River Barrow Coarse Fishing
With rivers dropping to a nice level I had a place in mind for the last couple of weeks. I recently was sent a rod from Cadence that I really wanted to test out on some roach and possibly hybrids. The area I had chosen was a deep stretch near a woodland. I found over the years the roach tend to gather here. Rooting in the shed I found my trusty ground bait bucket, for the contents it was away to the supermarket for this week’s recipe.
- 1 tin finely chopped luncheon meat
- 3 tins sweetcorn
- 1 cupful of cooked hemp
- Half a loaf of bread
- 3kg of layers pellets
- 3 handfuls of sand / crumbly soil
All left to soak for about 10mins then churned about and left to soak for a further 20mins until a stiff mix is formed.
Heading to the Barrow I had my angling advisor Anthony with me. We loaded up the van and off we went to dig a few worms. Gathering the worms and getting the odd word of advice from the executive box (grandad’s shed) we headed to our fishing spot. Arriving the river conditions looked lovely. Wasting no time loading up we headed down the bank. We discussed strategies and who was going to fish for what. I was firmly set on roach/hybrids while Anthony was skipping to a different species with each footstep, as I did when I was his age.
When we arrived, it was time to set up, I had a light ledger rig and used sweetcorn as bait. My idea was to ground bait a slack spot and allow the ledger to bounce along the bottom through the ground bait or to the side. Anthony started with a waggler float and used his Cadence 10ft pellet waggler. The ground bait was just ready so we threw in some about 10-15ft above where we wanted it to hit the bottom. We also threw in about half a tin of sweetcorn 25-30ft above the area. Anthony cast in and had a nice roach first run which was a really promising sign. The casts that followed he also picked up some nice roach, they really fought hard in the deep current and the bites on the waggler were superb. The float would dip and then shoot downstream. Watching the float never gets old, working it downstream occasionally holding it back to allow the corn to rise a little in the water then drop. Having a picture in your mind of what the corn is doing as it glides through, then it turns and shoots downstream as a fish takes. It was just a wonderful sight and glide.
I had opted for the light ledger rig. I cast in and let the lead bounce or run along the bottom, it would stop and then id get a long slow pull on the rod tip as the fish turned. Lifting into them was exciting and they really did fight hard. The rod of choice today was the cadence 12ft specimen rod which comes with 2 top sections. One is a 1 pound test curve and the other a multi tip. I had the 3oz tip in which was perfect for today. I had roach over a pound in weight and quite a few at that. I was reeling in one roach and in the deep water it was flicking and flashing when I saw a large shadow behind it. I reeled in quicker as I knew Mr. Pike was going to take a swipe. Just as the fish came to the surface the pike thrashed which got the attention of my angling advisor. Anthony quickly grabbed the pike rod and a lure. He cast in and danced the lure about a bit and it wasn’t long before there was a flash under the surface and the pike was on. Not a very big pike but a pike none the less. We took a quick picture and away the pike went.
As the evening went on, we had lots more roach. A couple of dropped fish that of course did seem bigger and fought deep and hard.
A wonderful day with plenty of roach and surprise pike. No hybrids today but I will certainly be back soon to try again.
Ardaire Springs Angling Fair
Superb line up this year. This is a great chance to speak to some of the best in the business. Fly tiers, casters, advisors and developers all with vast knowledge. The kids casting and tying will be in full swing and I hope to see some of the kids’ casters from last year so they can show me what they learned. I will be there with Cadence and APGAI so feel free to stop by and say hello.
