Species hunting road trip: Southbound pit stop.

Last Wednesday morning after saying goodbye to Nick and Ryan, I jumped in my car and began the long drive from Stranraer to Weymouth. About half way, I stopped at a tackle shop to buy some pinkies and then headed to nearby Kingsdown Flash. There I stretched my legs and quickly ticked off a species, that to my knowledge, is only found in that particular venue in the entire UK. 

A great venue for a short pit stop. 

My now tried and tested method of a tiny chunk of a pinkie on a tanago hook, fished under a Chianti pole float worked a treat, and I was soon catching some small roach, perch and my target species, the bitterling.

A small species, this was the largest bitterling I caught of about a dozen.

Mission accomplished! After relaxing for thirty minutes and chatting to some locals, I quickly packed up what minimal tackle I had used, got back in the car and continued my journey south. Arriving at my accommodation fairly early in the evening, I opted to relax, organise my tackle and tie up a few rigs for the species hunt on Flamer IV early the following morning. I was really excited by the prospect of potentially catching my first ever butterfly blenny!

Tight lines, Scott.

Click here for the next part.

And now for something completely different.

My fishing of late has been almost exclusively in saltwater. This was something that I was keen to remedy so on Sunday I set off on another trip down south. This time it was a tour of some of England's coarse fishing venues that are known to contain some rare freshwater fish species. My chosen targets over three days were bitterling, bleak, pumpkinseed, motherless minnow, crucian and silver bream. With the exception of pumpkinseed I have never caught any of them before so the trip was a good way to add a few new species to this year's tally. Setting off early on Sunday morning I arrived at my first venue, Kingsdown Flash in Abram, just after 9:00. My target there was bitterling and I quickly found myself a peg with some nice marginal features to fish.

I was advised by other anglers who had caught bitterling to fish tight to marginal features and these reeds and lily pads fitted that bill nicely.

Single pinkie on a #22 hook fished under a very sensitive No.1 Drennan Glow Tip Antenna float shotted right down to a pimple was my chosen approach and I soon caught a few small roach as well as a couple of bigger fish that I think were rudd but may also have been roach/rudd hybrids.

I'm pretty sure this is a rudd. Hmmm.

After a while I decided to try for my target at a second peg but this only produced a few more roach and a tiny perch. With a two hour drive to Stratford upon Avon to make to try and catch bleak before a further eighty two mile drive south to my hotel I decided to gamble, fish on for an hour longer than I had originally intended and moved to a third peg that again had some nice marginal features to fish.

The view from the bottom end of Kingdown Flash, known locally as Polly's I believe.

More small roach were soon gobbling my small red maggot, with a single gudgeon eventually making a nice change.

Not the little fish I was after but one that brought a little smile to my face.

To be honest I was just about to give up on catching a bitterling and begin packing up to go when I got a huge slice of luck and caught one.

A very pretty little fish with a nice purple sheen to its back and an almost neon stripe on its tail root. 

Over the moon but now behind schedule I quickly packed up and headed off to try and catch my second target, bleak. After driving down the road, parking the car and walking a short distance I arrived at a very nice little stretch of the River Avon just below a weir opposite an old mill that had been replaced with some expensive looking flats.

A lovely spot to fish with a bit of current. Ideal for catching bleak hopefully. 

I decided to use my centrepin reel in conjunction with an Avon float to trot my pinkies down the river. I like using the centrepin although my casting is still very poor but luckily distance wasn't required and by holding my float back, causing my bait to lift up in the current I found that I was soon getting bites. Hitting them was another matter and I soon discovered the difference between a dace and a bleak is a fraction of a second but I managed to connect with a few of both. 

Bleak look similar to dace but have a much bigger anal fin. They also have a nice bright shine to their flanks that looks lovely when you tilt them back and forth in the sunlight.

Spending a few relaxing hours catching a few dozen fast biting silvers was very nice. Some much needed centrepin casting practice was had before I headed down the road to a hotel near Congresbury where I'd be targeting colourful pumpkinseed the following morning.

Up early and breakfast eaten, I checked out of the hotel and made the short drive down to the next venue on my itinerary. The roads leading to Silver Springs Fishery were not great and my Sat Nav took me down a very uneven one before I eventually found my way there. If you want to visit the venue head west along Silver Street and follow the dirt track at the end of it. 

A nice fishery on a lovely day.

Speaking to the owners I was assured that there were plenty of pumpkinseeds present but was saddened to hear that they were trying to remove them. Fishing with the same end tackle I employed for bitterling in a shallow area with lily pads and reeds either side of me I soon caught a few dozen small roach. Thinking that I was going to have to keep plugging away until I caught my target I suddenly spotted a few fish at very close range in about a foot of water amongst the rocks and weed on the bottom that I thought I could make out a gill plate spot on. Reeling in I didn't bother adjusting my float and instead slowly lowered my pinkie in amongst them. They quickly attacked it and I lifted out a pumpkinseed. Quite surprised by their very aggressive nature and their close proximity I adjusted my float depth to about six inches and before I knew it I had caught a dozen of the pretty little fish.

Some were more brightly coloured than others. Perhaps male and female but I'm not sure which is which?

Happy enough I decided to head to my next destination, Viaduct Fisheries, earlier than I had planned to spend the rest of the day trying to catch a motherless minnow. Speaking to the lads in the fishery shop when I arrived I was assured I would easily catch one if I fished my pinkie about a foot under my float and could strike their very fast bites quickly enough. Well I was soon catching plenty of tiny roach again but by late afternoon and having fished a few different pegs the only other species I had caught were a couple of rudd and a perch so I moved to another pond that had a nice view of the viaduct that the fishery gets its name from.

A nice view to fish in front of. 

This produced a few more roach but after an hour or so I decided to have a break, plumbed up a rod length out and fished the bottom for a while. This produced more roach, a lot of bream, a couple of F1 carp and a lovely little tench.

Little slimy bream.

F1 carp gave a good little scrap.

They lack or have tiny residual barbules.

The smallest tench I've ever caught. How cute. 

Before too long I was ready to try again for a motherless minnow and headed to a third pond. By now time was starting to run out, one of the guys from the shop I had talked to earlier popped over to see if I had caught my target and was surprised to hear I hadn't. Just after he left however I finally got a couple of them in quick succession.

Somerset has small populations of these little fish. Also known as Sunbleak they can be easily mistaken for other species at first glance but their partial lateral line is a key distinguishing feature. It only runs 7-10 scales from the gill cover.

My efforts rewarded I quickly packed up and headed east to Godalming in Surrey where I'd be spending the next two nights.

Up early on Tuesday morning I headed to Marsh Farm Fishery to target crucian, the species it's famous for in its purest form and to record proportions. Again seeking advice from the lads in the tackle shop on site I headed up to Richardson Lake and picked a peg.

Lucky number seven?

I took my time setting up and after making up some groundbait and plumbing the swim to find the bottom of the marginal shelf I tossed in a few balls and cast out. There was a slight breeze blowing and this made it tricky to see the tip of my float and any tiny movements that crucians might cause. After a short time I could see bubbles breaking the surface, an obvious sign that some fish had entered my swim and I soon caught a small bream. After landing three more my float dipped under again and I struck into a fish that was a bit better, fought for longer than a few seconds, putting up a decent little scrap. A golden flash when the fish first showed itself had my heart pounding but after a minute or two my first crucian was in the net.

A pure crucian. A lovely fish indeed. 

Keen to catch more crucian I fished on into the early afternoon and hooked a couple of other fish that fought well until disappointingly my hook pulled. Plenty of bream kept me busy however and after twenty five of them and their accompanying thick mucus I decided to head off to try and catch my final target of the trip, silver bream.

Another small bream comes to the net. Their slime was starting to get everywhere. Not pleasant.

About an hour south of Marsh Farm is Mill Farm, a fishery renowned for record silver bream. Arriving there I sought shelter from the wind and started fishing on the bottom into a depression I found whilst exploring the swim with my plummet about two thirds of the way between my chosen peg and an island. I fired out a few maggots and cast in. My float hadn't settled for long when I got a lift bite and struck into a small fish. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it was my target species.

Silver bream may be rare but I would discover they are not shy. 

They have a relatively large eye. 

A black edge to their fins is another distinguishing feature. Overall a nice looking fish with the added bonus of being slime free!

Next cast I caught another and this continued with the odd roach also hitting my maggot on the drop. Almost a fish a cast I had soon caught over fifty silver bream!

I then decided to try another pond to see if a bigger bait would produce a carp. Firing in a load of maggots and some corn I fished double maggot or corn on the hook. This produced more silver bream and roach with my baits rarely being on the bottom for any length of time at all. 

All of the fish were in lovely condition.

Fishing to an island feature my float finally shot away so quickly that I knew a carp had taken my bait and feeling the hook had charged off. Luckily the rod was in my hand otherwise it would have probably been out of the rest and heading towards the water. My rod immediately had a nice bend in it and I just took my time playing the fish letting the rod sap its strength whilst my drag allowed it to run when it wanted. 

My soft float rod cushioned the lunges of the fish beautifully. 

It stayed deep, made a few short but powerful runs and took almost fifteen minutes to finally come to the surface and show itself. It wasn't done yet though and it took another five minutes or so before it was ready for the net.

A common carp in lovely condition. Great fun on my float rod too.

I carried on fishing for an hour or so and caught a few more silver bream and roach. Heading back to the hotel I reflected on a very successful trip which couldn't have gone any better really. I caught all of my targets and some other really nice fish too. I really enjoyed myself, overall it was quite relaxing and thinking about it I wasn't sure why I had done so little freshwater fishing lately. I've had some superb saltwater sessions though so can't complain but I am planning on doing more freshwater sessions though. In particular I've been told about a diamond backed sturgeon that has been donated to a Scottish fishery so I plan on having a go for that soon and I also have a spot of lure fishing for pike in the pipeline for next week with my mate Nick.

Tight lines, Scott.

When the fishing gets tough...

The Friday before last I headed down south with my mate Martin for a long weekend of lure fishing targeting freshwater predators, but primarily a favourite of ours, the zander. We also wanted to meet up with some fellow anglers at the Gloucester and Sharpness Zander Bumble on the Sunday. This was organised by local angler Kev Pugh. On the way down to Gloucester though we broke the drive up with a stop at Kingsdown Flash in Abram to spend the afternoon drowning maggots. This water apparently holds a good head of bitterling, a fairly recent addition to my "Most Wanted" species list. Being fairly early in the year I wasn't confident about catching one but was keen to try anyway and if nothing else it was a good opportunity to have a look at the venue for a return in the summer. 

As I've said, I knew it would probably be tough trying to catch a bitterling but I thought we'd perhaps catch a few roach or perch in the process. Action however was non existent apart from a few carp splashing about on the surface, getting ready to spawn. Bites just didn't materialise and after about two hours of patiently staring at my float and feeding a few pinkies I spotted something hanging from a nearby branch and took my eye of the waggler to go and investigate. It turned out to be a bright red artificial maggot but when I turned back to return to my seatbox I did so just in time to see my rod heading towards the water! Luckily I managed to grab it and had a fish on. It felt like a small carp or tench but sadly it came off after about thirty seconds. Sods law but at least I'd had a bite. Another hour or so passed with no more bites though so we decided to move. This did not improve our fortunes so we moved again one last time. This saw Martin being broken off by a fish after his attention was distracted by a carp surfacing nearby. A fish had grabbed his bait and shot off, he didn't see his float go, the first he knew about it was the the fish nearly wrenching the rod from his hand before his very light hooklength went. Probably a carp we suspected. Soon afterwards Martin's float slowly went under and he quickly landed the first predator of the trip.

Martin's monster perch. 

For those with poor eyesight. 

He then caught a roach slightly bigger than the perch, I had two tiny fish throw the hook on me fishing in the margin and resigned myself to ending the session on a blank, packing up and trudging back to the car. I didn't see what they were and Martin wound me up by suggested they were bitterling. The swine! Anyway, it was a fairly disappointing start to the trip and we both hoped things would be more productive during the weekend's predator sessions.

Fairly early on Saturday morning we headed to the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal. Bumble organiser Kev had suggested a spot for us to try when on the phone to Martin the night before and that's where we started. Fishing soft plastics on drop shot rigs we slowly worked our way along the canal but after about four hours my efforts had attracted no interest whatsoever and Martin had only had a couple of knocks. We had been told beforehand that the venue could be a notoriously tough place to fish but the lack of activity was very frustrating. We were both glad when Kev called, we headed off to meet him and we decided to head north to the Grand Union Canal to fish for the afternoon where Martin and I had fished before with some success.

A short drive later and we were at Kev's chosen stretch, one he had a few fish from recently. Martin was first to get his lure in the water and hooked a fish almost straight away but soon lost it, much to his digust. A good sign we all thought though but it didn't prove to be the case as the fishing was very tough. After quite a while Kev finally had some interest and hooked a zander. It was carefully netted by Martin and Kev was quite pleased with it and informed us it was probably a new PB, a fact quickly confirmed by his scales.

At 2lb 6oz it was indeed a new PB zander for a rather pleased Kev. 

Again encouraged by some action we soldiered on but the canal seemed to be pretty devoid of active fish. After a while I had tried numerous lures and had also switched to bottom bouncing a weedless jighead all with no reward whatsoever. After a short break and a sit down to set up a drop shot rig I decided to stick with this method and fished with one lure, a Daiwa D'Fin. We then doubled back and by the time we had passed the starting point light was starting to fade and Martin had headed a fair distance off ahead, obviously desperate to find some fish. I have to be honest and say I had almost resigned myself to another blank by this point and was chatting away to Kev about drop shotting. As we chatted he pulled his lure back out from some branches on the far bank he had cast into and a fish grabbed his lure as it dropped into the water about half way across the canal. Unfortunately it wasn't on long and spat the hook when it came to the surface. On my next cast I felt a very aggressive take and soon brought the culprit to the canal's edge. I wasn't going to mess around trying to get the net out so I quickly lifted it out to hand. It was a fairly small zander but I didn't care, it was an enormous relief to finally get a fish!

A most welcome little fish. Maybe the same one Kev had just lost.

Martin then came back to meet us and I told him my good news. Sadly Martin had nothing similar to report. We fished our way back to the car but the only things our hooks found were a few branches and there was no further contact with the resident fish.

On Sunday morning we headed to the meeting point for the bumble. It was good to meet up with some people I've met before and also introduce myself to some people who I've chatted to on forums but hadn't met in person. After we had our fill of bacon and sausage rolls we all jumped into our cars and headed to a stretch of canal south of Gloucester. Given our experiences of the day before I think Martin and I had quite low expectations. It was however a beautiful day and the stretch of canal we were on was out of town and much nicer as a result. A much wider section too so at least there was a lot of water to cover and hopefully it would have a few fish in it. I decided to stick with one lure all day and fished it on a drop shot rig about 15cm up from the lead.

Martin enjoys the sun. 

My lure for the day. The one that caught me my only fish of the trip so far, the Daiwa D'Fin. 

After a while Martin hooked a fish after getting a few bumps. It was a small fiesty jack and taking no chances I netted it for him. A good start to the day and he was no doubt pleased to get off the mark after blanking the day before.

Jack goes back. 

We worked our way along the towpath chatting to other anglers as we went. It was good to hear that a few fish had been caught including a single zander. Unfortunately Martin and I were struggling again and just before lunchtime made the decision to start our journey back up the road. We headed along the canal and found Kev and thanked him for his hospitality and apologised for not being able to stay all day. Back in the car we headed north and decided to break up the drive by popping into Warwick to fish the Grand Union Canal for an hour or so.

We headed to a spot we've had success at before but unfortunately British Waterways had been along and  had removed all the overhanging trees from the far bank that had provided some excellent cover for predators to hide in. With nothing happening we went for a wander along the canal and soon spotted a few moored boats. Martin cast into a long gap between two and hooked a nice fish. Net duty for me again and after a spirited fight from the fish a nice looking zander was on the unhooking mat. It turned out to be Martin's best Zander to date at 60cm, probably around 5lb.

A nice fish and a new PB for Martin. 

We carried on fishing for a bit longer but it was soon time to hit the road again and I was dissapointed to end the trip with a second blank.

So we had experienced some very tough and at times quite frustrating fishing too. Probably the toughest fishing trip I've ever been on with a lot of effort put in for very little reward. Driving up the road I was just glad to have caught the small zander late on Staurday so that I didn't end the entire trip fishless! Great company as always though and it was great to see Kev and Martin get new PB zander. I think next year I'll try and get down for the bumble, stay for the whole day and the post event meal too.  Don't think I can wait a year for another zander though so Martin and I may try and get another zander fix later in the year. Hopefully next time it won't be so tough to find some!

Tight lines, Scott.