Stick N Pin N Pike

 It was quite a cool morning as I arrived at the river. Very pleasant indeed, but I know it was going to get hotter. I intended to do a spot of stick n pin fishing so wandered along the flood  bank looking for a suitable swim. It wasn't long before I found one that looked good. A bit of a steep descent into it though. Once on the bank I quickly set up a small chubber float with a couple of SSG shot. I'd not fished here for a long time so didn't know much about the state of the swims. I trotted the rig through a few times until I'd found the depth, just under five foot. I'd not found any snags or weed either. The chubber was then replaced with a 3 No6 wire stemmed stick float. A few trots through with out any bait just to check the depth etc. again and I was under way. Two maggots on the hook and a few tossed into the swim and the float disappeared. and the first fish appeared. A tiny roach.

The next fish was a small gudgeon taken a bit further down the swim. Feeding a few maggots each cast I either got a small roach half down or a gudgeon the the end of the swim. After a few of these a dace was little dace was taken on the drop. This is how it continued for a bout half an hour before a pike grabbed a roach i was bringing in. Ripping it from the hook.

Next cast the float shot upstream. Another larger pike had grabbed the maggots on the drop. While I was playing it three jacks came downstream close to the bank. This was not looking good. Eventually a 30" 6lb 15oz was in the net. After a bit of a lull the same pattern as previous returned. All small fish though. Again a fish was grabbed by a pike as I was reeling it in but this time I was bitten off. Again things went quiet for a while before some larger roach showed up. Which were more than welcome. Then another pike showed up grabbing a roach as I brought it in. A tiny little jack that decide to put on a display of tail walking before both came adrift.

 

The morning was now getting warmer and judging by the fish scattering near the weed on the far bank the pike were just as active as ever. It was back to the little dace and gudgeon came back but he bites were harder to hit. I tied feeding  twice per trot but this didn't seem to help matters. As I was winding in after a trot down with out a bite another fair sized pike grabbed the spinning maggots. After a brief battle I was bitten off again. That was it. Time to go. So I did. Besides I'd nearly run out of bait. One thing I noticed on my way back was the number of grasshoppers in the field. None of them would stop still long enough for a photo though. Nice to see as they are another inverabrate that seems to be in short supply in many places.

An Incomplete Guide To Short Range Feeder Fishing

 I set out early Tuesday morning in the hope of avoiding the worst of the hot muggy day. It had been my intention the float fish along the edge of a swim I'd fished before. This was not to be though. A bit of plumbing after running the Deeper through the swim showed it to be five foot deep before dropping to seven and a half foot very quickly before rising to six foot equally quickly. I'd accidentality landed the feeder in the hole which had got me a fair few fish last time. It was about four foot from the bank and a couple of rod lengths downstream. So out with the feeder rod and a 30g blackcap. Double maggot as usual. First fish up was a gudgeon. This was soon followed by the inevitable minnow.

There was then a bit of a lull before the next bite. A bit of a rattle then the tip pulled over looking for all the world like a bream bite. The strike showed otherwise. Clearly a perch from the thump, thump, thump. A nice one at that. Over the next forty minutes eight more followed. Most over the pound mark and most with a mouth full of maggots. One smaller fish had a different mouthful in the shape of a small fry and a 4" skinned bullhead.

After the run of perch it again went quiet. I took the opportunity to have a breakfast cuppa. During this time there wasn't a single rattle to the tip. I did, however, nearly end up in the river one one of the chair legs disappeared into a hole. I had to carefully rearrange the seat after that.  After a recast I nearly got the rod ripped out of the rod rest. All I ended up with though was a scale and a couple of chewed maggots. The next cast the rod was still in my hand and the feeder hadn't hit bottom when the rod wrenched over. A bit of a frantic battle ensued for a minute or so before a jack pike came thrashing to the surface. Neatly hooked in the scissors it must have taken the maggots on the drop.

After another lull the bites came thick and fast. I think I hit one in four. There was all sorts down there. You didn't know what was coming up next. Roach, dace, chub, gudgeon all put in an appearance over the next hour or so. Mainly small fish which accounted for the poor hook up rate. I suppose a smaller hook and a single maggot may have solved this problem but I was getting enough fish anyway.

By now the heat was getting a bit much for. I'm not a hot weather person, but sweat dripping down you while you're sat still is a bit silly. I cast out again but something was a bit odd. The feeder never hit the bottom but the line had gone slack. Winding in a came into contact with something in front of me which continued up stream. It felt a bit bigger than everything bar the pike. Eventually I got it to the surface and found I was into another jack. This proved to be a little bugger at the net. Four times it jumped out before I got it on the bank. I did think of packing up then but had a few last casts with the remainder of the maggots. I got bites the moment the feeder hit the bottom. Bleak a shoal of bleak had moved in. Now was the time to pack up. I wasn't faffing about trying to catch beak on a feeder rod.

It wasn't a bad mornings fishing especially as I haven't done particularly well early morning on rivers. Normal evening had been better. I may have to try mornings more often.

If Only The Trout Were As Numerous As The Balsam

It was rather still and muggy when I arrived at the beck on Thursday. Looking around there was precious little in the way of bugs and flies about.Not even the smuts and midges that are often seen were about.  I'd only recorded THREE bugs on my numberplate with Bugs Matter on the 30 mile journey there.

Given the lack of fly life I opted for a spot of nymph fishing. I also opted to head upstream from the bridge/ford, something I'd not done before. It was not pleasant wading. Waist deep with a rather dodgy river bed made up of silt, woody debris, and the odd wobbly rock. I spent most of my time removing twigs from the hook. After an hour of this I gave up and retired for a cuppa and sandwich. After lunch I headed downstream for a spot of balsam bashing then some more fly fishing.

 I thought I'd spend an hour or so pulling up the few plants there were left form my last visit. Clearly a lot of it has been hiding behind other plants and had sprung up when I'd finished pulling their friends up. Thankfully only one had formed seed pods. These were clipped off very carefully and placed in an empty crisp packet. I'd also had a bit of a panic when I saw some pink plants a long way from the beck, but as I got closer I realised they were foxgloves.

After two and a half hours of balsam bashing I felt it was time for a drink. It took me some fifteen minutes to find my vest and rod that I'd leant against a tree. Like a dropped screw they just seem to merge with their background. I all this time I'd not seen a single fish rise. Apart from a couple of bees the only fly life I's seen was a mayfly and a small olive. I had, however seen some deer tracks under a fallen barbedwire fence. I'd also seen a nice large pool that I though would be a good stating point.

The problem with these large pools in small becks they  often turn out to be very disappointing, but just after I arrived I saw my first rise of the day. I changed the Nymph to a dry fly. As I moved around to get a cast there was another rise. I landed the fly close to the area of the two rises, But trying to get enough slack to keep it on the bubble line with out dragging wasn't easy. Third or fourth cast I got it about right. The fly disappeared, but the strike contacted with nothing except the Sycamore behind me. A little wait and another cast and the fly was back in the Sycamore. How do trout manage to grab a fly like that but fail to get the hook point in their mouth.

I continued on upstream. Overhanging branches made life difficult as they always seemed to be positioned above the bubble line. The odd log jam and deep section didn't help either. I much prefer it if I don't have to wade but the steep banks make access very difficult. Not to mention the barbed wire fence on one side. Still very little sign of insect life. I continued casting to likely looking spots with little success. A drift of the fly along the edge of a fallen tree in the edge produced a nice take and this time I connected. A spotty little 62 WBT soon graced the net. Another drift down the side produced another one. However this one managed to shed the hook near the net.

I continued on with no more luck until I arrived at the large pool below the railway bridge. I had a bit of a cast about. A fish rose on the far side in the slack. Despite several casts to the area it never rose again. I let the fly drift past me along the edge of a dead shrub like thing. As I did so a vole trotted along the tree roots above me. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a ripple and as I looked round realised my fly had gone. Too late for me to contact with anything though. I tried fishing above the bridge but the light had disappeared with the very cloudy sky. It was nearly impossible to see the fly as most of this stretch is surrounded by trees as well. I tried nymphing again but this only produced one rattle and that was it.

Ignoring Balsam While Hunting WBT

 Today I spent a short time ignoring the huge stands of Balsam while hunting for trout on the bottom beat of the beck. The first fish I found were little fry around the 1-2" mark sunning themselves. Some of the beck now had nice clean, fish free, gravels. Other parts a seriously overgrown. It was in one of these areas I saw a decent trout as it shot away upstream as I stumbled over a sunken branch while wrestling my way through overhanging willow branches. I see to spook far more fish than I should on here.

A bit further on I came across a fish rising on a bend with a deep hole. The fish was in a back eddy across a rather complicated set of currents. I managed to negotiate the hole to get my self to the downstream end of the eddy. I watched the fish for ten minutes or so. In this time it rose three times. It never moved more than a few inches from the bankside vegetation. It took a few roll casts before I got my Elk Hair Sedge to drift along the edge of the vegetation. A tried a few more times but it wasn't interested as it rose twice for something else. I tried another good standby in the shape of a small daddy, but his too was ignored. I didn't put he fish down though as it did rise occasionally but not for my fly. I changed again to a size 18 double badger and second drift through it was taken. All hell broke loose when i struck as the fish raced about the pool before wrapping the leader around a sunken twig. Keeping tension on I managed to dislodge the twig. This now gave it chance to demonstrate it's acrobatics before it gave up and came to the net. A lovely WBT of 11".

I didn't see any more fish as battled my way upstream. It had taken some time to navigate the beat and it was now time to go. Still I was rather pleased to get the fish in a section where they appear to be rather rare.

I'm sure there are more in there but this is real jungle warfare at times and I'm pretty sure I spook far more than I see. Plenty of season left to get the hang of the beat though.

Balsam Bashing (Again) & Rainbow Bashing

I arrived a bit early for the Balsam bashing session so has a bit of a chuck about with the fly rod and a dry fly. A size 16 Elk Hair Sedge to be precise. There wasn't much sign of fish. I tried to keep the fly as close to the bankside vegetation as I could as I suspect that's where they were hiding. It wasn't until I got to one of the three foot deep holes that something stirred. Third cast and one of the larger fish grabbed the fly. A very lively 11" escapee rainbow that did a sterling job of dodging the net. At one point it managed to get between my legs, but was eventually in the net. An autopsy revealed it has been eating Baetis & BWO nymphs along with the odd gammarus.

After some three hours of serious Balsam bashing and nearly falling in as we splodged about in the beck I was time for a cuppa. We'd covered about 200 yards of bank. Bank we'd been over at least twice before. No doubt more will pop up over the next month.

After lunch I had another go along the stretch but this time with a nymph. I'd kind of hoped that Our splodging about would have stirred up the nymphs etc. and have the trout feeding. It didn't work quite as I'd hoped, but I did hook a couple of rather small fish which managed to flip themselves of the hook. I don't know why I have such a hard time keeping these little rainbows on the hook.

RFM And Trout Fishing

 The started with a spot of River Fly Monitoring. No real surprises. Numbers slightly down below the CSO which isn't surprising given the recent rain had it running. Having completed that I headed down to near the bottom of the stretch for a spot of fluff chucking. The beck looks like it should hold good numbers of trout as is does above the village. The bankside vegetation is now very lush and makes some parts a bit claustrophobic. The level was up just a couple of inches or so.  I only managed to raise one fish which I missed. I did spook several more hiding under overhanging branches that were trailing in the water. I had run flies as close to them as I could but I don't think they were really looking up. I did see a shoal of small silver fish on my walk down. Probably dace, maybe. So here are a few pics of the beck.

After a cuppa I tried to fish another short length, but a couple of mallard kept spooking the fish. The ducks would fly a little way upstream then drift back until they saw me. They'd then take of again and land a bit further up and drift back towards me. In doing this they did spook a few of the small escapee rainbows.

Blimey, Sunshine

It was rather pleasant driving to the river in sunshine, and rather surprising to see the river at normal summer level. The three foot deep swim I fished last time I was here was now a foot deep and full of weed. I nearly tripped as I was distracted by the Kites and Buzzards flying about. A Kingfisher shot up the river as I was setting up. The running maggot feeder was to be the method of the session. The low river with it's mirror finish and the bright sunshine, while pleasant to sit in, didn't bode well for fishing.

It was nearly an hour before I got my first bite. Which I missed. After nattering with another angler that had come down my confidence didn't rise as he'd been talking to others and nowt had been caught up to now. Casting round to three different spots produced the odd chewed maggot in the shallower swim. Eventually I got another bite which produced a small roach. One swim started to produce the odd rattle to the tip but the maggots were still intact when I wound in. Three hours in and the swim that produced the roach kindly provided a small chub.

A little while later I had another positive bite but I missed it as I was distracted by the Kingfisher zooming upstream again. Not long after an angler that had been fishing downstream passed on his way home. He'd hook a decent barbel but lost it to a hook pull. I had to go a little bit later. Four bites two little fish is not the greatest session but it was nice to be sat in the sun.