The Final Count Down - Penultimate Session

For the penultimate session of the season I went down to a local canalised river with a chap that had been getting a few jacks out on lures. Being rather shallow we thought the bright, but welcome, sunshine may cause problems. I didn't get off to a great start when a bit of clumsiness saw me break the heavier of my rods just below the tip ring. The lighter of the two would have to cope. We weren't chucking big lures about anyway and it had managed pike to double figures in the past. I'd also forgotten to put a larger landing net head in the car so would have to struggle with the perch sized head.

 

 

My mate was into a little jack second cast. A lively little beast that took a bit of time to land on his light gear. My first take resulted in the tail going missing from my lure. I replaced it with the first rigged lure I found in the box and had another take as the lure dropped to the bottom. Again the tail was bitten off. A rather frustrating start. Meanwhile my mate had taken a trout, his first from this little river.

We then had a rather quiet spell as we made our way up river. A change from more natural colours to a rather garish yellow/green lure seemed to wake them up. With two coming in quick succession.  The little net coped perfectly well with them. My mate had three of similar size on a firetiger pattern.All around the 50-60cm mark and very lively. 

We then had another quiet spell before I latched on to another very close to the bank which managed to get under a sunken branch. By walking upstream I was able to get it out form underneath and into the net. While it had been stuck under the branch it had chewed the lure to death. What was left was replaced with a blue/silver pulse tail that fell out of the box as I opened it. This proved just as effective as it produced another jack a few yards further on. 

We were now four all on the pike front. Again things went quiet for me but my mate had two more before I latched on to my fifth of the day. Which had a well healed scar in one side.

That proved to be it for the day. Six Five to my mate, plus a trout. One surprising thing was the lack of chub. It was his first lure session on here with out one. The five jacks I caught meant that for the first time this pike season I had an average of more than one pike per session, just. One more session to go before the end of the season.

The Final Count Down

 Despite there been very few days left of the river season and the rivers at a reasonable height I didn't fancy battling the very muddy riverbanks. I therefore took myself down to the local estate lake. I was not best pleased to find little poked into the brambles by my chosen peg. Especially as I'd recently done a littler pick around the lake. 

The first baits out of the bag were a herring and a roach. Out they went under the usual float rigs. Twenty minutes later the roach was grabbed and the float moved away. Like the previous occasions I'd been here the fish came adrift half way back. I wasn't too bothered as on the previous occasions it was the third run that produced a fish, so two more to go. 

The replacement bait was a smelt. I also chopped the head of the herring to get more scent into the water. Baits were moved, drifted, popped up, etc, but nowt else took a fancy to them. This didn't do my average for the season any good. Still I had could fit in two more trips before the end of the season.

Grayling Match

 After the pegging out the previous day I was geared up and ready for the draw with fifteen others. It's not a viciously competitive match, more of a social. The arrangement is that you can fish between your peg and the peg downstream. All the pegs had the sort of feature grayling like so any peg could win. The only advantage of drawing early was that you could get to your peg quicker. I waited to near the end before drawing 13. A couple of deep holes and a long riffle on my allocated stretch.

 A 12' float rod with 'pin and a 10' quiver rod were set up with maggot for bait. First trot down the float dipped and a tiny grayling was heading towards me. As it was small I went to bring it to hand rather than net it. Silly mistake as it wriggled off the hook. I wasn't the only one to do this. The trout then turned up along over the length before another somewhat bigger grayling turned up. All 7oz of it. The feeder produced very little and sport slowed generally halfway through the four hour match. By the end most were looking forward to the pie and chips at the pub.

 

A total of ten grayling were caught. Three lost. A couple of bullheads showed up along with more than a few trout. The winner had 5 grayling. The winner of the fly fishing cup two grayling. The biggest grayling was 8oz. The beck has been up and down since Xmas, colouring up on occasions. Not the sort of thing grayling like, but it was still rather disappointing.

Inverts and Jack

 I spent the morning invertebrate sampling for the River Monitoring Initiative. Along with quite a few sticklebacks and bullheads the usual suspects turned up in the samples. Plenty of Cased Caddis, Caseless Caddis, Baetis, Gammarus, and a couple of BWO. Stonefly and Mayfly are occasionally found but Heptagenes aren't found in this beck at all.

After this I headed to a local lake for a short pike session. I was the only one there so dropped in the most convenient swim close to the car. After a quick check of the depths a small roach went out to the left and a headless bluey was cast towards the island. An inspired cast saw it land very close to the overhanging tree and not in it. Next job was luncheon. Like last time here I was just tucking in when the float bobbed and moved away. A strike contact with a fish which came adrift half way back. There was surprisingly little damage to the bait though.

Lucnh passed with out any more interruptions. I shallowed up the roach to allow it to drift along into the bay. to no effect. I tossed it out to a bit of a hole near the island and various points in-between. The bluey had been cast back under the tree, again with out getting snagged up. Another cuppa was had mid-afternoon while if rained.. Not long after this the Bluey float bobbed and moved very quickly away. A quick strike again contacted with a fish, and again it fell off half way back. Nowt big, but that was probably the problem. Little jacks have a habit of picking deadbaits up but don't get near the hooks on bigger baits. Late afternoon a repeat permanence of the previous two runs. Again I contacted with a fish but I got this one in the net before it spat the hooks out. A spirited beast of 73cm.

 

That was that for the day. I'm now edging closer to one pike per trip but not quite there yet. Next day I was back, but this time for a work party. I spent my time picking litter out of the brambles with a litter picker. Others were involved with opening swims out a bit and clearing undergrowth impeding the path, along with the usual arson. 

 

 

After which it was back to the beck to assist pegging out for the Grayling match.
 

 

Three Day Bender - Day 3

 Sunday I arrived first light at another stillwater. Nobody else about until I started setting up, when another angler arrived and headed round the pond. I'd decided where I was fishing on the way there. It's roughly square and I'd caught on three of the four sides in the past so decided to fish the side I'd not so far caught from. There was a nice overhanging tree to my left and a small corner to my right. A bluey went to the left and a sardine to my right.

Around mid morning, as I was contemplating a cuppa, the righthand float bobbed and moved away. A feisty little pike had taken a fancy to the the sardine and was soon bundled into the net. A pot bellied little piggy of a thing covered in leeches. A new sardine was tossed out to the same spot.

As I set about boiling the kettle for a cuppa the 'pin stated to scream. Another. slightly longer, little piggy pike had snaffled the sardine. This one put up a bit more of a struggle but was kind enough to spit the hooks out in the net.

Another sardine was plonked into the same spot. This time I was allowed to make my cuppa in peace.  After my cuppa I move the baits about a bit. When the breeze got up I tried drifting a bait about but nowt else bothered me. The rain had stayed away, but started around lunch time just as I was packing up. Two more to the tally but the average is still under one per trip.



 

Three Day Bender - Day 2

 Saturday I was at another lake at daybreak. One man and his tent was in one corner carping. I setup in another corner with the same rigs as last time. The sardine plonked by an overhanging tree to my left and a roach over to the tree to my right. As the day wore on the floats were moved about. The sun got out and made for a pleasant day. Three other anglers arrived at various points. None caught while I was there. Nor did I either. The bright sunshine, clear lake, and very low overnight temperatures probably weren't the best combination. Still it was nice to be out on a sunny day and not be getting wet.

 The blank didn't do my average per session any good as it still remains under one.

Three Day Bender - Day 1

 After a bit of a lay-off from fishing do to the appalling weather and not knowing if the rivers were going up or down I was ready to get back to it. I'd planned a couple of sessions on stillwaters over the weekend, but a change of plan meant I could also get out on Friday 13th. While the weather over the weekend was predicted to be quite good, including the threat of sunshine, Friday didn't look so clever. Luckily for me the drizzly sleet eased off as I arrived at the empty carpark. By the time I'd setup camp the sleet and drizzle had returned.

A float-fished sardine was placed under the tree to my left and a float-fished roach over to the other side of the bay. These were moved about as the morning went on. By lunch time the sardine was under the tree to the right. As I started to tuck in to my Cheese and Broccoli Pasta the sardine rig bobbed about. As it was now sleeting quite heavily I found myself saying out loud " You can stop that", and it did. I wound down but there was nothing there so I left it where it was. Lunch passed with out any more interruptions. An hour later the float boobed again but this time it started to move away. By the time I'd got to the rod the float had stopped. Tightening up showed there to be nothing there again. No sign of damage to the bait either.  For some reason I decided to chop the head of the bait and tossed it back under the tree. A little while later the float moved away. By the time I'd picked the rod up it was heading back towards me. A sweeping strike contacted with a fish that darted all over the place before being bundle into the net. A well fed little beast of 71cm.

I had another hour before I had to be away, but nowt else showed up. The soggy kit in the back of the car soon misted the windows up. With the heater on full blast it eventually cleared by the time I'd got to the gate and undone the lock.