Barbel Rescue

Had another short early morning session today. This time attempting to catch barbel on the float. My original intention was to rove may way along a section, but it was really muggy and no breeze. Just wandering down to the shallow end of the stretch was hard work, so I opted to alternate between three swim. The water had lost a bit of it's colour since last tiem and had dropped a couple of inches. It was, however, warm than it had been a lot further upstream, but not too warm.

Having tossed a large quantity of hemp into each swim I wandered back to the first swim to find a family of swans passing through. While I could see the large signets frantically paddling with both feet against the current the adults were just using the one. Strangely the same one the right one.

Trotting sweetcorn, I gave each swim  an hour before moving on to the next. The results weren't spectacular until I returned to the first swim for the last half hour. With 15 minutes to go the float finally went under for something other than weed on the hook. The initial run was very fast, but slowly I cranked it back up towards me before it continued past. It hadn't headed for the tree root and had stayed deep, which is usual a sign of a 5lb+ fish. Sure enough when finally landed it weighed in at 6lb 3oz.

I left it in the landing net while I packed up, quite happy. As it was trying to swim off with the landing net I released it. As I wandered back to the car I looked at the river about ten yards downstream from my swim to see a barbel rolling on the surface near the edge. I managed to get down to it before the current dragged it away. It wasn't my fish, but one a but smaller, around 4lb, with a length of mono trailing from it. It was hooked in the tail, but the end of the mono was wrapped round a small branch which had snagged in some weed. I held it in the landing net head for five minutes before releasing as it was pulling quite strongly and appeared to swim off well. Lets hope it's OK.

It was a right slog back to the car. Although  the cloud cover hadn't broken, the lack of a breeze really did make it very muggy. Lets hope the weekend's thunderstorms drop some water in the right places and freshen the rivers up again.

Early Morning Fluking Trout

With seriously hot weather predicted, again, I decided on an early morning session to try and beat the heat.  First thing on arrival was to check the water temperature. I didn't have a thermometer, but used the standard is it warm enough to wet wade. No it wasn't, there was still a slight chill to it.

It was quite some time before I found fish rising. I soon discovered I can't cast a fly line early morning. Normally I have very little problem with weird and wonderful casts, it's your normal overhead cast that defeats me as I rarely use it. Today, though, I was slapping the line on the water, snagging the bankside vegetation and flinging flies high into trees. Eventually I did sort myself out casting wise, but managed to lose the first three fish I hooked.

As I'd wander along the bank looking for fish I'd been kicking up clouds of grass pollen. This not a good idea when You've forgotten to take your medication. As I could now feel my eyeballs itch I retired back to car for a cuppa and medication. When I returned to the river There were a lot more ish rising, but many of them turned out to be greedy little things about 2 inches long. They would happily sink the fly, a parachute Grey Duster.

I spent quite some time trying different flies to quite a reasonable trout loitering in the shade under an over hanging branch before snagging a bit of bankside vegetation and slapping it down on top of it. The trout had been quite patient with me up to that point, but this pissed  him and off he went.  Another trout started rising a couple of yards upstream and if it hadn't been so greedy I wouldn't have hooked it. I waited to see if it would rise again, and happily it did several times, but not in the same spot. The little duster was cast upstream of the area it was rising in and allowed to drift down. I was distracted by a reflection on the water and looked up to see a large raptor gliding overhead. Unfortunately he sun was right behind it so I couldn't get a proper look before it swerved away behind the trees. At this point I felt a tug on the rod and lifted it to a little trout. It was quickly in the net, at least I'd caught even if it was a bit of a fluke. It still had it's parr markings, just. They don't really show in the photo. Unfortunately I'd not switched a action cam back on so didn't get any moving pictures.

Further upstream I hooked another of similar size which came adrift as I'd snagged the landing net on a wild gooseberry and fumble bringing to hand. By now it was getting really hot, even under the shade of the trees. I'm not a hot weather person. I decided to give it a few more minutes in the shade of the bridge. As I approached a clumsy dipper chick appeared ahead of me. It was quite assuming to watch and I did get a bit of it on video. What didn't occur to me was the fact I was stood in shade and the chick was in bright sunshine, so the automatic whatever in the camera overcompensated and exposure was too much. This is the problem when you can't see the screen.

Five hooked one landed is better than my last visit. Think I may have a go next week, dependent on the weather as we have thunderstorms predicted  for tomorrow and the weekend. We'll have to see what it does for the levels.

Day Three of the 2020 River Season

For my third trip of the new season I decided a spot of barbel fishing might be in order. Especially as the river was rising, albeit rather slowly. As luck would have it by the time I got there is was beginning to fall, again rather slowly. Arriving mid afternoon I laid down an area of bait, groundbait laced with sweetcorn and hemp,  in one swim with the intention of leaving it for a couple of hours for the fish to move in. In the mean time a was going to have a bit of a trot in another swim with the few maggots I'd got left.

The little dace and chublets were quickly on to the float fished maggot, but only when the sun was behind the clouds. When it was out I got very few bites. This despite the fact the river was carrying a bit of colour and I was fishing in the shade of the trees. After 90 minutes or so I thought I saw something following a fish in. Next cast, sure enough, a baby jack grabbed my dace as I reeled it in, letting go just as I got it in the net. I bet if I came down with a lure rod there wouldn't be a sign of a pike.

Not long after the pike incident then rain turned up, so I retired to the barbel swim and under the umbrella. The tactic for the rest of the day was to quiver tip either Sweetcorn or Peperami. I have to say I've never seen such a stationary quiver tip. I would have expected the tip to bounce around occasionally as the little fish had a go at the bait, but nothing. I had few trots through with the maggot rod and the little dace and chublets were present in the swim, but like previous days weren't interested in a stationary bait. Despite fishing on in to dark the barbel failed to show.

No wee film today as I forgot the action cam. I always forget something. That's it until next week as we're now back to working normal hours. Not sure how it will go as there's a heatwave predicted.

Day Two of the 2020 River Season - The Deep End

After fishing the 'shallow end' of the stretch yesterday, I thought I'd have a go at the 'deep end'. Yesterday I was fishing 3-4' deep swims. Today the swims were around 8-10'.  The tactics were to be the same as yesterday. Maggot over hemp, but with a heavier 5x4 alloy stemmed stick. I had hoped to get two lines going. One along the treeline and one close to the inside. In the end I had to opt for one line. The river was slightly higher than yesterday and rising slowly. As a result the branches were underwater causing the current to push the float away from the trees. The inside line was a depository for twigs, while putting a bend in the rod they were not really what I was after.

A large handful of hemp was deposited downstream and mid river. 3-4 maggots went in every cast. It was nearly 20 minutes before the first sign of fish, when I retrieved a chewed maggot. The next few casts were the same so I started to shallow up as I assumed they were attacking the bait on the drop. At around 6' I started to get proper bites and a steady procession of little dace and if they missed, the occasional small chublet. Occasionally a micro roach would show up. This continued for about 90 minutes, then everything went quiet. Suspecting the fish may have dropped lower I increased the depth until the bait was tripping the bottom, but there was not so much as a chewed maggot. I dropped a ledgered worm into the swim while I had a cuppa and a contemplate. Several other anglers had arrived so the choice of swims in the 'deep end' was limited.

Having finished my cuppa I retrieved the worm, which resulted in a savage take as it neared the surface. A jack around the 4lb mark. After the initial run it came in quite quietly until it broke surface. It then gave a defiant display of head shaking and bit me off as it dived.  Not long after the bites started again. After a bit of twiddling of the depth the bites became more consistent and again a steady flow of dace and chublets started to come to hand. The river now fallen a few inches, but was pushing through a bit faster. A chat with a couple of passers by made it appear that I was about the on angle catching consistently. Those fishing the 'shallow end' had really struggled, or were sitting out for barbel. If there's one way to avoid barbel around here it's to fish for them.

The bites started to dry up again around eight, so dropped the ledger worm over the hemp in the hope of a barbel or chub. When I lifted the keepnet put for a photo of the evenings catch I was surprised how few fish were in it, until one was spotted suck in a larger hole near the bottom. Looked like a pike had been at it and ripped a couple of holes in it, and not for the first time. While it fits nicely in the pocket of my bag this keepnet does seem to be easily damaged by pike. Good job I wasn't in a match. I fished on until dark with out another bite.

A lot better than opening day, but still no gudgeon. There again I hardly fished on the bottom apart from the lob worm on the ledger rig. Thursday doesn't look good with rain forecast for most of the day. While I don't mind rain as such. I hate setting up in it and it can make trotting hard work.

First Day of the River Season 2020

The glorious 16th didn't quite live up to expectations, despite the rain flushing the river through and freshening it up. Still a few inches up and carrying a bit of colour the fish weren't as cooperative as they could have been. The intention was a bit of stick and pin with maggots over hemp for anything that turned up. While fish did turn up there wasn't the numbers there had been in previous years. To add to the woes of the day the action cam decided  to disown the memory card part way through and the phone stated to play silly beggars by claiming to be out of battery and shutting down at random. I've managed to rescue a few bits from the action cam, including the first fish of the season and the phone battery is currently been recalibrated.

While some people are out at the crack of dawn, or earlier, I've never found rivers to fish well early morning so afternoon to evening it was. I was quite shocked to get a bite first run through with a bait. Not only that, but a got a fish as well. A little chub was the first of the season. This was quickly followed by a couple more chublets. Then a couple of dace, a roach and a perch. Things then slowed down considerably. Over the next hour I only got the odd fish every now and then.

A change of swim was no better as it only produced the odd chublet. A third swim was called for and again produced only a couple of fish over an hour. Back to the first swim and after a couple of small roach it again went quiet. A little while later a small jack made a lunge at the float as I was retrieving, before turning and grabbing the maggots. At least it put a bit of a bend in the rod.

One strange thing was the fish only seemed to want moving baits. When I stopped for a cuppa I'd put a feeder rod out and not once did I have so much as a chewed maggot. Back in the first swim I had a couple more little roach before a rather nice grayling showed up. With it now down to the last hour before dark I stayed put. I've said it before, but the 'magic hour' before dusk has never really happened for me and so it was this time.

Nice to be back watching a float trundle down the river, but there wasn't the steady stream of fish I was expecting. It was more like later in the season when the fish seem to be scattered about. Still a pleasant day was had. It could have been like last year with the rivers full to overflowing.

Lets see what tomorrow brings.

Hail and Parr

The weather forecast for Thursday was all rather British. Cloudy with showers, occasionally heavy, some sunshine. All was well as I travelled up to the Ure after lunch and even better as the sun came out as I set up. There was plenty of fly life on the river so for want of anything better on went a small parachute grey duster. The rises were clearly from rather small fish as they were rather splashy and the couple I did contact with soon fell off. Wandering up the river I spotted a couple of better fish loitering under an overhanging tree. The first cast was straight into the branches. Thankfully a steady pull had the fly loose and on the water next to the two fish. One of them dropped back and then rose to the fly. I nearly struck before it got to the fly, and really should have done as it turned out to be a rather manky chub that came in like a bit of weed. As I wander further upstream the sun disappeared and the rain started, slowly at first then getting heavier and heavier, and colder and colder. In a bout of optimism I'd left the waterproof in the car. As I traversed the river, as this was the shortest route back, I discovered that there was a  little hole in the waders at thigh height. Only a pin prick hole, but another annoyance non the less.

I got back to the car just in time, as the rain turned to hail. I sat eating a sandwich, pondering whether to give give it up as a lost cause. Eventually the hail tuned back to rain, then to drizzle. It was now rather chilly and warranted a fleece possibly even gloves, but who brings gloves with them in June. If we'd had this weather through May maybe people wouldn't have gone out and torched the moors. As it was now just fine drizzle I decide to give it another go. A change of tactics was called for, though, as nothing was rising and nothing fluttering about.

A bit of Klink & Dink seemed to be the best idea except the Klink would be a black Hopelessly’s ‘Magic’ emerger with a small gold head PTN on the dropper.. I also changed from my 8' Steamflex to a 10' Shakespeare Agility. The Magic emerger proved o be a wise choice as the rain got heavier again as it is nice and buoyant. Hitting the takes proved to be another matter. At first I thought the PTN was snagging, but occasionally I'd feel a small fish for a moment. Eventually a little parr was hooked and landed. Even though my phone is waterproof taking a photo in the rain proved to be a royal pain in the arse. Cold wet hands, a wet phone and a touch screen are not a great combination. I'd forgotten to put the waterproof case for the action cam in the car which would have been ideal for this. This tactic brought several more parr and a couple of similar sized trout. I attempted to photograph the trout, but the now heavy rain made it impassible as the screen wouldn't detect my finger. When I got home I discovered 38 out of focus images of something on the camera, not sure what had happened.

As the rain was getting heavier and more persistent along with the light fading and my left leg getting cold an wet from the leaky waders I called it a day. I think I'd of landed more fish if I'd stuck with the Streamflex as it's reasonably soft. The Agility is a nice enough rod, for the price, but just too stiff for wee beasties like that. The weather forecast for the next few days is basically more of the same. I may have to go bream fishing where I can sit under a brolly.

Hay Fever and Bank Repairs

With the pollen count at Very High on Monday and my nose already protesting, wandering through a field of long grass down to the beck may seem like a silly idea. Suitable dosed up with appropriate medication the effects tend to nearly disappear ten to fifteen minutes after arrival. I spent this time trying to work out what the fish were taking. There was good variety of flying beasties about, including quite a large number of Mayfly. This was the best I've seen here for a number of years. Not prolific, but enough over the length of this section not to make you disheartened about the state of the beck. Unlike the bank repairs I'd seen in p[laces on the way down. Undercuts had been removed from bank making it vertical. The bottom had been scrapped out and used to fill in where the bank had started to collapse, making the banks rather uniform and ditch like. The only benefit to the beck is that it's been taken down to the gravel in some areas, removing the fine sand.

The fish clearly weren't taking the Mayfly, even the spent ones. Nor did they seem to be taking the various Baetis or the occasional hawthorn. I went with a small grey duster which was mobbed the moment it it hit the water. Bloody minnows, swarms of them. Every now and then one would hook itself, but most of the time they'd just drown the fly. A little later on at another pool the shadows suggested large fish and so they were, but dace not the trout I was after. The shoals of minnows were really rather large at times, the whole of the river bed suddenly seemed to move past me  as I waded upstream.

A nice untouched section showed more promise and with the sun not glinting on the water I could see a trout taking something by some tree roots. After a couple of dubious casts the grey duster, now a parachute style for no good reason, bounced off the roots and after a few inches drift was grabbed by the trout. I failed to contact with it snagging the rod tip in the bankside vegetation. The fish never rose again in the ten minutes I sat and watched. Round the next corner or two, one maybe two trout were rising. After a bit of shuffling about in order to get a cast in with out snagging the high bank or over hanging tree behind me I managed to get a couple of casts in which were ignored.  I waited for another rise then tried again. Eventually I got a take and was into a rather nice little WBT. Somewhat bigger than average for the beck. Not a spectacular looking fish, but welcome non the less.

I waited quite a while to see if there was a second fish, but nothing rose. By now the sun had disappeared behind the trees and things were cooling off. Further up an impenetrable barrier of water plants and briars had me doubling back to a lower less steep section of bank in order to bypass them.  There seemed to be no spinner fall despite the large number of insects about earlier, but a riser was spotted on a long straight section. Trying to creep up while wading on a slow smooth section is not easy and the ripples I created seemed to put the fish down. Standing still in the gloaming the fish started to rise again. A couple of drifts and I got a take and missed. I sat on a bit of a shelf in the steep bank and waited as the final section is an unfishable tangle of hawthorns and briars. Before it got too dark to see I had a couple of drifts that resulted in nowt but squinty eyes trying to see then fly.

Not the most productive evening, but the presence of the dace is good, in a way, as I haven't seen them this far up in a long time. The minnows, as ever, are a bloody nuisance. The repair work has lost some nice undercuts where trout used to hide and on evenings like this would pop out to grab a meal. I don't know where those fish are now. I hope they've moved upstream and are hiding under the briars. I did, when wandering along gather some broken branches and set them into the repaired banks in the hope something may take up residence.

The middle of the week now looks like it may precipitate. Lets hope it's more than a bit of drizzle as the rivers could do with a freshen up and gardens would benefit., along with the tinder box moors.