One More To The Tally

So far this season I've caught the  following native species in Yorkshire rivers: Barbel, Bleak, Brown Trout, Bullhead, Chub, Dace, Grayling, Gudgeon, Minnow, Perch, Pike, Roach, Ruffe, Silver Bream, and
Stone Loach.

Those that remain to be caught are: Bronze Bream, Eel, Rudd, Stickleback, and Tench.

I must admit I was surprised I'd not caught a Bronze Bream or an Eel. Although I did hook and eel while nymphing for trout but it dived straight into a morass of weed and never came out. There are a couple of spots that have Rudd in them and Tench can turn up anywhere on most of the rivers. One local river, that I've not fished this season, contains a good head of Tench. First up though was a Bronze Bream, so Thursday i headed out with maggots, worms, and groundbait to see if I could catch one.

I'd made up half the ground bait previously so hauled out a dozen balls, laced with chop worm and maggots, into the river after having had a cast about with a lead to see if there were any snags about. I set up a feeder rod and a waggler rod. I would be mainly feeder fishing but if things got boring I'd have a run through with the float. The first hour was remarkably quiet with jut a couple of very quick bites on the feeder. A change to float quickly produced half a dozen roach and a couple of gudgeon.

Things then went quiet again, so I tossed out half a dozen more bails of groundbait and had lunch leaving the swim to settle. The first bit after lunch came from a 1lb 9oz perch before things went quiet again. Alternating between float and feeder produced the odd bite and chewed maggot but nothing came of it. I'd tried both live and dead maggots, worms, and worm maggot cocktail. With an hour to go before I had to be of the tip pulled round. Something solid had taken the worm. I thought it may be a chub but something felt odd. When I got it to the surface it was a large bream that had got itself wrapped in the line. The little landing net I'd recently acquired wasn't much bigger than the bream. Hauling the fish in sideways and trying to get it into the landing net the hook came adrift. The fish lay there far a little while just beyond the landing net before swimming away. I'm not sure it whether it was foul hooked or not. A little while later the tip pulled over again. This time a it felt like a bream. A reasonable one at that. This time I made no mistakes getting a similar sized fish in to the landing net. 6lb 10oz of bream. one more from the list.

 I had one more bite before I had to be away. With the river having lifted a bit I expected a bit more action, but a couple of decent not a bad day. Only tench, eel, rudd, and stickleback left.

More Lazy Maggot Drowning

With Agnes on it's way making the coming weeks weather a tad unpredictable I got myself down to the estate lake for a spot of maggot drowning. Dry and windy was the forecast. One other angler was there when I arrived in the car park after trying every combination lock code I knew and still getting it wrong. The number of combination locks, doors, fire alarms, cards, etc. that I need a four digit code for is getting silly. Admittedly I don't need some of the codes any more but I've used them for so long those are the ones I remember. I've only got three months to remember this one before the club changes it again. Really it would be easier just to get my ticket out and look at the code on that but I'd forget it by the time I got to the gate.

 

After a bit of a wander I decide to fish the down wind end near the island. Despite the number of times, over the years, that I've fished here I've never fished this part of the lake for silvers. I've only ever fished for carp or pike. Two float rods were set up. One to fish about a rod length out with maggot over hemp and the other to fish the deeper channel near the island with maggots over ground bait. Two more anglers arrived during this time both intent on a spot of maggot drowning like myself. Having tossed several small balls of ground bait out towards the island I started on the inside line and had half a dozen very small roach and perch quite quickly. Before it went quiet.

I then went over to the island and had a skimmer first cast on half a dozen maggots on a size twelve. After waiting for the next bite I changed to a similar number of dead reds but this failed to elicit a bite. I chucked out a couple more balls of groundbait and  returned to the inside line Eventually I had four small roach. Slightly bigger than those I'd caught previously. After a couple of very small perch there was a scattering of bait fish and the swim went dead. As previously I went over to the island and caught a skimmer nearly straight away. The wind had now got up a bit more making bite detection a bit of a problem.

This is how it continued for the rest of the session. The skimmers never seemed to settle and the predators kept attacking the inside line. Unlike previous visits it took a long time for the fish to come back. After five hours I had four skimmers and three dozen small roach and perch. Reports form the other anglers were similar although had had a decent bream.

A pleasant five hours was had even if the fish weren't very cooperative. The weather had been reasonable warm and the breeze not too troublesome. Strangely I didn't catch any rudd this time. Nor would the skimmers take dead reds. We'll see if the rest of the week allows for any fishing as it appears it's going to continue to be wet and windy. I don't mind either, it's both I dislike.

No Leaves, Leaves

 I'm always a tad concerned when I arrive at a popular fishery and there's nobody else there. Do they know something I don't? It does give me the choice of swim though. The gravel pit was nice a clear unlike the other day at the estate lake.  started in a corner swim with a waggler setup and a feeder rig. The waggler fished close in with maggots or casters over hemp. The maggot feeder was cast out to the middle. The first fish out on float was a small roach with a rather bright orange patch just behind the mouth.

Small roach and bream, with the occasional perch followed in fits and starts. I'd catch two or three fish then it would go quiet for ten minutes or so. It didn't seem to matter whether I feed a few maggots and hemp or a handful. I tried casters as well but that just lead to a longer wait between bites. I was recasting the feeder every ten minutes or so but hadn't even had a chewed maggot on it. After an hour I'd had seventeen fish. Just after the hour mark the tip pulled round and I had a small bream. The pattern with the float fished maggots and casters continued as before. At the two hour mark I'd added another 18 small fish. At this point a really strong gust of wind shook a lot of leaves from the trees all over the pit. making it nearly impossible to cast the float in with out catching a leaf.

I had a wander along the bank and found the other corner swim clear of leaves so moved down there. I continued with the same tactics as before. The first fish out this time was a slightly larger roach with a injury on its side.

 
The bites were a bit more consistent in this swim but mainly from small perch. The feeder rig produced another small bream. On the float rig I tried hemp and elder berries to see if I could avoid the small perch but couldn't get a bite on them. After an hour I'd caught thirty three fish twenty five of which were small perch. Another hour passed with the leaves slowly creeping into this swim. The bites slowed down and I managed twenty four fish before this swim became unfishable as well. The feeder rod had given a couple of rattles but only produced chewed maggots.

With the pit unfishable due to the leaves I decided the frustration of trying to get the float in was not worth it and retired gracefully. Ninety four fish in just over four hours had kept me amused so not a bad day. The leaves falling from the trees are going to be a problem where ever you fish at this time of year.

The Right Pellets?

I'd been to the tackle shop yesterday day for for some maggots and a couple of other bits.  The consensus in there was that the rivers weren't fishing well so I decided another trip to the pit was in order. Rather than suffer the horrible clammy windless heat of the afternoon into evening I decided to try an early morning session instead. Besides the pit generally fishes better of a morning. I double checked the pellets to make sure I had the right ones. I also had groundbait, worms, maggots and casters with me.

It was thick fog on the way to the pit and as a result dawn was nearly twenty minutes late. This gave me time to mix up the groundbait and lace it with chopped worm and crushed casters. Half a dozen balls went in next to the lilly pads. I then catapulted out a mixture of Source pellets into a deeper spot. I had two float rods set up, one for pellet and one for maggot or caster. I started on the pellet line and got a reasonable bream first cast. Would this be a first cast jinx or the start of a good day. It turned out to be the former. After that first fish I couldn't get another bite on that line no matter what bait I tried.

It was the lilies that produced all the fish mainly to double red maggot or single caster. Small perch, little skimmers and roach of various sizes and a single rudd were caught intermittently. Three or four fish were caught then things would go quiet. While it was quiet I'd try different baits on the pellet line to no avail. The other problem was that the little jack pike were active and every now and then there be  a scattering of small fish and things would go quiet. A couple more balls of ground bait would eventually get them feeding again. Sometimes though the jacks were a blessing as tiny roach or bream would move in and just nip at the maggots and make a nuisance of them selves so I didn't mind the jacks scattering them.

The fog finally lifted around eleven and as it got brighter the bites tailed off which seemed Like a good time to pack up as it was also turning clammy. Why the pellets were steadfastly ignored, except for that first fish I've no idea. I'm sure If I'd dropped to a single maggot on a twenty I'd have caught a lot more fish, but I couldn't be faffed with the tiny little things.

The Wrong Pellets

 With a couple of hours, or so, to spare I grabbed a couple of rods and a bait bucket and headed down to the local gravel pit for a dangle in the cool of the morning. I opted for the corner swim. Mainly because I could park right up to it and fish out of the back of the car. Another angler was in the next swim along and taking the odd skimmer. I opened up the bait bucket to toss a few Source pellets next to the lily bed. Unfortunately I'd picked up the bucket with Halibut pellets and the like in. I've never done well with halibut down here, but I was stuck with them so out they went. A light waggler rig was set up and a 6mm soft hooker went on for bait. Much to my surprise I had a good lift bite after a couple of minutes and a nice little skimmer was flapping about in the end.

There then followed about twenty minutes of the float bobbing about but no contact. No amount of adjusting the depth or shotting made things any better. Things then sort of settled for a while and half a dozen little skimmers were contacted with and landed. As the sun burnt through the clouds the bites started too tail off. The bites were also back to the bobbing about type which never really results in anything. The other angler had taken to hurling a feeder out to a far weed bed for the odd larger skimmer. I had a feeder rod with me but didn't really see any point in setting up as I had very little time left.

Two and a half hours for seven skimmers isn't really brilliant but a combination of bright sunshine killing it and a bait that doesn't really work it wasn't a bad result.

Big Fish Wrecks Landing Net

The river was at a rather indifferent height when I got down there, but still carrying a bit of colour. I wandered up and down for a while pondering which swim to start in. I was the only one on the stretch, which was a bit unusual, so had far too many swims to choose from. I eventually settled for one with a nice over hanging tree down stream of me and plenty of bankside vegetation upstream.

An 8mm pellet went upstream and a 14mm pellet downstream. The feeders were half filled with 6mm pellets and topped up with 3mm. The 3mm wash out of the feeder and the 6mm stay in giving a scent trail. That's the theory anyway. I recast every half hour or so to remove any debris and top up the swim. A couple of cuppas and a sandwich later the upstream rod whacked over and a two foot branch was hauled to the surface before falling off. The rod had only been recast a minute or so when it lurched over again. This time it was definitely something fish like on the end.  Clearly a smallish barbel careering about all over the place I was surprised at it's size when it surfaced. It felt like a three pounder but looked and felt more like six when landed. It also had an odd looking scar on it's nose.

 

No sooner had I released the barbel when the downstream rod started to rattle. This felt more like a chub. I was even more convinced when it went straight into a snag. I then became a little puzzled when the snag slowly moved downstream. Steady slow cranking had the snag moving towards the surface. The snag turned out to be a double figure pike with the chub held across it's back. My attempts at filming the incident weren't very successful as I had no real idea where my phone was pointing. eventually the pike let go and the chub shot into the bankside vegetation followed by the pike which grabbed it again before letting go. I quickly had the rather battered chub in the net. A fish of nearly 4lb I can see why the pike didn't want to let go of such a large meal.

I let the somewhat battered chub rest in the landing net while I recast and made another cuppa. The landing net then suddenly shot away. The pike was back. It had obviously come back for the chub and got it's teeth snagged in the net. As I hauled it back it started to spin and mangle the net frame. The net then snagged on something down the bank. The pike let go and I managed to free the net. The chub had managed to get away during this farce.

As I attempted to bend the frame back to something like it's original shape I managed to snap the alloy frame. Anybody with any sense would have brought the rods in at this point as landing anything of size would be damn near impossible. I, however, decided to finish my cuppa. Having finished started wind in the downstream rod only to find something on the end. A bream of a couple of pounds quickly surfaced hooked the pectoral fin. Thankfully it rolled off the barbless hook. Which saved an faffing about.Don't know what I'd have done if it had been a barbel or chub properly hooked.

 

For a long time I'd had a smaller landing net head lying about in the boot of the car that would have allowed me to continue fishing, but I'd had one of those inspired moments when I thought I ought to declutter and remove them mess in the car. Tidiness isn't all it's cracked up to to be.

Barbel Fishing?

 Despite the recent lift in the river the reports I'd heard hadn't shown any increase in barbel coming out. In fact there hadn't been an increase in anything coming out. Talking to a couple of anglers as I wandered along the bank things hadn't been great. The river was now only a few inches up and clearing. I did start to think I should be on the other bank as I looked for a swim until I spotted one that had been a problem from the other bank. From this bank I could swing the bait under a branch to a overhanging tree. From the far bank it involved going down stream. Casting across and moving back upstream as the bank was too high to land fish opposite the overhanging tree. It also meant using a very heavy feeder as it was easy to dislodge a light feeder when moving back upstream.

 

The rigs were my usual. A blockend feeder filled with 6mm and 4mm pellets. The 4mm would drift out and the 6mm would stay in the feeder breaking up and leaving a scent trail, in theory. A 22mm pellet was on the down stream rod to the overhanging tree. On the upstream rig a 12mm pellet was used. This was dropped about six foot from the bank at the edge of the weeds. Apart from a bit of a rattle on the upstream rod nothing much happened for the first three hours.

In a rather predictable manner the down stream rod lurched over just as I was pouring boiling water into the mug for a cuppa. I have know idea what it was as it was gone by the time I'd put everything safely down. Swinging the rig back in I miss timed it a bit and wrapped the whole lot around the branch. Nothing to do but pull for a break. While I was re-rigging the upstream rod started to bounce about. This time I did connect with something that put a decent bend in the rod. A chub of 4lb 7oz. Strangely, for a chub, it had made no attempt to dive into the weeds on the inside.

I'd just got both rods back out when the downstream rod slowly bent over. I thought it was another chub initially but it soon gave up and a bream around the 2lb mark came to the surface. Just as I got it in the net the upstream rod bounced about again. This was definitely a barbel as it tore of upstream only for the hook to pull.

After a mad twenty minutes I now had time for my rather lukewarm cuppa. I had a couple more rattles on the upstream rod. One while I was watching a mouse darting about the undergrowth before it ventured out for a short while. The bream had been a bit of a surprise as I've caught very few from this river and never more than one at any time. I fished on until dark but everything went quiet. No fish topping, nothing.

 Like everybody else I wonder where the barbel have got to. It could be like the old days when the barbel rarely showed until August. We shall see as persistence pays on here.

Out For A Waggle

 With the trout rivers up again, though dropping, I decided a spot of stillwater angling may be a better idea. I quickly gathered up the requisite tackle and stopped at the tackle shop for some maggots. I already had ground bait and sweetcorn, but maggots never go amiss. My first problem of the day was the road was closed to the pond I wanted to be at. I traipsed round the diversion to another pond instead. I was surprised to find the car park empty. I remembered a club notice about it being closed, but a quick check showed it to be last week, so all OK. As I put the reel on the rod I noticed a complete lack of line on the spool. A spool of 4.6lb was found in the tackle box. As I wound it on I couldn't help thinking it felt a bit thick. Another look at the spool showed it to be 4.6Kg. Ooops. After winding it back onto it's spool I found the 4.6lb and got that onto the reel. Next cock up was the tube of insert wagglers wasn't to be found, all I had was a collection of rather thick river wagglers. Oh well.

 

I selected the slimmest float I could find and dotted it down as low as I could. To avoid the tiny rudd I put the bulk of the shot a couple of foot above the hook. A few balls of groundbait laced with maggots and a few bits of sweetcorn. The first few fish followed by a skimmer.  It then went quiet for a while. This is how it went for the rest of the day. While I was struggling to catch a couple more anglers arrived. I alternated between live & dead maggots and sweetcorn. The sweetcorn picked up the odd roach, live maggots got the Rudd, and dead maggots the little skimmers. For 4½ hours fishing I really didn't catch very much. I had plenty of bites, but I suspect the thickish float was the problem.

One of the later arrivals had a reasonable catch of skimmers and bream from the far side of the pond so the fish were feeding, just not in front of me. To be honest the swim I'd chosen does well in winter but I'm not sure it's a spring/ summer swim. I was entertained by a carp during the afternoon that kept rising vertically out of the the water to it's shoulders. A bit of a strange antic but then carp are bit strange at times. Once I got home I made sure the tube of insert wagglers was in the bag as well as the spare spools with more appropriate line on the them.

Third Session of the 2022 River Season

 Tuesday's session was to a stretch that I've regularly fished for pike but not done any maggot drowning in for years.  It didn't get of to a particularly good start though. I found a nice swim with a six foot shelf a rod length out, just beyond some weeds. A couple of rod lengths further out the depth doubled. I set up a stick and 'pin for the inside line as it was protected from the downstream breeze. The deep line I set up a waggler rig with an ABU 506 as waggler fishing with a 'pin is a pain. By now the hayfever had kicked in. My nose was streaming and sneezing so bad I thought I'd dislocate my head. Still I persevered.

Hayfever like that doesn't do much for your concentration. Three time I snagged a tree when casting forcing me to re rig. I developed a total inability to throw groundbait with any form of accuracy other than hitting the river. Just to ad insult to injury one wellie had developed a leak. The inside line produce nothing but bleak, not the perch I was expecting. The waggler line also produced bleak, but by bulking the shot well down the line I was able to bypass them more often them not. Despite scattering groundbait all over the place I was into bream pretty quickly. Between sneezing and a streaming nose I managed to bump off three of them and lost another three in the weeds. At this point I decided a cuppa and some medication may be the order of the day.

While partaking of a cuppa I chucked a feeder rod out. All this did was bounce about and I'd wind in some chewed maggots. Eventually a small perch hung itself on the hook. Admittedly I was far too busy trying to get a photo of an egret chasing fry on the far bank, I failed. I did manage a, poor, photo of some of the four dozen gooses that same past. A couple of lambs charged them as they arrived at the cattle drink. The lambs weren't as brave when a couple of gooses flew at them. A heron was also chased off by the gooses as well.

After forty five minutes or so the sneezing and streaming nose had stopped. After a few trots down the inside line only to find the bleak were still there. I chucked some more groundbait in, this time with a lot more accuracy. First up on the waggler line were roach and the occasional perch. Much to my surprise the odd, three to the pound, chub turned up. This was nice to see as chub have notable for their absence in recent years. Late on I started to pick up skimmers, most of which I managed to get to the net. I still managed to bump more than I should have done.

I think if I'd not scattered groundbait everywhere early on I could have put quite a nice bag of fish together. Still it wasn't a bad day in the end. It appeared I was on an Oyster Catcher's flight path as it came backwards and forwards across the river. Whistling just before it came over the flood bank it never really gave me enough notice to get a photo. There was also a surprising amount of salmon leaping about. Some coloured and some still a shiny silver. On the way back to the car I also saw a very large hare zig-zaging across the field. Not seen one that size for years. There was also a quite a few hedgepigs wandering about. I nearly stood on one as it came out of the long grass on to the path.