After The Floods

The river having dropped 1.3m since the floods as was now back in it's banks and quite probably fishable, but I don't the banks were. The banks would be covered in a nice greasy layer of mud which I really didn't fancy frightening myself to death on. Stillwater it was then. Due to errands and the like I would be fishing office hours. Not often the best time for pike, but it was a nice day and I hadn't been out for a couple of weeks. The gravel pit, my first choice, looked a bit crowded so I headed to the estate lake and was surprised to find myself the only one there.  I thought, like the gravel pit, there would be a few refugees from the rivers there. One did arrive just after I got set up.

 

I started in a swim that often does well at this time of year. A float fished trout under the bush to my right and a headless sardine float fished in front in a bit of a depression. The only problem with this swim was you are in dappled shade and with a bit of a chill wind blowing straight at you it wasn't the warmest spot around the lake. I had my big coat so no problem really. After about ten minutes the trout float bobbed under and back up. I left it a little while before winding down to nothing, not even a bait. Another trout was dropped in the same spot to see if the bait thief was still hungry. Some time later I got a proper run on the trout and this time contacted with something quite small. As I got it to the surface I could see both hooks. I dinky little jack about twice the size of the bait had hold of the head. I managed to lift it clear of the water before it let go.

The slightly mangled trout was dropped in the same place again. Another angler popped down for a looksy. A while later the float appeared to move slightly. Staring at it I wasn't sure if it was moving or the ripple was causing it to look that way. The float then shot way. The rod hooped over as I grabbed it and after a bit of a  feisty charge about I had a nice looking pike of 75cm in the net. Unhooking it showed it was quite as nice looking as I though. Part of it's mandible was missing. Obviously and old wound as it was well healed leaving a red mark where it had come away. A quick way in the net showed it to be just over 7lb. As that had been my last trout I put a roach on and dropped it in the same spot.

The other angler left while I was having lunch, followed by another have a looksy. As the sun was now a bit of a nuisance making the floats hard to see I had a bit of a wander and spotted a few roach scattering in another swim that's produced a few in the past. I replaced the sardine with a length of lamprey and cast that out to the edge of an overhanging tree. The sardine was chopped up and scattered about. The roach took four casts before I could get it under the overhanging alder branches where the roach had scattered earlier. There's a bit of a trough runs along under the branches that seems to be where the pike hide. It was just after four when the lamprey float moved away quite slowly. A good heave and I was into some thing heavy. A rather dour fight ensued before a decent fish was in the net. A couple more anglers arrived, both pikers, just after I landed the fish. Lifting it from the water showed it to be a bit large than I'd thought. 95cm and 12lb 14oz. Not bad.

Unfortunately I had to pack up a good hour before dusk due to another errand. This place can produce a few in the lead up to darkness. This was shown by one of the new arrivals catching on lure as I was packing up. Still it was nice to be back among the pike. Hopefully the river banks might be safe enough to traverse by next week as there's not long to go before the end of the river season.

Bread And Cheese

The sun had put in an early appearance as I drive towards the river past the heavily frosted fields. Thankfully it was still low enough to be behind the trees and hedges and not straight in eyes. I don't know how cold it had been but the normally soggy muddy path had frozen solid making walking a lot easier. Judging by the lack of cars it appeared I was the first one there.The first swim I selected was one the deeper ones, around 11'-12'. Like last week I alternated between flake and cheese paste on a feeder rig with liquidised bread. The set up is simple enough. 8lb mainline with a ledger bead for the feeder. A 3-4" twizzled boom at the end. A size 8 hook on a 5lb hook length around 18" attached to the mainline loop to loop. Quite quickly I had a chublet around 8oz or so on cheese paste. After which I sat for another couple of hours for one more bite.

The next swim was around half the depth of the previous one and again I had a fish quite quickly on cheese paste, a chub around the pound mark. I then got a series of rattles on the tip that eventually resulted in an 8oz roach. Like before there was then an hour and a half's quiet. Quite from the fish but the military seemed to be happy making a noise with their jets. Not really sure why there was so much activity. Unless they think the Russians are going to invade the priory. The final swim was the same one as last week and again this produced a chublet early on to cheese paste. and a reasonable dace on flake.

There was quite a bit of bird song but I'm really not very good at identifying birds from their song. I did see three cormorants flying overhead, and a buzzard getting harassed by a couple of gulls.

All the bites, apart from the dace, came on cheese paste today. Last week I didn't get anything on cheese paste. I retired before it got dark as the sunshine and rising temperatures had defrosted the top of the mud and it was now very greasy under foot. I really didn't fancy making my way through the woods in the dark as the path through there is bad enough in daylight. Bit of a hard day. Another angler after chub blanked. Not sure if the pike angler caught either.

Deep Frozen Chub

Nearly all week I'd been in two minds, chub or pike, pike or chub. In the end I opted for a spot of chub fish, after all I'd made up some cheese paste ages ago and chub were turning up in a local river. Nothing big but it should be better than my recent pike trips. As the weather forecast was for a rather chilly , and windy, start I decided to arrive at a reasonably civilised hour. 

Armed with just a float rod and a feeder rod I had a bit of a wander about before settling on a known swim with the intention of moving if it didn't produce. I started on the feeder as the chill downstream breeze wasn't conducive to trotting. Bait was to be flake or cheese paste with liquidised bread in the feeder. 

Having cast in I turned round to put the big coat back on and the rod wrapped round and I was in. After a brief struggle a small chub was in the net. I'm pretty sure it was colder than the water it had come from. Over the next hour three more graced the net. Each getting bigger. By letter out a couple of metres of line after the feeder had settled none of the bites was as ferocious as the first. Nor did I get any missed bites either. I then had a quiet period before getting another. two more graced the net as the wind got stronger and colder making bite detection a bit problematic. Strangely, despite alternating between the two, the cheese pate didn't produce a single fish.

Seven chub, the largest two a tad over four pound isn't too bad. I may have got more had I moved swims. Or I may have managed to avoid them. Who knows. The buzzards put on a couple of flying displays, but filming them with a phone doesn't really work. They just look like a dot moving about. A kestrel also landed on a tree opposite. Not something I've seen very often. Normally I only see them hovering and/or stooping.

It's Not Getting Any Better

Back on the pike hunt I headed to a stretch well above the city and one I've not fished for years. It's one of those stretches that contains some big pike, allegedly, but they rarely get caught.  Unless you talk to the match anglers, who claim to have lost every other fish to a huge pike. I spent 30-40 minutes in half a dozen swims in the morning for not a lot. The most excitement was when laziness in the last swim had me check the depth with out removing the trace. I'd cast straight into snags. Pulling the rig hoping to bend the hooks resulted in the swivel breaking. First failure have had in a swivel for a long time. I spent the afternoon in the same swim hoping to intercept a passing pike. This didn't work either.

Just after lunch I talked to a local who'd fished the stretch a dozen times this year for two small jack. He reckoned it was the worst he'd known it. He normally only blanked ever other session. previous years. At the car park at the end of the day two other pike anglers were there and had blanked as well and were equally baffled by the lack of pike.

MOT

I knew the MOT was coming up as a sidelight bulb had gone. Last year it was the offside, this time it was the nearside. Unless you've got fingers the size of chopsticks the entire light assembly has to be removed to change the bulb. This, though, was minor compared to the rest of the problems that materialised. A spring had broken and had to be replaced. The garage could one but wouldn't have time to fit it until next day. This meant the MOT would get pushed to the end of the week. While I was there I made enquiries about another problem I'd lived with for a while. The passenger door could only be opened for the outside. This was due to a broken cable from the lever to the latch. This was a known problem years ago and was generally repaired under warranty. My car is well out of warranty. It is also an MOT failure, as both front doors must open from the inside. There is, however, plenty of information on the Internet about it. The only problem was they couldn't get one for a week to ten days. I therefore decided I'd do something about it myself. 

I contacted the local dealer and they said the same thing. After a bit of trawling through the webs I found one I could get next day. Head office won't let the garage buy from Amazon or Ebay, only authorised suppliers. It duly arrived next day at teatime, so I had to wait until next day to fit it. This pushed the MOT even further away. I spent the evening studying a variety of videos to see how it was done. Basically it involves dismantling the door. May only worry was the dreaded phrase - to put it back together just reverse the procedure. This never works. Dismantling things is generally a doddle, but the reverse is rarely true.

As it was it turned out to be relatively straight forward, though, with out the videos finding some of the the screws and knowing which bits could be crowbarred off wouldn't have been easy. Three hours work interspersed with rewatching the videos and it was done. I did end up with an extra bit at the end, but it was only a bit of plastic that isn't vital to the operation of the door and thankfully I only had to remove the door handle to put it back. It's surprising how many cheap parts, that should be simple to replace, can cause an MOT failure.

Strike Three

Friday morning after a night of snow, sleet and freezing temperatures the car took some defrosting. I soon arrived at the fishing spot I intended to fish on Monday. This time I wasn't thwarted by a match, but I'd forgotten I'd be facing straight in to the sun for a large part of the day. The river was now only a couple of foot up, but it did rise a few inches during the session. The area I was fishing was classic territory, on the inside of a bend with over hanging trees creating nice slack areas.  It had also produced some good weights in the last couple of matches held there.

The usual tactics were employed, float-ledgered, paternoster, trotted and even ledgered out in the middle. Mackerel, lamprey, trout, sardine, and roach were used as baits. I fished four different swims. It wasn't until the last swim that I got my one and only run of the day. As I made my last cuppa of the day the float shot away. Before I could put the kettle and cup down the float had popped back up and all I ended up with was a chewed sardine.

If these pike don't start to frame themselves I think I might have to take up chub fishing.

And So It Continues

Today I decided to continue my piking on the tidal stretch, but on the opposite bank in the large slack below the lock complex. In these conditions it's deep, at high tide it was twenty four foot a similar distance out. Although there was only 1.7m of extra water above the weir, below was very full. The two picture below show the difference between normal levels and today's high tide.

I tried both float-ledgered baits, paternostered and trotted, using lamprey, mackerel, roach, and trout to no effect. The one other angler there managed a few rattles on the quiver tip but that was all. I think I'll leave this stretch alone until the water levels drop to somewhere more manageable.

The quest for the first fish of the year continues.