Sitting In The Sun With A New Landing Net

A quick trip to Bobco for a few essentials was called for, especially as their sale was on. Actually the only things I'd got my eye on were a Greys Toreon 15' float rod, to replace my aged Shimano Technium, and a Savage Gear pike net with telescopic handle to reach down the muddy river banks. Both of which I obtained. I then got myself a few lures and other bits-and-bobs, all of which are vital and I just couldn't do with out. Good job there was a 20% discount or it would have all looked very expensive.

I then made my way to the Navigation for a spot of dead baiting, as one or two people had mentioned the odd decent fish coming out. Not to day though. Nor for three other people either. I did get a run and contacted with what felt to be a smallish jack. Unfortunately a raft of weed, dislodged when three plastic tubs came through, had attached itself to the line and I managed to bump the fish faffing with that. so the new net didn't get christened. There again it was New Year gift to me so really should have to wait 'til then.

I stayed until dark at which point a large perch porpoised out of the water three feet from the bank. One chap had been lure fishing for perch and had had nothing. One of the staff in Bobco was saying it had been one of his worst pike session so far as had somebody else I spoke to. Quite what's going on I really have no idea apart from blaming the unsettled and very wet weather.

Oh well, happy New Year everybody and lets hope 2020 is a lot better than this year for predators..

Sitting in The Sun

Following a trip to the tackle shop for next year's book I headed to the gravel pit. I'd been told that the pike ha been taking skimmers as they were been brought in. While it was a reasonable, sunny sort of winters day I didn't see a single pike. Another gentleman also failed to catch having had a series of blanks on the estate lake he thought he'd try somewhere else.

I had plenty of time to play with the action cam, if only I'd charged it up. Couldn't really find anything to photograph either. Come the New Year I'm going to have to bite the bullet and fish the rivers, regardless of the levels, or maybe try freshwater baits.

Rain, Rain Go Away Come Back Another Year

The weather forecast for Friday was basically pissing it down for twelve hours, but it suggested it would be mainly light rain.  As it wasn't raining when I'd finished breakfast and the radar showed the rain wasn't due for another hour I made a dash to the gravel pit. I managed to get setup before the rain arrived. It did just rain for the next twelve hours. mainly light with the odd heavier spell.

One the float rod was set up with a smelt and tossed out to the edge of an overhanging tree. The second rod was changed to a ledger setup in order to fish a popped up herring. This was cast out to the plateau. Various bits of chopped fish were catapulted about over the plateau and around the overhanging branch. I've never done particularly well with popped up baits here, but given recent results thought I'd give it a try again. It failed again. The drop off indicator dropped off, but no line was taken and there were no teeth in the bait. Probably a liner.

After lunch a pigeon sized and coloured bird appeared near the far bank, a diver of some sort. Attempts photograph it proved pointless, as it was too far away for a phone camera. I tried wandering round the other side, but it disappeared. Not long after this a refugee from the rivers popped down to try a bit of lure fishing, but failed miserably. Having injected the herring with oil and recast it I had been giving it a bit of twitch every half hour or so. The float fished bait had been moved every couple of hours and was now back by the over hanging branch. Late in the afternoon it moved off and I struck into nothing, again no marks on the bait. Back in the same place it moved away again just as it was getting dark. This time I felt something, but again there were no marks on the bait. I continued on into dark, but nothing else happened.

Teeth marks on a bait I don''t mind, but no marks at all is just puzzling. I can only assume that they are liners. Quite why the pike are being so uncooperative I don't know. I assume it's the unsettled weather. Up here we don't really need the rain. The ground is sodden and the rivers just rise so quickly. The Ouse is over it's banks again reducing the number of pubs available to the Christmas revellers. The gravel pits though are still a bit on the low side.

Avoiding Pike

Last week one pond was frozen and the estate lake produced a blank on a cold and rainy day. Today I'm back at the estate lake and the temperature is heading towards double figures, but again threatening rain. Much to my surprise another angler was there pike fishing. A quick natter with him didn't fill me with hope. Over the past two weeks he'd fished for pike here six times and blanked on every occasion. We had a bit of a discussion on the virtues of stopping in one swim or moving about. Like me he'd found stopping in one swim had been the most productive in the past, but not by much. One thing he'd never tried was something I've been using again this season, groundbaiting with chopped up fish. I can't say it's worked so far, or perhaps that's what's putting the pike off.

I started with half a herring out in front toward the middle of the lake and a smelt on the near side besides an over hanging tree. Both baits were moved about during the morning, with little effect. In the after noon I change to a popped up sardine out in front. I tried wobbled/sink and draw sprat for a while, before reverting back to smelt close in. Neither of us caught or saw any sign of fish at all. We blamed the variable weather and wished the rivers would just settle.

After a reasonably successful start to the pike season I'm not sure what's going on now, but others are having an equally hard time on my local club lakes so I'm not alone.

You'd Forget Your 'ead If It Wasn't Screwed On

Friday the 13th, what can go wrong. I set off for the gravel pit with the nagging feeling I'd forgotten something. I stopped at the end of the road and stared into the boot. The bait bag was there and full. I set off again then, a mile down the road realised the missing item was my wellies. Given the boots I was wearing are no longer water proof I had to turn back and get them. The journey there had an unusual problem that I haven't had for a while. The sun, straight in my eyes. A nice problem to have really. There was quite a bit of broken branches lying on the path round the pit and one or two still dangling up trees. This had me looking up as the pit is surrounded by trees. When I got there I selected a swim with the same problem, not that I minded. I picked up a couple of cans left at the gate.

The tactics were float fished sprat under the overhanging tree branch. The one nearest the water is very useful as it marks the point where there is a small drop off and has in the past produce some quite good hauls of pike. The other rod was baited with half a herring and flung out to the middle under a float. The rest of the herring was chopped up and catapulted around and with some chopped sprat under the tree. While the sun was out small fish dimpled the surface and while I had my lunch three carp breached along with another one later on. Quite why they do this is the cause of much speculation.

After lunch I injected both baits with sardine oil. Around three o'clock I had my first run which just resulted  in a missing sprat. At quarter past four I got my nest run on the half herring which resulted in a small jack. The picture of which is non to clever as the flash startled me.  I gave it another half hour, by which time I could no longer see the floats. Despite the full moon it was remarkably dark.

On the way home I had that nagging feeling again. Staring at the kit in the garage I couldn't see anything missing. While having my tea it dawned on me that the l;anding net wasn't there. Thankfully it was sill propped up against a fence post when I got back. At leat I caught today even if it wasn't very big and didn't put up much of a struggle. Another angler fishing had one small perch to worm in the couple of hours he was there.

The next problem I found was some of the video I'd recorded was missing.. The SD card appears to be corrupt. I managed to extract a couple of little bits. Not a great day in some ways, but a nice day to be out and a fish at the end of the day to make up for all the other problems.

Tumbling Branches

I arrived at the gravel pit to find it iced over. Protected from the prevailing wind by a copse, it is rather prone to this. I therefore headed to the estate lake, where some trees have been felled in order to help mitigate this problem.  As I wandered round a couple of branches tumbled down in front of me. Big enough to have hurt, through my woolly hat, if they'd landed on my head. I assume they'd been broken by the wet and windy weather on Monday and Tuesday, as looking round there were a few broken branches stuck up trees and lots on the ground.

I pitched up between the trees in a swim with plenty of features. I noticed a long, but thin branch loose in among the branches of a tree near me and tried to poke it down, but it was just too high for me to reach. I reasoned that I was too far from the tree and with the brolly up, as it had started to drizzle, I'd be safe. This turned out to be nearly true, as it did come down. It hit the ground first before landing on the brolly, the branches curve nearly matching that of the brolly. It seemed the slightest breath of wind would bring them down.

Tactics for the day were to be float fished sprat under the over hanging trees left and right, along with a herring tail in the old stream bed in front of me. A few sprat and the herring head were chopped up and flung about he general area. As I'd had nothing by lunch time the herring was changed to a section of lamprey and the sprat swapped to a smelt The old baits chopped up and flung around the swim again. I sat under the brolly in the constant rain for the rest of the afternoon. I'd give the baits a twitch, change their position, etc. in between drinking cups of tea. I continued on until I could no longer see the floats, but didn't so much as get a tooth mark on the baits.

To save faffing about in the rain and dark I just slung everything in the back of the car. Not a good idea, as the reel handles got tangled in the landing net mesh. The hooks got stuck in the upholstery. The braid managed to snag itself around anything it could. Took me ages to empty the car.

Gardening Leave

Sunday I had a day off, my last one of the year, the one you save just in case. My intention had been to finish off the garden, but wet and windy weather isn't really gardening weather. It's far more suited to sitting under a brolly on a muddy bank fishing. With admirable persistence I again set off for the clay pit. The swim I choose, on the same bank as last time, has a fallen tree to one side, a dead and dying lily bed in front, an over hanging tree  and tree roots to the other. All prime pike fishing spots, so the learned angling writers claim.


 







The first rod out went next to the fallen tree baited with a sprat. The second rod, however, had developed a slight problem. The tip had broken just below the tip ring. A bit of heat from a lighter soon set fire to the epoxy and the offending bit of carbon was removed. With the aid of a bit of braid I was able to jam the tip ring back on. A bit of hot melt has now secured it properly, although I haven't bothered to replace the little bit of whipping with it's metallic red highlight as it adds nothing really. This rod was then baited with a headless sardine, mainly because I'd stood on it and squashed the head, and fished next to the old lily bed. The remainder of the sardine, along with some sprats were chopped up and tossed about the general area I was fishing.

 













Between the showers, of varying intensity and the occasional roar of the wind as it blew through the trees, very little happened for the first five hours or so. Every hour or so I moved the baits to different spots and occasionally twitched them, but to no affect. Around this time there was a bit of commotion in the middle of the lilies so I dropped the sprat back there. I'd tried all the usual tricks for eliciting a bite, cup of tea, pot noodle, checking the football scores on the phone, all that was left was to go for a pee. As I turned to go the float moved away and one of the little beasties I'd had so much trouble with previously stuck to the hooks. Not the biggest at 55cm, but a pike all the same. It did put up a bit of a struggle and attempted to get under the fallen tree, but was quickly subdued. Although I fished into dark that was it for the day.


 







As pike venues go this one produces more blanks than any other I fish regularly. I will persist with it as I've not had a double out of here this century and the only way of getting one is to stick with it.

Vegetarian Pike

Back to the Clay Pit. After last weeks performance, with lots of runs, I decided to fish sprats this time. One on the bottom and the other suspended just off bottom under a float. As there was a bit of breeze this would be allowed to slowly drift about. None of this worked of course. I flung some bits of chopped up sprat about then spent an hour or so walking the bank. Dropping a sprat under trees, on and around old weed beds, and other features.














After lunch I got my first run. Winding down I felt something and struck, but connected with nothing. Two scales were on a hook point. They weren't sprat scale, being about twice as big. Later on as I wound a dead bait in a leaf that was snagged on it came loose and was snatched by a little jack as it sunk back down. I tried wobbling a sprat for a while, but nothing more was seen of the fish.


















As nothing much happened, there was nothing to video, so as the light faded I videoed a short bit with both the action cam and my phone at the same time to see which was best in low light. This was on the default settings. To my surprise the phone appears to have made a better job of it.  The video looks brighter than it actually was.

Runs Galore

Friday I decided to pay my first visit of the season to the dreaded clay pit, a place I love and loathe in equal measures. Halfway down the path I noticed blood on my right hand. I've no idea how I cut myself. Most of the blood was on the middle finger, but it was the index finger I'd cut. When I got to the water the sun put in an appearance an mad to place look quit pleasant.  It can look I right miserable place in winter. 

 








Normally I us small baits such as sprats or smelt here, but this time I decided on one small bait, a smelt, and one big bait, half a mackerel. The smelt was placed beside a fallen tree on the top of the shelf an the mackerel  at the edge of the dead and dying lilies. The head of the mackerel was chopped up and chucked about the general area I intended to fish. After half an hour I got my first run on the mackerel which I missed, along with the second and third. There was only very slight damage to the bait. I then got a run on the smelt which I again missed. The bait went back out as it was only slightly damaged. The next run was also to the smelt, but I hooked something, or thought I did. As it came up to the surface a little jack which had hold of the head end let go. I had three more encounters like this until I ended up with just half a smelt. After a lull I had another run on the mackerel. Again a similar sized jack had hold of it, but well away from the hooks and let go as it got to the surface. The next run was from a slightly larger fish which put up quite a spirited fight before letting go of the bait. There then followed any lull.

 








I did contemplate moving the hooks further up the bait, but don't really like the close to the head end as it tends to result in deep hooked fish, especially when they get over the 6-8lb mark. Just after three, as I was boiling water for a brew, the smelt moved away and this time I managed to hook the little horror. This one, just hooked in the front of the mouth, was probably the smallest one I'd seen. I didn't get another run after that.

The fact that little jacks appear to have eyes bigger than their bellies probably accounts for more dropped runs than anything else. A some what entertaining, but frustrating day. I do know there are bigger pike in here. I've seen a couple of pictures of 4-5lb bream that were grabbed on there way in and the distance between the teeth marks shows it wasn't little jacks that had grabbed them. At least I didn't blank though, unlike my last few sorties here.

No Robin Today

With the rivers still up down and all over the place, it was back to the gravel pit for another spot of piking. Due to a couple of errands it was well into Thursday morning before I arrived. As sprat hadn't been too successful I decide on fishing sardine near the tree roots and a smelt out towards the middle, both under floats. The pit is slowly filling, but tree roots that are normally under water are stll high and dry.

 








I didn't have to wait long for the first run, which resulted in a little slightly tatty jack. It put up quite a spirited fight. When released it tuned and shot straight back to the bank, beaching itself. When turned round and released again it swam away slowly. The second shower of the day arrived not long after along with a fall of leaves and branches which was the reason I'd put my brolly up in the first place. I'd been hit a couple of times by small branches and had leaves in my cup of tea. Another angler arrived around one for a spot of maggot drowning, but failed to get a bite.

 











A couple of times fish scattered near the centre of the pit and also over to my right. In fact there seemed to be quite a bit of pike activity to my right, but it's a tackle grave yard and I would have spent a lot of time hauling branches out. The next run came as the light was fading, on the nearside smelt. A considerably heavy fish that hugged to bottom all the way to the net, causing trials of bubbles as it moved about. A remarkably light fish, at 7lb 6oz, for it's size. By the time I'd sorted it it was pitch dark so time to go.

While contemplating the fact that I'd not seen the robin today it also occurred to me that I'd not seen the kingfishers on any of my recent trips either. Given the size of the fish the predators were scattering there's no shortage of food for them. Nor is there a shortage of diving platforms either.

Some Initial Thoughts on an Aldi Action Cam

I'm not really sure why I thought I needed an action cam, but Aldi were selling this one for £50 which seemed o have a decent spec and most everything I've bought from there has been quite all right, so I took the plunge.

I have a theory about devices like this - if I have to read the manual to carry out it's basic function then there's something wrong and it's not fit for purpose. Having got it out of it's box I shoved a memory card in (it's not supplied with one and won't work with out one) and switched it on. It protest about incorrect format of the SD card so I formatted as requested, poked a few buttons, swung it round the room and had my first video. Plugging a USB cable in it asked if I wanted charge mode or storage mode. I assumed storage mode so I could download it to the computer which worked fine. The one thing I didn't do, which I normally do with this sort of device, is reset it to factory mode. This showed when I looked at the video file which seemed to be quite huge for ten seconds of video. The video had been record at some ludicrously fast frame rate which my video editor struggled with. Factory rest set it to 4k 60fps, but I lowered it to 1080p 60fps even though I have screens capable of displaying 4k I reckon most people would view anything I published at 1080p or lower. The other thing I noticed, which worried me a bit, was the video wasn't as sharp as I'd expected. It was after I'd removed the protective film from the lens.

It comes in a case with a myriad of plastic bits for attaching to all sorts of things, but no bank stick adapter which isn't really surprising. Having charged it up I put it in it's waterproof case and put it in the sink to see if it was really waterproof. It was. I eventually found the tripod adapter and my spare bank stick adapter so I could mount it on the end of a landing net pole. 

While fishing a couple of days later I had a poke around the tree roots with it and tried the good old underwater fish release. These things are done blind as WiFi doesn't work under water so the remote viewing app for the phone won't work. I was surprise by the the images it got given the lack of clarity in the water. I did have it pointing the wrong way at one point and thought it wasn't working as all I got was a brown blur and not the tree roots. Although on little screens things often look better than the really are, they images were quite good on the computer screen at home. One problem though, everything was upside down. I'd managed to knock the rotate setting off probably because I kept prodding the screen and not the two buttons on the side when I was looking at the settings, My video editor managed to rotate it and the results can be seen below. Overall my initial impressions of the camera are quite good, the biggest learning curve is going to be editing.

I know I'm rather late to this action cam lark and a lot of you will know these things already, but I'm going to document my trials and tribulations with it in the hope that it will be of use to somebody even if that's just me.

Two Pheasants in a Sycamore Tree

The weather forecast for Friday was dull and overcast with occasional showers and the odd bit of sunshine, which was remarkably accurate as at sat at the side of the gravel pit not sure whether to put the brolly up or not. The pike I was after were not playing ball though. One single run, which I suspect was a liner as the sardine came back unmarked. The swim I'd chosen gave access to several features, such as an old weed bed, tree roots and a plateau that often produces a biggy. Not today though. At least there was no Canada Geese making a racket. The high/low point of the day was trying to convince someone that the pheasant sat in a tree was in fact a pheasant. He seemed to believe that as ground nesting birds they didn't roost in trees. What he'd have made of a second one arriving just after he left I don't know.


 







 








A bit of a disappointing day as this is one of the few fisheries that I rarely blank at. I'm going to blame the variable weather and the low water levels for the blank. The forth coming rain isn't going to do the river levels any good so it looks like it will be a while before I get to the rivers.