Nature Notes: The Kingfisher

I am extraordinarily lucky to live in Bristol, and have the Bristol Avon on my doorstep. I regularly travel up the river from the city of Bristol and into Somerset. Through Keynsham and Saltford, past the city of Bath and into Wiltshire up through Bradford-on-Avon. Being a pedestrian, I rely fully on the train and my feet to get me to where I want to be, and no matter where I alight, I'll be strolling up or down the river taking in the scenes and wildlife, whether there be a fishing rod in my hand or not.

Along this river there's always a creature that studies and surveys the water keenly, waiting patiently for it’s next catch, a pristine fish. But this creature is not me, or any other angler, it is a Kingfisher.
I regularly boast to others that no matter where I walk on the Avon, I will always see a Kingfisher, be I at Bradford-on-Avon further up, watching them dart up and down the river defending their territory from other Kingfishers, or perched on the handrails of boats drifting in Bristol Harbour itself.
To me, the Kingfisher is the angler's ultimate companion. Where one is present, you know the water is healthily holding plenty of fish, and when you are catching very little, if he is present, he will happily show you how it's done. That is if he stops to show off his skills. More often the angler will hear its whistling 'chee' call and see a shining azure blue flash bolt past without a moment's thought to you being there.

A Kingfisher, eyeing up its next Catch

The Blue Streak

The UK is home to the Common Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) and is our only species of Kingfisher. This makes them very easy to identify, but not easier to spot at times, despite its vibrant colours.
The Kingfisher is a small sparrow sized bird, measuring about 16cm long as an average, and having a 25cm wingspan. Adult birds weigh around 34-46 grams, with a short little tail, and a large head compared to its body with a very long sharp bill. The upper parts of its body are coloured multiple shades of blue. Green/blue, azure and cobalt. The brightest stripe of shining blue runs down its back. 
Whereas its underparts are coloured a bright orange, and orange also appears as a part of an eye band, the back of the band being white along with its bib. A Kingfisher's legs are red in colour. Male and female birds are only visually differentiated by their beak, the lower mandible having orange markings on the female bird.
Kingfishers, unsurprisingly considering their name, feed on fish and are good indicators of the health of a freshwater habitat,
The Common Kingfisher is also found throughout Europe, Asia and North Africa, though in Africa they do tend to be a winter visitor. They enjoy a mild climate.
Kingfishers fly very fast, and usually in a direct route, low over water. They are mostly solitary birds when it's not breeding season, and roost alone, territorially protecting feeding areas by driving others off. In Autumn, their solitary lifestyle changes as they start to form breeding pairs.
They have been known to live up to 15-21 years, though many don't usually make it past one breeding season.

Kingfisher perch on Branches over a River

A Fisherman’s Home

Kingfishers are found around clear, slow flowing rivers and streams, as well as lakes with well vegetated banks. They like areas where reed beds fringe the banks or areas of scrub, with branches of trees and bushes that overhang the water, perfect areas for them to perch on to hunt. Smaller bodies of water are preferred by them over large ones. Small streams, canals and ponds being better places over large rivers and lakes. They also prefer to live around water habitats where the clarity of the water is clear, as this gives optimal visibility to hunt their prey.
In Winter Kingfishers actually become a coastal bird, with many heading towards harbours, estuaries and rocky shorelines.

A Freshly Caught Minnow

Deep Dive

A Kingfisher's main prey is fish. They eat a variety of fresh water fishes from Minnows, Stickleback, Roach, Rudd, Trout, Salmon Fry, Elvers and Lamprey. 60% of their prey are indeed fish, however, they will also take tadpoles and small frogs, and dragonfly larva and diving beetles. They particularly eat shrimp during the winter months. 
Basically any aquatic species or fry up to about 12cm in length, which is just about big enough to swallow.
Each bird must hunt, catch and consume 60% of its body weight in fish each day (which is about 16 Minnows). It is therefore essential for them to be territorial about the best hunting areas they hold.
As any angler or bird watch will tell you, it is fascinating to watch them hunt.
The ideal perch a bird will look for is one about 1-2 metres above the water level, be it a branch or a river bank overhang. The Kingfisher will bob its head from its perch, looking into the water to gauge the distance of the prey from itself. Amazingly they can allow for the refraction of the light between the air and the water to pinpoint the prey precisely. Kingfishers have two fovea rather than one. This is a small pit in the back of an eye with the greatest density of light receptors that provides the clearest vision. A Kingfisher has the ability to switch between the two as it sees into the water, from monocular vision looking through the air, to binocular vision while looking down through the water.
This ability in the air makes its vision very sharp, and it is able to judge the distance and refraction of the water, however underwater it is not as sharp, but vastly increases its ability to judge the distance of a moving prey.
They also have an oil droplet inside the cone of its eyes that enhances its colour vision, which also goes to reduce the glare of the water.
When all the factors have been judged, which only takes a fraction of a second, the Kingfisher dives down, plunging into the water like a dart to catch its quarry. As the Kingfisher hits the water, a third eyelid covers and protects its eyes, but it happens so quickly and precisely that it doesn't matter that it can visually see. The distance it is looking for between the water's surface and its prey is usually no deeper than about 25cm, so it can be a waiting game to find the right fish.
Once the fish is retrieved back up to its perch, the Kingfisher beats the fish on it several times to ensure it is dead before eating it, always head first, for ease of swallowing.
After digesting the meal the Kingfisher will regurgitate a pellet of fish bones and other indigestible items, much like an owl would, doing so about 3 times a day.
Prime hunting spots are by river bends, where the water slows and small fish move to escape the flow and get cover from overhanging plants.

A Third Eyelid covers a Kingfishers Eye as it Dives

The Burrowing Bird

Kingfisher courtship is fast paced and noisy, as expected. The male will chase the female, calling continuously. When the female is sufficiently convinced the male holds potential, courting continues with ritual feeding of the female, gifting her caught fish to prove he can provide for the young.
When paired up, they become even more territorial over their nesting location, as they are very particular about where it should be. It needs to be on an area of bank that is, more or less, vertical to the water, and devoid of vegetation. It's easier to dig a nesting burrow if the soil is looser, and there are no roots from vegetation in the way. Both birds dig a nest tunnel at the top of the bank to try to ensure that if the river floods, the nest will be safe. The tunnel itself can be anywhere between 30-90 centimetres long and gently inclined from the opening to the back to ensure that any detritus, such as fish bone pellets and waste, falls down and into the water to help keep the nest clean. The nest chamber itself is not lined with nesting material.
Kingfisher eggs are glossy and white in colour and laid at the end of their burrow between March and July to coincide with the breeding seasons of the freshwater fish they feed on.
They lay anywhere between 2-10 eggs, but with the larger number usually one or two eggs fail to hatch as the parent can't cover all the eggs to incubate them properly.
Both the male and the female take it in turns to incubate the egg during the day, but during the night it is only the female who does this.
The eggs take around 19-20 days to hatch, and 24-25 days for the young to fledge.
A Kingfisher couple can have two or three broods of young in one season in this way. Both the adults have to work hard to feed their young, for an average brood of 7 young the adults will need to catch around 5000 fish to feed them.
The feathers on the young moult from their duller colours between July and November, their black bill, and black legs and feet changing to adult colouring too.
Around 4 days after fledging, the young Kingfishers start learning diving. This is a very hard time for the young birds, as only half of them survive the first week or two. The ones that can't learn the correct diving technique, become too waterlogged and drown or starve if they don't learn how to catch enough fish in time.

A Female Kingfisher brooding her Eggs

A Hard Life

The main reason a Kingfisher dies isn't through predation, but through lack of food where their usual fishing areas ice over, or simply the cold itself kills them. Floods make catching fish in rivers difficult too, where the rivers pick up speed due to the added flow, causing the water to become more cloudy and harder to spot fish, and the flow sometimes sweeping birds away when diving. During severe winters many Kingfishers die off.
Summer floods also make feeding difficult, and if the pair cannot catch enough food during them, young often starve, or the floods destroy the nests completely. 
Only 1 in 4 Kingfishers survive their first year. Very few make it past one breeding season.
As far as predators go, their main predators are rats and cats, which can easily reach the nest sites of Kingfishers. Many also die through collisions with vehicles, and windows of properties near the water. General human disturbance of banksides around nesting birds, as well as river works, drive off adult birds and kill whole nests of young frequently too.
And of course pollution in the water is another killer. Pollution mistaken as a fish can be eaten, as well as ingested via the fish they eat. Chemicals in the water can damage their feathers making them less water proof.
In the old days Kingfishers were killed regularly by humans for their feathers. Kingfisher feathers would adorn ladies dresses and hats and was the height of fashion, as was having them stuffed and displayed in glass cages. Anglers too were a big threat to the Kingfisher, as they were also killed for their feathers, with fly makers using them to make fishing flies to catch Trout and Salmon.

Another successful Catch

Securing the Species

The RSPB estimates that there are somewhere between 4800 and 8000 breeding pairs of Kingfishers in the UK, meaning they are a bird of least concern conservationally.
However, they are still a bird that needs protecting to ensure we keep those numbers.
A lot of the Kingfishers habitat gets destroyed where natural flows of rivers and streams get diverted, ‘improved’, or restructured to fit around human development. 
Where ecological concern for the Kingfisher is considered through, human maintenance of banks can help greatly however. By clearing areas of vertical banks of vegetation, the lack of roots and stones encourages Kingfishers to nest, and preservation of existing banks ensures they do not get damaged or swept away by floods.
Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, it is illegal to take, kill or injure a Kingfisher or its nest, eggs or young. It is also illegal to intentionally disturb them during breeding season.
Pollution in rivers particularly has reduced over the years, especially runoff from farms, and Kingfisher numbers have bounced back dramatically since the changes, but still needs maintaining to ensure clean, clear living conditions for fish to thrive in.
But it's not just water authorities that can help the Kingfisher, we can help them too.
To help out the Kingfishers where they are found, people can provide perches for them to dive off. As mentioned above, the optimal height above the water is between 1-2 metres and better placed in areas above slow flowing clear water. The perch needs to be solid, so that it makes diving and precision easier on the bird.
As well as making and placing perches, you can also provide homes for Kingfishers to nest in. These nest boxes or tunnels can be purchased and dug into the bank.
Placed 1 metre above the maximum water height on a vertical river bank, and if digging in multiple boxes making them 2 metres apart, they are also good places for birds like sand martins to nest in as well. Completely burying them and ensuring the tunnel slope is set at around 10-20 degrees, you can place dry soil in the nest chamber for them to lay their eggs on. A single pair of Kingfishers may even use more than one next box, with one Kingfisher brooding the eggs, while the other prepares a second box for a second brood. Placing a few perches a few metres away from the covered box will also encourage Kingfishers to use them.

A Pre-made Kingfisher Home

Having a Kingfisher make your water its home, is something to be proud of and indeed to boast about. It is comforting to know that they are now doing well on our waters thanks to changed ideas and views on water management.
On my family fishing lakes we have had a pair of Kingfishers living there for many, many years, though clearly not the same pair. In times past they certainly used the banks of the lakes to nest in, but nowadays it seems as though they nest elsewhere, perhaps on the close by river, and use the lakes for a feeding place, particularly when the water flow in the river is high and pacy after recent heavy rain.
Last year we added metal perches for them to sit on around the lakes, and within minutes of  putting them in likely places, we noted a Kingfisher using one, and they continue to use them still. With them seemingly to struggle to survive the first year, we hope this will help them out a little and keep our resident Kingfisher population plentiful.
Of course for any angler, the ultimate Kingfisher experience is when you are sat peacefully by a river bank, perhaps quiver tipping for Chub or Barbel, with your rod poking out over the water. And as you lazily await a fish to take your bait, a Kingfisher comes along and uses your rod tip as a perch to sit on creating that true magical moment, where the angler and wildlife is, without doubt, at one.

Piscatorial Pondering: Dream Fishing

Angling is a dream.

Anyone who stops for a moment in the wonder of nature and wildlife understands the dream world that we live in, be you a fisherman or not. But if you are an angler you perhaps understand it a little bit deeper.

Being up at dawn on a summer morning and venturing down to a lake side to exist in a world of lazily drifting early morning fog over a pool of inky water.

The rising sun cresting over the treetops, piercing through with glorious, golden rays of light and waking up the world.

The beauty of being beside a still lake or pond is that it reveals one of the magics of water. It reflects our world back to us, like a mirror. And like Alice through the looking glass, anglers find it impossible to resist looking into it, and being taken by its hypnotic wonder.

The slightest movement on this mirror, like skimming pond skaters twitching over the surface, breathes life into everything around. Ripples spreading gently across pools or ponds are mesmerising.

The health benefits of fishing are immeasurable. In this dreamlike paradise, everyday worries and stress, anxiety and depression wash away with the water. No more does that world exist. There's only you, the float or bobbin, and the calming embrace of nature to set the scene. Until it is broken by the intense excitement of a screaming bite alarm when a monster from the deep ventures to take your carefully presented bait. Whether relaxing calmly or exhaustingly winding in big fish all day, sleep comes easy after a day of fishing

The denizens of this still, silent and peaceful world lurk in its depths. Skulking Pike creep slowly through the underwater vegetation, ever vigilant for their next meal to snap at, while fat, lazy Carp bask in the late afternoon sun, drifting peacefully by.

All anglers dream of fish, whether the angler is asleep or wide awake.

Sometimes the dream is of leviathans. Huge monster fish that emerge from the water and are so big it defies belief.

I have these dreams from time to time. But most often, when I dream of catching a fish, they are about as big as to fill my hand.

As a child a monster fish was one big enough to fill my palm. Perhaps a Rudd of 6-8oz. And an impossible fish one where you had to use two hands to hold it. A 2lb Tench!

Rivers are the other side of the scale to stillwaters. Rushing by like thunder, over waterfalls and through weir pools, but also gently flowing by making a sound track that is calming and peace inducing. 

The swirling, twirling flow provides another hypnotising way the water can magically transport you to a world of peace and dreams. Anglers swept off to this world dream of the

fantastically rainbow coloured Grayling drifting through the water like graceful ballerinas, elegant and delicate, while Minnows in the crystal clear rivers rush and dart like arrows, keeping pace with their fast flowing world.

Watching a kingfisher perched on an overhanging branch, keeping a hungry eye into the depths, only to drop and pierce through the mercury and return with a creature from another world in its beak can enrapture you so much you can often miss that twitch of the quiver tip.

Chilly winter mornings strolling the river banks looking for tantalizing spots to trot a float down the flowing glass-like liquid where the grass underfoot, once green, is now glistening like crystal with frost, and crackles and crunches beneath your feet. Falling leaves from trees, golden red and yellow, dancing down from the branches like confetti.

There is still nothing that delights me more than the journey down to a babbling brook, net and glass jar in hand. Rolling up the trousers to the knees and dipping my feet into the chill water. Swooping and gliding the net at Stickleback, Bullhead and Minnows and filling the jar to observe the fish better.

 

.

Canals, though also still waters, provide a different angling world. Where the industries and urban life of the human race meets the natural beauty and wildlife of nature.

Perched alongside the straight lines and brickwork of everyday life, the swans gracefully gliding, rippling out bow waves that spread out peacefully like silk in the breeze; happily reveal to you that the countryside isn't very far away, and can combine together perfectly.

Shipping out a pole towards a bramble-covered bank, or alongside a gently bobbing canal boat, remaining still as a heron, you know its mystery as to what will happen next. Every moment passes with patient anticipation. Will the float dip and yawn, and will we get a chance to meet, face to face, one of these magnificent creatures from under glass? Or will it remain, hiding its mystery, leaving us in the glorious world around us to contemplate its own?

Golden Rudd as bright as the sun's rays, with their blood red fins, to red eyed green Tench with paint brush tails, that could easily have painted the whole scene around you.

The joy of people can often be found here especially. Canal boats busying up and down, joggers happily chatting as they pass by, though shattering the peace, is a vibrant reminder of all the people who also appreciate the same watery landscape you do. Children with their parents coming up to you and watching with excitement to see what fish you might catch next, and cheeky dogs with tails wagging, hoping you might have a bit of spare luncheon meat bait you might be able to treat them with.

Minutes can blend into hours when you are fishing. For time itself is magical here. Often it slows, minutes feeling like hours. Lazily sliding by in peace, sometimes even to seemingly stop entirely. Other times it passes like lightning, particularly if that float does dip under the water's surface. Excitement, heart racing, minutes seem like milliseconds! In the blink of an eye, it is gone.

Time you see, when fishing, doesn't just slow, stop and speed up, sometimes it reverses entirely and takes you back to your childhood. Such is its power. Days gone by are revealed by the canals, an industrial age long forgotten returns, like the horses pulling the canal boats along the towpaths you now fish

The sheer power of water is truly seen within the sea. Violently crashing against the rocks and rolling in large sheets against the sandy shores. The fish that make this impossible paradise their home are vast and varied. The ravenous Dogfish hunting among the barnacle covered rocks, the darting Bass sailing among the waves, snapping up small fishes in silvery schools.

Strong sea breezes thrust sand and spray into the sea angler and the wind can blow through you. It’s invigorating experiencing the force of nature flowing around and through your very being.

But the sea can also be witnessed by the angler in calm, lapping lagoons of hidden underwater plants, molluscs and crustaceans. Kelp and weeds like a rainforest in a different medium, where creatures dwell hidden in a world so different from our own, it may as well be another planet.

Sound also fills the world of the angler here, the crying of gulls on the air and the piping of oystercatchers busying around the surf, picking at the pebbles and sandy surf lines for morsels of food. At night, the sounds relax the weary angler, as sea salters rush up onto the rocks to scurry around your feet.

An angler gets to witness all of this, and dream of what lies beneath.

The anticipation of a bend of a rod is extreme, as the denizens of the deep, vast oceans are innumerable.

No matter what waterside world the piscator chooses, fishing gives us anglers the excuse to stop and exist in a world surrounded by beauty and magic.

I for one wouldn’t want to exist without any of it. Other water users, I'm sure, enjoy aspects the angler gets to dwell in too, but it is the angler who gets to unlock the secrets beneath the waters surface. That opposite dream world filled with impossible fishes.

Fishery Focus: Ashmoor Lakes Barbel

I am lucky enough to be part of a family who own a fishery. Ashmoor Lakes in Old Basing.

It is a small, mixed coarse fishery packed with many species of fish.

Initially they were dug for me, and I have been fishing there all of my angling life, over 30 years. It's where I learned to fish, and as such I have extensive knowledge of the venue and how best to catch the fish.

So I figured it was about time I shared some of this information I've acquired through the years and how you can best target and catch certain species by design.

ASHMOOR BARBEL

Though Ashmoor Lakes is a mixed coarse fishery packed with many wonderful species, the Carp have always been the most sought after. That is, until the addition of the Barbel to the lakes.

When Ashmoor Lakes was first dug and opened up to the public the Barbel were not present. Prior to opening, the lakes were stocked with mainly Roach, Rudd, Perch and Tench, and on opening we stocked the lakes with a healthy supply of Bream, Crucian Carp and Carp. The fishery flourished with the new additions, and as they grew, attracted more and more anglers to come and catch them.

In January 2010 the decision was made to stock the lakes with 2 brand new, and somewhat controversial species at the time, Barbel and Chub. 

The decision was made mostly due to the fact that the dreaded KHV (Koi Herpes Virus) had been spreading around local fisheries and killing off all their stocks of Carp. If the virus made it to our fishery and similarly affected our stocks of Carp it would have been catastrophic. Though Ashmoors other species should be more than enough to keep people coming, unfortunately the main draw of most fisheries is their Carp. Most people want to catch big powerful fish. It's as simple as that. Our fish supplier, when quizzed about it, suggested adding Barbel. And so the decision was made.

Incidentally, the Chub were added alongside them to help the resident Perch keep the small fry population managed.

Barbel and Chub are traditionally a species found only in flowing streams and rivers, and have evolved to thrive in these conditions, so there was some controversy to adding them to still waters from anglers. These fish, however, had been bred in a fish farm, and had never seen so much as a gravel bed or weir pool, so we felt confident they would be fine.

Over the years the Ashmoor Barbel have thrived!

I personally had dinner and discussion with a VERY famous angler a few years back, who still didn't believe Barbel did well in stillwater fisheries. The ones he had caught from lakes and ponds had been skinny and emaciated, and very rarely grew bigger than 4lb maximum because of the environment they were in. Fisheries with very large Barbel in, he suggested, were stocked in that size, perhaps poached from local rivers and added illegally (to which I feel this is often the case). However, I was able to show that it's not always the case, and the Ashmoor Barbel population proves it. 

Never added any bigger than a few ounces, the Barbel at Ashmoor Lakes, though more commonly weighing 2-4lb, at their biggest are now tipping the scales at 7lb and as anglers who now catch them will attest, are strong, healthy, powerful fish. In fact, word has got out now that the Barbel are actually, pound for pound, much better fish to catch than the Ashmoor Carp, and believe it or not, some anglers travel miles and miles across the country to target the Barbel over all the other stocked species! 

In fact, and this is very rarely believed by many as Barbel need flowing water and gravel beds to breed in, the Barbel here are so healthy that they are breeding in the still water and silt!

Some anglers are catching small Barbel, below 1lb in weight, and these fish could only have bred in the lake, as a stocking of them hasn't happened in over 10 years.

With so many anglers travelling so far to catch some of these fish from Ashmoor Lakes, it would be a shame to travel all that way and not catch them. So here are the tips to help you:

A Typical Ashmoor Barbel

LOCATION

The Barbel are found throughout all 3 lakes at Ashmoor, so wherever you fish, you will find them. Not only that, but it doesn't even matter which lake you fish on, as surprisingly to some, the lakes are all joined together. Beneath the ground joining Lake 1 to Lake 2, and Lake 2 to Lake 3 are two large pipes, allowing water and fish to pass through between them.

The main reason for this is so that when the lakes are topped up with water from a water holding pond in the summer when the water levels drop, the water flows evenly between them. But it also provides a channel between all the lakes that Barbel regularly use to travel between the lakes to feed in different ponds.

Many a time have anglers caught a notable Barbel in Lake 1, especially a particularly noticeable one eyed fish, only to come down a separate time and catch the same fish in Lake 2.

The Barbel in Ashmoor Lakes tend to hug the margins, often right underneath your feet, and near features such as lilies.

With so many Carp in the lakes the margins around the edges are quite undercut due to the activity of them feeding and rubbing along the edges, and this provides a safer haven for not only them, but also the Barbel, who feed much better with something over their heads, and have a nearby place to hide in..

They can be caught all around the lakes, but I would tend towards swims with good reed growth around the edges. On Lake 1, the far bank and the opposite reed lined bank near the path are good, on Lake 2 the reedy swims along the near side, and the far bank of Lake 3 are all the prime spots, though I do know a couple of premium spots which I will discuss later. It is to be noted that all of these areas are margins close in.

TIME

Barbel can be caught all year round. In still waters I do feel that they do feed differently to rivers, however, and the Ashmoor Barbel are much easier caught in the warmer weather, late Spring through to early Autumn being the best time, with Summer being the best.

Having fished for Ashmoor Barbel many times, I would say that there is no best time of day for them, they are just as likely to feed in the mornings and evenings as in the middle of the day. They do feed better on a warmer day than a cold one.

METHODS

At any time of the year the Barbel can be caught on many methods. Float fishing, feeder fishing and legering being top ways.

With float fishing it is important to be fishing on the bottom, as that's where the Barbel feed. Plumb the depth carefully and either have the bait just sitting on the bottom, or give it an inch or two over depth to ensure the bait is there. 

Using a fishmeal based groundbait in a feeder, particularly carefully cast to the margins of the lakes, including the islands, will bring all fish from far and wide, including the Barbel. Casting every 5 to 10 minutes will keep the bait topped up and keep their interest. In warmer months, you'll barely have time to wind a quiver tip rod into position before it curls round into a fish if you are doing it properly, though not always a Barbel, they will come among the mix.

Using a feeder also helps to keep the rig from sinking in the soft silt at the bottom of the lakes. A method perhaps better than using a leger.

The method feeder is a similarly potent way of catching the Barbel, and is actually a better way of fishing for them if casting to distant margins.

With a feeder, the hook length trails out beyond the feeder itself, and this often runs the risk of hooking up into the marginal growth if fishing close. By using a method feeder, particularly a flatbed one, you can cast more confidently to marginal growth, and actually get a little nearer, as the hook length is smaller, and hidden within the groundbait on the feeder itself. 

4lb line should be more than enough to target the Barbel, and also give you half a chance of landing most of the Carp you will inevitably catch alongside them. I'd perhaps recommend 4lb line on the hook length, and 5 or 6 on the main line to deal with multiple casts, and less chance of losing an entire rig should a big Carp come and break you up, while giving you the best chance of the Barbel not noticing the line when feeding. 

Use a hook that is a suitable size for your bait. I tend to use a barbless hook between a size 16 and 12.

BAIT

The Barbel at Ashmoor Lakes can be caught with pretty much any bait, though it is important to remember with Ashmoor Lakes being a farm venue the lakes get a large quantity of natural bait that is around for the fish to feed on, not only under water, but also flying or blown in from crops in fields nearby, and as Ashmoor is set in surrounding woodland also, plenty of food comes down from the trees as well. Because of this, natural baits tend to be the way of things to catch fish easier.

This tends to be the way of Ashmoor Lakes. Maggot and worm catch many more fish than other baits, also including prawns and bread. Though naturally, using maggot and worm do tend to catch you a mix of species rather than picking out Barbel more specifically.

The Barbel love luncheon meat and pellets too however, and these baits tend to reduce the hassle given by the silver fish feeding on the bait, however a bigger issue then arises by using these baits, as the Carp love these baits too. Throwing in a lot of pellets and meat will bring in the Carp from far and wide, and they will bully the Barbel out the swim, and break the finer line you should be using to catch them. Therefore, it's a balancing act between feeding too much and too little, and fishing too light and too heavy that makes the Ashmoor Barbel a real challenge. 

With Ashmoor Lakes being a farm pond, and naturals being the way of things, it does mean that boilies are not a very effective bait for catching Barbel. Being maximum 6lb at present, a big boilie will be left uneaten by the Barbel, but perhaps smaller ones would be taken. Other baits outshine boiles by far though.

The key to all these baits though is to feed little and often, much like a match fisherman, and not toss out large beds of bait.

Another Barbel Falls to a Soft Hooker Pellet

THE BEST WAY TO CATCH

With the methods and baits discussed above, here I'm going to get into the number one method I use to target the Barbel. As I say, I have fished for them so many times that I know them like the back of my hand. Here's what I do to secure and whisker in the back of the net.

The first thing that's most important, as I discussed above, is fish in the margins. I never cast anywhere to catch a Barbel. Choose your swim, and fish a rod length away next to a reed fringed nearside bank, almost under your feet. Always with reeds, as that's where the Barbel will be over all other places.

Float fish, either on rod or pole, though rod tends to be easier if a Carp grabs the bait instead of a Barbel, and literally place the rig and float, right below the tip for accuracy, as close to the reeds as you dare. The closer the better. Fishing as much as 6" away I find reduces your chance of catching them greatly.

Make sure the rig has been plumbed to depth and the bait is on the bottom.

Don't add any bait at all to begin with. Any bait added brings in the Carp. The Barbel have much more sensitive barbules than Carp and will generally find a single hookbait first. In this way you can often pick up one or two bonus Barbel right off the bat.

For hookbait, it's true that maggot and worm and meat are all taken readily by them, but the premium hookbait on a size 16 hook is a single soft hooker pellet, a nice and oily one.

When adding bait after the first few fish with no loose feed fed (hopefully one of the fish at least being a Barbel) don't add too much. Adding too much bait will bring in hordes of Carp, and you'll be catching them all day long. Feed little and often, maybe even half a dozen similarly sized pellets to the ones on the hook every now and then.

A good float rod that can handle the odd Carp is best. I'd love to use a light match rod, but the Carp can be too brutish.

As promised earlier, I will let you into my favourite Barbel swims, though a little reluctantly as I'm sure they will all be taken from here on in. Those Barbel do love those reedy margins over all others, but if you can sit in a swim next to one of the pipes that join up the lakes, you will be in the prime spots for the Barbel. The Barbel love to swim from lake to lake through the pipes, but more than anything, they love to live in the pipes!

On Lake 1 the pipe leads to Lake 2 in 'Carp Corner', the corner that pokes out on the top left of the lake that stops it from being a square. The pipe is on the opposite bank to the one you sit on, you can see an indented bump in the reeds. On Lake 2, the pipe comes opposite this in another noticeable bump in the corner, along the bank following where the bird scarer banger points.

The pipe from Lake 2 into Lake 3 is to the left of the life ring hidden in the reeds,and also pops out into Lake 3 directly behind it. Again, if you look for it, you can see where it goes through, though it's less obvious and a little harder to locate.

You'll need to be careful when you hook one that it doesn't run straight back into the pipe though.    

You will still catch all of the species that swim in Ashmoor Lakes by doing this. There is no guaranteed method to only catch Barbel, but this way gives you the best chances of catching them than any other.

4lb of Hard Fighting Fish

Fish Facts: Crucian Carp

I caught my first ever Crucian Carp as a teenager from a local fishery from where I lived. 

The fishery was a series of very small ponds that were dug into a ditch system near a farm and were incredibly shallow. It was never a particularly good fishery, and remains so today unfortunately. During the summer months, when the weather heated up, the fishery dried down to the bottom and the silt cracked in the sun. Though work has been done to it in fairly recent years, it still gets extremely low and often dries up still. 
Anglers who fish it and have stuck with it all these years claim to have caught big double figure Carp from it, but when the water is low, and only about a foot deep or lower, it’s hard to believe the claims.
But I digress, back when I was a teen fishing it, you couldn’t imagine many fish surviving in the low to dry conditions of the ponds, especially when you could walk around and see the bottom and see no signs of any fish. But sure enough, when the water levels rose after rains, Aaron and I could always come down here and inexplicably have a successful day of Crucian Carp fishing with maggots on a basic float fishing setup. It seemed to us impossible for any fish to survive in these conditions, but somehow the hardy Crucian Carp always did. I don't know if they still reside there, as eventually we discovered better fisheries as we grew up, and I've never returned there.
For many years we always assumed that Crucian Carp were a species of fish that were small, perhaps only as big as your hand, as these were the biggest of them we ever caught from the venue as kids. This was until the hot summer of 2006 when we finally went to fish at the now famous Crucian Carp day ticket mecca of Marsh Farm in Milford in Surrey.
On a roasting hot day we fished Harris Lake and I hooked several Crucian Carp. I shall always remember the moment when the first one boiled on the surface just before netting. I naturally, from my experience, believed it to be a Tench I had hooked, as it would have been too big to be a Crucian, but it was indeed a Crucian Carp that I landed.
I remember Aaron and me crowding around it on the unhooking mat and feeling the sense of shock, disbelief, joy and excitement in the air as we openly marvelled at the size of it! It was 2lb 9oz in weight, actually a very average sized one for this fishery, but to us, being the first one this big we had ever seen, it was an absolute monster! A mythical creature that we could have never dreamed of.
Since then I caught many Crucians up to and around the same size from various fisheries, and I have come to love them so much as a fish that I rate them number 5 in my list of favourite freshwater fish in the UK.

The Joy of the Crucian Carp

The Golden, Shy Biting Survivor

Crucian Carp
(Carassius carassius)

The Crucian Carp is a member of the Carp family Cyprinidae.
At first glance it looks very similar to the Common Carp members of the same family, but it is a species that grows much smaller, being only a medium sized fish.
The Crucian Carp is much rounder in body then the Common Carp, its dorsal fin is higher and it has a flatter body, but more noticeably it lacks barbules either side of the mouth.
Their snout is quite stubby, and they have a terminal mouth.
They are often confused with Goldfish, and various interbred Carp, but there are many different ways to tell in more detail if it is a true Crucian Carp, the most popular test being to count the scales along the lateral line of the fish, which should number between 27-30 scales if it is a true specimen.
The body of a Crucian Carp is generally golden bronze in colour, some people describing it as buttery gold, becoming paler down towards the belly. The color of the Crucian darkens as the fish grows older. Its fins are convexly rounded and are a reddish, orange colour
The Crucian Carp is believed to be the only indigenous Carp species to the UK, unlike the others who at some point were imported into the country.
They are a schooling fish, moving about in large groups to feed and better survive predation. These schools are typically made up of similar sized and aged fish, usually the same year class. They can live for up to 10-12 years.
They are a shy species of fish, that are easily spooked and particularly famous with anglers for being very shy biters.
The British record Crucian Carp (as of 2020) stands at 4lb 11oz and was caught in August 2020 from Milton Abbas Fishery in Dorset by Craig Smithson.
A Crucian Carp of 2lb+ is considered a specimen fish

A Typical Crucian

Habitat

Crucian Carp thrive best in still or slow flowing waters such as lakes, ponds, reservoirs and slow flowing streams and rivers.
They prefer waters where there is plenty of aquatic submerged vegetation to both hide, breed and feed in, and are usually found swimming near the bottom of these waters, certainty in the bottom water column over all others
They are believed native to England, and can be found in Northern European regions from as far north as the Arctic Circle in Scandinavian countries to as far south as France and the Black Sea. They can also be found in Russia, where they can even be found in slightly brackish rivers.

Diet

Crucian Carp are an omnivorous species of fish, and eat a wide variety of natural food. Insect larvae, crustaceans, and zooplankton are on their menu, as well as filamentous algae, water plants and seeds.

Monsters in the Depths

Breeding

Sexual maturity of the Crucian Carp varies depending on the weather conditions of that area. In colder climates they reach maturity at a much older age than those fish living in warmer climates. In the UK the Crucian Carp tends to reach sexual maturity when they are 2-5 years old at around 3 ½ inches in length. Male Crucians mature much earlier than females.
They are a batch spawning species and the females lay around 100,000 yellow/orange eggs about 1 ½ mm in size, which they stick to underwater vegetation.
Crucian Carp breed when conditions are right, usually in May/June when water temperatures in their habitat exceed 18 degrees. Breeding is usually brought on after a rainfall.
Crucian eggs hatch quickly after as little time as 4 days and the fry live among the vegetation feeding on plankton and crustaceans until they grow big enough to venture out into the open. 
Crucian Carp hybridise with other carp species easily, such as the common domestic Goldfish.
They also breed with Common Carp creating what breeders of these fish call an F1. F2 Carp are the resultant crossbreeding of two F1 Carp. These crossbreeds are favoured by match anglers as they retain the fight of a Common Carp, but remain small like the Crucian.

Predators

Crucian Carp are preys upon by aquatic predators such as Pike and Perch, and where present, Catfish and Zander.
Above the water, a heron, egret or cormorant will make a meal of a Crucian Carp, whereas smaller birds like grebes and kingfishers will eat the fry.
Mammals such as mink and otters find Crucians easy to catch as they prefer shallower waters.

Breeding the new Generation

Survival

Crucian Carp are very wary, shy fish, and need to be this way to help avoid their predators. They travel around in schools so that there is safety in numbers. But this is not the extent of their quite unbelievable survival skills. 
Crucian Carp are renowned for being extremely hardy fish. But few realise quite how hardy they can be! 
They show remarkable adaptations to their environment and can cope with some truly extreme conditions for such a lowly looking fish.
They can survive perfectly in the smallest, weediest pools that hold water of poor quality, and even in water that has dangerously low oxygen levels, even surviving completely out of water for several hours.
During anoxic conditions (times with little or no oxygen) they survive by anaerobic respiration, being able to break down energy from their bodies without the use of oxygen. 
In summer months when the water drops dangerously low they survive by burying themselves in the mud or silt at the bottom pond or lake bed. Using this amazing adaptation they can survive these anoxic conditions and amazingly remain this way and survive for several weeks until rainfall refreshes their home.
The same is also true in winter months, when ice can block out the oxygen diffusion in the water. They can also slow down their metabolism in these cold conditions to expend less energy and survive like this for months until the weather warms. In the most extreme conditions Crucians can even produce ethanol in their muscle tissue and livers to survive freezing solid in temperatures that reach as low as 0 degrees.
Truly remarkable!

Conservation

Despite being an incredibly hardy fish, Crucian Carp are becoming severely threatened as a species. This is not caused by predation or pollution, but by the mere act of them breeding.
As mentioned, Crucian Carp cross breed with other Carp very easily. Introducing Common Carp, and particularly domestic Goldfish into a habitat containing true Crucian Carp is devastating. The resulting offspring over several generations can reduce a habitat of crucian carp into a habitat of contaminated hybrid crosses in no time.
The National Crucian Conservation Project, working along with The Angling Trust and the Environment Agency continuously work to stop this cross breeding from happening by monitoring fisheries that contain true Crucian Carp and encouraging new fisheries to stock pure unhybridized stock from reputable breeders.

Float Fishing is Best

Fishing

The most common and best way to catch Crucians is to float fish for them with a light tackle, either using a light, bendy match rod or a pole. Using this technique, the line should be low diameter, maximum 3b line and preferably lighter, and hooks should be small, size 20, 18 or 16 depending on what bait you are using. Plumbing the depth so that the hook is either on or just off the bottom of the swim is essential. Small pole floats, self cocking floats or quills are the best floats to use, that require little to no shot to hold position in the water.
Shotting on the rig should be spaced out and set to show even the smallest and delicate bites, as Crucian Carp are shy biters and a bite on the hook can register as even the tiniest dip or rise of the float.
Top Crucian Carp baits are maggots and casters, chopped worm, sweetcorn and small cubes of luncheon meat.
To locate Crucians, fish in shallow areas of the venue, alongside reed beds, submerged weed beds, by lilies and in the margins and approach and fish alongside the water quietly as they spook easily.

Bar of Buttery Gold

So that explains how those Crucian Carp in the venue I fished as a teen survived the drying up of all the water. It's amazing to me that a fish can adapt so well to these potential life threatening conditions. They just laid there in the mud until the water returned.
There is something truly relaxing about Crucian fishing to me. Perhaps it's because of the habitat they tend to live in and the weather it's best to catch them in. Sitting quietly beside a silent lily covered pond, plopping a float into the still margins on a warm, sunny summers day. It's one of those types of fish where you know that fishing for them in these conditions will lead to a slow, dreamy day of quiet patient angling, where you could easily snooze and doze the day away, fully relaxed, if it wasn't for the concentration needed to see the slightest millimetre of movement on the float that indicates a proper bite.

I have a great love for Crucian Carp and fishing for them in my heart.
The days I've spent Crucian Carp fishing as I've described above is one of the reasons why Crucian Carp are so high at number 5 in my favourite UK freshwater fish list. 
They are beautiful, characterful fish that are a delight to catch. They are not too common to be troublesome or boring, and tricky enough to catch where you really need to hone your skills as an angler. They can be a challenge to catch, making a capture of one, particularly one of a decent size, is a true angling achievement to be proud of.