What is happening to freshwater fishing?

What is happening to freshwater fishing?

1. Small stillwater trout fishing has brought trout fishing to the masses, however stocking larger and larger trout has devalued the capture of a big wild trout. Even reservoirs are not immune to the stocking of brood fish! Much as I enjoy catching doubles on these fisheries it always feels somewhat artificial.

2. Fishing for those silver tourists, the salmon and sea trout isn't what it was. Even if your wallet can stand the cost, catch returns from most of our rivers are pitiful. How lucky were those anglers who fished before the 1970's when the decline kicked in.

3. What is it about carp Commercial stillwaters are in many cases so seriously overstocked that visiting match anglers have to catch a hundred pounds of pasty carp during a five hour match to stand a chance of the prize money. Visiting pleasure anglers are guaranteed a bite every few minutes. The RSPCA and environment agency stand by and do nothing about this animal cruelty. Overstocking to that extent is cruelty, period!

4. Where are the young anglers ? Those few youngsters that can be tempted away from their screens are obsessed by carp fishing. Youngsters get all the gear, flock to the nearest carp fishery and camp out until they either get bored of carp fishing or catch a big carp or two and give up fishing because camping out for days behind multiple rods is frankly a bit boring and not real angling.

5. When I was younger a twenty pound carp was a real achievement, nowadays there are waters where every fish landed will be a twenty. Carp fishing has gone the way of stillwater trouting which has devalued the sport.

6. Many of our rivers have suffered serious declines. My local welland for example is a shadow of it's former self. Thirty years ago I could walk a mile of river and spot fifty or more chub,and shoals of small fish were everywhere. Now if I walk that same mile of river I am lucky to see any chub and small fish just aren't present. Cormorants clear a stretch of river as soon as the fish reach six inches or so. Otters which have been reintroduced without any consideration of the entire ecosystem pick off the few remaining specimen sized fish to eke out a living. That river of the seventies would have happily supported otters!

Rant over.

PS. Went fishing for the first time in a month and caught a stack of silver bream up to 1lb 7oz. The highlight of my day was seeing "ratty", it must be a decade since I last saw a water vole.

The Grass is greener the other side of Northampton!

Brickhill Farm in Northamptonshire contains a viable stock of grass carp to target. The smaller lake contains six and the larger lake around thirty. Even so they are vastly outnumbered by the king carp varieties. With the weatherman forecasting that Saturday would be a warm sunny day, I knew that the time had come to target a Brickhill grass carp off the surface.

There was a gusty breeze and as I wanted to visually select the grassies I set up on the shallow more sheltered end of the larger lake where the water's surface was calm.


As nothing was showing I set up one rod on a method feeder with artificial corn and the other float fishing either corn or meat in the margins. The morning was uneventful apart from a string of small crucians and a few bits.

After lunch I followed the advice of Brian the fishery owner and moved to the smaller pool, where grass carp were spotted a few days earlier under some overhanging vegetation. As the wind was behind me I fed half a dozen pellets every couple of minutes for around half an hour after which time I had a number of fish competing for the freebies.

Over the next couple of hours I tempted four carp before the swim died. I hadn't spotted any of the six grassies present despite regular circuits of the lake. I then saw an angler on the larger lake land a grass carp on floating crust. It was an easy decision to return to my original swim where over the next few hours Fred (the grassie expert, it was his second of the day) and I landed a string of king carp up to just shy of thirteen pounds on floating crust. The ripple made it difficult to select individual fish but as the evening wore on conditions improved.


I enjoyed the banter with Fred and was genuinely sorry to see him leave. The first cast after Fred's departure saw a grass carp nose the crust without taking. I was beginning to think that time was running out when once again the crust disppeared in a swirl and the controller float zipped accross the surface. Like every other grass carp I have ever hooked it came quietly to the net before going beserk on the bank, hence my pained expression in the photo. At 7lb 2oz it was less than a third of the size of my biggest grassie, but I was over the moon to catch my first from British waters.

I had enjoyed a lovely day, catching around fifteen carp off the surface. True, most were small but on my barbel rod and ten pound line it was first class sport in lovely surroundings with not a baitboat or bivvy in sight!

The grass truly is greener the other side of Northampton and unlike Elphicks, the grass was real not made out of astroturf!

Every Cloud has a Silver Lining

The weather man predicted that Sunday would see a low pressure system coming in from the west and that rain could be expected just about anywhere. Ideal conditions for a return visit to Mill Farm in Sussex to hopefully catch a specimen silver bream.

I arrived at 7am to find a cloudless sky and went round to the far bank where the water was still in shade cast by the mature trees behind. I set up in the next swim along from where I was last week with one rod float fishing the margin crucian style and the other with a roach style maggot bolt rig fished further out.

On the float line I decided to feed a pinch of mixed dampened pellet (no groundbait allowed) every ten minutes or so with a 6ml sonubaits S pellet on the hook. This light feeding I hoped would encourage the silver bream and crucians without dragging in carp.

During the course of the morning I caught mainly crucians and small silver bream on the float rod. The maggot feeder attracted mainly "pastie" carp and small silvers to around a pound along with a banana shaped male tench. I have noticed in small waters heavily stocked with carp that the tench lose condition. In contrast the crucians were in perfect condition their beauty enhanced by their buttery yellow colouration.

Then it happened, the cloud built up and it started drizzling. It was like flicking a switch, the catch rate improved for the next couple of hours. On several occasions I had two fish on at once. Quality silvers started feeding topped by fish of 1lb 13oz and 1lb 10oz to the maggot feeder.

Mid afternoon the sky cleared and the big silvers went off the feed. After having the swim completely trashed by a twelve pound common (fun on a 2lb bottom)  I decided to pack up around 6pm and start the long journey home.

I had accounted for around thirty crucians, loads of silvers mainly small, stacks of carp, one tench, one decent roach and the smallest bootlace eel it has ever been my misfortune to catch.

As the saying goes every cloud has a silver (bream) lining!

In Search of Silver

There are two species of bream in British freshwater, the common bream and the silver bream. To confuse things further the common bream is also known as the bronze bream and the silver bream also goes by the names white or pomeranian bream.

The bronze bream is bronze and the silver bream, silver? Well, no actually the immature bronze bream is silver and in coloured water the adults can be fairly pale in colour and yet almost black in the clear water of some gravel pits. The silver bream is a rare fish in british waters and can be distinguished from its larger relative by both lateral line counts and its large eye. The pelvic and ventral fins also carry a tinge of orange.

Having experienced a cold and drizzly night after the crucians I decided to try and catch my first silver bream. A twenty mile drive from surrey down into sussex saw me arrive at a day ticket fishery Mill Farm early in the afternoon. This complex which last season produced the british record silver bream does not contain the bronze bream so each bream is the real deal. An hour or so wandering round the complex, talking to the locals saw me settle into a swim on the far bank of the mill pond giving me access to open water. Divide and conquer was my approach, so on one rod I set up a feeder rig to fish maggot big roach style, whilst the other I float fished a rod length out crucian style offering pellet or corn on the hook and feeding a few free offerings every ten minutes or so.

The next six hours were frenetic as I was constantly in action catching silver bream in the 12oz class on both approaches, and loads of small carp which just wouldn't leave the maggots alone! The sensitive float tackle also brought me four pristine crucians to just under two pounds. I also missed loads of bites on the feeder rig. The overcast, drizzly weather was perfect for breaming and my final silver was also my biggest at 1lb 2oz. The sun also came out turning the lake surface silver, not bronze in the late evening light.

In Search of Gold

Marsh Farm is currently the premier big crucian fishery in the UK with three pound plus fish being caught most days during the warmer months. The fishery record currently stands at 4lb 4oz. The Marsh Farm complex was developed through lottery funding and is a commercial day ticket fishery run by Godalming Angling Club. The big Crucians were originally stocked from the adjacent Johnsons Fishery. Godalming Angling Club is an all too rare example of a progressive club which actively encourages youngsters to get into fishing through its regular coaching sessions. 

I must confess that Marsh Farm has become one of my favourite fisheries in recent seasons and I look forward to my handful of visits each season. It was nearly dark when I arrived (the curse of the M25) and I was surprised to find only one other angler on Harris lake. 

lthough some anglers choose to catch crucian carp on bolt rigs real crucian fishing is all about float fishing, and as

I would be fishing in the edge alongside the marginal reeds in about two foot of water I set up a 2BB Drennan Insert Waggler. This would enable me to swop the insert for a mini starlight after dark.

Four walnut sized balls of groundbait laced with mini pellets were thrown around the float initially, to be topped up by a further ball every twenty minutes thereafter. I baited up with garlic flavoured meat on a size 18 hook to a copolymer hooklength. 

Before long the float started dancing as crucians picked amongst the groundbait. I imagined them tightly huddled together occasionally brushing against the line. I am sure that no other fish feeds as delicately as the crucian and this explains why so many bites are missed. Every session is diferent, sometimes you need to strike at the slightest movement of the float tand another time you might have to count to three after the float has submerged to connect, frustrating but fun! 

By three o'clock the float was dancing around the swim without any help from the crucians and it was time to reel in and get a couple of hours sleep before dawn. As is usual on here most of the activity comes in the first few hours after dark, by the time I packed up at 8am I had accounted for eight crucians including a couple of three's, the largest 3lb 2oz. I fed some corn to Eric (the Egyptian Goose in the photo) before leaving.