Fifth Day of the River Trout Season - Third Session

Interesting start to Friday's session. As I arrive at the parking spot a sheep was gazing longingly into the field from the wrong side of the gate. I opened the gate and it just sauntered back into the field. Quite how it had got out I've no idea, nr had the farmer when I mentioned it later. 

 








The river has been dropping less than half an inch a day so is still well up. The section I was fishing was one I'd never landed a trout from. As part of my cunning plan for the day I'd tied up some San Juan Worms to along with the usual collection of weighted nymphs. I'd also acquired a Wychwood River Nympher Line, which proved quite interesting. The san juan worm proved very tempting to the minnows who kept grabbing at the ends, occasional one managed to hook itself as I worked my way up from the bottom of the section. Thank fully the minnows were only present in the slower lower half of the section.

 








While having a cuppa and something to eat a stoat popped in and out of some rabbit holes on the far bank until a couple of crows dive bombed it. After lunch I had a try casting small dries with the nymph line. It had functioned very well flicking weighted nymphs about, far better then the long leader rig I'd used previously. The rod I'm using, an eight foot four weight, probably isn't the best for this sort of tactic on a river this size another foot or so would help, but I don't feel it's hindering either. I was rather surprised at the lines ability to cast small flies the sort of distances I'd require. Not sure how it would cope into a gusty wind though. It did take a little while getting used to as it gives very little feedback through the rod. We'll see how it goes over the season.

 








Back to the nymphing, as there was no sign of any hatches or fish rising. I was generally fishing as close to the banks as I could as this was were I assumed the fish would be sheltering in the still swollen river. Near the end of the day and the top of the section I got my first proper take. A small grayling quickly flicked off the hook as apart from the take it was pretty lethargic, coming in like a leaf.  One trout in three sessions may not sound great, but given the state of the river and the fact that there are not a lot of trout in this section, is one more than I felt I'd get when I arrived on opening day.

 








On the way home I ha a wander along a short section of a beck I've access to. It looked in far better condition then I thought it would. The steamer weed was a bit sparse, don't know if the floods had washed a lot of it away again. I did however see one nice sight. Four small pencil size eels swimming up a shallow section. Like most I've not seen many eels over the past few years never mind any this small. lets hope they can avoid the predators.

Second Day of the River Trout Season

Tuesday a different section of the river from Monday, but the wind was basically the same - cold and blowing downstream. The sun did make the occasional welcome appearance though. As I drove up the track to the upper end of the fishery I was greeted by a rather desolate scene where bank repairs were taking place. Not the nicest looking  scene, but something needed to be done as the floods had been scowering away the bend and threatening the road and the flood bank with the farmhouse just behind. As it's going to be fenced off from the cattle nature should take over once complete and hide the scar.

This section seemed to have been affected by the winter floods more than the previous section. Shallow runs had disappeared or moved and a couple of deep holes had filled in. I found a couple of nice bits to flick my heavy nymphs into and was rewarded by a good take only to have it fall off the hook after a few seconds. After this it was hard going, with little or no sign of fish, or any other wildlife come to that. I only saw the kingfisher once. It wasn't until late in the day that I had another contact. Again it fell off, but this time it was my fault. I forgot about the branches above me. I snagged the rod on one momentarily which allowed a bit of slack.

Apart from a chat with a fellow angler it hadn't been the most pleasant of days. The temperature and wind hadn't been enough for a big coat, but the fleece I'd been wearing wasn't quite enough. There again it is only march so can't really complain. The wildlife doesn't seem to be stirring much either. One thing I did find were these little red flowering plants in various states from buds to flowers starting to open. I have no idea what they are. The area they were in has had the brambles and briers cut back. , so they've probably been there before, but hidden.

The river is still dropping, very slowly. another couple of weeks or so should see it in better fettle. Some of the better swims are still inaccessible do to the height of the water. As mentioned earlier some of the nice shallow runs have vanished or moved so it make take a while to find where the rather sparse population of trout have moved to.

First Day of River Trout Season

First day of the river trout season here in Yorkshire and we're greeted with lovely sunshine and a rather chilly nor'easter. As expected, no matter which way the river is going the wind appears to be downstream. There's also a bit more water in the river than I'd like, but it's not bad, about six inches extra. At the first swim I flicked the fly out and wiggled a bit of line out, as I went to cast I thought I'd snagged until it moved. A small chub was the first fish to grab the bait. As I rummaged through my pockets I realised I'd left, not for the first time, my phone in the car. Thankfully it was a short wander to retrieve it.

 








I made my way up the length fishing a variety of heavy nymphs, mainly GRHE type things with either brass or tungsten beads depending on depth current.  The lack of fly life and rises wasn't really a uprise as things tend to start a bit later here. The only wildlife about seemed to be the crows and a king fisher, which shot past me several times. It was well into the afternoon when I got near the top of the length. A fish rose close to the bank, the first I'd seen. A quick chuck landed the nymph just upstream and the line tightened. I soon had my first trout of the season. A nice little fish of 9". 

Rather chuffed at catching a fish on opening day on this stretch. They often don't show up until later and even then can be few and far between. Hope fully I'll get one on dry fly later in the week.

Bloody Weather, Moon, Whatever - Part II

Back to the brick ponds - I'll not be defeated. While the day managed to be overcast, the expected breeze failed to materialise. Again after a wander around with lures I  decided to fish two deads. One near a feature and one in the middle of nowhere. This achieved absolutely nothing. The only thing moving seemed to be the whirligig beetles and the mating toads. I've really struggled here the last couple of winters, it appears the pike only come alive in late spring.

Monday sees the start of the river trout season, here in Yorkshire. I'll be out waving a fly rod about. The rivers should have dropped to an executable level by then. Lets hope it goes slightly better than the predator fishing.

Bloody Weather, Moon, Whatever

The weather forecast yesterday was for a dull overcast day with a bit of a breeze. With the wind in the right direction, for a change, for drifting a dead bait along the brick ponds. I headed out today to be greeted by little or no wind and bright sunshine. In fact for most o the day it was T-shirt weather. After wandering round with a lure rod and failing to attract any action I settled in a dark corner of the water and dropped a couple of dead-baits near some pikey looking features. Around lunch time, as a toad hopped out of the woods towards the water, a few roach scattered near a sunken tree on the far side. I took the hint and moved round.

 








 








I dropped a bait either side of the fallen tree, one on the bottom and one suspended about one foot off the bottom. There they sat doing nothing. I had another wander round with the lure rod, but saw nothing apart from a small shoal of little roach in the margins. Don't know if it was the bright weather, the super worm moon for a lack of action. Maybe they just don't feed on Thursdays. Tomorrow is supposed to be overcast and windy, lets hope so.

Nothing Better To Do

I hadn't originally panned to go fishing today, but with the wind not as bad as expected I decided to go to a local gravel pit for a short session. First though I had a bit of a tidy up of the garage to see what I'd done with my big unhooking mat, which wasn't in the car when I arrived at the river yesterday. No sign in the garage at all. Before I left I popped down to the compost heap with the kitchen waste and there t was, at the bottom of the garden. It must have got blown down there the day before when I brought everything out of the garage.

Apart from the odd gust and the creaking trees things weren't to bad at the pit. I only fished a three swims. The first produced a small jack on a float fished sprat close to an over hanging tree. The second swim produced just the one run which I missed. The afternoon was very quiet for me after that. Another angler had a couple of jacks in the swim opposite me. Better than sitting inside. Now to sort the fly gear out, ready for the 25th.

Last Fish of the River Season

Despite the threat of 40MPH gusts I took my chance and headed to the river. It had dropped a bit overnight and continued to fall while I was there, as my line int he sand showed. As it was it turned out to be quite a nice day. The section I'd opted for was protected from the worst of the wind by the woods behind me. A natter latter with a chap that had tried to fish yesterday  confirmed my thought that that the wind direction had changed slightly. He said it was virtually unfishable, his chair had nearly blown in the river when he stood up, among other problems.

 








My tactics for the day were to fish halibut pellet on one rod and a dead bait on the other. Depending on the swim they were to be fished in the margin, under/near any feature and the halibut pellet in the centre of the river as well. I fished four swims in all with out any sign of action. It wasn't until five o'clock that the pike rod in the margin moved away and a feisty little jack was eventually wrestled out of the margin plants. I did fish into dark with a second barbel rod and a bit of cheese paste to no avail.

 








Well that's it until the 25th, on the rivers, when it's trout time. It was nice not to have blanked or get crushed by a falling tree. Apart from the pike the highlight of the day was watching the hounds taking part in a drag hunt and getting rather confused. The wind appeared to have blown the scent about a bit and had the dogs up and down either side of a fence and staring across the river. They were quickly gathered up and put back on the trail again.

The Cunning Plan

My cunning plan was not to cock up the alarm and sleep in. As I munched my way through Marmite and toast it was chucking it down, as I finished my cup of tea it eased and remained drizzle all the way to the river where it turned heavy again. I had a bit of a wander about to see where the slacks are. Another check of the River Gauge showed the level was still slowly dropping. As I got back to the car it eased off again, so I got my self set up in the first swim.

 








My cunning plan was to fish small chunks of lamprey  on a single hook in the hope of attracting a barbel or chub as well as pike. I'd made up some size fours to Drennan soft strand for this. The other rods were set up with a float ledger rig and a float rig that would be allowed to drift round the slacks. I'd loaded up a few sardine with PikePro Sardine Oil for the float ledger rig. Despite my better than normal preparation not a single bite was to be had in any of the four swims I fished.

 








I did intend to fish into dark, but the gusty and increasingly strong wind made it rather uncomfortable and when rods start getting blown from the rod rest I think it's time to give up. Will the rivers be fishable and will the wind have eased enough for the final day on T.Thursday. I'm definitely not trying on Wednesday. Rain I can cope with, but forty to fifty MPH winds I'll happily avoid.

Damp Squib

As I wandered diagonally across the meadow towards the river I wondered why, given you can roam anywhere in the area, everybody seemed to walk along the same foot wide strip of mud around the edge.

 



 











The river had been up and down since my last visit three days ago and although lower was carrying more colour. Not longer after settling the float above a piece of lamprey shot away at a rate of knots. A tiny little pike soon popped up to the surface, here it simply opened it's mouth and came adrift. I sat in the swim for another hour with out any action before moving, then moving again and again. The fifth swim produced a classic bit of bobbing about to a smelt on top of the shelf. that produced nothing. I waited a bit longer in this swim, changing the large smelt for a sprat. This produced a couple more bits of bobbing about that came to nothing. A couple more swims produced nothing.











I still no idea why I take time off to fish the last few days of the river season, it never lives up to my expectations. Still two more days to go. I don't think fishing Wednesday will be a good idea and it may well ruin Thursday. So tomorrows cunning plan had better work.

Flinging Dead Fish Into A Flooded River

There was a remarkably thick layer of ice on the car Friday morning as I loaded it up. Arriving at the parking spot I was confronted by a rather panicky deer that misjudged the fence, clipping the top and landing in a bundle on the other side. It was quickly up and disappeared over the other side of the field, over the fence and out of site.

 








The level, as expected, was about six foot up which created some nice looking slacks behind the low hanging branches that were now under water. The problem now, though, was remembering exactly where these branches are as I landed the first bait a bit too close and snagged up. By now I'd been joined by a mate who did exactly the same thing. While I stuck with lamprey, smelt and sprat he was using roach and perch dead baits. We both used similar tactics though. Float ledger baits close to features or a bait drifted about in the eddy under a float.

 







 
 








We spent about an hour in each swim before moving. We didn't do the normal leap-frogging. Instead he followed me into each swim to test his theory that coarse baits work better than sea baits. It was about two when we got our first runs. His resulted in a little jack of around two pounds, while mine resulted in nothing. Dropping the partly chewed bait back in the same spot resulted in another run about a minute later. This time I latched into a fish a bit bigger than my mates. Been about six foot above the water I had to net the fish despite the obvious trailing hook. As I got the fish over the net the mesh snagged, the fish flipped out of the net snagging the trailing hock and I was was left shouting for my mate as the net refused to move and the fish thrashed about. As my mate arrived, he'd had another run and bumped the fish, my fish released itself and we spent five minutes wiggling, prodding and poking the landing net before it un-snagged. We tried a couple more swims before calling it a day. The weather was quite unpleasant at this point, sporadic rain and a gusty wind.

 








As we wandered back to the cars we spotted five deer wandering along ahead of us. When they realised we were there they shot away and just seemed to evaporate. When we got somewhere near to the point where they disappeared we had a look around and spotted a narrow well worn track, through the hawthorn saplings, with hoof prints in the mud. Further on was another one that went in the opposite direction into a bit of scrub. Both the areas could easily hide half a dozen or so deer.

 








Next week is the end of the coarse season on rivers. I have taken a couple of days off work, but the weather appears to be conspiring against me. The current weather forecast is wet windy or both. After dropping a couple of foot the rivers are now rising again. Still you've got to be in it to win it as they say. I'm still in two minds over the close season. I like the idea of fishing the lat day and the anticipation of the first day, but some rivers I can fish all year just with just with bait restrictions at certain times.

First Fish of Spring

First of March and it's the first day of the meteorological spring, one of two first days of spring. In a change from the recent summer weather it was back to spring with a overcast slightly chilly day.

 








It was back to the Derwent again, which in this sort of weather looks a somewhat miserable place. Fishing over the same swims as last week, but this time I'd decided to fish one rod to a feature and trot dead bait in the faster water. This didn't prove very successful as it was five hours before I got my my first run to a float legered lamprey placed next to a snag. After a rare old battle a rather scared pike of 11lb 9oz and 92cm was in the net. One wound near it's tail was actually bleeding as I brought it to the net. I'm not really sure how it had come by these wounds as they didn't look like the sought of marks otters leave. After a long recovery it swam away strongly.

 











 








The next sign of action was three hours and several swims later, again to float legered lamprey fished under an overhanging tree. The float bobbed a few times then drifted down stream. I tightened down to nothing so tried twitching the bait back towards me to no effect. Same thing occurred when I returned the bait back under the tree. That was to be it for the day.