Fishing with Alfie - May 2016

Alfie with his first Rudd

Alfie is my 8 year old Nephew and he has shown an interest in fishing when we've been away on family camping trips in the past. With this in mind I decided to get him a fishing rod for his last birthday. It's good to nurture these things and I was amazed at the passion and patience he had displayed when I'd shown him the ropes previously.

I decided on a 4m whip as the ideal first rod for him. There's no reel to worry about and it really is fishing in a very pure and simple form. I think this is a great starting point for as youngster....the joy of float fishing. It's very visual, simple and it teaches a lot about watercraft and concentration which are all important aspects.

I took him to a local pond recently to see if we could get him into a few fish and christen his rod. He was so excited about going, it was really great to see. The weather wasn't that great on the day but it didn't put him off  at all, a bit of rain wasn't going to stop him going on his first proper fishing trip!

Plenty of Rudd came Alfie's way

We went for around 3 hours and he adored it. He got to grips with the pole in no time at all and was baiting the hook and swinging the rig out like a pro with a huge smile on his face. There are plenty of rudd in the pond and they were very obliging with Alfie managing to catch a dozen or so in the first hour.

After this, I asked if he wanted to try and get a bigger fish and the response was a decisive 'yes please'. I explained that we would have to introduce some groundbait and put a larger bait on the hook, then wait a while to see if a bigger tench would be interested in our offerings. This was no problem for Alfie at all, he was keen to see if we could get a whopper!

Sure enough, 20 minutes later there were tench bubbles in the swim and I fired his imagination and anticipation by explaining what what was happening under the water. There were a couple of twitches to the float and then it just slid away from view. He lifted the pole and was instantly in touch with a much better fish that was pulling 5 feet or so of elastic from the tip of his giving him quite a thrill in the process.

Once the tench was in the net it was quite clear that Alfie was over the moon, with 'high fives' all round and a beaming grin from ear to ear......my work was done. Hopefully he'll be hooked for life, it's great to see him getting so much pleasure from fishing. Well done Alfie!

I think the smile says it all :) Well done Alfie!!!

A Personal Best Crucian Carp - 3lb 2oz - June 2016

3lb 2oz of stunning Crucian Carp and a new personal best :)

I have been trying to catch a decent Crucian for the last couple of summers and this week it all came right. The water I have been fishing holds a low stock of very good sized specimens and the problem I have had has been avoiding the tench!

Every time I have fished the water I just seem to keep catching the beady, red-eyed tench and the crucians were just not getting a chance to get to my bait. My tactics have been traditional style on the float, shotted right down and fishing in the margins tight to the lilys using corn or small pellets as bait. 

I think my error in the past has been introducing too much bait. The tench soon home in on this and once they get their heads down they push everything else out of the swim. I had to do something differently if I wanted to catch a shy biting Crucian so I tried going completely the opposite direction by using very little bait at all.......and it worked!

On the day, the successful method was to introduce one small walnut sized ball of groundbait with no food items in it whatsoever and then fish a single grain of corn over the top of it. I had a bite within 5 minutes and it turned out to be the 3lb 2oz Crucian - RESULT! I was so happy i packed up and went straight home.....2 years of effort finally came good in the end and and I've learnt something too. What a  fish! Until the next time...CHEERS!

Fishing for Bream and Plaice - May 2016

Beautiful Brighton Black Bream

It's early May now and things are warming up nicely, it definitely feels like summer has finally arrived and there have been reports of some good bream and plaice fishing off of Brighton. My buddy Paul Harman invited me out on his small boat the other day to see if the reports were true.

We headed out of Brighton Marina just before 6 am and were greeted by a perfect sea, calm and clear. Perfect conditions for the species we were looking for. Paul took us to a nice bit of reef about a mile or so out and we dropped the anchor just uptide of the structure. The plan was to spend the morning targeting the bream and then after the tide turned head west a little and do some drifting for plaice.

One of my better bream from the day

For the bream, we use small squid baits on size 4 hooks which is perfect for the small mouths these fish have. There wasn't much tide run so we fished 2 hook paternosters which enabled us to fish up in the water column a little. When the tide run is less I find the fish are more inclined to move up in the water a bit.

Bream can respond very well to the use of groundbait which is a tip Paul introduced to me on this day. We do it all the time in freshwater fishing so why not in the sea? He freezes down fish scraps, prawn shells and left over bait scraps mixed up with some bran in small plastic take-away containers. These then have holes punched in them and are lowered down to the sea bed in an onion sack with a lead weight in it to defrost and disperse down the tide. It gives off a wonderful trail of scent and small morsels that the bream love to home in on.

A garfish that we caught as bycatch

It proved a very effective technique on the day as bites were pretty instant from the very first drop. They continued right through until the top of the tide when the action died off. We must have had in excess of 20 bream a couple of dabs, some garfish, a mackerel, a pouting and a whiting. A great and varied catch  that shows what a difference a little groundbait can make.

Paul with a very pretty fish

After the tide turned we moved a little closer in to around 20 feet of water and set a up a drift to target the plaice. Simple rigs are the order of the day here and I opted for a simple running ledger with a 3 foot trace, a few colourful attractor beads and a size 1 hook baited with lugworm and a tip of squid.

Drifting for plaice is lovely and relaxing, slowly ambling down the tide watching the rod tip for the rattling bites of the plaice. It didn't take long before we got some action and a few small plaice were swung aboard. They are such lovely fish with their orange spots and incredibly good to eat but these were a little on the small size and returned.

A double shot of plaice and bream

The bites came in flurry's, which must have been when we drifted over some particularly tasty ground - maybe some sandbanks or mussel beds. Each time we got a few bites we would make a mark on the plotter for future reference. You never know, they may just be plaice hotspots!

Paul with a nice 'Spotty'

We did eventually find some better fish....and I manged to get an absolute belter, easily the biggest plaice I have ever caught! I have to say I was totally over the moon with it. They really are very impressive creatures when they get to that size and actually it fought very well on the light spinning gear I was using which was also a pleasant surprise.

A new personal best Plaice for me! Very happy with this one :)

It was a marvellous day's fishing in wonderful weather and with great company. It's amazing what a difference it can make just getting a mile or so offshore. it's hard to find fishing as good as that from the beach that's for sure. Tight Lines!

First Tench Sessions of the Year - May 2016

A nice spring tench caught right under the rod tip on the float

Tench are a great species, a truly magnificent fish that really fights well and is exciting to catch. Add in the picturesque venues associated with them, the misty dawns, lily pads and overgrown ponds - then you have all the ingredients for some quality fishing.

For me, there is no better way to catch a tench than on the float. I just love the traditional style of angling for them. Sure, bolt rigs and feeder tactics have their place for the long-stay angler or those fishing at range but my sessions tend to be shorter, so float fishing suits me just fine. I'm a sucker for the romance of it all if I'm honest and it takes me right back to my childhood where many a happy day were spent fishing tench pools with my grandparents.

Early in the year the tench seem to be a little easier to catch, especially before they spawn and this is the time I usually concentrate my efforts targeting them. They are also at their best weight at this time. 

A hard fighting male tench taken on the float

I like to find a nice spot with plenty of cover in close and introduce a carpet of feed at the beginning of my session. Usually 4 or 5 good sized balls of groundbait laced with a couple of handfuls of pellets and some hook bait samples. I tend to top up the swim after each fish or when it goes noticeably quiet. 

Sweetcorn, soft hooker pellets and worms are my favourite tench baits by far. A particularly effective combination has been a dyed red sweetcorn and worm cocktail, the tench just love it. There's nothing to beat the anticipation of watching 'tench bubbles' frothing up around your float as the fish get their heads down....you just know a bite is on the cards!

My brother and I have been fishing a few local ponds in recent weeks and have found some good fish on the feed. The thrill of hooking them at close range and the strength with which they try to evade capture is always a winner in my book. The power from their huge paddle tails always makes for an exciting fight. Bent rods and screaming reels is what it's all about for me and our recent tench fishing has not disappointed. We've found some stunning Sussex tench just recently. 

My brother with clonker of a tench that weighed in at 8.5 lb's