As the Bank Holiday traffic didn't look too bad I made my way out to the beck. I took both fly and lure kit with me, just in case. A quick wander about, on arrival, showed it to be much the same as last visit. Plenty of midges and very little else, so I grabbed the lure rod and headed to the tree tunnel. There was even less space than last year and even less sign of fish.
With a bit of care I was able to flick the little lure about with out snagging up too much and after a few casts I had my first follow, a tiny little pike which swerved away at last moment. A bit further on a trout of about 9-10" hit the Salmo Minnow with a thump and, despite a good strike as well, throw the hook on it's first jump. Inspection of the hooks showed one to have the point bent over. Must inspect hooks more often when bouncing lures over gravel stream beds.
Near the end of the tunnel, with a new lure attached, I contacted with another fish. It felt quite substantial initially, but soon gave up and turned out to be a 8oz chub hooked in the belly. Not really sure how it managed that as the lure was stationary when it hit.
Out in the open again, I spotted a few olives fluttering about along with a few damsels and a mayfly. This looked like a good hint to get the fly rod. Wandering back to the car it was obvious there was quite a few olives about, but no sign of fish rising to them. Despite wandering about for an hour with the fly rod the only rises I saw were from small dace.
I'm not really sure where the trout have got to, although I've known it like this in the past. They can suddenly reappear, whether they come in from the main river, drop down stream from the little feeder streams I don't know. One can but hope.
Had a rather frustrating day waving a fly rod about on a local beck today. After my previous visit, when it was rather coloured, it was nice to see it had cleared up. Not crystal clear though, as it generally has a bit of a tinge to it. As I walked down to the bottom of the stretch it was clear there was plenty of insect life about in the shape of midges and the odd hawthorn fly. The only thing missing was rising fish.
Not long after entering the water I came across a shoal of dace completely ignoring the swarm of midges above them. This happened a couple more times as I made my way upstream. Eventually I came across my first trout picking out the odd hawthorn fly from in among the midges. A precision cast saw my stunning imitation land 6" upstream and to the right of the fish, which promptly swung 2' across the stream to take the real thing. This went on for another three or four casts, until a small dace grabbed the fly. I quickly flicked it off the hook so I could concentrate on the trout. Unfortunately the short commotion had frightened it off. I waited a while, while I had a drink, but it didn't start feeding again. Round the bend further upstream it was nice to see one of the larger residents picking off insects in among the trailing brambles. I doubt this fish will ever be caught as it's impossible to get any sort of bait to it and as it's on the outside of a bend food just gets washed towards it.
Further on another trout was spotted under a hawthorn again just selecting the hawthorn flies from in among the midges. As there was no way of casting upstream to it due to the long hanging branches I snuck around upstream of it. I dropped the fly well short of it and fed the line out, as it drifted down stream, by shaking the rod. Just as the fly reached the area I'd seen the fish rising in I realised I'd read the current wrong. The fly line got caught in an eddy and dragged the fly across the water spooking the fish and sending it panicking downstream.
The next couple of hundred yards is unfishable with a fly rod due to the low hanging trees, but it does open out into a nice pool were two or three small trout were feeding. The winter floods, though, had scoured out a deep channel at the tail end were it flowed between two large trees too deep for waist waders any way. So I found myself perched on slippery tree roots in order to get a cast to them. With one of those strange casts only anglers on small stream use I somehow managed to land the fly in the right area. It was taken the moment it landed, not by a trout, but a large chub that appeared from nowhere. Within moments of striking it was in the tree roots and the line parted. Some what miffed I fished through the last couple of pools half-heartedly, with a variety of flies, but the only thing in them seemed to be minnows.
The shortage of trout rising despite the abundance of insects was a bit puzzling, there again angling is generally a a bit/lot puzzling. Next time I think I may try the UL lure rod along the tree tunnel.
As we know, bank holiday weather is supposed to be somewhat sub-standard and blazing temperatures. With this in mind, and know desire to be stuck in traffic queues I set off just after first light for another spot of lure fishing on Pocklington canal. I really needn't of bothered as it was gone nine before the first fish showed, The rest of the wildlife I saw made up for it though.
On arrival I was greeted by an incredible racket from the rookery. An otter dropped into the beck as I wandered over the bridge. The rooks then decided to harass a heron as it landed by the side of the canal, which looked lovely. Totally fish-less, but lovely. Nothing was topping and apart from a few pin fry nothing stirred. Normally as I wander along fishing I disturb something in the inside edge. A barn owl swooped over the field before disappearing into the woods. A bit later a solitary deer came wandering towards me, on the path. I've seen small groups of deer here before, but never a solitary one. As I was facing east it wasn't the easiest thing to get a photo of, especially with a phone. The first sign of fish was a couple of tails waving about above a cloud of mud, feeding tench I assumed..
Just after nine I managed to snag a small jack on a Slider 6 jerk bait. I had just about given up at this point as it was now getting a tad too hot for my liking. I'm more of a winter person. Half an hour later I managed another, slightly larger jack on the same lure. A little while after this what looked like a largish roach had a lunge at the lure. I have taken roach on lures before, especially around this time of year. I saw nothing more over the next half hour and as I was back at the bridge I called it a day.
With only a short time available to me on Friday I popped down to Pocklington Canal. I wasn't full of optimism given how bright it was, at least there was a bit of wind creating some ripple when I got there. At least the plants hadn't got too big yet, but the path had been mowed and in places the canal was covered in clippings that had been blown on.
It wasn't until I got to an area with a bit of shade afforded by the bank-side trees that I saw my first fish, a small pike. It just sank into the weeds as the lure past in front of it. A bit further along a pike of similar size grabbed to lure just as it came over the edge of the weeds and put up a stunning fight, for it's size, on the light perch tackle I was using. Near the end of the trees another small pike shot out of the weeds before grabbing the lure and continuing towards me. Swinging the rod 180 degrees I just contacted the fish at the end of the strike. Burying itself in the nearside weeds it soon came adrift.
By now the wind had dropped completely. Not holding out much hope with the gin clear water and glass like surface I headed back to the car. As I reached a spot where the bank-side vegetation, that had come adrift, had formed a bridge across the canal I spotted half a dozen reasonable perch hiding underneath it. As the lure passed in front of them they scattered in blind panic. Quite why they were frightened of such a tiny lure I've no idea, but they were the last fish I saw.
Talking to a couple of other anglers on the way back didn't do any thing for my optimism as they'd had nothing at all, not even seen a fish. So my one landed. one lost didn't seem so bad. Especially given the weather, while ideal for a bank holiday trip to the seaside, isn't ideal for predator fishing.
