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.

Another Attempt At Tench Fishing

When I arrived at the lake I was surprised to find only one other angler there, fishing the swim I'd fished previously. He was pole fishing and mainly taking small roach and perch. I set up a couple of pegs further down it a peg with a bit more room. My intention was to fish double maggot to one side and sweetcorn next to the lollies to the right. A bit of plumbing around showed the swim to be a couple of feet deeper than the corner one. The waggler floats were trapped between a couple of float stops with all the shot in a bulk a foot from the hook in order to bypass the tiny rudd up in water.  I did fond one of the largest water snails I've ever seen. I knew they grew to this size but most of them I see are only half the size.

Having chucked out a few balls of groundbait laced with sweet corn by the lilies and similar with maggots to the left I settled down to fish. While not much happened to the sweetcorn the maggots attracted a fair few perch and roach Before a pike grabbed one I was reeling in and wrecked the swim for quite some time. In the mean time the carp were crashing about in the lilies. The other gent suffered a similar fate. By tea time the perch and roach had turned up again and I was the only one on the lake. I spent a little time trying to take a picture of one of the grass hoppers, but they're reluctant to stay still. When I did get one in frame another jumped in as well so two for the price of one.

As a chomped on a sandwich the maggot float shot away out into the lake, the ratchet on the centrepin panicked the moorhens. . After a while had whatever it was under control and heading back to the swim. A double figure carp came wallowing up to the surface and was heading to the net when it went barbel on me and shot off again through the lilies to me let before coming the a halt in the next swim. I wandered down there to find it stuck in piles of Canadian pond weed and silk weed just beyond the reach of the net. I left it for five minutes to see it it would swim out before opting to just heave and see. This seemed to work as it was heading towards me but it then decided to set off the other way. The float jammed in the pile of weed and the hook length gave. Bugger.

As I tied on another hook-length the float above the sweet corn lifted and slid away. After charging around the swim like a lunatic a two and half pound tench made it's way into the net. I put the last few balls of sweetcorn laced groundbait in and recast. For the last hour before dark the swim was fizzing but nothing seemed interested in the sweetcorn on the hook. I tried replacing it with a bunch of maggots but that didn't make a difference. The final bite of the night was from a tiny perch that took four maggots.

 

I suspect the tench in this lake my be morning feeders in the main.

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.

Full Tank, Empty Net

Friday I decided to do a spot of feeder fishing on the Derwent using sweetcorn as bait to see what I could pick up in the way of fish. As I had my lunch I looked at Google maps to see what state the roads were in before I set off. For no obvious reason the journey along the main road was going to take 45 minutes instead of the the normal 25. A thirty five minute drive along the back roads saw me at the river with out the frustration of sitting in a traffic queue. Talking to an angler that arrived after me it transpired people were driving 6-8 miles out of the city to sit in a queue to buy petrol at one of the most expensive garages around. Glad I filled up Thursday while at the supermarket.

Talking to anglers as I wandered down the fishery only the odd chub was coming out. I stuck with my plan of feeder fished sweetcorn.  First cast was a tad too close to the snag/feature, but I pulled free intact. I alternated between the middle of the river and the nearside. After an hour I managed to foul hook a minnow. A change to a 6mm pellet didn't seem to do anything either. Eventually I had a good rattling bite on the inside line, but failed to contact with anything. Continuing in to dark failed to make any difference. My first blank of the season.

I was really surprised at the lack of bites. Maggots, meat, pellets, paste used by other anglers had similar results. Not the best start to Autumn. Looking at a oaks Quercus robur around me there were very few acorns on them this year, probably due to the rather dry weather.

Same Swim As Last Week

Wednesday evening I was looking at the river gauges to see what the rivers were doing after the recent rain. Some were on the way up, some already up. Most would probably be falling by Thursday afternoon. I asked the computer to select me a venue. It kindly picked the same venue as last week, one I'd selected myself. I could have asked for another one, but decided why not. The river would be about a foot up and falling, so a spot of trotting would be possible. Arriving at the parking spot OI wasn't surprised to see a few cars there. I suspected the barbel anglers may turn up. It wasn't my intention to fish the same swim as last week, but it did look good and I couldn't be bothered to wander about in the heat of the afternoon. The river wasn't as coloured as I expected it to be either.

In the past I've done quite well trotting sweetcorn for roach. Not only does it tend to pick out the bigger fish, it also keeps the bleak form being a nuisance.If the water is clear fishing it over hemp worked well, but in coloured water a dark groundbait seemed to work better. It was the later tactic I decided on. I had my 14' rod with me this time and the 'pin had new line on it so life should be a bit easier. I used a slightly heavier float this time. 4BB instead of 3BB, with the shot strung out over the bottom half to get the bait down quicker. I put half a dozen golf balls of my special blend of whatever odds 'n sods of groundbait I had leftover in. It took nearly and hour for the first bite which turned out to be a roach around the 6oz mark. Over the next two hours I managed 27 roach in the 6-10oz bracket before the swim died. I'd been adding another ball every 15mins or so, whether this was two much I don't know. I suspect it may have been as some of the groundbait I'd mixed in had quite a lot of feed in it. I had brought some worms with me as well, but they didn't attract any bites either.

A change to straight lead with either sweetcorn of worm didn't seem to make a difference until the tip whacked round barbel style. At first I thought I was into a chub, but once I'd tightened the clutch up a bream surfaced. A reasonably tidy fish around the 4lb mark. The bream from the Ouse can be a bit tatty. This proved to be the last fish of the evening. It's one of the strange things about the Ouse that you can catch a single bream. I don't know if they're loners or there is a shoal but it's on a mission to somewhere.

Things didn't go totally to plan on a slowly falling river, but a decent catch was had. I was surprised no perch chowed up to worm. Normally a worm would attract one in no time.

Having spent so much time fault finding the camera problems you'd think I'd make sure it was switched on. Having got it set up using the phone to get things framed. I forgot to set it to record. It wasn't until I checked it while having a cuppa when the roach stopped biting that I realised  what I'd done. Not only had I missed all the roach, but also  a red kite gliding up and down the far bank along with two kingfishers chasing each other back and forth across the river.