“Sunday 18th July 2010

Eely good fishing

With the second round of the Kent Angling League fast approaching, I was back off down the River Rother at Newbridge with some of my teammates for extra practice on a venue I enjoy so well. Although I have sorted out my main plan of attack, which I will go into more detail after the match itself, I wanted to sort out my eel line, as eels seem to making a comeback on our rivers from what I have experienced so far this season on the Royal Military and Rother. With most of them going over a pound plus, they are definitely worth fishing for as they are bonus fish along with the bream and big skimmers. Eels have a tendency to patrol along the first ledge on the Rother system and when I plumbed up the depth, I found the first ledge at about five metres in eight feet of water. I used a moored boat on the far side as a marker and cupped in some chopped up worms and maggots which eels love and could eat all day long. I fed this line on and off for three hours but did not fish the line as I was busy catching roach, skimmers, rudd and the odd eel on my main line at 13 metres down the middle of the river. With 90 minutes of my five-hour practice session to go, I placed my rig over my close-in eel line and within two minutes, I was playing a nice eel that eventually ended up in my net pan. This process was repeated later when I tried again so all looks good for this weekend's match on my bonus eel catching line, but before this method can be deemed as successful, I will be looking to catch plenty of roach, bream and skimmers in the first half of the match.

Monday 19th July 2010

A forgotten art

The following day I was back on the river again but this time the River Eden in Kent for the next part of my angling series The Obsessed Angler which, is going really well. Stick float fishing was the method for this part of the show and although I did not catch anything big of note I had plenty of bites to demonstrate how effective this forgotten art is. Conditions were probably too bright for this shallow and narrow river but it was ideal for my pal Matt Fuller, who was doing the filming, as we travelled up and down the river looking for some decent looking swims to run a stick through and catch some fish. The first part of this series should be out in a month's time as we have the final cut to do and the first species I target as The Obsessed Angler is bream on the waggler and feeder; watch this space.

Wednesday 21st July 2010
After spending a few hours wetting a line down one of my domestic club’s waters I was pleased to catch a healthy net of quality roach and crucians using a 15ft rod and a light pole float set up. I soaked overnight some micro skretting pellet in water and by the morning they were soft and fluffy just like my favourite species the crucian carp like them. On the bank side, I pumped up some expander pellets for the hook plus some bits of sweetcorn and in no time I was catching fish after fish until I packed up just after midday to go home and make up some more rigs for my match this Sunday on the Rother. I know practice makes perfect but under match conditions the luck of the draw still determines a good day from an average one so I will be keeping my fingers crossed that my skipper pulls out a team draw of one, two, three or six as I am sure that in my section at Newbridge, I can win the match outright, something I nearly did in this event two seasons ago when for some reason they pegged three pegs not normally in the match length and - yes, you guessed it - I beat everyone apart from two out of the three pegs in the other not normally used section.

Roars of laughter if you catch a tiddler

One of my favourite days at Bury Hill Fisheries is when the Waylands disabled anglers pay their regular monthly visit to the fishery, normally the last Thursday in the summer months the chair bound anglers really have a great day catching the odd small perch plus a bonus bream of up to 5lbs. The carers look after them a real treat and of course I am always at hand to offer some angling advice if the fish are in a finicky mood. Although it is a fun day out for them all believe me when I say each and everyone one of disabled anglers group want to catch the most fish on the day as they have cups to fish for which I think is a great idea. They have cups for the most fish, biggest fish and of course the smallest fish and I can hear roars of laughter from the bank side when a contender for the smallest fish has just been caught, long may they continue to have great fun from the world of fishing.

The matches at Bury Hill Fisheries are still producing some good sport with the recent Epsom v Woking club match on Milton Lake having winning scores of 40lbs with close back up weights. All bar one peg was in so this will always make the fish finicky under pressure so it was good to see most of the anglers put some decent weights on the scales.

You cannot catch if your baits are not in the water

Temple Lake is one of those lakes that drive some of our specimen member’s nuts as the fish are big and wise. The lake can switch off for long periods especially in the winter months and many a blank session has been had but when the fish decide to feed, there is no better place to be if catching big carp rock your boat. One angler in particular Darren Hazel had made a couple of phone calls in the week to me to see how the lake was fishing as he was thinking of booking in for a 24 hour session. Fish-wise, I had nothing to report from the last few days and I could sense by his response that he was thinking not to book in. Knowing the lake trends as I do, I suggested that the lack of fish catching activity was a good thing as at some point soon they were going to feed and it would probably be a good time to get on the lake. He booked in, turned up later in the week and during his 24-hour session he banked four fish including a new PB of 30lbs 4oz, he was well chuffed and so was I.

Until next time,

Tight lines!
Russ Evans.”