Perch Fishing For Pike

 Recent weather really hasn't been conducive to fishing, not for me anyway. I did. however, manage a short session on the canal initially for perch. After flinging small jigs and things about for an hour or so the perch appeared to be rather uncooperative. The scattering of small fish and a large swirl showed the jack pike were on the feed. The largest softbait I had, a 80mm white and glittering thing was put on. A couple of casts into the area and I was in. A feisty beats of 48cm put up a good struggle on the perch tackle.

Further on, above the lock, in the clearer water I spotted a similar sized jack. It wasn't a fan of the white glittery thing though. A root round the lure box and a small spinner bait was put on. I reckoned that something entirely different may persuade it to attack. The lure landed some way from the fish but once it started moving the pike was across and on it's tail. Speed up or slow down is always a dilemma. I stopped and allowed the lure to fall though the water. As I sped it up again it grabbed it. The little jack came in very easily until it was near the net. It then decided to perform all manner of acrobatics. I just managed to scoop it in the net as it spat the lure out. Slightly shorter than the previous one at 46cm.

I had another twenty minutes wandering along the canal before the drizzle started again. A robin accompanied me as I wandered back to the car. Clearly the the hope of been fed. It seemed happy with the crumbs from the bottom of the bag of cheese & onion crisps I had while waiting to see if the rain would ease off. It didn't.

Faster Warmer Poodle

 Another trip out to the Vale of Mowbray again in rather chilly conditions, along with a nasty cold breeze. I'm sure there are more sensible things to do on a day like that. Never the less there I was on a frozen river bank. Despite the welcome sunshine the wind took away any heat it provided. Even the ice at the edge of the river didn't melt.

 

 

A quick cast about with the Deeper showed 10' next to the snags downstream and 12' by the overhanging tree upstream. Tactics were to be float fished dead bait and a float ledgered dead bait. A sardine went on the float set up. This is set so the bait is just on the bottom which allows it to drift up to the snags. A headless bluey was put on the float-ledger rig. Out they went. They would be recast every 30-40 minutes. The bluey head would be chopped up and chucked about the swim once it had defrosted.

I'd recast the Bluey for the third time and was about to do the same with the sardine when the float above it started to move nearer the snags. A quick strike and I was in. Much to my surprise it shot out into the the river rather than into the snags. That run was it though. It came to the net with barely a struggle.  91cm 8lb 10oz of pike. It woke up when I started to unhook it successfully drawing blood.

The sardine was replaced with a roach and went back out near the snags. Time for luncheon. My old stove has been struggling to function for a little while now and really struggles when its cold so I'd replaced it with a shiny new OEX one. I must say it is rather good boiling water in next to no time and isn't really effected by the wind. The only problem with it is it needs a canister stand. Something the manufacturers recommend but has to be bought separately.  I'd also repurposed an old sock as a Pot Noodle cosy as it had got rather cold before I'd finished it the other day. 

With no more action I moved downstream to the next swim. Snowdrops were starting to appear in this one. With similar depths not much readjustments were needed. The roach was positioned under the downstream tree and a new bluey was placed upstream at the bottom of the drop off. Despite moving the baits several times there was no more action by the time I left. A somewhat scenic route had to be taken to get home due to an accident on the main road. Thankfully no deaths. The average pike per trip is now 0.86.


 

 

 

 

First Fish of the Year

 Some people fling themselves into the icy North Sea for fun on New Year's Day. I decided on something more daring. I ventured to the Vale of Mowbray to fling dead fish into a river while sat on a muddy river bank in what purported to be a moderate breeze. What was moderate about it I don't know as it was a damn cold northerly blowing straight downstream.

 

A quick chuck about with the Deeper showed there to be 16' of water from a third of the way out nearly to the far side. The first third was just over 6'. A small smelt under a float was dropped downstream near an overhanging tree and a half Bluey tossed nearly 30yd to the far side. Over the next couple of hours they were recast to different spots but all to no avail.

 

After a spot of lunch I moved on to another swim not far away. Fresh baits were chucked to similar spots. The old baits were chopped up in to small bits and flung around the swim. Just as I sat down the downstream float moved away. I tightened down to something but the strike hit nothing, and the bait was gone. The something happened again then minutes later with the same result. I brought the far bait back across the river until it was at the bottom of the drop off on the near side. I was beginning to think I may blank the float stated to head upstream. The strike hit a fast moving fish. After a bit of a battle a nice fish was in the net. The pike round these parts a quite powerful for their size. Given it's barbel territory it's not surprising really. A slightly battle scared fish of 12lb 15oz and 101cm. My second double of the pike season so I was well pleased.

 

I didn't recast the rod as it was nearly time to depart. The other float trundled off towards the middle of the river as I was just about to wind it in. Again I contacted with nothing. Not sure what was taking the little smelt, Jack, chub, barbel could all be to blame. The first half of the season hasn't been great with an average of 0.75 pike per session and only one double. Hopefully the second half will be better.

Nearly Cut Off By Flood Water

 When I arrived at the river it was up and slowly rising. By the time I'd found a swim it started to rise a lot faster. The swim I found had a slack on the far side and a large eddy on the near side. Initially 3oz was enough to hold on the far side, but very quickly 4oz then 5oz weren't enough especially given the amount of debris coming down. With the eddy slowly disappearing I dropped a 14mm pellet down the bank on the corner of the eddy. The 8mm pellet went down the bank under the rod tip to the left. Over the next three hours the river rose around four foot.

The rods were regularly dragged over by debris during this time. Much to my surprise I found a small gudgeon had attempt to swallow an 8mm pellet and managed to get itself hooked. I had seen some knocks on that rod but I assumed it was the twigs drifting around that were hitting the line. A while later while talking to a chap by the name of Ian, a reader of the blog, he pointed out that the other rod had lurched over. I had my back to it. After a brief but hectic fight a nice barbel was landed. We estimated around 7-8lb. It weighed in at 7lb 2oz.

Ian wander upstream to try a slack up there. I carried on for a while before noticing one of the banksticks was surrounded by water. The branch in the first couple of pictures was now drifting around in what was left of the eddy. I thought that if the river continued to rise it wouldn't be long before it was well and truly over the bank and into the meadow. Time to pack up. As I was packing up I discovered that the bottom of the rod holdall had a hole in it and the umbrella pole was poking through. Given it was nearly twenty years old the holdall hadn't done bad. Ian haddn't caught anything as I passed. When i got to the stile it was surrounded by a foot or so of water. I let Ian know and we both managed to get over it before we could be marooned, ended up filling our wellies.

 

Not a bad day considering. Nice and warm with the odd kite and buzzard drifting about. I'm sure the bag is repairable.

Definitely Not A Barbel

 With the rivers rising steadily on Thursday after the previous days rain It seemed like a bit of barbel fishing would be a good idea. Common sense would be to head to one of the known barbel spots, but not wanting to be common I headed to a stretch I'd only ever caught one barbel from. 

The river hadn't risen as far as I'd expected it to when I got there, but was moving through at a fair old rate. I suspect sluices were being opened to run water off. Ledger rigs baited with a pellet were dropped in close to the nearside bank. One upstream, one down.

The upstream rod was soon abandoned as the debris coming down, mainly leaves,  just dragged the lead  back towards me. Even with 5oz of lead.

One thing I noticed after a while was the lack of bird song. There's normally something making a noise down there. After a couple of hours I got my first bite which I suspected to be a chub. To my surprise a hand sized roach had taken the 8mm pellet and really whacked the tip round.

 That was it for the day. Once the lovely sunshine disappeared the big coat was out. I fished on to dusk but just added to my collection of leaves.

Barbel Session And A Half

 Friday, after a spot of River Fly Monitoring, I headed to the a river for a short session after barbel. With the river up and coloured conditions looked just right, but he lack of cars was a bit of a surprise. A wander about found three others fishing none of whom had had anything. I settled into a swim that normally produced when the rivers was a metre up. Standard pellet feeder and ledger tactics were used. One rod dropped in upstream next to what would normally be the bankside vegetation. The other downstream on the edge of a slack. Apart from a large branch and a lot of leaves there was no action at all.

 Sunday I went up to a stretch of river that years ago I wouldn't have considered deliberately fishing for barbel. Have have always been there but not in any numbers. They would occasional turn up for anglers fishing for other species but would often be lost. The barbel seem to have spread down the river to the point where they are worth fishing for along most of it's length. The unusual tactics were employed. Feeder and ledger with pellets. A14mm on one rod and 8mm on the other.

The weather was quite breezy by the time I got sorted. The sun was nice but kept being blotted out by the clouds. A woolly and fleece was required most of the time but a bit warm when the sun appeared for any length of time. The river was about a foot up and carrying colour. The feeder was dropped into a spot I knew to be around nine foot deep in these conditions. It was three quarters  filled with 4mm and 2mm pellets. the smaller pellets would drift out of the feeder while the larger ones would slowly dissolve leaving a scent trail. I'd found a tub of paste with a production date of 2018 at the back of the cupboard. I squeezed this onto the ledger which was tossed out into the middle. initially. After regularly having it dragged about by a build up of leaves or snagged twigs I cast it in upstream on the same line as the feeder rod.

The day wore on with very little happening. I replenished the feeder and paste at regular intervals.Tossed an assortment of pellets along the line the two baits were on. A kingfisher shot past every now and then. In the distance. Three buzzards performed aerobatics. The most entertaining, though, was a kestrel attempting to hunt but being harassed by a couple of crows. Late in the afternoon, as the temperature dropped, the downstream rod looped over and the baitrunner sounded. I wasn't sure what I'd connected with. At first I thought it may be a chub. then one of the larger feisty bream. But a small barbel surfaced. Once it saw the net it woke up a bit and took a couple of attempts to get it in. Only small but very welcome. While I rested it in the net after unhooking it I tossed the rod back out. Sorting the unhooking mat out and preparing for a picture the rod went over again. This one felt like a barbel. I was surprised, though, to find a similar sized fish on the hook when i got it to the surface. My attempt to land it with the other in the net didn't quite work as planned as the first fish made a dash for freedom the moment I sunk the net, so no brace shot.

That little flurry of action was it for the day. Mission had been accomplished though. Unlike the first the second barbel was rather reluctant to leave the net. I ha to leave a bit earlier than I'd of liked but I didn't fancy navigating the muddy pot-holed track in the dark. Even in day light I'd managed to clunk the bottom of the car.

 

I don't know if these are stocked fish. They didn't look like the stockies as they are normally a bit tubby while these were quite lean.

Last Day Of The Trout Season (For Me)

 Today was the last day of the trout season for me. Tomorrow, Tuesday, looks pretty shite weather wise and I just don't fancy fishing in the rain and wind. Not that today was any good anyway. A chilly overcast day in which I flung all manner of flies about and failed to elicit a take from anything. So here are some pictures of the beck.

Only six months to go and we start again.