Back T' Pit

 Another trip to the gravel pit as I suspect the brick pond would be still frozen, and the rivers are rising and or falling. Again I was the only one there, apart from the robin. I was surprised to see a large area of ice still floating about. The wind was blowing it into the corner I wanted to fish so I opted to fish the corner I blanked in last time. There was, however, a larger area of water to go at. The other problem was that the branches thrown at the ice and leaf debris kept drifting backwards and forwards throughout the day dragging the line and rigs about.

Baits were the same as last time. The sardine was placed near the tree roots in two and a half foot of water and left there as the pike are known to patrol along there. The trout would be cast about the area and be moved every 45 minutes or so in the hope of landing it in front of a pike. Apart form being pestered by two robins, one having a more orange chest than the other, nothing much happened except a visit from the bailiff. Another angler had set up on the far bank maggot drowning. I didn't see him catch anything. Three lads also turned up deadbaiting but didn't catch either. The sun also turned up which meant I had to be careful where I cast the floats, as pike floats go invisible in winter sunshine no matter how big they are.

Around one the float on the trout started to bobble about in the manner associated with small pike. I had the fish on for about thirty seconds before it came adrift along with my last trout deadbait. It didn't feel very big at all. The next bait out of the freezer bag was half a small herring. This hadn't been in the water very long before the float trundled away. This time I was in contact with something heavier That put up a rather lacklustre fight. A rather long and skinny fish of 86cm and 7lb soon graced the net. 2cm shorter and 4lb lighter than Tuesday's fish it had a big lump out of it's tail fin that looked like an otter bite. That was it for the day. Again I fished until I couldn't see the floats.

First Proper Pike Session of the Season

 With the weather being somewhat variable, by variable I mean drizzle, light rain, heavy rain, I decided to stay close to home so popped down to the local gravel pit. I was rather surprised when I got there to see nobody else about. I wasn't early arriving just after nine. I( was even more surprised to see it hadn't filled up since summer, being about two foot down. The final surprise was the ice. I'd not expected any ice at all as it hadn't been particularly cold for a while. A couple of swims were not fully frozen and one had a couple of good spots free of ice. The other only having the one. The more open swim was one of my favourites so I opted for that.

The ice wasn't that thick at all close in so shouldn't prove to be much of a problem. I was soon joined by a robin as is usual here. I had brought some liquidised bread so sprinkled a bit on the ground. The robin didn't look impressed I think they prefer maggots. never the less it tucked into the bread popping back through out the day.

I bit of plumbing about showed both spots to about three and a half foot deep. One in a little bay and the other near an over hanging tree. The float were set so the bottom shot just touched bottom. I'd not looked to see what baits I had in the freezer bags. first out was a slightly freezer burnt headless sardine which went in to the bay. next out was a small rainbow trout which went out under the over hanging branches. I tossed out some of the liquidised bread as well in the hope it would attract some bait fish.

 

After half an hour the float in the bay bobbed and shot away a couple of foot before popping back up. I contacted with nothing as expected. I'm convinced bites like that are either liners or tiny jacks. On this occasion I think it was a liner as there were no marks on the sardine at all. A couple of hours, just after the rain had started, later the trout bait was away. I didn't really strike as the fish was moving away from me. After  a brief but hectic tussle in the shallow water I had a nice looking tubby pike in the net. It was in near perfect nick. This surprised me as the pike in here get some hammer and some end up quite tatty. At 88cm and 11lb 1oz it was a good start and very welcome.

There was no more action until three when the rain stopped. I'd decided to move to the other swims there was now quite a large clear area in front of it. I wound in the sardine and dropped it in the margin. As I wound the trout in I saw the tip of the other rod whip over. I grabbed the rod and felt  some thing small on the end. A tiny little jack had firm hold of the end of the sardine but had missed the hook. The sardine came adrift and the jack shot away with it's prize.

I fished the other corner swim until I could no longer see the floats but failed to elicit any action. Still a double was I nice start to my pike campaign proper.

The Angler That Went Out In The Cold

 As I didn't want to travel far, given the current weather conditions, chub fishing seemed the best idea. I made up a batch of liquidised bread and got a couple of balls of cheese paste from the freezer the night before. Unfortunately I left the paste in the garage where it proceeded to not thaw out. A quick wave of the old micros soon sorted that problem though. The car thermometer said -4 is I set off and -3 when I arrived at the river.

I had a wander about on arrival to see what swims would be accessible. A couple could be got in and out of safely so I opted for one of these. It also happens to be a swim that produces the odd very large chub, and I could get the rod rest in.  Things didn't get off to a great start when I found my two piece feeder rod was now a three piece. Thankfully the barbel rod I'd also brought was intact. Not ideal as even with the softer top it wouldn't be as sensitive as the feeder rod.

The intention was to alternate between flake and cheese paste with liquidised bread in the feeder.  After a few casts I had my first bite, a real three foot twitch. Something felt heavy on the end of the line before it all went slack. I don't know what managed to shed a size four hook, but it had. A couple of casts later a small pike shot from under the bank and took a lunge at the feeder. Somehow I managed to foul hook it somewhere amidships. It managed to shake itself free while I was reaching for the badly placed landing net. The final piece of action of the morning occurred not long after when the rod tip started to tremble. Thinking it was debris on the line I wound in to find a small, 6oz, chublet on the hook. Annoyingly it managed to flip itself off the hook as I went to lift it from the water.

After a Pot Noodle I tried a swim upstream of the one I was fishing. Fifteen minutes on flake, fifteen on paste then back to the original swim to do the same. While I was in one swim I left a little pile of liquidised bread in the other for the robins to feed on. This caused a bit of commotion at times when two or three would fly in, but never when I had the camera pointed at the bread.

By three the temperature was starting to drop. With nothing to show for my efforts I packed up at half past as it was now cold enough for gloves. Besides I didn't want to be on an icy river bank when it got dark.

Fish From The Beck

Yesterday I was to talking to a friends brother who had been for a wander along the canal in the hope of photographing deer. He told me that he'd seen several pike attacks with fish scattering all over. One attack by at least two, possibly three, pike had resulted on three small roach leaping on to the bank. While two had flipped back in one had landed in a puddle. He'd returned it to the canal just as another attack took place. He didn't manage to see any deer though.

I should know that following up reports like this usually results in disappointment, but with nothing better to do I thought I'd give it a go. As he'd said the weed was dying away and the canal was fishable. I started with a Salmo Slick Stick in Real Bleak as the water was clear and a natural colour would probably better. This proved to be the case as after a couple of casts I got a take from a small jack. Sadly it shook the hooks. A few casts later some bait fish scattered close to the far bank. Firsts cast in the area and I was in after a bit of violent head shaking and zooming about I had it heading towards the net. With great aplomb it managed to avoid the net and dive into the bankside vegetation. After a bit of heaving and poking with the landing net I just ended up with a clump of weed.

I had a natter with a chap fly fishing for pike. He'd had one hit and lost a fish under his feet  as well. After a cuppa I had a wander in the opposite direction. With nothing to show from the canal I decided to have a chuck in the flooded beck. Due to recent dredging it was rather coloured so I tried a Rattlin Hornet. After a few casts I got a good solid hit and was connected to a very angry jack. After a great deal of acrobatics and hurtling about like a lunatic I had it in the net. Not very big at 60cm or so but it had put up a great struggle in the narrow confines of the Beck. It even managed to keep it's angry pose for the photo.

I spent a little while longer fishing the Beck to no avail. Back on the canal things weren't much better. I'd changed the lure to a small Salmo Butcher as the waster was a bit deeper here. I had a couple of follows from some wasps but that was that for the day. I did, however, spot some deer dashing form thicket to thicket.

As the weed growth is dying back on  some stretches it may be worth spending a bit more time on them now.

It Was A Reconnaissance Trip Really

 Yesterday, after returning from my fishing trip, I got a call from a friend I'd not fished with for a while. He suggested a canal neither of us had fished this century. He'd been in the vicinity of the canal and had a look round. He reckoned it looked quite good and there were a few anglers about. Some silvers were been caught but the pike anglers weren't doing too well.

This morning I headed out there with his directions and a thick fog.  By the time I got to where the directions were needed the fog had lifted, but this didn't stop me heading down a dead end road. It wasn't the correct next turn on the right. Back in the right direction I stated to recognise places, but then began to wonder where I was again. Narrow roads with no obvious landmarks. The last instruction was "down to the end of Main Lane, left at the T-Junction down to the parking spot". The problem with this was that Main Lane didn't reach the T-Junction. It veered to the right at a fork in the road. This road turned in to a farm track. A helpful dog walker pointed me in the right direction. Apparently the Parish Council had helpfully put a street sign up at the junction and more than a few people had ended up turning down there instead of continuing down the more obvious left fork.

Eventually I arrived at the parking where there was only one other car, my mates. He was surprised it was empty as yesterday there was half a dozen cars there. A look at the canal didn't inspire me. It looked a bit coloured and bits of weed were drifting along. The plan was simple. I would fish perch size lure and my mate would fish pike sized ones. After two hours with nothing to show but a foul hooked roach we found ourselves back at the cars. After a cuppa we decided to head in the other direction. By now, though, the amount of weed drifting down made fishing near impossible. A natter with a dog walker convinced us that maybe we should give up. He told us there was a lot more coming down from higher up as they were clearing the drainage channels. That's probably why there were no other anglers about.

We had a look at a lower section but it was far too weedy for lures. By now we reckoned a pub lunch was the order of the day. Not the best of sessions, but I now knew where to go for a return session. A few frost would probably help. One annoying thing, though, was the magic disappearing photos on my phone. Only three survived. The rest were not to be seen even scanning with file recovery software. Oh well. We'll try again later.

Good Grief, A Blog Post

 Had a my first fishing trip since I suffered a Glenoid Fracture at the end of July. The fracture repaired pretty quickly but the soft tissue damage is still under repair.  Plenty of physio have given me back plenty of movement and for most everyday things the shoulder is OK. Winding a fishing reel is well with in my capabilities. I'd decided on a short trip to a local canal despite the dodgy weather forecast. I'd be sticking to the nice level areas and descending any of the high slippery banks. Despite the recent rain and frost the canal looked clear and in good nick.

I started with a brown sparkly cannibal shad that was already on the line  and with in a couple of casts had a solid hit from a very athletic 35cm perch. A couple of cast later a somewhat smaller perch gave a solid hit. Then the alarm sounded and the sluice opened washing leaves and foam into the canal. This rendered the area unfishable unless you wanted to catch leaves.

 

On to the next feature. After a couple of casts I was getting hits but not hooking up. Instead of my usual two or three turns of the reel, let the lure flutter to the bottom, repeat, I tried a more violent retrieve. I flicked the lure off the bottom with the rod tip each time it hit bottom. This resulted in very solid hits but still no hook ups. A change to a smaller cannibal shad resulted in me contacting with one in three of the hits. Over the next half hour I had a dozen perch up to 28cm before every thing went quiet. One problem I did have was using the landing net as I was getting on for six foot above the water. It put a bit of a strain on the left arm. Changing hands solved this, sort of. I'm not used to using a landing net with my right arm and lost a couple of fish at the net due to my clumsiness. Still a dozen perch wasn't bad.

The next level feature was a lot closer to the water, but not somewhere I'd ever had perch from, only little jacks. This time proved different. In ten casts I had eight perch to 28cm. I kept them in the landing net as returning them can scare the shoal away and it was pretty close to the bank. As the expected rain started all hell broke loose. Perch and little silvers scattered out of the water around the area I was catching the perch. As the rain had turned to a downpour I retreated under a tree. I'd forgot my waterproof and my shower proof jacket doesn't cope with that amount of rain. 

As the rain eased off after five minutes or so I thought I'd head back to the car. I'd had a good couple of hours. Obviously I had to have one last cast. This resulted in a very acrobatic killer cucumber. The next five casts produced three more of the little horrors. Great fun on light tackle, leaping about all over the place. The last one had also deigned to remove the tail of my lure. This should have been a taken as a hint to go home, but I'd seen a large jack cruising along the edge just beyond where I was catching the others. I grabbed the first ready rigged lure, a cream and pepper thing. I cast about a foot in front of the pike and it hit it straight away. Unfortunately it dived into the weed and it was just a case of cranking in a mass of weed and pike.   Another half dozen casts produced nothing, but the drizzle was now turning to rain. I decided not to push my luck and headed back to the car. I'd just made a cuppa when the heavens opened. It continued like that while I had my cuppa and all the way home.

Not a bad return at all. I'll have to avoid high banks where I can for now. I'm meeting somebody for another go tomorrow. This is on a canal I haven't fished since last century so should be interesting.

Impromptu Lure Session

 It wasn't my intention to go fishing on Sunday, but I'd woken up early and It was lovely and cool out with a bit of drizzle so I decided to give it a couple of hours. Rod, reel, landing net, and a few jigs and shads stuffed into my pockets. It really was nice wandering about in the drizzle given the impending heatwave. Somewhere, out of sight, I could here a couple of buzzards squeaking. The lower hay meadows had been cut making it hard going as the hay was hiding the path.The previous day when we'd gone for an early wander by the river only the upper meadows had been cut.

A three gramme jig head with a Grass Minnow in Chartreuse Shiner (green and sparkly) had it's tail bitten off on the first cast. The replacement was hit very hard but no contact made. A couple of casts later and a lively jack was impaled on the hook. This was the first jack I'd caught down here, much to my surprise.

A couple of casts later and a perch shot up from the depths as I started to lift the lure from the water. Quickly dropping the rod tip the perch grab hold as the lure descended I put up a spirited fight despite the nasty wound to it's back and dorsal fin. It also had small hook in the corner of it's mouth. At 33cm and 1lb 3oz it was a bit on the light side.

The next couple of swims produced nothing.

The fourth swim is quite deep right off the bank at seven foot or so, before steeply shelving away. A couple of cast upstream and close to the bank showed there to be a lot of snags which I was luckily able to ping out of. It did, however produce a perch of 35cm and 1lb 10oz. I pushed my luck a bit to far and ended up losing a lure. The down stream direction only had a bit of weed in it and after a few casts produced a perch 33cm and 1lb 7oz.

The next swim produced a very hard fighting fish of  34cm and 1lb 7oz and 33cm 1lb 6oz that hit the lure on the drop in the middle of the river after several casts along the edge.

The final swim produced another couple of fish. One at 35cm and 1lb 8oz and one at 29cm and 1lb 1oz. Again both taken on the drop in the middle of the river after quite a few casts along the edge.

Not bad for a couple of hours or so fishing. All the perch seem to be from the same year group. I've taken smaller ones on maggot around here but they don't seem to be fans of chasing lures.