What Makes an Angler

Path Finding

It doesn’t matter whether you use a chair or seat box, pole or bite alarms, there are many reasons to go fishing. It could be targeting something big, mega catches, aiming for personal bests, winning competitions, or simply being out on the bank. It’s rarely down to one thing, more a combination of experiences, many of which stay with you forever. I’ve been fishing since I was a kid, still getting a big buzz out of it now I’m old enough to get senior discounts on day tickets and club books. It’s a drug I can’t kick, nor want to. Every outing is still eagerly anticipated, whether it’s a match, pleasure session, or simply exploring somewhere new. In this instance, I’m on a commercial complex that caters for all, including day trippers, competition anglers and big fish specialists. It is diverse, but everyone looks perfectly happy with their chosen routes.

Tackling Up

I’m forever tinkering with fishing gear to make it suit my needs, such as making floats and devising new ideas. It was no surprise when I started a tackle shop, followed by buying a lake, ending up working in the trade. I’m still like a kid in a toyshop when it comes to being involved with Cadence Fishingand Edge Tackle. Anything new and I want to try it, even if it’s well established, I still want to give it a go. In this case, it’s a Cadence CR10 Match 12ft #3 two-piece rod. Having been privileged enough to develop top-end blanks for companies like Hardy and Greys, I have to say products like this are superb for their price point. I couldn’t improve it. In this case, it was going to get tested on a day ticket lake, which is heavily match fished, but also well stocked. Modern expectations have become much more demanding than when I first wet a line.

Different Worlds

When I was a kid, it used to be all about catching humble gudgeon from an industrialised canal, or nets of small roach from boating pools in parks. They were no commercial fisheries. Special highlights were a trip to a river, or somehow getting all my kit onto a London bus to visit Walthamstow Reservoirs, now a mecca for specimen fish. Back in pre-cormorant times, they were heaving with roach and skimmers. It was rare to hook into something like this that put a good bend into a rod, but these days, for the price of a day ticket, it’s an almost guaranteed experience. Great in many ways, although fast tracking into bagging up and catching mega-sized specimens risks missing the finer points, such as watercraft. Learning the latter was like an apprenticeship, which used to be essential for success, but not so much these days.

Carp Era

The dominance carp have had on coarse fishing cannot be underestimated. They are now far more widely spread, providing huge hauls when they are smaller, turning into a cult target when they grow bigger. These fish have been a godsend to the fishing tackle industry during the age of laptops and smartphones, developments that can lure youngsters away from real life sports. Like most anglers these days, I get pulled into catching carp, which feed ravenously and fight hard, providing hectic sessions. From a match perspective, it’s not simply about filling a keepnet, but several in one session, something that’s a bit too zany for me. After an endless stream of fish like this, I need to seek alternative routes, using more refined tackle in the quest for what we now class as silver fish. Anything in that category still does me fine.

New Challenges

There are carp anglers who spend days bivvied up targeting personal bests, alongside others who are match orientated, using several digital counters to keep track of huge hauls. I enjoy watching videos of both categories, learning about their tactics and the different baits they use. I need to know these things because on many carp dominated venues, spodding in heaps of specialised bait often affects other species I intend to catch. Roach, tench and bream can become preoccupied with all the free grub, to the extent they might switch off conventional stuff like maggots and casters. I still take these traditional offerings with me, but also need to be well-armed with fishmeal based groundbaits and different types of pellets. The latter have become a complicated subject, with so many types, flavours, and sizes to consider.

Another Way

I have done some carp matches, but tend to get side-tracked when other species turn up. It’s not about the money in competitions for me, more about the crack. On some venues, I’ve even set out to try and beat the carpers. I managed it a few times on the popular Gloucester Park sweepstakes when I lived in Essex, with some mega hauls of mainly roach. That was harder work than I ever imagined it would be, but hugely satisfying. I also cheekily won with roach on a carp snake, waiting for a heavy frost to slow down the main residents, revealing a net of the quality red fins I had discovered also lived there. Here I am again on carp dominated waters, delighted to have found chub hugging a reed fringed island. Others are also taking this route, to the extent there are winter silver fish matches on some carp puddles in my area now.

Snaking It

I discovered a heavily overgrown snake lake that’s heaving with carp. On a previous trip, I got bored with the main species after catching them steadily on pellets for several hours, so I started firing a few casters over towards an overhanging bush. To my amazement, I found lots of roach and rudd hiding there, even a surprise ide. This made me go back to try an experiment. I set up to fish over against another big far bank bush I found. Carp were everywhere, slurping at floating leaves by my feet and aimlessly drifting about down the main channel. They were not over-big, so I risked using a 3lb Edge Premium Mono hook length, tied to a small medium wire hook. Main line was 4lb Edge Sinking Mono, with one of their 1.5g Crystal Clear Wagglers installed. This setup could handle match sized carp, while not being too heavy for silver fish.

An Experiment

My master plan was just to rely on casters, only a pint of them because I was going to feed tiny amounts to try and avoid too many hungry carp. But with nothing else going in, it didn’t take long for the dominant species to find a single dark shell cast into the shadowy water over by the cover. It took a while to get through them and start catching odd roach and rudd. At one stage I thought I had located a nest of crucians, but closer inspection revealed they were really F1s, but it was interesting and kept me busy. Casters quickly worked their magic. At one stage, 20 carp had seen my landing net, compared to just a dozen small silver fish that were light enough to swing in. However, a good spell saw the tally move up to 30 carp, overtaken by 40 silvers. Many might think me daft, but fishing becomes even more interesting with challenges like this.

Class Act

The other part of the agenda was to try out a two-piece Cadence CR10 11ft Match #2 rod, which has a remarkably close action to an old classic Normark Microlite twelve-footer I used on canals many years ago. It has a tad more power, which was handy on this occasion as my carp tally steadily climbed up past the 50 mark, along with another burst of roach and rudd that took the silver fish total beyond 60. With running line tackle I would normally use a 0.14 mm hook length with carp about, but in this case 0.12 mm Edge Premium Mono was coping fine. A lot of that had to do with the superb rod I was using, which cast the light waggler rig crisply and accurately, playing in bigger fish with no problems. I ended up with 60 carp ranging between 12oz and 4lbs plus, along with over 80 small silvers, the best around 8oz. It was great fun.

Pit Fishing

Gravel pits are interesting places. The way countless tons of small stones were originally extracted leaves all sorts of bars, islands, and channel features to explore. The species I associate most with this type of water is tench. I caught loads of them up to a good size in my London days, on the pits at West Drayton. Now I live in Cambridgeshire, I have found another fascinating venue like this to enjoy. On a hot and humid day, I retreated under the trees on the shadowy side of this old gravel working, where there are numerous weedy channels and overgrown backwaters. I plumbed around with my Cadence CP800 Margin Pole, finding a couple of fairly clear areas to fish, one 8 metres to my left and another at 5 metres to my right. I cupped in a mixture of casters and pellets in groundbait on the longer line first…

Bubble Watching

With such a labyrinth of weed to contend with, it can take time for tench to find your main feed area, so on my shorter line I dribbled in some soft cloud and maggots to try and occupy myself with rudd and roach. I caught plenty of those, constantly watching for surface activity over where my prime attack would be based. Sure enough, after catching a good few silvers, I spotted a cloud of bubbles erupting over my main feed spot. I shipped out double casters on a strong pole rig, and it wasn’t long before something big was darting about, trying it’s best to weed me up. I had to apply some serious pressure, which unfortunately resulted in the hook pinging free. Despite the swim getting churned up, another ball of groundbait quickly brought back the fizzing. It took some time, but eventually, I managed to land this superb wild tench.

Full Circle

As mentioned at the beginning, angling is about a wealth of different experiences, providing many cherished memories. Tackle trends come and go, as do methods and baits, but thankfully old ways can still work wonders too. I’ve found myself both enjoying the modern carp dominated day ticket scene and exploring numerous paths around it. There are many other species to target. All you need to do is get out there and find them, sometimes in the most unlikely of places. Things that worked several decades ago, like a canal style waggler, or a strong pole for tench, still perform amazingly well. That’s despite in-line feeders and big pit reels. I love it all but can still choose my own routes. Chasing PBs or amassing big hauls is fine, but watching nature go by and enjoying your own way of doing things can be just as intriguing.