Any Fish In There ?
Many a time a car has stopped by the roadside and the driver asked "Any fish in there ?".
Fishing is still a popular pastime in the the UK, though the type of fish that people want to catch has changed since I was a boy. Nowadays most are only interested in catching the biggest fish. Inland that is almost invariably carp. In some places the same fish is caught repeatedly and the fishermen even give them names. If that's what floats your boat then fair enough, but it doesn't appeal to me at all.
As a boy, the rivers by my home in Sheffield were heavily polluted, mostly from the steel industry. That left us with the choice of either fishing in a still water or not fishing at all. Not even in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would have a potential fishery on my own doorstep. I now have a grandson coming up to 5 years old. Not sure if fishing will excite him, but I will do my best to find out in the next few years.
To me the ideal farm pond should have lots of small fish for children to catch.
Either silver sided Roach
or the slightly more golden Rudd
,
with a few larger green flanked Tench to stir the bottom and send a steady fizz of bubbles to the surface
,
plus a few predator fish, my favourite being the stripy Perch (which also tastes very good).
Eventually fish find their own way into ponds naturally by eggs sticking to the legs of wildfowl, or so I am told. I somehow doubted that this had yet happened to my pond as I had not seen any signs, but you never know, so when September 2014 arrived and my European assisted restoration agreement was about to end, I was determined to find out. If no fish were present I would introduce some stock over the coming winter.
So out came my fishing tackle to see what, if anything, was in there. There is one universal bait that appeals to virtually all fish in this country - the maggot.
Most fishing tackle shops in England sell maggots by the pint. Alternatively, with a few days to spare and the wind in the right direction (away from other people), it is easy to collect your own, though I won't go into details as for some reason many people are repulsed by maggots. When we were kids we held maggot races when we weren't fishing with them. Another maggot game was for each of us to count out half a dozen into the palms of our hands and then each make a fist. The winner is the one who is last to have one wriggle it's way out. Ok, that's gross if you haven't done anything like that as a child, but if you have you will know they don't harm you at all, they only tickle as they make their escape.
Willows had grown up and out 12 feet or more in the years since I planted them in the bank. I settled down to fish in the shade of one of these. In fact it was about the only piece of open water, as there was a lot of weed on the surface which I planned to skim off at the end of the month when the agreement finished. I had been baiting this spot each evening for the previous 2 days, so if anything was in there, there was a good chance of a quick catch.
Modern fishing floats are made out of all sorts of synthetic materials. When I was younger they tended to be either cane and balsa wood constructions, or simple porcupine quills tipped with white and fluorescent orange paint. Whatever they are made from, I never cease to be thrilled at the prospect of it suddenly moving or ducking below the surface. Like many things with wildlife, you never know when it will happen, if it happens at all. I don't understand why it is but I am sure it is this unpredictability that is the key to the excitement.
My little float refused to bob or dip. Not a single bite.
Well, it had been good to sit on the bankside in anticipation, only I would have to wait until it was stocked and try again another year.
There is a lot to do from dawn till dusk over the next couple of days so I doubt if I will have time to post anything for a short while. When I do, it will be time to meet the ...
Aliens !
