02 Saturday Jun 2012
Posted in Carp
With summer coming and going at present, the carp are up on top and here in central London I have come across a small quiet spot where access is limited, private infact.
Urban carp are always exciting as they exist in a very secretive world where most people would be surprised to see a small bream let alone a twenty pound carp swimming around in so called ‘dirty water’. The simple truth is our canals hold some of the best and un-known specimens in England. Its just a case of finding them…
04 Wednesday Jan 2012
Posted in Pike
Tags
bung, by, canal, caught, esox, fishing, gimp, hertford, nature, On, park, pike, regents, river, victoria, winter, wire
It’s the start of January, work is back on the agenda, rain is lashing sideways on my window, even a kestrel has landed on my window sill to shelter from the driving rain and lost opportunities in search of pike over Christmas play on my mind.
Only now the unemployed, unemployable, retired or just plain fortunate can benefit from a short mid-week session in search of Esox. At weekends with limited time the challenge is to leave the comfort of your own home or the lure of the local for a pint of brown and an open fire. January is a fine month for short sessions in the pub, while others take themselves jogging around the park, detoxing and stretching muscles they thought they never had, the January pub is a quiet place for the guiltless few to be enjoyed before the joggers return in a month or two…dissapointed, as predictable as the returning swifts!
But a far more rewarding day can be had venturing out for pike! Armed with gimp wire, a small bag of basics, a few sprats and some plugs, one can be lost in a darkened grey scene with only the orange or yellow of a bung to focus on. So my next excursion will be on the Regents Canal where my friends narrow boat is moored for the winter months. It’s a spot that holds pike, only a few months ago I watched a young eastern european lad (wearing a jaunty placed grey/silver Trilby) spin for pike and although not connecting with one, managed to lure two away from their lair, only at the last-minute the pike veered off, maybe the pike saw that silvery hat!
So without Trilby I shall be on the Regents and The Hertford Union Canal around Victoria Park in E3 in the month of January and February in search of Esox with the added bonus of a wood burner and hot tea to make the experience a little more comfortable.
For those who don’t make it out this winter for pike may instead want to read ‘On Nature’ the second compilation by the Caught by the River crowd. Part of that crowd is John Andrews who has written (with a lot more skill than I can ever hope to) a piece titled ‘Winter Pike Fishing’, this short, sums up the pike and the pike angler perfectly for me. Other writers include Chris Yates, Dexter Petley, Luke Jennings, Bill Drummond and Charles Rangeley-Wilson.
Just as I write this an email has come in from John Andrews also supporting the January social scene with a gathering at The Stag in Hampstead on the 24th January with the first Caught by the River event of 2012. See you there?
12 Wednesday Oct 2011
Posted in Pike
Tags
abu, baitcasting, canal, fishing, Hi Lo, lea, london, marco, navigation, pike, plugs, river, rod
Last weekend the tuesday swim was at sea on the Lea Navigation next to the Middlesex filter beds in Hackney (not to be confused with the area of North West London). I was canal boat sitting for the weekend and in search of my first pike of the season.
My pike fishing is generally divided into two disciplines, casting dead-baits into lakes usually down in Sussex in the dead of winter and secondly short sessions spent plug fishing on the Lea Navigation and River Lea. Urban or canal pike fishing has a special place in my heart as it suites the targeted species, often the location is as remote and as still as the lone pike. Pike are often described as ‘angry’ fish, I disagree on this matter, pike by nature have to be still, solitary, lurk in darkened holes awaiting unsuspecting prey. When pike target a fish, they do it in the most economical manner, ‘anger’ doesn’t come into it, ‘lazy’ could be used to describe the pike’s behaviour, ‘efficient’ would be my favoured description of the pike.
Arriving at the boat a perfect scene lay before me, the moon was just rising, a warm wind blew, perhaps a little too warm for my first pike session but as darkness fell I cast out a blue Abu HI-Lo plug.
As the canal deepened it tone from grey to black, some kids opposite in the local park started up a mini-moto and put pay to the peace for the next hour, so slightly irritated I packed away the little bait-casting rod and headed inside the boat and lit the wood burner. After an hour or so the mini-moto had been ridden away into a nearby estate and I stood alone on the boat with wood smoke in the air with a cool light breeze …stillness had returned and the moon appeared almost in a full phase.
The next morning I was expecting visitors including various kids, so the fishing became more of a tutorial in casting and pike location, in the end our efforts were fruitless but the blustery autumnal day fired my hunger to seek out a lone esox lucius on another and probably a more wintery day…
17 Wednesday Aug 2011
Posted in Carp
After attending a pirate’s party with some ‘continuos cruisers’ (canal boat people) a fortnight ago, I decided to leave before the proceedings got too uncomfortable for a ‘drylander’. Smelling of wood smoke and suitably lubricated with Rioja I set off along the Lea navigation just by Springfield Marina. As the sound of 90’s techno and laughter slowly faded the canal took on a ghostly calm, the night was still warm, with a light breeze and the moon was bright, shadows were cast across the water creating patches of inky blackness broken by sparkling ripples.
Not expecting to stay so late I had no lights on my bike, the view up ahead was limited, as I turned a corner a lone figure appeared quite abruptly, there a young man was anticipating a cast. Swinging on his line was a PVA parcel backlit by the moon and packed with boillies, this brother of the angle was risking his safety in search of London canal carp!
As I passed I gave him a comforting look to say that I was not of a dangerous nature. I slowed in respect, gave him a friendly nod and passed on my way. That night, kids were rioting just two miles away in search of 42″ plasmas but this hero stood alone stalking for carp in the dead of night.
The tuesday swim salutes you sir!
the tuesday swim... 