Tenching at Bradleys

a chunky one nearing the net

What a great season it’s been for big tench this year, in spite of what seemed to be a cold and dodgy spring … and as for our ‘summer’ … best not to mention that at all. We all want to catch a ten pounder don’t we and I’m no exception but any tench is a good one in my view because they are such beautiful fish.

Martin with a ten plusser from Kent

I’ve seen many big ‘uns, especially while filming for ‘Catching the Impossible’, Martin Bowler and Terry Lampard catching several at Mid-Kent Fisheries and awesome they look too. I’ve been lucky enough to catch ones of 8/9 from five different waters so felt it was time I tried to up my PB and even catch a double. Trouble is, not only did I respect the old closed season, we also have a large garden and spring is a busy time out there.

view from the office window - nice!

the wild flower meadow is a wildlife magnet

Added to those obstacles to success is my preference for float fishing and it’s clear from the angling press that the way to bag a double is to bolt-rig maggots behind bite alarms. Not quite my bag. However, nothing ventured, nothing gained, so I sought access to the Cotswold Water Park’s Bradleys Lake and was granted the privilege of a Spring Ticket.

My long time friend, Mark Woodage fished it last year with good results, my mate Martin Bowler too, so thought that with luck I might at least up my PB and even catch a double, for most years Bradleys has produced one or two tench of my dreams.

Mark waiting for action ... for weeks this year

It’s a beautiful lake, all 120 acres of it and though some might be daunted when faced by this open ocean, I love the challenge of fishing into the unknown. What’s more, the place is jumping with wildlife, the water dancing with insect life and the skies filled with birds. On one memorable day this spring a thousand sand martins and hundreds of swallows were hawking over the waves to replenish their fuel reserved burnt off during the long journey from Africa.

so many sand martins the huge expanse of water was covered with them

... just say agh ...

There are ducks galore and the trees and bushes bounce to the songs of returning warblers that have survived their perilous flights from south of the Sahara. Terns from even further away dive for small fish, great crested grebes too, so even when the buzzers stay silent, blanking is a delight!

the grebes certainly caught a lot more than us

My first visit in late April coincided with one of Mark’s early attempts … he’d blanked on the previous two … but I felt a need to start putting some effort in and try learning a little about the place and it’s fish life if I was to earn my stripes … and catch a tench. We arrived in time to plumb our swims and bait up before dark and though we saw no rolling tench, we were optimistic that next days sunshine would encourage them to feed.

I think I was warmer in the Arctic with the ice bears

I slept in my old VW nearby but by 2am I was so cold I had to get up, put pullovers and coat on, light the gas, drink tea and read a book. I hadn’t been so cold since filming polar bears and wished I’d packed my arctic sleeping bag. The only consolation was a nightingale that serenaded me all night from just outside the window. Delightful.

Mark in Arctic mode - by 'eck it was cold

Dawn came as a blessed relief but when I reached my gear at the swim and lifted the covering tarp, the shards of ice splintering off convinced me that even grayling would be difficult to catch on such a day. However, Mark and I soldiered on, sustained by numerous cups of tea, coffee and sausage sarnies. We blanked of course, not even a liner raising our hopes … but the wildlife and banter ensured it was an enjoyable day.

these naughty red-crested pochard were forever diving on my ground-baited spot

I didn’t return for three weeks but Mark fished at least one day each week and in the end he did actually catch a tench! Now if you’re thinking he’s a plonker, think again. He’s a really tidy and skilful ex. match angler and does know how to catch Bradley’s tench, so I guess his excuse would be that a large deep lake during a cold Spring fails to warm up like the shallower waters that were producing all the doubles. What’s more, carp anglers were bait-boating their bolt-rigs and feed out unbelievable distances, 150yds. or more, so I guess the tench had no need to venture nearer the edge and in range of our feeders to fatten up for spawning.

there was otter spraint on those rocks by my swim

I’d decided on a two day mission, picked my spot next to Mark and waited for a bite … and waited some more. I had the occasional hint that there were actually fish in the lake but maybe they were crayfish tugging at my baits?

a perfect fat lady for Mark ... but will the singing even start

In the meantime, Mark caught a chunky female tench of 5/14 so despite the fact that I am a plonker, I was confident of some action, especially when I was told it was this very swim where my pal Martin Salter had caught a beast of a tench only two weeks before. At 9/4 it was an impressive fish.

what an awesome beast - the tench is quite chunky too!

Failing to raise a smile, let alone a bite, I packed up at 20.30 for a bite of my own and a celebration of the joys of fishing with Mark and his pal Matt. We empted various bottles in the old VW and it was just like the days when making “A Passion for Angling” with Bob and Chris, lots of banter, laughter and as good a fishing night as you could ever wish for. 

location caterers for both A Passion for Angling and Catching the Impossible

Bought in 1989 as a location base for our filming, the campervan is held together with rust now but still serves me well. It's been my escape hatch from the world for twenty five years … and long may it continue!

my escape hatch from the world, hidden in some far off corner surrounded by wildlife and wild skies

the black swan was lonely so fell in love with his white cousin

We were up at 04.30 on a cool morning, the water temp. having dropped over-night from 58f to 54f  and the only rolling tench about 200yds. out into the ocean. I fiddled endlessly with my rigs and baits as did Mark and it was he who caught a tench after a thirst quenching lunch, a fat female of 6/6. Then after a tea break he caught a lovely looking male of 5/14.

a muscular beauty ... no, you'll be relieved I won't repeat that gag

I was still fishless and biteless … I told you I was a plonker … but not for long as at 18.30 my bobbin rose sharply and held there and upon raising the rod I felt that very unfamiliar sensation of a fish on the end. 

praying the hook won't pull at this critical moment

After a suitable length of time praying for it not to come off it was in the net, my first Bradleys tench and a cracker to boot, all 8/2 of immaculate female.

a 'proper' tench of 8/2 and a good 'un to start my tally at Bradleys

back the beauty goes

It was tricked by two fake casters and a speck of plastic corn and I was just a bit pleased that I’d fiddled around to achieve the right amount of buoyancy to create a balanced bait. Childs play to a seasoned campaigner but a new challenge for a roach angler like me. I tried for another but retired to the van at 21.00 for a snack while listening to the dulcet tones of a nightingale close by.

despite dramatic declines, this is still a star bird in the Cotswold Water Park

It was still singing next morning, along with a persistent cuckoo but the most surprising wildlife was a large hatch of mayfly. 

a tasty meal for birds as well as fish

We all associate them with shallow chalk streams but here they were, rising in dozens from a deep gravel pit.  The swans, ducks and terns were delighted by this feast of tasty morsels.

always on the scrounge

Gerry, Bob the catcher and John over acting!

Other old friends arrived to fish and a great bunch they all are too, but Bob was the only one to catch … so the lake was well below par compared to the previous year. Mark only managed 4 tench this year when during the same period last year he caught 38 to a best of 8/10. I told you he was good!

I was fishless on my final day and by 19.00 I was home, having spent 39 hours waiting for one bite  … but what a tench I’d had the privilege of catching … and what a lovely place to blank! As Arnie says “I’ll be back”.

a windy evening sky taken through my Polaroids

OUR RIVERS IN CRISIS

                       

young otters are both cute and trouble with a capital T - c. Stewart Canham

a wonderful place for wildlife ... before otter

It’s dawn and our naughty little otter has just returned to the scene of the crime, her wet footprints leading away from the pond by our cottage, trashed even worse this time because there were only half a dozen minnows that had survived for her to hunt since the last attack. If that is all she can find to eat it is symptomatic of deeper ills and I certainly worry for her future and that of the rest of our rivers wildlife.

... and after ... the trashed and fishless remains

We used to be privileged to receive regular visits to our garden from kingfishers. They found a minnow banquet waiting for them, especially valuable when the river was a raging flood but what now? If kingfishers don’t eat for three days, they die. They have already suffered a 30% decline this past year.

Paintings by Rodger McPhail from our 'Catching the Impossible' book

male and female minnows in breeding garb

God help us if we believe what the media tell us about how good our rivers are now … and even worse if we believe that otters provide a ‘litmus test’ of the health of a river as told us by the BBC among others. I was taught that predator numbers are controlled by the abundance of their prey. So with otters having to hunt minnows in garden ponds and ten otters having been killed on Dorset’s roads in just three months before Christmas, I believe that this not only indicates an increase in hungry otters but a lack of suitable prey … and if you release captive otters into a river system, does that make the river healthy? No, I don't think so either.

RSPB's Mike Clarke with Minister Richard Benyon

the updated version - not much has happened!

will politicians ever look after our freshwater ecosystems?

water gives life to all, including us!

There are so many challenges in our freshwater environment and the RSPB knows that. Admirably, they combined forces with the S&TA and Angling Trust, along with many other NGO’s to produce the impressive “Blueprint for Water” in the hope that our government would protect this vital resource more seriously. It would be good if the RSPB joined with anglers as we try to solve the problems, not compete with us over a lethal fish-eating bird. 

some birders find them attractive

dramatic decline of roach in our local River Stour

We have shed-loads of scientific evidence proving that cormorants are contributing to the loss of balance in our freshwater ecosystems, so denying they are a major part of the problem is making a solution far more difficult. Their numbers in Europe have increased rapidly since the 1980's and EU research has counted at least 500,000 [some say 2 million], their highest number for more than150yrs. They have reached epidemic proportions and we need to act now.

simply too many eating too much c. Stewart Canham

Matthew Wright, Guy Linley-Adams, Paul Knight, Janina Gray

changing anything for the better is a long process

Last year I was asked by the Salmon and Trout Association to make a film for them about their legal complaint to the European Court accusing the government of not looking after our rivers, particularly those fragile and very rare jewels flowing through the countryside, our chalk streams. As S&TA Chairman Richard Bronks suggested, "chalk streams - arguably rarer than the Amazon rainforests." 

Matthew Wright, TV and radio presenter and journalist in full flow

The film is attached below, ‘Our Rivers in Crisis’ but at risk of appearing to be overly pessimistic, I’ll list some of the threats that our rivers face, many of which appear in the 70+ pages of rigorously researched and tightly worded document, the challenge based on the intensely protected Hampshire Avon. The author is environmental lawyer Guy Linley-Adams.

-       Weather extremes leading to drought and floods.

AT's report on the dried up R.Teme

-       Abstraction leading to low flows.

brown trout cleaning silt from it's redd

-       Siltation follows, suffocating fish eggs.

-       Diffuse and spot pollution from agriculture and road run off,  killing fly life and even fish themselves. 

mayfly c. John Slader

-   Fly life has declined by 70% in many places

mayfly at sunset c. Danny Beath

-       Aquaculture an increasing threat.

Scottish sea trout survival threatened by sea lice

-      Southern salmon in serious decline.

increasingly rare despite protection c. John Slader

the 2012 smolt run down by about 50%

-       Threats from non-native invasions.

it's out there and spreading - bio-security required now!

killer shrimp a major threat c. EA

Himalayan balsam destroying river banks

killer mink

-       Signal crayfish explosion means significant loss of fish eggs.

red for danger c. Trevor Renals

-       Phosphates choke our rivers with algae.

more algae than ranunculus c. John Slader

-       Hormone disrupting chemicals create re-productive problems, in otters as well as fish.

rivers choked to death c. John Slader

-       and recently, blue-green algae causing the death of otters.

Paul Knight trying to convince the Minister Richard Benyon to act now!

We keep on being told that our rivers are cleaner than they’ve ever been, even by the BBC, but government research contradicts that statement by showing that only 20% of rivers are of ‘good ecological status’ and that 60% fail the Water Framework Directive, most due to lack of fish life.

R.Test trout but not a healthy sight c. John Slader

None of us like bad news and I know that nature, given the chance will recover remarkably well, but we have to face up to reality and work together to overcome the problems our rivers face. We should all support the work of the Salmon and Trout Associations’ scientific research [and no, they aren’t a load of toffs] but a small, professional and dedicated team gathering the essential facts that we need to support the fight. They could do so much more on behalf of all fishermen if they had more funding.

S&TA's CEO Paul Knight and scientist Janina Gray with Matthew Wright

One of the most critical omissions in angling’s fight to protect fisheries is the lack of scientific research and the facts that enable arguments to be won. Personally, I dream of the day when the S&TA have enough support to be able to produce far more fish science, rather as the British Trust for Ornithology and their army of volunteers, me among them, gather mountains of bird facts which the RSPB are able to use to support their campaigns. Trouble is, anglers are notorious for their apathy when it comes to giving anything back to the sport that they purport to love. 

What’s more, fish are far more difficult to research than birds so the truth of their declines is always going to be difficult to substantiate. We must hope that this recent S&TA initiative, produced at great expense, leads to the government being forced by the EU to uphold the law and actually provide the funding to save our rivers.

suffocated with algae c. John Slader

The much-maligned EA have done lots of wonderful work in our neck of the woods but they can’t fulfil all their objectives to improve our rivers if they don’t have the money to act, so it’s up to us as individuals to contribute to the cause by supporting our voluntary organisations. I know that these are difficult times but just a few quid now and then will make a big difference and provide us with a future not of despair but of hope. It’s the least we can do to save our fish and other wonderful freshwater wildlife.

great crested grebe by Rodger McPhail

spectacular strike action from my adventures in Scotland

OK, enough depressing words from me … here’s the film.