Angling Star Article
June 1999 -
"Monsters Exist in Yorkshire"

YORKSHIRE SPECIMEN CHALLENGE
Alex Peters

As we begin another season it is good to reflect on the highs and lows of the previous season's sport. As with recent years I fished a large lightly stocked gravel pit for carp and tench in the spring, moving to the Yorkshire rivers from June 16 in a quest for a rare Yorkshire double figure barbel, with the odd autumnal foray for big stillwater bream and chub and pike in winter.

To add more incentive and interest, me and my angling pal Dan devised our 1998-99 Yorkshire specimen challenge with fifty quid at stake. A point was awarded for the largest specimen in each main fish species, with just half a point for perch and eels as we rarely fish for them (see figure 1).

Early season, our big gravel pit was painfully slow until the sun finally came out in May. The overnight transformation was unbelievable. Suddenly there were tench rolling everywhere and I even managed to catch 5 in a couple of hours on the float- a miracle!

The pit's carp made their annual appearance around this time, being sighted in all their splendour for nearly a week and 3 were caught (not by us) before they did their disappearing act and lost themselves in seventy acres of weed. However, on May 10 I hooked and landed a rather fat but impressive 221b personal best common, a sure-fire carp title winner. Unfortunately it was hooked in the belly after sitting on my bait and couldn't count. This was the first carp I had banked at the venue since 1995 and to say I was gutted was an understatement. For a change I had done everything right. After spotting a few carp between 15 and 251b I crept up and introduced a handful of hemp and wheat, plopping a peanut on a light leger rig over the top. Crouching down, I waited until a common came back which started to feed on the bait, approached my hookbait, then suddenly tore off. In a matter of seconds I saw it was foul-hooked and played it to the bank as gently as possible.

We had decided it wouldn't be fair if someone took the category with a `parrot-mouthed' twenty from my local overstocked day-ticket fishery if it beat a smaller but higher quality uncaught specimen. Therefore only carp from the big pit or a river counted.

June 16 was beckoning and we investigated a few stretches of river for barbel potential including some stretches of the large but beautiful Yorkshire Ouse. We decided on a barbelly looking stretch with some nice pacy swims and opened the season there. Although June 16 resulted in a blank for both of us, we were encouraged by seeing a leaping barbel. We fished the stretch for 2 months, generally 2 or 3 evenings a week and I took over 25 barbel, catching three in a sitting several times. My first weighed 81b 2oz, my second weighed 71b 10oz, but I then lost some in a snag so had to alter my fishing position to avoid further losses. Since then all my fish have been smaller with 3,4,5 and occasional 6 pounders.

Bizarrely enough, the same week I caught my 81b 2oz Yorkshire personal best, Dan also caught his then personal best, also 81b 2oz, with another angling pal catching his Yorkshire personal best, yet another 81b 2oz, all from different rivers!

My Ouse campaign was going well and I was averaging at least one barbel an evening, although Dan failed for the first two weeks (although we were now equal pegging in the overall barbel scores with our 81b 2oz fish). However, his first Ouse barbel weighed 91b 8oz and was a splendid looking fish - a true monster for Yorkshire, winning the coveted barbel title for Dan.

On a large coloured river such as the Yorkshire Ouse it is difficult to know what is going on beneath the surface. After buying an 8 foot fibre glass boat and borrowing an echo sounder we learnt that some of the depth variations were amazing. The area I had lost fish in a snag was horrendous with several steep sided snaggy vertical cliffs rising 6 feet off the bottom to within a few feet of the surface. One of our hotspots was in 12 feet of water after shelving down from 7 feet, another in 9 feet just before a 2 feet rise in the river bed.

We spent one evening anchored in 23 feet of water in an Ouse weirpool and both Dan and I caught barbel on 11/2" cubes of meat. It is a strange feeling to play a barbel vertically rather than towards you, but makes a pleasant change from bank fishing. It is also the greatest depth from which I have taken barbel. Contrary to what little information I have read on barbel fishing on the Yorkshire Ouse we found slacks and back eddies to be useless, doing best in steady pacy areas as one might expect with barbel. Ouse barbel seem to feed best after dark which can lead to fishing till late in June. They also seem to leap out more frequently than in other rivers I have fished which could perhaps be due to the deep water. Unlike some rivers there seems to be a full mixture of age classes with barbel being caught from 11b upwards with the potential for 101b plus fish looking possible (every year I hear tales of Ouse doubles but I will not be satisfied until one appears in my net!)

We put the echo sounder to good use prior to our big bream stints on our large pit. An hour in the boat found exactly what we were looking for; a large clear area right up to the bank and bordered on both sides and beyond 70 yards out by dense Canadian pondweed. At least we could fish knowing that our baits were positioned correctly and not in weed. Our sessions started at dusk and continued till mid morning, generally the best time for breaming at the pit. This proved to be the case as we were successful on all four stints. Twice at dawn we were also rewarded by the unbelievable spectacle of rolling bream continuing for several hours, the first such sighting in over 10 years fishing the lake.

One morning I landed a 61b 12oz tench and 81b 2oz bream, but the most memorable session resulted in a 101b loz bream for Dan and a massive 121b bream for myself. My bream took a large lobworm, sweetcorn and maggot cocktail on a size 6 barbless to 81b hooklength over about fifteen balls of 'pudding'. This fish took the bream category in our challenge. As also mentioned by Dave Tipping in the October '98 issue, I use plain crumb with no flavourings, although this year I have added extras such as casters and dead maggots as well as my usual wheat. The tackle sounds crude but friends using lighter gear don't seem to get any more bream as a result, and with the chance of carp and lots of weed about, it's the best option in my view. On lakes where fish get caught more regularly it may be necessary to fine down, but on this pit where many fish are uncaught you can get away with sensible gear.

The onset of winter lead to thoughts of chub and pike and most of my fishing centred around the river Wharfe between Harewood and Wetherby. The river Wharfe flows through Otley where I live so I can keep an eye on its condition (our Yorkshire rivers are up and down like yo-yos). The Wharfe in this area is especially scenic, another reason not to travel to the Swale despite the latter rivers pedigree for producing good chub.

Dan concentrated on piking on the river and took the title with a 20 pounder in December, whilst I tried to beat the 41b 8oz chub caught by Dan whilst fishing for barbel in June. My first chub stint was on New Years Day and I trotted breadflake down a shallow gravel run that had yielded plenty in previous winters. Sport was good and I enjoyed taking several 41b fish, but none to beat Dan's fish. The following day I took a friend to the same spot. He only fishes for barbel and wasn't particularly impressed by my float fished and lightly trundled bread despite the fact I took another 9 chub including several 3 and 4 pounders. Despite a low clear river he patiently legered meat in the deeper run just upstream of me, hoping for barbel. To prove me wrong for my constant ribbing for his lack of bites he eventually hooked a good fish - of course a barbel! Not bad with a water temperature of 6 degrees and proof that you just never know with fishing. I fished the following week in the same area with the water temperature rising, but caught only a trout and a grayling until after dark when I caught a solitary chub of 41b 11oz - a category winner and surely overall victory in our challenge. Dan, you owe me fifty quid!

I have caught specimens of many species but one has so far eluded me: large river roach. Is it because there aren't any in my stretches, because our rivers fine down too quickly due to modern efficient drainage, or more likely because I lack finesse? Over the years I have caught several good roach whilst carp fishing on gravel pits, with peanuts being the surprisingly effective bait, but somehow never catch them on rivers whilst legering flake after dark! Perhaps this season!

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