More Slider Fishing

 Thursday was a fine autumnal type day. Sun with a chill wind. Too warm for a woolly, too cold for a t-shirt. I'd ventured down to another deep stretch that's kind of defeated me over the years, apart from winter pike fishing. Others do well on it with some nice bags of roach. Some of us, though, tend to spend our time scratching about for the odd fish here and there. The swim I choose, for no good reason, was around twelve foot deep. With 1 fifteen foot rod I could have fished a fixed float, but a breezy day and high bankside vegetation can make casting such a rig awkward. I, instead, set up a 6g Dave Harrell slider float. For a large rather bulky looking float it is remarkably sensitive.

Having had a few trots down with out any bait on to see if there was any snags of whatever. I then lobbed in a few balls of groundbait laced with maggots and chopped worm. While I left the swim to settle I had a cuppa. I then had a couple of casts with a maggot feeder to get some maggots in the swim. I'd misplaced my bait-dropper and this was the only way of getting them down to the bottom with out the minnows and bleak intercepting them.

First few trots through produced either small gudgeon or tiny roach. I then took a small bream. The next cast I had a similar sized fish but after a couple of turns of the reel handle it was snatched by a pike. New hook length and out again. Every half dozen or so trots I  tossed the maggot feeder out  to get more bait down. After this the fish would arrive in twos and threes then things would go quiet. By afternoon I was get a lot of unmissable bites that I couldn't hit. A change to caster produced less bites but these were hittable. I did try worm, worm & maggot, and worm & caster on the feeder rod but only got a few rattles.

 

As usual things hadn't gone as well as I'd hoped. Thirty three fish, plus a few minnows, for five hours fishing. I will get the better of this stretch one day.

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.

One More To The Tally

So far this season I've caught the  following native species in Yorkshire rivers: Barbel, Bleak, Brown Trout, Bullhead, Chub, Dace, Grayling, Gudgeon, Minnow, Perch, Pike, Roach, Ruffe, Silver Bream, and
Stone Loach.

Those that remain to be caught are: Bronze Bream, Eel, Rudd, Stickleback, and Tench.

I must admit I was surprised I'd not caught a Bronze Bream or an Eel. Although I did hook and eel while nymphing for trout but it dived straight into a morass of weed and never came out. There are a couple of spots that have Rudd in them and Tench can turn up anywhere on most of the rivers. One local river, that I've not fished this season, contains a good head of Tench. First up though was a Bronze Bream, so Thursday i headed out with maggots, worms, and groundbait to see if I could catch one.

I'd made up half the ground bait previously so hauled out a dozen balls, laced with chop worm and maggots, into the river after having had a cast about with a lead to see if there were any snags about. I set up a feeder rod and a waggler rod. I would be mainly feeder fishing but if things got boring I'd have a run through with the float. The first hour was remarkably quiet with jut a couple of very quick bites on the feeder. A change to float quickly produced half a dozen roach and a couple of gudgeon.

Things then went quiet again, so I tossed out half a dozen more bails of groundbait and had lunch leaving the swim to settle. The first bit after lunch came from a 1lb 9oz perch before things went quiet again. Alternating between float and feeder produced the odd bite and chewed maggot but nothing came of it. I'd tried both live and dead maggots, worms, and worm maggot cocktail. With an hour to go before I had to be of the tip pulled round. Something solid had taken the worm. I thought it may be a chub but something felt odd. When I got it to the surface it was a large bream that had got itself wrapped in the line. The little landing net I'd recently acquired wasn't much bigger than the bream. Hauling the fish in sideways and trying to get it into the landing net the hook came adrift. The fish lay there far a little while just beyond the landing net before swimming away. I'm not sure it whether it was foul hooked or not. A little while later the tip pulled over again. This time a it felt like a bream. A reasonable one at that. This time I made no mistakes getting a similar sized fish in to the landing net. 6lb 10oz of bream. one more from the list.

 I had one more bite before I had to be away. With the river having lifted a bit I expected a bit more action, but a couple of decent not a bad day. Only tench, eel, rudd, and stickleback left.

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.

Roadworks, Diversions and Lies

I thought I'd deciphered the various signs littering the area around the ponds indicating when the roads would be closed for resurfacing. Things appeared to have changed somewhat as I headed to the estate lake. That road was closed even though the signs said two days previous. The road to the gravel pit was supposed to be closed today but was still open, so it was back to the gravel pit. As I arrived I witnessed a crow doing it's osprey impression, picking a dead fish from the surface. There was also a heron in among the trees trying it's luck in among the roots. I was also on my own.

After a bit of plumbing around I found a couple of spots the same depth. One four rod lengths out in front and three rod lengths forty-five degrees to my right. The font one was to be baited up with groundbait, a mixture of brown and red crumb in a ratio of 51:49. This was to be laced with dead reds and chopped worm. To my right I was going to loose feed caster and hemp.

The set up was to be a crystal insert waggler with a long insert. I'd picked up a section from the tackle shop. I alternated between red maggot, caster and worm as hook bait. Bites were few and far between but nice and positive due to long insert the lift bites were easy to see. The odd skimmer, tiny perch and similarly small roach were picked out equally on maggot or caster. Worm failed to elicit a bite.  After lunch I decided to ball it in on the line in front of me as the few small balls of ground bait weren't attracting much. This didn't really change things as the bites were still scarce. I'd fished on the bottom, off the bottom, on the drop. None of which were any better than the other.

There was clearly some pike activity as every now and then great clouds of bubbles would suddenly rise to the surface and occasional small fish could be seen scattering. Mid afternoon another angler arrived and fished to swim opposite taking the odd small fish very now and then. The changing wind direction didn't help either as various bits of debris got blown backward and forward through the swims.

A heron returned swooping over the edge of the pit causing a few fish to scatter and swirl before it landed it a tree where it spent the rest of the afternoon. Strangely the robin never appeared to demand maggots. There were, however a very large number of tadpoles around the edge of the pit. At first I thought it was just some black silt on the bottom until I looked closely.

With rain predicted for the evening I packed up the moment the drizzle started which was good timing. I'd just got everything in the car when it really chucked it down.  It was a bit of a disappointing session, I'd expected  a lot more. There's plenty of fish in there but the pike just seem to prevent them for settling.

It Rained

 Back down the gravel pit for another match hours session.  Waggler fished maggots or casters over groundbait laced with dead reds and chopped worm was the plan. Like a twit I'd forgot to put the tube of insert wagglers I'd sorted out back in the bag. The only ones I had with me were straight wagglers for river fishing. I dotted it down as far as I could and still see it. At least the was only a short burst of sunshine and very little wind so the float was quite easy to see. After a spot of plumbing about I set the bait just on the bottom over a little ledge. The ledge handily lines up with an over hanging branch so you have a marker for casting. A dozen small balls over groundbait went in. It wasn't long before the noisy little robin turned up demanding to be fed.

First up were a couple of perch which gave quite positive bites. Alternating between double red maggot, single didn't get any bites, and single caster a couple of roach followed. The first sign of pike activity then followed when a few fish scattered under the over hanging tree. Twenty biteless minutes later and the swim started to fizz. A couple of skimmers took a liking to red maggots. Another pike turned up grabbing a skimmer as I brought it in ripping it from the hook. this is how it went for the next couple of hours, the odd fish or two the nothing for a while. I kept topping up the swim with groundbait.

Around lunch time a second angler turned up. I then started to get silly bites which occasionally turned into little roach. The lack of sensitivity on the float started to show. As it got into the afternoon it started to drizzle then turned to quite heavy rain. This slowed the bites down considerably and the last couple of hours produced very few fish. The other lad, who'd happily been catch a few skimmers then had his swim disrupt by a battle with a double figure pike. Which he managed to land on a whip.

 

I reckon that the answer to the pike problem is to have two lines set up and alternate between the two. This would allow time time for one to settle after a pike attack. I also need to remember to put the insert wagglers in the bag as well as I reckon the long tipped ones will show the bites from the roach a lot better. The rain, though, came as a complete surprise. All I'd expected was a little bit of drizzle. Not that it would make a lot of difference as five miles south west at my house it hadn't rained at all, according to the neighbours.

More Gravel Pit Nonsense

Another trip to the local gravel pit on what should, according to the weather forecast, have been an overcast day. I'd decided to just stick with the float rod to see if I could put a decent net of fish together. I was to be fishing match hours. Things didn't get off the a flyer  when the end of the landing net handle broke as I was screwing the net on. Thankfully I had my faithful storm pole with me which makes a reasonable landing net handle. For bait I had red maggots, worms and a rather fetching red groundbait. The repaired rod was on it's first outing after the mishap. A 3BB insert waggler with the shot initial bulked about two foot from the hook completed the business end. A couple of red maggots on a size 18 for hook bait. Chopped worm was added to the ground bait along with a few maggots. Four golf ball sized balls went in.

It took a little while for a bite to come from a little perch. A couple more followed before things went quiet for a while. I then had a couple of little skimmers before foul hooking one. As I dragged it towards the net the hook came adrift launching it up into the tree. Pulling the rig out of the tree it came free intact, but the bulk shot rattled my knuckles which smarted a bit. After another quiet spell a couple of reasonable perch turned up. A few more anglers turned up after lunch. By now it was nice and warm but the lovely sunshine really put the fish off from feeding. I managed the occasional little perch throughout the afternoon. The other angler near me was having the same problems. A couple of fish then nothing for a while.

Through out the afternoon I was pestered by a robin which probably got more maggots than the fish. I spent some time faffing with the telephoto option on the phone to see if I could get a decent picture. It appears that it needs to be quite bright to focus properly and also has to be given a few seconds to focus as well. Still it was something to do while the float sat stationary apart from when I wound it in to change the depth. None of which made much difference.

I probably should have had a couple of swim baited up. One further out in the deeper water. There again I may have mad things worse by flitting between the two and not achieving anything. I don't fish stillwaters very much these days, apart from a bit of pike fishing so really need to up my game on them.

Attack of the Cut Price Prawns

I'd decided to have a go for the perch in the gravel pit especially as the supermarket had some prawns marked down. My only concern was  that I'd end up eating them all rather than use them as bait. The other bait was to be worms and they were breeding like wild fire in the wormery so I had plenty of brandlings for chopping up and a fair few lob worms as bait. The only problem I could see was that it was going to be a bright sunny day, so an early start was called for.

As I was first one there I had the choice of swims, and probably picked the wrong one. Tactics were simple. I'd float fish worms or smallish bits of prawn over ground bait and chopped worm. The other rod would be a feeder rod with chopped prawn and ground bait and one of the larger prawns on the hook. The float rod was fished between an overhanging tree and some tree roots. The feeder rod was out in the middle at the bottom of the bar.

The first hour produced nothing. It wasn't until the sun got up that I got the first bites. Initially I missed most of them. I changed from fishing the worm just off the bottom to fishing six inches over depth. Then a steady flow of hand size skimmers came in. I was still missing two out of three bites but little skimmers and lob worms is not the best mix. The prawn on the feeder rod was doing nothing so I tried worm for an hour to no avail, so back to the prawn.

Things went quiet for while on the float then the float bobbed along the surface. I struck into something heavy. Turning it away from the snag in front of me I thought I'd lost it until I saw the float whizzing towards me.  By the time I'd caught up with the fish it had swung right and a great cloud of bubbles came up from the bottom. It had clearly got into a snag. A bit of heave-ho and I could see the end of a branch rising in the water. Every thing then went slack. The hook length had parted about halfway along it's length. Not a clean break so I assume it had been abraded by the branch. I have no idea what I'd hooked, but I suspect a pike. Hook length replaced the next bite came on the drop and a dinky little jack was soon in the net.

After another quiet period I started taking small perch on the float. Not the bigguns I'd hoped for but at least it was the target species. After I'd had a few I change to the smaller prawns. Strangely I couldn't get a bite in them. Worm would produce, even a bunch of brandlings but not prawn. The sheer greed of little perch never ceases to amaze me. The lob worms were as long as some of the smaller ones.

 

I have no idea how many perch I caught by mid-afternoon when everything went quiet again. I'd alternated between large prawns, small prawns, bits of prawns and worms on the feeder rod but couldn't by a bite. I'd at least have expected a few few bleeps on the alarm from a nosy fish, but nothing. While other seem to catch on the feeder here I don't seem to be able to get anything much. I was also surprised to be on my own all day. A rethink may be needed for the big perch. Maybe they can't be targeted and you just have to fish for anything and hope one turns up.

 

Even More M'thud and Float Fishing

 I was quite surprise when I arrived at the gravel pit to find three other anglers already there and three more arrive through the morning. This meant all bar one swim taken. I'd come up with a cunning plan for today. Along side the method feeder out on the bar I's feed two swims for the float. One close to the tree roots was fed chopped worm and one further out was feed groundbait and maggots.

The day was not a sunny as previous and a chilly wind was blowing into the corner I was fishing. Definitely not T-shirt weather as I had to put a fleece on. Bites were scarce today, for me. Other were taking a few roach on feeder or float tactics. While other had even less bites than me. The far swim produced the most fish, all roach. The inside swim didn't until afternoon and then it was to maggots. Occasionally a couple of squabbling wrens to chase about to my right. A large crow kept landing in a tree opposite looking rather ominous. Plenty of alder beetles about again. A very noisy robin that seemed to prefer worms to maggots kept defying my attempts to photograph it.

The method rod was ignored again despite a fair collection of baits been tried. As mentioned earlier I couldn't get a bite on worm but maggot produced a small perch over the chopped worm. By mid-afternoon the wind had dropped and changed direction slightly. So the debris which was piled up in the corner started to drift about over my swims, but I persisted. I thought I'd hooked another jack at first, but the head thumps suggested a decent perch. After a brief battle and a couple of close shaves with the tree roots a nice perch estimated at 2lb graced the net. Weighed later I was surprised to see it turn the dial to 2lb 9oz. A couple more small roach came from the groundbait swim but what few bites I was getting dried up.

Despite the perch I really don't think I'm getting the best out of the swims I'm fishing. I also think the few stillwater floats I have are a bit ion the light side and need to invest in few heavier ones. I also need to tie up a better selection of hook lengths.