and with the need to go angling urging me on - it was time to hit the rivers for a bit of maggot drowning.

My first port of call during the big freeze was the section of the river Blackwater that runs through the Yateley complex on the Surrey Hampshire borders. After arriving at my chosen spot, with all the new bits and bobs that one of my sponsors (Mr Drennan) had given me, I started trickling in some germs while tackling up my new float rod and pin. Once ready, I decided to hold back for a bit and poured a much needed cup of coffee from my flask, during which time I kept the feed going in on a regular basis.

When the cup was empty, it was time for my first trot through the swim. Unbelievably, the float never even dipped! After retrieving that first run, I dropped in again and the same thing happened, not so much a pluck from a wary roach or a greedy chublet. This process went on for a while and it became apparent that my first choice of swim, a known hot spot, was devoid of fish.

So, I decided to move to another known holding area and made my way through the “match lake” car park. Just before I got to my chosen destination, I saw another angler trying his luck and asked him whether he had caught anything. He had also struggled to catch and he told me, that when he had arrived earlier in the day, there were several cormorants working the stretch. This wasn’t good news and I decided to try some of the snaggier areas further up stream. After bidding the angler good luck, I headed off.

I persevered for the remainder of the day, trotting my float though every little knook and cranny I could get a rod through. This was all in vain. By dusk, when it was time to go home, I concluded that due to the lake being frozen, those blasted cormorants had turned their attention elsewhere and decimated the stocks of the River Blackwater. I suppose this is what nature is all about; and, in an effort to survive, the cormorants had tapped in to the next available food source.

A Fresh Approach

After the previous bite-less session I decided to speak to Terry, who suggested that I should join him for a days fishing on the River Bourne (which runs alongside the Chertsey venue). He had already been dabbling on that stretch, and had been catching a variety of species ranging from bream to chub, with the odd gudgeon and a half decent roach chucked in for good measure. I’ve never needed to be asked twice, so I arranged to meet up with him just before dawn the following morning.

After a quick cup of flask tea in the car park, we made our way along the path between the frozen lake and the river, which is more like a stream on some stretches. While walking, Terry pointed out a couple of good swims that were worth trying.

As Terry had done all the groundwork on the venue, it was fair to let him have first choice of swim and I settled for a swim just upstream of him.

Unlike conventional stillwater carping - when the rods are out - there’s no time for socialising, as there are floats or rod tips to watch as you use your time getting to grips with the swim. After a couple of hours of struggling to hit very timid bites, and with only a couple of gudgeon to my name, I wound in and wandered down the bank to see how Tel was getting on.

As usual, Terry had been having a great time and had a good mixed bag in his keep net. I sat and watched him to discover why he was having more success than I was. Over the minutes that followed, it was clear that Terry hadn’t given me a bum steer as he was using the same methods as I was. So, I just put it down to being a little rusty after such a long layoff from fishing. With that realisation, I returned to my swim and fished on for another hour or so until Terry appeared and suggested, that due to lack of fish activity, that we should walk the stretch and look for some other swims to try out. As it just wasn’t happening in my swim, and I was getting cold too, I decided to join Terry for a walk and a warm up.

After a walk along the stretch, we found a couple of likely looking areas and settled for a swim on an s-bend, with some snags on the far margins. This turned out to be a good choice as over the next few hours it was a bite a chuck!

Not every bite resulted in a capture though, which led me on to believe that there were some wily old roach in the swim, so I felt that it was worth persisting in that swim until the light began to fade.

Luckily, for me, that was the best decision I made all day as, just after the light faded, I hooked into a much bigger fish. Following a short tussle, a large (by my standards) roach appeared on the surface. After a bit of a problem with an over hanging branch, caused by my desperation to get it in the net and out of the swim, I finally landed a 1lb 7oz roach.

Without camera to hand and Tel not on the spot to take some pictures, I took a couple of shots of it with my iPhone. I popped the fish into my keep net and recast, using a light lead, back to the same spot. True to form, at last light, the next bite, although my last, was another good sized roach.

The following day, I returned to the same swim but it didn’t produce as many fish as the previous day. Perhaps I had clumped the small pod of fish that had been residing on the s-bend; who knows? On the way home, I had a bit of bad luck. As I was negotiating a roundabout, another driver decided that the rules of the Highway Code had changed and crashed his car into mine! Obviously, this put me back again and I had to sort out loads of paperwork with my insurance company and arrange for a courtesy car to use while mine was being repaired.

Crappy New Year

I managed  a few more days roaching on the Bourne with Tel before the big thaw came. Now it was now time to get back to my carp fishing.

The first place I had in mind was Sandhurst Lake. Sandy is shallow and weed free, which makes it ideal for a good bit of winter fishing. Surprisingly (after such a long freeze over), once it had thawed, the carp were showing themselves and those anglers (including myself), who were keen to give it a go, were soon casting maggot bags and tutties at the showing fish.

At first, the novelty of carp fishing again took the pain out of hours of blanking (or for just a few liners). After several blank sessions, this all started to get a bit frustrating! At one point, I had three baits out - all on different shows - and the fish were still showing above my baits. After telling a couple of people about what had been going on, one of them, Jamie Smith, told me that he had mentioned it to Roo Newby. Jamie had learned from Roo that this behaviour was probably due to methane (from the rotting leaf matter under the ice) irritating the gills of the fish. The carp were simply reacting to the irritation by crashing out in an effort to clear the gas from their gills.

Canal Carping

Whatever it was, it seemed to me that Roo was right, and, after such a long freeze, the lakes’ fish weren’t up for feeding. After a few weeks of this behaviour, it was clear that catching fish just wasn’t going to happen - and I so dearly wanted to catch a carp again.

Around about the end of January, another old winter haunt of mine - the Basingstoke canal - sprung to mind. When all else was failing, this was always a good choice. After a quick phone call to Tel, we arranged to have an afternoon’s fishing.

Having done a bit on the canal before, it was a case of visiting a couple of known winter holding areas to check the snags to see if the carp were about. Although I was keen to have a go, when I turned up in the car park at the arranged time to meet Tel, his car was already parked and he was nowhere to be seen.

A little while later, he appeared back in the car park and filled me in on what he had and hadn’t seen in the two holding areas. This cut the legwork down for me anyway and it wasn’t long before we were both heading to where he had found all the fish.

Shortly after arriving at the spot, we could see tail patterns and bubbles pinging to the surface where he had previously sprinkled some pellets. Knowing that I hadn’t caught a carp for so long, Tel told me to have a go at those fish and he would fish just up the bank.

It wasn’t long before a yellow pop up on a simple canal rig was being flicked the short distance to the bubbler's and I sat back in anticipation waiting for a bite. True to form, it wasn’t going to be that simple for me, but Tel on the other hand made short work of the old canal carp. In quick succession, he caught four commons up to and just over 13lbs each, while I was left scatching my head as to what I’d done wrong. Eventually my luck was to change. The Neville bite alarm let out a short succession of bleeps and I was finally in to a carp. After bundling it in to the net, I saw that it was not anywhere near the biggest common that I had ever caught, but, after not catching a carp for so long, I was well chuffed with my 13 pounder.

As always, when I have a good days fishing with Tel and we get a result, we baited up on leaving ready for a follow up session a few days later.

When we arrived back at the local hotspot things weren’t quite as they had been on our last visit. There was a lot of bread all over the surface and there was a distinct lack of carp showing. The few fish we did see in the area seemed a little bit twitchy and there was no doubt that someone else had been cashing in on the action. Although it wasn’t quite as action packed as our last session, I managed to catch one fish that weighed in at around 10lbs to save drawing a blank.

After that session, it was time for me to get back over to Sandy to see if the fish were more willing to feed. On my return, things seemed to have changed and a few carp had been caught. This naturally boosted my confidence and I didn’t think it was going to take me to long to get among the fish.

Well with all the best-laid plans of men and mice, things didn’t go as well as I thought. No matter what I did, the fish simply didn’t want to be caught by me; instead, they kept falling to the rods of other anglers. To say this got a bit frustrating would be an understatement! Just to rub salt in the wound, young Chris Boyda turned up at 8pm and caught a mid 20lb and  pin head at 36lb 6oz before leaving at 7am the next morning.

Chris’s result had me moving swim after he had left. After a few hours I finally got it right by doing the same thing as I had been doing all along by casting a tuttie and a stick bag at a showing fish. The result of that cast was a low 20lb mirror, which took the pressure off. My next session, which was going to be my last before heading off to my target water for the spring, was a repeat of the last and I spent most of the week on the wrong side of a camera with my mate Matty being on the right side of the lens. In the finish, I did get among the bites, but that was a case of third time lucky following the loss of two fish on the bounce before a low 20 common rolled in to my net just before packing up.

Now you are fully up to date with my activities; so, until next time, be lucky.

Nigel Sharp