Duncan’s
Monthly round-up – October 2015
Any
month that see’s an all-round coarse magazine come to an end is a
sad one, and this month Coarse Angling Today was unable to continue.
What with Tight Lines a couple of months back and now CAT it really
is a difficult time for coarse fishing as a whole. Younger anglers
are far more interested in specific areas of fishing, mostly carp,
and as the population of all-round coarse anglers get older, the need
to promote this area of angling seems to be dying out. Yes we do have
‘The Worlds Wildest Waters’ but to me it’s more of a culture
reality program and I have to admit that although I do record it, I
certainly don’t rush to watch it, bring back another episode or
something similar to ‘A Passion for Angling’ any day! It’s a
worrying period and a sad one, but I know how hard the team at CAT
worked to bring all us all-rounder’s some proper material and for
this I thank them all.
Looking
at my diary inputs the first thing that I noticed was the amount of
images for the month, 32 in all which can only mean one thing, a
brilliant October. This was really all down to just how well
Godalming Angling’s Enton (Johnsons) fished. It certainly has been
the year of the crucian, not just for myself but many others as well.
In total I have been out either guiding (5) or fishing for myself
(10) fifteen times and clocked up once again over one hundred hours.
When I haven’t been actually fishing I’ve been either in the
office writing numerous articles, many for Anglers Mail as well as
visiting the river to continue the baiting campaign twice a week in
the hope that a monster barbel will eventually turn up. It’s been
hard going but the bream that were showing have now turned into chub,
let’s just hope these are soon replaced with big barbel!
Although
this mild weather seems to be continuing there comes a time when
attentions need to turn from certain species to others and sadly the
crucians campaign has now come to a close. I never expected to ever
beat my old crucian best of 3lb 3.5oz or that Enton would produce so
many big fish this year, that’s why both myself and fishing mate
Chris set a realistic target of 3lb 12oz at the start of the season.
We both managed to succeed with hitting this, Chris with a 3lb 12oz
p.b and myself landing the big girl, spawned out at 4lb 4oz, so with
both the orfe and crucian campaigns being a resounding success, let’s
just hope come the end of the season we can say the same about the
barbel one!
Another
species that is high on our agenda is grayling. We are not looking at
catching monsters, two-pounders on a regular basis would be nice, so
instead of covering old ground, areas where two’s are rare we have
decided to spread our wings and look further afield. This will
involve less sessions but longer ones and it’s another adventure
that I am looking forward to.
One
area that I do need to address is to knock the numerous short
sessions, especially for barbel, on the head as sitting on a cold
bank and walking miles with tackle on my shoulders is doing my lower
back no good. So instead of these sessions I’m going to replace
them with single, longer session, even all night sessions as I think
this is the way forward to catching that big barbel.
Don’t
forget that Christmas is coming and if you’re stuck for ideas then
why not get the other half to treat you to a day out with myself,
gift vouchers are available, all you need to do is email me at
duncancharman@me.com
or call 07928 617006. Here are a few popular ideas that might be of
interest for the coming season, however if there is a specific
species or personal best you would like to beat then just let me know
and I will do my best to place you on a venue that can deliver.
Ideas
-
Trotting
for grayling using a centrepin on either the Test or Itchen.
A
day’s pike fishing.
A
day on the river Wye for barbel and chub.
A
days roving on the Loddon in search of a few big chub.
Improving
your carp fishing techniques at Broadwater.
A
night spent under the stars targeting catfish and grass carp at
Badshot Lea.
Bagging
up with tench at Frensham Great Pond.
Another
idea for Christmas is to buy my book ‘Evolution of an Angler’
which covers many years fishing loads of local water and is available
at www.calmproductions.com
DAY TO DAY EVENTS
01/10/15
– Another long day in Essex this time at A12 Cuton Lakes to create
another Venue Expert for Anglers Mail.
02/10/15
– Up early and in the office to complete yesterday’s VE then
grabbed the barbel kit and headed for the river. Unfortunately the
Big Fish session was bought to an abrupt end due to river maintenance
yet all the swims were once again baited.
05/10/15
– At last the weather has changed and a band of mild low pressure
has finally bought some rain, great for catching but not great for
fishing. After the standard Monday morning paperwork the barbel kit
was once again put into action this time in torrential rain for the
entirety of the session. Fishing from 3pm through to 11pm I really
did feel I deserved a fish and after fishing five swims and baiting
them on departure the bite finally came at 10.55pm! This again is
part of an ongoing Big Fish campaign so details can’t be too
informative but disaster happened when I went to do a self-take, the
battery was flat. Ouch now that hurt!
06/10/15
– A day in the office as well as drying out the tackle from
yesterday evening. The weathers spot on for the river but due to an
early morning with Dad on Wednesday resisted the temptation, however
in hindsight should have gone as jammed a disc in my Mac disc drive!
07/10/15
– Up at 5.30am and
on the banks of Enton at 6.30am. It’s another wet day and made the
mistake of heading for usually a banker swim but after two and a half
hours, no bites and with the wind pushing into the shallows felt I
had to move. Ten minutes after casting out the alarm sounded and a
common around 3lb came, followed by two good tench to 6lb and a
couple of cruians weighing 3lb 7oz and 3lb 12oz. Unfortunately the
feeding spell was short, maybe an hour and a half and come mid
afternoon the lake seemed dead.
08/10/15
– Spent the day in the office catching up on loads of angling
related things as well as completing a pike article for a European
magazine.
09/10/15
– Another early morning saw myself on the banks of the Kennet and
Avon Canal at Hungerford to compile the images for an Anglers Mail
article with Adam Kirby.
10/10/15
– Spent the morning and early part of both Sat and Sunday afternoon
to complete the AM article as need to meet a pending deadline.
12/10/15
– All morning was used to get the fishing kit ready for a busy week
ahead before heading to Old Bury Hill for the first zander session of
the year. Although we had picked the date so that no moon would be
seen, the skies cleared and the wind blew from the east yet the
action was steady with eight zander landed along with a couple of
sardine munching bream and a carp lost.
13/10/15
– Today was to be a full day targeting the crucians at Enton with
my mate Chris. Unfortunately the wind was still blowing from the
north east so we knew from the start things wouldn’t be easy.
Working as a team we split up and fished different banks to try and
locate the fish that seem to move on the wind here, however apart
from a crucian of 3lb 5oz falling to my rod come midday we had
nothing really to go on. My dad and girlfriend’s dad had also
joined us and were also struggling so we decided to move to a swim
that we had never fished before that had the cold wind pushing
directly into it. It was a brave but wise decision as soon after
casting out I had an aborted pick up. From then on the bites were
steady but in no way fast and furious yet come dusk Chris had taken
five carp including a stunning common weighing 22lb 6oz as well as
losing a couple and my rods had produced two fish, a decent tench and
a 3lb 7oz crucian.
14/10/15
– Yes you’ve guessed it, another dawn start this time on the
banks of the river Loddon with a customer targeting barbel. Peter had
never fished the stretch before but often thought about joining so it
was to be an interesting day getting to know the producing swims and
history of the venue, however with a grass frost, N/E wind, high
pressure and gin clear water catching a fish wasn’t going to be a
walk in the park. First job was to try and locate a fish, even if
this was just from a liner or dropped pick-up from a chub. This we
achieved in the second swim but thought’s were that it was from a
clever chub so I headed back to the car and grabbed the 11ft float
rod which was connected to a tiny feeder which we filled with
liquidised bread as well as placing a big piece of flake on the hook.
First cast saw another small pick-up yet the second bite caught us
both by surprise as it came from a three-foot twitch which resulted
in a tense battle with a barbel.
15/10/15
– Today was spent on the banks of Waggoners Wells with Chris Fox
from Greyshott tackle creating an Anglers Mail Action Replay which
went really well.
16/10/15
– Meeting a customer at midday we headed to Old Bury Hill to see if
the zander were going to be in a better mood than on Monday.
Conditions were far better and setting up slightly further up the
long bank than normal it wasn’t long before the alarm sounded.
Barrie from Monday and my other customer Mark met us on the bank and
with two rods each spread out the action came at regular intervals
throughout the session. Surprisingly no carp or bream showed to our
sardine offerings but at least two dozen zander to 8lb 11oz kept us
busy all evening.
17/10/15
– Managed to get up the river and bait the swims just before dusk
so cast out a rod in one of the swims and within minutes the tip flew
round. This is one of the Big Fish sessions so will reveal all soon.
19/10/15
– Needing to get ahead off myself with certain angling related jobs
spent the day in the office, mostly writing up last week’s AM
Action Replay.
20/10/15
– Another day in the office as well as organising the kit for a
day’s guiding at Godalming’s Braodwater Lake.
21/10/15
– With a wet day forecast I wasn’t exactly looking forward to an
early start but knowing how difficult Broadwater has fished this year
I knew the importance of being on the lake before dawn in order to
locate where the carp were. In truth we arrived an early and sat
talking under the brolley, yet once the light allowed us to cast out
it was action all the way with Neil landing thirteen of the fourteen
carp hooked which included a common of 20lb 6oz.
22/10/15
– Having not cast a line myself for a few days I was looking
forward to spending a few hours with my father at Broadwater.
Conditions looked good with mild air and a nice breeze from the west
and although bites were few and far between we managed six three
pound crucians between us, three each and both recording one of 3lb
11oz. I also managed a tench and a common however it won’t be long
before the crucians disappear and time will be called.
23/10/15
– Yet another early start this time at Frensham Big Pond however
the weather still a bit mild for pike with just one small jack
obliging which was unfortunately dropped at the net. We did enjoy
nonstop action though from numerous tench, carp and rudd that were
rolling and splashing all over the place. Oh how I should off had a
couple of helicopter rigs and maggots with me.
24/10/15
– Big Fish Session.
25/10/15
– Spent the morning proof reading a couple of articles before
emailing them to the publications.
26/10/15
– The morning was spent in the great company of Ian Russell at
Thorpe Lea to produce an Anglers Mail Venue Expert before returning
home and writing it up.
27/10/15
– Myself and Chris have been challenged to a friendly match at
Johnson’s by my brother and father. We arrived at 7am and with the
wind blowing into the railway bank headed there, although it has been
somewhat inconsistent here this season. Kevin and dad arrived half an
hour later and set up next to us. I was away first with a 3lb
crucian, yet Kevin was doing his best to keep up and after a couple
of hours we had three crucians apiece. I managed to keep a few fish
coming, yet Kevin’s swim dies and Dad and Chris also started to
catch. Come 4pm I had landed six crucians to 3lb 9oz plus a tench,
Chris had three tench to 6lb 14oz, Kevin three crucians to 3lb 9oz
plus a tench and dad three tench and a 3lb 12oz crucian. Not a bad
session seems it nearly November!
28/10/15
– Big fish session.
29/10/15
– At long last a lay-in before a day in the office producing an AM
article then finally getting in the tackle shed and giving it a good
clean.
30/10/15
– After a day helping my brother moving a few items I was hoping to
join him at Frensham to see if the big rudd were playing ball however
he was unable to make it and I spent a few hours watching not only a
wonderful sunset but loads of good fishing moving. The only problem
that prevented me catching them was the small rudd that intercepted
by maggot hookbait before the bigger fish were able to do. A
frustrating few hours but something that’s plagued us all at the
venue this season.
Citruz pop ups use a blend of fruit
esters, essential oils and the broad spectrum taste enhancer Talin to
produce a simply amazing aroma that is of distinctive as it is
deadly. Long lasting in the water column, dissipating easily in the
coldest conditions and attracting at all levels to pull carp down to
your hookbait, Citruz instantly became the bait that field testers
would not fish without. Rolled using the improved Nash Airball mix
offering extreme buoyancy for chod and stiff link presentations.
