Lock Down - Salmon and Trout adventures

Well it looks like angling could be allowed all be it on a restricted basis to start with thanks to the efforts of the Angling Trust Team. As part of their campaign they encouraged anglers to write to their MP and made it very easy to do so. I wrote to mine and had a receipt back from his Secretary within a day.  If the Angling Trusts Phase 1 plan is accepted then it's a bit of Fly Fishing for me up on the brilliant Chew Valley Lake which is 20 minutes drive from home.

So with that in mind I thought I would Blog a few of my Game Fishing experiences.........

Apart from my early fishing days as a child in N. Ireland I only took up Fly Fishing about 10 years ago. I bought a rod and reel plus fly line from Cadbury Angling for £135. The line has been replaced but I still use the rod and reel and it is well travelled, more on that later.

First a little bit of Canada....
My wife has family in British Columbia and we have been over there a good number of times. Two of her cousins are mad keen anglers and I have been out with them a few times.
Graham her oldest cousin used to have a Gas Station and Grocery Store with Motor Home hook up's and a Boat Ramp at a place called ''Campbell River'' on Vancouver Island. Graham also had his own boat.

They go out into the sea to fish for salmon but there are also plenty of cod about. The first trip I experienced was something really special. Once in the boat we headed over to an island inhabited by native Indian's who caught and sold small live herrings for fish bait.
Using down riggers we put 2 rods over the side with herrings and fished them about 30 turns deep. No weight on the line, just lightly clipped on the down rigger. This was a whole new experience for me and I was told down hit the first knock as the salmon comes up to the bait, stuns it with it's tail and then turns to take it....so only hit the second bite.

We cruised along close to islands and it was soon pointed out to me a couple of American Bald Headed Eagles were following us along the top of the tree line, what a sight. They follow the fishing boats waiting for anglers to through any unwanted fish back and the swoop down and grab them before the fish fully recover.

The fishing was quite hard that day but we managed two nice Coho Salmon shallowish and then a few cod when we went deeper.

mine went 16lb

cuz Clives was about the same size

We did throw a few small Cod back and sure enough the eagles came down, pics aren't that great but you get the idea....

Another trip out of Campbell River but a different location saw us bag up, the fish were smaller but gave good sport.

I have been back a couple of times with the last 8 years and caught a few more but that first trip with the herrings was the most memorable one.

Getting back to trout on the fly...... It took me a while to get the hang of it as I am self taught. I only Fly Fish about 20 times a year and started off on the Barrow Tanks just outside Bristol. A nice old guy must have took pity on me and gave me a few tips which saw me catch a few rainbows.

I progressed on to Chew Valley Lake also run by Bristol Water, it's huge at 1,200 acres but has an average depth of about 15 foot. I mainly fish from the bank using chest waders but have taken the odd trip out in a boat. It really is a lovely venue with lots of other wild life to be seen. I have had red deer walk behind me, otters swimming close by and seen huge pike cruise in front of me, so close you could almost touch them. There is plenty of bank access and its not expensive.

Chew is a big expanse of water

It can get a bit choppy out in the boat but on this day the fish were ravenous. Loads caught up in the water

If I'm lucky I do get the odd limit bag but to be honest I am the only one who eats them so do a lot of catch and release now.

Another venue I enjoy is Hawkridge Reservoir just outside Bridgwater. Its a lot smaller than Chew at only 32 acres but is very intimate and on a weekday not busy at all. It also offers good bank fishing but you wouldn't want to wade as it's very deep close in. Run by Wessex Water they stock double figure fish and a number of different varieties.

Bottom end of Hawkridge

I have also done a bit of brook trout fishing down in Devon and grayling fishing on the River Ithon in Mid Wales.

And finally.....my original Fly Rod and Reel travelled to New Zealand in December last year. I went wild brown trout fishing a few times but if I went again I would hire a guide as its very different. I had some success and the best fish was a wild brownie of around 5lbs.

Me with my friends wife Lyn who live in NZ

So... lets see what Boris has to say on Sunday.

Stay safe all.

Lock Down - One of my favourite venues

Well, how's it going everyone .... running out of jobs yet? Personally up until now I have kept fairly active doing my voluntary job, Clevedon Angling Club admin and projects, odd DIY jobs, oh and the wife's green house has arrived ..... a nice challenge from a flat pack kit, but it's raining today so a blog it is.

At this time of the year I am normally fishing the Bristol Feeder Canal which I re-discovered 4 years ago when I took early retirement.

It's not everyones cup of tea due to .....location, surrounding environment and parking (Mon - Fri),
but it offers great fishing in the Spring with roach, bream, skimmers, perch and dace in abundance.

The Feeder Canal is not controlled by any Club, all that's needed is an EA Rod Licence. It's approximately 1 mile long running from Totterdown Basin at one end of Feeder Rd up to Netham Lock at the other end where it meets the tidal Bristol Avon. Due to it being a Canal there is no ''Close Season'' restrictions.

Map showing location of the Canal

The Canal runs alongside Feeder Rd so it's a case of parking on Feeder Rd, over the railing or down a slipway onto a decent width grass towpath. Not all of it is fishable from the road side but in terms of parking and fishing I would suggest the following locations ......

Brandon Tool Hire 72 - 75 Feeder Rd. BS2 0TQ

Manor Scrap 59 - 61 Feeder Rd. BS2 0SH

Kellys Cafe 31 Feeder Rd. BS2 0SE

Netham Lock where the Canal joins the tidal Avon

Middle of the Canal from the Foot Bridge near Brandon Tool Hire down to Totterdown Basin at the end

End of the Canal at Totterdown Basin

Parking during the week is tricky due to the various industries in the area plus some people park on Feeder Rd and walk to Temple Meads Rail Station to avoid parking charges but if you get there by 06:45 it's fine. After 17:00 in the evening is fine as is Saturday and Sunday.

Under normal circumstances Kelly's Cafe opens at 07:00 during the week and does a great breakfast.

The Canal width is on average 14 metres but can be as narrow as 11 metres in places, average depth is 5 foot. The depth is fairly even all the way across. There is a nice bit of flow most of the time but it can vary due to activity down in Bristol Harbour and the Lock at Netham. I believe an ''operation known as scouring'' which is carried out once a month were by the flow is allowed to increase at a fast pace in order to flush away silt and it lasts about 2 hours.

Boat traffic is generally low with just the odd rower, canal barge or pleasure craft. It is regularly patrolled by the Bristol Harbour Master.

There are vast shoals of roach and bream in Bristol Docks, during the spring they move up into the Canal to spawn probably due to more weed and less salt content in the water. Some will move back into the Docks but you can still catch them up until September. Dace seem to be prominent all year round.

My preferred method on the Canal is the pole. It's not complicated and a 1 gram to 1.5 gram float will cover most situations. A number 3 or 4 solid elastic is ideal, main rig line of 0.11 and a hook length of 0.09 or 0.08 to a wide gape 20 or 18 completes the set up. There are very few snags in the Canal.

I normally set up 2 lines, 6 metre and 11 metres. Cupping in at the start with a couple of balls dark ground bait laced with dead reds, dead pinkie and caster is what I usually and then topping up depending on how the session goes. Sometimes you need to feed hard balls to get through the dace. 

Allowing the rig to run through if the flow is slow works fine but holding it still or back is better. When the bream and skimmers are in the peg then a small piece of worm gets the better fish.

Here are some photo's from sessions last year.......

Keep your gear parallel to the bank as there is the odd dog walker

Lovely days skimmer fishing

Angling friend Geoff Mortimer from Gloucester

Team mate Mike Martin

                         

Team mate Leigh Wakefield

Full details of my sessions on the Canal are on this Blog. I bumped into an angler from Castle Carey last year who came up to fish it after reading about it here.

I hope I can get on the Canal in the not to distant future, decision on allowing pleasure fishing coming soon following the Angling Trust submitting a plan to the Government.

In the meantime stay safe all.

Lock Down - My First Angling Club

Well with another 3 weeks of lock down announced yesterday and I fear there's more to come its going to be a while before we get back out fishing so here's another blog.......

I have been fishing for over 50 years now and if you count my membership of Sensas Nomads Match Group as a Club then I have only been a member of 4. I have very recently written blogs about Bristol P O and Clevedon Clubs so this one is about my first one, Gilford Angling Club.

Gilford in Co. Down Northern Ireland is where I grew up. It's a small village and at that time had a population of about 2000. There was a huge Spinning Mill which employed hundreds of people from a wide area making quality linen.

A lot of my family worked in the Mill before it closed. You didn't need a watch in them days as the Mill Horn was sounded at 07:30 calling the workers for an 08:00 start, then again when it was 13:00 informing them it was lunch time, 13:30 to let them know they had 30 minutes left and then again at 17:00 as it was home time.  My mother won a holiday to Spain for good time keeping around 1970. 

On the edge of the village there was the remains of a World War 2 German Prisoner of War camp which housed about 1,800.

If memory serves me right there were 5 places of worship, 2 Primary Schools, a Post Office, Hardware Store, Garage, Bookies, Funeral Directors, 2 Chemists, Police Station, Doctors, Blacksmiths and a few small Grocery Shops plus 6 pubs. It was located more or less halfway between Banbridge and Portadown and the Upper River Bann ran through it.

I started fishing around 10 years old with my younger brother and we progressed from a bamboo pole's to 6 foot fibre glass rods with a proper reels but still quite crude. As Dad had to take us he got into the sport as well.

The village had an Angling Club which had the fishing rights to about no more than 3 miles of the Upper Bann and also owned the rights to Kernan Lough which was trout only.
The Upper Bann in those days was primarily a game fishery, wild brown trout, salmon and dollagan (which are a variety of trout only found in Lough Neagh) had runs up the river to spawn at certain times of the year. Although there were lots of pools and rapids there were deep glides as well and you could catch perch, odd bream and pike, this was before the roach explosion on the Bann.

The bridge going over the Upper Bann in the village

We joined the Club, it was free for under 15's and didn't cost Dad that much, probably a £1 in those days. Most of the members Fly Fished with great skill and you would often see men at the weekend or after work in the summer walking through the village with a ready made up Fly Rod, Landing Net and a Canvas Bag over their shoulder.

Paddy Owens was the man in them days, great angler using a 10 foot split cane rod, walked everywhere.

My brother Leslie and I with a pike

The Club held a few competitions between 1st March and 31st October as that was the fishing season on their waters. It was a pretty informal affair. The Club nominated a "Captain of the Day" who would take charge of proceedings etc. We would meet at Fox's Pub near the town bridge to register and then off you would go, anywhere you wanted on the river. Prize's were for heaviest trout, heaviest bag of trout and heaviest pike. There was also the same prizes for the juniors and Dad donated one of his old Dart Cups as an annual junior prize.

I mentioned that it was pretty informal, well it was. Dad took us home for dinner during the competition and then back out again in the afternoon!

We just had the spinning rods so ended up using mepps, a gold one with black spots seemed to work well or just ledgering some worms.

I do remember one year I caught a lovely brown trout of around 2lbs in the morning and Dad having to drag me back home for dinner, didn't want to leave the bank and must have ate my dinner in record time. I did win a prize that day which got me well and truly hooked.

Unfortunately you had to kill your catch and bring it back to Fox's Pub for weighing at the end of the day. The adults would have a beer and we would have the bottle of lemonade and bag of crisps, lovely days.

The Club also held a few competitions on Kernan Lough which was stocked with rainbow and brown trout. It was an any method lake except no live bait e.g. worms. We used spinners or bubble floats with a string of flies on droppers which were quite successful much to the annoyance of the true Fly Fisherman.

Kernan Lough was about 3 miles outside the village so one of Dad's friends who had an old mini made 2 trips to take us up there. I remember one completion when I caught 2 rainbow trout within a few casts of each other on a mepp and never had another fish all day. To my surprise it was enough to come 2nd overall but 1st in the juniors.

My brother and I swimming in Kernan Lough

Once we both learned to swim we were allowed to go fishing on our own. I fondly remember long summer days when we would go out in the morning with nothing but a jam jar full of worms and Mum wouldn't see us until we were hungry.

Our dog "Lucky' was always with us

The Club also went down to Lough Muckno in Castleblaney which is over the border in Co. Monaghan for a few pike fishing competitions. I ended up in the local Doctors once when my foot went under a tractor wheel . The tractor was blocking our way out and a few of us were trying to push it to one side, luckily no broken bones. 

I loved that Club and it brought the community together even if it was only on the bank.

Stay safe all.

Lock Down - A few light hearted fishing memories and more....

Hi, I hope you are all well and following the Government Guidelines and looking out for others as well as yourself.

I want to keep the blog going which is quite difficult being as there is no fishing so here are a few light hearted fishing memories and more.

• I remember fishing in the Post Office National and representing the SW Region. The venue was the Bridgwater Canal in and around Runcorn. All of the teams were put up in a big Hotel. I remember arriving there and going to reception to check in. In the foyer there was a large ornamental pool. I couldn't believe my eyes when I walked in ... The Scottish Team were actually shotting their floats in the pool, some went a bit further catching goldfish ... I think alcohol was involved.

• Not long after I became a member of the Clevedon Club we entered a team in the Angling Times Clubman Competition. We got through the 1st round against Minehead and drew Chippenham and Caerfilly in the next round. The match was to be fished on a couple of Chippenham lakes. Heading up the M5 I was following Dave Baker who had his rod holdall on a roof rack. I didn't see the rod holdall come off the roof rack, all I can remember is saying to myself what's that in the sky or words to that affect! It bounced along the fast lane narrowly missing other traffic. He did manage to retrieve it but when he opened it at the lake all you could see was lot's of carbon splinters. Fair play he did fish and borrowed some kit to win his section.

• Before my wife and I had our own house we stayed at my mother in laws for a few months. I had just started fishing again and used to get the train to Bath from Bristol to fish the canal or get the bus out to Abbots Pool on the edge of Bristol. I must have left some maggots out in her conservatory and with the heat they somehow managed to escape! I didn't know this at the time but I did get it in the ear when she went out there one day, opened the door and was met by a cloud of blue bottles! My home brew also exploded in the conservatory after I bottled it too early!

• I meant to put this next one into one of my earlier Irish Fishing Memories from the past. When we stayed in Bailieborough and came back from one of the many heavy drinking evenings. Leigh Wakefield passed out and Dale Harvey shaved his chest. Leigh didn't realise it had been done until he saw himself in the mirror the following morning. All I remember him saying ''what the f%&k is Sharon going to say".

• Another Irish memory.. Fishing Lough Ramor one day it was pissing down and very windy. My mate Steve doesn't like the rain so put his brolly up. Next thing I know is the brolly lifts into the air and lands upside down on his feeder line. The brolly pauses before slowly sinking. Steve gives it a salute. Now known as the brolly peg.

• I fished Apex Lake down in Highbridge with another Clevedon Club angler, John Woolstencroft one day, must have been the spring. John always has a lot of tackle around him when fishing. He was packing up and dropped one of his reels in the water and it wasn't that warm. I was surprised he stripped off and went in diving several times. I was in stitches and managed to get a photo. He did get the reel eventually.

John comes up for air between dives

Best photo of his foot lol

• I remember coming back from Ireland once, 3 of us in the front and Dale Oldland in the back. We would have arrived in Holyhead around 01:15. Dale was actually asleep in the back with all the fishing gear plus the smelly nets as we had fished that day. We got pulled over for a security check and I'm not sure what startled the Security Officer the most .... Dale suddenly sitting up or the smell of the wet gear. He shut the door and waved us on.

I have been the Press Officer for Clevedon FWAC for some time and managed to get quite a few Match Reports into the local and national press, but you need a good headline.
Here are some that I have used and are a bit corny ...... winning anglers name first then the headline.

Ivan Currie
Currie on hot form
Currie turns up the heat

Adie Baker
Baker wasn't dozin

Chris Parr
Durleigh below Parr

The late Nick Harvey
Harvey Nicks it

Paul Faiers (postman)
Postie Paul is 1st Class
Red letter day for Paul
All the fun of the Faiers

Brian Slipper
No slip up's for Brian

Rod Wotten
Top Rod

Glen Calvert at Bullocks Farm
Glen is the Bullocks

Richard Heatley
Heatley wins in the cold

Adam Palmer (Royal Marine)
Adam takes command

Mark Bromsgrove
Bromsgrove makes his Mark
On the Mark

Mark Walsh
Top Marks for Walsh


The old ones are the best........

One day, two guys Joe and Bob were out fishing. A funeral service passes over the bridge they re fishing by, and Bob takes off his hat and puts it over his heart. He does this until the funeral service passes by. Joe then said “Gee Bob, I didn’t know you had it in you!” Bob then replies ” It’s the least I could do. After all I was married to her for 30 years.”

Stay safe all.