Thursday 25 March 2010

On Blanking...

It's now ten days since I last posted anything here, and that is probably a record. In all honesty there has been little to report - I've been fishing a few times but little of note has happened because at this time of the year the available coarse fishing is, let's be frank, crap. If we thought for a moment that we could get our money back then us coarse anglers'd be forming an orderly queue at Mother Nature's door
and seeking a full refund on our dues for the whole month that follows the close of the river season...

What can you do?


Sunset over Ryton Pool

I went with Keith to Ryton Pool last week and not only drew a blank, but a Royal Blank at that. For those non-anglers who do read my missives, a 'blank' is a fishing session that may well include bites, and even lost fish, but one where the 'net result' of hours and hours of frustrated casting, cursing and conniving against the fish, is not one fish successfully brought to the bank. Most anglers will do anything, including trying to catch minnows and bullheads (I have been saved by the same) to avoid this form of defeat.

However, A Royal Blank is the not nearly the same thing as a straight blank, no, it is far, far worse. This is where an angler goes to the bank and sits quietly for three hours or more (less than this and it's only another form of straight blank) and in extreme cases where committed (and some should be) specimen anglers are concerned, weeks on end, and NOT-ONE-SINGLE-THING of NOTE, happens...

Really, nothing could be worse than this state of affairs, as anglers are in the main, and even if we don't know it at the time, never seeking to simply catch fish but all the while engaged in the acquisition of the precious nuggets of knowledge of how to catch more and larger examples of the same fish next time, and so, of all the possible hands that we can be dealt, the Royal Blank ranks as by far the cruelest because it denies us even the microjot of knowledge that comes from the tremble on the rod top or the dip of the float, the significance of which can be taken as evidence of something that might then allow us the merest furtherance of our aims in the general direction of improvement...

No, with the Royal Blank there is no absolutely no data to speak of, excepting the utter lack of it...

And the only thing that can be learned from such a result is that the approach you started with is as good as any to go back with. Luckily, such events are very rare, as rare in fact as their opposing red letter days and of course in the same fashion as red letter days, can only happen to any half - decent angler once or twice in any given season. Thankfully.

I went to the canal too and fared a little better there. The first session was down at Grassy Bend, a place where I have in the past endured many hours of self administered discomfiture for a handful of well above average roach, indeed so above average, that the average I speak of is a stonking one pound eight ounces...! I was hoping to crack two pounds, as my best roach from here, and indeed anywhere, was set at this spot (in the snow) one year ago and still stands at one pound and fifteen ounces despite having had numerous pound plus fish since, a fact that is starting to rile.


A blanker...

I sat for ages waiting for the one bite that I ever expect in any canal roach session when using lobworm for bait and when it finally came I just happened to be away from the rods for a second fixing something or other behind me and of course I missed it. The worm came back minus its tail and a bit chomped. Roach damage...

At least I was saved from a Royal Blank by the missed opportunity.


But on this occasion, not a Royal Blanker !

I went and fished Longford a few days later, at a reliable roach spot where I have taken many pound plus fish to one pound eight in the recent past. I had three bites, the first two of which were missed and the third of which resulted in a roach of twelve ounces with a distinctive orange mark on its lip, which after all the hours of mispent middle age blown thus far this close season, was as welcome as any two pounder, let me assure you...



I fished Grassy Bend again two days along but all was quiet. I sat there for three hours and had not a touch, so, I went to Tusses' Tackle, which is just a short walk up the towpath and bought some dead roach. I had a plan to avoid a Royal Blank by continuing to fish into the night, to get myself a zander by evening, if I couldn't have my roach by tea.

I saw a male mandarin duck on the way, which I thought to be a good omen, but not a sight that could ever save one from any kind of blank, despite what Bernard Cribbins might have to say on the matter ~



By the time I'd completed this mission I'd decided that Grassy Bend was looking a bit too unfriendly so I went back to Longford and set up my zander rod there. I cast a couple of lobworms too, as three rods at this time of year are better than any other number, I find, I mean you could easily deal with ten rods if you could have em, but the roach rods sat motionless all evening and into the night...



However, all was not lost as I actually did manage a couple of runs on the roach dead-baits...!

The first was missed completely, no contact of any kind even though the run was still going strong on the strike and the second seemed to hook up well but the fish dropped off a few seconds into our tussle. Typical bloody zander! What can be done with this most infuriating fish?

So another blank, but a minor one this, saved by two runs (and on float fished deadbaits zander runs are exciting affairs) and contact. Thus I have learned small somethings and am not disappointed, indeed I am now quite fired by the thought of not only getting to grips with the special problems zander pose but also vowing to challenge myself to catch, by the time I have exhausted my shop bought supply of six, six ounce roach, a double figure fish from the Canal...

Sounds optimistic doesn't it? But those two zander runs were got on just the tail section of a whole roach that could provide three baits and it survived two pick ups with just light damage and was in the water for three hours. At that rate the six will last no less than fifty four hours!

Should be enough...

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