Try, Try Again

After the mess I made of the last session I decided I'd have another go to see if I could do any better. I have to admit I'm never sure this is a good idea but Friday was a full moon which is supposed to be an optimum time to fish. Also I decide to try fishing a slider in the deeper swim as it would be easier to cast from under the trees. I did come across a victim of Agnes as I arrived at the ponds. 

The setups were a 1.5g waggler for the inside swim and a 4g slider for the deeper swim. A dozen balls of groundbait laced with dead reds were launched into the deep water with remarkable accuracy this time. I left this swim alone and fished the nearside to start with, feeding hemp and maggots. After half an how with out so much as a chewed maggot I tried the deep swim. This failed to produce anything either. Back on the inside I sated to get bites on the drop that I couldn't hit. After a bit of fiddling with the shot I was soon into a slow but steady flow of lovely bronze rudd. This continued until just after midday. At this point the predators turned up and fish were scattering everywhere. The attackers were small jacks, at least four of them, all around the 1-2lb mark. This seemed like a good time for lunch as no more bites were forth coming.

While I eat my lunch I had the slider rig out in the deep swim. After lunch I tried the inside line again but bites were hard to come by and the pike were still making a nuisance of themselves. I decided to stick it out over the deep swim  to see if any of the ponds bream would turn up, but all I got was the occasional small roach. A reverse of the previous session where the rudd came from the deep swim and the roach and occasional perch from the shallower swim. This time though there were no perch at all. The bream had failed to show by the time it came to packing up and the majority of fish I'd caught were in hour between eleven and twelve. A quick weigh showed there to be 5lb 1oz of shiny rudd and roach. I was quite amazed as I though there was less than three pound in the net.

If I was practising for a match I don't think I'd have learnt very much from these two sessions unless it was a pike match. In this case it seems the smaller pike feed between twelve and two. I bet they don't when I go down there pike fishing.

One Of Those Days

Despite storm Agnes heading this way the weather forecast didn't look too bad for most of the day. A tad draughty and, maybe,  the odd shower. I had a cunning plan to protect me from the worst of the wind. I would try the brick pond as the wind would hit the woods first so shouldn't affect the water too badly. I'd also acquired some 5AA insert wagglers which were nice and long so I should be able to counteract any drift. Having not been there for quite some time I was shocked to find that only a couple of swims were fishable. The rest had lilies growing in front of them. Oh well.

After a bit of plumbing about I found a clear area six foot deep in front of the Arrowhead. Further out I found a deep spot  at some eleven feet roughly half way across. I set up a 2½AA insert waggler For the inside and the 5AA insert waggler for the middle. Maggots over hemp for the inside line and breadcrumb laced with maggots and fishmeal pellet for the middle. It seemed my bait chucking skills had deserted me. Whether throwing groundbait or catapulting hemp I really struggled to hit the target. In the end I was just glad it hit the water. If I'd been playing darts I think I'd have ended up on double one.

First cast to the near line produced a bite on the drop. A tiny perch which fell off as I swung it in. Next cast i was bitten off when a jack grabbed a the fish. Things then went quiet on the inside line so I had a chuck with the heavier rig to the middle. Unfortunately I miscast straight up into the tree above me. I got a tangles mess back minus the hook. Back on the inside while I re-rigged. My feeding of hemp and maggot got a bit more accurate but it was still over a larger area than I'd of liked. The float dipped under the surface and out came a small roach.

Out it went again and there it sat for twenty minutes with out so much as a chewed maggot. With nothing on the inside line I went back to the middle, or I tried to. For some reason I'd now lost the ability to cast. Eventually I managed to get the rig where I wanted it. After a few minutes I was into something small that was grabbed by a pike as I wound it past the lilies. As the pike turned I was bitten off again and the float etc. shot into the tree again.

This seemed to be a good time to partake of luncheon. I'd been trying to fish for two and a half hours at this point. I chucked out more feed to somewhere in the vicinity of both swims and settled back with a cuppa and lunch. Suitably invigorated and with the heavy rig redone I started in the further swim. The wind had now changed direction slightly and leaves were starting to drift into the swim. After half an hour with nothing forthcoming I moved to the inside swim. The leaves were now a bit problematic as I seemed to either land the bait or the float on one. Once I got the bait through I did manage to catch half a dozen roach before and other pike attack scattered them.

Back out to the middle. All was quiet for about twenty minutes before a small roach dragged the float under. I then managed to drop three while swinging them in. The next fish in was a rudd taken off the bottom in eleven feet of water. The threatened shower finally turned up so up with the brolly. This made casting a problem again but I somehow managed to land the float in the vicinity of the feed. Four more rudd followed each taken after the bait had settled on the bottom. All bites stopped as the rain got heavier.

Looking at the rain radar showed a gap in the rain around half three before heavier rain was due along with stronger winds. The moment rain stopped I got packed up as there was a fair walk back to the car and I didn't want a soaking. I just got everything in the boot of the car when the heavens opened.  Eight roach and five rudd for five hours fishing isn't brilliant but I'd caught. One problem I did have on packing up was two of the wagglers were too long for the tackle box so they had to be wrapped in a towel and carefully tucked into the corner of the rucksack.

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.

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.

Out For A Waggle

 With the trout rivers up again, though dropping, I decided a spot of stillwater angling may be a better idea. I quickly gathered up the requisite tackle and stopped at the tackle shop for some maggots. I already had ground bait and sweetcorn, but maggots never go amiss. My first problem of the day was the road was closed to the pond I wanted to be at. I traipsed round the diversion to another pond instead. I was surprised to find the car park empty. I remembered a club notice about it being closed, but a quick check showed it to be last week, so all OK. As I put the reel on the rod I noticed a complete lack of line on the spool. A spool of 4.6lb was found in the tackle box. As I wound it on I couldn't help thinking it felt a bit thick. Another look at the spool showed it to be 4.6Kg. Ooops. After winding it back onto it's spool I found the 4.6lb and got that onto the reel. Next cock up was the tube of insert wagglers wasn't to be found, all I had was a collection of rather thick river wagglers. Oh well.

 

I selected the slimmest float I could find and dotted it down as low as I could. To avoid the tiny rudd I put the bulk of the shot a couple of foot above the hook. A few balls of groundbait laced with maggots and a few bits of sweetcorn. The first few fish followed by a skimmer.  It then went quiet for a while. This is how it went for the rest of the day. While I was struggling to catch a couple more anglers arrived. I alternated between live & dead maggots and sweetcorn. The sweetcorn picked up the odd roach, live maggots got the Rudd, and dead maggots the little skimmers. For 4½ hours fishing I really didn't catch very much. I had plenty of bites, but I suspect the thickish float was the problem.

One of the later arrivals had a reasonable catch of skimmers and bream from the far side of the pond so the fish were feeding, just not in front of me. To be honest the swim I'd chosen does well in winter but I'm not sure it's a spring/ summer swim. I was entertained by a carp during the afternoon that kept rising vertically out of the the water to it's shoulders. A bit of a strange antic but then carp are bit strange at times. Once I got home I made sure the tube of insert wagglers was in the bag as well as the spare spools with more appropriate line on the them.

Metamorphosed Amphibians Are Go

The rain which had eased off during  the journey had got heavy again when I arrived at the parking spot near the canal. Looking out of the car window it looked like some of the pebbles were moving about, but closer inspection showed them to be tiny, 1cm, frog or toads. They were all over, seemingly migrating from the canal to the long grass. I did manage to get a rather dodgy bit of video of a few but they're very hard to follow with a phone camera. I was surprised birds weren't around picking them off.

The short section I started at is nearly always coloured for some reason. This makes manoeuvring the lure around the weeds a bit of a problem, bit in-between picking the weed off the lure I managed a small jack and a couple of perch. before reaching the lock. It's a bit clearer here and a few fish could be seen, mainly roach with the odd tiny perch. Nothing seemed interest in my lures though. Above the lock I managed to lose a jack of a couple of pounds when it lodged itself in a large blob of blanket weed.

By now the sun had come out, which was quite a surprise. Back at the lock a couple of larger fish were swimming about. They looked like chub around the two pound mark. They also steadfastly refused to sure any interest in my lures. Nor did they show any interest in a couple of slugs I threw in. Worms didn't interest them either, but the roach were happy with them. I did manage a couple of perch on lures though. Bigger than the ones swimming about with a the roach. They shot out of the cabbages to grab the lures.

One strange thing I noticed was that the roach would happily follow the large of the lure I used. I've seen perch accompany lures before but never roach. Before the sun disappeared I spotted a small shoal of what I thought were roach but their fins were very bright red so I suspect they were rudd. It's a long long time since I've seen rudd in the canal.

I think I'll have to try dropshotting an artificial maggot to see if I can catch some rudd and or roach. Not sure what would be needed to tempt the chub should I see then again.

I wonder what the survival rate is of these little things. I wonder how many got squashed by the dog walkers and myself..

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.