Friday 15 March 2024

Final River Pike Session

 With the rain in the Dales there was a distinct possibility that the rivers fed from there were not going to be fit to fish on Thursday the final day. The rain hadn't been anything like as bad on the Moors, so I headed for a a river fed from there. I know there would be a couple of decent slacks to fish in. One of which does produce some good pike, but is rather muddy as the field behind tends to drain that way.


 had two rods set up. One float and one ledger. The float rod had a small smelt on and was fished down the edge. The ledger rod had lamprey on and was chucked out into the middle. I worked my way back towards the hot spot with out so much as a sniff. The baits were given and injection of oil each time I moved.


By lunch time I'd reached the hot spot, a large slack. Upstream, to my left, it was seventeen foot deep and downstream, to my right, seven and a half foot deep. I started with the ledger rod to my right with a large smelt on. The float rod went to my left with a small roach on a circle hook. After lunch I decided that along with the oil a bit of movement may  be needed to attract the fish. The float rod was altered to a paternoster rig and the ledger rod had a pop up added. This seemed to do the trick as the float disappeared. Unfortunately I forgot I was using a circle hook and struck into the fish. It was on momentarily before coming adrift. Never strike with circle hooks. Allow the fish to swim away and tighten into it. Bugger. Out went another roach. When I went to recast the ledger rod and add some oil it was snagged. A good pull bent a hook out. Out went the bait again but it bit further out


Again when I tried to retrieve the ledgered bait for a recast it became snagged. When I moved up the bank to get a better angle the braid snapped like cotton. A new rig was attached and a popped up sardine was flung out to a different spot. Just before I interned to retrieve it and add some oil the alarm went and the dropback bobbed about. I lifted into the fish and started to retrieve when every thing came to a halt. I could feel the fish head-shaking. A good heave and ]I was again in proper contact with the fish then everything went light. Upon retrieving the rig the weak link to the lead had snapped but the trace and a very chewed sardine was was still there. A new lead and a large smelt went back out. Half an hour later I lost another lead in the snags, which seemed to cover a large area. Leads aren't cheap these days either.

I fished on until dark with only one more lead lost but no more action. Maybe I'd have been better downstream barbel fishing but I did want to try and get a double on my one of my new rods. While pondering the snags it occurred to me they may be masonry from the bridge as quite a bit had been knocked into the river by a lorry. Oh well there's always next pike season. Next up it's flinging flees at troot. I suppose I ought to sort the flee flinging kit out and check the waders.



Tuesday 12 March 2024

Penultimate River Pike Session

My pike season on the rivers, like many other up here, hasn't been great at all. The constant floods have made life awkward with some especially slippy banks when the water has dropped. In the hope of picking things up a bit I headed for a well known hotspot. The river had been up about a metre following Sunday's rain but was dropping so things wouldn't be too bad I thought. Following a later than intended start due to finger trouble I arrived at the pot after a rather laborious trudge through muddy files and slippy paths. I was surprised to find nobody else there on either bank.


A float fished roach was dropped into a nice slack in thirteen foot of water and a large smelt was ledgered in twenty three foot of water. I moved the baits about as best I could in the slacks. A couple of other anglers arrived and setup in another larger slack that I intended to move to later if nothing was happening. Both baits were given a dose of oil after an hour or so. The slowly dropping river meant the slack changed shape necessitating changing the position of the baits. The drizzle and chill wind wasn't making life pleasant. Part way through the morning one of the other anglers landed a pike. A high single by the look of it.

While investigating a couple of other swims, now the rain had stopped, I spotted a Tansy Beetle loitering on some nettles. I don't know if the eat nettles when there's no tansy about. These things are rather rare. The Yorkshire Ouse and somewhere in Cambridgeshire are it's only remaining populations in the UK. After lunch I moved to another swim upstream that has produced pike in the past. The float now sporting a piece of lamprey had to be set a twenty two foot and was tossed in at the upstream end of the slack. The edger was dropped in at the downstream end with a small headless mackerel. The same angler that caught earlier had another. His friend, like me, ended up with  a stick. I must admit the stick I caught gave a very convincing impression of a pike run.


The trudge back up the hill was damned hard work with the sticky mud trying to rip my wellies off. Not the day I was hoping for but one more session to go and a my be able to pick things up, or not.

Friday 8 March 2024

Earp Pike

Thursday I set off to a section of river renowned for it's humongous pike, that nobody ever captures. The rumours have been around years and just seem to stick. It has, however, been producing some pike recently which is why I was heading there. The info I has was that the pike were been caught late morning into early afternoon so I didn't get there too early. There weren't quite as many swims accessible as I'd hoped do to the water level,. but enough to spend an hour or two in each.

 

A float rod was to be fished next to any overhanging trees and in the slacks and a ledger rod for out in the middle. Bait was limited as I didn't want to buy any more before the end of the season. I had a small herring, some smelt, roach and lamprey. I put a section of lamprey out in the middle and a roach on the float was my starter.After half an hour or so the float started to drift downstream and I contacted with something that didn't feel like a pike. When I got it to the surface it was a pike, nearly. Probably about a foot long it thrashed about on the surface and detached itself from the hook. I put on a roach and cast out again, but with no more action after an hour moved on the the next swim. 


I decided on a cuppa after casting the baits out. This didn't result in any runs, but as I brought the float rod in to recast I thought i saw something following the bait so dropped it back close in. While I was waiting I got the lure rod ready. After bringing the float rod in I had a cast about with a eight in shad with a rattle fitted. After half a dozen cast I had the most almighty hit, obviously something big. I was somewhat disappointed when a little jack surfaced but at least I wasn't going to blank.

If one pike was active and willing to take a lure maybe more were. I therefore spent some time wandering up and down chucking lures about, but didn't see anything else. I settled down in an new swim with quite a large slack the was only about eight foot deep compared to the twelve to fourteen foot of the previous swims. Recasting the ledger rod I slipped and launched the whole lot up into a tree. While I retrieved everything else the lamprey detached itself and landed in the river. Time for the headless herring. It hadn't been out long when the alarm bleeped and the dropback dropped back. Pretty soon an 84cm 6lb 8oz fish was in the net. Despite the powerful rods it managed to put up a reasonable account of itself in the fast current.


Nothing else came from that swim so I had another go with the lure rod to no avail. two more swims were fished before dark, but nowt else had a go at the baits. I'm hoping the rivers have settled and the last few days of the season will produce something better. Hopefully it won't be washed out like last year.

Friday 1 March 2024

New Venue New Rods

 Thursday I headed to a stretch of river I'd never fished before in an attempt to christen my new rods. Their previous outing had been a blank and fishing a unknown stretch of river probably to christen them probably wasn't the best idea. I'd been for a walk on this section previously so had a good idea where the pikey looking swims were. I wandered upstream to the first swim I fancied. There was no sign anybody else had been down since the water dropped. My tactics were to drop a bait in under a float just over the shelf behind over hanging trees and place a bait midstream with a ledger. The first bait out was a small roach under the float dropped into seven foot of water. A trout was flung out on the ledger. I also had smelt and sardine with me. After a runless hour I moved swims. This one was just as unproductive, as was the next. In the fourth swim the shelf was somewhat closer and the depth nearer nine foot. I changed to a smelt on the float rig. A spot of oil was added to the trout before it was plonked midstream. Just as the kettle boiled the float started to bob about. A quick strike and I was in. A small but rather athletic jack was quickly chinned. At least one rod was christened. Another angler turned up at this point. He was doing a spot of lure fishing for chub and/or perch.

After my cuppa I moved on to the next swim, then the next, then the next. I was all rather quiet apart from a Great Tit. Their 'singing' is OK for a little while, but when there's several of them doing their squeaky wheelbarrow impressions it gets a bit annoying. By now the collie from the farm had come down to investigate. Though it spent most of it's time sticking it's nose down rabbit holes and barking at them. I'd just got my Pot Noodle ready when the alarm went and the drop-back dropped back. Keeping one eye on my lunch in case the dog tried to nick it I struck into what felt like some debris. It wasn't until it got to the surface that the little jack woke up and started to thrash about. Second rod christened.


As usual I stayed on until dark but there was no more action. At least both rods are now christened.All I have to do in the remaining two weeks of the river season is find some bigger and better pike.



Friday 16 February 2024

New Rod Curse

 Thursday the river level looked about right at 3.3m up. This meant it would be near the top of the bank giving a flat surface to fish from rather than having to slither down the bank. It also meant there would be some large areas of slack water between the overhanging trees for the baitfish and thus the pike to lounge about in.  This was the theory anyway.

I had two rods set up. One with the usual float-ledger rig and one plain ledger rig. The ledger rig would be cast out to the crease where one would normally fish for barbel, etc. It took an 8oz lead to hold bottom in twenty foot of water, but by casting upstream it did settle just down stream of me. The float rig was cast into the slack water which was around ten to twelve foot deep. Staring baits where smelt and lamprey.

 

 

I'd recently obtained a couple of more powerful pike rods for the rivers as throwing big leads and baits was really too much for the Purist Apex Predators. I'm still using them on small still waters and rivers, but for the heavier work I now have a couple of Agitator BR-S. While classed as long range rods they do bend well down to the butt as pike rod should. They had no problem throwing the heavy lead and a large bait about. Unfortunately they weren't tested on a fish. I alternated between four swims but failed to get as much as a dropped run.


I set up one of the older rods to drift  small roach about n the slacks but this didn't attract anything either. I even flung a bait out into the middle of the river in the fastest of the current.  I would of fished more swims but it was hard work trudging about in the alluvial mud that had been deposited by the floods. I'm just going to blame the curse of the new rods.

 

Hopefully I'll be able to test them against a fish when if the rivers drop a bit.


Friday 2 February 2024

Putting On Weight

 My cunning plan for Thursday was to spend an hour or so in each swim and work my way round the gravel pit. Providing no other anglers got in the way there was enough daylight to fish every swim.  I started in he first swim with the usual sort of setup. A small smelt was dropped near the tree roots and a lamprey tossed out next to the dying weed bed in the middle. After moving the baits a couple of times I moved on to the next swim. A cup of tea and lunch had been consumed as I got ready to move to the far side of the pit.

 With everything ready to move a few fish scattered over to my right. It looked like the only swim I could reach the spot from was the first one I was in. As I stood there more fish scattered. A quick move back to the first swim and out with the bait. Because of the height of the water, it had gone down a couple of inches since last week, you are a lot closer to the tree branches above. This can make casting to certain spots a tad awkward, but kneeling down I managed to get the bait within a couple of yards of the spot. The smelt which was now a bit raggedly was replaced with a small roach and swung out to the tree roots. A robin had a wander along one of the rods, no doubt hoping to be fed. Three quarters of an hour later some fish scattered just to my right in a small bay. I quickly moved the roach there and a few minutes later the float slid away. After a rather hectic fight a decent pike was in the net. 93cm and 12lb 4oz it looked somewhat familiar. A scan through the phone showed it to last week's fish which had gained 9oz.

 
Just after I released the pike there was quite a splash to my left but all I could see was a twig in the middle of the ripples. I then what I at first thought was a rat swimming to the bank as It shot up a tree I realised it was a rather soggy squirrel that clearly picked the wrong branch to wander about on. There was then another scattering of fish to the right of the float out in the middle, so I decided to stop put. I put a pop up ball on the lamprey, which was still oozing blood, and recast it. Another small roach was dropped back in the bay. After this there was no more fish scattering or anything. As usual I waited into dark before packing up.



 

Saturday 27 January 2024

Tail End Of Jocelyn

 With the rivers still at ridiculous levels on Friday I headed to the gravel pit despite the fact we still seemed to have the tail end of storm Jocelyn around. This last storm was named after Dame Susan Jocelyn Bell Burnell DBE FRS FRSE FRAS FInstP. A physicist who was educated nearby. I'm not sure if I'd want a storm named after me. The previous few days wind had brought a fair few branches down, but luckily the corner I wanted to fish was reasonably clear of debris. The water level was well up, though, the highest I've seen it for three or four years.


Tactics were the usual. A small roach was float fished to the left in the little bay and float fished headless joey mackerel to my right under the overhanging tree. The wind, despite being a south westerly was rather chilly. As I poured hot water into my cup the float above the roach bobbed and moved slowly out of the bay. A strike produced a vicious tug then nothing. The little roach bait was still on the hook and showed no signs of damage. Strange. The joey was then sent out to the middle of the pit. Despite moving the baits about. Injecting the with oil. Doing a bit of dead bait wobbling. Nothing else happened until I started to make my afternoon cuppa. Again it was the small roach something had taken a fancy to. I struck into something powerful that headed straight towards the sunken branches. Leaning heavily into it there was a big swirl then I was hit in the face by the float.

I checked the hook which definitely still sharp, so I pinned on another small roach and popped it back in the bay. The mackerel got another shot of oil and a pop up ball was added. An hour later interest was shown in the roach again. Again contact was made with something powerful that head straight for the sunken branches, but this time the fish stayed pinned to the hook and after a bit of a hectic battle around the tree roots a rather chubby pike was on the unhooking mat. A nice big beastie of 93cm and 11lb 11oz.


 

I fished on until dark but nowt else happened.  What surprised me was that I was the only angler there all day. I'd have thought with the rivers so high I would have seen more. Maybe the threat of the strong winds put them off. The wind though cold wasn't really a problem as it was filtered out by the trees that nearly surround the pit.