Weekend on the Navigation - Now With Added Pike

 Arriving at the navigation I found cars strewn everywhere. According to the web site  there wasn't a match on so I assumed it was the new moon rush for the pike. Turned out it was, sort of. It was a PAC get together. I saw one pike come out and believe another had been caught.

I headed in the opposite direction flinging all many of large lures about with out any sign of a pike. As I returned towards the car for a cuppa I met a couple of anglers I'd met before. One of whom had a small pike first cast. I had my cuppa and headed back with a lighter set up. A variety of lighter lure were chucked about with little success until a mighty thump on a Jerkster. Consider how hard the lure was hit the pike came in like a wet blanket. I chinned it and lifted it clear of the water. It was then it decided to put up a fight. The lure went one way the pike the other, skinning my knuckles as it went. A fish of 5-6lb but a pike at last. Time was now running out. As I headed back to the car a bait angler had a fish slightly larger than mine. The two anglers I'd met earlier had had nothing else.

The next session headed further down the navigation. The swans seemed quite happy paddling about the flooded field. While over the other side some twitchers were playing spot the duck, or something. It was a warmer more pleasant day than previous. I started off with a spot of perch fishing under the bridge and eventually managed to winkle four fish out. Little perch like that shouldn't be so hard to catch.

AS I was having a cuppa contemplating whether to fish for perch or pike another lure angler turned up on the opposite bank. He seemed to be having a bit of a problem with his baitcaster. Whether he was new to it or what I don't know. As I finished my cuppa a few fish scattered ahead of a large swirl. I already put a SG Da Bush spinnerbait on with the intention of trawling it along the edge for pike so cast beyond the swirl.  The bait had probably travelled some ten yards along the edge when it went solid, then swung out into the cut. The pike put up a very spirited fight before giving up and allowing me to chin it. A 90cm fish of 8lb 10oz.

I then spent the next hour or so chucking the spinnerbait about but didn't see another pike. When I got back to the bridge a cormorant was happily sunning it's self on the far bank. I flicked the lure over which hit the stone work and had the bird dive into the water. I looked up and down for it to reappear which it did along way down. I'm still surprised how far and how fast these things can swim underwater.

Two sessions. A pike on each. Not brilliant but things are getting better. With another storm on it's way I'm not sure where's go to be fishable later in the week. Somewhere will be and hopefully the fish will get bigger and better.

I Picked The Wrong Day

Barbel or pike. Thursday or Friday. These were the choices on Wednesday. The weather forecast for both days was much of a muchness. I had other things to do involving other people as well. Friday was agreed on for the other things, so Thursday was fishing day. Thursday morning the weather forecast had changed a bit, with a rain rather than drizzle. It didn't look too bad when I got up though. I decided against flood water barbel fishing as I really didn't fancy the steep slippy banks above a fast flowing river. A trip to the gravel pit where I could hide under a brolly looked more inviting. The rain had stopped when I got there but it continued under the trees where I would be sat.

I moved one swim away from my last visit. A small trout was tossed out under the trees to my left and a large smelt out to the weed bed in front. The rain then turned up as expected. Looking at the weather forecast and rain radar on the phone it was going to be like this for the rest of the day. Bands of rain sweeping through with clear intervals. Not that it mattered under the trees as it would carry on raining under them. Apart from fog, Friday was now looking a lot better day. After an hour the rain eased and I tried the old cup of tea trick. This seemed to fail until I took my last mouthful. The float near the weed bed slowly trundle away, left to right. Winding down and sticking I came into contact with nothing. I retrieved the rig to find the tail section of the smelt attached to the hooks. The head section neatly chopped off. I put another large smelt on and cast back to the weed bed. I was about to chop the tail up for a bit of groundbait when the float under the tree moved away. Again I failed to contact with anything. As the trout had gone I put the tail on and cast back under the tree. Unfortunately I got just a little bit too close to the overhanging branch and in pulling free the tail fell off, so I did end up using it as groundbait. A small smelt was attached and cast under the tree with out any mishaps. 

 

More rain came down and the floats remained nearly motionless except when the rain hit them. Lunch passed peacefully. As I started to make my afternoon cuppa a few bait fish scattered the other side of the weed bed. As I finished the cuppa more bait fish scattered near the float little while later the float moved right to left very slowly. A strike yielded nothing but a chewed smelt which I cast back to the weeds. It wasn't in the water long before the float stated to bob about. I wasn't sure if I'd contacted anything when I struck but it became apparent that the fish was heading towards me. Once I connected with it again it came in like a wet rag. I carefully chinned it but as I got to the mat it woke up for a moment and drew blood. It did, however, throw the hooks which saved a bit of messing about. 74cm of apathy.

 

I'd run out of large smelt But found a large 9" roach. Out this went to the weed bed. More heavy rain turned up. During a short lull the float by the weed bed shot away at speed before coming to a halt. Winding down I could feel nothing. I gave it a bit of a twitch and left it. Off it went again. I quickly struck but contacted with nothing again. Back came a chewed roach which went back out to the weed bed. The float under the tree then moved about a little bit. I wound down and thought I'd snagged a branch, but as it came to the surface a little killer cucumber had hold of the head of the smelt nowhere near the hook. As I grabbed the leader it let go. The chewed smelt went back under the tree. As the rain eased off I had a look at the rain radar and there was a reasonable gap in the rain which looked like a good time to pack all the soggy gear away as it looked like the next band of rain would last into dark. I'd got everything in the car except the mat unhooking tools and the rod out by the weed bed. As I went to retrieve it I tripped/slipped on a combination of tree root, wet leaves and mud. As I landed on my arse I simultaneously kicked the rod off the rest. I sat there for a moment watching the float disappear into the weed bed and the rod heading into the lake. Thankfully the reel snagged the rod rest and I was able to grab the rod. There appeared to be a fish on the end but it was well into the weed bed. All I could do was heave and hope. eventually the fish cleared the weeds and kited round to my right taking line against the drag. I began to wonder if I'd finally caught a twenty from the gravel pit. When I finally caught a glimpse it was clearly somewhat smaller than that. Eventually a very tidy pike of 90cm and just under 10lb was on the mat.

I pondered staying but the rain had started  again and I really couldn't be bothered any more. The last fish had put up a damn good account of it's self so I ended on a high. I suspect there were a lot of small fish feeding. They tend to pick baits up and wander about with them for quite a while. I like to strike quite quickly so they wouldn't have time to turn the bait and swallow it. Gone are the days of reciting the Lord's Prayer before striking.

 

 A rather frustrating and soggy day that came good in the end.

Weekend on the Navigation

 Originally I'd planned on a spot of floodwater barbel fishing over the weekend, but I had my family taxi duties on Saturday then I was reminded by a friend we were going to chuck some pike lures around in the navigation. The barbel would have to wait. As I had a bit of time between taxi duties I took a lure rod with me for a bit of a fling about. The canal was pushing through with a lot of rubbish and the likes been pushed along as well. The river was just under the top of the flood banks which would have had the locals worrying as three years ago it overtopped them and made a right mess of houses and businesses.

 

I had a couple of hours flinging lures about on the navigation which looked in remarkably good order considering. I'd expected water from the river to be pushed into it to provide a bit of relief to the flood banks. Despite my best efforts I only managed to attract one pike which followed the lure to within three foot of the bank then sat there seeming hypnotised as I pulled the lure back and forth in front of it. As I lifted the lure from the water it shot away never to be seen again. One angler had had a pike on fly and another a decent perch but that seemed to be it.

Sunday the navigation had dropped six inches and was pushing through a bit. There was also a tad more colour to the water. This time I took two rods. I was going to concentrate on perch but had the pike rod with me in case they decided to feed. My mate just had his pike rod. While I managed some dozen or so little perch on our two mile wander my mate had nothing. Not even a follow. Back at the car he managed to winkle out a couple of little perch on my rod to avoid a blank. We moved spots to a section where we'd both had pike in the past but we again failed to elicit any response. By now there navigation was pulling through again. A couple of other lure anglers we spoke to had had no luck either. My mate and I decided that the pub may be a good idea.

 
I had been thinking that my lure chucking skills, especially for pike, had deserted me, but as nearly everybody else seems to be failing at the moment I feel a bit better about them. Still plenty of season left to prove they're still with me.

Waiting For Babet

 With the imminent arrival of storm Babet I'd been watching the weather forecasts. Thursday had been looking the best day for fishing. Not too wet not too windy. The amount of wet varied day to day but the various forecasts I look at all seemed to be in agreement right up to early Thursday morning when there seemed to be some disagreement about how long it would rain for. Anything between an hour and four hours. As it turned out it was about three hours of drizzle starting around ten and a twenty minute heavy shower in the afternoon. Nor did it get very windy at all.

 I thought of fishing a river but I suspected that the rivers would be already rising and end up at an awkward height where you couldn't be at the bottom of the steep banks so would end up quite high up. Also if things did turn nasty I didn't want to be far from the car. I therefore ended up at the gravel pit. I opted for one of the corner swims with plenty of features. Lilies and tree roots to the right. A couple of beds of Arrow Head in front. I tossed out a couple of balls of liquidised bread near the lily pad and the tree roots to attract some bait fish, hopefully.

A small roach was dropped by the lily pad and a medium smelt went out towards the first patch of Arrow head. Just after the drizzle started and as I was pouring hot water into my cup the far float shot into the weed bed and stopped. Having careful placed the kettle and cup were they wouldn't come to any harm, or harm me, I wound down and struck. It felt like I'd either pulled the bait out of the pike's mouth or it had been dropped and I'd just ripped some weed out. Muttering under my breath I started to wind in what felt like a big lump of weed. Some five yards out a weed free pike surfaced and all hell broke loose for a minute or so before it gave up again and came in peacefully. A fish of 84cm. Not a bad start.

During a lull in the drizzle several bait fish scattered near the tree roots. A good sign until a coot popped up. I don't know if they're capable of catching fish but I'm sure it would look like a predator to the baitfish. Even so I moved the small roach to near the roots. As I started to prepare my pot noodle thing the far float moved away from the weed patch rather slowly. Again the kettle and food was stowed carefully before I struck. A smaller fish of 75cm that put up more of a fight on the bank.

That was it for the day despite moving the baits around what should be pike holding feature. I was surprised the lilies didn't produce as there's normally a small jack hiding in there. Judging by the lack of bait fish scattering I don't think the pike were on the prowl. I've never done particularly well in heavy rain for pike but drizzle has never been a problem.

 

Time to batten down the hatches and await Friday's tempest. I have my barbel gear readied for a bit of floodwater fun but I suspect with the amount of rain predicted they may well rise every quickly.

The Passing of William Jessop

 As I looked over the bridge  A couple of the CRTs work boats passed by on their way to repair the bank further down. The first was William Jessop and the second was Wharfe Ⅱ. 

I set off with both a pike rod and a perch rod. Really I was after pike but as they can be a tad uncooperative I'd taken the perch rod along just to prevent a blank. After an hour and a half of fling pike lures about in the bright chilly conditions I met a couple of other anglers who'd been fishing for three hours for just one little jack and where now heading back for a warming cuppa. This seemed like a good idea. As I was gathering my kit together I noticed a few small baitfish scatter very close to the bank and could see three decent perch attacking. I flicked out a Salmo Minnow and a couple of twitches later I was in. It wasn't one of the three I'd seen but a smaller fish that had grabbed the lure. A welcome blank saver. I fished around the area for another fifteen minutes but failed to attract anything else. Back at the bridge I changed lure to a Z-Man TRD TicklerZ™ . Second cast and I was in to what felt like a good fish. A rather nice perch of 32cm. Having unhooked it I flicked the bait into the water and prepared to take a photo when i noticed the rod tip bouncing about. A tiny little perch had grabbed the bait as it dangled by the edge. By now the boat traffic had suddenly increased. Four boats were heading towards me and looking through the bridge there was three more heading my way. Time for a cuppa while they sorted themselves out taking it in turns to go through the narrow bridge.

By the time I'd finished my cuppa all was quiet on the water, no boats in sight. I just took the perch rod with me, along with a smaller landing net. It took a while to find then perch. Strangely they weren't in the shadow of the bridge but out in the sunshine. They were obviously a lot of tiny perch down there judging by the rattles I was getting. Eventually I had half dozen perch in the landing net. Things then went quiet for a while before I hooked another. As I wound it in it suddenly got very heavy and shot under the bridge. After a couple of minutes I had it heading back towards me. As I got it to the surface, the perch still in it's mouth, it made another bid for freedom and the hook came adrift. It had been bent out. I grabbed the pike rod out of the car and put on a perch pattern lure. If it was prepared to hang onto the perch for that long maybe it was very hungry and would have a go at the lure. After a dozen or so casts I change to a loud lime green lure in the hope of shocking it into an attack. This didn't work either.

By now it was just about time to leave as I had to be elsewhere. I had a couple more casts with the perch rod before I got snagged up. Unable to ping the lure free I had to pull for a break. I did know about the snag as I'd lost lures on it in the past. As had others. Nobody seems to know what it is but it must have a fair collection of lure attached to it. Whatever it is it's not ferrous as the magnet fisherman have never got their magnets attached to it. Not a bad day although I wish the pike would be a bit more cooperative when I'm down there.

A Tad Nippy

For the first time since spring I had to scrape ice off the car window. I even packed the big coat, though I ended up not needing it. Arriving at the car park I found two other cars there and a couple of carp anglers. By the time I'd got set up in a swim near the island the sun had poked through and it was looking like a nice autumn day.

The usual float rigs were to be used. A small trout was dropped a rod length or so out where the pike tend to patrol. A large smelt was dropped in a deeper hole near the end of the island that had produced pike in the past. The was quite a green tinge to the water still and it got more intense to my right which was down wind. The first run came after an hour to the smelt. A little scrapper of a jack at 74cm. I also got my bait back which is a plus, so out it went again.

Another hour passed before the float on the inside moved away. As I stuck the other float moved off. I grabbed that rod and struck and felt a bit of resistance then nothing. Dropping that rod I retrieved the little jack of 68cm on the other.  I didn't have any more large smelt so put out a small mackerel instead. Another little trout was dropped on the inside.

Another hour passed before I got another run. Again it was the inside float that moved away, but this time I failed to contact with anything. There appeared to be no teeth marks on the bait either. As I had lunch the was a sudden influx of anglers. The number triple in half an hour. I've not seen that many on here for a long long time. It did mean, though, that the swim I was going to move to after lunch was now taken, so I stopped put. Mid afternoon the float near the island moved towards me. I wound down to the fish and struck into what felt like another small fish. As I got it near the bank it woke up and set of with a fast run straight into the other rig. This made quite a mess but I managed to chin it with out too much fuss. A fish of 80cm, around 7-8lb I reckoned.

As I went to return it gave a final thrash and drew blood. This made untangling the rigs a bit problematic, but I managed. I didn't realise how much blood had oozed out but the braid was well soaked in it. Whether this would attract the pike I didn't know. It may have repelled them as I didn't have another run. Still three fish out of a possible five isn't so bad.

The Right Wellies - Clay Pit 2

When I arrived at the clay pit a gentleman was already there struggling with the combination lock. I had a wrestle with it but it seemed awful stiff and was very uncooperative. There had been an email about people tampering with the lock so he assumed that's what it was. After a couple of attempts he decided that even if we managed to get in getting out was a higher priority and he didn't fancy being stuck behind the gate, so off he went else where. While I pondered what to do I had another go. A gent walking his dog told me you had to press the shackle into the lock while turning the numbers. Sure enough this worked although the lock still seemed a bit iffy. Never the less I decided to venture in. Especially as I had the correct wellies and had remembered the liquidised bread.

 

Having got in and the gate locked again I set off round the lake with a lure rod. I managed a couple of half hearted follows from jacks but I only had three or four casts in each swim before moving on. One noticeable thing was the lack of fish activity. Nothing topping, no carp splashing about. The two follows were in swims that looked very pikey. Lily pads. Norfolk Reed, and a fallen tree being very inviting. Set up in the first swim I'd had a follow in. A large smelt dropped next to the fallen tree and a small trout suspend under a float near the lily pad. A handful of liquidised bread tossed out near the float to attract any bait fish.

After an hour or so with nothing to show, despite moving the baits about I contemplated moving, but it was rather close to luncheon. Move then have lunch or have lunch then move. I decided on the former. No sooner had I got my Katsu Curry ready when the trout float, now next to the Norfolk Reeds, moved away. Striking into the run a small branch popped out of the water. Thankfully the lunatic little jack shook it off. It fought all the way to the net and for some time after. Another little trout went out, back next to the lily pad and i carried on with lunch. I'd just finished when the float shot under the lilies. I struck but the bait had been dropped. Staring at the float with annoyance it shot off again. This time I connected. Another small looney jack thrashed about the swim before being netted.

Having had a cuppa I moved swims. This one had a larger lily pad and a fair bit of Norfolk reed for the pike to hide in. The same baits were used and moved about the features at regular intervals but nothing more showed. I had another wander with the lure rod to no avail. Just before I considered departing a carp angler arrived. A point disappointed that I'd seen no carp activity. He did give me some info on another venue I'd been regularly told had no pike. He'd also lubricated the lock which as I found out made life a lot easier.

First couple of pike of the new season, even if not big were welcome. Especially as they were  from a venue I'd not pike fished before.