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.