maceo
Well-known member
I was out at 0600 yesterday morning and down to the Thames, only to find that not only was the field where I fish under 3 feet of water, but even the car park was flooded out.
I walked the other way down the bank until I came to another flood and could walk no further, so set up there and tried a little bit on the feeder. Absolutely hopeless. The river was like the white water rapids. There was foam on the centre stream and the tops of bushes just visible poking through.
I gave it up as a bad job after an hour and packed up and went to a local still water. It's prettier than some I've been to and I did catch - of course! - you can't really fail to catch there. However, it set me to thinking why I prefer rivers to still water fishing.
1. The fish - I caught several large-ish roach, but you would barely recognise these morose, tired, muddy old things (which put up about as much fight on the hook as an empty crisp bag) as being the same species as river roach. River roach are bright, sparkling flashes of silver which take the bait with a bang and fight energetically - flapping around like wild things. Lake roach take the bait cautious and slowly, three or four bobs and wait, wait, wait, until the float eventually slides under.
When you catch a wild fish in the river, there's a good chance nobody's ever caught it before. Lake fisheries fish have been put in there for people to catch and by their resigned attitude and shabby appearance, look like they're fed up of the number of times they've been caught. They lie there waiting to be unhooked, barely moving a muscle.
I did also catch a big ugly carp of maybe four of five pounds, which is much bigger than most of the fish I usually catch on the river (occasional heart-stopping Chub excepted!) - but it didn't feel like it was 'worth' as much as catching a 1lb roach out of the river.
2. The surroundings - I mentioned the place I went to, Butler's Hill at Great Rollright, is quite pretty for a lake. However it still can't compare to the great outdoors. The lakes are surrounded by little platforms for fishing off and it's quite different from huddling down between the stingers on the river bank. You don't get to see the swans go by, or the wildlife that you see on the river. On the plus side I suppose, at least there are no boats or dog walkers.
3. The company - For mysterious reasons that I can't fathom, nobody likes river fishing and the times I see anyone else at all fishing down on the upper Thames are few and far between. Normally I'm in splendid isolation. I was the only one on the lakes to start with, but then a few more people started showing up and you start getting concerned with questions like whether you're casting into their 'bit' of the lake or pishing them off by feeding too much or something. By the river you can wander off for a pee behind a tree, but not when there are half a dozen other anglers all sat around looking at you on the lake. My fellow anglers yesterday all seemed friendly enough chaps, but I have been to bigger commercial venues which are filled with lads in white work vans with their shirts off and their radios blasting. That's really not what I'm looking for when I go fishing.
4. The ease of catching - This sounds counter-intuitive, but it's just too easy to catch on the lakes. You really don't have to be much of a fisherman. Lob pretty much any bait in on a hook and you'll catch something. That's not the case on the river. On the river it's easy to blank. You have to outwit the fish. If you're too noisy or get the feeding wrong, they'll disappear off elsewhere. On the little lake, they've got nowhere to go. Sometimes at the lakes it feels like the little magnetic fishing game you used to have when you were a kid. It feels like a commercial "fishing leisure experience" rather than getting out into nature.
5. It's a bit of a yawn - I was fishing the float on the lakes and of course, by definition, still waters don't move. So you cast in and then that's it. There's nothing more to do, but sit down and watch your static float doing nothing. On the river, the floats moving a bobbing about and ducking and you're wondering whether you're dragging the bottom or if it's the beginning of a bite. River trotting is much more all action than lake fishing. When I'm fishing the still waters, I smoke too much!
So that's my thoughts about it anyway. I realise not everyone's the same and in fact, judging by the popularity of lakes compared to rivers, I must be the exception rather than the rule.
When I paid the lady who came around yesterday, I told her I expected I'd be back a few times in the close season, so we'd see each other again. I mean it's not a terrible experience lake fishing, it's just not as good as the river I reckon.
I'd be interested to hear what regular fisheries anglers like about lake fishing and why they disdain river fishing.
I walked the other way down the bank until I came to another flood and could walk no further, so set up there and tried a little bit on the feeder. Absolutely hopeless. The river was like the white water rapids. There was foam on the centre stream and the tops of bushes just visible poking through.
I gave it up as a bad job after an hour and packed up and went to a local still water. It's prettier than some I've been to and I did catch - of course! - you can't really fail to catch there. However, it set me to thinking why I prefer rivers to still water fishing.
1. The fish - I caught several large-ish roach, but you would barely recognise these morose, tired, muddy old things (which put up about as much fight on the hook as an empty crisp bag) as being the same species as river roach. River roach are bright, sparkling flashes of silver which take the bait with a bang and fight energetically - flapping around like wild things. Lake roach take the bait cautious and slowly, three or four bobs and wait, wait, wait, until the float eventually slides under.
When you catch a wild fish in the river, there's a good chance nobody's ever caught it before. Lake fisheries fish have been put in there for people to catch and by their resigned attitude and shabby appearance, look like they're fed up of the number of times they've been caught. They lie there waiting to be unhooked, barely moving a muscle.
I did also catch a big ugly carp of maybe four of five pounds, which is much bigger than most of the fish I usually catch on the river (occasional heart-stopping Chub excepted!) - but it didn't feel like it was 'worth' as much as catching a 1lb roach out of the river.
2. The surroundings - I mentioned the place I went to, Butler's Hill at Great Rollright, is quite pretty for a lake. However it still can't compare to the great outdoors. The lakes are surrounded by little platforms for fishing off and it's quite different from huddling down between the stingers on the river bank. You don't get to see the swans go by, or the wildlife that you see on the river. On the plus side I suppose, at least there are no boats or dog walkers.
3. The company - For mysterious reasons that I can't fathom, nobody likes river fishing and the times I see anyone else at all fishing down on the upper Thames are few and far between. Normally I'm in splendid isolation. I was the only one on the lakes to start with, but then a few more people started showing up and you start getting concerned with questions like whether you're casting into their 'bit' of the lake or pishing them off by feeding too much or something. By the river you can wander off for a pee behind a tree, but not when there are half a dozen other anglers all sat around looking at you on the lake. My fellow anglers yesterday all seemed friendly enough chaps, but I have been to bigger commercial venues which are filled with lads in white work vans with their shirts off and their radios blasting. That's really not what I'm looking for when I go fishing.
4. The ease of catching - This sounds counter-intuitive, but it's just too easy to catch on the lakes. You really don't have to be much of a fisherman. Lob pretty much any bait in on a hook and you'll catch something. That's not the case on the river. On the river it's easy to blank. You have to outwit the fish. If you're too noisy or get the feeding wrong, they'll disappear off elsewhere. On the little lake, they've got nowhere to go. Sometimes at the lakes it feels like the little magnetic fishing game you used to have when you were a kid. It feels like a commercial "fishing leisure experience" rather than getting out into nature.
5. It's a bit of a yawn - I was fishing the float on the lakes and of course, by definition, still waters don't move. So you cast in and then that's it. There's nothing more to do, but sit down and watch your static float doing nothing. On the river, the floats moving a bobbing about and ducking and you're wondering whether you're dragging the bottom or if it's the beginning of a bite. River trotting is much more all action than lake fishing. When I'm fishing the still waters, I smoke too much!
So that's my thoughts about it anyway. I realise not everyone's the same and in fact, judging by the popularity of lakes compared to rivers, I must be the exception rather than the rule.
When I paid the lady who came around yesterday, I told her I expected I'd be back a few times in the close season, so we'd see each other again. I mean it's not a terrible experience lake fishing, it's just not as good as the river I reckon.
I'd be interested to hear what regular fisheries anglers like about lake fishing and why they disdain river fishing.
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