Fourth Session Fifth River Of The Trout Season

I had to head some distance south west today into what looked like some rather rainy weather. Despite this I'd put some fly tackle in the boot of the car as I'd have to amuse myself for a few hours while the elders attended a funeral. I search of the web had suggested that there was a stretch of free fishing on one of the revitalised industrial rivers. The articles and videos were quite old though so things may not be true. Between the photos. videos, and google maps I'd thought I'd worked out an accessible stretch with some parking. My guess proved right. A quick wander about down in the valley showed there to be a rather nice looking river and if it wasn't a few bits of graffiti on the industrial buildings you could have been anywhere.

 What little info I'd found suggested a small pheasant tail nymph and a spider was the way forward. Looking at the river this seemed reasonable. After a few casts it became clear the gold head nymph was too heavy as I was constantly snagging the bottom. A change to a little brass head one elicited a violent take on the second drift down. I was taken completely by surprise by this and completely fluffed the strike and failed to contact. A bit further upstream I had another take, not as violent, that stuck momentarily. The rod lurched over then the hook came adrift. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, if anything, but I can't get trout to stick this season. Maybe I'm not striking hard enough with my new lighter, longer rod.

 By now I wasn't far off the Private Property notice with only a couple more runs to fish. As I waded along the edge of the river it changed from stoney to sandy. Suddenly I went from ankle deep in water to over my waders. I plummeted into a hole of semi-rotten vegetation judging by the smell of methane. Luckily I was able to grab a tree root and pull myself up before too much freezing water got down the front of the waders. The bottom had looked no different to the rest of the sandy area. It had now decided to start rain as well. I can take a hint and retired to the car. Of course my bag of spare clothes wasn't in the car. They'd got slightly damp after being in the car so long so I'd taken them out and washed them but not returned them. I did have the waterproof seat cover though.

Luckily I wasn't too wet and the stuff I had on was fairly quick drying. After a cuppa with the car heater running I was only damp. With the rain coming down heavy I pondered what to do next. A look on google maps showed Peaks Fly Fishing to be nearby so I had a drive up there. With the aid of Vanessa, and a nice black lab who's name I forget, I soon managed to spend a three figure sum on some essentials.

 After a spot of lunch I had a drive back along the road by the river and hunted down a couple more access points with parking. If the wind and rain sort themselves out I have three directions to travel for some trout fishing. Hopefully I'll get one to stick to the hooks soon.

On The Navigation Ⅳ : There Goes The Rod Tip

Tried a different section of the navigation to the last three sessions in the hope of a bit more action. Unfortunately it was a lot sunnier, but at least the strong winds had gone. There was also a lot of moored boats to fish between. I spent the first hour and a half dropping 3-4" shads between the boats, around the lock gates, and anywhere else for that matter with out a sign of any fish.

 

After a cuppa I tried the same thing with the lighter outfit and the small blue/silver paddle-tail I'd used on the previous session. I got nothing nothing around the moored boats or running it along the edge. First cast below the lock I hooked either a world record perch, or a decent jack. After a prolonged fight, partially caused by me having to get down to a lower bank so the landing net would reach, a plump little jack was just about in the net. A very tidy fish at just over 60cm and four and a half pounds.

I worked my way along towards the trees with nothing to show until I found a dead tree in the water. Dropping the bait close to the tree produce half a dozen small perch in as many casts before things went quiet. Back at the lock I had a few more small perch before a couple of boats came through. A few more came out of the lock itself after it had filled back up.

After another cuppa I had another go with the heavier set up, again to no avail. Sadly I managed to brake the tip of the rod when I tapped a bankside sign with it. I wasn't looking where I was going mind you as a heron had landed on the far side of the lock despite the joggers, cyclists, and dogs. I'm not sure how it intended to fish the lock. I just think it was hoping as the nearby river was in flood still.

 

Not sure how many small perch I had in the end but it was fun and pleasant weather as well. The rod is going to be about a inch or so shorter when I put a new tip ring on it, so shouldn't be too detrimental.

Fishing Among The Bikes

 As I was dropping somebody off at the station this morning I snuck a lure rod and lures in the car for a spot of urban fishing at the back of the station. I suppose real urban fishing involves manoeuvring a lure between abandoned shopping trollies but there wasn't one in sight. There was. however, plenty of bikes that had been thrown in. Probably by people nicking them to get to the station then dumping them.

I started off with a Salmo 3cm Hornet crankbait which quickly attracted the attention of some very small perch that would happily chase it and occasional manage to get themselves hooked. There really was a lot of them about. Sometimes half a dozen would chase the lure in. Hooking them was another matter though. It was surprising how often the lure was hit but they managed to avoid the hooks. Even with the low hookup rate I still managed over a dozen small perch in the short time I was there.

As the time to leave approached I latched into something larger. After a brief battle I had a nice 29cm perch in the net. Way way bigger than anything caught so far. I persisted in throwing the lure around the area a bit longer but nowt else materialised, not even any of the little 'uns.

 

Not bad for the short time I was there. The hookup rate was a puzzle, although some of the perch were tiny. As I'm making the same trip to the station tomorrow I may have another go.

First Cast Jinx

With the local river fining down and not too many leafs drifting down it I decided to give it a go with light lures. Despite the fact this little river is only 15 minutes walk from the house I haven't fished it much in recent years.  Armed with the minimum of kit I was soon sliding about on the very muddy bank.

 

I clipped on a small Fire Tiger 4Play that seems quite popular with both perch and jack pike.I tossed it out just to check it was running properly as I'd replaced the hooks on it. All looked good so I sped it up a bit and was shocked when a reasonable looking perch hit it right under the rod tip. A bit big for swinging out I had to knock the anti-reverse off to give some line in order to net it. I nice looking fish of 0.97lb. Not bad considering I'd really started fishing as such.

 

I slowly headed downstream towards the city centre with out much success apart from the odd branch and bits of weed. As I got further down the leafs started to become a problem. As it was a bit deeper here I changed to a noisier little crank bait that I've no idea what it's called. It did however, attract the attention of a jack around the 3-4lb mark. Again, it was taken right under the rod tip. With only the wire trace beyond the rod tip and standing on a bank three foot up there was some serious thrashing about before the hooks were spat out.  I continued down to the next bridge by which time it was dark. There's no dusk now, it's either light or dark.

I'd covered one mile of river for the two fish. I'll give it another go later when there are less leafs about as they made it hard work.