After The Floods

The river having dropped 1.3m since the floods as was now back in it's banks and quite probably fishable, but I don't the banks were. The banks would be covered in a nice greasy layer of mud which I really didn't fancy frightening myself to death on. Stillwater it was then. Due to errands and the like I would be fishing office hours. Not often the best time for pike, but it was a nice day and I hadn't been out for a couple of weeks. The gravel pit, my first choice, looked a bit crowded so I headed to the estate lake and was surprised to find myself the only one there.  I thought, like the gravel pit, there would be a few refugees from the rivers there. One did arrive just after I got set up.

 

I started in a swim that often does well at this time of year. A float fished trout under the bush to my right and a headless sardine float fished in front in a bit of a depression. The only problem with this swim was you are in dappled shade and with a bit of a chill wind blowing straight at you it wasn't the warmest spot around the lake. I had my big coat so no problem really. After about ten minutes the trout float bobbed under and back up. I left it a little while before winding down to nothing, not even a bait. Another trout was dropped in the same spot to see if the bait thief was still hungry. Some time later I got a proper run on the trout and this time contacted with something quite small. As I got it to the surface I could see both hooks. I dinky little jack about twice the size of the bait had hold of the head. I managed to lift it clear of the water before it let go.

The slightly mangled trout was dropped in the same place again. Another angler popped down for a looksy. A while later the float appeared to move slightly. Staring at it I wasn't sure if it was moving or the ripple was causing it to look that way. The float then shot way. The rod hooped over as I grabbed it and after a bit of a  feisty charge about I had a nice looking pike of 75cm in the net. Unhooking it showed it was quite as nice looking as I though. Part of it's mandible was missing. Obviously and old wound as it was well healed leaving a red mark where it had come away. A quick way in the net showed it to be just over 7lb. As that had been my last trout I put a roach on and dropped it in the same spot.

The other angler left while I was having lunch, followed by another have a looksy. As the sun was now a bit of a nuisance making the floats hard to see I had a bit of a wander and spotted a few roach scattering in another swim that's produced a few in the past. I replaced the sardine with a length of lamprey and cast that out to the edge of an overhanging tree. The sardine was chopped up and scattered about. The roach took four casts before I could get it under the overhanging alder branches where the roach had scattered earlier. There's a bit of a trough runs along under the branches that seems to be where the pike hide. It was just after four when the lamprey float moved away quite slowly. A good heave and I was into some thing heavy. A rather dour fight ensued before a decent fish was in the net. A couple more anglers arrived, both pikers, just after I landed the fish. Lifting it from the water showed it to be a bit large than I'd thought. 95cm and 12lb 14oz. Not bad.

Unfortunately I had to pack up a good hour before dusk due to another errand. This place can produce a few in the lead up to darkness. This was shown by one of the new arrivals catching on lure as I was packing up. Still it was nice to be back among the pike. Hopefully the river banks might be safe enough to traverse by next week as there's not long to go before the end of the river season.

Bread And Cheese

The sun had put in an early appearance as I drive towards the river past the heavily frosted fields. Thankfully it was still low enough to be behind the trees and hedges and not straight in eyes. I don't know how cold it had been but the normally soggy muddy path had frozen solid making walking a lot easier. Judging by the lack of cars it appeared I was the first one there.The first swim I selected was one the deeper ones, around 11'-12'. Like last week I alternated between flake and cheese paste on a feeder rig with liquidised bread. The set up is simple enough. 8lb mainline with a ledger bead for the feeder. A 3-4" twizzled boom at the end. A size 8 hook on a 5lb hook length around 18" attached to the mainline loop to loop. Quite quickly I had a chublet around 8oz or so on cheese paste. After which I sat for another couple of hours for one more bite.

The next swim was around half the depth of the previous one and again I had a fish quite quickly on cheese paste, a chub around the pound mark. I then got a series of rattles on the tip that eventually resulted in an 8oz roach. Like before there was then an hour and a half's quiet. Quite from the fish but the military seemed to be happy making a noise with their jets. Not really sure why there was so much activity. Unless they think the Russians are going to invade the priory. The final swim was the same one as last week and again this produced a chublet early on to cheese paste. and a reasonable dace on flake.

There was quite a bit of bird song but I'm really not very good at identifying birds from their song. I did see three cormorants flying overhead, and a buzzard getting harassed by a couple of gulls.

All the bites, apart from the dace, came on cheese paste today. Last week I didn't get anything on cheese paste. I retired before it got dark as the sunshine and rising temperatures had defrosted the top of the mud and it was now very greasy under foot. I really didn't fancy making my way through the woods in the dark as the path through there is bad enough in daylight. Bit of a hard day. Another angler after chub blanked. Not sure if the pike angler caught either.

Deep Frozen Chub

Nearly all week I'd been in two minds, chub or pike, pike or chub. In the end I opted for a spot of chub fish, after all I'd made up some cheese paste ages ago and chub were turning up in a local river. Nothing big but it should be better than my recent pike trips. As the weather forecast was for a rather chilly , and windy, start I decided to arrive at a reasonably civilised hour. 

Armed with just a float rod and a feeder rod I had a bit of a wander about before settling on a known swim with the intention of moving if it didn't produce. I started on the feeder as the chill downstream breeze wasn't conducive to trotting. Bait was to be flake or cheese paste with liquidised bread in the feeder. 

Having cast in I turned round to put the big coat back on and the rod wrapped round and I was in. After a brief struggle a small chub was in the net. I'm pretty sure it was colder than the water it had come from. Over the next hour three more graced the net. Each getting bigger. By letter out a couple of metres of line after the feeder had settled none of the bites was as ferocious as the first. Nor did I get any missed bites either. I then had a quiet period before getting another. two more graced the net as the wind got stronger and colder making bite detection a bit problematic. Strangely, despite alternating between the two, the cheese pate didn't produce a single fish.

Seven chub, the largest two a tad over four pound isn't too bad. I may have got more had I moved swims. Or I may have managed to avoid them. Who knows. The buzzards put on a couple of flying displays, but filming them with a phone doesn't really work. They just look like a dot moving about. A kestrel also landed on a tree opposite. Not something I've seen very often. Normally I only see them hovering and/or stooping.