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.