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.

Spiders On The Moors

 As I was up the top of The Moors this morning with a couple of hours to spare, and the rain hadn't arrived, I thought I'd have a chuck about with the fly rod. It was very dull day and looked like it could rain any moment. The river was the lowest I'd seen it this year, but carrying it's usual peat stain.

For the first half hour or so I tried a variety of dry flies. Apart from one rise to a Griffith's Gnat there was no interest at all. I then opted for a couple of spider patterns instead. A Williams favourite on point and a Black Magic on the dropper. Can't go wrong with a little something in black.

 

This combination worked straight away. The first cast into a swirly riffle and one of the small residents grabbed hold of the Black Magic.. A couple more little 'uns from the same riffle. These would be this years youngsters. In the slacker smoother water above the riffle I hooked one of last years fish, but it came adrift. I continued on fish the riffles as I moved upstream over the next hour or so. Eventually amassing eleven of the little 'uns with both flies taking their share. They were all between four and five inches. Swinging the flies down and across in one of the wider sections I hooked another of last years. Around the nine ten inch mark this, like the previous big 'un came adrift. The drizzle that had started was now coming down heavier so I made my way back to the car as it got heavier and heavier.

 Not a bad couple of hours considering the conditions. A little bit more water wouldn't go amiss, but not too much, as previous times I've been in the area it's been way too high. This may please the Salmon and Sea trout anglers but it doesn't make for good trout fish.