That's All Folks

 Last day of the coarse fishing season on rivers and they're all in flood. The Ouse was still rising rather quickly and after yesterday I didn't really fancy it. So the Derwent it was. I'd spent a short time yesterday evening sorting the barbel gear out and rooted around in the bait bin and fridge for some bait. I had halibut pellets and paste, garlic spam, luncheon meat, and cheese paste. I'd also gathered up a collect of 90g plus leads and similar weight feeders.

Arriving at the empty parking spot it looked like I'd have the whole section to my self. Not that I needed it as Looking at the water level I knew where I'd be fishing. There are a couple of swims I've found work in flood conditions and one of them didn't require a decent down a slippy bank. The only problem was the very cold wind blowing into my right lug 'ole. This was soon rectified by using the brolly as a windbreak. The swim had two nice creases. One upstream and the other down. In the upstream crease I plonked a 90g feeder three quarters full of halibut pellets and an 12mm one as bait. Down stream I started with a 100g lead and a gobstopper size halibut pellet. I bit of halibut putty was placed in the lead as well. My intention, if I wasn't catching, was to cycle through the hook baits on the downstream rod.

Just before lunch a couple of mink came bouncing along the far bank before vanishing into the woods. The buzzards could also be heard behind the trees. By mid-afternoon I'd cycled through the baits and was back on the big pellet and had changed to a big 120g feeder three-quarters full of smaller pellets soaked in halibut juice. On cue the rain arrived, not too heavy but cold and unpleasant none the less. After half an hour the rain had stopped but the temperature was dropping noticeably. I'd resigned my self to a third blank in a row and decided it was time to go. I brought the upstream rod in first and having sorted that out and taken the brolly down the sun came out. There was no heat in it though. As I walked up to the down stream rod the tip bent slowly over. Thinking it was more debris on the line I just started winding in. Half way back the debris moved out into the main current. 'Twas a fish. A bit more pressure and came back into the slack. As usual with barbel the moment I showed it the net it made another attempt at freedom but a bit of bullying soon had it in the net. A chubby beats of 7lb 3oz. A reasonable way to end the season I thought. I could see no point in continuing, I'd caught what I was after so mission accomplished.

I'm quite pleased with the result, it seems a reasonable way to finish. What really surprised me though, apart from the mink, was that no other anglers has shown up. Previous years when I've fished the last day here there's a few turn up mid-afternoon to tea time. Eleven days until the trout season on the rivers. So it's fluff chucking and stillwater fishing for three months.

The Angler That Went Out In The Cold

 As I didn't want to travel far, given the current weather conditions, chub fishing seemed the best idea. I made up a batch of liquidised bread and got a couple of balls of cheese paste from the freezer the night before. Unfortunately I left the paste in the garage where it proceeded to not thaw out. A quick wave of the old micros soon sorted that problem though. The car thermometer said -4 is I set off and -3 when I arrived at the river.

I had a wander about on arrival to see what swims would be accessible. A couple could be got in and out of safely so I opted for one of these. It also happens to be a swim that produces the odd very large chub, and I could get the rod rest in.  Things didn't get off to a great start when I found my two piece feeder rod was now a three piece. Thankfully the barbel rod I'd also brought was intact. Not ideal as even with the softer top it wouldn't be as sensitive as the feeder rod.

The intention was to alternate between flake and cheese paste with liquidised bread in the feeder.  After a few casts I had my first bite, a real three foot twitch. Something felt heavy on the end of the line before it all went slack. I don't know what managed to shed a size four hook, but it had. A couple of casts later a small pike shot from under the bank and took a lunge at the feeder. Somehow I managed to foul hook it somewhere amidships. It managed to shake itself free while I was reaching for the badly placed landing net. The final piece of action of the morning occurred not long after when the rod tip started to tremble. Thinking it was debris on the line I wound in to find a small, 6oz, chublet on the hook. Annoyingly it managed to flip itself off the hook as I went to lift it from the water.

After a Pot Noodle I tried a swim upstream of the one I was fishing. Fifteen minutes on flake, fifteen on paste then back to the original swim to do the same. While I was in one swim I left a little pile of liquidised bread in the other for the robins to feed on. This caused a bit of commotion at times when two or three would fly in, but never when I had the camera pointed at the bread.

By three the temperature was starting to drop. With nothing to show for my efforts I packed up at half past as it was now cold enough for gloves. Besides I didn't want to be on an icy river bank when it got dark.

Last Day Of The River Fishing Season 2022

Quite why I still participate in this  ritual of fishing the last day of the season I don't really know. It never amounts to much fishing wise, but like any other fishing day there's always a chance of something special. I had been sort of undecided what to do and where to go.  A couple of good reports from the Derwent suggested there was still some chub to be had despite it still been a good 18" up. I was surprised when I got there to find myself alone. I assumed everybody had had their fill over the weekend. It was a cold but sunny start to the day making it quite pleasant to be out. A silly gusty swirling wind was the only thing spoiling it. The wind made float fishing very hard work. I'd brought a float rod a feeder rod with me, along with bread for flake, cheese paste, and liquidised bread. I should have had some worms with m as well, but had managed to lave them at home.

I started with the feeder, alternating between flake and cheese paste. This produced just the one bite, a real three foot twitch which resulted in nothing. When the wind dropped I had a run through with the float. The next couple of swims failed to produce anything despite spending a couple of hours in each. The fourth swim, somewhat slower than the previous three produce a few rattles on flake before  a good steady pull of the tip to cheese paste. Fifteen minutes later same  thing, but still no contact. I tried trotting a pea size piece of cheese paste, but to no avail. Back on the feeder with a marble size bit of paste the tip went over again. A slow steady pull like debris hitting the line. This time though I contacted with some which felt a bit odd like a small foul hooked chub. When it surfaced it turned out to be a reasonable size bream around the 5-6lb mark. This was the first one I'd caught from the Derwent in over ten years. Half an hour later I had another, but managed to bump it off near the net. Despite plenty of feed going in that was it.

Talking to another angler there were plenty fishing down stream but not a lot coming out. As I left there was one other angler fishing a swim I'd blanked in earlier and another after a last river pike. Not the greatest day. Not that I expected much. A rare Derwent bream as  a blank saver is a bad way to end the season.

 

Bread And Cheese

The sun had put in an early appearance as I drive towards the river past the heavily frosted fields. Thankfully it was still low enough to be behind the trees and hedges and not straight in eyes. I don't know how cold it had been but the normally soggy muddy path had frozen solid making walking a lot easier. Judging by the lack of cars it appeared I was the first one there.The first swim I selected was one the deeper ones, around 11'-12'. Like last week I alternated between flake and cheese paste on a feeder rig with liquidised bread. The set up is simple enough. 8lb mainline with a ledger bead for the feeder. A 3-4" twizzled boom at the end. A size 8 hook on a 5lb hook length around 18" attached to the mainline loop to loop. Quite quickly I had a chublet around 8oz or so on cheese paste. After which I sat for another couple of hours for one more bite.

The next swim was around half the depth of the previous one and again I had a fish quite quickly on cheese paste, a chub around the pound mark. I then got a series of rattles on the tip that eventually resulted in an 8oz roach. Like before there was then an hour and a half's quiet. Quite from the fish but the military seemed to be happy making a noise with their jets. Not really sure why there was so much activity. Unless they think the Russians are going to invade the priory. The final swim was the same one as last week and again this produced a chublet early on to cheese paste. and a reasonable dace on flake.

There was quite a bit of bird song but I'm really not very good at identifying birds from their song. I did see three cormorants flying overhead, and a buzzard getting harassed by a couple of gulls.

All the bites, apart from the dace, came on cheese paste today. Last week I didn't get anything on cheese paste. I retired before it got dark as the sunshine and rising temperatures had defrosted the top of the mud and it was now very greasy under foot. I really didn't fancy making my way through the woods in the dark as the path through there is bad enough in daylight. Bit of a hard day. Another angler after chub blanked. Not sure if the pike angler caught either.

Deep Frozen Chub

Nearly all week I'd been in two minds, chub or pike, pike or chub. In the end I opted for a spot of chub fish, after all I'd made up some cheese paste ages ago and chub were turning up in a local river. Nothing big but it should be better than my recent pike trips. As the weather forecast was for a rather chilly , and windy, start I decided to arrive at a reasonably civilised hour. 

Armed with just a float rod and a feeder rod I had a bit of a wander about before settling on a known swim with the intention of moving if it didn't produce. I started on the feeder as the chill downstream breeze wasn't conducive to trotting. Bait was to be flake or cheese paste with liquidised bread in the feeder. 

Having cast in I turned round to put the big coat back on and the rod wrapped round and I was in. After a brief struggle a small chub was in the net. I'm pretty sure it was colder than the water it had come from. Over the next hour three more graced the net. Each getting bigger. By letter out a couple of metres of line after the feeder had settled none of the bites was as ferocious as the first. Nor did I get any missed bites either. I then had a quiet period before getting another. two more graced the net as the wind got stronger and colder making bite detection a bit problematic. Strangely, despite alternating between the two, the cheese pate didn't produce a single fish.

Seven chub, the largest two a tad over four pound isn't too bad. I may have got more had I moved swims. Or I may have managed to avoid them. Who knows. The buzzards put on a couple of flying displays, but filming them with a phone doesn't really work. They just look like a dot moving about. A kestrel also landed on a tree opposite. Not something I've seen very often. Normally I only see them hovering and/or stooping.

Last Bit Of Barbeling ( Maybe)

In my infinite wisdom I decided to have another go for barbel, this time on the Ure. I haven't had one from this year and with there still bong some colour in the river I thought they might feed. The weather was a bit suspect. It drizzled all the way there then stopped. It then drizzled as I walked the half mile to the swim, before stopping while I got set up. It then drizzled on and off through the day.

Sadly I managed to avoid attracting any attention from any fish. I did see a kingfisher flashing up and down a few times. While everything looked quite good with only the minimum of debris drifting down, nothing was attracted to either pellet, meat, or cheese paste.

As there's no fishing after dark, and the drizzle had stopped, I packed up just after 4pm. This lead to another problem. Instead of the usual 40 minutes to get home it took nearly an hour.  There's only really two routes home. One was blocked with a crash and so the other has excess traffic on it.

More Barbel Fishing For Pike

As the river had risen slightly from Tuesday's rain I thought another go for barbel would be a good idea on Wednesday. Several other anglers appeared to have the same idea as there were several cars parked up when I got to the river. They must have been down the bottom end though as I passed nobody as I wandered along the top section. Two anglers were setting up on the opposite bank just downstream of me.

I choose a swim with a nice slack just upstream and a distinct crease downstream. Cheese paste and a feeder full of crumb was dropped into the slack and Peperami into the crease. The one thing the rain had done was dislodge a lot of debris. To start with it missed my lines. I sat watching a red kite performing acrobatics in the distance. A bit later what I thought to be a rather gaudy robin shot past in to the willow to my right. After several attempts to get a picture of it as it bobbed around the branches I realised it wasn't a robin. The only thing I could think it looked like was a redstart. Later on I got a brief glimpse of a heron as it flow towards the woods.

Eventually I got a bite on the cheese. At first I thought it was some debris that had hit the line, but the clatter of the 'pin told me otherwise. A little jack which bit me off just as I got the net near it. Just after I got a new hook length on and had cast out the meat rod started to bend over. Contact was made with something then all went tight. Moving downstream I managed to free it. Up came a branch and another little jack which shook itself off as it came to the surface. Unlike Tuesdays jack it didn't dislodge the branch for me.

I had intended to stay well into dark but the debris was becoming an increasing menace. I gave up when a very large branch came floating past just. I didn't want to spend my time in the dark pulling weed etc. from the line. Quite why the pike are taking the baits they are I don't know, but my next trip is with a lure rod.

Barbel Fishing For Pike

As I had a couple of days off I spent a bit of time on Sunday contemplating what to fish for and where. Monday and Wednesday afternoons looked decent weather wise. I initial considered pike fishing on Monday, hoping the rivers may get a bit of a flush through from the forecast rain and waking the barbel up. I then decided what with the dry ground and things the rivers wouldn't benefit much from the rain, so decided I'd give barbel fishing a go on Monday. With some recent discussions about cheese paste and a reminder that it used to be a very popular barbel bait around here I'd made up a batch, so that was one bait sorted. My bait bucket also contained some Peperami that was getting on a bit. This had ben doing well over summer apparently. Now I have to say I've never done particularly well  with the stuff. Probably because I put one bit on the hook and then eat the rest.

The meat went down with a hemp filled feeder and the cheese past upstream with a small cage feeder filled with crumb. The meat attracted attention very quickly. After a couple of missed bites the tip rattled about and I was into a small fish, a chub at a guess. Strangely it seemed to get heavier as I reeled it in. Eventually a small pike and a large branch appeared on the surface. The current forced the branch into the dead and dying bankside vegetation. Rather than try and drag the branch through the weed I wandered down stream until I was opposite it. The jack then flicked itself and the hook off the branch. Oh well, saved a bit of faffing about. The sunshine disappeared and the wind and rain turned up. During which I had several bites to meat which couldn't hit despite tying different sized pieces. The cheese though was steadfastly ignored.

After the rain the sun popped out again and I enjoyed a sandwich and cuppa while nothing much happened. I'd swapped the baits around to no effect. Not long after I returned them to the original arrangement I got a couple of sharp tugs on the downstream rod and was into something heavy. A decent barbel I thought, but no, a decent pike rolled on the surface. It didn't really put up the struggle It should have done at this time of year. After a bit of a problem with the net snagging with the pike only half in, I got it to the bank, all 12lb 8oz of it. A rather skinny beast with what looked like and otter bite to it's dorsal fin.

There had been quite a bot of pike activity. Bait fish scattering downstream of me. As somebody came down the far bank looking like he intended to prebait, until he saw me, a swim a pike swirled on the far bank. A bit later a fish shot out of the water in front of me. A couple of anglers who'd been fishing downstream reported pike activity with one taking a jack on pellet. Looked like I'd made the wrong choice. I fished on into dark, but apart from a couple of rattles on the meat caught nothing more. In the half hour between the sun dropping behind the hill and dark the temperature had dropped from 13C to 7C.