Graham Broach

Gone fishing, but not forgotten

2010-12-08T00:00:00.001-08:00

Dear Fellow Fishers, I realised the other day that I haven't blogged for ages - but that doesn't mean I've given up fishing!
My latest trip was six hours on the Tamar at Pottery Quay in a search for cod and whiting. I caught around three dozen fish of five different species - nothing very exciting but the action kept me warm. It was so cold that I had to keep the bait in a cool bag to prevent it from freezing.
I fished two rods, one with a livebait for cod, the other with two hooks clipped down for whiting, which my cats love. The livebait rig worked up to a point, ie small fish impaled themselves on the small hook and sat in the tide like tethered goats waiting to be snapped up by a predator. But nothing big came along to eat them. At one point, the rod with the livebait on was banging away and I became convinced I had hooked something other than a pout or pin whiting. I'm not sure if a cod would tackle a 12-ounce bass, but that's what I had hooked.
Meanwhile, the light rod was pulling in double shots of whiting and pouting nearly every cast. The ground at Pottery Quay is a bit snaggy close in, so I cast as far as I could and used a lead-lift, which worked brilliantly. The trace surfaced about 40 yards out, with the whiting struggling gamely on the surface. As well as bass, whiting and pout, I caught a modest pollack and a decent doggie. For the whiting, I used cocktails of frozen mackerel and cuttlefish on #1 Saltwater Champion hooks from Veals. I kept half a dozen whiting about 12 inches long and returned the rest. Incidentally, instead of strips of mackerel, I use two cubes per hook, tipped off with a sliver of tough cuttle.
Other recent trips included a trout expedition to Temple Trout Fishery near Bodmin, which I found closed on the day I visited (apparently it doesn't open every day in winter). So I went to the Arundel Arms Hotel at Lifton instead and fished Tinhay Lake, a flooded quarry reputed to be 90 feet deep along the far bank! I had a two-fish ticket and caught my limit - both about a pound and a quarter and nicely full-finned. While I was fishing, former gillie Roy Buckingham turned up and told me tales of double-figure browns engulfing stockie rainbows being played by visiting anglers. Ferox in Cornwall!
Due to the weather being wrong when I was free to fish, I caught only six seatrout from the Inny this summer, but did have a bonus salmon - a 3lb grilse.
I've also done a bit of pole fishing at Bake Lakes, caught a 4lb bass on a spinner from Whitsands and had a few plaice out from Salcombe before my pal sold his boat in the summer.
The good news is that he now has a new, larger vessel in which we hope for better catches next year.
I hope you are enjoying good sport and remember - there's no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing! GRAHAM

There's a plaice for us...

2009-03-22T15:08:00.001-07:00

Dear Fellow Fishers, Normally, my plaice season doesn't get under way until April, but this winter I left my boat Safran on her mooring. The last two weekends tempted me out to try to find an early-season plaice or two, and I'm delighted to say I've had seven already.

The first trip saw me back on my usual mark, but the wind came up more than anticipated. At this particular spot, I've found that an hour after low water is the key time, and I had both of my fish in the space of ten minutes. One was under a pound and went straight back, but the other was 17 inches and went home. Having filleted it, I decided not to keep any more until they fatten up a bit, so the five I had on Saturday (21) were returned, even though they were all of good takeable size.

I don't know why it happens, but I fished two rods side by side with identical rigs and baits and caught five fish on one and two on the other.

I've been experimenting with long-shank stainless steel circle hooks from UK Hooks, the main advantage of which seems to be that they rarely snag on the bottom. UK Hooks say they are useful over mussel beds, and I can believe it. Since plaice often seem to lie around rocks (where the trawlers can't get them!), this could be very useful. I've also been trying soft-wire Eagle Claw hooks, again from UK Hooks, which will straighten out when snagged but can be bent back into shape again and again. They are 'gold'-plated and sharp, with a nice incurved point but not very rustproof.

Incidentally, be warned that UK Hooks seem to charge £4.50 for P and P, no matter how small the order, and VAT finally goes on everything, including the postage. So that pack of hooks or swivels could turn out a bit expensive unless you whack in a big order. They do good kit though, and their website is very user-friendly.

Now I'm waiting for AW's boat to go back in the water at the start of April so we can can go out 'yonder' and see if the trawlers have left us any cod...

Tight lines and happy fishing! GRAHAM

Whether the weather be good...

2009-03-09T02:40:00.001-07:00

Dear Fellow Fishers, Thanks goodness for weather forecasts! I was all set for my first Plymouth Sound plaice trip of 2009 on Saturday (March 7) when I heard the horrible forecast. The Cattewater was like glass, not a breath of wind, but I decided not to risk it and went coarse fishing instead. If I'd had a faster boat, I might have gone out early for a couple of hours, but then I'd have missed the best of the tide (half-flood on my favourite mark). As it was, I spent a pleasant half-day at Bake Lakes fishing in a strengthening wind and intermittent drizzle. I had 40-50 small carp and skimmer bream plus one cracking tench nudging 2lb. I was feeding with a mixture of left-over casters (which sent the rudd wild) and betaine green pellets and fishing with a sweet, bright red paste made from some powder I bought through an Angling Times offer. It was a bit runny, but the fish absolutely loved it. I also caught well on bloodworm-flavoured soft pellets. It was just a fun day, but I can't wait for serious boat fishing to start again.

My previous two trips saw me fishing with the pole on one of Bake's smaller lakes and catching a bite a chuck on maggots and casters. Despite the cold conditions, loose-feeding maggot over hemp brought the carp on the feed and I had quite a few on very light gear, as well as roach, rudd, crucians and gudgeon.

I also had a day out in my friend Bob Mountjoy's boat, fishing as far afield as the East and West Rutts, but our combined haul was a few pollack to 3lb around the pinnacles on the fastest of the tide.

Roll on spring! GRAHAM

Emperor penguin

2009-02-04T07:25:00.001-08:00

Dear Fellow Fishers, My latest fishing session on Saturday, January 1, has exploded some of some of my previously-held ideas about winter fishing and made me think a bit. It was cold, windy and showery for my latest expedition to Bake Lakes. For a change I decided to fish Emperor, the larger and deeper of the two 'top ponds' above the Luxor specimen lake (incidentally, did you know that all the lakes are named after Las Vegas casinos?) . Because it was so cold, I decided the carp wouldn't feed and fished for the roach and rudd with a 1.75lb hook length and a barbless 18. I was loose-feeding maggots and a few casters and soon got the rudd and roach going a treat, though unshipping for small fish was such a pain that I switched to fishing hook-to-hand closer in with just the top three sections. Just as well I kept the bottom sections close to hand, because eventually the float buried and I was into a carp! It proved to be the first of a dozen or so from a pound and a half to 4lb 4oz. Many of these were skilfully played and landed by young James, who was fishing with a friend and his dad. My catch also included gudgeon, a modest tench and several delightful crucian carp - one of my favourite species. The carp came on about lunchtime and fed all afternoon, proving that they WILL feed in cold water if you stir 'em up a bit. Bake Lakes are so well stocked that it's a shame the Environment Agency won't allow perch to be stocked. They would thin out the small fry, allowing the survivors to grow bigger, and grow on themselves to be fine, sporting fish. Anyway, I'm enjoying my filling-in fishing till spring arrives, hopefully bringing trout, codling and plaice to my freezer. Tight lines! GRAHAM

Too cold for Carp?

2009-01-29T08:57:00.000-08:00

Dear Fellow-fishers, Thank goodness specimen fish can't be caught to order - how boring would that be? That's what I was telling myself after failing to catch a 2lb roach at Tavistock's Mile Mead fishery last Saturday (Jan 24).
Followers of this blog will recall that my cunning plan was to target the big roach which live in the Carp Lake while the water temperature was too low for the carp to feed.
I set up at the recommended Peg 11 with my faithful margin pole, fishing over hemp with bloodworm-flavoured soft pellets.
I caught two fish almost immediately - a small common carp about a pound and a half and an eight-ounce crucian. So much for 'too cold for carp'!
Then the skimmers moved in and I had a few of them before deciding to try the match lake.
But a cold wind was scudding across the lake, the swims I fancied were occupied, so with two hours to go I headed for the Canal.
Even after investing in half a pint of maggots, I couldn't get the roach and rudd feeding really well, so I headed back to the Carp Lake to an un-recommended swim that I just fancied.
And there I proceeded to catch roach, though only up to half a pound, mixed in with skimmers to 2lb.
So although I didn't get my two-pounder, I had a bit of redfin sport.
It's a bit unfair to expect still waters to fish really well in cold winter conditions, but unlike my pal AW, who goes into fishing hibernation in winter, I get withdrawal symptoms if I don't fish at least once a week somewhere.
Still, a couple of months and Siblyback will be open, AW's boat will be back in the water and my fishing year will begin in dead earnest.
Tight lines to you all! GRAHAM

Wet, cold and happy

2009-01-16T10:22:00.000-08:00

Wet, cold and happy

Dear Fellow-fishers, The owners of Milemead Fishery at Mill Hill near Tavistock warned me it could be a tough day: "Only a few days ago, the lakes were frozen solid and the water is still very cold."
Yeah, well I like a challenge!
Trying to ignore the howling wind and steady rain, I trudged round to peg 20 on the match lake. Recent experiences of ice-fishing at Bake Lakes (see my previous blog) proved roach would feed in really low temperatures, but I was confident that the carp wouldn't. So I set up my new five-metre whip and float-fished with single or double maggot on an 18 to 1.75lb bottom.
After about 2.5 hours, I had 17 roach and bonus tench of about a pound, with a couple of the roach topping a pound - nice fish!
But sport wasn't exactly brisk, and my old flotation suit isn't as waterproof as it once was, so decided I needed more action to warm me up.
Laden like a refugee, I staggered round to The Canal, a fish-filled strip of water about 20 feet across billed as being ideal for beginners or a busy session with the whip!
It certainly lived up to its reputation...
In a couple of hours, I must have had around 100 fish - a bite a drop.
Most of them were modest roach and rudd and skimmer bream, but amongst them were some roach big enough to require netting and some chunky hybrids to over 1lb which really scrapped. I also had a hard-fighting orange-and-silver goldfish of around 3oz which apparently escaped from an ornamental pond. I've caught orfe before at Anglers' Paradise, but a goldfish was a new one on me!
Despite the cold water - I was told an inflow keeps it a couple of degrees warmer than the lakes - the fish were lively, and the rudd were even taking the odd caster off the top.
I finished the day soaked but happy, and with a new mission in mind.
Apparently the Carp Lake, which is closed at present for bank maintenance, holds a head of really cracking roach to well over 2lb, which get caught from time to time on carp baits such as boilies and big pellets.
In summer conditions, it would be hard to target the roach, which would usually be out-muscled to the bait by the carp.
But the carp don't feed much in water temperatures below 10 degrees C, whereas the roach will. My plan while the weather is cold is to target one of four pegs which has a roach reputation and fish fine with small baits, feeding lightly.
That way, I stand a chance of beating my roach personal best of 2lb 1oz, taken many years ago on the Dorset Stour.
I just don't want to catch it on a carp rod and a bolt rig; that would feel like sacrilege. In this, I agree with the late Richard Walker, who said he was always disappointed to catch a fine fish by accident while fishing for something else, particularly if it was a big roach caught on carp tackle.
I'm working this weekend, but no doubt I'll be back on the bank somewhere on my day off next Tuesday. Maybe I'll see you there?
Tight lines and dry suits! GRAHAM

What kind of fool...?

2009-01-12T00:05:00.001-08:00

Dear Fellow-fishers, What kind of fool would go stillwater fishing on the coldest day since 1997?

What sort of clot would turn up, knowing that Bake Lakes would almost certainly be frozen over?

Who would be daft enough to trudge round and round the only lake with any clear water and fish for five and half hours to catch 12 small roach, just to prove it could be done?

Yep, that idiot was me, but although it took me four hours and a lot of prospecting to catch the first hand-sized fish, I really enjoyed it.

For a start, I was trying out my new 5m Ron Thompson whip, a delightful weapon which makes even a small fish feel like a whopper.

Also, I derived great pleasure from feeding maggots to assorted small birds, which were having a hard time of it in the freezing conditions.

I fed robins galore, wagtails, a blackbird and a water-rail, and even had a robin land in the bait-box at my feet.

Muffled up to the eyebrows in my old red flotation suit, I may have looked like a rather grubby Santa, but I was warm in the sun, and it's not often you can have an entire fishery to yourself.

I had to fish on Luxor, the specimen lake, as all the others were sheets of ice, but Tony assured me the carp wouldn't feed in such cold water, so there was no danger of being broken up and leaving hooks in fish.

In summer, I could have caught the same number of modest roach in five minutes, but there was something special about winkling them out over the edge of the ice in the margins.

It reminded me of years ago, when I fished Newhouse Lake near Gara Bridge in similar weather.

I spent four hours in a tiny dinghy smashing the ice and pushing it over the spillway.

When I'd cleared enough water to fly-fish, I caught my limit out of it.

Now THAT's a challenge.

I've always thought it must be rather fun to do proper ice-fishing,where you bore a hole and fish through it from the shelter of a little hut complete with wood-burning stove!

But my special day at Bake ran it a close second.

My previous trip was out to the wreck of the Foyle, off Plymouth.

I was fishing with my friend Bob in his new boat, Roma, a Plymouth-built 17-foot Pilot 6.

The conditions were awful, with a nasty swell and fresh north-east wind making it pretty unfriendly 1.5 miles off Rame Head.

I was seasick, it was bitterly cold and we didn't stay out long

But I was very impressed with the boat, which hit 25 knots on the way out, pushed along by a new 60hp Yamaha.

It gave a really good ride, and while it doesn't have enough freeboard for fishing standing up in any but flat-calm conditions, the twin seats turn and slide so you can fish seated in comfort.

For the record, we caught seven whiting to 1.5lb on baited feathers, with me taking the most and Bob catching the biggest.

I can't wait for next spring and a dash out to the Eddystone to pick off some big pollack on launce.

Well done, Bob! Your Roma is a cracker!

Hopefully, the weather will turn milder this weekend and we can all get out and fish in more sensible conditions. Tight and unfrozen lines to you all! GRAHAM

Pull My String

2008-12-29T07:09:00.001-08:00

Dear Fellow Fishers, After a couple of unsuccessful flounder trips, I was suffering from fish deprivation - in other words, I needed something to pull my string.

I had a day off, and my master plan was to visit Bake Lakes, catch a couple of trout in the morning and then spend the afternoon fun fishing with the pole for carp and tench.

It worked - sort of.

The trout were not very interested in the cold, murky water, but after missing a good take on a black buzzer, I nailed one of a couple of pounds on a white lure.

The wind was a cold north-wester with some drizzle in it, but I started fishing for tench into the teeth of the wind at the rushy end of Dunes Lake, which has silver fish and tench but no carp.

It was cold and I didn't have a bite in 10 minutes, so I shifted to what I think of as the kiddy lake, a narrow small water between Dunes and Snag Alley. It contains modest carp and tench and doesn't get fished a lot.

After a slow start when I missed a lot of bites - probably small fish - I started connecting by feeding more heavily with hemp and betaine green pellets and striking more slowly, waiting till the float went under and stayed under. I alternated cat meat and bloodworm flavour pellets.

I didn't catch anything very big - about 2.5lb was the best - but I had 24 plump carp and a pretty tench of about a pound in three hours.

I also watched a cute little Christmas robin perching on the pole three times - very seasonal!

After having a couple of the smaller fish snag their dorsal spines on the keepnet, I have invested in a new carp sack from Trago, which should keep them in mint condition in future.

Now the weekend is looming, but with a brisk west wind and rain forecast, I expect boating will be out. I'm sure I'll wet a line somewhere, though.

Also, my friend Bob has a new boat - though he hasn't yet revealed what it is - and I'm looking forward to some exploratory trips when the weather allows.

Cod watch out!

More next week... GRAHAM

One good turn

2008-12-29T04:57:00.000-08:00

Dear Fellow-fishers, It's not often that I return from fishing the Tamar with more leads than I started with, but it happened the otherv day at Devil's Point.

Having been sent home early on Christmas Eve, I checked the tide tables, quickly defrosted a selection of bait from the freezer and grabbed two beachcasters and my flotation suit.

I whacked out two pulley rigs, one with a pennel rig baited with three prawns and the other with frozen black lug tipped with peeler.

First cast on the prawn rod I could feel some sort of living resistance, and assumed I'd hooked a small ray. But when it finally surfaced, it was a doggie, mouth-hooked on the bottom 6/0 and impaled elsewhere on the top hook. Back it went, little the worse for wear, to be followed on the other rod by a sizeable spider crab, which I also returned.

Then a pair of divers came down.

I like talking to divers, and don't feel they scare the fish away.

They told me they'd been down the day before and seen only three doggies.

I asked them about trigger fish, and they said there had been a small resident shoat at the point, but a Chinese guy had come down and caught the lot for the pot.

When they returned after half an hour, my catch bag was still dry.

But they had been collecting up some of the vast mountain of lost gear, and tipped out a bagful of weights which they then gave to me. Most were rubbish, but will still be useful melted down for plaice leads (even if the EU eventually gets round to banning all lead fishing weights!).

They also gave me a decent-sized edible crab which was trussed up like a Christmas turkey with discarded line.

I felt really sorry for the helpless little feller, and spent the next 20 minutes cutting him free.

Back he went into the tide, hopefully to survive and prosper.

2008 wasn't a bad year for me. I had limits from the bank every trip at Siblyback, except for the last one of the season after stocking had ended, when I had four.

I really enjoyed catching a 2-9 sea-trout from the Tavy on my pal Bob's rod, and plan to do some river fishing in 2009.

While reef-fishing for cod and pollack, I had several nice bass and my first-ever John Dory.

Although the plaice-fishing was disappointing size-wise (best only about 2-8), we had quite a few fish and made some progress with new baits and rigs, with more new ideas to try in 2009 (eg frozen mussels)

I had a go at fly-fishing for carp, and while it threw up more questions than answers, it was fun.

But the highlight of my fishing year was catching dozens and dozens of cod while reefing, though 9lb was about the best.

With my fishing buddy AW threatening to go off and live in Lyme Regis, I have mixed feelings about the new 60 square-mile no-trawling zone off the Dorset coast.

I just wish they'd do the same for the Skerries, and give anglers around the UK a net-free Golden Mile with no commercial fishing of any kind within a mile of the shore-line.

Then we could all look forward to a bumper 2009....

Tight Lines! GRAHAM

PS I was interested to see a certain supermarket in Barnstaple going over to line-caught cod in its cafe, while selling tiny 'wild sea bass from the NE Atlantic' on its wet fish counter. All I know is that if I took one-pound schoolies for the pot, I'd be prosecuted...GB

Floundering

2008-12-04T04:40:00.001-08:00

Dear Fellow-fishers, Blanks happen to us all but it's interesting to try and analyse what went wrong.

Last Saturday, November 29, I returned to my favourite flounder spot where the previous trip I had 15 tiny bass and two takeable ones (returned).

This time, I had two rattly bites and missed both of them. The crabs were a real pest, even though I was using floating beads on one of the snoods of my two-hook paternoster. The two guys 100 yards up from me were fishing two rods each with flounder floats, which at least kept the crabs at bay, but they never had a bite. I put it down to the cold wind and gin-clear water, but on our trudge back to the car, we passed a group of guys who had caught five flounders to 1.75lb between them using flounder floats.

To be honest, flounder don't give the greatest fight and aren't very good to eat from a muddy estuary, but they can provide some sport in the winter.

But feeding crabs your hard-dig worms while going flounder-less two trips in a row isn't much fun.

Still, I hate to be beaten, so I'll probably have another go this weekend, but in the Plym this time. Not only is it a lot closer to home, but Kingsbridge is staging a competition - and I hate crowds! It will be interesting to see what is caught.

Meanwhile, I hear there are decent whiting in the Tamar, and where the whiting go, the cod won't be far behind....

Tight lines! GRAHAM

Bass Hunter

2008-11-19T02:12:00.001-08:00

Dear Fellow Anglers,

Jiminy Cricket's famous advice to Pinocchio was: "Always let your conscience be your guide."

But it was the other way round when my fishing buddy AW accompanied me on last weekend's first flounder trip of the year to the Kingsbridge estuary.

After a pleasant hour digging maddies - harbour rag - in the drizzle, we squelched round to my favourite flounder spot and set up.

I was using two rods with three-hook flappers on each, and double-patting - having a trace baited up and ready to clip on.

The reason was that it was a big tide, and I knew I'd have two hours at most before we were forced to retreat or be cut off.

The idea was to have the six hooks straddling the channel, so any flounder following the tide in would surely be bound to see a bait.

But I had just one flounder-ish bite and missed it.

It was far from a blank day, though.

As the tide turned, I began to get rattling bites that turned out to be school bass.

While 15 were of the size John West rejected, two were around 2.5lb and in great condition.

As my hand strayed towards the priest, AW informed me that it was entirely up to me, but if it was up to him they'd go back and nobody would kill any bass for the next five years.

Both fish sped off after gentle unhooking as I reflected: "Always let your guide be your conscience."

As they say in the States: 10 out of 10 fish vote for catch and release... GRAHAM

Old dog, new tricks

2008-11-12T07:23:00.000-08:00

Dear Fellow Anglers, I've been fishing for nearly 50 years, but one of the joys is that I'm still learning on every trip - sometimes from relative beginners.

One guy showed me how to fish for carp with cat meat - Kit-E-Kat meaty chunks in gravy. You use a baiting needle with a hooked end, push it through the chunk, loop the hooked end onto the bend of your barbless hook and pull the hook right through the chunk. You then turn the hook 90 degrees and pull it back into the chunk. For pole-fishing I don't bother, but for casting out you can use a little v-shaped plastic stop in the bend of the hook to stop the hook pulling through the bait. Carp absolutely love it, and of course the hook is completely hidden inside the bait, yet pulls clear easily on the strike since the bait is so soft. One tin of cat food lasts all day, though you need to feed with something else.

My latest trip to Bake Lakes saw me fishing Flamingo Lake in horrible conditions, with a cold, rough wind. I headed for peg 6 at the sheltered end, but bites just weren't coming till I talked to a Liverpudlian angler who was catching carp regularly on soft pellets fished close in. He told me I needed to fish in the wind, and suggested I try peg 14, on the opposite side.

I moved all my kit, chucked in some hemp and some sweetened betaine green pellets and it was every time a coconut. In three hours I had about 20 carp to five or six pounds and one tench, and had trouble hauling out the keepnet.

For the record, I fished a 6.7-metre margin pole down the side in about 6ft of water, used a .15mm hooklength and a #10 Preston Innovations hook and loose-fed after each fish or missed bite.

Thanks, guys!

The weather looks settled this weekend, so it's either a trip in my boat to see if any plaice are still about or a flounder expedition to the Kingsbridge estuary. Variety is the spice of life....

Happy fishing! GB

Cod, and the race against trawlers

2008-10-24T02:04:00.001-07:00

Dear Fellow-fishers, I hope that like me you've had a few cod this year. Everyone is predicting a good winter, with netters severely restricted on the amount they can land.

Maybe.

The trip before last, my pal and I boated 19, though the best was only 9lb and 12 were codling under 3lb and went back.

On our last trip, we went back to the same ground and couldn't find any. By the end of the session, we had three: two tiddlers and one about 7lb, all from rough ground.

But as we were leaving, a large trawler appeared and started fishing the clean ground where we've had most of our cod this summer. Mystery solved!

Why can't we have a no commercial fishing zone like Lyme Bay? The Skerries would be a great place to start.

Howver, our trip was memorable for other reasons.

Fishing a killer rig of a pirk with two droppers above, one drop yielded a 4lb bass on the top hook, another around 3lb beneath it and a codling on the pirk.

I also caught my first-ever John Dory, which was destined forn the pot until I had a good look at it as I was unhooking it. I couldn't bear to kill such a beautiful creature and was thrilled to see it swim away.

We had a few decent pollack, a big whiting and a couple of modest ling before takes dried up and we headed inshore for some plaice.

There AW turned the tables on me, taking six plaice to my one dab - a bit galling since I taught him to plaice-fish.

However, I have worked out what's going on and he's better watch out next season!

With his boat coming out for the winter next week, we are hoping against hope for one more trip.

That's if the trawlers haven't beaten us to it....

Tight lines! GRAHAM

Summer's gone

2008-10-02T09:54:00.000-07:00

Dear Fellow Fishers, Where did summer go? It's October, my pal's boat comes out of the water at the end of the month and we are looking at a long winter of little boat fishing.
So it was good that we made the most of reasonable conditions last weekend and set off on what could be our last plaice trip of the year.
Despite hitting patches of dogfish and being pestered by wrasse whenever we ventured too near a rock, we nailed 16 plaice, of which we kept 11, and two dabs, keeping one. The biggest dab was a beauty around a pound, but the plaice were all about 1.5lb, fine, fat fish but becoming a bit roed-up.
AW fished with ragworm tipped with squid and I had the same but with a lugworm up the shank. It didn't make a lot of difference, but I like the combination of movement and smell that this cocktail gives.
This weekend looks like being wet and windy, and we'll probably head for Siblyback on Sunday for what could be our last trip of the season there.
But hopefully we'll catch a few more cod and pollack from AW's boat before the end of the month.
At the start of the year, I bought some prawn traps, planning to stock up before winter, but I still haven't got round to it.
This year I plan to try garfish sections for bass, having heard it's a good bait.
I expect to spend the winter doing a bit of coarse fishing, trying the Tamar for cod and late bass, maybe trouting in still waters on mild days. And my sailing boat, Safran, is staying in through the winter, so we might venture beyond the breakwater on calm days.
But already I'm looking forward to next spring, and the first sea-trout of 2009.

The value of local knowledge

2008-09-08T06:30:00.001-07:00

Dear Fellow-fishers, It's a month since my last blog, but I'm happy to report some success since my baby bass from North Cornwall.

One trip to Siblyback proved the value of local knowledge and being able to cast into a headwind. I arrived to find the wind in the west blowing in gusts straight across the lake from the far bank. I was planning to fish the North Shore, back-casting, but there have been fish by the windsurf hut all season and I just had to have a go. To cut a long story short, using a lure on a fast sinker and casting 20 yards between the gusts, I mopped up a fine limit of 15lb 8oz in no time flat and was able to nip up the road to Trago.

In the good old days, you never knew what you'd find there, because wily old Mike Robertson would buy up bankrupt tackle-shop stocks and I've had some real bargains that way. Even so, a pirk sold at Trago for £3.99 was on sale in a Plymouth tackle shop for £6.20, so if you're passing the door...

My most memorable fish of the past month was a 2lb 9oz sea trout from the Tavy. Bob Mountjoy, whose book The Sea Trout Diaries I mentioned in a previous blog, has taken me under his wing, and I've twice gone along as his guest on the Tavy and Walkham.

The first trip was in pouring rain, and a howling gale which passed over us deep in the Tavy valley had sent down flotillas of leaves. Bob's aim was to show me some sea trout, and his tiny 3cm rainbow trout rapala brought several up for a look. Eventually he landed a nice silver peal of about a pound and handed me the rod to have a go. My casting was pretty good, but embarrassingly I lost the plug up a tree and had to put on a different one, a 5cm countdown in brown trout colours. Just as the plug wobbled down into a deep run under my bank, there was a huge bang and a sea trout was on. After an exciting fight in fast water, in she came. So now I'm hooked and definitely aiming to fish the Plym, Tavy and Walkham next year.

Bob and I enjoyed another short trip, but repair works at Ward Bridge sent some nasty colour down and turned the Tavy right off. We walked up the Walkham, where I fished the fly with non result except a tiny brownie but Bob caught a nice little peal on a rapala from a deep pot.

On the sea fishing front, I've just had my best plaice of the year at 2lb 8oz out from Salcombe and my first Plymouth plaice of the year (returned) at around 12oz! They are coming into fantastic condition now, and we are hoping for a decent autumn run as the fish work their way back west towards their late-winter spawning grounds.

Further out to sea (though I'm not saying where for obvious reasons - let's say a reef not a million miles from Plymouth) AW and I have been picking up codling, the best so far 9lbs. A lot of the fish are in the 2-3lb class and will be decent fish by next year, if the trawlers and netters don't get them and we all do our bit by putting them back. Our best day was 18, of which we kept just eight from 4-9lbs, so our consciences are clear.

I hope you are having good catches too and doing your best for conservation. Tight lines! GRAHAM

~end

North Cornwall Estuary

2008-08-07T05:17:00.001-07:00

Dear Fellow-fishers, I expect you, like me, are looking forward to summer arriving!
Saturday's eagerly-awaited reef trip was blown out, so AW and I headed for a North Cornwall estuary where we have enjoyed good sport with spinner and fly-rod in previous autumns. It's fishable only for around three hours over low water on a fairly big tide, and our hearts sank as we approached to see a) the sun come out and b) lots of weed being stranded by the ebbing tide. We don't like bright conditions for bass, nor the hordes of holidaymakers - though it seems a bit churlish to complain about emmets in August!
Anyway, we paddled out and I soon had a take on a two-inch clear plastic sandeel with silver sparkles in it, fished off my 10-weight fly rod. Yes, it was my first bass of the year, but a little smaller than the mackerel AW caught soon after on a Yann spinner. As the tide started to flood, I switched to spinner too, taking a mackerel an inch smaller than AW's. And that was that.
I enjoyed a cooler walk back, having wet-waded in flats boots (happy memories of baby tarpon in Tobago), but it was a disappointing trip. We saw no sandeels, except one small one washed up dead, and probably won't return till October. But fly-fishing in the sea is fun, and I'm sure I'll try it again between now and then, maybe at Slapton on a north-west wind.
Bass have been conspicuous by their absence for us so far, and while we haven't really gone after them, we usually pick up a few while reefing for pollack - but not this year.
Perhaps with all this rain I should be investing in a salmon licence and rejoin a game-fishing club? With my luck, that would ensure a immediate drought...
Tight lines and happy fishing! GRAHAM

The hunt for giltheads

2008-07-11T14:01:00.000-07:00

Dear Fellow Fishers, I was excited when I opened my latest copy of Sea Angler to see a pic of St Budeaux angler Paul Fenn with a super 4lb 9oz gilt head bream supposedly caught in Plymouth. I live gilthead, but have caught only two, both near Falmouth, so intrigued by having some on my doorstep, I spent some hours poring over maps and studying the photo for clues about where he caught it. I've fished around Plymouth for years, and the only place that looked a bit like it was Millbrook Creek. On my way back from a spot of carp fishing at Bake Lakes, I stopped off at Millbrook, but it clearly wasn't the right spot. The more I looked at the photo, the more it looked like the Kingsbridge estaury to me. So being a cheeky so-and-so, I phoned him up and asked him. Turns out he filled in the 'location' part of the catch form with "local estuary", which Sea Angler interpreted as Plymouth. Sadly, my guess was right, but Paul did tell me some large giltheads have been taken inside the Sound - mostly by spearfishermen. Paul's specimen was sportingly returned and lived to fight another day, so good for him. Meanwhile, I'm trying to work out where giltheads could be in the sprawling Tamar system. I know they like brackish water, mud, rocks and oyster beds, so I'm planning a trip or two to the Lynher, which has all these features. I'll let you know how I got on - if not exactly where! Meanwhile, many thanks to Paul, who is currently chasing smoothounds and small-eyed rays, and who tells me another interesting and hard-fighting species, the triggerfish, is now well-established in the Tamar system.
As for the carp fishing, Clive's Tackle and Bait finally got in a stock of Enterprise Baits floating dog biscuits, so I set off for Bake with an old fly rod and some 6lb fluorocarbon. Despite the fact that the artificial is counterweighted with a non-toxic shot and the hook is out of sight on top of the biscuit, I had hundreds of rejections. Very exciting but rather frustrating! I did try degreasing the leader, but it still seemed to spook them. Two of my three fish came when I dibbled the bait under the rod tip with the line held clear of the water. This is a problem to solve, and possible solutions include fishing with a pole and short line, with the line held off the water (OK if the carp are not huge), sinking the leader with a dust shot, using a natural biscuit soaked so the hook can be partly buried in it, burying the hook in a piece of crust (no good where there are hordes of rudd, as they rip it to bits like piranhas) and using artificial bread hooked on the top side. I'll let you know the results.
It turns out that Paul, who sounds much more expert than I am, reads my blogs, and it's nice to know that someone does! Replies and tips are always welcome; email me at gbroach@theplymouthherald.co.uk. I promise not to give away your secret marks/ baits/ tactics. Tight lines! GRAHAM

Fly-tying or Mary Poppins

2008-07-07T06:16:00.001-07:00

Dear Fellow Fishers, You know how it is: you're busting to go fishing, but it's blowing a gale, pouring with rain and there's a huge spring tide, so what do you do? Staying at home and tying flies and rigs seemed a bit tame, boat fishing was out of the question, and I didn't fancy the Tamar. I thought about Bake Lakes, but hate fishing under a brolly (anyway, with the wind on Saturday, I'd probably have done a Mary Poppins and ended up draped over a power line).

So in the end, I did what any maniac would do - I went fly-fishing at Siblyback.

Piling into a typical summer outfit of thick sweatshirt, fleece, scarf and waterproof wading jacket over neoprene chest waders, I cowered in the ticket hut watching the rain lashing down and the ducks flying backwards. My mood wasn't improved by discovering on tackling up that I had lost an intermediate ring from my floating line rod (single-leg SIC at £5 a time). I'd noticed it was loose the previous trip, but had forgotten to re-whip it.

However, I cheered up a bit by catching a decent but cormorant-marked fish first cast by the windsurf hut on the floater and a team of two. The fly was a wire-bodied Barden Buzzer - if you want the dressing, email me at gbroach@theplymouthherald.co.uk and I'll share it with you.

But the spot yielded just one more tentative take, so I moved down to Two Meadows, where I had a follow and a second fish.

By now, I was luring with a fast-sink line, but it was hellishly tough casting in the shrieking wind, wading up to my nether regions and being battered by pounding surf.

After a while, I retreated to Stockie Bay, where I had a third fish casting across the wind.

I completed my limit with three more fish from the bay, casting miles with a more-or-less following wind. All were grown-on fish, the best 2-12; I believe most of the stockies are out in the middle.

The following day, my back was as stiff as a board, but one benefit in fishing in such appalling conditions - apart from the satisfaction of having beaten them - is that I have a casting arm like Rafa Nadal's!

Now I'm hoping for some calm weather so I can get out to sea for some nice relaxing plaice fishing.

Tight lines to all of us and to hell with beam trawlers! GRAHAM

Unexpected ling

2008-07-03T02:00:00.001-07:00

Dear Fellow-fishers, Since my latest blog, I've fitted in two trout trips and two boat trips, with varying degrees of success.

The first trip saw my pal and I return with a nice box of reef pollack plus two unexpected ling, one about 15 pounds and one about 11, both of which fell to unbaited pirks worked over rough ground. Since switching to assist rigs, I haven't lost a single pirk through snagging, and they seem to hook fish pretty well. My pal AW uses heavy braid stiffened with shrink tubing for the links (similar to the VMC ones sold with Williamson speed jigs), but my link is simply two heavy-duty stainless steel Dexter split rings, one either end of a 150lb chrome crane swivel. One split ring goes onto the hook (a shortshank up-eyed 8/0 VMC with an incurved point from UK Hooks) and the other to the loop at the top of the pirk. The idea is that toothy fish like ling can't bite through or abrade the link, and if they spin, the swivel stops the hook from levering out. Try it - but use quality components, because the smaller of our ling very nearly straightened out an ordinary plated split-ring.

When we can't go to sea due to high winds, we usually end up trouting at Siblyback, which means we only ever see the lake when it's covered in surf!

Our first recent trip saw us encounter local expert Roger, who lives nearby, is a season ticket holder and fishes Siblyback several times a week. He catches hundreds of fish a season, only ever fishing a floating line, but puts almost all of them back. I said to him I expected the fish to be stacked up along Two Meadows on a southerly wind, but he just raised an eyebrow and said: "You think so?"

He explained that in recent weeks, most of the fish had been out in the deep water in the middle of the lake, feeding on buzzers.

We started out at our 'banker' spot, the windsurf hut, pulling out one each on heavyweight Barden Buzzers fished across the wind, until the watersports learners arrived.

Then we set out for the far reaches of Two Meadows, where finding the fish proved hard work. I finished with six for 13lb, mostly on lures battered out to maximum range, and had most of my fish on the first couple of pulls, so they were holding further out. AW also finished with four, but persisted too long with the floater because he hates luring.

He tells me I am banned for life from the Chalkstream Society...

My most recent trip saw me, fishing solo, take six fish for 13-4, all but one from the North Shore and all on lures.

The wind was from the west, and I had to back-cast, a very useful skill for reservoir fishing. I believe in fishing where the fish are, not where casting is comfortable.

Roger was prospecting for fish for the following day's floating line-only contest, but couldn't find any concentration of stockies.

He suspected they were on the Two Meadows shore, but couldn't cast into the teeth of the near-gale with his WF floater.

Once I had five in the bag, including a lovely grown-on fish of 2-12 which jumped and jumped against the sunk line, I reeled in and retreated to Two Meadows.

Casting diagonally across the wind was easy with a heavy sinking shooting head, and I had a fish third cast, though it was my smallest of the day and cormorant-marked.

My final trip was to my secret plaice mark in Plymouth Sound, but it was really much too windy and the drift wasn't right.

I had one definite plaice bite, held on instead of giving line and missed it. Being waterlicked really hurt, and I plan to take my revenge in calmer conditions.

With rough weather forceast for Saturday, I am hoping to winkle out a bass or two, but will the huge spring tide foil my efforts?

Till my next blog, Tight Lines and please reply if you fancy a chat! GRAHAM

Drop or hold

2008-06-12T23:47:00.000-07:00

Dear Fellow Fishers, I think I've found the answer to a perennial plaice-fishing problem: to give line or hold on when you get a bite.

Almost all my plaice fishing is done from a drifting boat with a baited spoon.

What I've taken to doing is sitting holding the rod (a discontinued Shimano light baitcaster with a trigger grip) with my thumb on the small multiplier reel and the lead fishing just off bottom. A bite usually registers as a light tap, and I respond by lifting my thumb to allow the bait to fall to the bottom. I then pay out line for a few seconds, tighten up and feel for the fish.

But recently I'm not sure if this is always the best plan.

I've come to the conclusion that if the drift is much over half a knot (measured on the GPS), giving line is the thing to do, because the plaice has to swim hard to keep up with the bait at speed.

But on slower drifts, it seems to pay to hold on and wait for the fish to hook itself, because the movement forces the fish to commit.

I may be wrong, but that's what I think.

Of course, you can't easily do this with two rods, but I only fish like that when I'm on my own.

Incidentally, we now believe that the optimum drift speed is one knot, either with or across the tidal flow.

Recently, AW and I enjoyed a trip to the Skerries, where for a change I caught more plaice that he did (4 to his 3) and had the biggest (though it was under 2lbs).

Even though it was a small tide, we still drifted too fast much of the time, and snagged up whenever we tried deeper water.

I've since heard tales of skippers dumping old fridges and cookers on the banks in an effort to deter the trawlers, but one was working all the time we were there.

With all that sea to fish in, couldn't they leave some inshore waters for small-boat anglers like us?

Back to the Golden Mile proposals again....

Happy fishing! GRAHAM

Blog blag

2008-06-12T06:56:00.001-07:00

Dear Fellow-fishers, I don't get many replies to my blogs, so writing them is rather like talking aloud to yourself and not being sure if anyone is listening.

But I had a very pleasant surprise this week when I found a package on my desk. Inside was a copy of a book, 'The Sea Trout Diaries' by local author RW Mountjoy.

It's beautiful volume, published in Crapstone and printed in Plymouth, with lavish line-drawings by the author and a host of black-and-white photographs. Although I have had only a chance to skim through it, it looks a fascinating read, and I've already learned a lot from it.

RW (I'm sorry, I don't know his first name) says he and his friends discuss my blogs and analyse them when they meet up midweek to enjoy a drink and catch up on fishing news. So although I'm not much of a peal ace, I'll go into a bit more detail with my reports now I know there's somebody out there. If you'd like to get in touch, RW, I'd be delighted to fish with you some time, or just come along and watch an expert at work. And I'll be pleased to review your book thoroughly in a future blog.

Meanwhile I've just had a few days off and managed to squeeze in three very different fishing trips.

I'll draw a veil over the first except to say that five small perch have left their lake where I didn't have permission to fish and are now growing fat on carp-fry in a nearby overstocked lake. Interestingly, although the Environment Agency rightly bans unauthorised movement of fish, Nature seems to do it better, as the perch were never stocked in the original venue and must have got there via the 'sticky eggs on water birds' legs' route. Unless some naughty angler put them there...

It seems crazy to me to have lakes full of coarse fish which breed like mad with no predators to thin them out, and perch are the perfect predators, being great sport fish in their own right and eating only the tidders up to a few ounces.

My second trip was out from Salcombe with my friend AW to a mark we call Five Mile Reef. In the past, we have caught some serious cod and bass there, as well as lots of pollack, but to fish its best it needs big shoals of baitfish such as sprats or herring to arrive and stay. That hasn't happened for a few years now, though there are plenty of sandeels, launce and sometimes mackerel. On our trip, we shared the reef with a pod of porpoises, which echantingly swam alongside us and even under the boat.

AW hates the things, as he thinks they frighten the fish, but I'd happily watch them all day. They seemed to be feeding shallow on mackerel, and didn't bother us at all.

We didn't find any bass, but we did have three cod, two about 2lbs which went back and one about 4lb to my rod which didn't. We also caught loads of fat, fighting-fit pollack between 2 and 5 pounds, with the best maybe touching 6.

Although we experimented with speed jigs, I think these work best when the fish are up in the water herding up baitfish. Instead, we used a killer rig: a pirk on the end with two jelly lures on droppers above. I used to use a soft treble on the bottom of the pirk, the idea being that with 30lb braid, the hook would bend out if I snagged the bottom. But it's scary playing a big fish on a soft hook, and the treble used to foul-hook too many launce for my liking. I now use an assist hook on a short link on the top of the pirk, which snags fewer launce, doesn't grab the bottom much and hooks fish well enough. Incidentally, I like to bang the pirk on the bottom at the end of each drop, and I'm convinced that the disturbance attracts fish, especially cod. I've used all sorts of pirks, but one cheap one shaped like an elongated bomb, made of lead and painted blue and white has proved as good as any.

I think it is important for the pirk to work straight up and down as far as possible, so if I find it's streaming away from the boat, I put on a heavier one. The droppers need to be about three feet above the pirk and three or four feet above that, and the simplest way to make them is by trapping a small 40lb swivel between two small beads and two double wind-knots or crimps about an inch apart. Tie a length of 50-70lb clear mono to the swivel and tie your jelly to that. The dropper wants to be 6" to 12" long, no more or it will tangle. Heavy mono doesn't put the fish off and reduces tangles. Also, cod have a habit of biting through light trace line! I use strong 6/0 Mustad hooks with two baitholder barbs, which I used to buy in Trago in boxes of 25.

And I use heavy 70lb line for the trace to withstand the strain of two or even three good fish all crash-diving in different directions. One memorable day I caught two decent bass and a good pollack on a single drop, so it can happen!

The lures I use are imported from America, and are called Slug-Gos. They are made by Lunker City and are cheap as chips in the States, so when I was last there I stocked up. They are 6" long and my favourite colours are black with silver glitter and black with gold glitter.They look most unlikely sitting on the palm of your hand, just a long black plastic slug with no tail vane or anything to give it a sandeel-like action. But lower them into the water and they look so good I could eat 'em myself. Rok Max used to import them, but I don't know where else in the UK you can get them now.

My final trip of the wek was a bit of an anti-climax. I was itching to go plaice fishing, even though the forecast was a bit iffy. To cut a long story sideways, we had a very strong wind against tide all day, my experimental rigs didn't work and AW caught three plaice to my none, only a wrasse saving me from a waterlicking. However, my own boat, Safran, is now back in commission, and I can't wait to revisit my secret plaice mark in Plymouth Sound, which I haven't fished yet this year.

Anyway, I hope this has given you all something to think about, and any replies are very welcome.

RW, I hope to hear from you soon. Tight lines! GRAHAM

Two trips to Siblback and a lightning session for Tench

2008-05-20T11:03:00.000-07:00

Dear Fellow Fishers, Since my last blog, I've enjoyed two trips to Siblyback and a lightning session for tench at Bake Lakes.The Siblyback visits both involved fishing with easterly winds, which are not my favourite. On the first, we set off to fish the North Shore in a left-to-right wind, but didn't get far. As we passed the windsurf hut at the start of Two Meadows, we spotted two rises in the calm water, and figured we just had to have a chuck. To cut a long story short, we both bagged up fishing either side of the hut, with the wind coming almost over the left shoulder. I fished with a foam strike indicator at the top of my braided leader and a team of three flies. The ones which did most damage were a skinny size 12 Daiwl Bach on the middle dropper and a size 10 Barden Buzzer on the point. I also returned a pretty little brownie on a small black spider fished on the bob. The technique was to chuck across the wind and let then team run round on a tight line, with no retrieve at all. Sometimes the indicator slid away, sometimes everything just went tight. A lovely way of fishing and my sinking line never got wet. It was just as well we made an early start, as hordes of children appeared around 10am and started splashing around on windsurfers and in canoes, bless 'em. The next trip saw us try the same area with a similar result, though conditions were brighter and the fish switched off sooner. But we completed our limits by heading for Stockie Bay and long casting with sinking lines and orange lures. AW had the heaviest of the day at 5lbs, but my most memorable fish was a Stockie Bay two and a half-pounder which jumped repeatedly and tore off loads of line. It had obviously been in the lake a while, and had slimmed down to a bar of silver muscle. Last Sunday (May 18) involved a trip to Trago's carpet department (surely Hell on earth?), with a short trip to Bake promised as an inducement on the way back. Fishing the pole and cat meat, I had four modest tench and lost a beauty when it fouled some lost line. It's nice to catch your target species and to see the yellow elastic streaming out of the tip of the pole as a fish tears off. Landing them was easier too, with the aid of an extra-long landing-net handle. Trago's fishing department is handily next to the carpet department.... But the plaice are calling, and next weekend I hope to be out drifting around out of Salcombe in search of the tasty flatties. Hope your fishing is good too. Tight Lines! GRAHAM

More to fishing than catching fish

2008-04-14T11:03:00.000-07:00

Dear Fellow Fishers, When I was younger, I thought people who said things like "There's more to fishing than catching fish" were sad losers who never caught much anyway.But my latest trip with my dear pal AW has made me think again. After five hours of maximum effort, our total score was two small plaice, which we put back. In the same time, I could have gone to a commercial coarse fishery and filled a keepnet with carp, tench and bream, getting a bite a chuck, and great fun it would have been too. And yet.... there's nothing like the glorious uncertainty of fishing in the big wide sea for truly wild fish which wouldn't know a boilie from a bag of chips. A horribly early start following a late shift the night before saw me arrive at our Ivybridge rendezvous at 5.30am, ready to car-share to East Portlemouth. New rigs were ready, lugworms bought and ragworms dug by me the previous day. As we pulled out of South Pool Creek at 6.30am, we were in a state of high anticipation. The first plaice trip of the year - what sort of season would it be? But as time ticked by, we realised it was going to be a tough day. AW caught the first of 2008, a plump little plaice of about a pound which was neatly lip-hooked and went straight back. We were both struggling for bites, and when I finally got one, I dropped line, paid out slack and eventually tightened up to feel the fish knocking away merrily on the end. A confident strike brought..... nothing, as my bait came back minus the tail of the worm. We had to pack up at 12.30pm to get back on the mooring, and by 12.29 I still hadn't had a fish. AW pulled in and was tidying the boat while I was still crouched over the rod like an arthritic heron, willing a bite to happen. Then it came, a faint double knock, and I dropped line instantly. An agonising wait, I tightened up and felt the fish still there. In it flapped the same size as AW's and honour was satisfied. All that effort for two undersized plaice, and yet that hard-earned fish meant more to me than a netful of tame carp. Back we steamed, revelling in the sunshine, the clear South Devon light, the eternal beauty of the Salcombe estuary. Perhaps next time we'll catch one big enough to take home... Tight lines! GRAHAM

The variety of fly fishing

2008-04-02T11:02:00.000-07:00

Dear Fellow Fishers, The thing I love about fly-fishing is its variety.One day, what's required is fine leaders, accurate casting and delicate presentation. The next, you're hammering out a sinking shooting head into a howling gale. Calm weather usually sees me sea-fishing in my own boat, Safran, out from Plymouth or my buddy AW's boat, Joanna, out from East Portlemouth. So most of my fly-fishing these days is done on windy weather when we can't go afloat. Our first trip to Siblyback this year was on Saturday, March 29, and we were pretty pleased to arrive at 7am to find a strong southerly wind blowing straight down the lake. We headed straight for the lower half of Two Meadows and paddled out to fish across the left-to-right wind. Both of us used floating lines, with AW using a beadhead nymph as an anchor fly on point with a heavy #10 Bibio three feet above. He got the first fish, while I missed a pull on a similar combination of a leaded Montana and an Invicta. After about 20 minutes of no more takes, I switched to a #10 sinking shooting head and my favourite Yellow Hasher lure, and after a while he had four fish, all on the Bibio, and I'd had three and dropped three, all on the Hasher. But the wind got stronger and stronger and was joined by torrential rain, and I found myself thigh-deep in foaming surf, lashed by huge raindrops and battling to batter the line out. As I always sing loudly when I fish, I must have looked like a lunatic, and perhaps I am.... A move back to the top of Two Meadows got me my fourth fish, a beauty of around 2.5lb. Then AW announced he was off to fish the top of the wind in Stocky Bay, while I elected to fish back down Two Meadows again. Eventually I got back to the car, not having had so much as a pull, and AW appeared looking smug, having completed his limit in Stocky Bay. But being a good sport as well as a great pal, he agreed to leave his fish and gear in the car and accompany me back to Stocky Bay and show me where he had caught. We trudged back to his spot, where I had a follow and dropped a fourth fish. The fly had been experimentally tied on a different brand of hook from my usual Kamasan, so it was promptly cut off the leader and consigned to the deep. On went an identical fly on a Kamasan and out came two more fish to complete my limit of six rainbows for 11.5lb. I was whacked and wet through, but sometimes the tough days are the most satisfying, aren't they? Now we're looking forward to AW's boat going back in the water and seeing if the trawlers have left us any cod... Tight Lines! GRAHAM

What happens when you get snagged while pole fishing with a strong line

2008-02-25T11:01:00.000-08:00

Dear Fellow Fishers, I've just found out the hard way what happens when you get snagged while pole-fishing with strong line and have to pull for a break.The Stonfo - the little plastic connector between the elastic and the mono at the tip of the pole - snaps in two and catapults back into your hand at 200mph. Ouch! I was fishing at Bake Lakes on Saturday, and decided to try Snag Alley, a narrow strip of water behind Luxor Lake full of old trees and branches. I'd extracted nine carp up to 3.5lb and a tench (mostly little carp of under 1lb), when I snagged on the bottom and found out just how strong #14 elastic is. I managed to use my carp gear to retrieve the lost rig, complete with straightened hook, and then decided to switch to the main lake and put out a couple of carp rods with bolt rigs and sweetened boilies. When nothing happened for a while, I left the rods fishing, set up the pole rig again and enjoyed a very entertaining day pulling out around 60 fish. Most were carp between a few ounces and 2lb, but I also had 5 tench, a rudd and around a dozen bream. I fished with bloodworm flavour pellets (see previous blog) alternated with lumps of cheapo catmeat chunks in gravy from Aldi, which carp seem to love. However, it does come off easily, and I am working on making it into a paste with trout pellet powder for my next trip. The boilies produced just two carp, one around 2lb and the other 5-12, my best fish of the day. The bigger fish seemed to be off the feed, though one guy had several between 7lb and 9lb fishing on the surface with dog biscuits - in February! I'm enjoying the coarse fishing, but am really looking forward to Siblyback opening and having a shot at Burrator - and of course the first plaice of the season. It's great to be an all-rounder, and have different species to fish for 12 months of the year. Have fun and tight lines! Graham

I've given up using fishing reels

2008-02-21T11:00:00.000-08:00

Dear Fellow-fishers, I've given up using fishing reels! Or so it seems after my last two trips to Bake Lakes at Trerulefoot.Fed up with chucking expensive bait into the Hamoaze for little reward, I've been coarse fishing lately - with poles. In the days before global warming, fishing shallow lakes in the dead of winter would have been a waste of time, with the fish lethargic, hibernating or inaccessible under ice. Now you can fish in a fleece on many days, and a combination of feeding, fishing activity and sunshine seems to stir up even the carp and tench. My first trip was to Bake's Treasure Island lake, which I had to myself for the whole 6.5-hour session. I was using a couple of pints of maggots left over from the previous trip, and which had obligingly turned into casters. I fished with a four-metre elasticated whip in about three feet of water, and had literally a bite a drop all day. Most of the fish were roach and rudd, but I also had a gudgeon (which seem to prefer maggot), a tench, several skimmers, two roach-bream hybrids and several modest carp. Later, I switched to hookable pellet in a bid to keep the small fry at bay, and had some better fish, including a decent carp which shot off up the lake and fell off before I could gallop after it. At the end of the day, I had trouble hauling the net out of the water, and reckon I had about half a hundredweight, made up of 150-plus fish. The elasticated whip is a great system, because you can swing anything under three or four ounces straight to hand, while the elastic - I used #6 - is there if you hook anything bigger. For my most recent trip last Thursday (February 14), I started off on Flamingo Lake with a closed-face fixed-spool and a waggler, using hookable pellets, but after pole-fishing didn't feel I was in full control of the float and missed a lot of bites. After three carp to 4lb and a little bream, I switched to Luxor and my seven-metre margin pole, rigged up with light elastic. I had a great time, catching carp of all sizes, feeding with 6mm Swim Stim betaine green pellets and fishing a pellet over the top on a #14 hook and 3lb 6oz breaking strain line. I hardly lost a fish, wasn't broken once, and landed carp of 11lb 4oz and an estimated 7lb among a bag of 'pasty' carp and two-pounders. I also had a lovely tench of about a pound which nipped around a bit. The first time I fished the pole, I found it very cumbersome, but now I love the control it gives, how it lets you fish a sensitive float and how easy it is to lift into a fish. I've found that by putting a rod-rest several feet out into the water, it can take the weight of the pole while I'm feeding or just having a breather. The pellets I used were Mainline bloodworm flavour, which fish seem to love and which stay on the hook really well, having a slightly rubbery texture. They cost ?2.99 a tub, but the only place I've found which sells them is Exeter Angling Centre. I also used cat food (chunks in gravy), which is put onto the hook with a hook-ended needle and stays on well if you don't try to cast it. I hate fishing in crowds, but by the time summer comes I'll have abandoned the hordes at the lake and hopefully be out in the boat catching plaice - with a reel of course! <>Tight lines! Graham

Introductions

2007-04-12T02:53:00.000-07:00

Hello fellow anglers! I do all kinds of fishing, so I hope you'll find something of interest in my blogs and will write back with your own ideas and news.

My fishing year started on January 1 with a thornback ray on a pulley pennell rig and three frozen prawns at Devil's Point. It was about 3lb and I put it back. I've had one more there since, but failed to find any codling in the Tamar this winter. I've seen a few caught on peeler crab by people who have their own traps. Anyone interested in selling me a tenner's worth of fresh peelers every week?

I'm planning to use prawns a lot this year, and have bought some collapsible traps from Seaview (two for a tenner). The new shop at Faraday Mill is now open and Andy is very pleased with it. It reminds me a bit of Weymouth Angling Centre. Previously, I've used live prawns only for bass, floatfishing along the Hoe foreshore. They certainly work, but little pollack and wrasse are a pest, aren't they?

I'm hoping to locate some gilthead bream up the river and in the Sound this year. The only ones I have had previously were in the Percuil River in Cornwall, and they fought and ate really well. I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has caught giltheads in the Tamar.

Occasionally I get out in a charter boat, though I have been unlucky with the weather. I got out with Malc Jones in Sea Angler II a few weeks ago and had three pollack, best two about 12lb, all on 5-inch Storm realistic shads fished off a long plastic tube boom, which for me tangles less than a metal one. Fish were coughing up sprats and small mackerel, but they were well-digested, and I got the feeling the pollack had been feeding hard early in the morning and were now not very interested. They were all on the bottom, and seemed to be shoaled up tight. We saw porpoises on the way out - a lovely sight.

Last weekend I went out reefing in my pal's boat, but although we caught lots of launce and one herring, the pollack were small and few and far between. We came back inshore and went plaice fishing, but despite perfect conditions had just one small one, so it doesn't look as if they are around in numbers yet either. I wonder how the Dartmouth Plaice Festival at the end of the month will fish? We are aiming to try Lazy Lug later on when we know there are fish around, as it's convenient bait to keep on the boat. Anyone tried it or Lazy Rag yet? On Sunday, I'm booked aboard Size Matters with Shaun Brett. I've been trying to get out on this boat for ages, but keep getting blown out. I'm beginning to feel like a jinx! I recently bought some Williamson speed jigs and am looking forward to trying them out. Apparently they catch as well on the drop as when retrieved at high speed.

I'm also a keen fly-fisherman and tie my own flies, and am looking forward to my first trip of the year to Siblyback, which I have fished for nearly 30 years. I used to fish it all the time with dry-flies and team of three with a muddler on the top dropper to pull 'em up, but the trout seem a lot less free-rising than they used to be. Is it lack of insects or too many cormorants? Perhaps we'll see lots of hawthorns this year with all the warm, sunny weather.

This year, I'm going to fish Fernworthy more, though up there on the top of Dartmoor the weather always seems to be a month behind, so take an extra sweater if you go. It's very pretty though, and they tell me that a dry-fly is all you need from June onwards as so many terrestrials get blown onto the water. Early season I've had a lot of fish there on small leaded caddis patterns crawled along the bottom on a long leader and floating line.

Do any of you fish Burrator now it's under club control? I haven't for years, but may have a go later in the year when the levels drop and you can fish it all the way round.

I remember a few summers ago looking down from the main dam and watching a lovely brown sticklebacking along the rocky shoreline. I could see every spot on it.

This year, I'm going to buy a book of Angling 2000 tickets and fish some of the rivers, especially in early June when the mayfly should be up on the Tamar tributaries and a little later when the peal are in. I don't much enjoy fly-fishing at night for sea-trout, but fishing a pool where you could catch a brownie, a grayling or a peal in daylight on a nymph really appeals. Any tips?

I must remember to buy my new rod licence, which brings me to the question of proposed licences for sea anglers. My view is that I don't mind paying if sport is improved. Banning gill nets and all other netting and trawling within three miles of the shore (except netting sandeels for bait) would be a good start. But it seems a bit unfair on kids and casual anglers who only ever get the odd mackerel and garfish, and who's going to police it?

Talking of netting, I'm alarmed at the way the Exe and the Teign have been ruined, apparently by cowboy trawlers netting flounders to sell for pot bait. While I don't think this will happen in the Salcombe/Kingsbridge estuary, I'm worried that it will soon be fished out by rod and line, as anglers decide it's the only place to go. The river can sustain only so many flounders, and if too many are kept or taken back to Plymouth to weigh in and returned to the Plym, I wonder how long it will be worth fishing? I never seem to catch small flounders there (best last winter was 2-9), and I should have thought that it would hold a population of mixed sizes if stocks were healthy.

Anyway, I do hope you will get back to me with your news and views, and look forward to meeting you at the waterside. Tight lines! GRAHAM