Nearly Cut Off By Flood Water

 When I arrived at the river it was up and slowly rising. By the time I'd found a swim it started to rise a lot faster. The swim I found had a slack on the far side and a large eddy on the near side. Initially 3oz was enough to hold on the far side, but very quickly 4oz then 5oz weren't enough especially given the amount of debris coming down. With the eddy slowly disappearing I dropped a 14mm pellet down the bank on the corner of the eddy. The 8mm pellet went down the bank under the rod tip to the left. Over the next three hours the river rose around four foot.

The rods were regularly dragged over by debris during this time. Much to my surprise I found a small gudgeon had attempt to swallow an 8mm pellet and managed to get itself hooked. I had seen some knocks on that rod but I assumed it was the twigs drifting around that were hitting the line. A while later while talking to a chap by the name of Ian, a reader of the blog, he pointed out that the other rod had lurched over. I had my back to it. After a brief but hectic fight a nice barbel was landed. We estimated around 7-8lb. It weighed in at 7lb 2oz.

Ian wander upstream to try a slack up there. I carried on for a while before noticing one of the banksticks was surrounded by water. The branch in the first couple of pictures was now drifting around in what was left of the eddy. I thought that if the river continued to rise it wouldn't be long before it was well and truly over the bank and into the meadow. Time to pack up. As I was packing up I discovered that the bottom of the rod holdall had a hole in it and the umbrella pole was poking through. Given it was nearly twenty years old the holdall hadn't done bad. Ian haddn't caught anything as I passed. When i got to the stile it was surrounded by a foot or so of water. I let Ian know and we both managed to get over it before we could be marooned, ended up filling our wellies.

 

Not a bad day considering. Nice and warm with the odd kite and buzzard drifting about. I'm sure the bag is repairable.

Sliding Down The River

 Thursday wasn't looking great weather wise. Overcast, drizzly, windy, an easterly at that, but you just never know. I wandered down the stretch a bit to just above a large sweeping bend. The wind wasn't too bad but gusting downstream. A bit of plumbing showed there to be nearly fifteen foot of water. With this in mind I rigged up a 5SSG sliding waggler with a 5g olivette a couple of feet above the hook. The weight should get the double maggot bait past most of the bleak and minnows that tend to appear. Half a dozen tennis ball sized balls of ground bait laced with chopped worm and maggots were flung in with remarkable accuracy. The gudgeon were the first to move onto the bait after a little while.

It was a fish a chuck with a couple of dozen soon amassed. Three or four dace soon followed before it it went quiet. A couple more balls of ground bait wee added. After some adjustment of the depth so that it was fishing over depth a steady precession of hand sized roach. Again as the bites tailed off I put out a couple more balls of groundbait. The next few fish were tiddlers and minnows, before the roach returned.

I then put the kibosh on matters. Having thought to myself that it had been nice not to get pestered by pike the very next roach was grabbed by a pike. After a minute or so of battle it let go of the roach. With no more bites even after fiddling with the depth I hurled in the last of the ground bait. Sone after a rather fine Ruffe turned up.

A bit more depth fiddling followed as I was not getting any more bites. With the bait an inch or two off the bottom. Some thing a bit bigger took the bate. The thump thump as I played it suggested a perch. A rather nice fish of 1lb 7oz. Next cast produced another a couple of ounce bigger. A couple more trots down I hooked another which felt even bigger. Unfortunately it came adrift.

I fished on but only got the occasional chewed maggot, the odd tiny minnow, and a bleak. Not a bad haul in the end considering the gusty downstream wind and occasional bouts of drizzle.

Waggling A Slider

A trip to one of the deeper sections of a local river was the plan for Friday. In order to avoid the bleak and minnows that normally pester you down there I intended to fish sweetcorn over groundbait. After a bit of balsam bashing to create a swim I got set up. Plumbing up showed the swim to be just over fourteen foot deep. Because of the downstream wind my usual bolo style slider was ruled out in favour of a three and a half gram peacock waggler. 

While I mixed up the ground bait I tossed out a feeder rod with some hemp in a blockend feeder. Having mixed up the groundbait I wound in to find a tiny dace had managed to hook itself. I chucked it out again having thrown in several balls of groundbait. I'd just finished setting up the float rig when the tip whacked round. In came a feisty little chub.

I continued on with the feeder for a while longer but attracted nothing else. I then changed to the float. It was quite a while before I got my first bite. A respectable roach. Another one followed next cast. Followed by another three of four casts later. I had eleven over the next ninety minutes before things went quiet. I tossed out some more groundbait and let things settle while I had a cuppa as it was now rather worm and sunny. Even the wind, which was getting stronger, was rather warm. The bites came a bit quicker over the next couple of hours with eighteen similar sized roach coming to the net before things went quiet again.

The last of the groundbait was tossed out and after another cuppa I trotted the float down again. The float had barely settled when it shot away. At first it felt like I'd hooked a small pike but it turned out to be a rather large perch which came adrift just beyond the net. I continued on for another half hour with out any more bites on the float. I tied the feeder for a whole but nowt was happening. Time to pack up I thought. Not a bad haul and a lot more pleasant than striking at maggot stealing minnows and bleak.

Stick N Pin On A Falling River

 I had a careful look at the river levels Friday morning after the heavy rain on Thursday. Te little river  intended to fish had risen a foot overnight but had since dropped about six inches and was still falling so should be OK. Looking from the bridge when i arrived an colour there had been seemed to have dropped out of it. This time I headed downstream instead of up like last time. I soon found a nice looking swim, but the descent into it was a bit dodgy on the wet grass. I set up the float rod with a quick depth finding rig and made my way down. I didn't want to get all the tackle down there and find some sort of snag filled hell hole. Luckily there seemed to be a nice smooth run, so the rest of the tackle was brought down. As I sorted myself out  noticed a bit of mono on the bank a bit down from me. It turned out to be three log lengths of heavy (barbel?) stuff. This wasn't a snap off it was clearly dumped. Why?

After the tidy up I set up a feeder rod and a float rod with a 4x4 stick float. The plumbing had shown the swim to be a bit over eight foot deep. The float was shotted shirt button style. I was going to be fishing maggot over hemp for what ever turned up.

First cast and the float failed to settle. In came a tiny little bleak. Not wishing to contend with them I bulked the shot a couple of foot above the hook. Next cast I avoided the bleak but ended up with a equally tiny roach. Third cast The float got half way down the swim before disappearing. Another tiny fish that I thought was a leaf at first. A gudgeon this time.

Just after I swung the gudgeon in fish scattered throughout the swim. Damned pike. I continued to feed hemp and maggot but didn't get a bit for a good forty minutes. When I did it was from a good fish. Just as I got it to the surface a huge mouth grabbed what looked like a chub of around two pound. What looked to be a good double figure pike shot at great speed into the tree roots downstream. I chucked the feeder rod out as I rerigged. The tip went over not long after I tightened up. A perch that imagined it was a lot bigger was swung out so as to avoid the pike following it. That turned out to be the last pike I saw. The next fish was a hand sized roach.

I had very few bites on the feeder, which I'd left out while I had lunch. After lunch I resumed with the float. With constant feeding. I started to get a decent run of fish. Not quite one every cast but steady none the less. I've no idea how many I caught or what they weighed but it wasn't a bad afternoon at all considering how hot and bright it was.

The only reason I stopped was that i had to be elsewhere. The bites, typically, were getting better and more frequent. One problem, of my own making, was I but my phone on the side tray causing it to over heat again. Placing it in the shade under the seat cooled it enough for the final photo. The heat had, however, corrupted the memory card and It took me several hours to sort things out and get the photos off the phone. Several were corrupt and couldn't be rescued though. I think I should take an ice pack to place it on.

Stick N Pin N Pike

 It was quite a cool morning as I arrived at the river. Very pleasant indeed, but I know it was going to get hotter. I intended to do a spot of stick n pin fishing so wandered along the flood  bank looking for a suitable swim. It wasn't long before I found one that looked good. A bit of a steep descent into it though. Once on the bank I quickly set up a small chubber float with a couple of SSG shot. I'd not fished here for a long time so didn't know much about the state of the swims. I trotted the rig through a few times until I'd found the depth, just under five foot. I'd not found any snags or weed either. The chubber was then replaced with a 3 No6 wire stemmed stick float. A few trots through with out any bait just to check the depth etc. again and I was under way. Two maggots on the hook and a few tossed into the swim and the float disappeared. and the first fish appeared. A tiny roach.

The next fish was a small gudgeon taken a bit further down the swim. Feeding a few maggots each cast I either got a small roach half down or a gudgeon the the end of the swim. After a few of these a dace was little dace was taken on the drop. This is how it continued for a bout half an hour before a pike grabbed a roach i was bringing in. Ripping it from the hook.

Next cast the float shot upstream. Another larger pike had grabbed the maggots on the drop. While I was playing it three jacks came downstream close to the bank. This was not looking good. Eventually a 30" 6lb 15oz was in the net. After a bit of a lull the same pattern as previous returned. All small fish though. Again a fish was grabbed by a pike as I was reeling it in but this time I was bitten off. Again things went quiet for a while before some larger roach showed up. Which were more than welcome. Then another pike showed up grabbing a roach as I brought it in. A tiny little jack that decide to put on a display of tail walking before both came adrift.

 

The morning was now getting warmer and judging by the fish scattering near the weed on the far bank the pike were just as active as ever. It was back to the little dace and gudgeon came back but he bites were harder to hit. I tied feeding  twice per trot but this didn't seem to help matters. As I was winding in after a trot down with out a bite another fair sized pike grabbed the spinning maggots. After a brief battle I was bitten off again. That was it. Time to go. So I did. Besides I'd nearly run out of bait. One thing I noticed on my way back was the number of grasshoppers in the field. None of them would stop still long enough for a photo though. Nice to see as they are another inverabrate that seems to be in short supply in many places.

Blimey, Sunshine

It was rather pleasant driving to the river in sunshine, and rather surprising to see the river at normal summer level. The three foot deep swim I fished last time I was here was now a foot deep and full of weed. I nearly tripped as I was distracted by the Kites and Buzzards flying about. A Kingfisher shot up the river as I was setting up. The running maggot feeder was to be the method of the session. The low river with it's mirror finish and the bright sunshine, while pleasant to sit in, didn't bode well for fishing.

It was nearly an hour before I got my first bite. Which I missed. After nattering with another angler that had come down my confidence didn't rise as he'd been talking to others and nowt had been caught up to now. Casting round to three different spots produced the odd chewed maggot in the shallower swim. Eventually I got another bite which produced a small roach. One swim started to produce the odd rattle to the tip but the maggots were still intact when I wound in. Three hours in and the swim that produced the roach kindly provided a small chub.

A little while later I had another positive bite but I missed it as I was distracted by the Kingfisher zooming upstream again. Not long after an angler that had been fishing downstream passed on his way home. He'd hook a decent barbel but lost it to a hook pull. I had to go a little bit later. Four bites two little fish is not the greatest session but it was nice to be sat in the sun.

Umbrella Testing

It had been my intention to go fishing Wednesday with a mate, as we hadn't fished together for a while. Unfortunate he'd made a bit of a pig's ear of his calendar and got his shift pattern all wrong. He was working Wednesday but had today off.  The weather forecast, for those that haven't noticed, was rain, rain, and more rain. While it would be a good test for my new brolly come advertising hoarding I dislike setting up in the rain. We were lucky with the weather though. It was only a slight drizzle when we arrived. We'd also chosen a spot where we were only a few yards from the car parking. Float Fishing in the rain under a brolly is no fun so I only set up the feeder rod. A simple running rig with a black feeder and a short 9" hook length.

First cast produced a good rattling bite. Which turned out to be a rather tatty roach. Followed by a tiny dace. These little things proved to be a right nuisance. They would give a really good twang of the tip which proved unhitable. The trick was to just ignore this and wait for the tip to start rattling about.

We both tried single maggot rather than double but this didn't produce many bites at all. After a couple of hours we'd both amassed a couple of dozen of these little things. Strangely both swims went quiet about the same time. The rain had eased to drizzle again so we had a cuppa and a natter. On resuming fishing I found roach had turned up in the swim. While my mate was back with the tiny dace. The roach were either hand size or tiny. The bites were well spread out though. At least they were hittable. While my mate had another couple of dozen of the little dace I had about a dozen roach over the next couple of hours.

 

With another break in the weather we decided to call it a day. Despite the rain it had been a reasonably pleasant session. No big 'uns, which was a good job as I'd forgotten my net bag with the landing net in. One thing that surprised us both was the lack of perch. They normally put in an appearance, or used to. The brolly did everything expected of it. Being a bit bigger than my old one it was easier to hide under and keep dry.

Trouble With The Wind

 The weather forecast for Thursday was for gusts above 40MPH. Not ideal float fishing weather but it made it a good time to try out the new feeder rod. I'd acquired a Daiwa N'Zon 12' Medium Feeder the other week but not got around to using it. 

I've know idea what an N'Zon is but the rod is of a three piece design and come with two tips rated 1.5oz and 2oz. It's supposedly capable of casting 80g. I reckon 50g feeders would be enough for today. After a bit of balsam bashing I set up a simple running rig with a two foot hook length and the lighter of the two tips. The intention was to sort of alternate between a cage feeder and a blockend feeder. I started with half a dozen casts with the cage feeder load with groundbait before switching to the blocked loaded with maggots.

It was quite while before I got any bites I could see. The gusty wind was wobbling the tip about despite the fact I was protected from the worst of to by a willow to my right. When the bites came they were very fast often leaving me with just a chewed maggot. I tried a shorter, foot long, hook length. This resulted in me being able to hit a few of the bites which turned out to be rather small dace.

I continued with three casts of groundbait then one of maggots as roach displaced the dace. The bites were few but more positive, again this was the ones  I could see. The roach vary in size somewhat. Half a dozen been caught in as many casts before things went quiet again.

After a couple of gonks put in an appearance a reasonable chub followed. It had a bit of a gash on its back. A couple of smaller ones followed.

For a while I picked up the of small fish. Now that the wind had dropped a bit the bites were easier to see.  It looks like a light 1oz tip may be needed though. Especially on slower rivers. I then started to get bites the moment the feeder hit the bottom. Although the tip pulled well round I just couldn't hit them. I tried striking the moment the feeder hit bottom but this didn't help. I still ended up with no fish or maggots on the hook. Except when a jack pike intervened. A rather battered beastie around the 2lb mark hooked in the scissors.

The jack had clearly managed to empty the swim as I didn't get any more bites. Not even a chewed maggot. l had managed 29 fish for a tad over 6lb, plus the jack. Roach, dace, chub, gudgeon, but no perch. This really surprised me as the fish had a good head of perch last year.

Despite the wind the rod had performed well. Not too stiff. The handle not too long like many these days. A softer tip is definitely needed, although I don't think it would have helped in the strong wind.

With out the wind I'm sure I could have doubled the number of fish but ti was still a nice session.