10/10/26, River Match, Upper Colber, Sturminster Newton.

Give, give, give, me more, more, more…

The river match is on sticky ground. I can’t see our one-off trip to the river happening again.

Oh, don’t think that we’re never going back!

I want more!

If I had my way, we would make occasional trips to lakes!

Ok, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. Mainly because you must actually fish for every bite, use skills to operate rods in your hand, and carefully encourage fish to feed that are wild. They spend most of their time in fear for their lives because of a multitude of predators. From Pike to Perch, Otters and Cormorants, and these days even Seals!

It shows a sign of the times when Humans are the least of their worries and dark keep net can offer them some sanctuary for a while…

If you think all fishing is, is sitting by a lake waiting for a pet Mud-Pig to drag your rod in then not only are you mistaken, you are delusional and quite wrong.

There has long been this ‘Beef’ between Stillwater and running water anglers that river fishing is for the purist, and that commercials are for Neanderthals or Luddites. I don’t think that is strictly true at a high-end level. But, for us mere mortals, you can’t convince me that the skills needed to delicately navigate a lightweight float down a river to catch dainty species like Dace, can be compared to those needed to load a heavy pellet pig full of soft cardboard pellets and wait for a Mud-Muncher to hook itself…

I’m not biased, I’m really not…

With thanks…

At this point of proceedings, it is only right for me to offer some heart felt thanks to a chap by the name of Ian Paulley, and his band of merry helpers from Sturminster & Hinton Angling Club. Not only did they spend a day clearing out swims for us to use, but Ian brought along a box of Sonubaits ground baits, working as he does for the company. I know Ian said that the same swims were going to be used for other events and that they do the same for any visitors to their river. But the work was done for us today and we are all extremely grateful. Thank you…

Why bother?

With all the water around us, even in the desert in which we live compared to lands where people talk weird and have an obsession with Whippets and Pidgeon’s, why is it so important to take our juniors to running water.

There is no doubt that commercials have saved angling. The slow deterioration of canals and rivers would have meant disaster without them. But is part of that deterioration because of Commercials?

There is an argument for the purist debate because the foundations of fishing are steeped within the depths of all the rivers. Long before the muddy holes were dug and before the canals blasted their way across the land, rivers were all people had to catch fish from other than the sea. So, there is kind of an argument for it.

But, for our juniors, it is important for them to have experience of all kinds of freshwater fishing as best we can. The Frome and the Stour are the two best rivers local to us, so we will try to show our shrimps the ropes…

Mega-prep…

For the more usual matches or events, prep is minimal. I might tie the occasion rig or a packet or two of hooks, particularly if Jezza has a match the following day. Often, I notice that some packets of hooks appear to ‘tie up for the kids’, only for them to disappear at the end of the session. (this may or may not be true, but I’ll wager he’s thought about it!)

But for the river I spend literal hours tying rigs and hooks, mixing bait and prepping equipment. You would do that anyway! I hear you cry…

Yes, but when I do it for myself, I get to use it! This is all for someone to tangle in the first 30-seconds of it being in their possession!

But it’s a labour of love and, most of the time, I do love it… Most of the time…. Sometimes, I love it…. There can be occasions when it becomes a chore…. Often, it's a bind…. I hate it and loathe everyone that forces me to do it…. I want to take some tweezers and some superglue and….

Sorry, I backed out there for a moment…. Where was I?

Never buy foreign, always buy Japanese…

Don’t you love the sound of children’s laughter?

I know I do… Maybe not when I’m trying to impart some valuable knowledge to fresh young minds.

Look, I thought I’d charged the drill, ok?

The dry ground bait contents were in the bucket and the drill had, unknowingly to me, already spluttered it’s last. I added the water, announced this was my favourite bit, and pulled the trigger…

Nothing!

I cursed the German nation and all their products for the battery that I had neglected to charge. Damn you Bosch!

‘Ich Schmashen, clobberhausen, und schwearen mit das Schwienhund-Kontraption mit der nicht whirrenundschpinnen auf das whisken-toolen…. Mien Got in Himmel!’

It was at this point that Alexander and Alfred dissolved into fits of giggles that lasted arguably longer than my delicate ego could take without the need of emotional therapy.

I panicked and resorted to the old-fashioned ‘Handraulics’. Mixing done to the background of children’s laughter (adorable now, is it?) I chucked the particles in without riddling the mix. I asked the question to the crowd, ‘What have I forgotten?’.

Silence…

I’ve got away with it, I thought. Until Jack piped up with a ‘You’re a proper muppet’ look in his eyes…

I had been rumbled…

Balls! (Cheeky!)

I retreated to my happy place (Seat box) and set about feeding the fishes.

Three decent tennis balls of bait were set free into the nine-foot-deep water.

My rig followed them down and the float settled and buried. A Roach!

I needed that and proceeded to catch a few more before switching to a long Whip.

It buried again. A decent Dace! Praise be!

Lastly, I needlessly murdered some beloved worms and had a go down the edge for a Perch. Waaaaaayyyy too early I might add, but it gave me a chance to demonstrate a bait dropper.

I’m going to use a bait dropper more often it was the only thing that stopped Alexander from laughing with the ‘Ooooooo’ factor of a ‘new thing’.

The float sat, dipped and slid away. The smallest Gudgeon in the river had latched onto the worm and was looked startled as it was dragged out of the water by tackle way over gunned to catch it. It isn’t often that you feel judged by the fish you’ve just caught, but that little ‘Goby’ looked at me like ‘What the heck?’

I popped him back before he could comment…

The Match…

The draw went as follows:

Peg 1: Alexander ‘Wiping my eyes’ Adey.

Peg 2: Jack ‘I got the fish swirling’ Copp.

Peg 3: Austin ‘More bait in aisle five!’ Scott-Kennedy.

Peg 4: Seth ‘Hold my pint’ Hopkins.

Your exhaustion of coaches (the correct collective for a group of five angling coaches) today were:

Gray-bags – Graham Howard.

Jezza – Jeremy Bracey.

Jonnie B – Jon Bass.

Johnno – John Evans.

Lloydy Lloyd-Lloyd – Lloyd Richards.

The Coaching…

As is customary for current JJAC sessions, we were hosting a handful of Shrimps who were still learning the ropes. Harriet, Reuben, Haydon, and Alfred were all subjected to incredible amounts of information, in all honesty, maybe more than they could manage in such a short time. But it was laid on them thicker than Peanut butter on the roof of a dog’s mouth.

By the start of events, the uninvited wind had made itself known and was blustery at best. Even the most sturdy of us were being battered by the chilly easterly wind.

Everyone managed to catch some fish, but they were literally hard to catch because the wind blowing so hard that the fish were often flown like kites for a few seconds before they were reintroduced to their watery home.

It wasn’t a comfortable day, and Alfred was the first to succumb to the warmth of the car and a journey home. Most of the coaching juniors were popping in and out of their cars a bit like an outdoor meeting of Cuckoo-clock enthusiasts!

At one point, three sets of fishing equipment were occupied by myself, Jerry and Jon Bass! Why not? We all had a few with an on-form Jon showing that he’d lost none of match fishing bluster as netted a fish that could have been easily swung to hand, using the excuse that he couldn’t bothered to wait for the wind to drop to grab it!

Harriet was next to take to the road. I think boredom had set in early (23-seconds after I’d started talking, which was 3-seconds later than me!), but the main reason for the early bath….was an early bath!!!

Not hers, but dad Lee clearly felt far too comfortable being warm and dry.

I had felt the softness of the area in front of Harriets’ seat box for myself and bailed out before I took a dip myself. I had managed to find some fish for Harriet and told her to keep doing ‘that’ and walked off to help someone else. I had only gone 30-metres when a screech of laughter emitted from the cage of rushes.

A soggy looking Lee squelched his way to the car after going in Squirrel deep. (Squirrels like nuts…work it out)…

Absolutely no one laughed at such a serious situation, and no at all mentioned that most of the men present had prostates the size of a grapefruit and that there was no need to cover up any evidence of incontinence by jumping in the river… No one at all…

Haydon had developed a stomach-ache which was the reason for his seat box absence. Kudos to him though, he rallied towards the end. Probably knowing he would be going home soon.

Reuben was suffering with ‘LackofCarpitis’, missing the mud-pigs he was more used to. But like Haydon, they all stayed to the end…

I heard a few comments about the river being ‘crap’ and ‘not coming back’, and that’s fine. But please, don’t blame the river for lack of knowledge or experience. Embrace it, learn, and conquer it for next time.

It's not just kids, many anglers have said that somewhere is rubbish because they didn’t know, couldn’t be bothered, or refused to learn the necessary skills to fish a venue. It was always going to be more difficult on the river and, going back to earlier comments, have Commercials made fishing easier? Have we lost/are we losing the skills to fish more challenging waters? Is patience to learn becoming the lost skill?

I’ll leave that there for you to decide…

Fishing is a broad church. You can find the type that suits you the best. But, given the choice of staring at a quiver tip, waiting for a fish to yawn next to the bait. Or trotting a stick float or pole float in the current, not knowing what fish could be on the end next, I know where you’d find me….

Peg One:

Alexander Adey:

2lbs 11ozs, 3rd place, 17-points.

Once Alexander’s side had stopped splitting, he and Charli settled themselves into a peach of a peg. Nice and sheltered, Charli was one of the few people complaining about how warm it was! (Not strictly true…)

A nice little back eddy was sure to hold some fish and Ian Paulley confirmed this earlier saying it was a ‘flier’.

Ok, there is an elephant in the room with the amount of help Alexander gets from his mum, and they are working on reducing that as time goes on. But he is a very small seven-year-old and river gear is a cumbersome faff to deal with. He catches the fish himself and gets help with the landing etc, all within the rules. Those complaining about ‘mum feeding for him’ have short memories….

He'll get there and, once we bring in the new coaching requirements, everyone will know where they stand.

I got a message which I didn’t/couldn’t read straight away. I’d heard that a good Perch had been caught. Alexander had caught a belter and, even Ian said later when I spoke to him that it was an impressive fish. Weighing in at 1lb 13ozs, it is a front runner for the specimen award next year! Well done Sir Laughalot…

Peg Two:

Jack Copp:

3lbs 6ozs, 2nd place, 20-points.

Jack has had a couple of good results on the river this year already, so not many would bet against him today. But I watched him being annoyed by some Dace/Bleak/Roach on the long whip. They were there, but he couldn’t hit them. We both agreed that the Whip he was using (mine) had a too heavy float on it for the depth he wanted to fish, but I do draw the line at criticism of the equipment! Too soft indeed…You’re too soft….

I jest, of course, it was unfamiliar tackle which does make a difference.

Jack managed to find a few Perch with a good number of other small fish, just not enough on the day.

Jack and Dave stayed after and enticed the attention of a small Pike which exploded from the water to snatch a small silverfish from Jack’s line. Apparently, it was almost reason to sweep one’s trousers out afterwards because it was quite a shock when it happened!

Peg Three:

Austin Scott-Kennedy:

2lbs, 4th place, 15-points.

Austin does have a rep for being slightly heavy handed with bait. Which is fine if you have kilos of pellets in your bag or a tackle shop on site. Austin had neither.

By 1pm he was out. Out of maggots. Out of Pinkies. Out of worms.

What I should have said was ‘tough’. You used it too fast too soon…

But being a soft-hearted old soul, I managed to find some for him to lash in for the last hour and a half…

I would love to say it was a lesson learned, but I fear it will happen again.

I have genuinely never seen such a feeding machine since my old mate, Billy-the-drink, heard about an extended happy hour at my local with bottomless Pork Scratchings.

I don’t want to relive that day, if you don’t mind, so I won’t….

Austin admitted that he hadn’t done so well today, and maybe he was right. But with few fishing, he still got some good points.

Even after all the years that Austin has been fishing with us, I still have to remind myself to ‘Embrace the Chaos’ when he’s fishing. Honestly it makes my brain itch sometimes, but it works for him…

Peg Four:

Seth Hopkins:

4lb 10ozs, 1st place, 25-points.

Seth rocked up last year for his first junior event, first match, and first time on a river. He won. This year seemed to be no different.

Seth’s peg had a nice overhanging tree to ‘trot’ into with his float. Cover like this would no doubt hold some fish if he could find them. Last year, Alfie Ellis drew this peg and lost a pretty sizable Chub, so the fish are there.

At the end, Seth had put together the right number of fish of the right size. Bonus Perch are key to the Stour at Colber, and he seems to have cracked it.

If we have more river events in the future, they could be key to success for young Seth.

Impressive stuff, well done.

There we have it then, as usual lots to take home from today and lots to think about.

The river is a venue that needs a certain set of skills, and a certain amount of patience.

Not a venue for everyone, especially in today’s society of easier fishing with easy results.

I said to those present at the end that every fish caught today had been earned. Every bite needed to be hit, and no fish were caught by chance. Nothing hung itself and concentration was everything. I believe that most of that is true.

Huge appreciation needs to be given to S&HAA, the group of bank clearing volunteers, and in particular, Ian Paulley for everything they did to make today happen.

Additional thanks go out to John Hannan the landowner for allowing us access across his farmland today, Thank you John…

Thank you to our windswept coaches, Jerry Bracey, Jon Bass, Lloyd Richards, and John Evans. Good job Gentlemen, thank you.

In two weeks-time (24th Oct) we will be out again, this time at Revels for some more coaching and match fishing…But for now, Jerry and I are being dusted of and packed away from junior activities after being out for 5 straight weekends. Looking forward to a rest…

Never let the truth get in the way of a good story…

G…