17/06/2025 - The Start Of A New Coarse Fishing Season
Sunday June 15th on the eve of starting my 85th year of this great pastime, sport or is it a hobby?
I arrived at Crabtree pool around 1600 hrs, it was a lovely June day, a light breeze ruffled the water surface, I had the pool to myself, apart from Moorhens, Coots, also a Heron, the pool is surrounded by various deciduous trees Oak, Willows, Ash, Horse chestnut, Hawthorn bushes were in profusion, there were also some Silver birch, making the water quite secluded. The only noise to disturb me were the cooing of a Wood pigeon, though I find the low-pitched cooing of wood pigeon's very soothing.
I could hear the occasional Blackbird calling, in the rushes were two families of Reed warblers, with in fifteen minutes of arriving, I was joined by a friendly Robin. Though I couldn’t see it, I heard a Green woodpecker, no doubt searching for ants, beetles or moths when it gets the chance. There were a few Common blue damselflies, which will often settle on my float. Fifteen minutes later I spotted a Red-eyed damselfly, numerous Pond skaters were around the margin of the pool. There were clumps of Norfolk reeds along the bankside, what made this pool so attractive were several patches of yellow and white water lily’s. The pool looked as I’d imagined it through the long close season. The surface of the pool, was dimpled by small fish, only disturbed by an occasional tench that rolled on the surface, now and again there was a disturbance in the lily roots, the most exciting thing was spotting several patches of pin head bubbles caused by tench, my quarry.
I’d arrived early so I could take in my environment and the atmosphere, during the evening, also I wanted to be ready for dawn which will be around 0400hrs on Monday June 16thto make my first cast of a new season, with my own chorus, created by the bird song, as the dawn light appears in the east allowing me to see my orange red tipped float, crafted by Micky Errands from a birds feather collected from the Romney Marsh. Having chosen my area to fish, I raked a swim on the edge of some yellow lilies, using a mixture of brown and white breadcrumb with some hemp seed, with a sprinkling of sweetcorn, I was hoping I might encourage the crucian carp which are few in number to visit the swim. By careful plumbing around, I found a drop off some twenty feet out from the bank, where the depth changed from four to six feet, I baited this swim with mixture of bread crumb, to which I added a mixture of chopped lobworms and brandlings.
This year I’m also going to be using green lipped mussels, the latter bait is nothing new. It was during the 1950’s in Richard Walker column “Walkers Pitch” in the Angling Times, where discussed swan mussels as bait. Walker was the greatest angler of my time, I and my mates would always follow Walkers examples. So we used mussels for carp and tench, the bait worked. We didn’t set the world alight, but we did catch, when others failed. Over the past few seasons I’d not thought of using mussels as bait. Recently looking through my notes, gathered over a lifetime, I got the idea that I should again be using this bait from the past.
An hour or so later I started putting together my tackle, I chose an Andrew Davies 11 foot much improved Kennet Perfection, using Ted Oliver's tapers, building a much better rod with a stiffer action. I matched this with a 4 ½” X 1” centre pin reel, known as the “Atom”, a strange name for a centre pin reel, holding some 50 yards of 6lb breaking strain line, after putting on a float stop, I threaded the line through Micky’s sliding quill float made to take 5BB shot, I have a selection of these excellent slider floats, my reason for using a slider float, is “Crabtree” is quite deep in some places, the slider makes fishing a lot easier. I then tied on a size 8 barbless hook, a small plummet was used to check the depth of water, by using a small plummet, not my usual heavy one, it wouldn’t sink into the soft silt built up over many years. I then added a few inches of line between hook and float, I wanted some line on the bottom, then lightly pinched on 4BB shot four feet up the line from the hook, with a BB about four inches from the hook.
My second outfit was a 11 ft Sealey Rover rod, matched with Richard Carter centre pin with 4lb bs line, again I added a float knot, before threading the line through one of Micky Erends sliding quill floats again taking 2BB shot, followed by a size 12 barbless hook, once again, again I would use a small plummet to I check the depth in the second swim. This second rod would be used if there was a chance of a crucian carp, though I doubt if it would be used.
Having made up my two outfits, and sorted out my swim , I then enjoyed an early supper of bacon and eggs, with a slice of fresh crusty buttered bread. During the evening and night, I lightly topped up my swims, using corn, hemp and chopped worms I also made several slow walks around the pool. As dusk settled over the water. I sat back in my chair, dozing off and on, with an occasional mug of tea. While I waited for dawn to appear in the east, around midnight I had to put on an extra coat as the temperature dropped.
Around 0300 hours I made a bacon sandwich with a mug of tea, then sat back contented that I’d done everything possible to enjoy my first day with a tench or two. As the light increased the dawn chorus started, the sound was amazing, soon it was light enough to see bubbles appearing on the surface of my swim, where the tench, no doubt were rooting around in the bottom for an early breakfast. It was a perfect “Tench Fishers Dawn” as the light increased allowing me to see my float I said to myself “Its time I tried to catch some tench” I didn’t need to think twice, I baited with a half a lobworm, then added a grain of sweetcorn. I then made my first cast of a new season, just a simple underhand flick, the orange tipped sliding float settled in among a patch of pin head bubbles. A pair of moorhens were quietly going about their business, with four youngsters in tow resembling balls of black fluff. While wood pigeons were cooing in a large Oak tree.
As the sun was slowly rising in the east over a big beech tree, the clouds slowly disappeared, I could feel the warmth, my ideal tench fishers dawn, a light mist drifted over the pools surface, as the sun rose higher, the temperature increased, darter and hawkers started to appear, no doubt hunting for food. But both are different in their hunting technique All dragonflies are predators, their prey are other insects. The dragonfly is a most beautiful insect, one which causes delight, to see especially when the sunlight catch the dragonfly's delicate, graceful wings and colourful body. The damselflies are very delicate, often settling on ones float. Within half an hour the damsel flies were all around me, some mated together.
Within thirty forty minutes of casting out, the float rose up out of the water, then settled down, a minute later it was at about forty degrees slowly submerging, as it moved across the water, as the tip disappeared, I set the hook in to my first fish of the session, immediately I am forced to give some line, thankfully the fish moved towards the centre of the pool, not the reeds or lilies. As with all tench, this one gave a good display in its bid for freedom, but the combination of my balanced tackle and many years of experience, I was winning this fight providing I didn’t make a mistake. A few minutes later I had my first lovely looking tench coming towards the submerged net, then it was mine, a fish estimated around 4 lbs, it was neatly hooked in the top lip, so it was easy to slip the hook out without touching the fish. I then lowered the net onto my mat , where I shot a quick picture, my scales had already been zeroed, then by using the wet net, I was able to slip the tench into a carry bag, dropping the net on the ground, I hooked the weigh bag on the scales, getting a very satisfied weight of 4lb 9 ounces. Quickly the fish was put back in the net then lowered into the water allowing the fish to swim free.
Rebating with again with half a lobworm then a grain of corn, I made another cast towards some lilies, if I should hook a fish I would have to immediately draw the fish away, out into the open water, I the next forty or so minutes, I had three excellent bites where the float disappeared, but all missed. Each time I missed a bite, I made a small adjustment to the tackle, but it was the same result, a missed bite. Suddenly what can only be described as a foaming mass of bubbles a bit like a jacuzzi, I gently dropped the baited hook in the centre of the foaming bubbles, soon the float was gone striking, I set the hook into a powerful fish which surged straight through some lilies, there was nothing I could do except pull as much as possible, it didn’t make any difference, this fish was boss, eventually breaking the line, another good reason for using barbless hook, the fish will soon get rid of it.
The bubbles were slowly spreading further out into the pool, I put in more corn and hemp with a dozen or more of chopped lobworms. Ten minutes later I had another hook up, a few minutes later another tench was in the net estimated at around 3lbs, quickly followed by three more fish of similar size all females, I find they don’t fight like the males, which go berserk and fight for every inch of the way. Over the next three or so hours I kept the feed going in, the fish responded, I had several more fish, also missing several bites, which I still cannot understand as the float was going away quite quickly, but the bait was usually gone. All to soon it the fish stopped feeding, I had a total of ten tench estimated at around 3lbs. Over the next few hours I struggled to get bites,
Eventually towards the end of my session I caught six small Tench averaging no more than a pound, but fish for the future. Back home after a shower, I sat down at the dinner table, feeling contented as I enjoyed a steak pie with vegetables and a thick gravy.
First FISH
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