Beware the Blenny!

As this was a family holiday apart from my sharking trip, all my fishing was in short sessions lasting from 1 to 4 hours.

A visit to the tackleshop suggested that I could expect to find bass from the rocks in front of the Tom Sawyer pub and that sandeels were the best bait.

Wednesday evening saw me wandering along the river on a flooding tide searching for sandeels. Half an hour spent jigging mini sabikkis saw me land a dozen sandeels.

Still using a carp rod matched to 10lb line I float fished a sandeel just off bottom in the gulleys between the emergent rocks that form this part of the coastline. Twice the float went under, the first I missed and the second was a small pollack of around a pound. After dark I legered mackerel sections only twenty yards out. Again I had two bites, missing the first and landing a lesser spotted dogfish from the second bite.

The following evening I joined the holiday makers on a three hour conger trip. One conger was landed between ten anglers, not suprising as the bait supplied was hardly fresh and it was a spring rather than neap tide.

On the Friday I travelled to Mevagissey for an early morning session and fished the harbour wall.

The first hour was spent fishing a sliver of mackerel in the hope of a garfish. A single pollack resulted. A switch to a running leger and an inch of ragworm saw a procession of small ballan and corkwing wrasse responding before I hooked something that didn't fight.

Checking my Collins Fish of Britain and Europe confirmed my that I had caught my first tompot blenny. It bit me!

A change over to the float, a 5SSG loafer float fished at 4 foot saw me land another small pollack, miss several bites and hook and lose something that screamed off at a rate of knots before coming adrift! I suspect that it was a mullet or bass.

Earlier in the holiday my great-nephew Jacob had caught two blennies on a crabline. Jacob was so proud of his catch that they were brought over in his crabbing bucket to the pub for formal identification. I failed miserably as I needed my book to confirm that these blennies were Common Blennies also known as Shannies.

Jacob briefed me on his secret spot and I spent about fifteen minutes on my final evening stalking some fish that were swimming along some submerged concrete steps. Several missed bites later I hooked my first shanny. They really are aggressive fish homing in on the ragworm section as the bait was slowly lowered onto the step. In one day I had been bitten by two species of blenny, apparently blennies feed on barnacle penises, luckily I was bitten on the finger!

Postscript: I discovered that the record for a tompot blenny is little over 5oz caught from Mevagissey in 1995. I had missed out on claiming a british record today!

Shark Angling Club of Great Britain

The Shark Angling Club of Great Britain (SACGB) was formed in Looe, Cornwall in 1953 by the late Brigadier J. L. Caunter. Looe quickly became established as the top venue for angling for Sharks on rod and line in the UK.

The main purpose of the SACGB is to promote the sport of Shark Angling in Great Britain with a mind to conservation, and provide members with an organisation which is regarded as the central authority in Great Britain for this sport.

In the early days a great many Sharks were caught and unfortunately killed. Holiday makers flocked to the quayside in Looe each evening, to see the Sharks being weighed. Sharks had to weigh 75lbs (34.1kg) or more to qualify for membership to the SACGB. However, since 1994 it has been the Clubs Policy that Sharks should be measured instead of weighed and released unharmed back to the sea.

The qualifying measurement for a Blue Shark is 7ft (213cm) or more from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail. For Porbeagle, Mako and Thresher Shark it is 4ft 6ins (137cm) from the tip of the nose to the fork of the tail.

Since 1998 the SACGB has operated a tag and release programme whereby the Sharks are tagged before being returned to the sea. The programme has provided the Club with valuable information as to the migration route the Sharks take in the Atlantic Ocean, how far they travel and their growth rate and the information has and is being used in the conservation of Sharks. When a tagged Shark is recaptured, usually by commercial fishermen, the tag is returned to the Club and the returnee receives a 15 dollar reward. This has proved very successful and helps with the conservation of Sharks worldwide.

When I last visited Looe 12 years ago I was lucky enough to catch a blue shark of 60lb. However when I booked a days shark fishing on Typhoon I realised that the odds were against me as only around 200 sharks are landed annually by the Looe fleet compared to 6,000 back in the 1950s and 60s.

Shark fishing is a waiting game, mesh bags containing 'rubby dubby' (mashed up fish) are hung over the side at water level and with each wave bits of fish and oils are washed out to create a scent trail for the sharks to follow.

The boat starts a drift 10-15 miles out and mackerel flappers are suspended under floats at different depths and ranges from the boat. Four rods were fishing and we all drew lots for who had which rod. I drew the rod at the bow, unfortunately the two runs occurred on the same rod which was nearest the stern.

The lucky angler successfully landed both sharks, blues of 40lb (56 inches) and 80lb (84 inches) respectively.

Whilst waiting for the sharks to arrive we feathered for mackerel and I soon realised that mini sabikis were the most effective mackerel feathers I possessed. I also fished baited hokkai lures on the bottom and caught a number of whiting for tea. The sea bed we drifted over was sandy and held little else.

Although disappointed not to land a shark myself I was privileged to see two blue sharks being boated.

On a hot summer night!

The recent heatwave has provided the ideal conditions for catching catfish and as the weather was forecast to break I decided to book an overnight session at Willowcroft Fishery in Cambridgeshire.

As you can see water levels were at least a foot down on normal and being a shallow lake anyway I had no more than three feet depth of water in front of me.

I decided to fish both rods with a method feeder with a long two foot hooklink to a size 4 Korda Wide Gape B hook with a 22ml halibut pellet on the hair.

The method mix consisted of scalded pellet laced with predator plus and dead maggots and my intention was to recast hourly up till midnight before getting my head down.

I thought I had blown it when a catfish hooked at 11.30pm on the right hand rod fell off. Unfortunately this is a problem I seem to find with large carp sized barbless hooks. For certain species such as crucians on small hooks I often prefer barbless and if anything land more than I would on a barbed hook. Apart from a visit from a local moggie (the furry variety) the rest of the night passed quietly.

At ten to six in the morning I had a gentle take on my left hand rod which did not take line from the baitrunner but merely bent the rod round. Catfish are the hardest fighting fish in freshwater and in such shallow water several long runs and bouts of tail waving were inevitable before I finally drew her over the net. The scales pronounced a weight of 21lb 4oz and after a couple of quick photos I enjoyed watching her snake back into the coloured waters of Willowcroft's Six Island lake.

My Metaphorical Jam Jar!

The Anglers Mail carried an article on a "giant stickleback" caught from Head Fen's Snake Lake of 7 drams, apparently the second largest ever caught in Britain.

So rod and metaphorical jam-jar in hand I set off to find this new mecca for specimen sticklebacks! Eventually I found the lakes and had less than three hours to track down a record breaker.

An hour in and I had caught brown goldfish and loads of tiny common and mirror carp on my float fished maggots or pinkies fished on a size 22 hook.

Another hour and two more swims tried, more brown goldfish and small carp to just over the pound. I was starting to get worried.

I swept the landing net through the margins against the reeds. Yep, the evidence was there loads of stickleback fry so the adults must be around somewhere. Eventually after missing loads of bites I connected with a stickleback of average size just before I had to get off the water, the record breaker would have to wait!

Anyone know a stockist for size 26 hooks and magnifying glasses so that I can see to bait up?

Bleak

5 facts about bleak!

1.   Guanine was extracted from the silvery scales of bleak and used in the making of artificial pearls.

2.   Bleak lives in large schools, usually near the surface.

3.   Tommy Pickering used to be called the bionic bleaker in his early match fishing days.

4.   The British record bleak weighed 4 oz 9 drms and was caught by Dennis Flack, River Lark,  Cambridgeshire in 1998.

5.   This evening I caught loads of bleak from the River Lark whilst trying to locate a bitterling for the species hunt. The bleak brings my species total up to 34 for the year to date.

Rhubarb and Custard

Rhubarb and Custard, for those old enough to remember it was that classic wobbly cartoon from the late 70's featuring the adventures of rhubarb the dog and Custard the cat. This classic cartoon was drawn by Bob Godfrey, who incidently I met at a party at my brother-in-laws house. Did you know that the characters were based on Tony Hancock and Sid James.

Rhubarb and Custard incidentally also happens to be one of my favourite puddings.

What has all this got to do with fishing! I had booked a trip with Lyle Stantiford on Supernova out of Weymouth wrecking for cod. Sailing time was two hours as the wrecks that we would be fishing were 20 miles offshore. The sea was calm and we were in for a scorcher of a day.

Tackle was a 12-20lb class outfit matched to 20lb braid and a 30lb mono leader. An eight foot flowing trace of 30lb flurocarbon with a six inch sidewinder lure was attached below a six inch boom. I used a light mono loop to attach the 10oz lead as a rotten bottom but most of the lads used a twist of wire (the sort used to tie up freezer bags), top tip! Lyle suggested that we use orange lures as that is what the cod seem to prefer

The skipper positions the boat to drift over the wreck and on his command the lures are lowered to the bottom before being retrieved slowly. The key difference between wreck cod and pollack is that cod live closer to the wreck and to catch one has to live dangerously and only retrieve 15 turns before lowering the tackle back down. Like all on board I snagged the wreck several times during the course of the day. As with pollack I found a slow retrieve best.

I was on board with a great bunch of lads and we all caught cod during the day. The largest fish was a real beauty of 17lb with most fish being in the 10-14lb bracket. I was lucky enough to catch four cod with two doubles at 13lb 4oz and 10lb 8oz, a pollack and a couple of big pouting. Pouting are viewed as a pest and the lads called them flobbers, no idea why! Unfortunately I lost what would have been the biggest fish of the day, either a big cod or maybe a ling when after several minutes it fell off, just as I felt I had got the better of it. It still hurts!

Another top tip I learned today is to bleed fish by cutting through the gills as it stops blood spoiling the flesh. I must also get some cable ties as most of the lads used these through the cods gills to identify whose fish was who's in the fishbox. Know anywhere that stocks cable ties in pink or some equally outrageous colour!

It transpires that Cod also like Rhubarb and Custard, well the orange sidewinders were in the rhubarb and custard colour!

The Grey Ghost of Weymouth Harbour

Whilst walking down to the stone pier along the harbour to  I couldn't help but notice that there were large numbers of grey mullet moving around under the pontoons. Some were even feeding on algae and other micto organisms in the mud only feet away seemingly oblivious to the hordes of tourists along the banks.

However mullet are notorously difficult to catch and I knew from previous experience that I needed to be out at dawn to maximise my chances.

So with the alarm set to 3.45am I was out at first light the following day armed with a barbel rod which was loaded with 8lb fluorocarbon due to the proximity of the pontoons. As we were in the middle of a heatwave the mullet were on the surface. My plan was to use a float for casting weight only and to fish breadflake on the surface and allow it to sink slowly as it became waterlogged. Feed was kept to a minimum to avoid spooking the mullet or worse attracting ducks!



I missed my first two chances but it was third time lucky, I watched the breadflake carefully as the mullet played around with it, not striking until the bait disappeared from view. It always surprises me just how fast mullet are and although I gave little line during the fight the fish was constantly changing direction. Netting was tricky as I was well above the water level but I eventually I banked a decent mullet of 3lb 10oz. I continued fishing for a couple more hours but as the town woke up the grey ghosts drifted back under the pontoons.

Mini Species on Weymouth's Stone Pier

Weymouth is a mecca for sea anglers and I had three days to hopefully add a few species to the list. Research suggested that Weymouth's Stone Pier would be a good venue for targeting mini species and that I could expect small wrasse, blennies, scorpion fish, black bream, pout and pollack if I scaled down.

Following a couple of early starts I decided on a lie in and a late breakfast at my Bed and Breakfast. Mini species apparently feed best during the middle of the day as this is when predators are least active.

I decided to use a barbel rod with 10lb main line which would enable me to both cast a couple of ounces of lead and provide good bite detection. A simple paternoster rig with a size 10 hook to 8lb fluorocarbon baited with an inch or so of rag worm was to be my approach.

Lowering the bait at the side of the pier saw rattling bites most casts from small ballan and corkwing wrasse, most weighing from only a couple of ounces to maybe a pound at best. Ballan wrasse are exquisitely coloured with turquoise, acid green and reddish brown markings over both body and fins.

Apart from a single pouting it was a wrasse a cast. Periodically shoals of grey mullet would drift through, I initially mistook them for mackerel and spent a couple of hours spinning for them without success. Talking to the locals it was clear that mackerel had been very scarce.

I returned again the following day for another short session before watching the England game against Slovenia. If anything it was even hotter, the wrasse didn't mind and once again it was a bite almost every cast. It is surprising how hard even a small wrasse fights.

I also spent a couple of hours float fishing hoping for a garfish without success. I noticed that one of the locals was using what appeared to be a huge waggler taking a half ounce loading with the stem marked in stripes. This offered much better bite detection than the traditional sea fishing float I was using. I intend to make some up before my annual family summer holiday to Looe next month.

Poole Interlude

Today I was going to fish the Purbeck banks and reefs out of Poole on Silver Spray skippered by Sam Cumming. The crew consisted of a mixed group of 10 individuals and the plan was for a multi species day.

We spent most of the morning failing to catch mackerel for bait from several different inshore marks. With very limited bait stocks we moved onto the banks.

We fished a couple of spots in the hope of rays, hounds and tope during the slack water period, legering mackerel fillets on a size 6/0 hook to a four foot trace of 100lb mono. A pound of lead was needed to hold bottom even on the slack. Few fish were caught, largely I suspect due to the shortage of bait. Ernie, a likable old boy and regular on Silver Spray caught a fabulous Blonde Ray weighing 17lb and a French lad next to me had a small blonde. Another lad landed a common smoothhound and apart from a couple of doggies, one to me that was it.

With the tide picking up we moved inshore to a try for a black bream. The 12/20lb outfit was rigged with a portland rig with a size 2 aberdeen and 4 yellow beads on a three foot 20lb fluorocarbon trace. The technique is to bounce the lead (in this case 6oz) across the bottom downtide. Despite the limited fishing time I had several rattles hooking one bream which probably only weighed a pound or so. Unfortunately I dropped the bream back in before I could photograph it for the blog. I like the technique and would like to do more black bream fishing in future. Next time I would pack a spinning rod for the bream which I am sure would result in a better hook up rate.

Fishing for Thornback Rays

Today I was back on Galloper skippered by Scott Belbin out of West Mersea in Essex. The plan was to target tope offshore, the forecast was for the strong northerly wind to drop so we sailed out to the Maplin sands and fished for an hour whilst we waited for conditions to improve before venturing further offshore. After an uncomfortable hour waiting for the wind to drop we all agreed to move inshore and target thornback rays. During this time Scott managed to catch a tiny tope which had probably only pupped in the last day or two, it really was predation in miniature.

Most species in this area are best approached by uptiding. The trace being four foot of thirty pound fluorocarbon to a 4/0 vavivas big mouth hook, baited with either a strip or chunk of herring. Despite fishing hard I only had one bite which resulted in my first thornback ray which was a male estimated at 6lb. Male fish can be identified from females by the long claspers trailing from the body towards the tail. The body is covered in thorny protusions. 

It was clear from this trip that the best boat position for uptiding is nearest the cabin as you can cast uptide of the boat. This bears out what I have read.

One of the crew had brought some ragworm and most of us tried this as a change bait. Unfortunately I soon lost patience and returned to fishing herring, unfortunate as several whiting were caught which would have been a new species for me. Next time I go out on Galloper I will have a couple of suitable rigs made up for whiting and dabs. In retrospect my bait presentation could have been better as when I retrieved on several occasions the herring strip had bunched up on the hook. Over the nest few days I was to discover that a fillet should be hooked by passing the hook through the very tip on the flesh side and then back through so the bait lies straight and can move in the tide.

On the return journey the seagulls followed Galloper all the way in waiting for scraps as the three rays that came to the boat were prepared for the table. To me this seemed hard work as being a member of the shark and ray family the skin has to be peeled off with pliers which takes an age and only the wings are kept for eating.

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!

The Hound of the Basket Meals

At the base of Hound Tor on Dartmoor is a very upmarket food van called the Hound of the Basket Meals! I had travelled down to West Mersea in Essex hunting a very different hound to the one that reputedly haunts Dartmoor.

I was fishing out of Mersea with Scott Belbin on Galloper. This was to be my first taste of uptiding which was developed in the waters of the blackwater during the 70's. In the shallow water of the blackwater it soon became clear that catches improved when the bait was cast away from the scare zone of the boats hull. Put simply the bait is cast uptide and line let off the reel until it is coming from the tip at right angles to the position the bait was originally cast. This huge bow of line encourages the breakaway lead to grip the sea bed. Bites are indicated by the usual nodding with a decent fish tripping the wires on the lead causing the rodtip to straighten with the line dropping downtide along with the fish. It is no use striking due to the bow in the line, the response is to wind like mad until the weight of the fish is felt before striking.


As only Scott and I were fishing I set up two rods, the first an uptider rod matched to a multiplier filled with 15lb mono. The other rod was a pike rod matched to a baitrunner reel again loaded with 15lb mono. A 6oz breakaway lead was fished running above a four foot 30lb flurocarbon trace with a 4/0 vavivas big mouth hook. Bait was hermit crab the hook being passed through the mouth and then the soft body of the hermit was threaded round the bend.

Our first mark was beyond a wind farm and right from the off we were getting bites. Scott was amused by my request to photograph my first ever Lesser Spotted Dogfish (LSD). Several small smoothounds to 7lb interspersed by LSDs came to the rods. There are two species, the starry and the common smoothound, all the hounds we caught were of the starry variety. As with most creatures  labelled common, common they are not! The power of these hounds is amazing, fish of only 5-7lb taking line.

As Scott's bait bag (and lunch) had been loaded by accident into the wrong charter boat we decided to try and catch some mackerel from our second mark which was along side a wreck. It soon became clear that mackerel were thin on the ground and I was ready to give up when at last I felt the first one take, I jigged the sabiki's a couple more times before reeling in 4 mackerel.

Despite another half hours feathering no more mackerel obliged, however I did catch my first ever cod. Scott managed a slightly larger codling and a pout by baiting his feathers with a tiny slither of mackerel.Mackerel was put out on one rod in the hope of a tope or thornback ray. The pike rod went back to fishing for hounds and the day ended as it began with both of us catching hounds and dogfish.

I bet lunchless Scott would have appreciated the Hound of the Basket Meals!

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!

Another Grand Day Out

I decided to revisit the Grand Union Canal at Cosgrove for an evening session after the elusive ruffe. The bridge swim I fished last time was occupied so I walked downstream to a lock where I hoped ruffe and perch would be lying alongside the brickwork.

Unfortunately I had forgotten the quivertip section to my rod, so I improvised and float legered with a 2BB insert waggler and a small feeder.  Casting tight to the wall on the far bank and alternating redworm and red maggot on the hook, I had a bite most casts, mainly small perch and skimmer bream.  Although born of neccessity I am sure that I connected with a far higher percentage of bites on my "Heath Robinson" float leger than I ever would have done on the quivertip.

In the last hour I caught two decent perch with the larger just an ounce shy of two pounds. I might not be able to catch my target ruffe but I will be back during the winter and early spring after the big perch that undoubtedly reside in the Grand Union Canal.

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.

A Grand Day Out

The building of the Grand Union Canal was first authorised by an act of parliament in 1793, and linked London and Birmingham.

My target today was a ruffe also known as the pope. This mini species is a member of the perch family and research had revealed that ruffe could be found in the canal at Cosgrove.

Mr Crabtree didn't provide any advice on locating daddy ruffe so I sought out the bridges and locks around Cosgrove before setling on a bridge where the canal narrowed.

The gothic style bridge was built in the 1790's at the insistence of the local landowner (the biggins family) and is one of only two ornamental bridges over the canal. Sitting just above the bridge I could cast a small feeder right under the bridge tight in to the bank where I hoped that perch and ruffe were lying.

The first canal boat was not long in coming and neither was my first bite, a small perch. Over the next hour several more canal boats came through the bridge, surprisingly this did not appear to have any detrimental effect on sport and most casts saw the quivertip pull round and the tally of small perch grew. A small bream of perhaps a couple of pounds followed, the first of five skimmer bream. Occasionally I switched from maggot to half a worm which made no difference to the number of bites although the skimmer bream seemed to prefer worm.

A couple of decent perch the largest 1lb 9oz came amongst the smaller fish. Normally in coloured water perch lack the bold stripes and strong colouring of those in clear waters and the colours are washed out but these canal fish defied the norm. A couple of palm sized rudd as the light was fading completed what had been a grand day out.