Penultimate Day Of The Season

The river had risen a lot higher than expected when I looked at the gauge this morning. It was at the height I expected in the afternoon and didn't look like it was going to ease off. My mate was just setting off when I rang him. As he said "It's easier to give up than get started." Despite misplacing himself he still arrived at the same time as me. Our first thought when we saw the river was that we should have brought worms and not dead-baits. Still there were plenty of slacks in evidence so we picked the first two and got underway.

I'd just finished plumbing the depth when my mate shouted frantically. I whipped down to his swim to find him trying to keep a decent jack out of the semi-submerged tree and get his snagged landing net out of the tree roots and brambles. I untangled the net and soon a feisty 5-6lb jack was on the bank. Apparently it had taken the roach on the drop. This gave us some hope.

We gave each swim about 45 minutes before leap frogging along the swims. As I walked past him in his second swim the float shot away and this time it was a lot smaller fish about half the size that had taken a smelt. Like me he was using up whatever he had in the freezer. Buoyed up we continued along the bank but had had no more as it came up to lunch time. We were now both in front of a couple of large slacks/eddies and get two rods out. We stayed here a bit longer while we had lunch. Wind had got stronger and gustier so you had to make sure everything was nailed down.

The only other anglers we saw all day arrived on the opposite bank just after lunch. One of them was obviously well sheltered as he managed to get a brolly up, something we couldn't do. It would have been nice as the periods of rain were getting longer and heavier. We slowly worked our way back fishing the swims the other had fished on the way down. By the time we got back to the top of the section the river had risen a metre and showed no sign of slowing.

Two fish to my mate and nowt to me was not what I really wanted but under the circumstances was better than we'd thought possible at the start of the day. What to do for the final day I don't know. I'm thinking a spot of barbeling may be on the cards, but I'll wait until the morning to make a descension.

The Roads Closed

 With the river up a foot or so I headed to an area I knew would have a few slacks. Unfortunately I'd forgotten the road was closed so I headed further downstream to an area that may have a few slacks. As it was there were very few as the river was just at that awkward height and it had coloured up far than I'd expected. I did find a few small ones that were close together so plonked myself in the middle of them so I could alternate between them.

First thing I did was drop some bits of oil soaked fish bits around the swims. I started with a small 4" rainbow trout on a paternoster rig close to the bank in the small slacks and a piece of eel injected with oil ledgered in the middle. I moved about between the swims for the best part of the day with out any sign of a fish. Before I moved I ran a lure through the swim a few times. A only had a couple of large shads with me that had been fitted with rattles.

Around three as I was making a cuppa the float bobbed about and shot away. The strike made contact with a twig. Had there been a fish or had the twig dragged the float away. It seemed a bit too fast for a twig to me. Out went another little trout. Half an hour later, just as I'd finished my cuppa, the float was away again. This time there was clearly a fish on the end. It made one half hearted run for some nearby tree roots then gave up. Once in the net it came back to life again, but settled down on the bank. A 90cm fish of 8lb 11oz with quite a few bits of damage to it. I was surprised at the weight as it really didn't look that heavy.

That was the lot for the day and given the state of the river I was quite pleased. Others out on the bank didn't seem to have fared well apart from one chap that had had a few roach and a decent perch trotting maggots.

Twig Fish Heaven

'Twas  a rather warm and sunny day today and rather nice to be sat by a river. Probably not the best conditions for pike fishing, but still. I headed for a well known pike hotspot. The problem with these places is that everybody tells me how great they are but I never seem to do well at them. Another couple of anglers were there when I arrived. They were chucking feeders about. I settled in the middle of three likely looking spots. As I setup I noticed a couple of otter prints in the mud, but more worryingly the freshly sprouted seedling of the Himalayan Balsam.

A ledgered roach was cast to the far bank and a float paternostered trout dropped alongside the dying vegetation on the nearside. The feeder chuckers seemed to be catching bits regularly. I moved the baits about every three quarters of an hour or so. After three moves I had a cuppa which did the magic. The float trundled away and I was in. Nothing big then everything went solid. Then it started moving slowly towards me, something very heavy.  Eventually a large waterlogged branch and a little jack surfaced. I managed to grab the end of the branch and pull it in. Strangely the little jack didn't move in the same direction as the branch. It had clearly come adrift and slowly sank away. Oh well, at least they were feeding. Out went another trout while I finished my cuppa.

After my cuppa I moved the paternostered trout into the slack caused by the over hanging tree. The ledgered roach was tossed out to a far bank feature. I didn't have long to wait before the dropback clunked onto the bankstick. This felt a lot bigger than the first fish and moved steadily upstream hugging the far bank. A bit more pressure and it gave up and came in like a dead weight. As it got closer to me I tried lifting it off the bottom which seemed to wake it up. It plummeted to the river bed causing a huge cloud of bubbles to rise. Everything went very heavy again. A good heave created even more bubbles. I was snagged again. Bigger and heavier then the previous branch I eventually got the seven foot monster to the surface sans fish. A bit more heave and it was on the bank.

I tried the float rig in the entrance to the side stream but only seemed to snag more, considerably smaller twigs. By lunch time I'd had enough of this and moved back to the original swim and decided to sit it out in there. Despite moving the baits about and trying others like a sardine and eel section nothing much more happened. I tried flinging a few lures about for an hour or so but this achieved nothing apart from a few more twigs. The magic hour at dusk produced nothing either. Hooked two lost two isn't the best result but it does show I must have been doing something right.

Alarming Pike Fishing

Yesterday I set my alarm for the early hours of Thursday so I could get out before the traffic built up. Remarkably this proved to be rather useless as I was going fishing on Friday. Even so I woke reasonably early and was able to get to the venue before the worst of the traffic. The trudge up to the first swim I intended to fish wasn't too bad as it had been cold enough to freeze the ground. My intention was to start there and work my way back towards the car.

The tactics to start with were a float fished trout in the slack behind an over hanging tree, and a ledgered half a small mackerel out to the feeder line. An hour later and not much had happened so I was contemplating moving when the drop-back indicator hit the bank stick. Nothing big but it felt like a pike. Everything came to a halt and I was proper snagged. I left a slack line for five minutes but nothing happened. I couldn't feel a fish so went for a pull and out the rig came replete with a slightly bent hook. After a bit of straightening it was back out with another manky looking bit of mackerel. I'm still using up last year's baits.

As I brewed a cuppa the drop-back went again. A fish around the 60-70cm mark. This time I got it to the net. I was about four foot above the river so wielding a heavy net with a slightly dodgy shoulder wasn't easy. I hadn't seen the trailing hook which snagged the edge of the net. My faffing about trying to get the fish over the net soon unhooked it and it was away. The next mackerel hard been in a couple of minutes, enough time to get the boiling water into the cup for my cuppa, when I got another run. This time a fish of 65cm was actually landed. I'm assuming the photos of it are among the four that are corrupted on the SD card. Despite their size they'd put up a good struggle zooming about like mad things.

I settled back with my cuppa and a biccy. I'd no sooner finished it than the float moved away. This was something considerably heavier. After hauling it out from under the tree it headed straight for the snag. Turning it had it heading back towards the overhanging tree. Side to side it went three or four times before giving up. At 110cm and 18lb 14oz it was quite a weight to lift up the bank. Out went another trout. Not long after the drop-back dropped back and another feisty little jack of 75 cm was kept out of the snag and into the net.

I wondered whether to stay or move. You can only push your luck so far in one swim. A tip rattle on the ledger rod persuaded me stay. It then rattled again but I failed to contact with any thing. The slightly chewed mackerel was slung out again. I'd just got the water in my Mac 'n' Cheese when the float moved away. Something heavy but dogged was on the end. While it made no fast runs it took some time to get it up out of ten foot of water. At 108cm, 2cm shorter than the earlier biggy it weighed over 5lb less at exactly 13lb. By the time I'd dealt with it my Mac 'n' Cheese was ready. That had been my last trout so a rather old looking piece of lamprey was the next bait used.

The pike gave me time to eat my lunch and have a cuppa before the float bobbed about. All I contacted was a sunken branch. After tossing the bait back out I didn't have another run for about 45 minutes. As I started to gather things up to move another swim the drop-back dropped again and a somewhat larger jack of 87cm and 8lb 14oz soon graced the net. It was one of those that puts up more of a fight on the bank. As this was the last mackerel I put the other half of the lamprey on. It was another hour before I got my next run. This time on the float. A real loony of a fish that was all over the place both in and out of the water. At 70cm it had certainly been entertaining, and I still had my bait. While I had my afternoon tea I had a dropped run on both rods

I decided to sit it out in that swim but got no more runs. The walk back to the car was a bit trick as the slippy mud had now thawed out and made the return journey hard work. Six fish landed, two lost and a few dropped runs made the slippy trudge worth it. Quite why there were so many jack two thirds of the way across the river I've no idea. Maybe gathering ready for spawning?