Woody's Angle - Good News Week

Jeff Woodhouse

Jeff caught his first fish at the age of five, a mackerel from a Torquay fishing boat. That was the starting point 53 years ago and the sight of that living silvery image coming up from the invisible depths had him hooked for life. Since then he has practised virtually every type of fishing, although not always successfully.

He doesn't just like fish, he has a love affair with them, in his living room, in his garden and at times, in his freezer. Lately he has spent more time either running clubs or assisting them to become successful. Now he admits to being too old to chase monsters, he's happier getting as much fun as possible out of what's before him.

In this monthly series Jeff indulges the rebel within himself, often controversial and always trying to think differently about the usual trends in fishing.

Great news! Marsh Tackle and Country Sports in High Wycombe are not closing down after all

GOOD NEWS WEEK

This is 'Good News Week' as the old song goes, but the lyric 'Someone's dropped a bomb somewhere,' was me, in a sense.

Remember my piece on the death of a tackle shop, that being Marsh Tackle and Country Sports in High Wycombe? Well, now I'm very pleased and relieved to say, it's no longer closing. I had a very nice friendly phone call from Roy Hawes the owner, which I probably didn't deserve, and he explained to me that the deal with the restaurant man had fallen through. So, Roy has decided, after selling off lots of his existing stock at truly bargain prices, to restock and carry on.

I really am pleased for both him and the anglers here in High Wycombe and surrounding districts. For Roy, it was his hobby. His plant hire business is thriving, I even saw one of his diggers on a news report on TV the other day. The skip hire business he bought about ten years ago he has built up into a real going concern and all credit to him for it. In fact, a friend and I were working on a film set in some private grounds the other week and there was one of Roy's skips there. They're everywhere!

So as I had said, he doesn't need to earn a living from his tackle shop, he's a millionaire already and this is simply his hobby. Just as long as it turns over sufficient to pay the staff and a little left over for a drink, he's happy. I do have to say that their maggots are second to none in the area! The shop will remain in Downley, High Wycombe, for the time being and next year he hopes to move into slightly smaller premises. So he is downsizing, which makes good economic sense, but hopefully this will allow the business to continue to serve the local community.

So I didn't get the story wrong so much as events have changed the course of his decision and I really am pleased. I tell you what Roy, when you move into the new shop, the first bottle of bubbly is on me and none of that Asti stuff either. Good luck for the future!

I spent a very pleasant day on Saturday on one of our club's small lakes. I was a member of another club 10 years ago that then had the licence on it, but they never looked after it, always full of litter and camp fires where tyres from a nearby dump were regularly burned. Two years ago the club dissolved and this club I belong to acquired the licence.

Barry's 7lb 7oz bream (click for bigger picture)

Boy is it nice now. We've reconstructed the swims, dragged a lot of the garbage out (including some tyres), and we've stocked it with a good variety of fish. There's bream in there to at least 9½lbs and someone suggested 15lbs, but I've not had this confirmed by our head bailiff and I haven't seen any that big. There's also tench and crucians as well a roach, rudd and perch.

It's the bream, though, that Barry Edney has been targeting and the picture is of him with a 7lbs 7ozs fish taken a few weeks ago, but just before I arrived he slipped one back in that he says was spot on 8lbs. Anyway, on Saturday I thought I'd try to catch him up with a secret little session, but they weren't playing, just swimming around close to the surface probably getting ready to spawn.

I tried our usual method of sweetcorn under a float, but that didn't work at all. I put a sleeper rod out for the small stock of carp with two mini Maple-8 boilies from a handful that the very kind Mr. Marsden gave me at Clattercote and that took two bream. Incidentally Graham, I've now run out of those boilies and would it be cheeky of me to scrounge some more off you (hehe!) Well, it's not the cost it's what he does with them first. Some sort of ritual involving rolling up the right leg of his overtrousers, putting on a bait apron, bearing his chest and then blessing them, but why question it when it seems to work? (And you promised you wouldn't give away my secrets! - Graham).

Jeff in Barrie's bream swim (click for bigger picture)

Back to the plot and my best fish went 7lbs 12½ozs, so Barry is still in front. I didn't take a picture of either fish because the time it would have taken to set up didn't seem fair on them as they both seemed pretty exhausted to begin with. Both swam off okay after holding them the right way up for a minute or so, an important point when releasing bream at this time of year, I've found.

Another incident was when a fox walked nonchalantly across the opposite bank 30 yards away. He got into one of the swims, sat down and looked across as if to see what I was doing. That was worth a picture I thought and I reached behind for the camera, turned my head away for a second and when I looked back he was moving slowly away.

Another incident involved two young emperor dragonflies. I was amazed by how territorial they can be and these two obviously wanted to claim the same area of the lake in front of me. It ended in a clash where the jaws of one were clenched firmly around the thorax of the other and was carried away, one alone returned. As one chap put it on a 'Just Fishing' programme, “Nature is neither kind nor cruel, just blindly indifferent.” It's those kind of scenes that make fishing worthwhile.

For many this will be “Good news week” after a 90 day lay-off from the rivers. I hope you enjoy this season, but I won't be in such a hurry to join you on opening day. For one, I don't feel the urgent need to wet a line in the river and secondly, it's too early for the barbel yet. Also, you can say this is superstitious nonsense, but the phases of the moon are wrong until late in the month.

I might, however, do a little river carping sometime soon in our club's narrow little river. Last time I tried though, I took two light rods of 1¼ and 1½ lbs test curve and placed them along the bank with just the tips poking out in the grasses. I could peer over the edge, Indian style, and watch fish in 3 feet of water cruising around and put a trail of groundbait close in to the edge. The baited hooks were then suspended over the side and lowered until they touched bottom.

All day I sat there watching as half a dozen carp swam round and round in close company over and over my groundbait and baited hooks and did I catch one? No! (I'll leave it there to be polite). They would nose into the groundbait, stir up the bottom, even crash into the line and not even spook, but as for picking up one bait I'd have had more chance plaiting fog.

After seven hours of watching them, building up my hopes only to have them dashed, I was exhausted. It's tiring work this stalking lark even though in this case I wasn't moving around. Much better to sling out boilies on a couple of rods, switch on the alarms, crack open a can of drink, get into a nice comfortable chair and have a good old doze. That's what carping's about.

I might also try for a tench sometime too. It's so difficult to decide and there's not many months of tenching before the 'tench magic' wears off. You know what I mean, those balmy summer, misty mornings when the lake is so still that the pond skaters cause big ripples. There is something very appealing about tenching then.

I remember years ago, one writer in a magazine (might have been Jim Gibbinson for all I know, please say if it was) saying that you could always tell a serious tench fisher. His forefinger would be a charred stump through tamping his pipe and upon seeing bubbles fizz around his float, would forget all about the fact that his finger was slowly burning away. Thankfully I gave up ALL forms of smoking 12 years ago now so no chance of that happening.

It is magic though and it doesn't matter how big the tench are within reason, 3lbs being perhaps the lower limit to make it interesting. The whole point about tench fishing is to not set your sights too high. I've always found that if you follow that creed you might be in for a big surprise, although none of my tench have ever been the size that Andy Nellist would count as serious. I'm still thrilled to bits with a 6-pounder and a 7 would be a PB even though I have witnessed bigger fish for others.

Jeff's Chub Rova compact tackle bag, a Coarse Fisherman magazine subscription gift. The items are: (working clockwise): Double T weigh sling, scales, towel, folding box of small items, reading glasses, (on top) a selection of feeders, hooklinks, Klinik, scissors, hooks, large disgorger, Korum meat punches, pots of boilies, insect repellent, Solar hangers, head torch, a Coke (always), sun tan lotion, catapult, nettle/insect sting cream, glugged boilies, Magic hand sanitizer, baiting needles, floats, Nash swinger, forceps, Fox Micron M (another CF freebie) alarm, Mega Silk, Mantis, Fox box of small pieces, and a box of leads and rig tubing bits. Not in picture, a Fox Medium tackle box, the camera I'm using to take this picture, a small flask, and I still have room for a snack and some luncheon meat. (click for bigger picture)

That's why I no longer chase the big specimens, I was never any good at it. Yes, I like to record the barbel from our weir pool at the Compleat Angler Hotel in Marlow if only because it is interesting to see them putting on weight. I could catch bigger by fishing elsewhere for them, but I would never consider joining the 'circus' to hunt them down. I'm happy just being ordinary.

Now to sorting out my compact tackle bag. This is the best bag I have ever had (and it was free from Coarse Fisherman magazine) as it does everything I want of it. Spreading the gear out (see picture) I can't believe how it all fits in, but I have stuff there to suit most kinds of fishing techniques, albeit more along the specialist style and roving. I can even put together some small carp bolt rigs or trot a simple float with a fine hooklink. It's all very versatile.

That's the biggest part of the fun of an arriving season (yes, I know I don't believe in the close season, but that doesn't stop me from looking forward to getting back on the river again). Getting out all the old bits and pieces, cleaning them all off even if they were clean when you last put them away and reacquainting yourself with them again. Imagining all the situations where they will bank the catch of your lifetime and making sure they're ready for it. So much to do, so little time left.

Have a good one and tight lines everyone!