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.
No comments:
Post a Comment