Bugs, Frogs and Rats

This post is a bit of an omnibus edition as technical, and other, issues have prevented me publishing anything.

I've been mainly lure fishing for the last few weeks, starting with frogs. This is great fun, pike crashing through lily pads, thick weed and reed beds in an attempt to grab the bait. It was surprising how many pike missed or just grabbed a leg. Unfortunately getting the hooks to stick was another matter. Initially I was striking too quickly, but even when I left the fish to turn I couldn't get the hook to stick mainly, I think, due to them being small jacks. 

 


















Next up was a trip to a small river for a bit of chubbing with lures. The little Korum Bug doing a very good job at attracting small chub and a possible double figure pike which got it's self round the back of a over-hanging tree. Having bashed my way through the undergrowth to get the other side of it, the pike thrashed about and spat the lure out.

A trip to another river to try out a Spro Rat resulted in a spirited 8lb 2oz pike on the second cast as I twitched along the marginal reeds. A few casts later a little jack managed to bite the tip of the tail off. Despite thinking it would do well along the margins that was it for the session.

 



















Finally a trip to the seaside for a spot of LRF. Arriving 3 hours before low tide with the intention of fishing 3 down, 3 up. I was told the mackerel had been and gone an hour earlier and nothing much else was happening. I'd managed to forget the small hooks so Blenny bashing was as they didn't seem to be able to get their mouths round a size 8. Eventually I managed a small Pollock on a grass minnow. Talking to the locals it appears to have been the quietest day they'd had for a while, with only a couple more Pollock taken.

Flood Water Barbeling for Chub

Looking at the river levels on Sunday the Nidd, about 18" up and falling, seemed like the place to be to catch my first barbel of the season. The tactic this time was to sit it out in one swim, with two rods. The upstream rod was to be pellet with broken bits in a PVA bag, while the downstream rod was baited with meat over a bed of hemp.

After half an hour the downstream rod looped over in classic barbel style before springing back as I lifted into nothing. This happened half a dozen times before I contacted with something, a rather chunky little chub. This pattern repeated it's self for the next hour. I stuck it out as barbel often appear among the chub.  All the action had been on the meat rod up to this point. As the bites slowed on the downstream rod the pellet rod started to show signs of life. A similar pattern to the downstream rod soon developed. By leaving the rod alone as it rattled about in the rod rest I managed to avoid dealing with the small chub.

This was how it continued for the rest of the evening, contacting the occasional little chub all of them about the same size. No sign of a barbel, they'll turn up though. Eventually.