Maggots Means Minnows

The computer decided my last session of my holidays would be on a section of the Derwent. Really I should have asked for another choice as maggots on this section tend to attract the minnows. As usual I arrived late afternoon. I had a pint of red maggots, a few mixed colours and three quarters of a pint of hemp left. The swim I selected was just over ten foot deep. I rigged up with a 3g bolo float, a 3.3lb hook length with a size 16 hook. After a couple of trots down and the first minnow of the session I also had the first of several twigs. These made a change from the magically appearing immovable snag. This was followed by a gudgeon before the minnows turned up in force.

Eventually the hemp did it's magic and I stared to catch small dace and roach with some regularity. The minnows kept appearing, but not as often as I thought they would. For a while a shoal of bleak moved in and managed to intercept the bait on the drop. I did think of moving to a heavier float in the hope of bypassing them, but they moved on when a predator moved in. I never saw what it was but did see the bleak scattering several times.I was soon back in to the gudgeon along with roach and the occasional dace. Whatever the predator was seemed to have frightened the minnows away as well. After a bit of a flurry of fish the minnows returned. I piled in several handfuls of hemp. and fished in the margin while I had a belated sandwich and cuppa. The margin just produced minnows.

The main line down the centre started to produce more roach, dace and gudgeon. Nothing of any size, but in a match you'd build up a decent weight. Things went quiet for a while before hitting something a bit heavier. At first I thought it was another twig but then it veered across the river straight for a nasty snag. I suspected it was a decent chub as a couple of lads upstream of me had had a few between them on feeder. having turned it away from the snag it continued  past me upstream. A classic barbel tactic. It came back down towards me hugging the bank.Once on the surface it had a couple of last minute attempts at avoid the landing net before it was in. A nice fish around the 3lb mark.

After the barbel the swim had gone quiet. A chucked in the last couple of handfuls of reds and the last handful of hemp. I knew I wouldn't be staying late as, apart from running out of bait, it was predicted to start raining. Just upstream of me the was a big splash and a great deal of bleating. Having a look a sheep had fallen down a sheer overgrown bank. I gave it a prod with the storm pole and it swam down stream a little way until it could get out. It was soon reunited with it's lamb. A few more dace were taken before it started drizzling. By the time I packed up it had stopped, only to start again, some what heavier, as I got to the car.

I thought I'd cracked the problem with the erratic action cam, but it would appear that out of my collection of USB leads I'd managed to pick not one but two faulty ones to use with the power bank. The one I was using kept causing the camera to  such of then back on and corrupt some of the files. Damn technology, always let down by the cheapest part. This was the last of my days off. Not a bad few days fishing for the start of the season. I hadn't really been trying for anything other than enjoying a bit of float fishing.

Computer Says Ure

Wednesday morning the computer selected a stretch of Ure for me to fish in the afternoon once I'd got some more decorating done. The river was a reasonable level when I got there, but the flow was remarkably slow for this stretch. There best of the flow was about three quarters of the way across. The swim was about  seven foot deep, so I opted for a 7bb avon. A size 18 hook to 2.9lb hook length terminated the rig. Maggots over hemp, as I'd been fishing all week, was the method. I fed both the far line and a line on the near side in a near stationary slack.

 

It took nearly an hour before I got the first bite which resulted in a small roach. The next cast produced a small dace. I managed ten fish, both dace and roach, over the next hour before it went quiet. While I had a sandwich and cuppa I dropped the float in the slack. The float moved about 12 foot during the time it took to eat the sandwich. Plenty of time for a fish to take the bait, but none were interested. The fish reappeared in the far swim with just the eight coming over an hour before going quiet again. This time I picked up a few more roach from the slack. A natter with a chap who reckoned it had been fishing crap disrupted my regular baiting of the swims. It took another hour before the fish reappeared on the far line. I bumped off what would have been the largest fish of the session with out seeing it.

Come 8:30 the bites had dried up on both lines. Another chap turned up and reckoned it hadn't been fishing too bad, plenty of bites if you could get the fish to stay in the swim. He was surprised I hadn't had any perch or chub though. I fished on until ten for a couple more fish. I reckon I'd had a fish every ten minutes or so, enough not to get bored.

I can't say this trotting maggots lark is doing particularly well at times, but it's quite enjoyable. One more trip to go before it's back to work.

Frightening Chub

Tuesday morning the computer suggested a trip to the Swale. Arriving late afternoon I was surprised how few pegs had been used considering it's a popular barbel fishery. Wandering through the long grass, aggravating my hay fever, I found a shallow 3' swim I fancied. A look further downstream, just in case, I spotted some chub in a swim of similar depth. Catapulting out some hemp didn't have the effect I was hoping for. The chub slowly slunk away. Catapulting maggots in didn't bring them back so I returned to the previous swim.

Setting up with a 3.3g loafer and a 2.9 hook length to a size 16 hook I again tossed in some hemp followed by maggots. The first few trots produced chewed maggots so I dropped to and 18 hook and single maggot. Eventually, after some heavy feeding the chewed maggots nearly stopped and a few small roach started to come to hand. After an hour so, with a couple of dozen fish caught, a pike decided to eat and grabbed a roach I was reeling in before spitting it out. It then dropped down to the roach shoal scattering them every where. I fished on for another half hour with out a bite.

With no bites forthcoming I moved to the swim I'd frightened the chub from. Feeding maggots only I fished until I could no longer see the float with only one a have been a fish, may have been a stick to show for it. Talking to another angler, who'd been fish another clubs water upstream, as i walked back. He said that it had been rather patchy and a bit of rain was needed.

I maybe should have fished deeper water, but you just never know with fishing. The peg upstream could have been chock a block for all I know. I'd caught and as I'm not after anything in particular, just enjoying some float fishing, I'm not bothered.

Long Way Round

A combination of decorating, angling, and incompetence is why this blog is late. I have four days fishing available to me this week. Undecided where to go I put all the club waters in a program and which selected one at random on Monday morning, and knocked it of the list. I'll use this whenever I'm undecided. First pick was a section of the Wharfe I hadn't fished for years and hadn't really done very well on when I had fished it. The other problem I always had was finding the parking spots and access paths. A trend I continued Monday. I found the parking spot. I then dutifully followed the signed path which seemed, at times, to be taking me away from the river and seemed to be overly log. Sure enough I ended up a good distance from where I wanted to be, a spot recommended in the tackle shop.. As luck would have it on the way back down stream I came across an interesting looking swim. A narrower deeper channel on the far bank caused by a load of stone on the near bank. I was setting up an hour later than intended, but did have high hopes for this swim.

The rig was to be a 4.4g Loafer with an olivette just above a 3.3lb hook length and a size 16 hook. The next problem was finding a spot among the rocks for the bait tray. I found one just before the level dropped away just above wellie level. I was going to bring waders, but decided I couldn't be arsed carting them about.  So I had a five foot deep channel with an 18" deep slack on my side of the bank. Having found a spot to get the bankstick in for the camera I thought I'd have a couple of trots down to see how the framing was. Second trot I was on. At first I didn't think it was very big, but as I pulled it over into the shallow slack it decided to head back into the main current. Barbel, which I suspected it was, don't like been dragged into shallow water and tend to go berserk. Eventually a nice little battling barbel was landed and after a quick photo was rested in the landing net while I checked the video. I'd forgot to switch it to record.

While the barbel was resting I had another go at checking the framing. Some more hemp was added to the swim and the double maggot trotted down and I was in again. Like the first barbel this one came up stream quit easily at first. It then realised it was hooked and started to kick up a fuss.  After a little while I seemed to lose control of it and couldn't get it to go where I wanted it to.  With a bit of extra force I got it to the surface to discover that the line had wrapped round the dorsal fin. It took ages before I managed to net it, after tipping the first barbel out of the net. A bigger fish than the first but not huge. Thankfully I'd switched record on and the framing was sort of OK. 

I had to re-rig as the line had been damaged by the dorsal fin. When I went to release barbel from the landing net I discovered I'd managed to break it. Thankfully I (nearly) always carry a telescopic storm pole, which I mainly use to aid the descent of steep, overgrown banks. The next few fish were a mixture of small dace and chublets. 

The steady flow of small fish was disrupted by the arrival of assorted moo cows some of whom wanted a drink. While I guarded the tackle from the nosey cattle I had myself a sandwich and a cuppa. After the cattle departed I was back fishing again with the largest barbel of the day coming after a quiet spell. Another spirited fish that didn't like been dragged into the shallows. Soon after the smallest barbel of the day arrived with only a little bit of fuss. Again fishing was disrupted. This time by the swan family hat decided it wand to go back upstream from whence they came.

 
This stretch is tidal at times, depending on water level, moon phase, etc. Sometimes it's barely noticeable, but this time it was rising quite quickly and the fast channel all but disappeared. Also it was now and inch from the top of my wellies. Having got everything to the bank before it was over the top of them I contemplated what to do next. With a satisfactory session and the thought of the long walk back to the car I opted to call it a day.

 Considering I was fishing less than three hours what with the interruptions I don't think that was a bad session at all. Luckily I didn't have a long walk back. I spotted a dog walker arriving from the direction of the car and asked them about the paths. While it looks like a short walk back to the car there are several fields with hedges so you could end up wandering about looking for the gates. Apparently a footpath sign has gone missing and would have saved me a lot of time on the way down. Once you know where the path is from the car park it's obvious. Some of the paths, though, are ones worn by the cattle and will just take you round the fields if you follow them.

Second Trip of the New Season

The weather forecast for Friday had varied all week. Rain was definitely on the cards but how heavy and what time was still a bit of an unknown. My own prediction was that it was likely to be rather light and intermittent. This turned out to be not far from the truth. As I drove to the river there was quite a heavy downpour, but it eased off as I arrived at the rather full car park. One angler's car, a couple of vans and two humongous tractors with mower attachments. The EA had were cutting the grass on the flood bank. According to a couple of dog walkers I talked to the rain had been a blessing as it it damped down the huge clouds of pollen.

I selected one of the shallower and pacier swims this time. Usually this swim requires the bait to be dragged along the bottom, so a small 5X4 avon was to be used despite it been only three and a half foot deep. The shot was bulked  a foot above a small link swivel to which a nine inch hook-length with a size sixteen hook. By the time I'd got set up the drizzle had got heavier so up went the brolly. I don't like float fishing under a brolly, but I dislike getting soaked even more. The lack of wind allowed the brolly to be set quite high so it wasn't too bad. This did mean that I couldn't film proceedings as there was now where to place the camera.

After a few tots down to get the depth set right I laid out a tail of hemp down the swim. But half a dozen maggots in with each trot down I was soon suffering chewed maggots before finally picking up small dace right at the bottom of the swim. The shoal didn't stop still. After six or so fish I had to trot down one side or the other of the feed in order to get bites. The dace were of a smaller stamp then Wednesday's. Occasional I'd pick up the odd very small, but tubby little gudgeon near the top of the swim, along with some fair size bleak. Despite chucking the maggots upstream I couldn't get the dace to move closer. After one of the short heavy bursts of rain, during which I caught nowt,  I did get five nice dace around the half pound mark and a pound plus grayling. A few more of the small dace followed before everything went quiet.

As  the rain had all but stopped I decided it was a good time to pack up. A couple more species added to the tally along with the nice dace made for a good session. I was surprised at the lack of chublets though. next week's weather is all  up in the air, but i hope to get out everyday.

First Day of the Season 2021

For some years now my preferred start top the coarse fish river season has been a spot of stick and 'pin on the River Nidd. I'm not bothered what I catch it's just nice to do. A pint of maggots and some hemp was all the bait I took. I rarely fish rivers early morning as I've never found it to be as productive as the evening.  I arrived at the car park at three to find it empty, apart from the remains of a bonfire in the middle. While the arrival time was nice for avoiding the traffic it wasn't the best for humping tackle along the bank as it was the warmest part of the day. The breeze was a menace though as it was blowing the grass pollen about. By the time I'd selected a swim my nose was dripping profusely.

This swim I picked was around six foot deep, one of the deeper swims at the top end of the stretch.  I had hoped to run a float under the tree down stream, but it was very saggy so just stuck to the middle of the river. A couple of handfuls of hemp were chucked down the swim and half a dozen maggots every trot or so. The hemp was topped up every few casts. After a few casts and some chewed maggots the first fish in was a small chublet. It then took while for the next fish to turn up. A bleak was the next in. I suspect these were the ones responsible for the chewed maggots. For the first couple of hours I only got the occasional chublet of bleak. Around sixish the first of the dace showed up. By now I was getting more bites. While not a fish a chuck the bites were steady.

I was getting a few chub then a quiet patch then a few bleak then the dace would show up. The dace seemed to be at the top of the swim, while the chub came a bit further down. The bleak would just show up anywhere. The bites continued until nineish when everything went quiet. I fished on until I was struggling to see the float. Apart from the odd chublet I did manage to bump off a couple of decent perch rather annoyingly.

A pleasant and generally stress free start to the season. The fish were nothing to write home about, all very much a similar size. Previous seasons I've had more species, but that didn't matter. There is just something rather satisfying about trotting on a river.

Suffering With The Wind

While I would describe the weather as a tad windy, that nice Sir Francis Beaufort described it as a Moderate Breeze, which raises dust and loose paper; small branches moved. Either way the wind is a problem when fluff chucking with a light line. A combination of high banks and a gusty wind on a narrow river does make it a fun day Rarely was the wind across the river, it was mainly straight upstream or straight downstream. An upstream wind tends to straighten the cast out a bit too much and downstream the leader doesn't straighten out enough. No matter which way it was blowing what insect life there was was lifted straight into the grass or trees.

The upstream end of the stretch was virtually devoid of fly life and I didn't see one rise as I walked up and down. On the middle length the occasional large dark olive was seen being wiped away off the water very quickly. There was also the occasional damsel fly about. I did however see the occasional fish rising. As there was two or three fish rising together I assumed they were either grayling or dace. This proved to be the case when I put a small parachute duster on and it was engulfed by a dace. Strange thing with dace and flies, you either miss the take or they swallow them rarely do you lip hook them.

For the evening I fished the lower stretch which, apart from the the horses, seemed almost lifeless. There was a few more insects about, but nothing seemed to be rising even when the wind dropped a bit. eventually I did spot a fish rising occasionally close to the bank. The current here was complicated and trying to get a drag free drift proved a bit problematic. By changing banks I was able to get a better drift. After three or four cast I had a take only to drag the fly out of it's mouth in excitement.  Despite sitting and watching for a while it never rose again. I spent the last hour casting a likely looking spots to no avail.

The dace always seem to appear around the beginning of June, the disappear come the start of the coarse season. They can become a real menace in a decent mayfly hatch, beating the trout to the fly. The hatches on here aren't prolific, but this year they're been really bad. A non-angling friend that lives nearby has said the same thing. He can go over it several times a day and walks his dog along one stretch a couple of times a week.

The Storey Of Two Trout And A Cow

This will be my eighth trout trip. So far I've managed a pike, two grayling and two trout. not a great tally. The last couple of weeks I've not been out, mainly due to the weather. It's either been pissing it down or the rivers have been far too high. The main river was still a bit on the high side, but I was hoping the colour had dropped  out of it. This turned out to be a false hope as it was still very coloured. Still I spent the morning wandering up and down in the hope of seeing a rising fish as there were a few flies hatching. Large and medium olives and the odd mayfly. While I didn't see a single thing rise I did see a dog otter as it disappeared under water. Some people wandering along the footpath also saw it and wondered what it was. They'd only seen females by the sounds of it and were quite shocked as to the size of the male.

With no sign of fish I moved on to one of the tributaries in the hope it would be a bit clearer. It was even though it was a tad high for the time of year. I had a wander along with a sandwich and cuppa to see if anything was happening. I did find a few hatch flies and fish rising to them, though they appeared to be small grayling. By the time I got back with a rod a few heifers were wandering about in the river. I managed to get between them with out any dramas and headed to the confluence of the two rivers. There was very little happening on the bottom half and it wasn't until I got back to the heifers that I saw anything rising. One fish was clearly a trout which I managed a couple of casts to before the next cast snagged on the back cast. Now I had been looking behind me for the nosey cattle which had stayed at the top of the bank. Except one which had stepped down and was now hooked. Luckily it didn't seem to notice and didn't panic. As I kept the line tight and stumbled along the lower bank it first backed away then turned at which point the fly came adrift, thankfully.

 

That bit of commotion put the that fish down, but a bit further along another two fish were rising. I now had the added problem of cattle on both banks bellowing at each other. I wasn't sure which group was trying to return to which group and had visions of them all paddling back and forth across the river. I sat watching the two trout rising, trying to see what they were taking. It appeared they weren't been fussy, but neither was remaining in the same spot. They looked to be just swimming about and picking off what ever drifted over their heads at that moment. This is where the John Storey comes in to it's own. Looking nothing like any particular insect it works well when the trout are not been selective. The cattle had now moved further up so casting was now safe.

It took a couple of casts in the general direction of the nearest trout before I got a take. The fish was clearly larger than the one I'd seen and put up a right scrap. I had to move down stream to net it as I was a couple of feet above the water. I didn't want to drop into the river as the sides can be rather sticky soft clay which is a right pain to get out of. A nice silvery brown trout around the 2lb mark was the result. Well worth all the wandering. I assumed to fight would have scared the other fish(es) off, but sat for ten minutes waiting just in case. with no sign of rising fish I started to head upstream. A fish rose in among the trailing branches of a willow just upstream of me. Then I saw one rise along side me where the second fish had been rising earlier. I swung back round to just above the spot I caught the first fish and after a few casts missed a take from the small fish I'd seen rising when I first got to this spot. It looked like there was more than two fish here. After a short wait the large fish started to rise again. After a mishap with the magnetic cow-parsley I managed to get a cast to it it and after a short drift a take. I did think I'd lost it at one point as I was get some line back on the reel in order to prevent the tangle I'd got into with the last fish, but it was still on. A slightly smaller fish, but just as feisty.

 

I had a look at the fish under the willow, but there was just no way in. A bit further up I bumped a smaller fish. By now the fly life was getting less and less. The only fish I could see rising were little grayling or maybe dace, which were taking smuts. I had another wander up and down , but saw now further action. Contemplating what to do while having another cuppa I looked at the state of the traffic. Four accidents! Googles recommended route was one I'd not have thought of. By the time I'd finished my cuppa the travel times on my normal route were getting very silly. Rather than wait to see if the traffic would clear I set off on the alternate route which turned out to be quite clear and got me home in reasonable a time.

 

After a slow start to the trout season the two fish have more tan made up for it. My previous biggest fish from this little river was around the 11-12" mark, so these two are not to be sniffed at. With the slow start I think my trout and coarse seasons are going to overlap a bit this year.