It Comes Into Its Own In Autumn

"It comes into its own in autumn." I was told in the tackle shop, as I confirmed I was going to the Derwent again. It's a phrase I've heard many times over the years and to be honest I've rarely found it to be true. The river seems to manage to be a pain in the arse no matter what time of year I fish it and today proved the point. Even the cattle that came down for a look weren't impressed.

 








As I wandered upstream towards a swim with some nice overhanging trees. A couple of swans fallowed me, the first I've seen this year. The swifts/swallows/martins (I can never remember how to tell the apart) were taking a last drink before heading south. There seemed to be a bit more water passing through, judging by the speed of he debris floating past.

Setting up a 4g bolo for the 11' deep swim, along with a feeder set up seemed to be the best option. Feeding hemp and caster along with a few grains of corn via a dropper along the tree line I was straight into minnows, minnows and more minnows. On two occasions I managed to hook two on the same hook! Sweet corn on the hook had the float bobbing about all over the place as the minnows played volleyball with it. The feeder rod fared no better with the tip bouncing about non-stop. After 30 minutes of this i decided on a move.

The new swim was slightly deeper. Fed in the same manner as previous it produced a couple of bleak before the minnows moved in.   Though not as bad as previous with the bleak getting a look in occasionally, it was still annoying. A solid bite while fishing the feeder resulted in a length of ironmongery. How does an inanimate object tug the tip round? A little roach turned up in among the minnows and bleak so I stuck it out a bit longer, but no more showed. Time for a third swim.

 This was the same swim I'd fished the previous week and had so much pike trouble in. Today, though, it appeared to be pike free as I took a steady flow of dace, roach, gudgeon and the occasional minnow, but no perch. This changed with a bit of feeder fished corn which resulted in a perch of around 8oz and nothing more. I continued on with maggot or caster on the float as I was taking a fish every other trot. I kept trying corn on the hook and eventually got a bite which after a bit of a struggle tuned out to be a rather lean, battle scared jack. The first sighting of a pike all session. With only 30 mins of light remaining I stuck with the corn and was rewarded with a nice perch of 2lb 1oz. With no more bites showing and not having a torch with me I called it a day.

 

Not the spectacular sport 'It comes into its own in autumn' would have you believe, but there is something rather pleasant about taking a steady flow of fish on the float, even if they are rather small.

Thomas (Tommy) Ruffe

Normal service appears to have returned on the weather front. T-shirt then fleece time, raining long enough to get the brolly up before it stops and all in an hour. While I don't like sitting under a brolly, especially when float fishing, I'd be willing to put up with it at the moment. While the river level is holding quite well, the flow appears to be slowing. Although the rain really needs to be up on the moors, as rain in the Vale of York does precious little except keep the dust down.

 








Plumbing up showed there to be nearly 12' 6' of water trundling along sedately. I set up a 4g+ avon, as the bolo floats had wandered from the tackle box, with a 3g olivette and a few locking shot 18" from the 9" hook length. A feeder rod was also set up. Bait for the day was to be hemp, caster, maggot, and sweet corn. The first few trots down produced the occasional gudgeon to maggot, but nothing to caster or corn. After a quiet spell I picked up a small perch on the feeder rod. This was grabbed by a little jack Which tenaciously hung on to it right up to the net before letting go. Surprisingly this was to be my only encounter with a pike during this session.

 








 

 








After this encounter I picked up a tommy, my first of the season, on the float rod, before a few more gudgeon. Alternating between feeder and float I managed to extract gudgeon, bleak, chub, roach, minnows and the occasional perch the largest of which, at 2lb 4oz, came to corn while the rest were all on maggot.

 








The fishing was very erratic with the fish never settling. I'm assuming it was the perch activity that caused this. Strangely no dace showed up.
 











This maggot drowning, fishing for owt that bites has been rathr good fun, but soon I'll be back to chucking lures and dead fish about for predators.