Relics from the Ice Age

In Falkus and Buller's Freshwater Fishing there is a chapter about the Whitefishes. These game fish are an ancient relic of our glacial past and are probably surviving remnants of migratory stocks which became land-locked during the last ice age.

There are two species, the common whitefish (represented by the powan, gwyniad and skelly) and the vendace. Each species is found in only a handful of glacial lakes in Snowdonia, Lake District and Scotland. The powan is the most common of these and is found in Loch Lomond, Loch Eck and Loch Carron.

Very few whitefish have been caught on rod and line, mainly because few anglers have ever tried to catch one. In Freshwater Fishing, Dick Walker speculates how he would set out to catch a powan from Loch Lomond and suggests that they should be regarded as a kind of stillwater grayling. Dick suggested either flyfishing during the summer or fishing worm or maggot during the winter.



Fred Buller once held the British record with a powan of 11.25 oz caught from Balmaha Pier whilst catching roach to use as bait for Lomond's legendary pike.

Powan spawn on gravel shallows at the mouth of the Endrick River and at this time of year, if you are lucky like Buller one may happen along whilst roach fishing from Balmaha Pier.

The introduction of the ruffe to Loch Lomond has impacted badly on the Powan as they feed on the powan's eggs.

I am ashamed to say that it was pike anglers (through discarded livebaits) who introduced the ruffe and other non indigenous species including bream and carp to the loch.

If you have ever wondered how to keep maggots in perfect condition on an extended trip I can reveal a foolproof method. After purchasing your maggots from the tackle shop:

1. Place them in a bucket in your bait fridge and  let them chill off for a couple of hours.

2. Tip the maggots into a polybag, suck out all the air from the bag and tie off.

3. Put an ice block or two in the base of a decent cool box, add a thick layer of newpaper, then place your polybag(s) in maggots in, add another thick layer of newspaper before finishing off with more iceblocks.

When you open the bags the maggots look dead, don't panic as after a couple of hours they will be as lively as the day you bought them from the tackleshop.

My first sight of Lomond did not disappoint, this is a stunning location. My plan was to fish a maggot feeder for roach hoping that a powan might happen along.

Balmaha Pier is a popular location and to avoid the crowds on the Saturday and Sunday I fished to the right of the Pier. I set up a light quivertip rod and started off with a helicopter rig with a short hooklength. Initially I struggled to find my rhythm but by lengthening the hooklength I started catching a few roach, perch and ruffe. Indeed I caught more ruffe in four days on Lomond than in the last 30 years of angling!

On the Sunday one of the anglers on the pier caught a powan of around a pound. It was clear that the bulk of the roach, (and powan?) were about twenty or thirty yards to my left.

I made an early start on Monday to secure the swim. I need not have worried as I had the place to myself.
I started catching roach from the off, pristine little fish in the four to eight ounce bracket with the odd larger fish to a pound. During the course of the day I was lucky enough to bag three powan with the largest at 1lb 2oz.

I returned on the last day of my holiday and managed a further five powan to 1lb 3oz.

It is weird but in the photo's they look more like herring, but in the flesh they look like grayling without that sail like dorsal.  Being a game fish they put up a reasonable fight for their size. Powan must not be kept in nets as they are fragile fish.

I had enjoyed my week with this relic from the Ice age and finally achieved a long held angling ambition.

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!

The Papal Visit

To commemorate the Pope's recent state visit I decided to pay homage to the fishy equivalent. My pilgrimage took me to the village of Handsacre in Staffordshire and the murky waters of the Trent and Mersey Canal. This member of the perch family is indeed a rarity nowadays and I had failed to locate one on two previous trips to the Grand Union Canal.

I decided to fish just downstream of a bridge using the bridge itself as shelter from the driving rain. After three hours on a mini maggot feeder catching perch, roach and gudgeon I decided to change over to the float. 

First cast the insert waggler slowly dragged under and I lifted into my second ever pope. My prayers had been answered. In light of the driving rain I decided on an early finish.

Isaak Walton knew this little fish as the pope but it is more usually known nowadays as the ruffe. It is also known affectionately by anglers as the daddy ruffe, tommy ruffe or tommy pope. How can such a small, rather drab and insignificant fish have so many names? 

Aliens!

Much of what we think of as British wildlife has been introduced by man. This has been going on for over a thousand years, with the Romans introducing the rabbit and the Normans fallow deer, both for food.

The Victorians were responsible for the introduction of not only animals but also new and exotic plants from indo-china, including the invasive japanese knotweed and the himalayan balsam. The Duke of Bedford introduced alongside mammals such as the munjack deer and grey squirrel, two fish species from eastern europe the wels catfish and zander (known then as the pike-perch).

When you think about it a significant number of the freshwater species available to the angler have been introduced into Britain. Game angling wouldn't be the same without the ever obliging rainbow trout. The mainstay of coarse angling today is the carp, which were introduced by monks in the middle ages as a food source, however the modern carp angler wouldn't recognise the original slim fully scaled wild carp. Todays carp have been breed to grow fast and often resemble a football with fins. This all brings us back to the pumpkinseed fish which resembles a slightly deflated rather brightly coloured football with fins.

The Pumpkinseed was introduced into Britain by the Victorians and has become established in a number of stillwaters, mainly in Sussex.

I spent another day at Tanyard trying to catch a pumpkinseed fish. By lunchtime I was getting concerned as I still hadn't caught a pumpkinseed despite getting a bite every couple of minutes. Following a couple of conversations with other anglers I discovered that they were generally caught 'on the drop'.

After lunch I rigged up a no10 drennan puddlechucker float with a number 8 shot at mid-depth, the remaining shot being placed directly under the float. Each cast was only fished for a minute, although most casts saw a take on the drop as roach and rudd to just over a pound obliged. I did unfortunately lose a big perch (certainly over two pound) when it fell off at the net. By 4pm I had finally caught my pumpkinseed fish after wading through perhaps three or four hundred small fish of various species.

I decided to pack up there and then and check out Coarse Pool 3 to see whether I could locate some grass carp. Despite carp cruising in the surface layers the heavily coloured water made it virtually impossible to single out a grass carp so I decided to stretch my legs and walk around the complex. After a conversation with the baliff I found male pumpkinseeds guarding their nests and fending off all intruders in the margins of specimen lake 2 which incidentally is where the British record was caught.

Leaping Bream and the Elusive Pumpkinseed

As I had a day off work I decided to visit Tanyard Fishery in Sussex to catch the rare pumpkinseed fish, which are found in numbers at this fishery. The pumpkinseed was first brought into Britain from America as an ornamental fish about 100 years ago and by 1917 there were established colonies in several Sussex stillwaters.

After a conversation with the bailiff I set up on the Carp Free Pool float fishing maggot in the margin and felt confident being told that I should catch several during a day. Twelve hours and 200-300 bream, gudgeon, perch,roach, rudd, rudd (golden) and tench later, not one pumpkinseed fish had succumbed! I had fished several swims fishing the margins, alongside trees and marginal reeds. Were the pumpkinseeds spawning or just off the feed?

Have you ever noticed the metallic blue sheen that the gudgeon has, nor had I before now. This species hunt has made me look at and appreciate even the 'tiddlers'. Did you know that the Edwardians had gudgeon parties where ladies fished for and then enjoyed a dish of fried gudgeon cooked whole like whitebait.

I had been told of bream leaping on the end of the line before but dismissed it out of hand, however today I experienced this myself with bream in the 1-2 pound class. They still fight like a wet sack however!

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!

A brace of two's

The River Frome at Wareham is famous for big roach having produced several in excess of three pounds in recent years. This stretch of river is tidal and is particularly unusual in that it has four high tides a day, something to do with the position of Poole Harbour in relation to that of the Isle of Wight.

At last some cloud cover, although still cold I decided to try for a big roach with the possibility of a sea trout for the species hunt. Luckily the river was back within it's banks, heavy rains at the start of my holiday combined with a spring tide meant that the water had been in the car park.

There were a number of anglers already fishing so I opted for the far end of the quay. I arrived at 1pm with the first high tide expected at 3.42pm. There was a distinct crease with a slacker area downstream of me on the inside.

I set up a pair of light quivertip rods to fish blockend feeders. A couple of maggots on a size 18 hook to a 3lb co-polymer hooklength completed the rig.

Before I had even cast out my second rod my inside rod was away. I am always nervous playing big roach as they have a tendency to come off! Like many roach this fish which weighed 2lb 1oz showed evidence of an earlier encounter with a cormorant. Just after 3pm the quivertip on the outside rod pulled round and again I felt the distinct nodding of a big roach. This one went 2lb 2oz on the scales, only the second time I have caught a brace of two pound roach in a single session.

I must take this opportunity to recommend two new drennan products that I have been using recently. Firstly the new vari-weight blockend feeders which are flattened at the bottom and enable you to balance the feeder to the flow, just perfect for river fishing. I can also recommend the new drennan red maggot hooks to nylon which are tied  to a co-polymer line, these offer great presentation and I particularly like the fact that the hooks are fairly fine in the wire and have fish friendly micro-barbs.

Although I fished until half past eight I only added a salmon parr and a decent dace to the bag.

I returned the following day, however the bright sunshine was back. I fished for several hours and blanked.

Captain Parker and the Millers Thumb

Captain LA Parker was one of the most famous anglers of the first half of the 20th Century. "Skipper" as he was known took over and ran the Bull Hotel in Downton which became a place of pilgrimage for many anglers. By a strange quirk of fate I found myself renting a holiday cottage in Downton from Len and Eileen Parker, Len is "Skippers" son.

Captain Parker's book "This Fishing" published in 1948 is well worth a read and the chapter relating to water temperatures and fishing prospects was well ahead of its time, I will certainly be carrying a thermometer in future.

Unfortunately my arrival in Downton coincided with heavy rain which meant that apart from the Hampshire Avon the Wessex rivers were unfishable. The Hampshire Avon being a chalk stream holds its water better than most rivers and although bank high was still running clear.

I opted for a day after the dace on the London Angling Association stretch at Britford. Although the carriers are renowned for big roach the better dace are on the main river, so I headed for a favourite spot on the main river where big dace normally congregate prior to spawning. Although the water was tanking through there was a slacker area on the far bank that I could trot. After a couple of hours I realised that the dace were not at home and only managed a couple of chub in the two pound class.

After fishing a couple of swims without success Stuart the river keeper put me right and directed me to a weirpool where only half the gates had been lifted leaving an eddying area of slack water on the inside. Trotting this swim was a bit strange as the float went round the swim in an elongated oval, one minute the avon float was going fast downstream and then slowly returned towards me. I missed a number of bites as tackle control was tricky but soon managed a couple of dace, some minnows and a roach of around twelve ounces.

It was one of those swims that was more efficiently tackled on the feeder so relunctantly I set up a light quivertipping outfit with a small blockend feeder. My catch rate improved and I added several more dace to 7oz, four brown trout, yet more minnows and a bullhead.

The bulhead is an unusual capture on rod and line and is also known as the Millers Thumb, its flattened shape said to resemble the thumb of a miller splayed from testing flour.

The last couple of hours were reserved for roaching and I fancied a slow swim on a carrier just above another weirpool. A couple of handfuls of mashed bread were thrown in to prime the swim. I fished a piece of breadflake on a size 10 hook to an 18 inch hook-length below a cage feeder. I missed the first bite and had to wait until after dark for the quivertip to pull round again, unfortunately the culprit was not the expected big roach but a chub in the three pound class.

The river had risen a couple of inches in the last hour and with further rain overnight the Avon was in the fields the following day.