Barbel fishing on the River Kennet and other piscatorial findings

Although the summer has been quite a washout, with rain seeming to fall most days, I was lucky enough to be working near the River Kennet in Berkshire. With one of the land's best barbel rivers less than a stone's throw away, I needed no excuse to fish the river at every opportunity, with the main target being the its whiskered inhabitants. This fish, that was just shy of double figures, took a piece of rolled luncheon meat in a heavily pressured stretch of the river. The fight was memorable on six pound line and a light rod, with the snags on the far side being uncomfortably close for most of the tussle, but the soft actioned rod eventually got the better of this powerful barbel.

After many nights camping on the river banks, I finally landed a large, solid barbel. Fishing on a deep, slow flowing stretch, there seemed to be very few fish present, but I had a feeling that whatever was there would be large. After landing a  fairly small fish on the sixth night, I had to wait another week before a screaming run came at two in the morning. The fish took a double 18mm halibut pellet hookbait, which I used to avoid the bream, and undoubtedly put up the best scrap of summer. Of course a big smile spread across my face as I unfolded the landing net!

 

It wasn't just the barbel that took a liking to rolled meat and trundled loworms.  The Kennet's chub were usually ready to put a bend in the rod. 

A field of poppies at the height of summer on an unusually sunny day. What finer site to keep an angler company while he slowly covers the likely looking swims.



A good head of bream are present in the deeper sections of the Kennet and provide a welcome alternative when the barbel aren't on the chew.  For sure, they will never win any athletic competitions, but on the right tackle fun nonetheless.

These days I shy away from any commercial venues and so, throughout the past months, I sought out neglected and under-fished venues.  Not only are these spots more peaceful than the average lake or river, but the fish are usually unharrassed and pristine, having rarely encountered anglers.  This beautiful common carp, that resides in a slow-flowing section of the River Wey, couldn't resist hoovering up some floating dog biscuits from amongst the water lily leaves.

With lots of neglected rivers these days as a result of lazy fisherman and the fad for carp fishing, hours can be spent roaming pretty rivers, spinning for perch, pike, chub and the odd trout.  Some good fishing can be had on the River Wey, but, unfortunately, the lack of licensed anglers means fewer eyes on the river, so fish are increasingly being taken for the pot.  It's common knowledge what our eastern European friends are doing, but very little seems to have been done about it so far.

Back on the Kennet and another good looking Chub that intercepted a piece of luncheon meat rolled over a  gravel bar in just inches of water.  At the height of summer, a shoal of up to thirty of these fish gathered to sunbathe in this spot every day.

A hard-fighting barbel taken on meat in a Kennet weir pool.

Beautiful Scarlet Tiger moth - a specialist of Kennet water meadows.

Accidentally hooked while spinning, so maybe not a capture to boast about, but still a lovely fish.

Another neglected venue. This time a forgotten lake with a small head of carp and other species present.  This beautiful koi is hard to miss and took a few sorties to tempt, but was well worth it. Since then the fish seems to have vanished, possibly into someone's garden pond and hopefully not into an oven.  Unfortunately, its bright colours were its downfall as the few other carp seem to still be present.

A little river jack caught on pleasant day whilst roaming the over-grown river  bank.  Chub, perch and trout also  hit the small mepps spinners.

With a carefully placed bait, Dan awaits a bite on the a picturesque section of the River Wey.

High summer on the Wey Navigation

Rolling luncheon meat and lobworms is a very exciting and often instant way of getting some interest on  the river.  Read the water right and, usually, the fish shouldn't be far away.  My first experience was with a double figure barbel, quickly followed by a smaller fish of seven pounds.  When the double took the bait it seemed that I had hooked a snag;  the fish sat tight in the fast current for a few minutes, but the give-away was the gentle pulsing sensation as the large tail steadied the fish.  My six pound line and soft rod made little impression, but luck was on my side and, after a great fight, I managed to draw the fish to a slack.  Unfortunately I had no camera with me to record the fantastic looking golden torpedo.

Whilst working, I collected  a number of fat, white, beetle grubs that proved to be devastating on the chub.  It seemed nearly every cast produced a hard-fighting fish that wasn't interested in any of the modern baits, such as pellets. 

Another pristine grub-munching River Kennet chub.

Whilst sitting it out on a deeper section of the Kennet for carp and barbel, bream usually got to the bait first.

William waits for a bite on the river.

A barbel eye view.

The reason why barbel are so adept at rooting out tasty morsels on the  river bed.

Waiting for a barbel with a static bait in a Kennet weir pool.

Another long-forgotten lake that rarely sees an angler apart from kingfishers and great crested grebes.  The small head of carp obligingly take old fashioned baits, such as bread  - as Olly found out.

Olly waits for some large rubbery lips to slurp down his surface offering on a pretty  stretch of the river.  Surprisingly  good fishing for a number of species can be had here, if anglers are willing to put in the effort. 

After many nights trying to bag a carp on the River Kennet, I finally bagged one on a legered halibut pellet.  Not the monster that I hoped for, but nonetheless very welcome.  I had seen this fish a week before and then caught it again a few weeks later with a surface bait.  It seems it might be alone on the stretch.

On another forgotten lake, lovely looking mirrors kept Olly and me entertained throughout the day.  It's hard to imagine a more perfect way to spend a summer's day - beautiful surroundings and obliging fish.

A good-looking linear that scoffed a popped up cut down boilie cast tight to the far bank reeds.

Olly has good reason to smile; this golden carp had probably never seen a hook in its life - a fairly rare occurrence these days in England and a far cry from the commercial carp puddles.

James and I made a short trip to the Norfok Broads and managed to catch a few pike on lures, but sport was pretty patchy. Being the last sunny holiday weekend of the summer meant that the waterways were a hive of activity with pleasure boaters disturbing the fishing.  James managed his first pike on a surface lure, which made the trip well worthwhile. 

 A visit with Rhys to Bristol Water's Chew Valley to throw lures rewarded us with five pike, which for a first trip was a  great result.  The fish were all fat and hard fighting.  Most of the other boats on the day fished deadbaits and many anglers were rewarded with 20+ pound fish.  The largest we boated was 18 pounds, so we could hardly grumble.  Winning lures of the day were storm five inch storm shads and fox replicant curly tails.

Rhys and a chew valley pike that took his lure on the drop.

Rhys holds the biggest fish of the day on a late October session

On another forgotten lake on a very cold frosty night in late October, only one run was forthcoming and produced this lovely common for Olly.

Read More

Australian endings!

After an Epic year of fishing and cycling around the Western half of Australia it's finally time to leave and start preparing to the next big trip at the end of 2012. It was a memorable trip indeed; the people, landscape, nature and fishing were all above and beyond my expectations and will be sorely missed until I can return down under. A big thanks goes to all the people that helped me along the way, specially Lloyd and Elise for their kindness and Suzy and everyone at Dongara backpackers where I was made to feel very welcome for my stay. And of course everyone I fished with along the way including Graz and Graham for having me to stay in Kunnunura and Darwin and Jamie for helping me out in Darwin with the fishing. I posted my trip on Fishwrecked.com so thanks to all the guys that followed my progress and commented on there. Mitch and Dion were an inspiration with their filming and stories of crocodile catching and thanks to my good mate Nick for coming to fish back down the coast with me on the return to Perth.

Unfortuntanely a few weeks before I left  a low life scumbag stole my laptop and camera taking with him most of my photos and videos from the trip. It was a valuable lesson in backing up data and now regrettably I won't be able to add some very exciting video footage to these pages.

In a few months time I'll be setting out on another big adventure but until then there could be some updates from the fishing in the UK so keep an eye out. But for now some photos from the last month or so in Australia.

While jigging with Lloyd and Elise o the west coast of Australia at the Kalbarri classic fishing competition a solid fish  grabbed hold of my 55 gram shimano jig and a memorable fight ensued. Hopeful of a very large cod we were surprised when this good sized sandbar shark surfaced near the boat, the jig neatly tucked into the corner of a toothy set of jaws. Although not a fish that could be entered into the competition it was a good result on 20lb line and a 30lb flourocarbon leader.

Keen for a photo of the sandbar, with the help of Lloyd and after a fair bit of antics and  fast movement  around the boat  a couple of photos were recorded before the fish was released.

Some good cod made an appearance while we fished with the Kalbarri cliffs  in the background. Small areas of coral that took time to find threw up a few decent fish including some big sand snapper.

After Lloyd started the cod ball rolling Elise landed this beauty which looked like a competition winner  but was outdone by a fish slighty larger.

While searching out some good ground to jig a solid bite mid-water had us wondering what was chasing the lures mid-water. The answer came when Lloyd coaxed this beautiful cobia from the depths. It was the first big one I had seen and so wished that my bite had resulted in a decent hook up. To make matters worse ten minutes later I watched  good cobia follow my jig to the side of the boat before turning to vanish into the deep blue sea.

The sand snapper in all its glory! Apparently not the best eating fish but great fun to catch and a new species for me.   It was a great shame that to participate in the Kalbarri classic competition all fish had to be killed for the weigh in meaning samson fish and sand snapper that would undoubtedly usually be released were brought in to boost the teams points.  It reeked of fishing 20 years ago when no one knew any better and was a great dissapointment for me. With so much media attention and younger anglers seeing and learning from the competitors actions it would make so much sense to introduce  a catch and release measuring system to record each boat's catches. At least then there would be the option to release fish that probably won't end up on someone's table. Seeing photos of dead fish spread across the newspaper made me cringe. The organisers of the kalbarri classic seem to be stuck in a time warp and I know I won't be competing in another competition like it again.

Back down in Dongara Elise once again hooked into a solid fish on a soft plastic that proceeded to give her a good run around first thing in the morning.  The best samson fish of the day was the result and not a bad start to a very good day of fishing.

They say your eyes can be bigger than your stomach which  seemed to be the case with this little  specimen  who  managed to become hooked on a jig weighing ore than him! This result shows the effectiveness of vertical jigs.

After Elise caught her big sambo a jig didn't have  good chance making it out of the strike zone which suited  me fine and this was the fist one to win it's prize.  On pe2 tackle it was touch and go fishing and certainly started to wake me from my morning trance brought on by staring at the sea on the 30km trip out. 

The day kept getting better and better as more big fish slammed into our jigs and soft plastics. One minute  all was relaxed and there was time to admire one of the large brown auks that would follow the boat about all day and the next minute the rod would be straining as line emptied from the reel at a dizzy rate. The question always was whether the fish would make it to structure and cut the line. luckily most fish were coaxed fast enough to see them landed and released.

I was itching to get a good coral trout on the jig and finally my reward came with this solid hard fighting fish on the 55 gram shimano jig. From the word go the situation looked decidedly dodgy as the powerful fish held ground, not budging an inch from the coral sanctuary below the boat, but slowly it was overcome by the fully bent Daiwa demon blood that slowly brought it away from the jagged outcrops. When I saw it surface I was one happy angler indeed!

Not a target fish but surely one of the most beautiful to hit one of my jigs. A sergeant baker!

With a very similar body form to a barramundi but occurring in more southerly waters the sand bass was  a nice surprise on the jig.

Lloyd and Elise aboard Lloyds trusty boat holding two good samson fish

The scourge of the sea; a northwest blowie much to the dismay of  Lloyd . I though it was a pretty decent capture but  understood that novelty wears off very very quickly indeed. When a shoal of these are below the boat there is only one course of action and that's to move  a long long way away.

The dhu master himself; Lloyd and a solid west Australian Dhufish taken on a  jig

A good Dhu fish that hit a vertical jig

Elise has good reason to smile with this solid dhu fish taken on a soft plastic.

Lloyd does it again, this time on a squidgys wriggler soft plastic.

An evening session in the boat after mulloway produced this good estuary cod that was quickly tamed with Lloyds Shimano Terez. The real test for the rod came later on when not a mulloway but a big ray picked up my tailor fillet bait and played hard but nothing the rod couldn't deal with. We ended up getting a good soaking when the ray woke up by the side of the boat while we tried to retrieve the hook.

A greedy soap fish that must have been hungry or possible not impressed by my jig bouncing around in it's  face!

Dongara kite stock festival 2012

Geraldton Guardian newspaper

Geraldton Guardian; 50 dollar prize winner! whohoo!!!

The mangrove jacks were growing fast while I was in Dongara and a session on the river would always produce a bunch of these aggressive hard fighting little fish 

A juvenile mangrove jack that might one day move out to the offshore reefs to join the coral trout and other  demersals found off the west coast

Beautiful and peaceful surroundings for a session while the sea is having it's gut blown out!  Mangrove jacks, mulloway, bream, bony herring and the odd tailor are the main targets, all small but very enjoyable to catch on light enough tackle.

Lloyd with one of the better mulloway that came to small sardine chunks freelined on jig heads.  These soapies and the jacks aren't shy when it come to biting compared to the bream which have a habit of moving the bait  a long distance before finally taking it.  On the other hand, the bony herring don't mess about; they are high speed hit and run merchants. A tight line suddenly scooting off up the river means a little pack of these slender fish have moved in and are nail any bait falling or moving through the water; the problem comes when the hook is set, which usually it isn't because of the hard mouth doubled with instant aerial acrobatics of  this fish that is known as a springer in South Africa.

Another Dongaran mangrove jack that gobbled up a sardine section.

On the return trip to Blighty I once again had the chance to visit Nick in singapore where a spot of peacock bass fishing was slotted into the weekend. It was as usually humid and very hot and the fishing not easy but Nick came through and landed the second bass he hooked, using a little sebile hard shad. Not one of the monsters but a truly good looking fish that made the day.

Read More

Land-based leviathans

For years, a large Shovel Nose Ray has evaded me. I hooked what I thought were a couple of big ones in Mozambique a few years ago and then caught small brown shovelies in India, but never a big one. The smaller species are great fun on light tackle; seen cruising in the shallows, a small bait can be sight cast in their direction and, when the line pulls tight, a solid scrap ensues as long as the tackle is balanced. Here on the west coast of Australia the White Spotted Shovel Nose Ray patrols the waters of the long, deserted beaches, picking off crabs and other tasty morsels churned up by the waves. 

A solid White Spotted Shovel Nose Ray that took a liking to a a Tailor head

The interesting thing about fishing the Western Australian beaches is that there is a good chance that some particularly large fish might snaffle the bait. Tiger Sharks, huge Stingrays and other big shark species can be encountered, particularly when the sun dips below the horizon.  The last big Stingray that took the bait fought hard for over an hour and was undoubtedly a monster. Probabably a big, black Bull Ray. Using my heavy Shimano beastmaster, 80lb power pro braid and Saragosa 18000, I leaned hard on the fish and eventually had it close to the beach. Repeatedly, it came into the surf zone only to become stuck in the deep gutter where extraction was virtually impossible. It would, perhaps, have been a few more minutes before a wave would help the fish up onto the beach, but, after an hour and ten minutes, the line parted.

Fantastic sunset on the west coast 

The first large Shovel Nose Ray that I had a good look at was cruising the clear, shallow water up in Exmouth. It was a beautiful fish around two metres long with vivid white spots against a light brown skin. Lit up by the bright Australian sun it, of course, had no desire to feed. Maybe night would be the time to catch them and we fished hard up there, but never came across another Shovel Nose. That only happened down here in Dongara after putting in a quite a  few hours on the local beaches. Milton had lost one the previous week after fighting the big fish for 45 minutes, so I was keen to fish the same water.

After being bust off by the big Ray on the previous session, it seemed sensible to stick to using Tailor fillets and heads for bait. On the beach we fish, the near gutter is deep and close, so only a short cast is needed to get the bait into the prime feeding zone. After half an hour of sending the Tailor head out, the rod arched over in its tube and the fight was on.

White Spotted Shovel Nose Ray, Dongara, Western Australia

It was a spirited tussle, some good solid runs and dogged head shaking before the large fins could be seen breaking through the white, frothy waves. With some help from James a very lively Shovel Nose was landed just above the breakers for a couple of photos. Many locals swear by the eating quality of these fish, but to kill such a beautiful creature seems a great shame.

James with a decent Lemon Shark

James, who is a keen fly fisher, was keen to get stuck into a few of the Australian fish while working over here on the west coast. Things had been pretty quiet for him, with the better specimens avoiding capture, until one evening a very solid fish picked up his bait. To start with we were baffled as to what it might be - sharks were ruled out since there was no wire trace - but from the fight it was putting up we guessed it might be a big Mulloway or even a Shovel Nose. However, after the fight had continued for a while, the croaker option was ruled out and we started to wonder whether it might be a big shark conveniently hooked in the scissors. Some twenty minutes later a Lemon Shark of around 110kg lay beached on the sand with the hook only just wedged in the side of its mouth!

Good Spinner Shark for James

James continued his shark success a couple of nights later with a lovely Spinner Shark that, for its size, went pretty well. It was on one of those evenings when the fish are really playing the game and every cast seemed to rouse some interest. Before James hooked the Spinner Shark my bait had been well and truly nailed by a very large fish which had run for the horizon. The 80lb braid sped off the reel as the drag on my Saragosa 18000 was cranked higher and higher, with what seemed like little effect. After thirty or forty seconds at least 200 metres of line had been emptied from the spool and, unluckily for me, the hook popped from the fish's mouth. I was left wondering whether a spooling might have occured or whether I could have somehow stopped the big shark before it took the remainder of my line.

Shovel Nose Ray that took a squid bait

It didn't take long until, once again, my rod curved over as another big fish ate the Tailor head bait. And, again, just like the previous run, line vanished at a dizzy rate and I started to fear the worst when the fish was showing no sight of letting up after 250 metres. But, suddenly, I was able to stop wondering about the outcome when the line went slack as a sharp reef cut the braid - and that was that. It was still early and we fished on. James caught the Spinner and I went on to get a decent Shovel Nose Ray, so we went home fairly happy. Since that night, we haven't hooked into anything nearly as big as the two fish that escaped, apart from two more giant Stingrays. Like the last time, I fought the Ray carefully for over an hour and it felt larger than the previous one, but the gutter once again stopped me landing it. The steep ledge of sand that runs the length of the beach makes it almost impossible to bring a big Ray through the waves, but I'll keep trying!

Since the last Stingray busted me off, James and I met with success and finally landed one of these monsters after another, epic hour-long battle. This time it was James' turn to fight the fish after it took a fresh Mullet head from just behind the breakers. A slow first run without any head shakes indicated that the hooked fish was a Ray - and a big one at that - because James could do nothing to slow it down. An almost locked drag had no effect on the monster as it continued to plough out to the star-spangled horizon where the sun had set an hour before.

Unlike the last few big Rays we have hooked, this one didn't kite to the left and head north, but kept on a course straight out to sea. This meant James didn't need to the leave the comfort of his esky and could play the fish from his makeshift 'fighting chair'. Twenty minutes into the fight and the ray had calmed a little: the runs had become shorter and James was starting to tire. It seemed both angler and fish had a long battle ahead. But, with a considerable bend in the rod, neither of us was surprised when we heard a sharp crack as James' prediction that it would be the rod's last outing, came true.

The rod hadn't broken in two just yet, but it was perilously close to doing so. For the remainder of the fight some careful rod work was needed if the big fish was going to see the beach. Patiently, James fought the Ray for another 40 minutes, often an inch at a time, until it finally reached the surf zone. With the aid of the waves, we managed to beach a spectacularly huge, black Smooth Ray. Unfortunately, we had no tape to measure the disc width of the fish so its weight is anyone's guess. But, whatever that Ray weighed, it was an amazing capture, particularly on relatively light tackle.

Another giant stingray estimated at around 250lb + which took an hour and forty five minutes to subdue!

A break from fishing bait threw up a couple of solid Tailor to the surface lures. This time the Maria pop queen was the lure of choice.

An early morning Tailor popped up from around the beach reefs

Read More

Another fishy West coast report

Over the last few weeks the weather has been kind to us on a few occasions. Winds have dropped and the seas flattened out enough for some great days out on the boat. And, with the warm waters have come Tuna and Spanish Mackerel. Not far offshore, the Longtail Tuna and stripeys have been busting up the bait shoals and, to any switched-on fisher are fair game for some great, light tackle sport. Terns, gulls and auks have been the give away. The birds closely follow the fast moving pelagics around the ocean's surface and, with Lloyd's sharp eye, we have had numerous chances to get close enough to cast lures into the surface mayhem.

Lloyd with a great looking Striped Tuna that fought all the way to the boat on  light tackle

We started with small, sub-surface lures such as the maria duplex, which cast far and matches the size of the bait on which the Tuna were feeding. First cast and Lloyd expertly landed the lure in amongst the boiling fish. And the result, of course, as he started the fast retrieve, was a solid hit followed by a singing Shimano reel.  A little later, when we again managed to get close to the Tuna shoal, the fish moved off pretty fast and, soon, any sign of surface action vanished. Lloyd cast a Shimano Ocea stick bait out and worked it back towards the boat. With little hope of a strike we were surprised to see a good Tuna suddenly surface and smash into the lure. It missed the hooks, but, second time around, it was more determined and a hook up resulted. Exciting fishing indeed!!

A good lure-munching Longtail Tuna for Lloyd

The Longtail I hooked next decided that it wouldn't hang around, but instead head for the horizon. The light hooks on the Maria lure meant I had to keep the drag pretty soft, so after only 30 seconds of screaming reel, the braid was nearly finished. Lloyd and I both saw the backing appear at the same moment and I thought it was all over. But Lloyd was on the throttle and in a second we were after the fast-moving fish, which eventually came to the net after a hard fight.

Longtail Tuna that nearly emptied the small reel in thirty seconds flat.  

In between the high speed Tuna action a spot of jigging was in order to see if any Dhufish might be hanging around in the inshore water despite the continuing high temperatures. Macca didn't waste too much time and soon hooked into a solid fish on a soft plastic lure. It was a dogged fight, but, after a few minutes, a good Dhufish of nearly 10kg came to the boat. Amazingly, people claim these great fish don't fight; use the correct tackle and the experience will be one to remember!

Macca with a good Dhufish that hit a soft plastic hard

A little later Lloyd's rod bent over in an alarming curve as a big fish made off with his butterfly jig. Screaming reels again as he battled the fish off the bottom and towards the boat. Another big Dhufish was a the result. A real result considering that we weren't too hopeful of landing any so close to shore.

Lloyd and a solid jigged Dhu fish

After jigging, a troll was in order to try for a few maccies and it didn't take long for the swimming lures to get well and truly nailed. Thanks, again, to Lloyd, location was the easy bit.  Trying to keep the hooks in proved a bit more tricky.The first two made it to the boat then one was dropped. The day after I fished, Macca was going, finally, to settle his score with Spanish Mackerel. Having lost them before, he had the chance to get even and ,as it happened, hooked into a very good fish that fought deep and hard. Yet again though the fish got the upper hand and made a fast escape as the hooks bent. Better luck next time mate!

Trolled up Spanish Mackerel

Lloyd with a decent Spanish Mackerel

Read More