Pellet Fishing for Salmonoids

There was a bit of a discussion about pellets on the float, with most saying they hadn't had much luck with them on the river. Though a couple said that they had done well, but you had to stick with it and it tended to pick out a better stamp of fish. As I'd not done much in the way of float fishing this season, and I have a lot of pellets, I thought I'd try it on the Ouse. Thursday morning, having battled my way through numerous road works, I arrived at the river a bit later than anticipated.

The first swim I looked at proved to be spot on as far as float fishing goes. Around eight foot deep at two rod lengths and shallowing off slightly near the end. A second line nearly half way across was about a foot deeper. Feeding 4 and 6mm pellets with a 6mm banded to a 16 hook then nearside line produced a nice hand size roach first cast. It was nearly twenty minutes before the next one, after which I had a steady flow of fish, perhaps every two to three trots, for the next hour and a half. Then all hell broke loose. By far the best fish of the day was grabbed by a jack and ripped from the hook. At he same time fish scattered at the bottom of the swim as two more jacks pursued them. Obviously the bites dried up.

 








I moved over to the far swim and on the first four cast had a tiny chub, a mussel, then two little gudgeon. none of the fish were really big enough to get the pellet in their mouths. Continuing too feed the swims I had no more bites for the next three-quarters of an hour. Alternating between the two swims, fiddling with the depth and shotting had done nothing. The next bite  was a strange one indeed. the float sopped and then started to move upstream. Winding and sweeping the rod as far as I could I contacted what felt like a plastic bag. Steady winding got it nearer and nearer to me. Something large, silver and Salmonoid looking was on the end. At this point it decided to seek sanctuary in the North Sea and set off downstream. With only a few turns of line left on the pin I stuck my thumb behind the handle and the fish started to turn before the hook link parted.

 








 








Back on the inside line, the roach had returned and again some nice hand sized fish came in every two or three trots until the pike turned up again. On several occasions there was a large flash of silver as something followed the pellet back in. It looked like there was quite a few salmon about at this point as I also saw four jumping, and heard several more. With just a chublet to show for the next hour of trotting it looked like a good time to pack in.

The number of salmon running the river is surely a good sign. What I'd like to know, though, is where all the pike hide in winter that turn up ins summer to steal the fish you're winding in. Obviously this pellet fishing lark needs a bit more effort. I'd tried trotting pellets at various times in the past with very little success. They had nearly always worked as a static bait, maybe with more people using them the fish now recognise them as food.