Ever had one of those days!

Ever had one of those days when nothing goes to plan! Well this was one of those weekends. I went to the garage Friday evening only to find the front offside tyre as flat as a pancake. I returned to the garage in my scruffs only to find the nut holding the spare in place was locked solid. A liberal application of WD40 and an hours wait freed it enough to get the job done.

The forecast for the weekend was wet and windy which meant that  Saturday's boat trip was blown off. Shore fishing would be difficult as the wind would mean weed problems.


Plan B was to fish for mullet. Thin- lipped mullet travel further up river than the larger thick lipped mullet. My choosen venue was the Sussex Ouse at Southease. My plan was to fish the tide up from low. Six hours and several hundred casts later my baited spinner had failed to elicit even a follow and I left Sussex deflated and tired.

So tired infact, that I had to pull into a service station for an hours nap. After dosing myself up with caffeine I returned to the car to find that I had a flat battery, I had left the lights on! A friendly RAC man gave me a jump start, even though I am member of Green Flag!

As usual I spotted the pub I was staying at too late, so I turned round and pulled into the car park. I went into the pub and introduced myself and was shown to my room. What a farce, I was in the wrong pub and they thought I had booked the function room! If you ever go to Whiteparish please note that there are two pubs right next to each other in this little village.

Whiteparish doesn't have a mobile phone signal, so I had a six mile drive before making the courtesy call to find out that Sunday's boat trip was also blown off.

Sunday I woke up more optimistic. Wrong, on going to pay my bill my credit card was declined. Luckily I had enough cash on me. I then had to drive the by now familiar six miles to find a signal, whilst all the time assuming my card had been cloned. My bank's computer system was down hence the problem.


Rather than return to the Sussex Ouse I decided to travel over to Wareham to fish the tidal Frome for the large thin lipped mullet that hunt these lower reaches. I arrived a couple of hours or so before high tide. After trying several swims I saw a mullet follow my bait in. Every couple of casts from then on, a mullet or two would follow the spinner in and I even had a couple of taps on the end of the ragworm.

Eventually right at my feet I had a take. On such a short line the mullet couldn't get up a head of speed, but could only thrash around on the surface and consequently was quickly bundled into the landing net. Lucky as there were a lot of mooring ropes around and mullet are fast fish and can change direction in the blink of an eye. Unfortunately sport was short lived and as the tide turned the mullet disappeared back into the sea.

At 3lb 13oz this was a big fish, thin-lipped mullet do not grow to the size of their thick-lipped cousins. The trials and tribulations of the weekend were put behind me and it was one happy angler that drove back up the M27 towards Peterborough.

Search for a Sole!

The Thames estuary is the largest breeding ground in Britain for the common sole, often incorrectly known as the dover sole. Sole are a nocturnal flatfish but can be caught by day in the murky waters of the Thames. My venue was Grays Wharf in Essex, the home of the World Sole Championship. For once my other half Jacky came with me, not for the fishing but the shopping at Bluewater.

As planned we arrived just after low water and I walked the promenade looking for the soft mud  that these fish inhabit and any gulleys that might act as a food trap as the tide flooded.  Despite the industrial landscape of the area, the local council had done a good job on the promenade. However the local scum had already started to undo their good work, the base of the promenmade wall was littered with block paving and bits of railing that had been vandalised! These sub human scum must have been armed with an oxyacetylene torch!

Sole are bottom feeders so I made up some two hook flapper rigs with a difference. A small lead was placed at the top of the trace and the usual plastic rig beads were replaced by lead beads from my fly tying kit.

The snoods consisted of ten inches of twelve pound flurocarbon to a size six aberdeen hook baited with ragworm. A bb shot was used on each snood as a bait stop with a couple  of red attractor beds.





One rod was cast into a gulley behind a sandbar and the other onto a muddy bottom. As both rods were fished at a maximum range of forty yards, I needed to slacken off slightly to pin my rigs to the bottom.

One of the great things about fishing is the brotherhood of the angle. Total strangers can talk fishing for hours and I enjoyed a conversation with Bob, a local angler which stretched from the Royalty Pub to Mahseer fishing in India.

The first fish was a flounder which was soon followed by a bootlace eel. I must admit I absolutely hate catching small eels, but with their numbers having reduced by over 90 percent over the last decade it was nice to see that this little eel was lip hooked and would hopefully someday return to the Sargasso Sea to breed. With less than an hour to go before being picked up I was relieved when the next bite produced a slip, the term for an undersized sole. My final bite of the evening produced a decent sole

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 Most Dangerous Fish in British Waters!

What is the most dangerous fish in British waters?

In freshwater the pike is renowned for taking ducklings, but doesn't pose any threat to man. Catfish on the continent have been known to occasionally drag a man down to his death, but our catfish are relatively small and no such instances have occurred here.

Britain has a surprising variety of shark species, most are small like the welsh tiger shark (a.k.a the lesser spotted dogfish).

Mako, porbeagle, thresher and blue shark have been caught in the hundreds of pounds, but no man eaters have been recorded here. Despite sightings of supposed great white sharks being reported, not one has turned up to fisherman, and surfers remain unmolested. Stingrays are present in our waters but encounters with humans are rare, even abroad Steve Irwin's tragic death is an isolated freak incident.

After yesterdays warm up on Trefor pier I was ready to face danger. In fact the most dangerous fish in our waters is the lesser weever fish. True at six inches long it doesn't look scary, and is quite pretty in it's own right, but the dorsal fin contains a particularly nasty venom.

Each year hundreds of people accidently stand on the lesser weever, which has a nasty habit of lying in shallow water covered by sand apart from its top facing eyes and spiky dorsal. Anglers also get spiked.

There is no anti venom, at best you can expect an hour of agony, only mitigated by immersing the affected part of your body in the hottest water you can stand. Those sensitive to venom are in real trouble and unless immediate medical attention is sought could suffer paralysis or even death.

After being soaked yesterday I fished at Barmouth where I was sandblasted for much of the day. Who needs an exfoliation beauty therapy? The third mark I tried finally saw me land a lesser weever on a small strip of mackerel. As you can see I survived to tell the tale!

Charlene - I've been to paradise and have also been to me!

Jonah strikes again! A fishing weekend once again coincided with strong winds, which resulted in Sunday and Monday's planned boat trips being "blown off". To rub salt into my wounds Geth informed me that smoothounds had been taken to 20lb plus on the Friday.

 I arrived in Wales around lunchtime on Saturday, and after picking up some bait it was time to put Plan B into operation.






On my last welsh adventure I had visited Trefor on a reconnaissance mission and the photos of Trefor are from that visit . Plan B was to target coalfish from Trefor pier.

This weekend I would be living dangerously! There is a warning sign advising that the pier is dangerous. Clearly access to the pier is at your own risk and at the end of this session I realised quite how stupid I had been to ignore the signs, as a number of the pier legs were missing! The local council, strapped of cash appear to be waiting for nature to take its course so that they can save on demolition costs.

I would like to say that the session was pleasurable but with driving horizontal rain and strong winds it was an endurance test. The gusts not only threatened to knock me off balance but could potentially bring the pier structure down from under me.






To target the coalfish i fished a small strip of mackerel on a cut down set of sabikkis. This worked a treat and a succession of small coalies were landed along with a couple of small pollack. It is not until you catch both in the same session do you realise how different they are.

In Yorkshire immature coalfish are known as billet and I remember fishing for them in Scarborough
harbour, float fishing with light tackle and mussel as bait.

Trefor is famed for the variety of mini species it produces and by substituting the mackerel for a piece of ragworm I hoped to attract a dragonet or goby. Unfortunately I could not get through the small wrasse.

After three or four hours of fishing the tide down from high I was relieved to get back to the safety of the main harbour wall. Trefor is a stunning venue, being backed by Snowdon and its neighbouring peaks.

I would once again re-iterate that I had been somewhat foolish fishing off the pier and would advise others not to follow my lead. If I return to fish Trefor Pier in future it would be from a kayak!

Unlike Charlene I've been to paradise and have also been to me!

Modern Carp Angling - A Rant!

 Where to catch a grass carp? I have never caught one in Britain although I have had several from France to over twenty pounds. Few waters hold grass carp, and most of those that do, only hold a handful. Elphicks Fishery, a commercial water in Kent has a reasonable stock and the staff advised me to fish their Prairie Lake.

Ideally I would have liked to surface fish to try to select a grassie, however the conditions were against me so I would have to fish blind. The lake was packed to capacity and I slotted in between two long stay anglers as the wind was blowing into that bank. Once the long stay anglers left I figured that the carp would follow the wind and come into the edge. I fished method feeder with popped up corn or white boilie and also float fished the margins. 

Things went to plan and I landed four of the six carp that I saw landed during the day with the biggest a common of around fourteen pounds. 

This is no criticism of Elphicks but I was reminded why I don't often target carp nowadays.

1. I fished a two and a half acre lake today which had nearly thirty carp anglers on it, with swims every ten yards or so. Carp fishing is too popular!

2. Apart from me, to a man two rods were fished to the Island, the tight lines effectively pinning the spooky carp to the island margin. Carp anglers are unimaginative!

3. Why do carp waters have dug outs filled with bark or gravel, not grassy natural banks. Elphicks even had astroturf lining each swim! See no. 6

4. When did the Koi and Ghost Carp escape the pet shop!

4. Does nobody know how to floatfish or use leads under three ounces? Why drop three ounces of lead in the margin and spook fish when a float will get your more bites. Carp have long forgotten what a vertical line means. If I can cast to the island with an ounce why use more?

5. Wheelbarrows.....are they moving house or going fishing?

6. Bivvies the size of double decker buses, I am sure that the carp leap to check out whether there are any carp houses set up before feeding. In years gone by we would have been sat behind screens or reedbeds hidden away.

7. Why on a snag free lake where the maximum cast is perhaps sixty yards stocked largely with singles and doubles do you need three pound test curve rods. This is all about fashion, if you are fishing a weedy lake at range maybe, hoever both Dick Walker and Chris Yates landed record carp from Redmire (a weedy lake) on Mark IV carp rods (1.5lb test curve). 

8. Boilies are not the only bait!

9. Baitboats..................after pushing the barrow presumably they are to knackered to cast!

10. Mallets............aaaarggghhhh

11. Why are there two number 4's in this blog article!

Rant over. 

Such a shame as carp are lovely fish, shame about most carp anglers! At some stage I am going to have to target a grass carp again.

I can't catch turbot!

Strong winds are the bane of the sea angler and all boat anglers experience the frustration of trips being cancelled due to strong winds. Even shore anglers may struggle to fish with rock marks becoming dangerous and weed being ripped up and thrown to shore. Additionally the coloured water results in poor fishing for most species.

 I had planned to fish three days out of Weymouth with Colin Penney on Flamer 4, unfortunately the first two days were "blown off" due to strong easterly winds. Luckily the wind dropped and Thursday's planned flatty trip was on. The plan was simple we would fish the mussel beds for plaice during the morning before moving onto the shambles in search of turbot.

After a slow start plaice started coming on board and with each drift the fishing improved. There is an optimum drift speed and Colin moved to different areas of the mussel bed to maximise our chances. Only two anglers failed to catch a plaice before it was time to move to the shambles.

Colin asked whether I had caught a launce (the greater sand eel) and I replied that I hadn't. Launce make good bait, so we spent five minutes working a set of mini sabbikkis just off bottom.  I replace the lead with a shiny pirk as the flash apparently attracts sand eels, it seemed to work as I caught first drop down.

Turbot fishing is a waiting game and we made several long drifts. Eventually my rod banged round, I let out a little line before lifting into my first turbot, however by the time it reached the surface it had turned into a plaice. Colin had said earlier that occasionally plaice were caught on the mackerel or launce strips that are used for turbot.

 My plaice took the boat tally to twenty-seven for the day, however the big plaice eluded us. Five turbot were landed including this beauty of 17lb which won the lucky angler the twenty pound sweepstake for the best flatty of the day (it certainly made up for the plaice blank on the mussels).

Although I didn't catch a turbot my time will come, every trip you learn something new, I learnt that garfish make excellent baits for turbot and that I still can't catch turbot!

A Royal Wedding with a Difference

What were you doing on royal wedding day? I joined a party of individuals for a days fishing aboard My Way skippered by Gethyn Owen out of Holyhead.

My Way was bedecked with bunting, a rod strapped to the stern supporting a row of union jacks blowing in the breeze. There was a party atmosphere on board and today the fishing was almost secondary.

A force 5-6 north-easterly restricted us to inshore waters, the Holyhead Deeps and its big huss, spurdog and tope would have to wait for another day. Today we would be fishing for a mixed bag using three hook flowing rigs baited with ragworm, lugworm, mackerel, sandeel and squid.


During the day a variety of marks were fished and fish came regularly to the boat. As usual LSDs were a nuisance and double or triple shots were not unusual. Plenty of small codling were interspersed with the odd coalfish, pollack, huss, plaice, whiting and dabs were landed along with a solitary spotted ray.

Top angler was Kev who landed the spotted ray and a decent coalfish. I managed to add a bullhuss (they are normally a lot bigger than this) to my species challenge.

The highlight of the day had to be the buffet lunch. Geth put on a spread that would have done any street party proud. The bait trays were moved to make room for the sandwiches and nibbles. It's not every day that you have fresh strawberries and cream on a charter boat!

Thanks Geth for a most enjoyable day despite the weather being against us.

An American Brook Trout in Wales

Back in the 1970s the American brook trout (more correctly brook char) was stocked into a number of fisheries ,including that big trout mecca Avington. Now only two trout farmers produce this fish, and they are only found in a handful of waters across Britain.

My quest took me to Chirk in the county of Wrexham in North Wales. It was Chirk Trout Farm that first imported the brook trout from America, and they are still reared here and stocked into Chirk fishery.

The fishery consists of two clearwater lakes in a scenic welsh valley, stocked with browns, rainbows including golden and blue trout, brook and tiger trout (a hybrid between the brown and brook trout).

I was lucky enough to have the fishery to myself until lunchtime and trout of all varieties could be seen in the clear water. After an unsuccessful hour fishing buzzers and bloodworm imitations I changed over to an intermediate line and my favourite fly, the nomad.

After a couple of small rainbows including a blue (a colour variant) I watched as a brook trout chased and finally grabbed my black nomad. Although only three quarters of a pound in weight it was really quite striking in appearance, the green flanks covered in yellow and red spots, the fins edged with orange and white, and the underside a pale orange.

During the remainder of the day I caught twenty-four trout, all bar two were returned. Most of the fish were around a pound with a handful of larger fish including a beautifully proportioned rainbow of around four pounds.

I could easily have caught thirty, or even forty trout, as I missed loads of takes including a couple of brookies and a particularly strikingly marked tiger. By moving regularly and ringing the changes with both the retrieve and the colour of nomad the takes kept on coming. Only once did I get a follow from a golden trout which unfortunately veered off at the last moment.

I thoroughly enjoyed my day at Chirk and the fishery has a laid back club like feel to it. Although the majority of the fish are small, they are pristine slim fish with huge tails and so fight like demons. The fly life is good and there was a hatch of grannom, however my fly box was replete of dry sedges and I couldn't persuade them to take my alternative selections. Fish were also grubbing on the bottom in the margins, possibly for shrimp.

I had a long conversation with the fishery owner who advised that brook trout were particularly suitable for stocking in acid waters. Although they have grown them to around six pounds in the past, the larger fish become very dark in colour and prone to fungal infections so they only stock brook trout to around a pound and a half.

It took longer to bait up than to catch!

The sunbleak is an alien invasive species that has been present in Somerset for over twenty years.

The alternative name for the sunbleak is the motherless minnow. The Environment Agency claim that motherless minnows can spawn up to twenty or thirty times a summer and that large populations can appear "from nowhere" in a single season.

I had decided to return to Peterborough via the Viaduct Fishery in Somerset which contains a huge head of these fish.


A couple of the local match anglers were both intrigued and amused why someone would want to deliberately target these fish. I was told that if I fished a pinkie a foot deep under a small float I should catch one within a minute. It probably took me a minute to bait up the tiny size 24 hook!

To cut a long story short I had loads of motherless minnows and they are by far the smallest and least interesting species that I have caught in the challenge to date. Apologies, even after employing the macro function on my camera the distinct short lateral line (the distinguishing feature of the species), is not visible in the photo.

With such a head of small fish it is no surprise that viaduct produces huge perch. Maybe one day I will return to explore the predator potential of this attractive little fishery.

Supernova to the Rescue

The mussel beds and shambles bank off Weymouth are nationally famous for the quality of the flatty fishing they offer. I had two days fishing on Supernova with Lyle Stantiford, Weymouth's youngest skipper. The crew on the first day included a great bunch of lads with whom I had spent an unsuccessful wrecking trip a couple of weeks earlier on another boat. We headed west to feather up some fresh mackerel for bait and the Simon landed a herring and a launce as well as mackerel.

I rigged up a 6lb class rod and attached a delta spoon two feet away from the lead slider with a short 18 inch hooklength below the spoon. A dozen green and black beads added the bling, apparently the plaice mistake them for pea mussels. Taking advice I added a swanshot to keep the hooklength pinned to the deck, in future I would replace one the the beads with a black drilled bullet lead. It is important to present a big bait in a long line, so I threaded a black lug up the line and added three or four ragworm with a thin strip of squid hanging down from the hook point.

The skipper sets up the drift and the baits are dragged along the bottom, the lead and spoon kicking up sand which attracts the inquisitive plaice. Bites are a sharp rattle which can be difficult to identify as the rod tip is constantly rattling from the lead going over the mussels. On feeling a bite line is paid to the fish for ten seconds before winding down and lifting, not striking into the fish.

When the tide increased we moved onto the shambles where we drifted unsuccessfully for turbot. As the tide slackened we returned to the mussel beds for plaice. At the end of the day the crew had accounted for 21 plaice with 7 to my rod.

The fishing followed a similar pattern the following day with a couple of larger fish thrown in, I had four to my best to date at 2lb 12oz and another angler managed a beauty of 3lb 12oz. Most of the plaice were returned. The shambles produced three small turbot, unfortunately not to my rod.

We had some free entertainment on the return trip as Supernova went to the aid of a boat that was struggling to keep itself from being thrown against the rocky breakwater inside Portland Harbour, the lifeboat RIB arrived in the nick of time and towed the craft to safety.

In a separate incident we returned to Portland Harbour where we towed a speedboat back into Weymouth Harbour. The coastguard were waiting ready to question the speedboat skipper.


Portland Coastguard is one of 10 stations that is due to close as part of the Government's cuts. How bonkers is that!

Arctic Char in a Heatwave

Arctic char are normally found in the glacial lakes of Scotland, the Lake District and North Wales and prefer cold water.

A Hampshire fish farmer has recently gained consent to stock arctic char. Woodington Trout Fishery near Romsey was the first to stock this rare fish.

The weatherman forecasted the warmest day of the year, bright sunshine with temperatures more akin to July than April. I arrived at 7am, the fishery opening time as I expected sport to be over by mid morning.


The lake where the char have been stocked is the Spring Lake, my problem was to locate the outnumbered char and avoid the rainbow trout. At least the bright sunshine meant that visibility was good in the clear water,  I soon found a group of twelve char in a corner of the lake, sheltering under a mat of algae.

I managed to lose three fish in a row as they threw the hook, one was definitely a rainbow. The next cast produced a solid take and my first char of 2lb 10oz was soon on the bank. After resting the swim and enjoying a brew whilst watching a buzzard circling overhead,  I returned to the cor
ner for a slightly smaller fish. A cats whisker nomad fished deep on a steady retrieve accounted for both char.

My ticket allowed me to catch and release on the other lakes but my heart wasn't really in it, so after limited success on nymphs and dry fly I packed up after a late lunch.

Diamonds are Forever

I decided on a return visit to the little Warwickshire pool I first visited last month. Last time I was told that the pool also contained another species, the diamond back sturgeon. The coloured water would not allow me to select individual fish so I would have to trust to luck.

Remembering my Sheringham, I set about cultivating my luck. It didn't work as I managed to somehow break the top joint of one of my carp rods whilst setting up, doh!

This heavily coloured pool set in a fold in the hills, surrounded by trees is a wildlife haven. Today it was just me and the wildlife.  I have to confess that I spent a significant proportion of the day just watching nature. Hares lollopped around the field behind me and opposite pheasants strutted around safe in the knowledge that the shooting season was months away. Behind the dam I discovered a badger set at the edge of the woods. 

Knowing that frogs have already spawned, that croaking could only be the common toad. On investigation cables of toad spawn could be seen amongst the emergent reed stems and water plantain, mating toads could be seen in ones, twos, threes and lets not go there......Frogspawn was also present and the resultant tadpoles will provide a rich harvest for the resident carp and sturgeon over the next few months.

Using one rod does focus the mind somewhat, and so I decided to set up a float as I would be margin fishing.

The fishing followed the same pattern as last time, mid morning the float sank from sight and I struck into a diamond back sturgeon which immediately came up through ten feet of water and half threw itself onto the bank. After  thrashing around on the surface and leaping I guided the fish over the net, the fight lasted no more than thirty seconds

As I packed up "burley chassis" was belting out Diamonds are Forever (on the radio) which seemed somewhat appropriate.

Second time lucky with the Herring!

 A settled spell of high pressure saw herring return to Brighton Marina. I had four days holiday ahead of me and decided to travel to Weymouth via Brighton so that I could fish two or three hours either side of high tide before continuing my journey.

Making my way over to the East Breakwater in glorious sunshine I arrived to find that the sea flat calm and clear. I settled for Peg 20, I had intended to fish a second rod for plaice, however I had neglected to refill my multiplier with fresh line, doh! At least I could concentrate my efforts on the lure fishing.
                                                          
Herring are usually caught here on small sabikkis known as herring feathers locally or by float fishing a small strip of herring. I set up a carp rod with a string of sabikkis and a two ounce lead.

A chat to the baliff revealed that a few herring had been caught over the previous few days so I was feeling positive that the herring would arrive with the high tide (a big spring tide). Right on high tide I felt a feeble tapping on the rod top and and I assumed I was attached to my first herring. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had caught a sprat, unlike immature herrings sprats have a distinct sharp abdominal keel.

A few minutes later I had an enforced break as a team were surveying the breakwater. The survey boat tied up in front of me whilst the two divers checked out the state of the breakwater wall. Their progress could be tracked by a steady stream of bubbles, a bit like a patrolling crucian carp or tench. Any defects in the breakwater would be repaired later.

Once the survey boat had moved on I resumed my feathering. An hour after high tide I took a break for a late lunch and put out a flapper rig with lugworm for half an hour or so without success.

Throughout the day I had alternated between casting and retrieving the sabikkis and jigging them next to the wall. Eventually my persistance paid off, the carp rod bending over into a healthy curve to mark the arival of a pod of herring. As they came up through the water it was clear that I had four herring on simultaneously, although one fell off.

The window of opportunity was small as the herring disppeared as suddenly as the arrived. I fished on for another half an hour before packing up and continuing my journey. A herring fresh from the sea bears little resemblance to those on the fishmongers slab. The silver sides are tinged with pearlescent blue and purple and the scales are easily dislodged.

The less said about Weymouth the better. The weather was glorious however the fishing was poor despite the best efforts of the skipper. I had one bite in two days boat fishing which was almost certainly from a bait robbing dogfish.

Does this fish belong to her majesty?

The sturgeon like the swan belongs to the monarch and any sturgeon captured in British waters have to be offered to the Queen. Being on the "Red List" and classified as critically endangered the Queen is hardly inundated with offers of sturgeon, hence the fiasco reported by the BBC News in 2004.

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 A sturgeon caught in Swansea Bay which disappeared after police intercepted it during an investigation into its alleged illegal sale has been traced.

Police moved in at the fish market in Plymouth, Devon, on Thursday, as the 9ft long, 264lb fish, went to auction. Officers had been alerted because sturgeon, whose eggs are sold as caviar, is a protected species. But after Devon and Cornwall Police scenes of crime officers had taken pictures of the fish, it vanished.

A spokesman for the force said that officers regained possession of the huge fish at an undisclosed location on Friday. He added: "We have had a phone call and as a result we have seen the fish at a location which we are not going to release. The inquiry goes on. The fish is now under police possession and we are seeing if any criminal offences have been committed." It is believed that the fish is due to be transferred to the Natural History Museum on Monday.

The sturgeon was caught accidentally in fisherman Robert Davies' net in Swansea Bay on Wednesday. Mr Davies, 27, of Llanelli, first offered the sturgeon, classed as a royal fish, to the Queen after catching it in Swansea Bay on Wednesday afternoon. After receiving a fax from Buckingham Palace saying he could "dispose of it as he saw fit", he travelled to Plymouth to sell it at auction. It had been bought for £650 by a fish wholesaler before police moved in.

Fisherman Mr Davies said police called him on Thursday to ask if he knew where it was. "They've lost the fish," he said. "They called to ask if I had it but I haven't got it."

It is not illegal to catch or keep a sturgeon, providing it is offered to The Queen first and officers said if it had been given away for free or kept by the fisherman, no offence would have been committed. The sturgeon is rarely seen in UK waters and is classified as a "royal" fish - a status granted by King Edward II.

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So what am I doing even contemplating fishing for sturgeon....hey, the death penalty is still in place for treason!

Luckily the sturgeon that have been stocked into a number of stillwaters around the country are not the native species but several species that originate from Russia. The Environment Agency have not sanctioned any stocking of sturgeon, so where have they come from? Some are dumped pets, some deliberate illegal stockings, and in the case of the fishery I visited in Warwickshire the owners bought a farm unaware of what might be in the lakes buried amongst the trees.

After a couple of circuits of the deserted lake I settled on a swim that gave me a view of the whole lake. Any fish cruising the margins would be intercepted as they moved out of the bay to my right. A float fished lift method style was used in the margin and my other rod was fished in the open water on a running leger rig. Bait was a cube of luncheon meat soaked in salmon oil, fished over a couple of handfuls of dead red maggots.  

As the water was still cold, free offerings were kept to a minimum. After an hour my float dipped briefly before sliding away - I struck. I was obviously attached to a  large fish, the clutch ticking as the fish slowly took line. After about five minutes I finally saw that it was a sturgeon and not a big carp.

On the scales it weighed 25lb 7oz. After a couple of photos, I returned this prehistoric looking creature to the murky waters of the small lake.

Then, breaking out in a cold sweat, I remembered that the sturgeon that got Mr Davies in so much trouble wasn't even the native species 'Acipenser Sturio', but an American fish that was ever so slightly lost. 

I began to write:

Dear Queenie................................................

What ever happened to the Pike-Perch!

The Duke of Bedford (the grey squirrel guy) was also responsible for introducing pike-perch into Britain in the late 19th century into his lakes at Woburn.

In 1963 the (then) Great Ouse River Authority introduced pike-perch into the Relief Channel. By the end of the decade the name pike-perch slipped into oblivion and the continental name "zander" came into use. Personally I prefer the older name pike-perch as it is so descriptive, despite it's appearance this fish is not related to either the perch or pike.

Since then zander have spread throughout Fenland colonising most of the drains and rivers. In some cases they were illegally moved by anglers and can now be found in the Rivers Severn and Trent and throughout the Midlands canal system. Whilst it is true that silver fish populations have been decimated in many waters containing zander, in the long term nature always finds its own balance between the predator and the prey, as has happened in the Fens. If anything, it is the pike that has suffered from the competition, as rarely do waters produce both big pike and zander.

Zander populations have been in decline in recent years. Many waters, including Ferry Meadows in Peterborough, have suffered at the hands of a small minority who have used nets and set lines to catch zander for the pot.

I decided to travel to the Coventry Canal in search of the zander and spent a couple of hours walking the towpath before settling on an area which containing overhanging trees, a bridge and a boatyard. I opted to fish a hair rigged section of roach on a size 6 hook on a running leger. Zander are renowned for dropping baits so I opted to use my old washing liquid bottle top indicators to minimise resistance.

I fished three swims during the course of a chilly afternoon and my only take, after only fifteen minutes, resulted in the smallest zander I have ever caught!

Blondes make me sick!

After three cancelled trips, I finally got out for my first boat trip of 2011. I was on Silver Spray skippered by Sam Cumming in search of blonde rays and spurdogs that inhabit the offshore banks 15-20 miles out of Poole.

The tidal flow on these banks is so powerful that these marks can only be fished on neap tides.  The rays are here to breed and by April they are gone, leaving only a handful of days each year that they can be targeted.

Thirty pound class rods were required as a pound and a half of lead was required to hold bottom. A 6/0 hook on a four foot flowing trace of 100lb mono was baited with a mackerel and sandeel cocktail. The heavy nylon was necessary as spurdogs are toothy critters and there was always the chance of a decent conger.


The sea got a bit lumpy and for the first time during this challenge I suffered from a bout of sea sickness. On previous trips I had been so careful, avoiding alcohol and spicy food for 48 hours, combined with a preventative sea sickness tablet the night before the trip...... that will teach me!

It was a relatively slow day and we moved a couple of times during the day in search of better sport. Three blonde rays were landed with the largest, a male of 14lb (notice the long claspers in the photo) falling to my rod. These pre-historic looking creatures are really quite impressive in the flesh. The spurdogs were noticeable by their absence although one angler was bitten off having tackled up with a 40lb mono trace.

I also had a decent whiting which I rather dismissed at the time. In retrospect I wished I had got a photograph as at 2lb 6oz it was a personal best by miles.

It rained, it hailed, some of us were sea sick and it was difficult to keep your balance at times but as one lad said "you really know you are alive!"

Red Herring!

Today I experienced my first blank session of 2011!

Reports of herring arriving on Brighton Marina midweek saw me drive down to Sussex in search of a new species. I decided to put all my eggs in one basket and travel light intending to rove around the East Arm "feathering" for a herring without the distraction of a second rod. My feathers were mini sabikkis.

On arrival the sea was coloured up and the wind strengthening,  I knew I was up against it as the herring would move offshore in these conditions. The East Arm was packed which meant that roving was not an option. Several hours later I packed up fish-less knowing that I would have caught a few flatties, rockling and whiting if I had put out a second rod on the bottom. If the sea clears out in the next couple of weeks I will be back!

Incidentally pike anglers might be interested to know that red herrings really work, they take on colour really well using the powdered food dyes that the carp boys use when making boilies!

Go with the flow when chubbing on small rivers!

I have just returned from a short session chubbing on the Upper Welland, catching a number of fish to 4lb 7oz. Rather than bore you with the details of the session I thought I would offer up my top ten tips for winter chubbing on small rivers.

Tip 1 - Have a lie in!  You will catch more chub late afternoon through dusk than at any other time in winter!

Tip 2 - Use a bobbin as well as a quivertip if you can! You won't miss many bites, I use an old squeezy bottle top with a betalight inserted for fishing after dark.

Tip 3 - Keep moving! Twenty minutes in a swim is ample, most of my chub come in within the first ten minutes.

Tip 4 - Don't use a bolt rig! Chub will often pull the rod right round without getting hooked as any barbel angler will testify.

Tip 5 - Keep it simple! Use a swan shot link leger, or do as I do and pinch on swan shot or two on the line 18 inches above the hook (unless you are using crust).

Tip 6 - Don't cast directly into the swim! Where you can fish down your own bank and cast into the main current and allow the bait to roll round into the slacker water. 

Tip 7 - Fish one new swim every time you go roving for chub, even if you think you know the stretch! Twenty minutes in the course of a day is not long and I have had a number of five pound plus chub from "unfancied" swims.

Tip 8 - Don't ignore maggots if the water is clear! Using big baits you might have to wait until dusk for a bite whereas you can catch on maggot all day long.

Tip 9 - Don't ignore the float! It's fun and it catches big chub. Boss the flow with a decent sized chubber or avon float and fish flake or maggot on the hook.

Tip 10 - Go with the flow! Probably the most important tip of all, unless it is really cold aim to position your bait just off the main flow. In icy conditions the bait should be placed closer to the bank in the slackest water.

Note: My scales aren't weighing light, the photo is of a big six from the Dorset Stour not a four from the Welland!