Last Session Of 2021

Instead of fishing upstream of the city, as previously, I decided to try downstream, provided the river hadn't risen too much. It was falling Wednesday evening, but expected to rise again Thursday. I didn't expect it to rise much though. As it was the river dropped a couple of inches overnight then rose four inches during the day before dropping again.

After battling the combination lock on the car park gate I was at the first swim. This section is a lot shallower than the previous sections with no discernable shelf in some swims. I dropped a paternostered sardine about a third of the way across with the intention of moving it closer every fifteen minutes or so. A length of lamprey was dropped near the bank under an over-hanging tree. After forty minutes with out a run I swapped the rigs around. I replaced the sardine with a roach as it was falling apart and tossed the bits under the tree. I suspect this was one of the older baits in the bait bag and it had probably defrosted at some point. Not long after the float above the roach jagged away and I was into I nice little 70cm jack that stayed on the hooks. In fact it had engulfed the bait, a six inch roach.

By now it had turned into a rather warm day and layers had been removed. I gave the swim another half hour before moving downstream. Same tactics as before. One bait to a feature and one out a quarter to a third they way across. Giving them thirty to forty minutes before swapping them around. It wasn't until the fourth swim of the day that I got my next run, which I missed. Upon retrieving the lamprey I found a small area of damage in the middle of the bait that looked like it had been made by an eel. The nice day had now turned to drizzle and darkness would soon be on us so packed up. It was nice to end the year with a fish.

Despite the number of dog walkers I'd had no problem with nosey dogs. The only one to cause a little bit of grief was a very excitable spaniel puppy on only her second walk out. Though on a lead she'd managed to grab my towel hanging on a branch. After a bit of an amusing wrestle it was retrieved and returned. As it's owner said - it's a good job the wag their tails all the time, can you imagine how much more energy they'd have if the didn't.

Substitute Bank Holiday For Christmas Day Pike Expedition

The river had started to rise on Christmas Day and slowly continued through Boxing Day and into the Substitute Bank Holiday For Christmas Day before levelling off. It had only come up a couple of feet since I was last there on Christmas Eve. I'd gone to the same stretch, but started further down and intended to head back towards the car. Same tactic as previous. Float ledgered lamprey and a paternoster rig, but I started with a small rainbow trout.

The fog was quite thick bay the river, I could hear the trains behind me but couldn't see them. The first swim was rather deep, a full three fathoms. over the drop off in the crease of a slack. The paternoster rig was dropped on the top of the shelf behind and over hanging tree. After half an hour the rigs were swapped round, but no runs were forthcoming. This was the pattern for the first five swims, apart from the injection of a bit of oil in the baits.

The final swim was also the final swim on the previous outing. Just as I was going to swap the rigs round the paternostered trout produced a rather iffy run which produced nothing. I checked the hooks with the 'does it draw blood when the point is poked in the thumb method' and all seemed OK so I swung out the same chewed trout back in to the same spot. A couple of minutes later I was in and like the previous outing a small jack spat the bait out when it got to the surface. The same very chewed trout was swung back in and just before it got too dark to see the floats properly the float was away again and again I failed to contact.

I sometimes wonder why I bother pike fishing. Sitting on a damp, misty, muddy river bank just for the pike to drop off the hooks does seem to be a rather silly pastime. It only takes a decent double to get my enthusiasm back up.

I Don't Like You

After completing  a couple of last minute Christmas chores I headed down to the river. It was a section I've not pike fished for a long time and I'd not heard any reports from there of pike, but there had been some nice roach catches so there's bait fish about. My intention was to do a bit of lure fishing as I wandered about looking for pikey looking swims as I wasn't sure how many swims there were on this length. 

As I got the lure fishing gear out of the car I realised the bib-and-brace and big coat were missing. Good job it wasn't cold. I spent an hour and a half wandering about and chucking lures. While I found several nice swims I didn't get a thing with lures. Didn't even have a follow. My theory about why lure fishing from the bank on the Ouse doesn't work to well in winter is the sudden drop off near the bank. It can go from four foot deep to twelve foot in less than a yard. From experience the majority of pike runs I get in winter are at the bottom of this drop off.  By the time the lure reaches this area it is six to eight feet above the pike and they aren't going to launch themselves that far up for a meal.

Returning to my first choice of swim with the deadbait kit a little tot, defying her parents calls, came running towards me. She stop in front of me and announced, with a silly grin on her face, "I don't like you" before running off laughing then stomping about in a puddle. Clearly full of the Christmas spirit, unlike her exasperated parents, who finally caught up with her as she kicked the muddy water about.

What followed  was basically the same in each of the three swims I fished. Two float ledger rigs were used. One with roach, the other with lamprey. One was fished just over the drop off and the other about a quarter to third of the way across the river. I got a couple of runs in each swim. One was dropped and the other the fish let go of the bait as it got near the surface. The three fish I saw were not big, maybe two to three pound, but any of them would have done to save a blank.

Merry Christmas everybody.

Good Things Come To Those That Wait

Thursday a weather warning had been issued for fog on Friday. As it was it wasn't too bad, more like mist. The temperature, though, had plummeted overnight and the track to the parking spot was full of frozen puddles. The grass in the field was white and crispy. The riverbank was nice and solid making the swims easily accessible. The temperature made my cunning plan of tossing a lure into some likely looking swims, as I wandered up to the swims I intended to deadbait in, rather unpleasant. The spray off the wet braid on the baitcaster quickly made my fingers a tad numb. I abandoned the idea after three swims and headed to the swims I intended to fish.

After a bit of plumbing about I tossed a paternostered sardine over the firsts shelf behind an overhanging willow. The float failed to settle properly, assuming I'd landed on a snag I started to wind in. Sure enough there was a dead weight on the end. This changed into a small jack as it came to the surface. Just before  it broke surface it let go of the bait and hung, seemingly confused, just under the surface. As I went to swing the bait back in it fell off spooking the jack. Whether the jack got the sardine as it fell through the slightly mucky water I don't know.

By now the day was starting to warm up. The sun had appeared above the horizon causing it to be warm enough to remove the big coat. I gave each swim forty five minutes to an hour. The sardine paternoster just over the shelf and a float ledgered lamprey section a quarter to a third of the way across the river. Before I moved from each swim I had a few casts about with a lure. This resulted in one follow from a very small jack just after lunch with no sign of anything else. Come three o'clock the sun had disappeared below the horizon and it was back on with the big coat.  I decided to have a go in one last swim while I had a cuppa and KitKat. just as I settled back expecting a blank the lamprey float was away. The ground had started to defrost so was now rather greasy which meant I got down to the rod rather quickly, but had to take care moving along the bank. The fight was a short dour affair with one bit of acrobatics at the end. A rather nice pike of 17lb 14oz and 97cm in length. The short fight meant my cuppa hadn't got cold.

I gave it another thirty minutes before calling it a day. This was not a swim for wandering about by torch light. Besides a high double from a river isn't a bad fish at all and made up for the last few blanks. I'm actually surprised I got a video of the action as this action cam isn't to fond of the cold and I'd also knocked the camera so it wasn't pointing quite where I'd intended.

 

I've off sixteen days off over Christmas, so should get a few sessions in between dealing with the usual family Christmassy stuff.

Sitting In The Sun By The River

It was my hope that the river would be fishable on Thursday, but it had started to rise again early Wednesday and had risen two foot by the end of the day on top of the five foot it was already up. Thursday morning it had risen another eighteen inches, but appeared to be levelling out. At this height there would be some nice slacks behind the over-hanging trees, so the river was still on. Arriving at the river Thursday morning it was somewhat colder and frostier than at home, but the river levels looked OK

 

I started at my chosen swim with a large half mackerel float ledgered to the right and a small roach fished on a float paternoster rig to my left, and there they sat doing nothing as the sun came out. A quick trip back to the car was called for to get the clip-ons as I could no longer see the floats. After another hour I moved swims.  By now the river was barely rising, but the main current was clearly getting faster. Another hour went by with nothing to show so I moved again, back to where I started.

After lunch I tried the swims either side of me. Just the one rod was used as they were a bit tight. Half an hour with each bait produced nothing at all. The last hour or so into dark was spent in the swim I started in. Again nothing happened. by now the river was starting to drop very slowly.

 

It can get tedious a series of blanks, but if the fish aren't feeding then there's nowt you an do really.

Sitting By A Pond

As the rivers were out of sorts and I'd had reports the local gravel pit was fish well for pike I thought I'd give it a go. Arriving just as the light started to appear another angler was already there setting up in one corner. I opted for a corner diagonally opposite. Float ledgered smelt was dropped at the bottom of the shelf to the right and a roach to the left and there they sat. The only movement was when I twitched them a couple of feet towards me every half hour or so. As it got light I thought I saw some bats flittering about around a tree down the bank. As they got closer I realised it was a flock of small birds and could now here their twittering. As they were silhouetted against a grey sky I couldn't really see and colours to identify them. Apart from the occasional squawk  from a crow or pheasant this was about all the wildlife I saw or heard.

Making a cuppa or my lunch seemed to switch the pike on. A carp crashed a couple of times in the afternoon just to prove there were fish in the pond. The other angler gave up mid-afternoon, fishless. I stayed on until dark having switched baits at various times, with lamprey, sardine and eel section all tried, but to no avail. If there had been a bit of a breeze I'd have tried drifting a roach about but when I tried it it just remained suspended in one place. which didn't work.

Clearly the pike were having a rest before the weekend.

Piking Weather At Last

 Up until this week the weather hasn't been bad at all. Even now we haven't had much to complain about even though the temperatures have halved. It does, however, now feel more like pike fishing weather and I'm lucky in that I can get out on Friday before storm Arwen arrives. Having made up a batch of new traces and tidied my pike gear up I was pretty sure I'd find something missing at some point in the day. I did have to make a U-turn at the end of the street as I'd forgotten the bait, but apart form that everything seemed in order apart from the memory card in the camera which kept claiming to be full despite being reformatted a couple of times. The parking spot was empty when I got to the river as the barbel lads seem to have given up their weekday sessions. As I was fishing the north bank I'd be facing south straight into the low sun. There was just enough of a chilly breeze to get the woolly hat out for it's first outing, but no need of the big coat until late in the day.

After a spot of plumbing about in my chosen swim a float ledgered sardine was placed upstream by the over hanging willow. A reverse hooked smelt was st so it's tail just dragged bottom and drifted under the branches downstream. The first sign of action was around mid morning as I was having a cuppa. A pike attacked the float with quite a clunk. Not long after the float wander away out into the river but I failed to contact with anything. The bait had a couple of small scars on it. not long after I'd cast back in the float was attacked again. This time nothing more happened so I gave the bait a twitch or two. When this didn't produce a take I tried drifting the smelt about after shallowing it up, but this didn't elicit any action. Sometime later as I was gnawing my way through a butty the float trundle off again. Like previous nothing came of it apart from a couple of teeth marks on the bait. Just after lunch the down stream float disappeared below the trees. I thought at first I'd failed to contact again as it just felt like a spinning dead bait coming back. There was, however, a nice little jack attached which decided on a display of cartwheels as I got it to the surface and also managed to leap out of the landing net before I had the chance to lift it.

As I had my afternoon cuppa the upstream float slid away again, but this time I contacted with something only for it to come adrift very soon after. Again there was very little damage to the sardine. More damage had been caused by the hooks. That was it for the day. Stayed until I could no longer see the floats.  It was mission accomplished and  my pike season is under way.

The River Has Risen

It does seem to be far to warm for piking at the moment, but I was all set. While checking the river levels, on Thursday, I noted that the upper Wharfe was rising. From past experience this would arrive at my favoured barbel spot on Friday morning.  Sure enough checking the river levels Friday morning and it was rising. So barbel fishing it was. The river was, as expected, up by about 6-8" and carrying a bit of colour. Not too coloured though as I could see the bottom about a foot or so down. There didn't seem to be too many leafs coming down either.

By now it had warmed up quite a bit and by the time I got to the swim I was mafted. There didn't appear to be need of the fleece and  bib 'n' brace. The sun kept popping out from behind the clouds as well. I did have the gumption to bring the clip ons with me as I would be sat on the northern back so face straight into the sun when it appeared. A big lump of meat was dropped under an overhanging tree downstream. I decided to see if a 120g feeder would hold bottom in the far bank gully. As the feeder got about two thirds the way across I was dazzled by the sun as it appeared from behind the clouds and lost tack of the feeder. The dull thud as it hit the far bank let me know where it had landed. A quick tug and it was in the water. It held for a few minutes before the debris slowly started to drag it downstream. Looking into the river with the polarizing lenses I could see the problem. For every leaf floating along the  surface a dozen were drifting along under water. It looked like both rods would be fishing the inside line. One downstream, one upstream.

As I sat waiting for a bite I got the impression I was been watched. Looking round I could see know one, but the impression still lingered. I then saw the reflection on the water and looking up a red kite was hovering in the breeze that got up. By the time I'd got my phone for a photo it had dropped over the flood bank and disappeared towards the trees. This spooked a couple of pheasant. I had to recast every 20-30 minutes to clear the leafs from the line which wasn't too bad, but because of the breeze that had sprung up more leafs were floating down on the surface as well. The baits were now lasting about ten minutes before been dragged away, so I had a wander about looking at other swims to see it any had less leafs floating down. I found one that didn't have any on the surface and which was a nice 3-4' deep gully on the inside. No sooner had I got the rods out when a great raft of leafs came drifting down. Thy had been piled up behind a partial sunken branch, but the weight must have got too much and pushed the broken branch to one side. One rod nearly got dragged in as I was winding the other in. I sat and had my lunch hoping the leafs would clear, but with the branch out of the way they were just getting funnelled down the inside.

By now the river had peaked and was starting to drop very slowly. I considered packing up as it all looked a bit futile and given I was the only one fishing it was clear other appeared to have known better. I had another wander about and found a swim with a large slack in it. I decided I'd give it a go. While I was sorting my self out after the move a very pale looking heron flew along the far bank. I took me quite a while, staring at it, to realise it was in fact an Egret just as it disappeared behind the trees. This is the first one I've seen up here which was quite pleasing.

I dropped a pellet into a crease down stream and meat into the same crease upstream. As i prepared  a cuppa the pellet o buckled over and the baitrunner clicked away. After a spirited fight in which the fish attempted to pass me and swim upstream like a big barbel I had one of 6lb 9oz in the net. Mission accomplished. With darkness arriving so early and suddenly at the moment I thought that would do. so started to pack up. When I opened the feeder to remove the pellet debris I found a little minnow inside, so I'd caught two fish.

I wish I'd remembered about the big slack earlier as I think it may have produced more. Still mission accomplished.

Last Bit Of Barbeling ( Maybe)

In my infinite wisdom I decided to have another go for barbel, this time on the Ure. I haven't had one from this year and with there still bong some colour in the river I thought they might feed. The weather was a bit suspect. It drizzled all the way there then stopped. It then drizzled as I walked the half mile to the swim, before stopping while I got set up. It then drizzled on and off through the day.

Sadly I managed to avoid attracting any attention from any fish. I did see a kingfisher flashing up and down a few times. While everything looked quite good with only the minimum of debris drifting down, nothing was attracted to either pellet, meat, or cheese paste.

As there's no fishing after dark, and the drizzle had stopped, I packed up just after 4pm. This lead to another problem. Instead of the usual 40 minutes to get home it took nearly an hour.  There's only really two routes home. One was blocked with a crash and so the other has excess traffic on it.

Not Many Fireworks By The River

The morning of bonfire night and I had ice to scrape off the car windows for the first time this winter. With water pouring off the Moors and the Derwent rising I thought it might be a good idea to have another barbel session. I was surprised how much water was in the river when I got there. It was a good foot or more higher than I'd expected, but a rather nice peaty colour. I went to my favourite flood water swim that I'd done well in last time it was flooded. In the next swim were the only other anglers there at this time. The pair of them were pike fishing, or rather catching leaves with dead baits. The amount of sunken debris coming down was going to be a problem. Still it was now a nice sunny day.

Baits to start with were to be the flood water classics of lob worm and meat. In this case a lump of Netto's finest 15 year old Chopped Pork and Ham. Amazing what you find in the back of cupboards. The worm was to be hair rigged and dropped upstream. I'd found a 70g lead held bottom well, until the debris had piled up on the line. The meat was cut in to six large pieces and hair rigged to a size 4 hook. This went out into the middle with a 120g lead, the largest I had. Again it had to be recast regularly as the debris built up on the line.

By lunch time with nothing to show for my efforts I changed to pellet on the worm rod and a 90g feeder three quarters full of pellets. The pike anglers had given up. The debris seemed to ease off in the afternoon and the meat rod could;d stay out longer and not get dragged out of the fast water. Mid afternoon as the temperature started to drop the meat rod whacked over. I contacted with nothing, but a good half of the meat was missing. Just be fore four the pellet rod rattled a few times before lurching over. A very spirited fight from what turned out to be a fish around the 3lb mark ensued. The fast current certainly gives these smaller fish some extra spirit.

That was it for the day. I stayed just into darkness. I'm no great fan of night fishing especially on a slippy bank next to a bitterly cold flooded river.

I think there was just too much water in the river for it to fish well. one metre up seems to be the sweet spot. Still it was nice to catch the intended quarry despite the debris coming down.