Monday, 13^th January 2020, I set off at 0800 on a pike fishing trip to Patshull Great Pool, a local Staffordshire lake of 75 acres or so created by Capability Brown, work being started on its creation in 1768 for the Astley family… the estate then passed through several hands until it became owned by the Dartmouth family (Earl and Lady Dartmouth) in the mid-1800’s … it remained in the Dartmouth family then until 1958 when it passed to the Crown in lieu of death duties… The full history can be found at: https://patshull-park.co.uk/history/.

There are other smaller pools on the estate (Church Pool and Lady Barbara Pool) which are I believed syndicated carp waters these days but possibly limited tickets are available to fish those… See: https://patshull-park.co.uk/fishing-membership/

I have fished Patshull many times in my years…

I originally fishing there in the 1950’s (I’d be about 6-8 years old!) when still owned by the Dartmouth’s. At that time if you donated 2s 6d (12.5p in today’s currency) to the Dartmouth’s charity then you were given an annual FAMILY fishing permit … and my grandmother, who ran a pub, donated annually to this charity. So, at 1400 (2:00pm) on the Sunday (under the licensing laws as they applied then) the pub would be locked up for afternoon and my grandmother, parents, uncle and myself would be off to Patshull for an afternoon’s fishing – finishing when it was time to get back to re-open the pub for the Sunday evening session. The fishing was far different in those days than it is now – back then you were limited to probably just 800 yards (possibly less) of the bank to fish from, no boats of any description were allowed on there and only coarse fish were resident in the pool, bream, pike, perch being the main species although I believe tench existed in there and later carp were added…. Nowadays, you can hire punts with electric motors (or take your own motor to avoid the hire fee for one), fish much more of the bank space, etc, etc AND in the 80’s trout were added and the lake now provides coarse and game fishing within specified ‘seasons’…

There was a break of a few years in my fishing here post the late 1950’s after the estate went to the Crown and it was probably the late 70’s, early 80’s when I returned by which time punts (no motors, had to row) were available and more of the banks had been opened to fishing access … and in this era ‘names’ such as Nige Williams, Des Taylor and John Sidley were frequent visitors to the banks of the pool. Myself and angling buddy did a lot of summer bream fishing there from a punt – originally they were the stereotypical fishing punt ie light weight, low sides etc exactly as you see on Thames punting videos – bar that oars rather than poles were used but with 20’ of water long poles would be required!) but then they were replaced by humongous army pontoons very heavy and built rowing muscles you never knew you had! I see today the lighter type punts are now the ones that are back in use. Also visits after winter pike were made… and in fact I came second on one of the pike day comps held there with a 17lb’er caught on ledgered sprat…

Patshull Pike, 1980’s, 17lb

Patshull Pike, 1980’s, 17lb

Anyway, roll on a few years, my fishing was curtailed, I played golf for 10 of them… then via The Big Bang Theory coupled with Liz’s acquisition of a Wii, a shed tidy shedding light back on my tackle and retirement I’m back to my fishing in earnest … get licences, permits, club memberships … and then last year I returned back to Patshull, along with Liz on the first visit and then I made a further two solo visits that year…

AND now to the present … back in the fold of fishing after an enforced layoff for several months … and finding myself mid-term in my personal pike season (1st October-31st March I fish 95% plus of the time for pike) it really was time for me to return back to Patshull.

I left home at 0800 … morning just starting to brighten … to make the 5 mile or so journey to the gates of the pool… awaited at the fishing lodge door as no-one was there when I arrived but soon the bailiff appeared and a £8.50 permit was placed in my pocket…. and I headed to my swim … Peg 45, not fished there previously but when I’d fished a few pegs away the previous winter and did a reconnoitre around it looked a good area to me and so… there I went.

A nice looking swim on ‘the point’ where the large open bay turns into a narrower section thus fish following the banks get herded around – or so the thinking was :)…

Patshull, Peg 45

First casts were made around 1000 with static deadbaits on each of the two rods – and the rods were actually the ones I’d used in the 1980’s – homebuilt from Northwestern blanks (2.5lb or 2.75lb TC IIRC) and consist of just the blanks themselves fitted with rod rings and the reel mounts are Fuji ones…

Fuji Reel Seat/Mount

… attached with insulation tape over a few layers of the same tape wrapped around the blank just to protect it from the mount’s metalwork – no cork nor foam handle at all – and the end of the blanks are plugged with rubber bungs to prevent mud, etc getting inside. As basic as basic can get but I’d not swap these rods for all the money on Earth, feel a natural part of me now! The reels used were XLT 5000 ones loaded with 40lb Spectra (7-strand) braid. Traces of 30lb stranded wire with tandem double hooks and leads of 3oz on 6” sliding links of 20lb mono completed the setup.

Baits used initially were 3 sprats on one rig and a bait I sourced from Birmingham Fish Market some time ago, not sure what its called but comes from the seas around India IIRC and look very much like a small pike (4”-6”) but with the colour of a smelt. About halfway through the session the baits were changed from sprats to smelt (still 3 baits on the hooks) and the pike-smelt changed to a sardine slashed along its flanks to release its oils and aromas…

BUT by 2pm when I packed in – heavy rain had been forecast and in between a couple of showers with the sky in the distance darkening I elected to call it a day – I had had not one touch all session …again.

Four sessions into 2020 and not one touch, never not one fish…

One nice thing, a pal of mine appeared walking the banks and we had a chat for a good half hour, probably more. We used to be members of the same club but he left to venture elsewhere – in fact I think he’s part of the carp syndicate at Patshull these days too… Great to see him again!

Next trip planned for Thursday 16th January – a few hours on the Staffs-Worcs Canal armed with maggots and, possibly, bread and looking for perch, chub and bream mainly.

TEMPS:

AIR:                  MIN: 6.1’C         MAX: 9.6’C
WATER:           MIN: 5.9’C         MAX: 6.2’C

WATER TEMPS:

 AIR TEMPS:

Saturday, 11th January 2020, I decided to spend a couple of hours on the Staffs-Worcs Canal, lure fishing between Swindon (a small village in Staffordshire, not the Wiltshire one) and Botterham Lock, Wombourne. It was a general thing I wanted to do (lure fish the canal) but the actual venue/stretch was decided really by access – although it must be said it is a stretch I’ve fished in the chosen manner several times before and thus not really a ‘second best’ option. The choice being made as I didn’t have access to the car as Liz works on Saturdays and has an early start on her shift so has first call on it… so I needed a venue accessible by public transport and which Swindon has the easiest access to by the means … and the bus also covers the area at the opposite end stretch I was to fish so getting back home was also catered for. Basically, 2 buses each way (home->city bus station to change bus->venue and vice versa) and about 40 minutes travelling time although there is an extra 10-15 minutes wait for the bus at changeover time to be added to the total.

So, I set off from home at around 0800 armed with my 8’6” Ron Thompson (10-30g) spinning rod and reel loaded with 15lb mono and a 9” wire lure trace, a small compartmented box of lures of various types from small jellies, small rubber shad bodies, bar spinners, etc, my flask of coffee and a 22” landing net to be used in conjunction with my Korum 2.5 metre Snapper Cult telescopic landing net pole (Xmas present – fantastic for this sort of job – very light and 4-sections compact down to 60cm to carry and comes with a strap to attach to a bag or carry over the shoulder…

Arrival at the canal and first casts were made just after 0900… starting with a small bristly worm like jelly lure on an offset hook…

Staffs-Worcs Canal – just above Marsh Lock, Swindon…

And so I worked my way along the canal up to Botterham Lock…

The ‘Pipe Bridge’ With Botterham Lock In The Background

Now, to get the bus home I needed to walk the next half a mile of canal above Botterham Lock but I couldn’t fish it (despite it looking really ‘fishy’ – more so than the BAA section I fished actually – more far bank growth over the water) as the water is on the Wolverhampton AA card. AND I had tried to get a WAA card a few days beforehand but the young lad who was serving on his own in the tackle at the time couldn’t locate them and when he rang the shop owner it seemed that they may have been locked away in a safe box to which he had no access at the time … However, following my session on this day, and with a bit of time to play with before Liz was due home from work, I detoured my journey home to visit said tackle shop again and, after a bit of a search again (it appeared the tickets had been moved elsewhere) tickets were located and one was duly purchased ready for next the next outing…

BTW…. both the BAA and WAA cards are good value…

The BAA card for £30 (concessionary, normally £40) gives access to good lengths of the Staffs-Worcs Canal a stretch of the Worcs Stour and several stretches of the Middle Severn locally … and further afield a number of pools, further canal options (Birm-Worcs Canal, Coventry Canal, Trent & Mersey Canal, etc)  Lower Severn, Warks Avon, River Lugg, River Teme, etc. See: https://www.baa.uk.com/

The WAA card (£10 concession, £20 adult) allows fishing locally on several stretches of both the Staffs-Worcs Canal and the Shropshire Union Canals…. See: http://wolverhamptonaa.co.uk/

OK … so posting this now … but I have already completed Session 4 – Patshull Pool, a pike fishing session which I did yesterday… SO… Did he catch? Did he not catch? There’s only one way to find out …. and will be available very shortly and free to read!! LOL!

Best wishes to all….

Thursday, 9^th January 2020, I set off at 0800 on a pike fishing trip to Pike Water 5 – a local pool to home.

The plan was to fish for an hour or so with maggot on the float rod to catch a few livebaits and then the rest of the day would be given over to the pike fishing… but the best laid plans of mice and men….

I arrived in my swim – not the one I would have chosen at this time of the year I hasten to add although at the start of the pike season it is a good peg. By this time of the year the bait fish, and pike too, are generally shoaling ready to spawn over on the far side BUT due to the lack of a usable barrow to cart my equipment over – and it took 3 trips to and fro the car to get the tackle to the chosen swim and again in reverse when packing up – I chose this swim.

So, float rod was set up, depths plumbed, free fed maggots fired out and the first cast made around 0930 … but by 1030 I still had not had the merest tremble on the float despite changing depth of fishing, etc. Didn’t look too good for the rest of the day really BUT at one point a large swirl did appear to my left – and I hoped it was a pike in the swim (although it could have been a carp) as (a) might explain reluctance of silvers to feed and (b) well, yeah, a pike in the swim would be good!

So 1030 I tackled down the livebait catching rod and set up my two float fishing pike rods and fished these with deadbaits that I’d taken along with me as a backup plan if needed…

One rod had 2 sprats as bait, the other a bait (Birmingham Fish Market sourced last winter, can’t remember the name of them) that looked like a cross between a small pikelet and a smelt…. and I fished these at varying distances out, at varying depths until 1430 when, not having had the merest hint of any interest whatsoever from Messrs E. Lucius and family, I decide to call it a day as I needed to return home to sort out and dry wet tackle, put baits back in the freezer and then wash and brush up before going to collect Liz from work at 1730…

So, 2020, isn’t being kind to me yet, awarding me 2 successive blanks – but I’m hoping for ‘third time lucky’ tomorrow (Friday 11^th) when I’m heading down to the local canal (Staffs-Worcs) with the mini-jigs and various lures to see if I can tempt any perch, chub or pike there. I’m having to go on the bus though as Liz needs the car for an early start at work so I’m intending to leave the house around 0800, then its two buses to my start point (to Wolves City Centre and then out to destination). I’ll then fish along the canal to the far end of the stretch where I can catch a bus on a different route back to the city centre and finally my city to home bus. Takes about an hour from leaving home to get to destination and about same to get back so its not too bad. And travelling light with just a shoulder bag with flask, lures, scales, camera plus a plastic carrier bag that holds the landing net and pole, unhooking mat and a 3-legged stool to sit on whilst having a coffee… and then just the ready tackled up rod.

Still waiting for the new wheels I’ve ordered for my barrow – should arrive today according to ETA. Hope so, as I do really need to have a usable barrow by Monday otherwise options will be very limited.

I took my thermometer with me and started graphing the temperature trends – but with only one set of data so far not really not much info to be gained…. but here are the starting graphs anyway … now recording MIN and MAX temps for both air and water this time round…

TEMPS:

WATER:           MIN: 6.3’C         MAX: 6.6’C
AIR:                  MIN: 7.5’C         MAX: 12.6’C

Monday, 6^th January 2020, saw Liz and myself setting off for our first angling trip out in 2020 … much looked forward to by myself certainly as I’d not fished since September for health reasons previously given in earlier posts.

Our destination for the day (well, the day actually consisted of about 2.5 hours of actual fishing) was a large 100 acre reservoir in Shropshire that is on one of my club cards and our intended quarry was to be Esox Lucius – the pike! Well, what else was it going to be at this time of the year? 🙂

The weather was not the best that could have been hoped for – 7.5’C on the car’s temp gauge on the trip over – water temp not taken as I’d forgotten to pack my thermometer. And the wind was blowing hard into our faces too and even on a hot midsummer’s day on this venue you get quite cold as the breeze is cooled as it passes over the water…. and there was a good chop on the water with waves approaching 18” high at times….

Even the geese flying over the water were travelling at 45’ to their actual facings!

We fished static ledgered deadbaits – Liz one rod with a sardine bait and myself two rods, one with sardine and the other a smelt. Liz’s rod was her 11’ 2.75lb TC Ron Thompson pike rod, whilst my rods were both ones I homemade back in the 80’s from 11’ 2.75lb TC North Western blanks. We both had 3oz leads on but even that made little headway on the casts with about 20 yards the greatest distance attainable.

First casts were made at around 1030 and by 1300 neither of us had not so much of a sniff of any interest from the pike and so decided at that point that the allure of a beer with a bowl of hot gray paes and bercon bits (grey peas and bacon, to those from outside the Black Country) was too great to resist and so we packed in and headed back home to a local.

As mentioned in my previous posting I did take my newly acquired spectacle mounted HD action cam….

… however, I think I need to RTFM again as they say, as I ended with a blank memory card when I plugged it into the PC to transfer the footage. As you, obviously, can’t see the lights that indicate ‘standby’and ‘recording’ the camera passes that info out as a series of vibration patterns – and I think I got them mixed up! DOH!! Oh well, another try when I venture out again on Thursday to a different venue all being well.

Another 2 things as well…

As we’d not used our kit for a while I reminded Liz to check her batteries in her walkie talkie, bite alarms, etc BUT then failed to do the same with my own equipment – and discovered my bite alarm batteries were dead…..

And on Sunday night, as I loaded the barrow into the car ready for the off on the following morning, I noticed the wheel’s tyre was flat – no problem, connected up the air pump, inflated it to 30lb PSI per usual and all seemed fine. However, on arrival, the tyre was flat again :(. Just been on eBay now and bought two new complete wheel/tyres – not much dearer than buying a tyre and inner tube and can just slip on a new wheel saving the hassle of battling with tyre levers, etc… So one wheel on, one for spare – and I might have a look at the original and see if I can do a puncture repair when I have a spare minute or two. HOWEVER, the new wheels are unlikely to arrive before I head out again on Thursday – and I’ve checked wheels on my wheelbarrow and a trolley I have and none of those fit the barrow – so looks like several journeys to and from the car to unload and reload on that trip.

So really my 2019 year ended on the 14^th September 2019, the last session fished due to having to go into hospital for an operation to remove a cancer in my rectum (operation was an ‘anterior resection and ileostomy’). One upside of it is that I now have a key to ‘RADAR’ disabled toilets – but then again would have preferred not to have needed one in the first place but it’s a case of needs must when the devil drives I suppose…. And, the ileostomy is supposed to be a temporary thing and will hopefully be reversed around May/June – so I’ll probably have to miss the start of the river season!

Anyway, I was hoping to get back out on the waters by early December BUT then I developed kidney problems with them not functioning properly and becoming very dehydrated … and my GP was a waste of time when I saw them 3 times in 2 weeks at start of December – no tests (blood or urine taken even), prescribed anti-biotics and nasal spray on first visit, different nasal spray on second and vitamin/mineral drinks on the third – NOT HAPPY!! – and now filled in forms to register at another practice… Anyway, on the Thursday before Christmas (19^th?), being unable to eat without vomiting fo several days, I went to the local A&E – blood test showed kidneys malfunctioning (or as the doctor said, ‘your kidneys are dry!’) which led to me being admitted and receiving 4 litres of saline on a drip over Friday and Saturday, along with an anti-emetic … plus drinking water like it was going out of fashion. Immediate recovery – ate like a horse from the Saturday morning onwards and no sickness or feelings of nausea at all. However, although further blood tests showed an improvement they weren’t quite where the doctors wanted them and so more saline and stop in until Sunday lunchtime when results were acceptable and I was allowed home … So I was at home and feeling fine through Christmas Day eating well… Boxing Day I felt a little fatigued/tired which I put down to the usual excess eating on Christmas Day … but on the Friday I was again unable to keep food down and ended up back in A&E again … and again dehydration was the cause despite having drunk copious amounts of water. Plus I had high potassium levels… so I was on a dextrose and insulin drip to combat the potassium along with more saline to re-hydrate… again almost immediately able to eat without any problems. Monday, 30^th I was deemed fit and again discharged… And so far, fingers crossed and wood touched, I have been fine so hoping it remains so now onwards.

So, my hoped for end of 2019 sessions never got under way … but I have now packed my tackle bags and checked my baits in the freezer ready for a reservoir pike fishing outing on a club water with Liz on Monday 6^th January… so watch this space!! 🙂

Anyway, I hope you all fared better over Christmas than I did but at least I did get Christmas Day at home, something which was looking unlikely as we approached the day…

So, may I now wish one and all, belatedly, All The Very Best for 2020 … and may your sticks bend and the strings sing regularly throughout the year … !!!

Take care on the banks too – especially on rivers as they can be treacherous currently with floods and hence mud making them slippery and erosions undercutting them, etc…. And if you should, heaven forbid, fall in GO WITH THE CURRENT edging your way in to the bank … most people drown due to the natural instinct of trying to get back to where they fell in and waste so much energy trying to do so. Mind you, the cold shock will probably get you first…. so prevention is definitely the better option to cure in this case!!

Oh… I bought a new toy … and had a great Xmas present!

Toy: a camera that attaches to the stem of specs – or over-glasses. I have a GoPro’ish camera (well, 2 actually) but find that with a chest harness it impedes access to pockets and a head band it keeps rising up and it feels heavy in the bargain too. This camera is tiny (about 20-25g) I’d say but records an excellent image, far better even than the action/GoPro cams. I’ll post a pic possibly in the next post … maybe a bit of video too.

Present: a Korum Snapper Cult landing net pole (2.5m mine but also do a 1.5m version). I wanted one for my canal fishing especially lure fishing when roving from one swim to the next. Its telescopic (4 sections) and folded down is only 60cm (2ft) long (excluding actual net, of course)… quite light too … and has a shoulder strap…. so not used it yet but hopefully will get out there on the canals with it in the next few weeks having a few short mini-jig and bait sessions for perch and chub…. and bream and whatever else comes along… 🙂

https://www.korum.co.uk/products/nets-and-handles/snapper-cult-tele-handles

Well, here I am again at last….

Not been out on the waters, at least fishing, since my operation for rectal cancer albeit in the past couple of weeks I have managed a couple of walks, about a mile each, along a local canal. Also done a few shorter walks on the estate.

All went well with the operation itself … had the operation on Monday 23^rd September … discharged on Saturday 5^th October. Had few problems in the early days with the ileostomy ‘equipment’ I have to have attached to my body leaking but that was soon fully resolved after change of style/model to fit my contours better. AND, I’ve had information from the surgeon that my histology is good – no follow-up chemo or radio required and we’ll be having a meeting mid-December’ish to discuss – part of which I’m told will be regarding the reversal operation to re-connect the natural piping…. so all seems good so far from that point of view…

However, I’ve not an easy few weeks overall. Sinus problems and breathing difficulties due to that have made me feel exceedingly fatigued at times .. even getting upstairs to bed at times being a huge effort with much heavy breathing. A visit to the GP a couple of weeks ago is seeing me on iron tablets – seems blood iron on hospital release was 90, and normally should be 130, so quite a deficit. I was also put on a course of anti-biotics and now following this up with a steroidal nose spray.

However, touch wood and hoping not to apply a jinx, the past 3 days or so have been much better and Liz and I are hoping to do another walk along a canal on Monday or Tuesday next week along a stretch that my club has the fishing rights on, and so I’m thinking of taking a mini-jigging rod along and just having the odd cast here and there as we amble along…

November 18^th we’re off on one of our Sun newspaper holiday breaks. Well, actually 2 breaks – the breaks are offered in Monday to Friday (midweek) and Friday-Monday (weekend) versions – and we’ve booked Mon 18^th – Fri 22^nd plus Friday 22^nd – Monday 25^th to make one long break. And actually we originally booked for October 7^th – 14^th but I contacted the actual site explaining that I’d be recovering from my operation at that time and, happily, they were happy to change the date ex gratis for us … and not only that but we’ve even ended up in better accommodation! So, it’s off to Tattershall Lakes, Lincs, we shall be off… From the name you’ll probably realise that when we selected the site in the first place we’d intended to take the tackle and do a bit of fishing but its going to be a chill and ramble type weekend instead now.

So … things are moving along … and hoping to do my first proper fishing session early in the New Year…

Best wishes and tight lines to all!

OK, have a few minutes to play with so I’m posting the photos I took at my two last outings…

Basically both sets show various views of the pools – the 1st set is actually comprised photos from an anti-clockwise walk I did around the pool starting at my actual fishing position and back – and a few of the fish caught.

Session 42  – Pool 1

Session 43  – Pool 2