Mine's bigger than yours!


Our intrepid North-West angler - Damian Durrant shows off his latest catch - a pb 6lb Esthwaite rainbow.
Damian's annual trip to the Lakes proved to be a red-letter day - catching rainbows to the 6lb mark and losing a further seven fish. We're told his brother-in-law - John (pictured right), took great delight as Damian lost seven fish on the trot...did someone mention rubber hooks?
Damian tells us: The fish were delicious - you can't beat a freshly caught trout or two!'
All the fish fell to boat-fished spinners.

AFYD at Kenmore Salmon

On Tuesday 15th January 2008, members of Angling For Youth Development represented their organisation at the Kenmore Salmon Opening Celebrations on the River Tay in Perthshire. The event which raises money for charitable angling purposes donated the proceeds of the day to AFYD.
Over 20 teenagers from East Perthshire accompanied by their instructors participated in a number of activities to help promote the work of AFYD and the sport in general. They were joined by a number of their supporters who include amongst their number AFYD patrons, Professor David Bellamy and Fiona Armstrong, representatives of Tayside Police, Tayside Fire & Rescue, Perth and Kinross Council, and staff from Blairgowrie High School where the AFYD modular angling course is being piloted.
Also present were displays of the work AFYD undertakes in Scotland, notably a presentation by Allan Suttie, Trout in the Classroom UK, about his work with primary schools, and Fly Tying demonstrations by Allan Bithell, who wrote the AFYD Fly Tiers Journal, which is one of the key components of the AFYD Game Angling Course. Allan also promoted his new book, Progressive Fly Tying, which compliments the AFYD Fly Tiers Journal.

National Fishing Week Dates Announced

'All encompassing' is the theme behind this year's National Fishing Week. That's the clear message from the organisers as the dates for the festival of fishing were confirmed as 19th - 27th July 2008.
"We want to embrace all disciplines of the sport, and to this end it was crucial that we secured the help of the Angling Development Board to achieve this", said Sean O'Driscoll, Chairman of the Angling Trades Association, one of the main sponsors of the event.
"I am pleased to confirm that the Environment Agency has also shown its willingness to get heavily involved once again, and following on from the great work by Neill Sellers over the past four years I am delighted to welcome the Get Hooked on Fishing team to project manage this years event," continued Sean.

Now in its 15th year, National Fishing Week has introduced tens of thousands of newcomers to the sport, and is recognised as critical to the sport's development and future.

Anglers Hooked On Riverlife Competition

Hundreds of anglers from across the region have taken the bait and are currently casting their lines in the hope of becoming Yorkshire's 2008 Riverlife Angling Champion.
Seven competitors and their clubs will share a significant prize fund and, with many matches still left to fish, the fight is on for one skilful angler to win the top prize of £1,000 and, more importantly, the coveted title.
The championship was set up to celebrate Yorkshire Water's investment in the environment, with over £400m being spent in the five years to 2005 and a further £250m investment planned before 2010 to improve the quality of waste water treatment at sewage works in the region.
The seven rivers being fished this season are the Aire, Calder, Don, Nidd, Ouse, Swale and Ure. Each year, hundreds of anglers earn points for the weight of the fish caught in eight league matches held on each river, although anglers can compete in one or more.
Karen O'Rourke, who organises the competition for Yorkshire Water, said: "Every year, we get more and more anglers taking part and competition to become the individual river champion - and especially the overall Riverlife champion - is fierce. This year's competition is hotting up but, with many matches to go before the end of the championship in March, the title is still anyone's.
"Whilst the competition has proved to be a significant event for anglers in the region, there's also a serious message. Yorkshire Water is making a massive investment at many sewage works, upgrading the treatment facilities which will, in turn, lead to even higher river water quality."
Riverlife is a celebration of the investment programme which will bring long-term benefits to the river environment on some of Yorkshire's most industrial rivers such as the Aire, Don and Calder. Significant work at Yorkshire Water's Esholt and Knostrop site on the Aire and Halifax site on the Calder are just a few of the many schemes already underway.
The investment will help to create a more natural river environment and help a wider variety of fish and wildlife to thrive.

River clean up boost

A SOUTH Yorkshire river - once among the most polluted in Europe - has been given another boost with the opening of a new £1 million water treatment plant.
Corus Engineering Steels has built the giant plant next to its Rotherham works to treat water which is used in its steelmaking process.
The plant treats up to 280,000 litres of water an hour before it is discharged back into the nearby river. It also treats rainwater which falls on the Aldwarke site to remove any pollutants.
Corus said the state-of-the-art new plant was now playing a major part in improving the quality of the formerly grossly polluted River Don.
Anglers already say the river is now one of the best in the country - with another salmon being caught recently in the Mexborough area.
John Rockett, Corus environment manager, said: “This £1m investment helps us to protect the aquatic environment and improves the local river quality as part of our continuing environmental improvement programme. When we return water back to the River Don, it is at least as clean as when we extracted it upstream.
“Environmental controls have become much more stringent than when we built the previous water treatment plants 18 years ago and we expect them to get tougher in the future. So when we built this new facility, we wanted to ensure that it would meet not just today’s environmental standards, but tomorrow’s as well.”
Local angler Martin Read, who is also chairman of the National Association of Fisheries and Angling Consultatives, said: “The River Don has changed almost beyond recognition over the last 20 years through a combination of tighter environmental controls and investment from industry.
“I can remember when nothing lived either in the river or along the banks, but today the river sustains large numbers of fish and birds, the banks are lined with trees and the river is attracting increasing numbers of recreational users.
“Only a few weeks ago, an angler caught a salmon in the Don near Mexborough, about four miles downstream of the steelworks. I believe it was only the second salmon to be caught on the river by an angler using rod and line in the last 150 years – the first was caught in 2001. That’s very significant as salmon are indicative of excellent water quality.”
Ray Parkin - Sheffield Newspapers

Fish find a new home in Rother

GREEN watchdogs have helped rescue threatened fish from a soon-to-be-closed industrial site in Chesterfield.
Officers from the Environment Agency moved fish from the 160-acre Rhodia site, off Hall Lane, Staveley, to safety in the nearby River Rother.
Rhodia – which manufactured sulphuric acid and chlorine – used water from the site’s millstream for the chemical factory.
But now operations have stopped, the stream will no longer be maintained – putting the fish in danger from stagnant water.
Jerome Masters, Environment Agency fisheries officer, said: “If we didn’t take action the fish would have eventually died when the watercourse silted up.
“It shouldn’t take them long to settle in their new home.”
The fish, including roach, rudd, tench and bream, were moved as part of Rhodia’s decommissioning programme, using a combination of netting and electrofishing – using an electric current to stun the fish.
The fish were then collected in a specialised transporter trailer and put in oxygenated water before being moved to the Rother.
The fish from the millstream all descend from fish washed in from the River Rother, either during floods or during the day-to-day operation of the site.

Sport England invests in future for angling coaching

Jackie Sheldon, Senior Development Manager for the Angling Development Board has successfully bid for £40,000 from Sport England to develop the current Level 1 and 2 Angling Coaching qualifications. The funding will enable the development recognized coaching qualifications for the whole of the UK.

The ADB have been working in partnership with Scottish and Welsh angling governing bodies and sports coach UK to co-ordinate the development of coaching across the Home Nations. All angling governing bodies have now signed up to the new UK Coaching Framework and the UK Coaching Certificate. Consequently angling is now included within Sports Coach UK new re-categorisation of sport.

Since its formation last April the Angling Development Board has more than doubled the funding for the development of angling to nearly £400,000 over the next three years. After setting up the ADB, sport England increased overall funding to £250,000, The Environment Agency has agreed to contribute £20,000 for the development program and Sport England have recently agreed to fund the appointment of a Regional Development Officer until 2010.

Already the ADB has been using this money to get results. Last week the organization announced the appointment of Darren Birch as Regional Implementation Officer for the North of England to work on the delivery of the club, coaching, volunteer, equity, child protection and education development through the angling network. The ADB is already in talks with major partners to match fund post in other parts of the country.

Darren Birch is a regular angler and has a sound sports development background. Darren is currently the North West Regional Officer for the English Federation of Disability Sport and has also previously worked for Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust as Disability Sports Development Officer. This has involved developing effective partnerships with National Governing Bodies, County Sports Partnerships, Local Authorities and local voluntary clubs to increase participation in sport.

Jackie Sheldon stated that, “this is an important and exciting time for the development and recognition of angling. It will enable angling to develop the UK Coaching Certificate for the sport and ensure a consistent approach to coaching across the UK. Darren will be a great addition to the team and his extensive experience will enable the ADB to support angling at grass roots level”.

Matt Holt, Client Manager for Sport England commented, “Sport England is pleased to support the ADB in its development of UKCC for angling. This will help raise coaching standards within the sport. In addition we look forward to working in partnership with the ADB in the coming year to help achieve our objectives of increasing and sustaining participation, and creating excellence in community sport.”

David Moore, Chair of the ADB added, ‘’At a time when winning support for non-olympic sports has been under threat we are very encouraged to have such good backing from Sport England and its chief executive Jennie Price. One of the strengths of angling is the opportunities it offers everyone in society to be active and the availability of good quality coaches is vital to increasing participation.’’

Bass record

A FORMER Ollerton angler has fished his way into the British record books after he bagged himself a mammoth catch.
Thrilled Stephan Cave landed a monster 37.5 inch bass weighing 19lb as he fished off a pier near his home on the Isle of Wight on 24th November to smash the previous 19-year-old record.
The impressive haul has now lifted Stephan into the spotlight and seen him feature in local newspapers and on television on the island as well as on a host of fishing websites.
Delighted Stephan told us: “I have been fishing for around four years now and have caught some big fish in that time but nothing that compares to this.
“I am over the moon to have hit the record books. I have friends who have fished for 40 years who have never managed anything this big so I’m delighted.
“My friends have been fantastic about it and it has been really strange to be recognised by so many people when I go into a shop.
“The record I beat stood for 19 years so I am hoping my new record will stand for quite some time. It is a very nice feeling to be a record holder.”

Frozen in...



Our man on the bank - Graeham Armes - finally met his match with the recent cold weather.

Graeham's never one to be bothered about the cold, but he admits he had a few problems when he tried to retrieve his rigs.

Undeterred, he landed a 17lb 8oz pike (inset), which goes to show - perseverance certainly pays off!


Graeham says: 'Bit chilly in the morning, but a first light start saw me with one dropped run, one threw the hook, one approx 8-9lbs and this for 17lb 8oz all from a relatively unknown pit'.

A tough guy our Graeham! - Ed

The Opening of the Season

Kenmore January 15th - 16th 2008

The Scottish Salmon Fishing Season opens for business on January 15th with its traditional celebrations at the Village of Kenmore in Highland Perthshire. Sponsored by Evergreen in association with the Kenmore Hotel, a number of Celebrities will, as usual be joining local fishermen in pursuit of the first fish of the season.
The celebrations commence in the village square at 9.45am.with welcoming speeches by Mark Stephen the presenter of the BBC’s “Out of Doors” and Ally Gowans, well known writer and fly fishing instructor, after which The Vale of Atholl Pipe Band leads the procession to the river bank where a fishing boat is blessed with a traditional quaich of Dewar’s whisky. The first cast of the season is made from the boat by a celebrity guest and the season is declared open.
The event has raised considerable sums of money in recent years for a variety of charitable causes. This year’s recipient is “Angling for Youth Development (AFYD), a social inclusion project sponsored by the Strathclyde and Tayside police forces and a number of local authority bodies.
This year the opening will be accompanied by a number of fishy activities. A fly tying exhibition is being staged at the Kenmore Hotel by that doyen of fly-tyers, Alan Bithell and fly-casting demonstrations will be taking place on the village recreation ground.
In recent years the Kenmore community has developed the opening event beyond the ceremony itself to focus attention upon a range of environmental issues that affect the Tay Valley. As part of this programme, Professor David Bellamy will be presenting Kenmore Primary school with equipment, sponsored by the Kenmore Hotel, to enable it to participate in the “Trout in the Classroom” programme that is spreading in schools throughout the U.K. “Trout in the Classroom” provides schoolchildren with an opportunity to study the development of trout from eggs to fish and to stock the river with the fish that they develop. In doing so, the children learn a great deal about the local ecology.
On January 16th, a host of fisheries and environmental experts will gather for the seventh Kenmore Seminar. This year’s agenda is focussed on some grave environmental issues affecting the Tay catchment and it is anticipated that delegates from all over Scotland will meet to absorb the lessons of the Tayside experience. The attendance of senior governmental figures is anticipated.

Views sought on Environment Agency performance


The National Association of Fisheries and Angling Consultatives (NAFAC) is seeking the views of anglers, clubs, and fishery owners with regard to how effective they believe the Environment Agency carries out it’s fisheries responsibilities.
A questionnaire, which was recently circulated to all NAFAC members has now been included in the NAFAC website, www.nafac.co.uk, and can be downloaded by anyone. Everyone with an interest in angling or fishery management is invited to complete the form and return it to NAFAC.
NAFAC Executive Chairman, Martin Read, commented, ‘The Environment Agency is often criticised for it’s actions, or the lack of them, over the range of it’s responsibilities, yet they claim that their own surveys show that 80% of anglers are satisfied with their performance. Our survey asks some detailed questions and we are asking those with an interest in fisheries to answer them accurately and candidly in order to provide a wide ranging overall view. We will be discussing our finding with the Agency, good or bad, when the results have been correlated.’

Kev still raising cash

Kev Allen - angling charity fundraiser says: Here is the new website for breast cancer care that you all very kindly donated to this year.
We managed to raise over £5600. This couldn't have been achieved without you, the anglers on the bank, very many thanks indeed.
Please have a look at the site, I hope you like it: www.thebigbash.co.uk
Kev added: All the best, hope we can count on your support in the coming year, the next event booked is for May 21st 2008.
If you can help in anyway, please don't hesitate to contact Kev Allen directly: E-mail: silver.s@btinternet.com



In Heaven!

What more could you ask for - if you were a cat?

Comfy, nice and soft and smelling of fish... a cats' paradise!

Our thanks to John Barnet for sending us this lovely picture, we all know who wears the trousers in his house.

Before you e-mail us - no - it's not a new species of catfish!

Thanks to John for the pic. Anyone else got a 'fishy' pet picture to share with us? - Ed.



Can any of our readers give them a helping hand?

Hartcliffe & Withywood
Angling Club

As a newly formed club for children and young people from Hartclife and Withywood, a deprived area of Bristol, the club is always looking for funding or equipment to enable them to give all age groups a chance to take up our glorious sport.

Grassies take a lot of handling when they are on the bank, as club members Jake Hynam and Conrad Williams found out when they landed this lovely 10lb+ Grass Carp.

Our thanks to Mike Robbins for the info. E-mail mikerobbins@blueyonder.co.uk

Pike with a taste for cheese

Our intrepid angler - Graeme Armes - was bemused to say the least when he landed a pike whilst fishing his local river...
Graeme was targeting chub on the quiver, using his own recipe cheese-paste as bait, and having landed a near 5lb bream and then a 2lb+ eel, his swim died and he didn't get a bite for the next four hours, until a savage pull-round on the tip turned out to be a marauding pike of 3lbs, hooked fairly in the jaws. Sounds like a fishy tale to us!

Hybrid for Chris

Chris Lambert caught this very large 'Roach' on the Tidal Exe, Devon. It was so large he thought it must be a hybrid - which pulled the scales down to 3lb 2oz. Chris caught it whilst feeder fishing maggot on 4lb line straight through to a 16 hook.

Our fish expert Andrew Kennedy explains...

It's a good fish, but looking at it, there are a lot of features synonymous with a chub. Firstly the shape - the body, head and fin shapes are all very chub-like. As is the colouration along it's back - there seems to be a golden hue to the scales there, which you would not tend to find in a true roach. The head is definitely that of a chub, with it's rounded snout and thick, rubbery lips and large eye. I'm convinced there is some roach lurking somewhere within it's genes though. The scales do look quite silvery and from the dorsal fin backwards, it resembles a roach more than it does a chub, so I am tempted to say that it is a very rare roach/chub hybrid.

There was in fact a roach/chub hybrid caught from the Trent this year. It was big enough to threaten the roach record, but ID tests proved it to be a hybrid.

Roach and chub have so many similarities: they have a similar amount of scales along the lateral line and the photos don't show the fins well enough for me to count the rays. But I am convinced the fish is not a true roach. It is one of the more difficult specimens I've had to identify though I must say! It's certainly a capture worth treasuring because I doubt you'll ever see or catch one again!

Not quite so big for Dave!




Here's NFA angling coach Dave Dorning, of Ripley, Derbyshire, with one of his bigger captures.
Dave - part of the famous 'Hinge & Bracket Duo' with Carl Bamford, proudly displays this mighty fish, which was so big, he had to use both hands to hold it.
When asked if he's caught anything - Dave's usual reply of 'Non!' resounds around the water, much to the delight of his fellow anglers.
He's a great character but ought to know better than send in pictures like this! - Ed.

It's a biggie!



Our intrepid angler - Graeme Armes sent us this pic, taken 'somewhere in Mallorca' when he was on a holiday with the lads.
How come we don't have works of art like this in our country? It's definitely a wide gape though!
I'd like to see the size of the fish this hook was intended for...Ed.

Mick Harlow with a Derwent Salmon

13th September 2007.

Mick had an unusual capture whilst fishing the Derwent at Borrowash when he caught this lovely salmon.
It must have been all of 5lb - and it was returned to the river to fight another day.
A very special day for Mick!

Has anyone else managed to capture a 'silver tourist' out of the Derwent?

Please let us know if you have any information regarding unusual captures from our rivers.

 

 

 

Whitesprings Eel

We just had to share this pic with you all - of a stunning 8lb 1oz eel.
It was caught by a carp angler, who was fishing with boilies at Whitesprings.
We phoned the fishery and they informed us that they had quite a few 'good' eels coming out at the moment... anyone fancy a trip? - Ed.

 

 

Zander in the Don?

One of our readers has sent us this pic of a small fish - which he claims is a Zander he caught whilst fishing under the Neepsend Bridge on the River Don.
If any of our Don anglers have caught a Zander - please let us know. - Ed

Gotta have one of these!

Just imagine working in the office with one of these in front of you!

You could have a shoal of roach swim past, perhaps a couple of gudgeon browsing the bottom with a 'herd' of skimmer bream, a few rudd taking biscuit crumbs off the top... sheer bliss!
Imagine how you could watch carp truffling for your latest experimental boilies... or you could check the shotting for your newest pole floats.
Every office should have one.
Thanks to Dave Williams for the pic.



Blue Beak and Yellow Eyes!

With the recent floods, our rivers have been out of sorts, so I decided to take a walk along the River Wye at Bakewell, Derbyshire - and I spotted this indignant little water fowl.
I couldn't believe it's colouring - it had a blue beak!
But it's eyes were so unusual - they were bright yellow!
It really gave me a malicious stare as I tried to get closer with the camera and then it turned tail and scooted off to a quieter pool, well away from this inquisitive, camera-pointing would-be twitcher.
Nope - not a drop had passed my lips. - KM


Thousands of fish put back into River Don to boost stocks

THOUSANDS of fish have been released into a South Yorkshire river after a disastrous pollution incident earlier this year.
More than 100,000 fish are estimated to have died after a sewage spill in the river Don between Rotherham and Doncaster in July.
Oxygen levels in the river plummeted after heavy rain caused sewage from storm overflows to enter the river.
SInce then the Environment Agency has carried out a clean-up and has monitored fish stocks to make sure the pollution had disappeared. And now hundreds of roach from the agency's fish farm near Nottingham have been put into the river in Kilnhurst to boost fishing prospects.
The River Don is a major success story and after decades of being grossly polluted is now a fishing hotspot.
But the pollution incident last year was a major blow for local anglers, who have welcomed the restocking programme.
Agency fisheries team leader Pat O'Brien said: "We have a three-year programme which targets rivers and still waters which would benefit most from restocking – but we need to prioritise this programme to stock those rivers in greatest need.
"Restocking is only one part of the recovery plan for the River Don."


'Walk of Shame' for Mr. Angry!

Our very own Mr. Angry recently appeared on the popular TV programme 'Weakest Link'.
He wasn't very angry...
In fact there wasn't any of the usual banter, so prevalent when he's on the bank.
In fact - he was the weakest link!
What a shame!
Although he did redeem himself a little - with a final 'Walk of Shame' comment of:
'I feel I have been verbally abused by a strangely attractive pensioner' (!)
Well... whatever rings your bell - as they say!
What makes it even better - he doesn't know - we know!

Precision Baiting...

Recently spotted at Pebley Reservoir

When it comes to getting bait out to the island, there's nothing like a hot air balloon to help!
A tad expensive, a little 'hit and miss', but you've got to admit - it's different!

The more bait you deposit - the higher you go?

I'll stick to a bait boat - Ed.

 



Stotz from Preston Innovations

If - like me you struggle getting very small shot onto your line, this is definitely something you should try!

Pictured here are the size 11 Stotz, they are approx 2mm long with a wide cut running their length, they are soft and easily squeezed together with your fingers. Not so good for photographing though!

The Stotz are so easy to put on the line and - even better - you can take them off just as easily.
What's more - they don't 'ping' off when you land a decent fish.

They are ideal for those very delicate pole floats but they can also be used with much thicker lines. They come in various sizes - look out for them in the tackle shops. They're brilliant!
The single size dispenser pictured costs around £1.45 - well worth it.

Hooked on history...

Fishing for answers: Geoffrey Palmer tries a spot of angling on the River Lathkill.

Time went by very quickly for actor Geoffrey Palmer when he joined fishing expert Rae Borras for a TV programme filmed on Derbyshire’s picturesque River Lathkill.
Geoffrey, star of BBC comedy series As Time Goes By, and angling expert Rae, were shown how to make a traditional fishing line out of horse hair for digital channel Discovery Real Time’s Compleat Angler programme, screened on 20th January.
The ten-part angling series is bringing to life Izaak Walton’s 1653 classic, The Compleat Angler — one of the most published novels in the English language, after Shakespeare’s works and the bible.
Rae and Geoffrey get together for the series, to catch some of Britain’s best fish as they compare locations, fish and methods of today with those in Walton’s time.
A spokesman for the TV programme said that though Rae and Geoffrey use ancient and modern equipment to compare fishing techniques through the ages, “they soon discover that while heavy wooden rods may have been substituted for light carbon fibre equivalents, the art of fishing never changes.”
For third episode of the series, Geoffrey and Rae were filmed at the River Dove, where they visited Temple Cotton, a temple built by Charles Cotton for his friend, Izaak Walton.

Intrepid AnglersTimes' journalist lands a record !

Look at the monster I pulled out of my perch swim yesterday!
A very rare (in UK waters anyway), 3-legged patio chair.
It had been in the river for some time as it had lost it's silver sheen that such species have when fresh-run from the sea.
It had obviously been subject to some kind of attack in earlier life - possibly a pike or cormorant, which resulted in the lost leg. It seems to have healed well though.
I was thinking of contacting the EA, because I'm sure whoever put it in there didn't have a section 30 or DEFRA approval for such an exotic species, more usually associated with the balconies and patio areas of the Mediterranean.

I had to hand land the beauty because it wouldn't fit in my net!

Regards
Andrew Kennedy

 


Secret Rig

We sneaked a quick pic of this unusual rig used by mega carp catcher - Dave Williams.

There's fake corn, float stops, swivel and an 'O' ring involved. We can't work out how the corn is connected to the hook, you'll have to sort that out yourselves.

Sorry Dave - we just had to published this!

New hook length

During the recent warm weather I've been doing my share of surface fishing for carp... and as usual - getting more than my fair share of refusals!
During a search for a better hook length, I discovered this - Genesis Smart mono. With a breaking strain of 3 kilo the diameter is only 0.16 ! There's 150 metres on the spool and it only cost a fiver!
I'll let you know how I get on... Ed.

There's a Mondeo in my pond...


It was a strange Bank Holiday for me - or a strange ending to it at least!
On Monday night, a woman crashed off the road into our field (11pm on a foggy night), wrote her car off, but managed to keep it running. She drove to the gate which was locked, so she then headed through the middle of the foggy field in search of an open gate and... well, take a look for yourself!
Fortunately, there was very little pollution and we managed to get the car out with a digger we had in the field. I had to go in with the wetsuit, into the car, wind the back windows down, pass a sling through and attach it to the digger bucket.
At the moment there doesn't seem to be any fish or water vole deaths, but we shall see.
- Andrew Kennedy, AnglersTimes.co.uk. April 05