Ain't Chasing No Pellet

With a bit of fresh water flowing through the rivers I decided to have another go at float fishing for barbel, on the Swale. Even though there was only three inches or so of extra water the river looked a bit healthier than it had. In order to avoid the minnows I'd decided to fish pellets. Again I'd forgotten to bring the waders which would limit the number of swims available due to the overhanging trees. The swim I picked was near the top of the stretch and one I'd looked at before, but never thought it looked right. The little bit of extra water had changed it though. A nice run around four foot deep following a shallow riffle. A few trots through showed that it was just over four foot to start with, shallowing slightly in the middle then dropping to four and a half foot over the later part. By using an under-shotted chubber float I was able to keep the banded pellet on the bottom with out the float been constantly dragged under.

Third trot down with a bait I was in to a reasonable sized something that managed to snag itself up a couple of times, but constant pressure got it free. It turned out to be a lovely bronze chevin around the three and half pound mark.  There then followed several foul hooked dinky little chub/dace yearlings that appeared to have a liking for 8mm pellets.

Nothing more happened for the next hour despite a steady flow of pellets going in. While I had a sarnie and cuppa I chucked the feeder rod out with a 12mmm pellet on. Before I could even start my sarnie the rod was hooped over and I was into what felt like a barbel, which came adrift after about a minute. Having eaten the sarnie I was just waiting for the tea to brew when the rod went over again. Again it felt like a barbel which, apart form the usual shenanigans around the net, came in quite fuss free. A bit bigger than the chub it showed there were barbel in the swim right where I judged the pellets would be washed down to.

Having finished my cuppa I continued trotting until the light prevented me seeing the float. Although it was far from dark the low light and rippling water just seemed to obscure the float no matter what colour I used. Back out went the feeder rod and after a little while the tip started to rattle about. Even though it wasn't a classic barbel bite a little barbel around the two pound mark  was soon wound in. That was it despite staying an hour into dark.

It was nice to know there was barbel in the swim, but why they won't take moving baits some days I don't know.

Luring Perch

Nearly every time I've been down to the river I've witnessed perch scattering small fish and/or  pike chase or take a fish I was winding in and I've always wished I had a lure rod with me. So, Thursday I went down with a couple of lure rods. One light perch set up and a light pike heavy perch set up. As I wandered along the bank the lack of fish activity was very noticeable. I'd put a small popper on one rod and a small paddle tail roach in bleak pattern on the other, my intention being to cast to scattering fish. As it was I'd just have to cast to features and hope for the best.

The first couple of swims produced nothing to either lure. The third, though, produced a few bumps to the paddle tail but no hook ups even after I'd added a stinger. A change to a 9cm Salmo Executer in a whitish pattern produced several perch around 6oz. All to a straight retrieve. Adding to the action or varying the retrieve produced nothing.

A couple of swims later and again I was into a similar size perch. Next cast I managed to snag to lure good and proper which resulted in it's loss. Despite trying several other similar lures in a variety of colour schemes I could get a take. The only other lure I had in the same colour was a Salmo Minnow in 6cm. While it did produce, the fish were considerably smaller. Quite how I've managed to run out of white lures I don't know, as perch love them.

The next few swims produced nothing despite several changes of lure. I did get a couple of half-hearted follows from a couple of jacks before a tiny little 'un grabbed the paddle tail. Despite the claims that perch feed best at dawn and dusk I didn't see any more.

The session was not quite as I'd hoped, given it was generally overcast which are usually the bet for perch.  There again all the activity I'd seen previously was when it was bright sunshine. Looks like I'll have to get some more white(ish) lures and try again.

New PB Plank

Thursday I intended to go a bit further afield, but the washing machine had other ideas.  By the time I'd persuaded it to complete the wash cycle it was getting a bit late. A trip to the Ouse seemed the best option as the tackle shop is on the way. Armed with hemp and two pints of best reds for a spot of float fishing again.

I'd brought the barbel rod with me so quickly clipped a maggot feeder on and stuck three maggots ion the size 12 to 10lb hook length. It hadn't been in long before the tip rattled round good and proper. I thought I'd missed the bite, but a shiny little bleak was impaled on the hook. I had several more real tip rattlers while I set the float rod up. Nearly every time it was a bleak, along with the occasional perch.

With a large Bolo float set up at around ten foot and feeding hemp and red maggots I started to get a few chublets, the odd dace, and occasional perch. The fish seemed to come in groups of five or six, before going quiet for there or four trots down. On more than one occasion a perch was grabbed by a pike as I wound in. There was barely a mark on the perch when the pike let go of it.

For the time of year the boat traffic wasn't too bad at all. Half a dozen white plastic tubs, paddle boarders and a few canoes. One group of three did witness me catching a rather fine blank. They, along with me, also witnessed a fish jumping near the snags on the far bank. It had been throwing itself out of the water for a couple of hours. It was very silvery what ever i was.

Near the end of the session I hooked into something very solid, which took the best part of ten minutes to get near the net. This was not surprising, as when I finally got to see it it turned out to be a decent sized pike which came adrift about a yard from the net. It's rampage around the swim seemed to have put everything of. A change back to feeder  produced nothing either, even though I stayed into dark.

Swale Meet Again

With recent heavy rains here and there I hoped that the Swale had coloured up a bit. As it happens it hadn't, it was still clear and low. The water had cooled though. It has to be said this section is not the best for float fishing. Most of the swims are bordered by trees pushing out over the water. Being quite shallow though wading could overcome this, if only I'd put them in the car.  Still trotting for barbel with maggots was what I was going to do, so that's what I did. I suppose I could have tried wet wading, but  with the temp of the water and the fact it was a cool breezy evening I didn't think I'd last long at it.

The first trotable (is that a word?) swim I found was a nice fast section after a shallow section. Rigged up with a 4.5g loafer and size 14 hook I was quickly into little chublets and even smaller dace. After an hour or so a couple of hungry pike showed up. A little jack that popped out of a slack chasing the double red maggots, but the fish. Just after it seemed to give up a larger pike appeared and had several goes at fish I was bringing in. After a while it too gave up, but the swim was now dead. I gave it another half hour but didn't even get so much as a chewed maggot.

I moved to the swim I fished last time I was here. There was no sign of any chub for me to frighten this time. The swim seemed to be full of gudgeon when I good get a good run down the swim. There seemed to be a lot of twigs and weed in it now. Shallowing up to avoid the debris resulted in chewed maggots and tiny dace/chublets occasionally.  After an hour I moved on.

The final swim was awash with minnows. I was about to give up when I bumped what felt like a decent fish off. I took to chucking maggots in by the handful to see if I could feed the minnows off. This seemed to work as I got less and less chewed maggots. By now it was starting to drizzle again. I'd been lucky with the rain or lack of it, just the occasional drizzle. By now it was getting dark, an hour early. Retiring seemed a good idea, especially as I thought I'd heard thunder in the distance. I got back to the car as the wind got up and the heavens opened.

The drive home was fun. The heavy rain and gusts of wind had brought a lot of debris down out of the trees, some of it quite big. I had to sop a couple of times to drag branches off the road. As the rain eased a new problem in the shape of a diversion appeared. Thankfully the signage was quite good but I got a bit disorientated as these were roads I'd hardly ever been down. Finally I arrived at the main road and the rest of the drive was uneventful. If we could just have a bit of heavy rain in the right place and raise the river levels a bit the barbel might come on the feed.