stevetheangler

Yep, today is the opening day of the 2013-2014 river coarse fishing season – yet here I am, miles from the river – or any waterway come to that… why??

Well, a couple of factors really.

• I was out at Alton Towers yesterday sampling as many of the rides as I could – including the new Smiler, which incidentally is to be tried before you die, or at least tried AS you die it might be said! – so that was a long tiring day, and with a strange and wonderful array of roller coaster based dreams all night and a late rising – and no tackle/baits are prepped.
• And, yes, its a Sunday – bad. June 16th – bad. Sunday June 16th – expotentially bad as the world and his son (and daughter for you PC’ers) will be lining the banks and doing a re-run of the Coventry blitz with leads and feeders causing eruptions of volcanic scale all along the banks. Very rarely will I fish anywhere on any Saturday or Sunday…  and so Saturday/Sunday June 16th are a definite no-go for me.

So my plans for my start of the river season are based around a visit to the Severn on Tuesday 18th. Targets being barbel primarilly with chub as a secondary. Actual location to be visited is still under consideration, but will likely be one of several BAA sections with one of those being a very strong contender at the current time. So tomorrow (Monday 17th) will be spent in prepping my rods, tackle bag and baits. I will be aiming to travel light (well, as light as one can with several 2oz and 3oz leads and possibly a couple of 4oz’s too in the mix). I’ve found an ‘old’ (well, bought a long time ago, used twice actually) leather bag thing that’ll be great for the bigger leads – its actually a bit like a cross between a ‘bum bag/fanny pack’ and a shoulder holster – triangular shaped with several pockets, the top strap fits over the right shoulder and falls diagonally across the back ansd around the front to meet the bottom left corner of the bag at the waist – so its great for spreading the weight across the body. I think I paid about £4.50 for it at the time from Bilston Market.

Will take two rods – my 2lb TC TFG Barbel rod and a lighter backup one – probably one of my old Winfield 1.75lb TC Specialist Angler rods. 10lb or 12lb mainlins will be used, dropping down to 8lb, possibly 6lb for chub.

Baits will consist of meat (various flavours), cheese/paste, pellets and pellet paste, worms, slugs if I can locate some nice black ones, probably take some maggots and corn too. Hemp/wheat/maize for feed purposes.

OK – so that’s the plans – so what’s been happening in the meantime..?

Well, I’ve made a couple of purchases…

• I’ve bought a copy of Richard (Dick) Walker’s book ‘Stillwater Angling’ which is on its way now – £4 all-in from eBay, the Pan paperbook version…
• A couple of pots of each of 2SSG and 3SSG shot are also on the way. Very useful sizes in my opinion. 2SSG is great for shotting a 3AAA float for ‘laying on’  (2AAA=1SSG … so a 2SSG overshots a 3AAA float by 1AAA which is usually about right to combat water drift which can cause the shot to be dragged along the bottom)… similarly a 3SSG is great for a 2SSG+AAA/5AAA float. Also they are good for light legering in that a spaced out string of shot will hold bottom far better than an identically weighted single lead (inc coffin or pyramid) – take a 1/4oz ‘lead’ (non-toxic weight really) connected to the mainline either directly through the eye of the lead or on a link of line, the flow of the water on the line will attempt to lift the lead from the bottom and thus decreases its effective weight and the combined pressure on line of lift and push will cause the line/link to start to bow downstream and cause the lead to eventually lose hold and shift… however, a string of shot acts so that water pressure on the highest (closest to the mainline) causes it to lift but this is moderated by the next shot down which itself is held low by the next shot and so on and so the overall chain of weight is more parallel to the flow and the current’s effect is attenuated. Effectively, it will be found that a chain of 3x2SSG shot (9.6g total weight) spaced at 2″ intervals on a link will easily hold current better than an 1/2oz (14g) single lead  and often better than a 3/4oz (20g) lead. And that excludes the other attribute that due to the length and flexibilty of the link/chain that it can ‘snag’ around small pebbles, in light weed, etc which will also help to keep the weight stationery in the current. However, in a place of heavy snags this latter can also be a disadvantage… but then again if the shot are only gripped to the line as tightly as absolutely necessary then its possible that on severe snagging that the shot(s) will slide off and the rest of the end tackle retrieved without problem.
• After the visit to Nordley Pools last week, and the umpteenth fallover of my current tackle truck (see photo) requiring an unload, uprighting and reloading, I’ve now purchased a fishing barrow – I’ve bought the Des Taylor Transformer barrow with sides (photo) from FishTec with a special offer deal of £49.99. A single wheel barrow, it comes with a 2-wheel adation kit too. Looking forward to this as on the current trolley space and size is limited and hence whilst pushing trolley we still have to carry buckets, rod holdalls, etc – I say ‘we’ as the situation is amplified if Liz and I are together but even if changed to ‘I’ then still the same situation occurs. But with this all bags, etc, including the rod holdalls, should be able to be put on board.

Ok, that’s all for this posting….

The ‘old’ trolley                                             and                                                       the ‘new’ barrow….