The Sloop on the Sussex Ouse - Colin Etherington

Having joined Hayward’s Heath and District Angling Society back in April 2018 I was keen to fish stretches of the Sussex Ouse. During the closed season I took some lovely walks along the river bank identifying possible swims that I’d fish, it was very interesting to say the least. The upper reaches of the Sussex Ouse isn’t particularly wide and has bend after bend with slacks, glides and faster runs. Then, I came across the Sloop Weir Pool and automatically fell in love with it! I hadn’t even cast a line but I was already fixated by how wonderful and beautiful it looked. I was intrigued to know what fish resided there.

With a new car park constructed by member Ryan Smith it made it even more appealing. In my book there’s nothing better than a nice pint after a days fishing and this pool is fortunate to be very close to the Sloop Inn. I had a lovely pint in there after catching my first Ouse barbel!

The pool itself is only a short walk from the car park and there’s certainly room for two anglers using two rods each. It’s certainly comfortable fishing and I love the fact there’s no high bank thus enabling you to actually net fish right in front of your feet. It’s very picturesque with a lovely willow tree hanging across the pool from the far bank creating shade for the fish on those hot barmy summer days.

The fields around you are home to a herd of dairy cows that will often join you by the waters edge to take a drink of fresh water. They create no problem to the angler and are just inquisitive more than anything.

I’ve always enjoyed fishing deep pools and the Sloop is certainly that, the far bank against the wall has to be at least 12 feet deep. I’ve found that ledgering into the main drag accounted for the majority of my fish. Unless of course the river is flood I’ve found using 2oz of lead more than adequate to hold bottom. I have fished the pool in flood conditions and did well using a 4oz flat lead to hold bottom.

The pool has a wide mixture of species that include barbel, chub, bream, pike, perch, roach, eels, grayling and apparently the odd carp. My choice of Weir Pool fishing has always been on the tip and I personally use 12 2lb TC barbel rods coupled with Shimano 6000 baitrunners. However, you can also trot a float around the pool as demonstrated to me by Darren Larouche, who on his first ever visit banked a lovely 4lb 4oz PB chub.

My first sessions on the pool I used glugged 12mm boilies hair rigged on a short 6” braided hook length and I found the going tough. Albeit I was also using a PVA mesh bag containing three to four crushed boilies as an attractant. My initial sessions I just couldn’t get a proper bite from my quarry. I caught chub on a regular basis but I couldn’t get the barbel to feed and pick up my hook bait. I also managed to catch several wild brown trout on maggot and worm.

I then met another member that was having tremendous success further upstream at East Mascalls and he introduced me to Hinders Elips range of Barbel pellets that are advertised as the Rolls Royce of barbel pellets. I wasted no time in heading to Crawley Angling Centre and investing in some. I bought the small, medium and large options along with the matching paste. I also changed from braid hook lengths to fluorocarbon with a breaking strain of 10lb. The large pellets I use as my hook baits are held on to size 10 hooks with a pellet band. The smaller gauge pellets were used in my PVA mesh stockings which is tied directly on to my free running lead.

On my first cast using these pellets on a gorgeous autumn morning my right rod out of nowhere suddenly hooped over with a belting take from a barbel. You cannot mistake a pick up and I was suddenly playing an angry Ouse barbel. It stripped line of my reel and took me all round the pool before I managed to guide the fish into my awaiting net. It wasn’t a huge fish weighing 6lb 4oz but it was my intended species and I was over the moon! Finally, I was up and running!

It wasn’t long before I returned to the pool with my Hinders pellets giving me confidence. I cast across the pool as usual and eagerly awaited another take. I only had a few hours to fish due to family commitments and with just minutes remaining before packing up I was in again. Another classic bite, the rod hooped over and must have been pulled down nearly two foot. This barbel fought considerably harder than the previous fish and I was surprised when it only weighed 4lb 9oz. But, it was another barbel.

The mighty river Trent at Newark was calling me to take a trip up north, so it wasn’t until early December that I fished the Sloop again. My confidence was high albeit we had suffered torrential rain and the river was in flood conditions. The river looked really angry and was pushing through like I had never seen it before. Where I normally sat was completely submerged in water and I decided that a bunch lobworms would be an enticing bait to use.

My first cast resulted in a lovely winter condition chub that was well over 3lbs. It fought really well in the current and I was excited to get rebaited and to cast again into the angry water that was in front of me. An hour passed and I was considering a recast when once again the rod slammed over with an unmistakable take from a barbel. I had a proper battle on my hands and netting the fish was a lot more difficult as the current kept sweeping the net away from the fish. This one went slightly better than the last one and weighed 5lb 12oz. I smiled all the way home whilst singing Sleigh Ride.

I was sure this pool held some bigger fish and it was my target to get a double before the end of the season. I’d had doubles from the Warwickshire Avon and the Trent and really wanted one from my local river, perseverance had to be the name of the game.

Christmas came and went before I could return. The lobs had given me confidence and on a very cold morning I returned to the Sloop. It was that cold that I needed to use de-icer on my windscreen before setting off. Not ideal conditions and I wondered if I was wasting my time. However, with a PVA mesh stocking containing maggots and Elips pellets I cast out into what I considered a hot spot. Within 40 minutes my rod trembled before slamming over and I was into a crazy angry fish. I knew immediately it was a barbel and after several minutes I had netted my first Sussex Ouse double figure barbel weighing 10lb 8oz.

Two days later I felt I had to get back on the bank and try again. It was somewhat milder and using exactly the technique my rig was under arm lobbed back into the swirling current of the pool. It didn’t take long before the tell tale rattle of tip developed into a complete pull round and I was battling another barbel. This fish fought harder and longer than any other barbel I’d caught before on the Ouse. The water was gin clear and as it finally came up I could see it’s beautiful bronze colours. It weighed 9lb 4oz and I was delighted and I’d classify it as the prettiest barbel I’ve ever caught.

I’ve totally fallen in love with the Sloop Weir which is available to fish on the Hayward’s Heath and District Angling Society ticket.

I’m very keen to put some time and effort into landing a carp from the Ouse and the Sloop stretch can certainly deliver as demonstrated by Ryan Smith.

My next post will be concentrating on the weir pool above this stretch at East Mascalls. So, if you want to experience fantastic fishing in peaceful, beautiful surroundings whilst listening to the sound of running water and birds singing get yourself a membership. Tight lines to all members of Haywards Heath and District Angling Society.

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Cunning Crucians by Mark Dunwell

At the back end of the river season I decided to target a fish I’ve not caught or seen since I was a kid the humble crucian.

This small member of the carp family has in recent times been overlooked or forgotten about in the world of more commercial angling and clubs moving with the times wanting what anglers demand stocked natural lakes with hard fighting large growing carp. The crucian carp for years faded into the background and was replaced by carp that formed crucian hybrids or brown goldfish as they are known. Luckily recently the love for true strain crucians have got some forward thinking clubs restocking these little bars of gold. The trouble is they don’t mix well and some clubs have gone to the extreme of digging crucian lakes and thank god they have. One such club has a lake only thirty minutes from me so my mind was made up. This closed season a big crucian was the target but how big?

Being bold I decided three pounds would be my target but realistically a two pound fish would be a fish of dreams. So how would I achieve my target? I had not had a crucian for over thirty years so catching one would be a start. Luckily the methods used are quite simple and this is a theme in all my fishing that I put more thought into my location and feeding than I do fancy rigs. Understanding your quarry is the first step and crucians are well known to be delicate feeders with only small mouths so big hooks and thick lines can be left in the tackle box. 

Thankfully they don’t grow to a great size so using smaller hooks and lighter lines are not a problem. Where to fish dictates that we still need to use line suitable to land a fish if we are lucky enough to hook one. My choice of hook link is the Korum power mono in four pounds this is a abrasion resistance line perfect in case it rubs against any pads or branches in the water. This is tied to a specialist size sixteen hook a perfect size for a variety of baits. I use a medium power type float rod with the perfect match of a soft tip so I don’t suffer hook pulls but a bit of backbone in case I need to bully fish. Three floats cover all conditions two insert waggler's and a pole float fished on rod and line. The pole float I favour is one where the line runs through the body I find some floats with a small glued in eye has a tendency for the eye to pull out when used with a rod while the inline pole float has no eye. My two waggler's both have inserts one thicker than the other. I always start on the thinnest insert but if the wind picks up or causes undertow I will switch to the thicker insert to stop the tip pulling under. I lock my floats with two float stops and attach my float via a quick change swivel. This serves two purposes one its easy to change patterns and secondly the float collapses on the strike meaning a more positive contact with the fish.  

Shotting again is simple both wagglers take the same amount of shot so I bulk my shot at three quarters depth then add a couple of number eight or ten droppers spaced below. The float is always fished at dead depth or if im using the thicker insert a couple of inches over depth.  On the subject of depth I carry two sizes of plummet the reason been I want to find the area of clear bottom where the lily pads end and to do this I use a light plummet to find the depth. The light plummet is perfect as it will sit on any underwater obstructions and allow me to find the clear areas.  A heavy plummet would drop through ant branches or cabbages on the bottom giving the impression that the area is clear and there’s no point trying to feed of fish in the middle of snags.  The heavy plummet has its place though because once I am happy with my spot I put on the heavy plummet and drag it around the swim to make sure the area is clean of detritus. The small plummet would just bounce over snags and give you the wrong impression. So where to target the fish? I always look for features either lily pads overhanging bushes or a marginal shelf these areas id target. However some lakes have very shallow margins and no bankside features so how would I approach these?

The days of split cane rods and center pin reels are lovely to think about but not always practical, that’s when I move to a more “modern “method of light Avon type rods and small method feeders. I still like to keep things light and use a six or eight pound mainline to the same hook link as I use on the float. Bait wise I hair rig my baits and find the thirty gram Korum dura feeder or grub feeders perfect.  Hookbaits and ground bait are the same as my float fishing.  Baitwise is really simple always red maggots to start with but if silvers become a problem I will switch to a single piece of corn or a soft pellet. I always use ground bait when fishing but mix it very sloppy I find this way the bait spreads over a larger area and stops the crucians feeding in a really tight area. My choice of ground bait is the Sonubaits worm fishmeal its dark colour helps to blend in with the bottom and is packed with attractors. To this I add a good quality micro pellet such as the DNA crayfish mini-mix or any decent two mill pellet will work. I add the pellet directly to the sloppy ground bait as I’ve always found the odd micro pellet will float so adding them to a sloppy ground bait makes them damp so they sink.  Groundbait for the method is exactly the same just mixed dryer.

So my closed season has drawn to a close now and I am pleased to say that I completed my mission not only to get a two I ended up with nine over two but I managed to get one at bang on the magical three pound target. All the fish falling to the float less than a rod length from the bank.  Mark Dunwell

You can read Marks latest articles in Reel Fisherman magazine each month by clicking the link below:

Reel Fisherman Magazine

A New Era

Its fair to say that, not for the first time, my blog has taken a back seat in my ever changing world.  Although my passion for writing and fishing is as strong as ever, if not more so, my focus has been on other projects, including the start up of a new free online magazine, aimed at the specimen and pleasure angler, called Reel Fisherman magazine. 

My reason for starting this publication was due to the lack of magazines aimed at these anglers, with the majority of them very much carp based nowadays, my intention was to gather a team of experienced anglers from all over the UK who enjoy writing about the sport they love, who target a variety of species, such as barbel, tench, pike, zander and of course carp and anything else that has fins for that matter, even sea fishing.
It is an exciting time for Tales of a Fisherman blog as it is here I will publish articles from the magazine, fantastic offers also unique articles not published in Reel Fisherman and the chance to read a glimpse of future articles before anyone else.  
This means that my blog will be updated weekly as a minimum with fresh vibrant content.  

Our readership is growing every month, so if you havent read it yet, click the link below to read the latest issue.

Reel Fisherman magazine issue 6

Here at Reel Fisherman we also want to give the opportunity to all anglers/writers to have their work published and read by thousands of like minded anglers every month, regardless of ability, so if this is of interest to you, get in touch for more info.

We hope you join us on our journey as we want our readers to be involved as much as possible by submitting catch reports, sending in articles and finding inspiration within our pages.

Tight lines Darren