Ade Kiddell - July 2018 Blog

This entry was posted on 30th July, 2018

Just where has this year gone seems like yesterday I was hoping for a chub on a cold flooded river and now we are praying for a bit of rain as the river is hardly flowing and very warm. Luckily the level is holding up and as this part of the river has plenty of weirs oxygen levels are high and the fish don't seem to be suffering too much and early and late catches have been good.

I think the carp have however gone on holiday as they seem to have disappeared for now, not before I managed one more a very fat low twenty that came in like a missile from nowhere grabbed the bait which I could see a chub was eyeing up for breakfast and all hell broke loose before I managed to net it. Carp 3 Ade 6 so not too bad and hopefully a few more will come my way before they head for their winter quarters.

 

 



 

Barbel fishing has been excellent the last few weeks, choosing to fish early and late is more comfortable than trying to fish in the middle of the day, when its been in the mid 30s. With the weather so hot and the river oxygen levels low good fish care is essential. I always give the fish a couple of minutes rest before taking it from the water to unhook, making sure the unhooking mat is drenched first. To be honest if I can I will unhook in the net and allow the fish to rest before making sure it is ready to swim off strongly. I know in a lot of cases some fishery owners have banned fishing until rain arrives and some sort of normality arrives.





 

With the river running very clear, good presentation of small baits will produce the best results, personal favourites are a bunch of fresh juicy red maggots or a single 8 mm pellet or shaved down boilie, combine the small bait with a longish hook-link (4 to 6 foot) and its possible to catch fish throughout the day.

The biggest growth area in fishing throughout Europe at the minute is feeder fishing and although we in the UK have chucked the plastic pig out and caught fish for close to 50 years the rest of Europe had lagged behind, but judging by the results of the world feeder championships in the last few years they are catching up fast.

I love feeder fishing, I was born and bred ledgering on The Broads firstly with a simple bomb but then the addition of a hair curler to carry the feed and then finally a purpose made feeder. Seen by many as a chuck it and hope method, feeder fishing has progressed and has become an art for many, when you see world class anglers fishing the feeder at long range with pinpoint accuracy then you can understand its effectiveness for all sizes and species of fish.

When I first moved to France only 3 years ago, I very rarely saw any anglers out on the river fishing with a feeder, it was either a lure rod, a pole or set up with alarms for carp or cats. How that has changed in a short time, locals have seen myself and friends out with the feeder rods and catching some big bags of bream chub and barbel and they fancy a piece of the action.

I have some good friends in the village who are match anglers and when it comes to fishing the pole they are very high standard, Fabrice a retired friend who speaks only little English is one of the best, i have never seen so many fishing trophies held by one angler, Fabrice has 100s he has won over the years, from competitions held all over France and Belgium, when i say hundreds i mean hundreds. However when it comes to feeder fishing Fabrice will be the first to admit its a method he has hardly ever fished, but in the last few months I have given him some help and all the time his confidence grows.



In the match diary for all the local clubs its 95% pole only matches with often a limit of 12 metres and certainly no running line or feeders allowed, but gradually a few clubs are holding feeder only matches, I had resisted entering any, having not fished a match for years and a little unsure how my presence would be taken I have kept away. Fabrice persuaded me that I should enter the feeder match to be held in our town, he assured me the locals would be honoured if I fished, so made plans for my first match in more than 10 years.

Not a huge entry, I think maybe 11 or 12 fished, I drew in the middle of the length, the match was held where the river meets the local playing fields, the fishing club also has a clubhouse by the river. The whole event was a very social affair, with plenty from the village interested in the event, with plenty more interested in the Englishman who was catching a few. I finished with just short of 2kgs of bits and pieces a total of 9 fish with a skimmer bream making up half the weight, second place had 1 bream and third was Fabrice with 3 small fish.

I was well please with the result and have to say I appreciated the applause of a fair band of locals who had stayed back to see the result and prize giving ceremony. I shall be on the lookout now for a few more competitions for the feeder, Fabrice is also trying to persuade me to fish a few of the pole only matches which I may well do.