Of Surgery and Curlews

With the little trout beck still looking quite horrible, brown, and full of debris which I thought was rather odd. I later found out a fallen tree, which had been blocking a side stream, had been removed and all the crap that had been trapped behind it was, obviously, making it's way down stream. Fortuitously I'd taken a light lure set up as well as a fly set up, so headed to the canal. Unlike last time it was now back between it's banks and remarkably clear, although the beck that runs along side was still well up and coloured.

The first cast, with a Salmo minnow, produced a small perch. I never like catching first cast as it invariably ends up been the only fish of the day. Another half hour, and several bait changes and I was in to a slightly battered jack much to my relief. I had, however, managed to fright a shoal of of small tench out of the cabbages as the lure passed over. Something I managed to do again later. This is nice to see, as I've seen very few tench over the past few years.

 








A bit later I hooked another small tatty looking jack, which very kindly shed the hook straight in to the web between thumb and index finger. A bit of surgery and a cuppa later I was back in action. A spare hook replacing the one I'd chopped up. The lure, covered in dried blood attracted the largest fish of the day. Which quickly came adrift, one of the problems of light perch tackle and pike's mouths. A couple more tatty jacks followed quite quickly before I called it a day. I assume the tatty appearance is down to spawning activity.

On the walk back to the car a curlew flew low over a part flooded field, startled by the calves splashing about I assume. Not a bad day considering the bright sunshine.

Water, Water, Everywhere

With the local trout rivers still rather full from the recent rain, and the ponds having too many anglers fishing for me to chuck lures about I headed for Pocklington canal. Unfortunately it was in a worse state than the rivers. The beck and canal were merged together. 

Next stop was Selby canal. The club had just acquired an additional length, so I thought I'd give it a go. Arriving at one end of the new length I found it was as brown and rubbish strewn as the two rivers it connects. Still, I was here and thought I should give it a go. This proved quite futile as weed just kept snagging the lures.

I decided instead to just have a wander down the length to see if there was any features, or whatever, that could be of interest at a later date. As I got further down the water seemed to be losing the brown colour, although the floating debris seemed to be as bad. About half way I headed back to the car and drove down to the other end of the stretch. This bit was indeed less brown and there seemed to be parts of it with only a little bit of debris floating about.

 







After a couple of hours chucking lures about I'd managed one tatty looking perch, which I dropped the moment the hooks came out, and three lost lures.

This stretch looks a lot more inviting than the other end and hopefully, once the debris has gone, it should provide some sport.

Final Pike Syndicate Session

With my winter permit coming to an end, on the 31st, I managed to get one last trip in on Friday. Unlike last time, when the weather was nice, there was only a couple of anglers there when I arrived. This gave me a better selection of swims, I plumped for a swim at the same end of the lake as last time. This swim has plenty of features, over-hanging tress to the left, a small bay to the right, deep holes, and raised bars in front.

Tactics were to be, float fished sardine under the trees, float fished smelt to the right, and a legered popped up lamprey section in front.  But first I spent an hour or so flinging lures about in a few swims to no avail. I dropped the baits in and settled down with a cuppa. First sip of tea and the left hand float shot away at great speed. A dinky little jack  was quickly swung in and the bait back in the same position.

For the next few hours nothing else happened. I had a spot of lure fishing. Moved the baits about the swim, until the left hand float started bobbing about. It wasn't a huge fish judging by the way it was careering about the swim. A rather nice fish of 7lb 8oz. An hour passed by before the right hand float moved away slowly. The rod hooped over before I could strike then went slack. I retrieved a rather chewed smelt.

It was another hour before a latched on to something a bit heavier, back on the left hand rod.  Keeping the rod tip under the water to stop anything snagging on the trailing branches. I eventually managed to net a very powerful 14lb 6oz beastie, with the hooks dropping out as I lifted the net. Confusingly, as I placed it on the mat for a photo, there was a trace hanging out of it's mouth. I thought at first my line had snapped rather than the hooks coming adrift, but this clearly wasn't my trace. Thankfully only the lower hook was out of sight. I managed to remove both, barbless, hooks and left the fish in the sack for 15 mins before releasing it.

 

























I sat for another few hours, well into dark with out any more action. Not a bad end to the season on the lake. Time to get the fly rods out me thinks.

A Big Mama At Last

Arriving at the car park, on Sunday, for possibly my last go for pike this season, it was clear the sunshine had brought out the carpers. With limited swims available I was glad to get in one in the area I had hoped to fish. I was also informed that some pike had been seen spawning the day before. The carp were also feeding, as one lad had had one and was playing another as I passed. 

After fling lures about for half an hour, with only a couple of tiny jacks following them I got the dead bait rods cast out.. A headless sardine in the margins to the left, a lamprey section, popped up in front, and another, whole, sardine in the hole to my right. For the next seven hours I moved them about, injected them with oil, and told myself that bright sunshine isn't really piking weather.

Around seven the left hand float moved away and I was into a rather lovely little beast around the 8-9lb mark. Just after I returned a bait to the same area the right hand float disappeared, only to pop back up almost immediately. I wound down and with nothing apparently there I gave the bait a twitch to see if I could entice a take. Sadly this didn't work so I left the bait there in the hope something would return to it.

The left hand float then moved away again. Some thing heavy was quickly cranked near the awaiting net. Just as it's huge head appeared at the surface it decided to put up a struggle. After a few minutes I had a certain 20 on the bank. Clearly well fed and full of spawn. The fish was identified as one that had been caught about a month  ago at 21lb 8oz and now weighed 23lb 8oz.

I did consider staying a bit longer, but as it was now dark and I hadn't bought a torch, and I don't really like dealing with pike in the dark any way, I decided to back up. I wound in the other two rods and the went for the left hand one only to find a little jack had grabbed the remains of the sardine that I'd dropped in the side after unhooking the big girl. It also highlighted the problem of piking at night. As it was rather deeply hooked and with only a phone to light things this was not going to be fun. Thankfully  some help arrived and we managed to unhook it with out and injuries to the pike. All the blood was mine.

Not a bad end to the season, given it hasn't been the best six months I've had pike fishing. Far to many blanks.

Coming Up Short

Due to ice on the water I left it to later to arrive. The ice was thawing quite rapidly when I arrived and after doing a bit of bank work I started setting up. As I was doing so, a few hand sized roach scattered in front of me. I throw a similar sized dead bait out suspended about three foot below a float. With little or no wind it drifted very slowly across the area. In the mean time a flung a roach swim-bait about for a while, which resulted in a follow. A change of colour and the bait was fallowed again, but no take. After  half an hour with nothing else to show I lowered the suspended bait down to six foot and chucked half a sardine over onto the shelf to my left. A small smelt was dropped in to the right, which quickly resulted in a small jack.

 











Just after casting another smelt back in a few roach scattered to my right and the float was away moments after which resulted in an even small jack. I moved the suspended bait down, in three foot intervals, until it was on the bottom, then back up again. Despite the occasional roach scattering near the float nothing seemed to like the dead-bait. I kept having a chuck about with the lure and managed to elicit the occasional follow, but just couldn't get them to attack.

 








Again I was informed a twenty had come out mid-week, lending credence to my belief that the big ones don't feed on a weekend.

Opening The Account

Due to a late start I decided to drop in to the car park swim and have a quick fling about with the lure rod before reverting to dead baits. It wasn't long before a little jack, just over twice the length of the lure, grabbed hold to provide me with the first fish of the year. After another 20 minutes, or so, of fling lures about a dropped the dead baits in. One on the bottom, one popped up and one drifted about at various depths. Around lunch time I had a few casts with a small jig, bounced along the bottom, it produced an even smaller jack.












Despite moving the baits to all the likeliest looking spots there was no interest from the pike. A wander round with the lure rod produced just a single follow. Still I'd had a couple of fish so another blank was avoided.

Same Old, Same Old

Happy New Year to you all.

First post of the New Year and we're back in familiar territory.

After spending half the morning wandering around the lake with a lure rod and nothing to show for it, I settled in my chosen swim with the dead bait rods out awaiting the first pike of the New Year. After half an hour the drop off indicator dropped off, no line was been taken so I tightened down to something which soon turned out to be a twig with a couple of hitch hikers on it.

A while later, a proper run on the same rod which again amounted to nothing. Followed by the float falling over on the left hand rod and an unmarked sprat been retrieved. It's hard to know what's going on at times when this sort of thing happens, I'm inclined to blame eels, bu I'd expect some damage to the bait.

Every 30 minutes or so I'd been releasing another foot of line on the popped up bait so it was now about six foot of the bottom when I got another run. This time I latched on to something which kitted rapidly to my right. After an unnecessarily long struggle a large carp surfaced, clearly foul hooked in or near the pectoral fin. As it wallowed on the surface it rolled upside down and the hook came adrift. Thankfully, after a bit of hesitation, it seemed to swim off strongly.

That was it for the day. Looking back through my scant records January first doesn't appear to have been a particularly good day for angling. Not for me anyway. Oh well, only the rest of the year to go.