A Sticky Problem

 With the country about to catch fire and the rivers boiled dry I'd ummed and ahhed about fishing. However I'd been informed by and  authoritative source that a local river was in quite could nick. The temp wasn't too high and the dissolved oxygen levels were pretty good. So, off I went to a deep section of the Ure on a bank I'd not fished before. I was surprised when I got there and dunked my arm in up to my elbow how cool it was.. I was also surprised to find I needed another layer after half an hour in the string breeze. It wasn't quite warm enough for a T-shirt and too warm for two.

After a bit of plumbing about I found a five foot deep ledge just over a weed bed and eleven foot about a third of the way across. Far shallower than I remember this section. A small stick was set up for the inside line and a waggler for the far line. The stiff breeze was blowing straight downstream, but as the sick line was just beyond the rod tip I had decent control of it. Anybody that's fished the Ure will know about the downstream wind. It doesn't matter whether you're fishing Tanfield, Ripon or Aldwark it only blows downstream and at twice the speed of the surround area.

The far line was to be fed using groundbait, maggots and chopped worm. The inside loose fed with maggots and chopped worm. After launching half a dozen tennis ball size balls of ground bait out to the far line I set about the inside line. Bleak were the first out followed by some micro dace. After an hour of beak and micro dace I went out to the far line. Things weren't much better there as there only seemed to be tiny gudgeon yank the three swan waggler under. The occasional small perch would turn up out of the blue. I did manage to catch a ball of mono full of split shot and a couple of bullet weights for a bit of variation. 

I alternated between the two lines, but the same species kept coming. A few decent roach showed up on the far line after I'd topped it up with more ground bait, but the gudgeon soon returned along with the small perch. I was surprised not to take perch on the inside line as it looked an ideal spot right along a weed bed.

I've no idea how many fish I caught as I thought a keepnet wouldn't be a good idea so didn't bring it. I know I caught 35 in the first hour. One problem I did have when packing up was the joints on the fourteen footer were stuck. What to do, as it wouldn't fit in the car like that. Eventually I managed to remove the top section and with a bit of wiggling and seat manoeuvring I just got the lower two stuck sections in the car. A bit of a dilemma could have ensued if I hadn't been able to split  one section of. I have had this happen before but there were other anglers about who could help. I suppose I could have asked one of the golfers or wandered the village for assistance.

Alarming Failure

The threat of a heat wave type thing suggested an early start might be a good option. For an early start you have to be up early. This normally involves and alarm which you have to set the night before. Which I didn't, so ended up waking a lot later than intended. I changed my plans to fish match hours instead. As it was it didn't get quite as hot as expected, partially due to a nice breeze. I was fishing further downstream then my last couple of visits as I'd been reminded that there was access available to the middle of this long stretch.

 

Tactics were to be much the same, though I intended to use a slider this time. I'd been through my float collection and picked a few appropriate ones out, but I'd failed to put them in the bag. As I've mentioned before I always seem to forget something. I'm trying to keep things to a minimum but this means taking things in and out of the bag and invariably something goes missing. A slider would have been wonderful today. While there was a twelve foot deep shelf a rod length out it was full of debris. Nearly every trot down I snagged some weed or reeled in a twig. Two rod lengths out it was sixteen and half foot deep. With a fifteen foot rod this was going to be fun.

 

I also set up a waggler rod at about twelve foot initially in case the fish were higher up in the water. I could shallow this up if needed. Out went the groundbait laced with maggots well downstream. I then loose fed maggots for the waggler rod hopping they would land near the ground bait. An hour with the waggler rod produced two minnows, a small roach, and a tiny dace. A change to the bolo set up got me a couple of perch and a couple of chewed maggots. Despite trying all sorts of depths  and things I then failed to get so much as a chewed maggot of a couple of hours. Then in the last hour I managed half a dozen decent dace and six roach. It was hard work for an average of one fish every fifteen minutes. There clearly wasn't many fish in the swim.

 

You can tell how much I was concentrating on getting bites, I only took three photos.

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.

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.