Fishing our local river is a bit of a challenge, to say the least. I have been fishing it using a whip and more recently an elasticated pole. This has paid off but is still restrictive. The problem is, there are not many open places where the fish hold up. Many lengths of the river are very shallow, and shallow weirs have been constructed to manage the flow and prevent it just draining out, at its confluence, into the Ravensbourne River as it nears Catford.
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| The River Pool (right) meets the Ravensbourne River, at Catford |
The pool formed on the downstream side of the shallow weir, where we
caught the chub a couple of days ago, is one of the more open places to fish. Down stream from there, the banks of the river are almost completely overgrown and fishing with conventional gear is almost impossible. Scanning the eBay listings, I spotted what might be the answer to fishing in those hard to get to places. A small telescopic rod, complete with a reel for just a shade over £16.00 delivered. Click, bought it!
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| The telescopic rod combo - cheap and cheerful, but it did the job |
I was pleasantly surprised when it arrived yesterday. Okay, it is no Drennan Acolyte, but I did not expect it to be as good as it looked. I stripped off the heavy line that was supplied with the reel and replaced it with some 4lb line and a small float. It takes about 3g to cock this little float. Discussing it on the forums, it seems that opinion is divided as to if this is too heavy or not. As I had no real alternative other than a really light pole float, I decided to use what I had.
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| The float shotting seemed a bit heavy, but as it turned out, it seemed to work well. |
It did work reasonably well, but I think if I had more time at the bank, I might have refined the shotting a little. The small pole floats might have worked, but with little or no weight, they may have been hard to cast with this little rod.
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| Pole floats might have been too light to cast |
Although the rod seems to perform reasonably well, the reel is a bit cheap and cheerful. The line-lay is not good at all, and the drag is as rough as a bag of grit. It does work, after a fashion, but you could not describe it as smooth. Having said that, I am not complaining, it did the job, and for the money, it is a lot better than I had expected.
The great thing about this telescopic rod is the ease of carrying it and the speed of set up. I was fishing within a couple of minutes of arriving at the bank. All I had to do was extend the rod and add my chosen hook length. I chose a 12 inch length and fitted a small No.12 dropper about 4 inches above the hook. I was only using 2½lb line for the hooklength as the target today was small perch. After trying several spots along the river, I was beginning to think I was going to blank. We eventually ended up at the weir, where I had caught the Chub a couple of days ago.
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| The pool just under the shallow concrete weir |
This pool is reasonably deep in places by this river's standards. There is a shoal of chub that are often seen here, and today was no exception. I decided to have a go and see what I could catch, as the perch did not seem to want to come out and play. There is not much river to fish here as the water shallows up very quickly as it flows downstream.
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| Standing in the same place as the picture above was taken, this is the view looking downstream |
I tried casting my new rod and to my surprise, although the reel is a bit rough it worked reasonably well. A couple of casts with no bait, just to see if it was working and to see if the depth was about right, proved that this little rod was going to do the job, albeit a bit rough. I put a single white maggot on the hook and cast watched the float trot (if that is the correct word) downstream and disappear. Fish! I had caught a tiny chublet. Sue was feeding the swim every fifteen seconds or so with three or four maggots.
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| This was the average size of the fish we caught in ore short session today |
The next cast turned up a slightly bigger fish. I was sort of hoping that I would not catch a big one just yet until I had a bit more experience with the rod and especially the reel. As it happened, although we could see the bigger fish, and they were going for the free offerings, none of them took the bait.
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| Tiny spool for my dropshot reels |
I caught several fish, none of which required the landing net. The new rod was a complete success, and the reel will do the job, but I might have to change it for one of my 1500 Fox Ultron Rage reels that I use for dropshotting. I will have to buy another tiny spool and fill it with monofilament line as they are both filled with braid.
I did not end up catching, or seeing, any perch today, but I did catch a lot of fish, so today was another successful session, even if it was only for an hour or so. I need to refine my technique over the next few weeks and months, but one thing I am sure of, I love this river fishing!
Ralph.
