More Gravel Pit Nonsense

Another trip to the local gravel pit on what should, according to the weather forecast, have been an overcast day. I'd decided to just stick with the float rod to see if I could put a decent net of fish together. I was to be fishing match hours. Things didn't get off the a flyer  when the end of the landing net handle broke as I was screwing the net on. Thankfully I had my faithful storm pole with me which makes a reasonable landing net handle. For bait I had red maggots, worms and a rather fetching red groundbait. The repaired rod was on it's first outing after the mishap. A 3BB insert waggler with the shot initial bulked about two foot from the hook completed the business end. A couple of red maggots on a size 18 for hook bait. Chopped worm was added to the ground bait along with a few maggots. Four golf ball sized balls went in.

It took a little while for a bite to come from a little perch. A couple more followed before things went quiet for a while. I then had a couple of little skimmers before foul hooking one. As I dragged it towards the net the hook came adrift launching it up into the tree. Pulling the rig out of the tree it came free intact, but the bulk shot rattled my knuckles which smarted a bit. After another quiet spell a couple of reasonable perch turned up. A few more anglers turned up after lunch. By now it was nice and warm but the lovely sunshine really put the fish off from feeding. I managed the occasional little perch throughout the afternoon. The other angler near me was having the same problems. A couple of fish then nothing for a while.

Through out the afternoon I was pestered by a robin which probably got more maggots than the fish. I spent some time faffing with the telephoto option on the phone to see if I could get a decent picture. It appears that it needs to be quite bright to focus properly and also has to be given a few seconds to focus as well. Still it was something to do while the float sat stationary apart from when I wound it in to change the depth. None of which made much difference.

I probably should have had a couple of swim baited up. One further out in the deeper water. There again I may have mad things worse by flitting between the two and not achieving anything. I don't fish stillwaters very much these days, apart from a bit of pike fishing so really need to up my game on them.

Pike Among The Cabbages

 I had a rather fascinating, and frustrating, session on a gin clear canal this morning. Twitching a 7cm Salmo Minnow about above the cabbages I was soon into a dinky little jack. I could see it dash out from under the plants and grab the lure. The next one to have go missed the lure by a few inches. I tried a straight retrieve but it wasn't interested. On the third go I stopped the lure in front of it. The jack just sat there bristling until I twitched the lure. Again it lunged at the lure but missed, instead it got itself foul hooked in the belly before coming adrift as I wound it in.

I then spent some time stalking deer to try and get a decent photo. I managed a couple of the two on the other side of the canal before spooking a pair of yellow hammer which in turn spooked the deer. So intent on the deer I had completely failed to see either of the rather vivid little birds.

Back to the fishing I had another dinky jack miss the lure. As it was turning for another go another little jack hit the lure head on. Despite the fair old thump I failed to connect with it. Next cast one or the other of them hit the lure broadside and was quickly on the bank.  A little while later I spotted the tail of a larger jack poking out from under a raft of weed. As I manoeuvred between the trees to get a cast at it I managed to spook two or three tench which scattered and spooked the jack which shot off at speed.

Another spot of deer stalking followed but I lost track of it as it jumped a hedge.  It did seem it was intent on going somewhere. As I wandered back the where I'd left the rod and net I spotted a small shoal of perch swimming along steadily. Tossing the lure about four foot ahead of them I waited until they were two foot away before commencing a steady wind. The shoal caught up with the lure and followed it all the way to the bank. Giving the lure a good twitch the smallest, not by much, of the shoal shot forward and grabbed the low. It was hooked and swung onto the bank in one move. It's shoal mates just stopped momentarily before swinging back out into the middle of the canal. I lost track of them while unhooking the one I'd caught.

I then had some more fun with dinky little jacks and their astonishing inability to hit the lure. They wouldn't take a lure on a steady retrieve, but seemed to have a lot of difficulty in hitting one that was been twitched  about. They weren't far away but seemed to attack the place the lure was. As I headed back to the car I spotted another shoal of a dozen, or so, smaller perch. Using the same tactic as before, landing the lure ahead of them, I soon had them following the lure. This time I gave if a goodly twitch after a yard and was met with an almighty thump as a fair sized jack hit the lure launching itself out of the water. After a right tussle on the light perch set up I had it in the net. A very tidy fish of 70cm. It had obviously been hiding under the cabbages and left quite a cloud of sediment where it had launched its attack.

Crossing the bridge as I headed back  I spotted a somewhat larger pike steadily swimming along. It looked seriously battered. Probably a result of spawning activity. I left it alone so it could go and hide and recover. 

I was surprised at the inability of the tiny jacks to hit the lure but I suppose most predators have to go through a learning stage. It was interesting to see in the gin clear water though. The clarity of the water also allowed me to manoeuvrer the lure around the plants. By keeping the rod tip high I could keep it above the cabbages, but by lowering ot I could run the lure deeper through the clear areas. With out the clarity I think I'd have spent most of my time pulling weed off the hooks.

A Quick Crank By The Canal

 I had a couple of hours spare this morning so decided on a quick session on the canal. Things didn't get off to a great start when the bail arm snap shut as I cast smacking the lure into the stonework and breaking the lip. A change to a different pattern Salmo Minnow 7 produced a small jack on the second cast. At this point a realised the unhooking mat was missing. After an extensive search I found it under the car. It must of dropped off and rolled under when I put the lure bag on.

Over the next ninety minutes three more jacks graced the net each one getting a bit bigger. They all put up quite spectacular fights on the light perch gear. Aerial acrobatics seemed to be the order of the day. By the time I was due to leave a strong gusty wind had got up making casting light lures a real problem. Twice I'd been lucky enough to retrieve the lure from a tree where it had been blown.

When I got back to the car I put the landing net down to see something moving in it. A small frog had got it's self into it. Not sure when it had got in . There was no sign of any damage so I don't think a pike had coughed it up. I placed it among the newly emerging reed mace. 

A bait angler fishing near the car wasn't having much luck for pike, and another lure angler was just starting. 

 

Attack of the Cut Price Prawns

I'd decided to have a go for the perch in the gravel pit especially as the supermarket had some prawns marked down. My only concern was  that I'd end up eating them all rather than use them as bait. The other bait was to be worms and they were breeding like wild fire in the wormery so I had plenty of brandlings for chopping up and a fair few lob worms as bait. The only problem I could see was that it was going to be a bright sunny day, so an early start was called for.

As I was first one there I had the choice of swims, and probably picked the wrong one. Tactics were simple. I'd float fish worms or smallish bits of prawn over ground bait and chopped worm. The other rod would be a feeder rod with chopped prawn and ground bait and one of the larger prawns on the hook. The float rod was fished between an overhanging tree and some tree roots. The feeder rod was out in the middle at the bottom of the bar.

The first hour produced nothing. It wasn't until the sun got up that I got the first bites. Initially I missed most of them. I changed from fishing the worm just off the bottom to fishing six inches over depth. Then a steady flow of hand size skimmers came in. I was still missing two out of three bites but little skimmers and lob worms is not the best mix. The prawn on the feeder rod was doing nothing so I tried worm for an hour to no avail, so back to the prawn.

Things went quiet for while on the float then the float bobbed along the surface. I struck into something heavy. Turning it away from the snag in front of me I thought I'd lost it until I saw the float whizzing towards me.  By the time I'd caught up with the fish it had swung right and a great cloud of bubbles came up from the bottom. It had clearly got into a snag. A bit of heave-ho and I could see the end of a branch rising in the water. Every thing then went slack. The hook length had parted about halfway along it's length. Not a clean break so I assume it had been abraded by the branch. I have no idea what I'd hooked, but I suspect a pike. Hook length replaced the next bite came on the drop and a dinky little jack was soon in the net.

After another quiet period I started taking small perch on the float. Not the bigguns I'd hoped for but at least it was the target species. After I'd had a few I change to the smaller prawns. Strangely I couldn't get a bite in them. Worm would produce, even a bunch of brandlings but not prawn. The sheer greed of little perch never ceases to amaze me. The lob worms were as long as some of the smaller ones.

 

I have no idea how many perch I caught by mid-afternoon when everything went quiet again. I'd alternated between large prawns, small prawns, bits of prawns and worms on the feeder rod but couldn't by a bite. I'd at least have expected a few few bleeps on the alarm from a nosy fish, but nothing. While other seem to catch on the feeder here I don't seem to be able to get anything much. I was also surprised to be on my own all day. A rethink may be needed for the big perch. Maybe they can't be targeted and you just have to fish for anything and hope one turns up.

 

Tip Ring Repair

 Following the rod breakage it was time for a repair. A visit to the local tackle shop secured the purchase of  a new guide. Slightly bigger than the previous one, but as it was the only one that would fit the bank it would have to do. The old intermediate was removed and the new one glued on with hot melt glue. The rod is now slightly shorter at 13' 6", instead of it's alleged 14'. It's actual length was 13' 10", 420cm. I really wish companies didn't use 30cm equals one foot.

Even More M'thud and Float Fishing

 I was quite surprise when I arrived at the gravel pit to find three other anglers already there and three more arrive through the morning. This meant all bar one swim taken. I'd come up with a cunning plan for today. Along side the method feeder out on the bar I's feed two swims for the float. One close to the tree roots was fed chopped worm and one further out was feed groundbait and maggots.

The day was not a sunny as previous and a chilly wind was blowing into the corner I was fishing. Definitely not T-shirt weather as I had to put a fleece on. Bites were scarce today, for me. Other were taking a few roach on feeder or float tactics. While other had even less bites than me. The far swim produced the most fish, all roach. The inside swim didn't until afternoon and then it was to maggots. Occasionally a couple of squabbling wrens to chase about to my right. A large crow kept landing in a tree opposite looking rather ominous. Plenty of alder beetles about again. A very noisy robin that seemed to prefer worms to maggots kept defying my attempts to photograph it.

The method rod was ignored again despite a fair collection of baits been tried. As mentioned earlier I couldn't get a bite on worm but maggot produced a small perch over the chopped worm. By mid-afternoon the wind had dropped and changed direction slightly. So the debris which was piled up in the corner started to drift about over my swims, but I persisted. I thought I'd hooked another jack at first, but the head thumps suggested a decent perch. After a brief battle and a couple of close shaves with the tree roots a nice perch estimated at 2lb graced the net. Weighed later I was surprised to see it turn the dial to 2lb 9oz. A couple more small roach came from the groundbait swim but what few bites I was getting dried up.

Despite the perch I really don't think I'm getting the best out of the swims I'm fishing. I also think the few stillwater floats I have are a bit ion the light side and need to invest in few heavier ones. I also need to tie up a better selection of hook lengths.

More M'thud, and Float Fishing

I don't do a great deal of still water fishing, especially float fishing. This can be seen by the paltry collection of floats I have for still water. While I have enough river floats to stock a small tackle shop the still water floats would barely make a counter display. Quite a few of them seem to be Angling Times give-aways from donkey's years ago as well. I was setting up in the opposite corner to yesterday, mainly to avoid squinting into the sun to see the float. After a fair bit of casting about I'd found a clear spot for the method feeder which was fished similar to yesterday.

For the float I'd decided to start with four large balls of ground bait and loose fed maggots over the top. The ground bait didn't seem to have the desired effect as it was a couple of hours before I got my first bite. As yesterday double maggot got the bites but were very hard to hit at times. Eventually I managed a dozen roach, a perch and a hybrid. In the mean time the method feeder had produced nothing until I put a scopes cream pellet on. I had several drop back bites but never contacted with any thing. They could have been liners, but eventually I managed a little skimmer. Not the slab I was hoping for. A second fish of similar size would have been added had it not got itself into the weed and come adrift. Should have held the rod higher.

Like yesterday it was not the most rewarding of days but apart from pike fishing I've done very little still water fishing and really need to get to grips with it again. An angler on the opposite bank to me seemed to have quite a few fish to the pole and another had three decent looking fish on feeder. I'll be having one more go on the bank holiday to see if I can get any better. There seemed to be quite a few fishing crashing and swirling in one area over the weeds. I suspect they may have been the larger bream spawning.