Chartreuse is the New Pink

Having misread the times of Sunday's road closures, my intended start time was delayed some what, as I now had to wait for hundreds of sweaty panting people to pass the end of the street. Quite way anyone would want to spend Sunday morning running 26 miles 385 yards,and end up back where they started, I don't know. So by the time the roads had reopened and I'd had a spot of luncheon, it was a rather sunny afternoon when I arrived at the pond. Not the best conditions for a spot of drop shotting for perch.




 














I'd been reliably informed that anything in pink was eagerly grabbed by the greedy little beasts and so it seemed when I was straight into a fish first drop.  After that one, though, I couldn't buy a bite until I change to chartreuse, which resulted in a steady procession of little perch for the next couple of hours to the point were I'd lost count of the number of fish caught. All the expected places produced. By the dieing lilies, under over hanging trees and by fallen trees. As bites started to dry up I tried various other colours and shapes of lure, but was only catching very occasionally as I wandered round. As the sun had now dropped behind the trees and I only had a t-shirt on it seemed like a good idea to head home as the temperature was starting to drop.

Taking to my informant in the pub that evening, he was surprised at pink not working as he'd never really had much success with any other colour. I was also informed that when dropping shotting, one should measure the fish and report the resulting catch in metres. I may try that one day, if I can be bothered. In the mean time I need get a bit better at it as my results have been somewhat erratic.

Hopefully I'' have time for a pre-work session on a canal later in the week.

A little Light Lure Fishing II

Another short mid week session, this time on the Aire and Calder Navigation. This is a rather featureless working canal, but this section had a rocky bank rather than the usual steel piles. Despite being rather bright sunshine I was soon into small, hand sized, perch jigging a small pink creature close to the bank in among the rocks.























Having spent an hour or so on this stretch I headed to another. I'm trying to find all the access points, as some of them aren't that obvious. Here we were back to the familiar steel piling, but by trolling the aforementioned jig close to the bank I was again into the same calibre of fish. This is a simple technique that works surprisingly well. Letting out 15-20' of line and walking slowly along the bank , twitching the rod occasionally produces a remarkable amount of fish. The majority of which were again hand sized, but it did produce a couple of decent fish at 1lb 6oz and 2lb 10oz.

A Little Light Lure Fishing

I had a couple of hours after work on Pocklington Canal, mid week. Trying to find somewhere fishable proved to be a bit of a problem. The lack of boot activity had allowed it to become gin clear again and the weed growth in some areas was nearly to the surface again. Adding to the access problems was the bank-side rushes. After a bit of a trundle round I found a fishable stretch, but it only produced a couple of wasps on a small brown jig. So I moved to another stretch. 

I was greeted by scattering fish as I got down to the bank. First cast, with a small 4-play, produced a cute little jack, but nothing more. Further on a nice perch of 1¼lb. A bit further along a pike lunged at the lure three times before grabbing hold. All rather heart-stopping in the clear water. The lush reed growth proved to be a problem when I came to net it though, as it dived straight in and lodged it's self fast. A bit of prodding with the landing net persuaded it to move back out where I was able to net it. This was not the case with the largest fish of the afternoon, which performed the same trick. Not amount of prodding was going to get it to move out of the reeds, or so it seemed. Eventually it shot out, but the line was still going through the reeds. After a bit of carefully untangling I managed to get it to the net, along with a large amount of weed.

By now it was time to head home for dinner, especially as the drizzle was now turning to rain. A bit of frost is needed to get some of the vegetation down.

Grand Finale, Maybe

With the trout season closing on Saturday and the weekend weather looking rather nasty, I managed to get up to the moos midweek for a final fling. The river was remarkably clear, but running about 4-5" inches up. A couple of anglers were trying, unsuccessfully, for sea trout in one f the larger pools.

With nothing showing I opted for a nymph set up, which I chucked about for an hour with only a small parr to show for my efforts. A few small uprights stated to appear as the sun put in an appearance and the odd fish started to rise. A change to a foam dun immediately brought a small trout followed by a parr. For a while after the fish just seemed to slash at the fly. A change to a black emerger pattern produced more hook ups, mainly from parr.

For the next couple of hours I managed the odd fish here and there, mainly parr with the odd trout in between. The largest fish of the day, at around 10", was clearly camera shy an slipped from my hand just before I got a photo. After a couple of hours the rises stopped and there was no more signs of insect life.

Not a bad end to the season. I lost count of the number of fish, mainly parr, caught If the predicted rain over the next couple of days isn't too bad I may be able to get out Saturday, but I have my doubts.

Nice Day For a Paddle

With my first choice of venue sill rather high, and looking somewhat coloured, I enacted plan B. A smaller river, still slightly high, but reasonably clear. Walking down to the bottom of the length I saw past the horses that seemed to be having a natter over the fence, no signs of fish activity so opted for a small gold head PTN, which I intended to toss into likely swims.

 









After 1½ hours of nothing I spotted a fish rising. A change to an emerger and I quickly had a pristine little grayling to hand. It was nearly another hour before I found more rising fish. I managed to bump the first one, but landed the second grayling, slightly larger than the first.

 










Round the next corner several more fish were rising, but by the time I'd got my self in position one of the cattle had decided it needed a drink. Not content with sipping at the edge, it decided it need a paddle as well. This put a stop to the rises and with more cattle heading in this direction I moved on.

The sun was now out, but the wind had got back up. It did, however, bring the fish up to the surface. Unfortunately they all seemed to be tiny tiny dace about 1-1½" long. Near the top of the length I managed to hook a slightly larger one which kindly abandoned the hook just out of reach. With that I called it a day.

One More From the Todo List

It was getting on for mid Sunday afternoon before I got down to the river. After reports of fishing topping everywhere on Saturday afternoon, it looked decidedly dreary not really helped by the gusty breeze and spots of drizzle.

Putting on a recently tied daddy long legs, there was loads crawling about in the grass. I decided to see how well it rode in the faster more turbulent water. Very well as it turned out. Third cast and a small fish had a go at it. A couple more casts and I was in, momentarily. I had a few more casts before wandering upstream. With nothing stirring I was just prospecting in various likely looking spots. Apart from the odd tiny tiny dace nipping at the trailing legs, nothing else stirred.

Further on I spotted a reasonable fish under some weed. With a bit of top class casting, and help from a gust of wind, I managed to land the fly with a mighty plop, a good two foot from the weed. No matter, the trout shot out from under the weed and grabbed it. Clearly the feather like touch f the last couple hours had been the wrong approach. After a short, but spirited fight it was in the net. My first trout on dry fly from this stretch, after years of trying.

I was amazed how far it had managed to get such a big fly down it's throat, Thankfully I’d de-barbed the hook, so it was easily removed. Quite pleased with my self I set off upstream to see if I could find any more. I saw nothing more as I neared the top of the stretch, as the skies were starting to darken somewhat I headed back to the car. After a brief shower things brightened up a tad and the wind dropped so I decided to try a different stretch for the last hour before dark.

The only fish that were active seemed to be hoards of tiny dace, so small the couldn't even manage a size 20 IOBO. I did eventually manage to hook a couple of 4" specimens. Hopefully they'll survive the floods and we should see some decent shoals of dace  in this stretch again.

There was also a notable increase in frogs and toads becoming active as it got dark, presumably fatting up for their winter hibernation on all the cane flies crawling about.

Return of the Disappearing Dace

Had a bank holiday trip out to the local beck for a spot of fluff chucking. With a slight tinge of colour in it and running higher than normal for this time of year it looked quite promising. Especially as I could see a few fish rising up stream of my vantage point on the bridge.

 On wandering up I found it was a reasonable shoal of dace rising for something I couldn't make out. It was nice to see them again, as they had all but disappeared after the Christmas floods of 15/16. First cast with a suspender nymph was a little short of the back of the shoal, but the second was taken after a short drift. Quickly hustled away from the shoal so as not to disturb them, a plump little dace was quickly to hand. Two more followed. Unfortunately the third one proved just too much for the shoal, which spoked and scattered upstream. Still, extracting more than one from a shoal in such a small narrow stream isn't bad.

As I waded upstream it was obvious that the flood caused by the recent thunderstorms had made a good job of scouring the sand and silt away as large stretches were now back to gravel. Sadly it had also decimated the water plants that had just started to make a come back after been lost in the 15/16 floods. Although I don't suppose the increasingly heavy tree cover is helping much either.

Having found nothing more the minnows along the rest of the stretch I was back in the car to another length. Again it appeared that there was only the occasional shoal of minnows till I got near the top and spotted several dace rising . As I edged upstream to a point were I could cast at them I failed to notice a smaller shoal until it was too late. They spoked upstream straight into the larger shoal and scattered them as well. Despite this it's nice that they're back. All that’s needed now is for the trout to reappear as they seem to have vanished.