For my final session of the river season I went down to a local river which was at a very nice height for pike fishing. Plenty of slacks to fish. I fished four of them with float-fished deadbaits. Herring, sardine, and roach were used. None of which were attractive to the pike. Like most last sessions it was a bit of an anticlimax.
Not the best of pike seasons at all. All jacks not even a double. The stats are as follows.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
My pike season on the rivers, like many other up here, hasn't been great at all. The constant floods have made life awkward with some especially slippy banks when the water has dropped. In the hope of picking things up a bit I headed for a well known hotspot. The river had been up about a metre following Sunday's rain but was dropping so things wouldn't be too bad I thought. Following a later than intended start due to finger trouble I arrived at the pot after a rather laborious trudge through muddy files and slippy paths. I was surprised to find nobody else there on either bank.
While investigating a couple of other swims, now the rain had stopped, I spotted a Tansy Beetle loitering on some nettles. I don't know if the eat nettles when there's no tansy about. These things are rather rare. The Yorkshire Ouse and somewhere in Cambridgeshire are it's only remaining populations in the UK. After lunch I moved to another swim upstream that has produced pike in the past. The float now sporting a piece of lamprey had to be set a twenty two foot and was tossed in at the upstream end of the slack. The edger was dropped in at the downstream end with a small headless mackerel. The same angler that caught earlier had another. His friend, like me, ended up with a stick. I must admit the stick I caught gave a very convincing impression of a pike run.
The trudge back up the hill was damned hard work with the sticky mud trying to rip my wellies off. Not the day I was hoping for but one more session to go and a my be able to pick things up, or not.
Thursday I set off to a section of river renowned for it's humongous pike, that nobody ever captures. The rumours have been around years and just seem to stick. It has, however, been producing some pike recently which is why I was heading there. The info I has was that the pike were been caught late morning into early afternoon so I didn't get there too early. There weren't quite as many swims accessible as I'd hoped do to the water level,. but enough to spend an hour or two in each.
A float rod was to be fished next to any overhanging trees and in the slacks and a ledger rod for out in the middle. Bait was limited as I didn't want to buy any more before the end of the season. I had a small herring, some smelt, roach and lamprey. I put a section of lamprey out in the middle and a roach on the float was my starter.After half an hour or so the float started to drift downstream and I contacted with something that didn't feel like a pike. When I got it to the surface it was a pike, nearly. Probably about a foot long it thrashed about on the surface and detached itself from the hook. I put on a roach and cast out again, but with no more action after an hour moved on the the next swim.
If one pike was active and willing to take a lure maybe more were. I therefore spent some time wandering up and down chucking lures about, but didn't see anything else. I settled down in an new swim with quite a large slack the was only about eight foot deep compared to the twelve to fourteen foot of the previous swims. Recasting the ledger rod I slipped and launched the whole lot up into a tree. While I retrieved everything else the lamprey detached itself and landed in the river. Time for the headless herring. It hadn't been out long when the alarm bleeped and the dropback dropped back. Pretty soon an 84cm 6lb 8oz fish was in the net. Despite the powerful rods it managed to put up a reasonable account of itself in the fast current.
Nothing else came from that swim so I had another go with the lure rod to no avail. two more swims were fished before dark, but nowt else had a go at the baits. I'm hoping the rivers have settled and the last few days of the season will produce something better. Hopefully it won't be washed out like last year.
With the local rivers up at silly heights it was stillwaters that looked the only option on Friday. I trundled across the county to a gravel pit I'd fished only once before. That session had resulted in one rather tatty pale little beastie so I hoped to do better. I was the only one there when I arrived. When I looked at the water I wondered why I'd trailed all this way as the water was very coloured. After a wander round I started in a swim with my back to the wind. I could fish to one of the island, not that this had done me much good last time. There was also two over hanging trees either side of me that looked pikey.
I'd been informed the muddy colour had dropped out of the overfull Brick Ponds so decided to give it a go. My intention of arriving at first light was cocked-up by my inability to set an alarm. On arriving at the car park I thought it best to have wander down to the ponds to see what state they were in before carting the tackle down. The colour had dropped out but it was far from clear and it really was high. With 18" of extra water in it one of my favourite swims was inaccessible and the bankside path to the other half of the pond(s) was underwater in places.
Two float rigs were readied, one with a herring with a rather bad case of freezer burn, and the other with a small headless mackerel. The herring was placed to the left bay an overhanging tree and the mackerel over the dead/dying lilly bed. As I tucked in to a biscuit to go with my cuppa the herring float bobbed and moved away. Contact was made with a very fast fish which shot about all-over the place. It obviously wasn't heavy but did put up a great scrap for it's size. Only 64cm but fun none the less. A smelt was attached to the rig and dropped in the same place.
Unclipping the traces I found things weren't as bad as they first appear and was soon back in action. The mackerel went a bit further out this time and another smelt was dropped under the tree to my right. Around 3:45 I was thinking of packing in as I didn't fancy the very muddy walk back in dark.As I lifted the smelt from the water the other float moved slowly across the surface. I wasn't quite sure what I'd contacted with. It felt like a dead weight that occasionally wriggled a bit. By the time I'd got whatever it was to the bank all I had was a pile of semi-dead lily bits. I fished on until I could no longer see the floats but nothing else happened. The walk back was a bit nasty in the dark but I made it out intact. Despite being small the two jacks maintained my average of two pike per trip.
My original plan was to fish the Brick Ponds, but I'd been told they were still rather coloured from the run-off . Plan B was to fish the Estate Lake , but I don't have the combination for the lock yet. I'm sure there's somebody I could get in touch with while I await my card, but there was nobody at the pit as I drove past so I opted for Plan C.
As I unloaded the car I was greeted by a robin. As the liquidised bread was handy I sprinkled a some about for it. That would be the last I saw of it. I headed round to the far side and set up the rods. A trout to the right by an overhanging tree and a small half mackerel to the left under an overhanging tree.
Just as I got a cuppa made the left hand float trundled away. I lively little jack was contacted with that decided to show off it's acrobatic skills under the rod tip. I didn't want to net it as one of the hooks was flapping about. Strangely it was hooked on the upper hook that was in the tail of the bait. A tidy little fish of 66cm.
Mid afternoon there had been a might crack somewhere over to my right. This turned out to be a dead tree about 9" in diameter which had fallen over the path. The phone camera decided an arty shot was needed. Not sure what went wrong as the flash fired. I managed to move the tree out of the way easy enough. Four out of four so far this season. I'll have to go elsewhere for my next session as I don't want to push my luck at the pit.
Another trip to the gravel pit as I suspect the brick pond would be still frozen, and the rivers are rising and or falling. Again I was the only one there, apart from the robin. I was surprised to see a large area of ice still floating about. The wind was blowing it into the corner I wanted to fish so I opted to fish the corner I blanked in last time. There was, however, a larger area of water to go at. The other problem was that the branches thrown at the ice and leaf debris kept drifting backwards and forwards throughout the day dragging the line and rigs about.
Baits were the same as last time. The sardine was placed near the tree roots in two and a half foot of water and left there as the pike are known to patrol along there. The trout would be cast about the area and be moved every 45 minutes or so in the hope of landing it in front of a pike. Apart form being pestered by two robins, one having a more orange chest than the other, nothing much happened except a visit from the bailiff. Another angler had set up on the far bank maggot drowning. I didn't see him catch anything. Three lads also turned up deadbaiting but didn't catch either. The sun also turned up which meant I had to be careful where I cast the floats, as pike floats go invisible in winter sunshine no matter how big they are.
I'd been undecided where to go today as we're between the river coarse season and the trout season. Tidying the bait fridge out help me decide. There were a few dead baits in rather sorry condition so I decided on a trip to the estate lake to use them up. The weather forecast wasn't good for pike fishing, warm with bright sunshine. The bait wasn't too good either, most of it having a bit of freezer burn. Not that I'd had much of a problem with manky baits like that in the past. The pike should be getting ready to spawn so would be very hungry I hoped. As I drove past the gravel pit on my way to the estate lake I couldn't help but notice a complete lack of anglers. I had expected it to be busy. A change of plan was in order so I stopped there.
Next Friday is the start of the trout season so I hope to be flinging a few flies about for a brownie or two.
