More Fish Counting

I had my barbel gear ready for the rising river, but a sore ankle from slipping on a rotten apple in the garden as I picked up the windfalls suggested it might not be a good idea to be wandering around steep slippy banks. I decided instead to fish a clay pit that I'd not fished since last century. Armed with maggots, casters,hemp, and groundbait for anything that was hungry.  I decide on one of the few pegs with out a platform. This would allow me to stick banksticks in and I could park the car right behind the swim. Tactics were to be hemp and caster in one swim and groundbait with maggots in the other. Two waggler rods were set up and a bit of plumbing around was performed. The bottom seemed snag and weed free.

Hemp and caster to the left. Maggot and groundbait to the right. It took a good half hour before I got my first bite. A small perch on maggot, quickly followed by a small rudd. It was then the turn of the caster to produce another small perch. Bites came in fits and starts for the rest of the day. Three other anglers arrived and set up shop, mainly catching the same thing as far as I could tell. At one point I thought I was into something better but it turned out to be a small rudd with a twig wrapped round the line. At the end of a rather unexciting day I had 25 rudd, 23 perch, and only 3 roach.

Not the most exciting day but the weather was pleasant and the bites kept my interest with out me have to try too hard. Others had a feeder rod out but hadn't caught anything on it so I'm glad I didn't bother. It does, however, look like a good bet for a pike or two later.

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.

Fishing In Pea Soup

I was surprised to only find one car at the estate lake car park when I arrived. I wasn't that amazed when I saw the colour of the water - a horrible green colour which didn't really show up in photos. I dip of the hand showed the water to be cool so I decided not give it a go. A light waggler was set up to fish close in. Hemp and maggot to the left. Groundbait and maggot to the right. A couple of ducks turned up attracted by the splashes and made a bit of a nuisance of themselves for the rest of the session. They even tried sneaking up behind me at one point.

Double, even triple, maggot produced plenty of bites the majority of which I hit. All small perch, roach and rudd. Quite how such small fish manage to engulf three maggots and a hook I don't know. Normally they would drive you to distraction just nipping the end of the maggot. Every now and then the predators would move in scattering fish. A bit more feed would have them back feeding. The other chap fishing had only a small bream on feeder tactics, but changed to close range float to rack up net in a short time. before leaving. Over the five hours I was there I managed 204 fish. averaging a fish every ninety seconds. Things were a bit slower for the last hour as the wind had got up and was blowing leafs into the swim. I'm sure with a whip I could have doubled that number, or maybe I'd have got bored.

Not my usual sort of thing but good fun all the same. A keep net would have been useful as the catch would have made a great photo. I also had my licence checked for the fourth time this year and the second time here.

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.

Match Hours On An Estate Lake

 After last weeks change of plan I ended up where I should have been last week, but this wasn't the plan for today either. Today's plan didn't involve fishing as such, but things altered so I was at the tackle shop at open time for some bait and a few bits and pieces. The plan was a spot of float fishing maggots for whatever. I'd be fishing match hours, 10ish to 4ish. After a bit of plumbing about I found the edge of a none to distinct ledge four rod lengths out with 4' 6" of water. I also set up a method feeder to chuck out in the middle to see if anything took a fancy, This was set on an alarm as I didn't expect much action from it.

A mix of red and brown crumb with dead reds and chopped worm was made up to feed the swim and half a dozen small balls were chucked out to start with. Hook bait was double maggots of various colours, though I also had caster and worm. The first problem of the day was the strong breeze blowing down the lake, left to right to me. I'd been advised that fishing just off the bottom was generally the best until the skimmers move in. Because of the strong breeze and the shallowness of the lake you get quite an undertow and the float was moving right to left. While this produced the odd bite it was from tiny rudd, roach or dinky perch., none of which were easy to hit. The only solution was to add a number eight shot 4" from the hook and fish 6" over-depth.

It took the swim a little while to get going, but it was nearly a fish a chuck, only small fish, when it did get going. You could tell the fish by the bite. The float shot away with the perch. The roach bites were a sharp dip and the rudd caused the float to skate across the surface. You'd get three or four fish then a few silly bites before hooking fish again. Casters just got shelled and worm produced the tiniest of perch when I tried them.

After lunch the skimmers turned up. The float would just slowly disappear. Strike before it was underwater and you'd miss. The only problem with these beasties is the snot left on the line. I'd been feeding a golf-ball size ball of ground ball every 30 minutes up to this point, but stepped it up to every 20 minutes. Things then went slightly awry. I bumped three reasonable sized bream in as many casts. The last one coming adrift just beyond the net. The rig ended up wrapped around a willow branch. I had no choice but to re-rig. The skimmers kept on coming and getting bigger, along with the odd roach and rudd. The bites were further apart than earlier. In the mean time the method rod had done very little. Five bites resulted in three middling sized skimmers. As planned I stopped at four. The bites had been slowing for the last hour anyway.

With three middling skimmers removed the fish weighed 11lb 6oz. Not sure what a good weight from here is really. It may have won me a section. Who knows. Apart from the carp angler there were three other anglers all catching. One on feeder seemed to be taking a few as the day wore on. A pole angler seemed to b catch a few more than me.  The third didn't seem to be catching much but he didn't arrive until the afternoon. It didn't seem a bad net of fish considering I wasn't trying to hard.

Roadworks, Diversions and Lies

I thought I'd deciphered the various signs littering the area around the ponds indicating when the roads would be closed for resurfacing. Things appeared to have changed somewhat as I headed to the estate lake. That road was closed even though the signs said two days previous. The road to the gravel pit was supposed to be closed today but was still open, so it was back to the gravel pit. As I arrived I witnessed a crow doing it's osprey impression, picking a dead fish from the surface. There was also a heron in among the trees trying it's luck in among the roots. I was also on my own.

After a bit of plumbing around I found a couple of spots the same depth. One four rod lengths out in front and three rod lengths forty-five degrees to my right. The font one was to be baited up with groundbait, a mixture of brown and red crumb in a ratio of 51:49. This was to be laced with dead reds and chopped worm. To my right I was going to loose feed caster and hemp.

The set up was to be a crystal insert waggler with a long insert. I'd picked up a section from the tackle shop. I alternated between red maggot, caster and worm as hook bait. Bites were few and far between but nice and positive due to long insert the lift bites were easy to see. The odd skimmer, tiny perch and similarly small roach were picked out equally on maggot or caster. Worm failed to elicit a bite.  After lunch I decided to ball it in on the line in front of me as the few small balls of ground bait weren't attracting much. This didn't really change things as the bites were still scarce. I'd fished on the bottom, off the bottom, on the drop. None of which were any better than the other.

There was clearly some pike activity as every now and then great clouds of bubbles would suddenly rise to the surface and occasional small fish could be seen scattering. Mid afternoon another angler arrived and fished to swim opposite taking the odd small fish very now and then. The changing wind direction didn't help either as various bits of debris got blown backward and forward through the swims.

A heron returned swooping over the edge of the pit causing a few fish to scatter and swirl before it landed it a tree where it spent the rest of the afternoon. Strangely the robin never appeared to demand maggots. There were, however a very large number of tadpoles around the edge of the pit. At first I thought it was just some black silt on the bottom until I looked closely.

With rain predicted for the evening I packed up the moment the drizzle started which was good timing. I'd just got everything in the car when it really chucked it down.  It was a bit of a disappointing session, I'd expected  a lot more. There's plenty of fish in there but the pike just seem to prevent them for settling.

It Rained

 Back down the gravel pit for another match hours session.  Waggler fished maggots or casters over groundbait laced with dead reds and chopped worm was the plan. Like a twit I'd forgot to put the tube of insert wagglers I'd sorted out back in the bag. The only ones I had with me were straight wagglers for river fishing. I dotted it down as far as I could and still see it. At least the was only a short burst of sunshine and very little wind so the float was quite easy to see. After a spot of plumbing about I set the bait just on the bottom over a little ledge. The ledge handily lines up with an over hanging branch so you have a marker for casting. A dozen small balls over groundbait went in. It wasn't long before the noisy little robin turned up demanding to be fed.

First up were a couple of perch which gave quite positive bites. Alternating between double red maggot, single didn't get any bites, and single caster a couple of roach followed. The first sign of pike activity then followed when a few fish scattered under the over hanging tree. Twenty biteless minutes later and the swim started to fizz. A couple of skimmers took a liking to red maggots. Another pike turned up grabbing a skimmer as I brought it in ripping it from the hook. this is how it went for the next couple of hours, the odd fish or two the nothing for a while. I kept topping up the swim with groundbait.

Around lunch time a second angler turned up. I then started to get silly bites which occasionally turned into little roach. The lack of sensitivity on the float started to show. As it got into the afternoon it started to drizzle then turned to quite heavy rain. This slowed the bites down considerably and the last couple of hours produced very few fish. The other lad, who'd happily been catch a few skimmers then had his swim disrupt by a battle with a double figure pike. Which he managed to land on a whip.

 

I reckon that the answer to the pike problem is to have two lines set up and alternate between the two. This would allow time time for one to settle after a pike attack. I also need to remember to put the insert wagglers in the bag as well as I reckon the long tipped ones will show the bites from the roach a lot better. The rain, though, came as a complete surprise. All I'd expected was a little bit of drizzle. Not that it would make a lot of difference as five miles south west at my house it hadn't rained at all, according to the neighbours.