Tackle

Richard Blackie, Somerset Gazette Columnist

For over 40 years I have fished all over the British Isles, in fact all over the World, as for the first 14 years of my working life I was a sailor. This job took me to every corner of the globe, and I took every opportunity to get ashore and fish.

I have caught tiger fish in the Malayan Jungle, shark off the beaches of Australia, barracuda in Bermuda, fresh water bass in the rivers of the USA. So when I got married and wrapped in my sea going life a decision had to be made as to where to settle down and live. As my wife is a Somerset girl it was decided that Somerset would be the base of our new home. As for fishing it was a decision I have never regretted, as this county is awash with great fishing and places to fish.

When I was on shore leave I stayed with my mother in London and I thought nothing of a two hundred mile round trip drive to fish the Trent or Norfolk Broads. Now I consider a 20 mile drive to be distance fishing!

Over the past 10 years commercial fisheries have come into their own in this County, with year round good fishing for most species (although on some waters carp predominate). As an example how well stocked these fisheries are, some even hold Sturgeon, a fish that twenty years ago was so rare in this country that any caught had to be offered to the Queen(Emerald pool has lots of this species).

Around my home town of Taunton there are four good commercial fisheries that are well worth a visit. The first is Fishponds House which is about mid-way between Taunton and Honiton. The three lakes that are there (only two can be fished) are among this countries' oldest stew ponds. They were originally built by the monks to hold carp for food. Now the monks have gone but a good head of carp remain. Apart from the carp there is a very good head of roach, rudd, bream and tench. The top pool is the biggest, and ranges in depth from five to twelve feet. Best fishing is in summer, although 60 to 70 pound nets are not uncommon in winter. In summer the top lake fishes well in most pegs. In winter, it is best to fish the deeper swims. The smaller pool is very weedy, but tremendous sport can be had with small carp and silver fish. The best swims to fish on this pool are those at the end furthest away from the house. Best baits on both pools are maggots, corn, meat, casters and bread. Fishing one of these baits over a bed of hemp is good for carp. A lot of fun can be had on a warm summers evening with floating crust.

Next we visit Follyfoot Farm which is between Taunton and Bridgwater. This three acre lake is heavily stocked with Koi, common and mirror carp. Although most of these carp are on the smallish side, but there are plenty of double figure fish. Most of the usual baits will catch, although maggots will pull mostly small carp. One day I watched an angler having good sport with carp between 8 and l0lb dog biscuits. Like most commercial fisheries you may only use barbless hooks on this water.

HBS Fisheries, which is also just off the Taunton to Bridgwater road, is another fishery well worth a visit. HBS is made up of two pools, one for specimen fishing and the other which they call the match pool. The specimen pool is stocked with large carp which are caught regularly on various baits, boilies are probably the most successful. Fishing to features or stalking fish are two top methods on this pool. The smaller match pool has carp up to 17lb, although most are in the 8oz to 2lb bracket. There are also some quality roach, tench and the odd surprise fish like the 5.5lb bream my friend caught there last week. For one-a-chuck catch rate maggots are the top bait whereas for the better specimens worm, corn and boilies are tops.

Just the other side of Bridgwater we come to Dunwear lakes where carp and bream feature heavily in this four lake mixed fishery. Apart from the bream and carp there is good all round sport with perch and roach. The north lake, at three and a half acres, holds six known 20lb plus carp, and is heavily stocked with tench. This and the south lake are waters for the specialist carp angler. The south lake, which has produced a 31lb specimen, also has double figure carp which are most frequently taken on boilies. No junior anglers are allowed on the 18 acre seniors lake where swims are cut into the undergrowth. Carp to 30lb are present but rarely caught. Expect mostly commons in the 6 to 9lb range. Roach and rudd show to maggot and caster and bream have provided several 100lb plus bags to feeder with maggot and worm. The two and a half acre railway lake has roach, bream from 4 to 5lb, tench, perch and carp from 8oz to 1lb and has been developed primarily as a beginners water. The corner with the tall reeds is a hotspot and maggots will catch most species Corn tempts bream and perch to 2lb are in all pools. There is disabled access.

Avalon Fisheries, at Westhay, is a 17 acre, two lake complex set among peat workings. Number one lake has 50 pegs and averages eight feet in depth. Number two has 20 pegs, and is of a similar depth. Both pools are well stocked with bream, roach, rudd. tench, perch and carp. Number one has also been stocked with barbel. Both pools have recently been heavily stocked with bream. Be aware that boilies, nuts, bloodworm and joker are banned. Best baits for carp are corn, luncheon meat and bread.

Thorney Lakes, Nr Muchelney Langport, is an established coarse fishery that spans two acres and averages three and a half feet in depth. There is a good head of carp, tench, roach, rudd and bream, which most anglers fish for with pole, using ether corn, meat, maggot or caster. Best pegs are on the island. Shelf life boilies and cereal groundbaits are banned. This is another water where floating crust does well in summer.

We now move across to Wedmore to one of the best kept fisheries I have ever seen. The name of this haven for angling is Lands End Farm Fishery. There are two lakes there; Tadham, which is the specimen lake, and Tealham, the match lake. All the swims on both lakes have rubbish and fag end bins. Tealham lake has a big (and I mean big) platform in every swim and both lakes are heaving with fish. Tadham contains Commons, mirror and ghost carp from 5lb to 22lb, grass carp to 16lb and bream to 8lb. Tealham is stocked with common and mirror carp, tench, golden tench, crucians, ide, roach, rudd, perch, golden orfe, chub, bream and barbel. Best baits are maggot and corn which are best fished on a long pole close to the island or between the pegs close to the bank. This fishery has good paths leading up to the swims (wellies not needed).There is a good car park and toilets and I personally highly recommended this venue.
At West Huntspill near Highbridge there is a fishery called Emerald Pool. This one and a half acre pool is a family run coarse fishery that boasts big, big catches and a hundred pound net of fish is common. Species include carp up to the mid twenties, bream, perch, roach, golden orfe, rudd, barbel, and sturgeon up to four feet long! Most of the swims have concrete platforms to fish from, the car park is right next to the pool and there is a toilet on site. Most of the usual baits score, although pellets are one of the best. There is disabled friendly holiday accommodation available at this fishery.

Back to Bridgwater now and the Sedges. This fishery was once a brickworks and has two pools, one three and a half acres, the other two and a half acres, with both having an average depth of eight feet. The Tile Pool has carp in the low doubles, and the Brick Pool is stocked with carp to 25lbs and also contains crucians over 2.5lb. Other stock in these ponds includes lots of skimmers and bream from 5 to 7lb, tench to 9lb, roach and rudd to llb, big eels and a good head of perch with specimens up to 2lb. Boilies are good for carp throughout the season but in the summer months corn and meat are the tops for this species. Maggots catch lots of small fish and hemp is good for roach. This fishery is disabled friendly, in fact the 45 platforms on these pools will accommodate wheelchairs. Unhooking mats MUST be used.

Staying around Bridgwater we move to Westhay Lake which is between Westhay and Shapwick. This three and a half acre lake was originally dug for peat and its main species is carp (mirrors and commons) which go up to the mid thirties. There are also superb crucians which go up to 3.5lb, tench to 4lb, roach and rudd to 1lb, perch and goldfish. 50 to 60 Ib nets are common. For carp. boilies or tiger nuts fished over a bed of hemp works well. Use maggot for smaller fish and pegs 10 and eleven are known hot spots. Carp anglers must have an unhooking mat and no bent or barbed hooks are allowed. There are no pike or bream in this water.

These are just a few of the commercial stillwater fisheries available to anglers. There are plenty more, and this article just gives a taste of the fishing on offer. Browsing the adverts and the directory in the Get Hooked guide will give you information on ALL of them.

Apart from the fisheries above there are a multitude of rivers in this county that offer excellent fishing. The river Tone in Taunton, which has free fishing between the top of French Weir down to the end of the Market car park. The Tone at French Weir, especially above the weir, gives really good sport with a big head of chub, quality roach, bream, grayling and trout. Maggot is a good bait for most of the species although I have caught some thumping big chub on elderberries. The river just below the weir gives a lot of small fish, and this area is popular with youngsters. Between the weir and Priorybridge (the start of the market car park) gives mostly small fish, but be aware there are a number of big carp in this section and the market car park gives some good bream and roach catches. If you accidently catch a grayling or trout (and you will at French Weir) don't put them in your keepnet as you will need a national game licence to do this.

Not far from Taunton, in fact just the other side of Bridgwater, is the river Huntspill. A lot of people call this a drain, but it was originally a river that was widened out to drain water off the levels. It runs from the bottom of the south drain to the tidal Parrett. It is famous for its bream fishing, and it is these 'slabs' that most Huntspill anglers are after. A number of 5lb fish are frequently caught but there are some specimens that are a lot bigger. As in all 'drain' bream fishing finding the fish is always the hardest part of catching them. Top method on this water is feeder fishing, with groundbait feeder and worm and caster on the hook. There are also lots of roach and skimmers on this water, and the preferred method is waggler with maggot hookbait. In the winter months bream seem to hold up in the Gold Corner area whearas in the summer the bream spread out all through the river.

Going towards Weston-Super-Mare we come across the river Axe. This delightful little river meanders through the Somerset countryside until it exits into the sea south of Weston. Not always a great favourite with matchmen, as it never seems to produce on the day, but pleasure fish it and you will probably be surprised at the good quality bream and roach you can catch. Another big surprise on this small river is the depth of some of the swims - up to 16 feet! Above Bleadon bridge, between Shiplate and Loxton is usually good, especially on the bends. Below Bleadon bridge is another good spot although it gets very muddy on this section.

Not far from the Axe is Cheddar Reservoir which holds some really big fish. Tench to well over 6lb, 30lb pike, lots of 3lb plus perch and shoals and shoals of quality roach. This water is very clear, so the best way to get among the lumps is long cast straight lead or feeder. Top baits for tench are corn, worm and luncheon meat. For the perch worms and maggots and maggots for the roach. There are brick towers coming out of the water about 50 yards from the bank and these seem to attract the perch, a line cast next to them usually gives good sport with these great fighting fish. I frequently fish successfully to the right of the Yachting Marina.

Back towards Bridgwater we come to one of the best drains in the West Country, the Kings Sedgemoor Drain. This drain has excellent access points at Crandon Bridge, Bawdrip, Parchey, Greylake, and Henley and this water is noted for its good bream, tench and roach fishing. My favourite spot is Greylake Bridge. Upstream from the bridge gives you some big bream and a lot of tench and downstream some very big tench have been caught. If you are feeling lazy fish next to your car in the car park. The last time I fished in the car park I saw a 4lb plus eel caught and a bream just over 6lb. If you feel like a bit of a walk go downstream until you are opposite where the Langacre Drain and the Sowy river enter the main drain as this is a very productive area. Further down stream Parchey is another area where good catches of bream are common. Down stream on the big bend is usually good. Down from Crandon Bridge is a section known as Silver fish. This is another very productive area although it is a bit of walk from the car park.

I have given you only a rough idea of some of the fabulous fishing to be had in Somerset. There is terrific fishing around the Bath area especially on the river Avon. Ilminster has the river Isle running through it (this little river is a chub hotspot). In South Somerset there are the rivers Yeo and Parrett. Try above Yeovilton Weir which is along side the Naval Air Base. Just over the border into Dorset there is Sherborne Castle lake, home to bream the size of dustbin lids. The list goes on……

If you are reading this however you have in your hand the definitive guide to fishing in the south west and with over 800 venues listed in the directory you really are spoilt for choice!

I was chub fishing the other day, sharing the river with a friend as we went from swim to swim, leapfrogging each other in our search for the fish. With stops for lunch and of course the obligatory photographing of the best looking specimen, we must have taken five hours to fish two miles of river.

We only landed three chub, all over four pounds, but with our surroundings changing every few minutes we'd enjoyed a fascinating day of varied challenges and varied sights and scenes. Yet despite the different demands from all the dozen or so places we fished, we carried all the tackle and bait we needed in our jacket pockets, with just one rod each and a net between us.

At the end of the day we came upon another angler fishing close to a bridge, only 50 yards from where he had parked his car. He was sitting on one of those all purpose seat boxes which, when each drawer is filled with equipment, must weigh a ton - more like a fishing wardrobe than a seat - and he was surrounded by bait buckets, rod rests and several rods.

The Hampshire Avon

The Hampshire Avon rises in the Vale of Pewsey and, with its tributaries the Bourne and Wylye, drains the chalk of Salisbury plain. The River Nadder, which is joined by the Wylye near Salisbury drains part of the South Wiltshire Downs and (more significantly for anglers) the clays of the Wardour Vale.

The River Ebble and the Ashford Water enter the Avon downstream of Salisbury and Fordingbridge respectively.
Below Fordingbridge a number of New Forest streams enter the Avon. The Avon flows into Christchurch Harbour where it is joined by the River Stour.

The total fall from Pewsey to the sea is 110m, the average gradient downstream of Salisbury is approximately 2m/km. The flow is characterised by a high groundwater component derived from springs rising in the headwaters of the Avon and its major tributaries.

The river and its tributaries are of national and international importance for their wildlife communities.

Any bites Josh?

Josh, you OK?

Josh?

Josh was asleep.

Well, it was just past midnight and he'd never been up that late before.
How many of you have experienced taking one of your children on their first 'all nighter'? How was it for you? for me it was hugely enjoyable, a mixture of pride and excitement and memories flooding back of how I'd felt on my first nocturnal session.

We arrived at the fishery at about 7pm on a fine July evening to get set up. Josh had been fishing with me before, mostly spectating, and this was to be his first time in control of his own rod and line.
I set him up with an eight food light spinning rod, fixed spool reel, 6lb main line and a 2lb hook length to a 16 hook suspended from a float.
Bait was to be maggot and with a good population of small roach and skimmer bream in the water he was pretty sure to have some sport.
I tackled up an eleven foot rod with a small sliding ledger and maggot and a second rod with a cream flavoured boilie.
I baited up an area between a couple of bushes on my right and put a boilie on the hook!

On the hook? Yes, obviously boilies have been around for a long time and I have never used them before so I just assumed you put them on the hook. I have since been educated in such matters and the beauties of 'hair rigs' et al.
By this time Josh was getting bites and it wasn't long before he caught his first fish. WOW! I doubt that the three inch roach that devoured the single maggot will ever bring such a huge sense of joy and achievement to anybody again, and Josh was pretty pleased too! What is it that we enjoy so much about fishing? Outwitting the fish, the thrill of the fight? Neither would seem to apply in the case of this little shimmer of silver but the joy on Josh's face was as easy to read as a book. It's perhaps a little sad that many anglers lose this basic joy as the capture of such small 'easy' fish becomes a little tedious. We would do well to remember something of that first exciting catch and banish the phrase 'trash fish' from our vocabulary. Whoops, that's enough moralising for now.

By loose feeding with maggots Josh caught several more roach before the light faded and the float vanished into the evening gloom.
I retackled his rod with a sliding ledger and sweetcorn as hookbait and he recast. He actually picked up casting much quicker than I thought he would. The only difficulty he had seemed to be that the reel was physically a bit large for him to handle. When most people cast they hold the line against the spool with their index finger, Josh's isn't long enough so he had to hook the line over his finger which does make it harder to release the line at the right moment.

My usual setup is to use two storm lanterns adjacent to the seats for lighting and then washing up liquid bottle tops, clipped over the line between the first and second rod rings, as bite indicators. A bit Heath Robinson perhaps but it's cheap and it works. The only drawback is, of course, that you have to sit and watch instead of being woken by an alarm but that's no real hardship.
I have to say that Josh was not over impressed by this change in tactics and it wasn't hard to see why, no bites!
I explained that this is the way things were and if he did get a bite it was likely to be a bigger fish and this fuelled his enthusiasm for a bit longer. About two hours in fact which was when I discovered that, beneath copious layers of clothing, he had fallen asleep.

I woke him and suggested we had a midnight snack, good idea. I've got an old Renault Trafic van which makes a superb tent so we retired to the car park and brewed a cup of tea while Josh ate the chocolate, well most of it.
He got in his sleeping bag and went back to sleep and I returned to the water to do some serious 'undisturbed' fishing.

By 5am I'd caught one fish, a roach of about 4oz, well it was a slightly bigger fish. It was getting light now so I went and woke Josh and suggested some breakfast. Bacon eggs and fried bread went down very well, he wolfed it down although I have to say it looked a bit like someone had wolfed it down the previous evening but it tasted great.

Back to the fishing then. Needless to say Josh wanted the float back, I obliged and before long he was back into the small roach and the odd skimmer bream. I was, however,
catching very little so I decided to chuck out a few crusts. This is something I almost always do at first light. I cut half a dozen cubes from a nice crusty loaf and drop them in some likely spots along a nearby bank. On some waters you give up right away as the water boils with fry but on others it's frequently productive. Ideally you can see all the crusts from where you are fishing and spot any activity. Sure enough after about twenty minutes a crust was sucked down by a good fish, followed by another. At this point the boilie rod was re-tackled with a crust and we crept around to the area of activity. I dropped in another 'freebie' which was taken in five minutes so in went another, this time with a size six barbless hook in it.

Ten minutes later the crust was taken and I lifted the rod, waiting for the line to move off. It did, I struck and handed the rod to Josh. Surface hooked Carp usually move off at a rate of knots and this one was certainly no exception. Josh held on tight and looked on in astonishment as the line screamed off the lightly set clutch on reel, I actually grabbed hold of his coat to stop him sliding down the steep bank, after the small stuff he had been catching he had no idea that a fish could actually pull this hard. He made a fair attempt at playing the fish and after 5 minutes or so I netted it for him. Pleased or what? I took a photograph and let Josh gently return the fish to the water.

Now I was really pleased and proud that Josh had caught this fish but was not aware that it might have a downside. The immediate one was "lets catch another". Hmmmm, well it's not quite that easy Josh, we'll have scared them off. And more recently "let's catch some carp, I love catching carp".
To add strength to my argument (it's not always that easy) we recently had another all night session with the express intention of catching a carp for the cover shot of this years Get Hooked! It was at a local fishery, with a good population of large carp, that had been fishing well recently. A local angler was also there all night to 'reduce the odds' and another turned up before light. The sum total of our efforts... three carp anglers nil (one lost ghost carp) Josh about thirty rudd, golden orfe and golden tench to about 8oz. You can imagine the conversation; "have you caught anything Gra?", no, "I have. Has that man over there caught anything?", no. "Has that man caught anything Gra?", no. "I've caught more than anybody haven't I?", yes Josh.
He couldn't really grasp why people should 'deliberately' not catch fish, which were easy, in pursuit of something unseen which was obviously very hard to catch, that's very easy to grasp, isn't it?

Back to our original expedition and it was now about 9am. I was still fishing ledgered corn on one rod and boilie on the other and Josh was back with his floatfished maggot and catching fish again. Suddenly the bottle top on the boilie rig shot up and I struck. I knew right away that this was a good fish as it made off, hugging the bottom and taking line. After a solid fight I slid the net under a mirror of about 91b which was immediately returned.

Well that's about it, we fished on until about 11.30am and I spent most of the time watching and helping Josh who was still catching by generous loose feeding with the remainder of the maggots. He was a bit disappointed when we went to empty the keepnet, which had been kept in an outside shed, as some small rodents had surreptitiously enlarged the mesh sufficiently to allow all but a few of his fish to escape but on the whole he really enjoyed himself. He just about made the twelve mile journey home without falling asleep but wandered around like a zombie for the rest of the day and slept like a log that night.

To conclude this little tale I'd like to offer a few thoughts from my experience. If you need patience to be a fisherman, treble it and then add some if you intend taking your offspring. You'll spend a lot of time undoing tangles and getting hooks out of seats and the like. (pick a swim with no trees nearby) This also means, if you are fishing yourself, you are going to miss fish, I missed at least two 'sucker' runs on the boilies. Be as sure as you can that your subject is actually going to catch fish, he/she will get bored very quickly. Take lots of grub and treats, this is great for staving off the aforementioned boredom. If it gets really bad pick up and go home, don't inflict fishing on your pupil (you can always go again on your own). Six years old, in my experience, is the minimum age if your pupil is going to fish with any degree of independence.
Whatever the drawbacks, with a little extra patience I know you'll find it an extremely rewarding experience.