Royalty Red Letter Days If my previous article has been printed you will have read that I have had a Car crash of a season, struggling to find any fish let alone catch any. Work commitments and home life has seen my time on the bank curtailed, when I should have been spending more time on my local river Ouse. However a day off on Thursday meant a quick call to Westie to see if he fancied a day on the Royalty. A venue that I at least knew contained fish. Unfortunately, Trefor was busy on the Kennet so I made the journey down to Hampshire to fish as the Lone Angler. Okay, So this is not going to be one of those artistic articles, where I tell you that I had a pull and struck into a powerful fish that went off and I brilliantly played it to a stand still. Certainly I caught barbel, hence the article. In fact I caught five up to 10lb 2oz and lost what I felt was a much bigger fish to a hook link break [Groan] and missed another. Not bad for a first trip down to Hampshire. No this article is going to be about why I think I caught when others struggled. Of course this is only my opinion and is subject to debate. The reason I believe I caught was that I made three decisions that were the difference between success and failure. So you have just turned up at the Royalty, armed with your luncheon meat single rod with the intention of spending the day rolling meat. You step out of the car to find the Royalty up, coloured, pushing through and carrying more than its fair share of debris. How would you adapt your tactics to suit these conditions? During the day I spoke to three or four anglers on the bank who as far as I am aware were all fishing in a similar fashion to me but had not caught any barbel. If they did catch I do apologies. Okay apart from picking the right location on the day, lets look at some of the other factors that made me make the long drive down to Hampshire. I am confident that all of you will have factored these in to your decision whether to fish or not. Firstly the daytime temperatures were good for the time of year, not hard to figure that one out. Secondly, it had rained quite hard for the proceeding few days, certainly my local river was carrying extra water, however I was not sure about the Royalty, but I did not imagine that it was going to be low. I have turned up at the Royalty on many occasions to find the river up slightly but running clear. A given in any Barbel anglers decision criteria. The other factors I considered may not always be on everyone’s radar, but when you are going to invest time and petrol money, they may be worth watching. The first was the moon phase. Well on this particular day it was neither here nor there. Not a brilliant fish catching phase and not a totally bad one. The other more important one was the air pressure. It had been consistently low for many days, below 1000mb and I believe that is significant. I remember fishing a day with Trefor on the Bristol Avon many years ago. We had struggled for a bite all day. Weather was good, air pressure was high. During the evening a storm passed close by, one could physically feel the drop in air pressure. Well in the 30mins or so while that stormed passed Trefor caught four barbel in 4 casts and when the storm passed, bites dried up again. I am not teaching you to suck eggs but may be worth keeping an eye on air pressure. Usually low and constant is good. So lets go back to that question I asked earlier in the article how would you change your normal tactics after seeing the river in this kind of finery? Change of Tactics 1 Firstly I over flavoured my meat bait. I had sprayed my meat with Sausage Sizzle before I left home, however when I saw the river carrying this much colour I gave the meat an extra LARGE dose of Sausage Sizzle. In these kinds of conditions the barbel need a flavour trail to home in on. Speak to Trefor about how a barbel feeds. You will see that it will align with the trail of flavour coming off your bait and track up river until it finds it. I want my bait in these conditions to be as easy to find as possible. I assume that the barbel are not using there sense of sight in these conditions, but their senses of taste and smell, so it makes sense to give them as much help as possible. Remember a large kick of flavour is lost as soon as you cast in. I want my bait leaking flavour for as long as possible. Of course this also means you need the ability to trundle your bait in a straight line, a tactic I learned from Trefor many years ago and have used to my advantage on many occasions. Change of Tactics 2 This second change supports the decision I made in over flavouring my meat with Sausage Sizzle. I OVERLEADED!! In this instance 2oz. When the river is up and coloured, you need to give the barbel time to find your bait. Why didn’t I just fish static I hear you claim. Simple, I would not have been able to hold out in the run long enough before being bold out by all the weed and debris being flushed down the river, plus the huge amount of clag on the line makes for poor presentation and the need to recast frequently. A disastrous tactic in my opinion! I watched several anglers rolling meat down the flow at the speed of the current. A brilliant tactic on the Royalty in normal conditions, but in high and coloured water the bait has passed them before they have a chance to home in on it. My tactic is to cast out find the weed beds and hold the bait in there for 10-15 mins before moving it on. Trying to keep the line free of weed as best I can, by manoeuvring the line when I see a large bed of weed coming down and shaking the line when I am on the move to remove the clag that has built up on the line. This method gives the barbel time to align and find the bait, with the added advantage that you are moving your bait closer to them if they are reluctant to move. Bites in these conditions are a heavy donk on the rod top and magnified to the fingers, signifying a barbel has lifted the lead out of the weed bed and bouncing it off down stream. Change of Tactics 3 The third change of tactic supports Tactic 3. I HAIR RIG my meat even when I roll in these conditions. This tactic of quickly hair rigging meat was shown to me by Trefor and as far as I am concerned is a MUST when you are over-leading. I have made the mistake of using large leads and pushing the hook through the meat before and it has cost me missed bites. Let me explain my thinking. When a barbel picks up a piece of meat, which is attached to your heavy lead and pulls it out of the weed bed, the whole rig is washed down stream, giving you your upstream bite, BUT I imagine that the meat is then bounced from the fishes mouth by the force of the current on your rig, before you’ve had a chance to strike. If you then factor in the amount of clag built up on your line, then that is quite a lot resistance that is trying to pull the bait out of the barbel’s mouth. If you hair rig your meat, then all these forces are acting on your behalf to help set the hook. Don’t get me wrong a strike is still required as you want to ensure that the hook is set, but at least the hook is being pulled into the fishes mouth and not being pulled free Trefor West Hair Rig Meat System - See photograph. Simply push the wire through the Meat and bend the wire and push the wire back though the meat to make a U shape. I sometimes put a piece or reed between the U and the meat to create a cushion. My first bite on this trip I missed due to not striking hard enough. I did not factor in the amount of clag on my line and found that I was trying to lift the line off the water from a lot further down that I thought due to the weight of the clag dragging and pinning my line down into the weed. The first fish I lost after an inadequate strike. My next six strikes met with a hooked fish even if it meant a second strike to ensure the hook was well and truly set under these challenging conditions. The weight of the clag helps to bury your line into the weed, it’s like an extra 2oz on your line. You need to be able to strike though this additional weight. Rolling Meat is an excellent tactic, especially on the Royalty, however you do need to modify your tactics in extreme conditions to get you a bite. Tight Lines from a Lone Angler
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 07:18:14 +0000
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