Inverts and Jack

 I spent the morning invertebrate sampling for the River Monitoring Initiative. Along with quite a few sticklebacks and bullheads the usual suspects turned up in the samples. Plenty of Cased Caddis, Caseless Caddis, Baetis, Gammarus, and a couple of BWO. Stonefly and Mayfly are occasionally found but Heptagenes aren't found in this beck at all.

After this I headed to a local lake for a short pike session. I was the only one there so dropped in the most convenient swim close to the car. After a quick check of the depths a small roach went out to the left and a headless bluey was cast towards the island. An inspired cast saw it land very close to the overhanging tree and not in it. Next job was luncheon. Like last time here I was just tucking in when the float bobbed and moved away. A strike contact with a fish which came adrift half way back. There was surprisingly little damage to the bait though.

Lucnh passed with out any more interruptions. I shallowed up the roach to allow it to drift along into the bay. to no effect. I tossed it out to a bit of a hole near the island and various points in-between. The bluey had been cast back under the tree, again with out getting snagged up. Another cuppa was had mid-afternoon while if rained.. Not long after this the Bluey float bobbed and moved very quickly away. A quick strike again contacted with a fish, and again it fell off half way back. Nowt big, but that was probably the problem. Little jacks have a habit of picking deadbaits up but don't get near the hooks on bigger baits. Late afternoon a repeat permanence of the previous two runs. Again I contacted with a fish but I got this one in the net before it spat the hooks out. A spirited beast of 73cm.

 

That was that for the day. I'm now edging closer to one pike per trip but not quite there yet. Next day I was back, but this time for a work party. I spent my time picking litter out of the brambles with a litter picker. Others were involved with opening swims out a bit and clearing undergrowth impeding the path, along with the usual arson. 

 

 

After which it was back to the beck to assist pegging out for the Grayling match.
 

 

Three Day Bender - Day 3

 Sunday I arrived first light at another stillwater. Nobody else about until I started setting up, when another angler arrived and headed round the pond. I'd decided where I was fishing on the way there. It's roughly square and I'd caught on three of the four sides in the past so decided to fish the side I'd not so far caught from. There was a nice overhanging tree to my left and a small corner to my right. A bluey went to the left and a sardine to my right.

Around mid morning, as I was contemplating a cuppa, the righthand float bobbed and moved away. A feisty little pike had taken a fancy to the the sardine and was soon bundled into the net. A pot bellied little piggy of a thing covered in leeches. A new sardine was tossed out to the same spot.

As I set about boiling the kettle for a cuppa the 'pin stated to scream. Another. slightly longer, little piggy pike had snaffled the sardine. This one put up a bit more of a struggle but was kind enough to spit the hooks out in the net.

Another sardine was plonked into the same spot. This time I was allowed to make my cuppa in peace.  After my cuppa I move the baits about a bit. When the breeze got up I tried drifting a bait about but nowt else bothered me. The rain had stayed away, but started around lunch time just as I was packing up. Two more to the tally but the average is still under one per trip.



 

Three Day Bender - Day 2

 Saturday I was at another lake at daybreak. One man and his tent was in one corner carping. I setup in another corner with the same rigs as last time. The sardine plonked by an overhanging tree to my left and a roach over to the tree to my right. As the day wore on the floats were moved about. The sun got out and made for a pleasant day. Three other anglers arrived at various points. None caught while I was there. Nor did I either. The bright sunshine, clear lake, and very low overnight temperatures probably weren't the best combination. Still it was nice to be out on a sunny day and not be getting wet.

 The blank didn't do my average per session any good as it still remains under one.

Three Day Bender - Day 1

 After a bit of a lay-off from fishing do to the appalling weather and not knowing if the rivers were going up or down I was ready to get back to it. I'd planned a couple of sessions on stillwaters over the weekend, but a change of plan meant I could also get out on Friday 13th. While the weather over the weekend was predicted to be quite good, including the threat of sunshine, Friday didn't look so clever. Luckily for me the drizzly sleet eased off as I arrived at the empty carpark. By the time I'd setup camp the sleet and drizzle had returned.

A float-fished sardine was placed under the tree to my left and a float-fished roach over to the other side of the bay. These were moved about as the morning went on. By lunch time the sardine was under the tree to the right. As I started to tuck in to my Cheese and Broccoli Pasta the sardine rig bobbed about. As it was now sleeting quite heavily I found myself saying out loud " You can stop that", and it did. I wound down but there was nothing there so I left it where it was. Lunch passed with out any more interruptions. An hour later the float boobed again but this time it started to move away. By the time I'd got to the rod the float had stopped. Tightening up showed there to be nothing there again. No sign of damage to the bait either.  For some reason I decided to chop the head of the bait and tossed it back under the tree. A little while later the float moved away. By the time I'd picked the rod up it was heading back towards me. A sweeping strike contacted with a fish that darted all over the place before being bundle into the net. A well fed little beast of 71cm.

I had another hour before I had to be away, but nowt else showed up. The soggy kit in the back of the car soon misted the windows up. With the heater on full blast it eventually cleared by the time I'd got to the gate and undone the lock.

 

 

Snotty Baggin'

 With Wednesday morning's activities cancelled due to the previous days precipitation I decided to nip up to a local pond, with the half pint of maggots I'd got left, for a couple of hours. I set up a simple paternoster feeder rig. With a couple of maggots on the hook. First cast resulted in a bite before I'd properly tightened up. A little roach.

Next cast the same thing, but the little roach dropped of into the margin as i swung it in. A little jack then shot up of the drop off and nearly beached it's self trying to grab it. Things then went quiet for a while. I then got a rattling bite that I missed. As one leg of the chair had sunk slightly I dropped the remains of the maggots in the margin while I sorted myself out. When I lifted the feeder back out there was a little perch attached to the hook. I dropped the fresh maggots back in the margin and soon got another one. Again the little jack made a charge for it bit missed out as I'd lifted it well above the water. I went back out to the swim I'd caught the roach from to find the little skimmers had moved in. 

A few more quickly followed before one came in at great speed followed by a bow wave. Again the little jack missed out on a meal and nearly beached itself. The skimmers seemed to have disappeared as I got no more bites. Soon after a short sharp downpour swept over. While I didn't get wet while it rained due to the trees. I had to suffer the occasional shower every time there was was a gust of wind. By the time it got to be time for me to be elsewhere I'd had no more bites. As I stated packing up the tip pulled round and another little skimmer turned up.

If it hadn't been for the hungry little jack(s) I think it would have been a better haul for the couple of hours I was there. A nice way to waste a couple of hours though.

Balsam Bashing Then Stockie Bashing

The morning was spent balsam bashing along the banks of one of the becks. The amount of balsam has markedly decreased f the last few years but it's now mainly growing in among the nettles and hiding under the trees so takes a bit more work to spot. Persistence is the key.

After we'd finished some of decided to retire to one of the ponds for luncheon and a maybe a bit of fishing for the stocked browns. While the other two bobbed about in the boats I decided to have a fish from the bank.

While the other two fished a duo rig with a small PTN on the end I opted for a small sparkle tail Griffith's gnat as fish were rising close to the bank. The first to take my fly was one of the recent stockies at 16" which put up a fair fight on the weight three rod.  The PTHs were catching but I persisted with the dry. The next fish was lost when it throw the hook. The boat anglers were getting some unmissable bites that they missed. I the suffered the same. The fly was getting sucked under but I could hook them no matter how quick or slow I struck.

Time flew past pretty quickly and it was soon time to go. The nymph anglers had half a dozen fish to the net I had just the one on dry. A nice way to waste a couple of hours.

Several Changes of Plan

 My original plan for Thursday was to park up at the top of the stretch I intended to fish, walk down to the bottom and fish back to the car. This idea was stymied by a fallen tree across the track. I could drag it so far but it had fallen between a couple of large rocks which would require me to lift it  as well. My back suggested this wasn't a good idea. Annoyingly I'd taken my bow saw out of the car earlier in the week. There's nothing much in the way of phone signal around here, so it was back to the village to get in touch with the appropriate people. Having informed them I set off back round to the parking at bottom of the stretch. Before that I had a look at the weather forecast as it seemed to be drizzling for longer than I'd expected. I suspect my clumsy fingers had brought up Friday's forecast and not Thursday's.

Arriving at the bottom of the stretch the drizzle had now turned to rain. A cuppa seemed like a good idea while I contemplated whether to fish or not. The drizzle eased off and I decided to stay. It was while setting up that I discovered I left my box of nymphs at home. I been sorting the fly boxes out during the week and had replenished the nymphs and put them in a separate box. Given the complete lack of fly life nymphing seemed to be the way to go. Others had been catching up to a dozen fish on nymphs. A small goldhead PTN was found in an old fly box in my bag. This went on and started chucking it into the deeper holes. This plan soon fell apart when it became snagged in one of the deep, three foot, holes. Despite paddling across the beck I was unable to get to the nymph which seemed to have disappeared in among the roots.

It was now dry fly time, whether I liked it or not., I tried anything from a large retirer sedge to a little IOBO and everything in between. In the time I fished I managed to spook only two fish and saw one rise once under some barbed wire across the beck. After another cuppa I had another change of plan. This nearest fly to a nymph I could find was a small Black Magic Spider so this went on and I had another got but to no avail. As i got back to the car as the drizzle turned back to train another angler arrived. After a natter he went on his way with some nice heavy nymphs while I went to have a wander round the pond. The rain had stopped but you wouldn't have known it under the trees round the pond. Every gust of wind brought down a deluge off the leaves. Quite a few of the stocked browns were showing but out in the middle. When I spotted one close to the bank I couldn't resist having a go. I cast the little spider out in front of it. It cruised up and grabbed it. It was at this point I remembered I only had a 2.3lb tippet on and there's a fair bit of weed in the pond. Luckily for me the 17" brown was cooperative and stay away from the weed. It did have an attempt at gathering twigs by swimming along the bank, but none caused a problem. By sitting on the bank I was able to gather it up in the little scoop net.

I did contemplating getting a longer rod out of the car and doing a bit more in the pond but the strong wind made life under the trees very unpleasant. One day I'm going to arrive on a pleasant day with abundant fly life about and trout rising everywhere, even to my fly and have a nice day.

Not As Planned

On Sunday with the one beck up and coloured I headed to the next valley along where it's beck was clear and fishable. It would also be out of the expected strong winds, but not the showers. I'd fished this beck further upstream a long long time ago. With a bit of stealth there are some very eager little browns to be caught. I parked up in the parking spot which is next to one of the club ponds, so decided to have a wander around. There was the occasional rise and plenty of rainbows milling about. Some where quite large.

Back at the car things started to unravel. I thought I'd put a five foot and a seven foot rod in the boot. Instead I had a seven foot and a ten foot rod. Further more the reel bag with the three weight reel only had the spool, but I did have a reel with a four weight line. By the time I'd got my waders on the sunshine had disappeared and the first shower of the day started. I made a cuppa and sat in the car contemplating. I decided to put the four weight on the three weight ten foot rod and have a go for a couple of rainbows in the pond on dry fly.

 

It took a while to get used to this rod being over-lined. In fact I never really got used to it. The rod really didn't like it, except for very short casts. The gusty wind wasn't helping. The first fly on was a retirer sedge. I thought a big fly would have them eager to rise. The big fish weren't eager at all. They just steadfastly ignored the fly swimming along as if nothing had happened. Even a clumsy cast with everything slapping down on the water didn't seem to spoke them. The greylag geese arguing didn't worry them either. Eventually a smaller fish I'd seen rising close to the bank took the fly but I had too much slack in the system and failed to gather it up on the strike.

 

With the fish taking little interest in the retirer I changed to another large fly, a march brown jingler. This seemed to do the trick. I cast it towards one of the large fish, but one of the small ones shot up and grabbed it. This time I connected properly and after a bit of a all-over the place fight it was in the net. Not a pristine fish but good fun on the light rod. I spent some more time flinging the fly about at various fish only to be ignored before the rain started again. I retired back to the car for elevenses.

During elevenses I had a long hard stare at the fly box. I had thought of fishing some sort of emerger but there were none to be seen. Probably because they were in the other box I hadn't brought with me. Instead I put on a small chenille daddy. This gave me an idea. I would try fishing it in the beck in a sort of euro nymphing style with just the leader out of the rod tip. This proved rather more complicated than I'd imagined. The wind was now stronger and the gusts would just lift the fly from the water and deposit it in a briar or similar. Nor was there a great deal of room and I began to fear for the rod tip. On my way back up the bank to the pond I spotted some frog spawn lying on some damp moss. I suppose with all the rain it had managed to keep damp. Even so i gathered up what I could and transferred it to the pond.

 

The gust of wind were now getting stronger and their direction was a tad unpredictable as the wind was buffeted about by the trees. This was shown when I cast down the bank to a fish and the whole lot was dumped on the bank by a gust. A cast towards an island produced a take from the smaller but very brightly coloured fish. Unfortunately it flipped the hook close to the net. really I should have stepped into the lake rather than struggle down the bank with a short handled river net.  A change to a John Storey after the daddy failed to attract anything more. A cast close to the island again produced another fish which after a brief battle was in the net.

The rain then started again and the wind was getting silly so I called it a day. An enjoyable day in the end, despite the dodgy start. It's a long long time since I fished a small trout lake and I've never fished one as clear and shallow as this one. It looks like I may have to have another go some time, but back to running water next.

Putting On Weight

 My cunning plan for Thursday was to spend an hour or so in each swim and work my way round the gravel pit. Providing no other anglers got in the way there was enough daylight to fish every swim.  I started in he first swim with the usual sort of setup. A small smelt was dropped near the tree roots and a lamprey tossed out next to the dying weed bed in the middle. After moving the baits a couple of times I moved on to the next swim. A cup of tea and lunch had been consumed as I got ready to move to the far side of the pit.

 With everything ready to move a few fish scattered over to my right. It looked like the only swim I could reach the spot from was the first one I was in. As I stood there more fish scattered. A quick move back to the first swim and out with the bait. Because of the height of the water, it had gone down a couple of inches since last week, you are a lot closer to the tree branches above. This can make casting to certain spots a tad awkward, but kneeling down I managed to get the bait within a couple of yards of the spot. The smelt which was now a bit raggedly was replaced with a small roach and swung out to the tree roots. A robin had a wander along one of the rods, no doubt hoping to be fed. Three quarters of an hour later some fish scattered just to my right in a small bay. I quickly moved the roach there and a few minutes later the float slid away. After a rather hectic fight a decent pike was in the net. 93cm and 12lb 4oz it looked somewhat familiar. A scan through the phone showed it to last week's fish which had gained 9oz.

 

Just after I released the pike there was quite a splash to my left but all I could see was a twig in the middle of the ripples. I then what I at first thought was a rat swimming to the bank as It shot up a tree I realised it was a rather soggy squirrel that clearly picked the wrong branch to wander about on. There was then another scattering of fish to the right of the float out in the middle, so I decided to stop put. I put a pop up ball on the lamprey, which was still oozing blood, and recast it. Another small roach was dropped back in the bay. After this there was no more fish scattering or anything. As usual I waited into dark before packing up.