The Stile of Doom

 Having successfully negotiated The Stile Of Doom, the one that maimed me last year, and got to the top of the hill I had my first sight of the river. It looked wider, browner, and deeper than it should have. I'd looked at the levels the night before, at that time it was dropping having risen nearly eighteen inches the night before.  I'd forgotten about the second wave of rain that moved across The Dales which had lifted it again. I decided to give it a go even so. There river has plenty of bends here so there should be a few slacks  on the inside of the bends.

After a bit of a trudge I found half-a-dozen slacks into which I drop a few bits of chopped up fish soaked in sardine oil. The first swim I fished surprised me being nearly ten foot deep a foot from the bank and nearly fourteen foot three foot further out. First bait out of the cool bag was a lamprey section, so this was dropped a foot from the bank on a float ledger rig. There it sat for forty minutes or so before being moved further out. After a half hour or so I put a smaller weight on and shallowed up so the bait was about a foot from the bottom and let the float drift about for fifteen minutes. 

On to the next swim and the same tactics although this swim was somewhat shallower at eight foot. With no action after ninety minutes I moved on. As I arrived at the third swim there was a splash and a swirl. Pike feeding I thought (hoped). The furry face of an otter popped up took one look at me and dived again. I wondered if it had been feeding on the fish bits I'd tossed in earlier. Despite the otter I gave it a go while I had a cuppa. As it was a tad bigger than the other swims I put half a small mackerel out on the ledger rod in the main current. It took four ounces of lead to hold bottom. Again a blank. I did wonder whether to spend a bit longer in the swim but decided my best hope was to move. 

The fourth swim was a snag pit. I could feel the lead hitting branches on the way down. By now the river had dropped six inches and the fifth slack had all but disappeared. I tried dropping a bait in but it was soon dragged out into the main current. The sixth slack, though, had turned into a larger slack, so out went both baits. I spent two and a half hours in this swim as I was now hungry so spent lunch time there as well. Not that the extra time help as nothing was feeding  apparently. A bit of a scout round and another slack had appeared where there wasn't one before. Again devoid of feeding fish.

 

 

That was it one otter, an egret, some long tail tits, and no fish. The Wharfe is  bit of a bogey water for me when it comes to pike. I've had more pike attack swim feeders and maggots when I've been winding in than I've hooked and landed while pike fishing. I'll crack it one day though, provided I remember to look at the water levels before I set off.