Barbel Session And A Half

 Friday, after a spot of River Fly Monitoring, I headed to the a river for a short session after barbel. With the river up and coloured conditions looked just right, but he lack of cars was a bit of a surprise. A wander about found three others fishing none of whom had had anything. I settled into a swim that normally produced when the rivers was a metre up. Standard pellet feeder and ledger tactics were used. One rod dropped in upstream next to what would normally be the bankside vegetation. The other downstream on the edge of a slack. Apart from a large branch and a lot of leaves there was no action at all.

 Sunday I went up to a stretch of river that years ago I wouldn't have considered deliberately fishing for barbel. Have have always been there but not in any numbers. They would occasional turn up for anglers fishing for other species but would often be lost. The barbel seem to have spread down the river to the point where they are worth fishing for along most of it's length. The unusual tactics were employed. Feeder and ledger with pellets. A14mm on one rod and 8mm on the other.

The weather was quite breezy by the time I got sorted. The sun was nice but kept being blotted out by the clouds. A woolly and fleece was required most of the time but a bit warm when the sun appeared for any length of time. The river was about a foot up and carrying colour. The feeder was dropped into a spot I knew to be around nine foot deep in these conditions. It was three quarters  filled with 4mm and 2mm pellets. the smaller pellets would drift out of the feeder while the larger ones would slowly dissolve leaving a scent trail. I'd found a tub of paste with a production date of 2018 at the back of the cupboard. I squeezed this onto the ledger which was tossed out into the middle. initially. After regularly having it dragged about by a build up of leaves or snagged twigs I cast it in upstream on the same line as the feeder rod.

The day wore on with very little happening. I replenished the feeder and paste at regular intervals.Tossed an assortment of pellets along the line the two baits were on. A kingfisher shot past every now and then. In the distance. Three buzzards performed aerobatics. The most entertaining, though, was a kestrel attempting to hunt but being harassed by a couple of crows. Late in the afternoon, as the temperature dropped, the downstream rod looped over and the baitrunner sounded. I wasn't sure what I'd connected with. At first I thought it may be a chub. then one of the larger feisty bream. But a small barbel surfaced. Once it saw the net it woke up a bit and took a couple of attempts to get it in. Only small but very welcome. While I rested it in the net after unhooking it I tossed the rod back out. Sorting the unhooking mat out and preparing for a picture the rod went over again. This one felt like a barbel. I was surprised, though, to find a similar sized fish on the hook when i got it to the surface. My attempt to land it with the other in the net didn't quite work as planned as the first fish made a dash for freedom the moment I sunk the net, so no brace shot.

That little flurry of action was it for the day. Mission had been accomplished though. Unlike the first the second barbel was rather reluctant to leave the net. I ha to leave a bit earlier than I'd of liked but I didn't fancy navigating the muddy pot-holed track in the dark. Even in day light I'd managed to clunk the bottom of the car.

 

I don't know if these are stocked fish. They didn't look like the stockies as they are normally a bit tubby while these were quite lean.

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.

A Wander Along An Old Stretch

Tuesday I fished a stretch of river I'd not fished for years and years. Nor had anybody else by the look of things. I did eventually find three or four accessible swims, but none them really had room for a spot of float fishing. The trees growing out into the river meant I couldn't see very far down stream, so I resorted to feeder fishing maggot. As I'd finally acquired a lighter 1oz tip for the rod it would be a useful to see if it would be as useful as I'd hoped. It was. The minnows would whack the tip round like a barbel bite.

After battling through a succession of minnows a tiny dace then an equally tiny roach showed up.

These were quickly followed by a brace of the perch. The largest being 1lb 6oz.

 

Things went rather quiet after that. I stuck it out for another fifteen minutes with out a bite before moving to the next swim. This too produced an awful lot of minnows to start with.

Eventually a shoal of bleak moved in grabbing the hook bait is it dropped through the water. You could see the tip bouncing about as the bait fell. 

After a little lull the next fish to take the bait as it dropped was a small jack pike. Not what you want. More minnows followed before a little bullhead grabbed the bait. I was then bitten off twice by small jacks. So decided to move on.

The third swim seemed to be devoid of minnows as I proceeded to catch several gudgeon before things went quiet for a while.

I then got bit off by another very small jack. This was immediately followed by half a dozen reasonable sized dace. Another little jack grabbed the maggots as I wound in. It proceeded to cause havoc as I unhooked it. It managed to flip as I got the hook out and catch my left hand pinky. It then flipped again and cleared the net landing back in the water. I managed to get a plaster on the half inch long cut which continued to bleed profusely.

The next time I wound in a larger jack grabbed the feeder and bit me off. That was it. I only had a handful of maggots left anyway. Time to back up. The expense of the extra tip for the feeder rod has been worth it as I hit a lot more bites than I had with the heavier tip. I think another trip later in the year, when the vegetation has died back, may be on the cards.

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.

Umbrella Testing

It had been my intention to go fishing Wednesday with a mate, as we hadn't fished together for a while. Unfortunate he'd made a bit of a pig's ear of his calendar and got his shift pattern all wrong. He was working Wednesday but had today off.  The weather forecast, for those that haven't noticed, was rain, rain, and more rain. While it would be a good test for my new brolly come advertising hoarding I dislike setting up in the rain. We were lucky with the weather though. It was only a slight drizzle when we arrived. We'd also chosen a spot where we were only a few yards from the car parking. Float Fishing in the rain under a brolly is no fun so I only set up the feeder rod. A simple running rig with a black feeder and a short 9" hook length.

First cast produced a good rattling bite. Which turned out to be a rather tatty roach. Followed by a tiny dace. These little things proved to be a right nuisance. They would give a really good twang of the tip which proved unhitable. The trick was to just ignore this and wait for the tip to start rattling about.

We both tried single maggot rather than double but this didn't produce many bites at all. After a couple of hours we'd both amassed a couple of dozen of these little things. Strangely both swims went quiet about the same time. The rain had eased to drizzle again so we had a cuppa and a natter. On resuming fishing I found roach had turned up in the swim. While my mate was back with the tiny dace. The roach were either hand size or tiny. The bites were well spread out though. At least they were hittable. While my mate had another couple of dozen of the little dace I had about a dozen roach over the next couple of hours.

 

With another break in the weather we decided to call it a day. Despite the rain it had been a reasonably pleasant session. No big 'uns, which was a good job as I'd forgotten my net bag with the landing net in. One thing that surprised us both was the lack of perch. They normally put in an appearance, or used to. The brolly did everything expected of it. Being a bit bigger than my old one it was easier to hide under and keep dry.

Dry Fly On A Lowland River

After errands I had a couple of hours on a lowland river with the fly rod. There are trout in it but they aren't the most free rising, but I thought the chub may provide some action. With this in mind I tied on a large sedge. As I arrived at the river there were quite a few fish rising, but many of them looked small. Very small in some cases. Probably dace and/or grayling. Second cast A small chub grabbed hold and was quickly landed. Two more were soon taken from the same area. All exactly the same.

The little stuff then started to attack the size twelve sedge. I had to admire their ambition but it became annoying after a while. Moving on I managed two more of the little chublets. In one of the larger pools  there was plenty of fish rising but non except the little 'uns wanted my sedge. A change to the old faithful size eighteen double badger produced plenty of takes but I just couldn't hit them. Eventually I managed to extract three small dace and a couple of little grayling. A couple more twisted off the hook. I must have hit about one in ten takes. Little dace and grayling really are hard to catch on fly at times.

I changed back to the large sedge and made my way back to the car. Having  cast here and there. I just ignored the little 'uns attacking the fly. Eventually a couple more chublets managed to get to the fly. Seven chub, three dace, and a couple of grayling for a couple of hours fishing. Equal parts enjoyable and frustrating.

Fifth Day Of The River Season 2024

 Fifth day of the river season and the fourth river. Two days since I got a new brolly and I've been lucky enough not to have to us it. The venue has steps cut in the bank and platforms at the bottom. All very nice but the steps could be smaller and the platforms bigger. Even so It'll do. I had a cast round with the Deeper. I found just under four foot by the side of the weeds on the nearside and eleven and a half foot a third of the way across. One rod with a 4xNo6 wire stemmed stick float and the fifteen footer with a 4g bolo float.

 

I started on the inside line flicking some maggots in and trotting the float as close as possible to the weeds with out snagging. I got plenty of chewed maggots before bringing in a little bleak. While I like to see the return of bleak to the river they can be a damned nuisance. Especially when small. After two or three of them I got a small perch then some tiny dace and chublets. The problem was most of the time I just ended up with chewed maggots. While this was going on I'd been firing hemp and maggots out to the far swim.

 

I gave the far swim a try and after a few trots down managed a decent perch before a couple of boats came past from opposite directions. Both swims went quiet, so I had a cuppa. When I lifted the long rod out, having finished my cuppa, a little perch had taken a liking to the chewed maggots. The inside line was still full of tiny little bleak and like, so back out on the Far line. It was a fish a chuck for half a dozen casts. All reasonable sized roach, before I bumped one off and everything going quiet.

Over the next half hour or so I picked up a couple more roach on the far line and a couple of tiny ones on the inside. The last two fish of the session came right at the bottom of the far run. A couple of silver bream. I couldn't fish any further down as the tree to my right blocked my view. Twenty seven fish for 3lb 7oz. Not a great catch, but fun none the less on the float. It wouldn't have won the match on the Sunday as that was won with 30lb+ of bream. In fact I don't think it would have got me a section prize.

A very enjoyable four hours in pleasant sunshine . The only downside was the very vocal lambs on the other side of the river They really were very loud and persistent.