Nearly Cut Off By Flood Water

 When I arrived at the river it was up and slowly rising. By the time I'd found a swim it started to rise a lot faster. The swim I found had a slack on the far side and a large eddy on the near side. Initially 3oz was enough to hold on the far side, but very quickly 4oz then 5oz weren't enough especially given the amount of debris coming down. With the eddy slowly disappearing I dropped a 14mm pellet down the bank on the corner of the eddy. The 8mm pellet went down the bank under the rod tip to the left. Over the next three hours the river rose around four foot.

The rods were regularly dragged over by debris during this time. Much to my surprise I found a small gudgeon had attempt to swallow an 8mm pellet and managed to get itself hooked. I had seen some knocks on that rod but I assumed it was the twigs drifting around that were hitting the line. A while later while talking to a chap by the name of Ian, a reader of the blog, he pointed out that the other rod had lurched over. I had my back to it. After a brief but hectic fight a nice barbel was landed. We estimated around 7-8lb. It weighed in at 7lb 2oz.

Ian wander upstream to try a slack up there. I carried on for a while before noticing one of the banksticks was surrounded by water. The branch in the first couple of pictures was now drifting around in what was left of the eddy. I thought that if the river continued to rise it wouldn't be long before it was well and truly over the bank and into the meadow. Time to pack up. As I was packing up I discovered that the bottom of the rod holdall had a hole in it and the umbrella pole was poking through. Given it was nearly twenty years old the holdall hadn't done bad. Ian haddn't caught anything as I passed. When i got to the stile it was surrounded by a foot or so of water. I let Ian know and we both managed to get over it before we could be marooned, ended up filling our wellies.

 

Not a bad day considering. Nice and warm with the odd kite and buzzard drifting about. I'm sure the bag is repairable.

Definitely Not A Barbel

 With the rivers rising steadily on Thursday after the previous days rain It seemed like a bit of barbel fishing would be a good idea. Common sense would be to head to one of the known barbel spots, but not wanting to be common I headed to a stretch I'd only ever caught one barbel from. 

The river hadn't risen as far as I'd expected it to when I got there, but was moving through at a fair old rate. I suspect sluices were being opened to run water off. Ledger rigs baited with a pellet were dropped in close to the nearside bank. One upstream, one down.

The upstream rod was soon abandoned as the debris coming down, mainly leaves,  just dragged the lead  back towards me. Even with 5oz of lead.

One thing I noticed after a while was the lack of bird song. There's normally something making a noise down there. After a couple of hours I got my first bite which I suspected to be a chub. To my surprise a hand sized roach had taken the 8mm pellet and really whacked the tip round.

 That was it for the day. Once the lovely sunshine disappeared the big coat was out. I fished on to dusk but just added to my collection of leaves.

Barbel Session And A Half

 Friday, after a spot of River Fly Monitoring, I headed to the a river for a short session after barbel. With the river up and coloured conditions looked just right, but he lack of cars was a bit of a surprise. A wander about found three others fishing none of whom had had anything. I settled into a swim that normally produced when the rivers was a metre up. Standard pellet feeder and ledger tactics were used. One rod dropped in upstream next to what would normally be the bankside vegetation. The other downstream on the edge of a slack. Apart from a large branch and a lot of leaves there was no action at all.

 Sunday I went up to a stretch of river that years ago I wouldn't have considered deliberately fishing for barbel. Have have always been there but not in any numbers. They would occasional turn up for anglers fishing for other species but would often be lost. The barbel seem to have spread down the river to the point where they are worth fishing for along most of it's length. The unusual tactics were employed. Feeder and ledger with pellets. A14mm on one rod and 8mm on the other.

The weather was quite breezy by the time I got sorted. The sun was nice but kept being blotted out by the clouds. A woolly and fleece was required most of the time but a bit warm when the sun appeared for any length of time. The river was about a foot up and carrying colour. The feeder was dropped into a spot I knew to be around nine foot deep in these conditions. It was three quarters  filled with 4mm and 2mm pellets. the smaller pellets would drift out of the feeder while the larger ones would slowly dissolve leaving a scent trail. I'd found a tub of paste with a production date of 2018 at the back of the cupboard. I squeezed this onto the ledger which was tossed out into the middle. initially. After regularly having it dragged about by a build up of leaves or snagged twigs I cast it in upstream on the same line as the feeder rod.

The day wore on with very little happening. I replenished the feeder and paste at regular intervals.Tossed an assortment of pellets along the line the two baits were on. A kingfisher shot past every now and then. In the distance. Three buzzards performed aerobatics. The most entertaining, though, was a kestrel attempting to hunt but being harassed by a couple of crows. Late in the afternoon, as the temperature dropped, the downstream rod looped over and the baitrunner sounded. I wasn't sure what I'd connected with. At first I thought it may be a chub. then one of the larger feisty bream. But a small barbel surfaced. Once it saw the net it woke up a bit and took a couple of attempts to get it in. Only small but very welcome. While I rested it in the net after unhooking it I tossed the rod back out. Sorting the unhooking mat out and preparing for a picture the rod went over again. This one felt like a barbel. I was surprised, though, to find a similar sized fish on the hook when i got it to the surface. My attempt to land it with the other in the net didn't quite work as planned as the first fish made a dash for freedom the moment I sunk the net, so no brace shot.

That little flurry of action was it for the day. Mission had been accomplished though. Unlike the first the second barbel was rather reluctant to leave the net. I ha to leave a bit earlier than I'd of liked but I didn't fancy navigating the muddy pot-holed track in the dark. Even in day light I'd managed to clunk the bottom of the car.

 

I don't know if these are stocked fish. They didn't look like the stockies as they are normally a bit tubby while these were quite lean.

Last Day Of The Trout Season (For Me)

 Today was the last day of the trout season for me. Tomorrow, Tuesday, looks pretty shite weather wise and I just don't fancy fishing in the rain and wind. Not that today was any good anyway. A chilly overcast day in which I flung all manner of flies about and failed to elicit a take from anything. So here are some pictures of the beck.

Only six months to go and we start again.

Two Days To Go

 Two days to go until the end of the trout season and Monday looking pretty dire weather wise I headed out to the beck. Not too early as we'd had our first frost of Autumn. The beck was a couple of inches up and carrying a peaty tinge. It doesn't take much to alter the behaviour of a small beck like this. Some of the slacks were now more like whirl pools and various bits of debris had been washed down. I did pick up quite a few twigs while fishing. With little or no insects about I intended to fish Little Bugger Jig flies. If that didn't work a Gold Head PTN was my next option.

I spent some time drifting a white Little Bugger about in some deeper holes with out success. A change to a heavier Olive version produced a couple of tentative tugs in one swim but that was all. I then tried a Gold head PTN but this was really too light for a lot of the holes failing to get down before reaching the end. I made my was back to the car for a cuppa and a rethink.

The beck was getting a bit clearer and dropping slightly by the time I'd finished my cuppa. I opted for the Olive Little Bugger again. The second swim I tried that produced the tentative tugs first time round produced a solid take. After a bit of thrashing about a nice 11½" Brown trout. Scale samples were removed in the prescribed manner and placed in the envelope. The little beastie rested in the net before being released. Plenty of time for a couple more I thought. Unfortunately as I headed to the next hole I wrong footed myself stabbing the bank with the tip of the rod. I now had a five piece rod instead of four piece.

Most of the time I have three or four rods in the car, but Sod's Law I only had the one, so that was that. Oh well. Still two days to go, but Monday looks dire so maybe just the one.

The End Is Near

 The end of the trout season is fast approaching here in Yorkshire and as often seems the case the weather is trying to ruin the last few days. The salmon & sea trout anglers  are over the moon with the prospect of the rivers being given a bit of a lift. I on the other hand have a limited time to extract a few brown trout from one of the becks for some scale samples. 

Tuesday I ventured forth to said beck in an attempt to catch a couple of browns. Having had a bit of a wander around, noting the fallen trees that will need to be moved so as they're parallel to the bank, I decided nymphing or streamers would probably be the best choice with no obvious fly life about.

 

First fly on the end of a sort of Euro style nymphing rig was a small PTN Jig. After battling my way through somewhat excessive vegetation and fallen trees I arrived at a deep, three foot, pool. First drift through with the nymph produced a take which I missed. A couple more drifts and a chublet took firm hold of the nymph. This was quickly followed by a second. A drift around the far side of the pool produced a small perch which had engulfed the nymph. The little horror managed to spike me as I unhooked it and returned to the depths with out a photo. A few more drifts produced nothing other than a few leafs.

I continued up the stretch to the top. dropping the nymph into any likely looking hole. Nothing seemed to be hungry in these spots. Mostly I seemed to be snagging twigs and leaves. At the top of the stretch I partook of lunch. A change of fly was called for. A small white jig come Woolly Bugger thing was put on. Bouncing it about in a deepish hole at the top of the length produced a a tentative tug which turned into a 15" Rainbow trout. Not what I was after but  another escapee is removed.

I continued dropping the lure into the deeper holes with very little to show. I did get a vicious take in one spot that only succeeded in ripping a lot of the tail from the lure. A change to n olive version didn't fair any better. Nor did a black one. Oh well a few more days to go before the end of the season which is surely enough to capture a couple of the browns. I did, however, add to my species tally from this section of beck. I now have Brown & Rainbow trout, Dace, Chub, Minnow, and Perch on rod and line. Along with Bullhead, and Lamprey during river fly sampling. The damned Himalayan Balsam doesn't seem to be going away either, with more plants popping up here and there.

Nice But Nuisance Grayling

 Thursday started a bit chilly but came out bright and sunny. A typical Autumn day really. While bright and sunny is rather nice for a spot of River Fly Monitoring it isn't really great for trout fishing. No shortage of Baetis and Gammerus. A surprise Stonefly nymph was found. A first for the beck.

Site 3 19 Sept 2024, 10 am	Count	ARMI   2 Bullheads
Cased Caddis	25	2
Caseless Caddis	2	1
Baetis	600	3
Stonefly	1	1
Blue Winged Olive	1	1
Heptagens	0	0
Mayfly	0	0
Gammerus	500	3
Trigger level = 6	ARMI score total =	11

Site 4  11:00 am	Count	ARMI   Bloodworm
Cased Caddis	8	1
Caseless Caddis	9	1
Baetis	105	3
Stonefly	0	0
Blue Winged Olive	5	1
Heptagens	0	0
Mayfly	0	0
Gammerus	120	3
Trigger level = 7	ARMI score total =	9

After lunch we participated in a spot of angling. I had a wander upstream while the others had a wander downstream. As expected it was tough going in the bright sunshine. It was nice to see the pods of grayling up and down the length. These though would become a nuisance later.

 

A the only fish rising were the little grayling I avoided dry flies a stuck with nymphs drifting them next to the weed beds euro style. The only tout I saw were escapee rainbows. Thy did a great job of ignoring my offerings most of the time. When they did show interest a grayling would usually dive in before them. I was interesting watching the grayling's reaction to the small nymphs. The silver bead one was generally ignored. They seemed to prefer the copper bead, along with the killer bug and a black spider.

 I took several of the little grayling despite me trying to avoid them. Apart from one, for a photo, the rest were shaken from the barbless hook in the water. The others had given up earlier than me and moved on to a more productive water. I did do a spot of balsam bashing though. A pleasant day by a beck even so.

Sunshine And Swans

 As it was a glorious sunny day and the river was nearby I had a couple of hours chucking a feeder into it. A few maggots, turning to casters, and some hemp all left over from last week were to be used up. One thing that puzzled me was the bank side vegetation had been nibbled at but there were no beats in the filed. Nor had there been for sometime. This was solved as I tackled up the feeder rod. Three cygnets swim up and when I offered them nowt they started munch on the vegetation before making their way up stream. Strangely there were no adults in sight. It's not very often I've seen cygnets with out the adults before they get their adult plumage.

First drop in with the feeder and the tip shot round. A cute little minnow being the first fish of the day. A couple more followed all producing positive tugs on the tip. The little roach that followed only managed to produce a pathetic rattle on the tip.

How these little things get a size 16 and double maggot in their mouths I don't know. A few more of them followed. The final minnow of the session was grabbed by something as I wound in. Not a pike but a 1lb perch had taken it for a change. Amazingly the slightly battered minnow was still on the hook and swam away when released. Another smaller perch followed a couple of casts later. The a steady procession of gudgeon then followed.

During the lull that followed a family of swans swam sedately upstream.

Followed a little later by a cygnet that seemed to be desperately trying to catch them up.

With about half an hour to go before I had to be away a shoal of decent dace showed up in the swim. I'd had fourteen of them before with ten minutes to go. While I was checking the time on the phone I put the rod on the rest with the chewed maggots dangling a few inches below the surface. I saw the swirl as a little jack took a fancy to them. I didn't mess about, bundling it into the net as quick as I could. This brought proceedings to an end as it must have bitten through the line while in the net. No point in retackling now as I couldn't be late for my appointment.

Not a bad little session sat in a t-shirt watching a quiver tip bounce about.

More Slider Fishing

 Thursday was a fine autumnal type day. Sun with a chill wind. Too warm for a woolly, too cold for a t-shirt. I'd ventured down to another deep stretch that's kind of defeated me over the years, apart from winter pike fishing. Others do well on it with some nice bags of roach. Some of us, though, tend to spend our time scratching about for the odd fish here and there. The swim I choose, for no good reason, was around twelve foot deep. With 1 fifteen foot rod I could have fished a fixed float, but a breezy day and high bankside vegetation can make casting such a rig awkward. I, instead, set up a 6g Dave Harrell slider float. For a large rather bulky looking float it is remarkably sensitive.

Having had a few trots down with out any bait on to see if there was any snags of whatever. I then lobbed in a few balls of groundbait laced with maggots and chopped worm. While I left the swim to settle I had a cuppa. I then had a couple of casts with a maggot feeder to get some maggots in the swim. I'd misplaced my bait-dropper and this was the only way of getting them down to the bottom with out the minnows and bleak intercepting them.

First few trots through produced either small gudgeon or tiny roach. I then took a small bream. The next cast I had a similar sized fish but after a couple of turns of the reel handle it was snatched by a pike. New hook length and out again. Every half dozen or so trots I  tossed the maggot feeder out  to get more bait down. After this the fish would arrive in twos and threes then things would go quiet. By afternoon I was get a lot of unmissable bites that I couldn't hit. A change to caster produced less bites but these were hittable. I did try worm, worm & maggot, and worm & caster on the feeder rod but only got a few rattles.

 

As usual things hadn't gone as well as I'd hoped. Thirty three fish, plus a few minnows, for five hours fishing. I will get the better of this stretch one day.

Sliding Down The River

 Thursday wasn't looking great weather wise. Overcast, drizzly, windy, an easterly at that, but you just never know. I wandered down the stretch a bit to just above a large sweeping bend. The wind wasn't too bad but gusting downstream. A bit of plumbing showed there to be nearly fifteen foot of water. With this in mind I rigged up a 5SSG sliding waggler with a 5g olivette a couple of feet above the hook. The weight should get the double maggot bait past most of the bleak and minnows that tend to appear. Half a dozen tennis ball sized balls of ground bait laced with chopped worm and maggots were flung in with remarkable accuracy. The gudgeon were the first to move onto the bait after a little while.

It was a fish a chuck with a couple of dozen soon amassed. Three or four dace soon followed before it it went quiet. A couple more balls of ground bait wee added. After some adjustment of the depth so that it was fishing over depth a steady precession of hand sized roach. Again as the bites tailed off I put out a couple more balls of groundbait. The next few fish were tiddlers and minnows, before the roach returned.

I then put the kibosh on matters. Having thought to myself that it had been nice not to get pestered by pike the very next roach was grabbed by a pike. After a minute or so of battle it let go of the roach. With no more bites even after fiddling with the depth I hurled in the last of the ground bait. Sone after a rather fine Ruffe turned up.

A bit more depth fiddling followed as I was not getting any more bites. With the bait an inch or two off the bottom. Some thing a bit bigger took the bate. The thump thump as I played it suggested a perch. A rather nice fish of 1lb 7oz. Next cast produced another a couple of ounce bigger. A couple more trots down I hooked another which felt even bigger. Unfortunately it came adrift.

I fished on but only got the occasional chewed maggot, the odd tiny minnow, and a bleak. Not a bad haul in the end considering the gusty downstream wind and occasional bouts of drizzle.