BIG ROACH

a brace of River Kennet beauties - best 2/3

I have loved big roach since childhood and above all other species, concentrate my efforts on trying to catch them … and I’m not alone, for roach are a favourite of most anglers, with a two pound fish a mythical creature that swims in their dreams.

a perfect upper two

a cracking book - go buy it and catch more big roach

I’ve been lucky, for I’ve had the privilege of catching hundreds of roach over two pounds along with seven over three, so I consider myself qualified to suggest that you should give yourself an early Christmas present by buying Mark Wintle’s book, “Big Roach 2”.

It’s a truly splendid read, full of stories and advice that will undoubtedly help even the most seasoned campaigner to catch more big roach. I thought his first big roach book was good but somehow enjoyed reading this one even more.

Mark's favourite pic in the book - his childhood biggie from the R.Piddle

Like many of us, Mark has been hooked by roach since childhood and having sat next to him when catching some beauties on the Stour, I can vouch for his skill and knowledge. An ex. matchman with an acute eye for detail, he fills the book with guidance on what has been successful for him.

there's lots of advice about 'how and where' - the Stour pic is where I fished alongside Mark in the good old days

two friends with two's - Mike Townsend and Martin Salter

What makes the book even more enjoyable and informative are the liberally dotted stories from other anglers, not least the likes of ace roach catchers Dave Howes, Kevin Ashurst, Mike Townsend, Gerry Swanton, John Bailey and Dave Moody … plus many more ... and even if the book favours the famous Wessex rivers, there are plenty of sections about roach waters such as the Thames and Trent, along with those in Scotland, Ireland and Spain.

 a Christmas card from Pete Drennan - he knows the way to a roach angler's heart

There’s some enlightening thoughts on the philosophy required for catching big roach, not least the need to keep an open mind and keep changing things if you aren’t succeeding … which in my case is most of the time. It always amazes me that by just moving the float or shot by as little as an inch can make all the difference … but it does … sometimes!

Mark’s book contains some useful and detailed factual stuff about the identification of true roach … and a few provocative words about the correct weighing of big roach. It makes me laugh when yet another roach I’ve just landed fails the scales test and ‘only’ weighs 1/15. In fact, if I had a hot meal for every one I and my friends have caught, I’d be a very fat man!

There is of course no difference in a creature that weighs an ounce less than that magical two pounder that we all cherish … but there certainly is to a roach angler, probably any angler in fact. It’s just a number and after all they are only fish, but why some people kid themselves with their scales is beyond me for they are only fooling themselves ... and we've all seen plenty of dodgy two's in the angling press haven't we.

you can make even a 2/6 look like a giant with a wide angle lens!

Where and how you catch roach is surely of more significance than their size. I had a 2/15 but as it was a PB for my pole, it certainly wasn’t a disappointment ... and I certainly wasn't tempted to add an ounce as some are.

a 3/5 giant and after nearly 60 years of roach fishing, my biggest

I have caught a lot of two pounders, even three's from lakes, including my PB 3/5 this summer, but as my wife Sue says, "they’re only from a pond so they don’t count"! And I guess most roach anglers would agree. You can’t beat a true river two pounder or if you’re really lucky, that fish of a lifetime, a three ... or even a four!!

only an Avon mid-two this time

the true record - Ray Clark's 4/3 R.Stour giant

Mark's diary notes from Dorset's Frome

Mark is relentless in his pursuit of the facts, so you can be sure that the contents of his book are accurate. He keeps meticulous records of his catches and techniques too, something I wish I had been more careful about over the years. Travelling abroad so much to make films meant that every moment back home was precious and I’d rather be fishing than writing about it.

Mark with a good 'un from the Thames

But the next best thing to roach fishing is reading about roach fishing so we should be grateful that Mark has taken the time out to create this splendid book about our shared passion.

There sure are a lot of wise words between the covers and Mark's pay off is a prime example of the most important advice about big roach,  “enjoy your fishing”.

The book can be purchased from www.calmproductions.com

FISHING THE ROYALTY WITH FRIENDS

fish heaven - or is it?

The Royalty is one of the most iconic fisheries in Britain, if not the world. It has a long and distinguished history but I and my friends hardly ever fish it. I wonder why?

The last time I was there was in 2006 when filming Bernard Cribbins catching a salmon for our C4 series, ‘Catching the Impossible’. As if that wasn’t enough of a miracle, I’m told it was the first salmon caught there for over a month, was also the last one taken that season and Bernard caught it on his first cast. Sometimes the gods are on your side and this was certainly one of those magical occasions.

Bernard with one he caught earlier

This Royalty visit happened because I got lucky at another magical occasion, The Avon Roach Project annual fund-raising dinner at the end of September.

happy times for all

tea and home-made cake with friends - you can't beat it

I decided it was time to catch a Royalty barbel so bid for the kindly donated lot of a day and night fishing the famous Compound. I won the bid and so as to make it into a grand occasion, bought the next day too. This meant that friends could join me for a happy social, with tea and Sue’s famous Victoria sponge the addition to catching a shed full. Dream on.

shirt sleeve sunshine greeted us all

October 27^th arrived and we were greeted by a low, clear river and warm sunshine – lovely to sit out in but maybe not ideal for catching fish. We were given a right royal welcome by John the bailiff who did his best to point us in the right direction.

oxygen enriched water

The weirpool looks quite daunting with it’s fiercely rushing water and so many delectable looking swims to choose from. 

where to cast? - it all looks so fishy

We knew that over the centuries dozens of legendary anglers had fished here … and were also aware that some of them even blanked.

famous folk have fished here for centuries

 don't suppose Fred often blanked - I wish I understood barbel like he did

I’m first and foremost a roach angler and a novice when it comes to barbel so felt sure I’d struggle. Mind you, the last time I’d fished the Royalty some twenty years ago with Mr.Yates as my guide, we fished Fiddlers West. He caught one barbel and I caught two, all eight pounders so we knew what we were doing … well Chris did. If you haven’t read his barbel fishing book ‘The Deepening Pool’ then do try to get hold of a copy. It’s an inspiring tale of searching for those muscular, golden beauties, as good if not better than any other book he has written.

Chris blending in while perch fishing

Chris was to join old friends Trevor Harrop and myself for a dabble in this famous pool. Trev and I were after a barbel but Chris was content to try for one of the Royalties legendary perch. He caught a sea trout instead.

making contact but is it a perch?

a bonnie sea trout instead

a silver beauty fresh from the sea

for a roach angler Trev was quite skillful!

Trev did a passable impression of dear Ray Walton and his rolling meat technique and promptly caught his first ever salmon. For a long few minutes he thought he had connected with his intended quarry but eventually the gold turned to silver. He wasn’t disappointed but excited at catching his PB silver tourist, all 7+lbs of it, though no pics taken as he released it immediately to continue it’s remarkable journey.

waiting for the 3ft twitch ... and I've read Fred's book too

We all caught small sea trout but the highlight of the day was catching a few eels, or first for many years and a hopeful sign that their numbers are recovering. Good news for our barbel too. Maybe the otters will go back to eating their favourite eels instead of our treasured bearded wonders. They, of course, eluded our best efforts.

Trev returned home to carry on the brilliant work of trying to restore the Hampshire Avon roach to their former glory … and for those cynics who suggest that all Budgie Price and Trevor are doing is feeding the cormorants, then dwell on this. Nature has wonderful powers of recovery and if you release enough young roach into the river, the laws of nature virtually guarantee that some will survive to be big roach.

Andy Martin of the EA gathering the babies at the stews

a netful of beauties for the future

thousands of roach have already enhanced the Avon's chance of survival

Over the five years of the project, thousands of true Avon roach have been released all along the river and there is firm evidence that some are surviving long enough to breed, thus fulfilling the dream that one day there will be self-sustaining populations of roach back in the river.

The fund raising dinner was proceeded by a friendly match on stretches kindly donated by clubs and landowners and for the second year running, several roach were caught from areas where no one has caught roach for years. They happen to be in the areas where Trev and Budgie have released their roach so isn’t it just possible that these are indeed the projects progeny. 

a result of all the hard work

The signs are very encouraging so a few words of encouragement are richly deserved … instead of the negative attitudes. At least they are doing something … and looking after thousands of little roach is relentless hard work, along with the habitat restoration … so many congratulations to the guys and their supporters.

What’s more, as a result of the dinner and fishing match, a total of a little over £6,000 was raised to help fund the work for the next year, a splendid result from just one days support from so many generous roach anglers. I did my bit by buying the day on the Royalty Compound, along with a couple of Trev and Budgie’s lovely home made floats constructed from cormorant quills. They are called ‘The Revenge Series’!

the auction lot created by Trev and Budgie

they are decorating my computer as I write

You can read all about the Avon Roach Project on the recently updated website - http://www.avonroachproject.co.uk/

Meanwhile, back to the Royalty. I don’t tend to fish at night, preferring to see all the wildlife around me, so once dusk had descended into night, Chris, Trev and I left the Compound and headed for home.

Chris having his bait stolen by chub

I was back as dawn broke, this time with Chris Wild for company. He’s my computer guru, teaching me everything I know. Without his patience ‘Catching the Impossible’ would never have been completed, for I didn’t even know how to turn on a computer, let alone edit films. I couldn’t afford a proper editor for our series with Martin Bowler, so had to learn on the hoof. I managed to fool some of the TV executives some of the time, for the series nearly ended up on BBC 4. The fact it ended up on terrestrial TV at all is a complement to Chris’s skills as a teacher.

stalking sea trout in the shallows

Leaving work aside, I’d decided after following bailiff John’s instructions to fish meat on a very long tail all of yesterday that I was rubbish at barbel fishing and so today I was going to catch fish, any fish. I plumped for maggots, lots of them, so offered a large bait dropper full before every cast in the hope of attracting a barbel that might have been scared by that not so magic pink stuff.

Do you follow the accepted techniques or try something different in the hope of avoiding what almost everybody else achieves, namely - a blank?! What do I know … but I certainly caught plenty of fish and it was like high summer too, sitting there in shirt-sleeves to avoid melting. 

at 3/5,the largest of more than 30 sea trout - great fun

Sea trout after sea trout rapped the tip round every cast and for a moment I thought I had cracked it as something heavy pulled back ponderously. I soon realised this was no barbel when a feisty bream, if such a thing exists rolled into the net.

for a moment I thought I might have cracked it

Chris waiting for the big pull

As for Chris, he stalked sea trout, then sat it out for barbel opposite me. When he’s not fishing with me he’s making the most wonderful truly traditional Spanish guitars and beautiful they are too. But could he catch a Royalty barbel? 

He didn’t … but caught his first ever sea trout and a first ever bream … so two PB’s in a day can’t be bad … and we enjoyed the last of Sue’s cake too.

for a first ever bream it's a good 'un

As good a two days fishing as you could ever wish for, and we never caught our intended quarry either. Was it us who said in ‘A Passion for Angling’ ‘there’s more to fishing than catching fish’ … what a load of old tosh! Where are those elusive barbel and why can't we catch them? ... must try harder comes to mind.

CAUGHT IN TIME - CARP FISHING WITH CHRIS YATES

Chris happily escaping from reality

You can’t beat being alongside Chris Yates when he explores a beautiful 40 acre lake in deepest Wiltshire.

Chris with all the specimen carp gear he needs

His approach is intuitive, his ability to stalk the large carp exceptional, his patience legendary. But is his ancient tackle up to the task?

This one hour film follows Chris’s quest for his first ever twenty pound carp from a beautiful estate lake. This is ‘reality TV with a difference, the camera capturing those moments in time that only happen once – the few successes - and many failures!

the beautiful Fonthill Estate lake

As we all know, there is never enough time to go fishing and Chris juggles the demands of looking after his family while trying to spend as much time as possible at his favourite carp water, his sanctuary and escape from reality.

grass snake wrangler

What follows has become something of a classic and as with ‘A Passion for Angling’, the film captures the magic of the natural world that we surround ourselves with when we go fishing. We filmed for only seventeen days and when we finally triumphed on the last day we went to the local pub to celebrate. Our pints of London Pride were the best beers we’ve ever tasted.

charismatic creatures of our watersides

 mallard are just one of many species of duck at Fonthill

As Barry Richards wrote on the ‘Fishing Magic’ website : “If you enjoyed ‘Passion for Angling’ then you’ll enjoy ‘Caught in Time’, perhaps even more so as I did myself. In short, the film sequences are brilliant” … another critic wrote : “.. much enjoyed … not a lot happens then everything happens – just like fishing.” … and another … “Caught in Time is another masterpiece, my favourite yet, a carp anglers dream becomes reality”. The film was made several years ago but carp fishing of this sort is timeless.

ancient bait tin but deadly methods

close to a crisis

a big, glorious, golden common

Chris perching on the Stour

The film is intended to be the first of a series with Chris … an attempt to re-invent the fishing diary. We have actually started the second one … perch fishing on the River Stour with three pounders in the can already but since then, life has got in the way.

I got in on the act as we both caught three pounders

I made ‘Catching the Impossible’ for Channel 4 with Martin Bowler and Chris is writing books like there’s no tomorrow. So whether we ever get out there with a camera again remains to be seen. Trouble is, we prefer fishing to actually filming fishing so we’ll see. But for now, I’m going roach fishing on the beautiful Hampshire Avon.

perfect silver 

The film can be ordered at our Passion for Angling and Caught in Time Website - http//www.passionforangling.info/ 

a little film with lots of magic

this first episode is called 'Summer Days'