Tag Archives: rod

The moon & the sledgehammer

27 Tuesday Jun 2017

Posted by in Carp, The Lea Valley

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Last summer  I spent the day with author and angler, Dexter Petley, searching out river Lea carp. After many emails sent back and forth from his base camp in Normandy, Dexter finally made it to London while promoting his new book – Love, Madness, Fishing after a thirty year absence. It turned out to be a memorable day (Dexter writes about it in Fallons Angler issue 9) success came in the shape of a large Lea common. I was happy that it was Dexter that caught the near twenty, he only had one chance while I could return anytime, I felt it was the only outcome. What stood out  that day was Dexter’s boyish excitement and confidence in catching a carp, gifted by the fact we had a new moon, perhaps his whispy grey hair and talk of moon phases  captured me, spellbound in some form of carp wizardry? It was a great day, the new moon cast its spell and I became a moon child.

Almost one year on and the river season has commenced, I have been keeping a close eye on the river but the carp have disappeared, perhaps the dry spring sent the carp to deeper more oxygenated waters? On opening day I met with friends Garrett and Tony for a traditional 16th and despite many bream feeding on our groundbait our carp baits only spooked the twitchy bream, the carp were merely ghosts.

So last Saturday we entered a new lunar phase, I woke feeling half-hearted about getting up but the celestial pull took me to the river at a respectable 8.00 am, if the carp were enchanted then hopefully they were still under a spell. I arrived at a usual spot and looked into the river, below were three large carp, boisterous in their swagger as they pushed their way around the swim searching for food, it was the first carp I had seen in a while, their tails in the air, the moon had switched them on, they danced on moonbeams. River carping is not easy but sometimes it all drops into place, it did last year with Dexter and today it looked hopeful. I lowered a bait just one foot from the bank, I felt the line and watched the rod tip, thirty seconds passed and then wham, like a sledgehammer hitting the rod, the tip pulled down as the carp headed downstream, for five knee trembling minutes I fought the carp and finally landed a common, probably just under the twenty pound mark, just like Dexter’s common from last year. The wizardry of carp fishing strikes again!

Keeping it simple.

19 Monday May 2014

Posted by in General fishing

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With limited time to go fishing there is always pressure to get it right and make the trip successful, you never know when the next trip will be? In an ideal world I would have a few different rods set up for different situations and a river or lake at the end of my garden to fish from. I could be in constant contact with the water observing the fauna and pre-baiting some chosen areas, then spend short sessions of a hour or two. Unfortunately that isn’t going to happen.

My main place to fish is in Sussex, if I leave London at 6.00am I can get from my front door to the lake in one hour. My problem is I have no idea how the lake is fishing and I don’t have the luxury of pre-baiting so this un-known element brings on a sense of uncertainty and indecision can set in (making decisions is not one of my strong points). I like to travel light but with unknown conditions I tends to take too many baits and probably a rod or two too many.

This weekend I was going to head down to Sussex and try for the tench and some of the larger rudd but on the Thursday I was struck down with some weird 24 hour bug which scuppered all my plans to fish. On the Saturday morning I woke up at 5.30 am bright as new penny and thought, what the heck, its a beautiful day, sunny with some mist, perfect. With only sweetcorn in the house I grabbed my rucksack (always ready to go), four tins of Green Giant, a small bag of food and tea making equipement and two rods. This last minute decision stopped me from taking too much tackle and bait. Freedom!

7.00 am I arrived, peace….

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At lunchtime my chance of a tench was fading but the carp were showing on the top…

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By mid-afternoon it was hot but walking around with the simplest of kit, a rucksack and one rod, crouching down on the long wet grass under the shade, this is how I remember fishing to be as a teenager.

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Tackle boxes part ten, the rod box.

09 Thursday Aug 2012

Posted by in Tackle

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Like most fanatical anglers buying tackle is an addiction especially those with a taste for cane rods. In an ideal world a rod room would be appropriate but with my current moving from one abode to another and roving small hands, a safe but fitting way to store cane rods is in an old Victorian or Edwardian rod box.

Back in the day one would lift the solid pine box laden with salmon rods onto an awaiting carriage and there onto Paddington station, then take the night-sleeper to the North West of Scotland in anticipation of a salmon or two. Well those days are long gone but these well-built boxes still exist and you maybe lucky enough to find one still covered in the old transportation labels of yesteryear and possibly the initials of a previous owner. The ends are normally reinforced with metal on the outside and internal brass fittings on the inside, the hinged lid held down with leather straps buckled around each end and a built-in brass cabinet lock to secure it, these boxes were built to last!

The insides are plain apart from some retaining leather straps to hold the rods in place.  These days a Cordura covered aluminum tube have put these old boxes out to grass, but may I suggest for home storage these boxes are beautiful to look at and perfect for the task of storing old rods. For the purist, one can place brass hooks on the inside so to hang your beloved cane rods but I gently pack them full so that they stay together in a neat straight bundle.

I have two rod boxes, both with leather handles just like an old suitcase, one is five feet six and can take all my ten foot two piece rods, the other box is a bit of a monster at seven feet but comfortably takes all the longer two piece eleven foot six rods I possess. The larger of the two have the monogram ‘O C B’, I’m afraid I have no idea who that person was but he or she must have owned some seriously long salmon rods, possible spliced rods?

The smaller box which is a really nice size and still has the Paddington station railway label stuck on the box from many moons ago.

June 16th 2012. Wild carp & high winds.

16 Saturday Jun 2012

Posted by in Carp

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Although I do dabble throughout the closed season, the 16th June is still a special date for any traditional angler, and there is no other species that epitomises  traditional angling than a good wildie.

Today I was travelling ‘heavy’ as I was taking two rods, a Mark IV Avon with a Ambidex Mark 6 loaded with 8lb line and a James Aspindale Carp Delux with an old Slater latch from around a hundred years ago, loaded with 10lb line.

It was not an early start but it was my way of showing some respect to the closed season, so from about half past Saturday Live I arrived at a rather small and I am afraid to say secretive pond in the south east of England. From the start I saw signs of wild carp (as this water seems to only contains them) high in the water searching for food. How wild these creatures are, I do not know but they certainly take on the classic torpedo shape, large heads, small bodies and big tails. The size in this lake does not exceed 10lb and to be honest I’ve not seen one over 7lb but this is not the point, they are so beautiful, an antidote to ‘Heather the Leather’ and ‘Fat Lady’, wild carp are exquisite…

The final few hours were spent with the old Aspindale rod and Slater Latch, bread cast out into the lilies, a slurp, a splash and then a clitter clatter of an old centre pin reel as line streamed out…

Searching for canal carp…

06 Wednesday Jun 2012

Posted by in Carp

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With four days off this Jubilee weekend I had to get out and fish, I am now pre-occupied with catching a London canal carp. The trick is stay mobile, travel light and keeping looking.

This weekend I was out twice, on one occasion I didn’t wet a line and on the other occasion I did after spotting three ‘doubles’. So far the results are in the favour of carpus maximus! But this is a cathartic practice, the process is to be embraced, the results will come soon…I’m sure of it! I am starting to sense the carp and their where abouts.

Jack Hargreaves, looking after a river.

07 Tuesday Feb 2012

Posted by in General fishing

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Jacks stepson Simon, kindly sent me this link recently on river management. Although the snow is receding here in London, there is a cold wind keeping me inside tonight, so a spot of Jack seems to be in order in between conserving an old Hardy’s rod box. The box sourced by Mr Andrews of Arcadia, a fine service in keeping with the quality of the box itself.

So, as I prepare to travel to the Isle of Bute this weekend, my pike rods are to be sent in a plastic drain pipe via Parcel Force tomorrow morning and not in a rather battered but beautifully crafted pine box on the night sleeper to Glasgow.

Twenty five pound plus pike?

07 Monday Nov 2011

Posted by in Pike

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The Tuesday swim finally got the pike season off to a good start with a short session down in Sussex before some ‘proper’ Guy Fawkes celebrations in Lindfield. The lake I fish is a 300 year old mill-pond with a small head of frustratingly hard carp to catch, large tench, perch, rudd and some rather big pike.

Driving down from London I kept my tackle to a bare minimum, fishing just one rod a Chapmans, Dennis Pye 700, Cardinal 66, pike bung and some oil injected sprats (two handfuls for a pound in Roman Road market). As my kit was to the bare minimum my scales were a small set of Salter spring balances that measure up to  20 lbs but I’ll come to that later!

Arriving in Sussex the weather was warm for November but felt like a typical Guy Fawkes night, over cast, some light mist and a smell of bonfires in the air. The lake has a few regulars taking advantage of the warm autumn weather and trying for a final carp of the season. The lake was moody, grey but dappled with orange from the freshly fallen leaves. Casting out the yellow pike bung next to a bed of thinning lily pads, the float settled nicely drifting close to the pads, an ideal spot for an awaiting pike. After an hour and a few re-casts my float dipped a few times and then moved slowly against the wind, waiting for a more positive take the float then sat idle, another five minutes passed so I wound in to find no bait. I thought at least something was stirring beneath the slate grey water.

After a few casts elsewhere I returned to the same spot and thought this time I shall strike a little earlier if the same thing happened… thankfully it did! Again the float bobbed a couple of times (only pike bungs have this distinctive bobbing action due to its bulky body) and then moved away, this time I struck. At first there was some resistance but only slight, then an instant heavy surge resulting in a white form as the belly of a large pike took to tail walking about thirty feet out. After this the pike made a few lunging runs off to both sides of the swim trying to take me into some fallen trees close in, but after applying considerable side strain on the Chapmans rod the pike started to tire. As I retrieved the landing net another powerful surge resulted in the flaring of gills and some more aerial acrobatics but slowly I gained full control and eventually netted the monster.

After un-hooking the pike I got the scales out and watched as the spring balanced bottomed out at 20 lbs with a thud!

Looking at the photo now, my un-hooking matt measures exactly 36 inches, adding another 5 inches for the tail I estimate it to be 41 inches long, so looking at Fred Bullers pike conversion table which is only a rough guide this pike could have a mean weight of around 25 lb? The pike was quite solid in build so who knows what weight it actually was, either way I was very pleased.

The 20lb balances have now been shelved for such trips and my larger 44 lb version are now in the tackle bag!

Update: It turns out that while sorting  out the tackle bag two days later I have left the said item, the 20lb scales on the bank, so this mistake shall never be repeated!

Update II: Said item found by fellow angler!

A word on canal pike…

12 Wednesday Oct 2011

Posted by in Pike

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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…

Found on sunday at Brick Lane Market, a Chapman’s 450.

26 Monday Sep 2011

Posted by in Tackle

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Whist roaming around the more desperate but interesting end of Brick Lane market, I came across a Chapman 450 rod in fair condition and complete. Measuring 9′ 2″, cane coloured but made of fibreglass, the rod is a mystery, is it a spinning rod? The design is like that of a 550, 500 and 700, detachable handle with a two piece section. I’m a big fan of these rods as they are nice and compact to take on the motorbike and I don’t feel too precious about them. This one I will strip and replace the rings (once I’ve sourced some). If anyone can shine some light on the Chapman 450, I will add it to this post, nothing comes up on the internet.

Jack Hargreaves, dry fly fishing on the Wiltshire Nadder.

17 Saturday Sep 2011

Posted by in General fishing

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Many years back I dated a young lady near the town of Tisbury in Wiltshire, conveniently her father, a retired colonel was a member of his local fishing club on the River Nadder.

After a few visits to Wiltshire, approval was finally given to join him for a day’s fly fishing as a guest on the Nadder run by the Teffont Fishing Club.

Armed with my Millward Flylite split cane rod and a selection of dry flies bought from Farlow’s of Pall Mall the previous day, we set off in search of brown’s and grayling. That day local knowledge prevailed and the colonel caught several trout and graying, eventually I managed to hook a lone lady, thankfully my dry-fly fishing skills didn’t let me down that day. Walking back that evening the colonel told me about the history of this little twisting stream, looking back now, I forget most of the detail but one thing I always remember was the name, Nadder, a name given after the adder snake common in the Wiltshire district. The shape of the adder similar to that of the river, with its twists and turns. True? maybe, maybe not but I like the tale.

Here we have Jack Hargreaves dry-fly fishing on the Nadder delivered in his own unique gentle manner and hooking a rather fine dace.