Murder Cucumbers and Serjeants

 Between taxi duties I managed a couple of hours or so on the canal sight fishing for pike and perch.  The section I was wandering along is very very clear most of the time and you only see the occasional fish, unfortunately when you spook it. I did spot a huge black splodge of tadpoles on the bottom though. With the bright sunshine the fish seemed to be out sun bathing, although the tiniest of jacks tended to be hiding in the bankside reeds with just their noses sticking out. It was rather good fun casting to them. The pike would grab the bait as it drop in front of them. The perch, though, needed a few twitches before attacking. The only reason to change the lure was because the pike had chewed it beyond usable. The largest perch were 31, 35, & 37cm. One of which looked like something, heron? had had a peck at it.

 

Five pike and seven perch in a couple of hours all taken sight fishing isn't bad and made for a found time.  An equal number of pike were lost when the threw the hook and several perch hit the lures but didn't stick. The main problem in such clear water was that the perch were in shoals and hooking one spooked the rest. The Murder Cucumber name for little jacks is something I saw on the 'net and rally is a good name for them.

Fourth Session of the 2022 River Season

 Wandering along the short stretch I intend to fish it was very obvious nobody else had been down. This can mean one of two things. Either anglers have been down and can't be arsed to cut their own swim, or this isn't a good spot early season. Either way I was fishing so went full Humphrey Bogart, with my machete, through the nettles to create a swim. The one problem with a virgin swim is you don't know what's under the water. I've done this before only to find it was the most snag ridden swim imaginable. A plumb round didn't find any snags.  It find that there was just over four feet of water a rod length out just beyond some reeds. The deepest spot, some three foot deeper, was around two thirds of the way across.

The stick and 'pin set up was to be used on the inside line and a waggler set up further out. Maggots were fed to both swims and I started on the inside line. First up was a couple of minnows. Not what I wanted. But they were to be the only ones of the day. The next few fish out were small dace. After a dozen or so things went quiet, which wasn't surprising as a small jack cruised up to the keepnet. A poke with the rod tip saw it off. Over on the far line I started with a couple of little gudgeon before catching a small perch. In fact through out the session all I caught on this line was the occasional small perch.

The fish had returned to the inside line and again a steady flow of small dace were taken before it went quiet again. This time three jacks were cruising about. While I poked one with the rod tip the other two savagely attacked the keepnet ripping big holes in it. I think it's now beyond repair. To be fair the keepnet was really intend for use on commercials which are normally pike free. The further swim produced another perch, but the inside line was dead. A cuppa and sandwich was called for.

When I went back on the inside line it was bleak that had moved in. These were quite large and gave good positive bites instead of just chewing the bait like the little ones. If the bleak missed the bait some chub around the three to the pound mark had moved in making for a pleasant change. As the evening wore on the bleak were replaced by roach. Nothing big but a steady supply of bites. After a missed bite I was batting the double maggots in when a jack shot out from the overhanging bush to my right and grabbed hold. An absolute loony of a fish which careered about the swim. Performed somersaults and generally created havoc. Despite the fact I'd stuck my thumb behind the reel handle and wasn't giving line it still took me nearly ten minutes to land. While al this was going on I managed to keep maggots going into the inside line. The jack was a very tidy, chunky thing that was kept in the landing net until it had recovered.

Unsurprisingly the kerfuffle had killed the swims, so after the release of the pike I called it a day. Apart from which I was nearly out of bait. It had fished remarkable well. A steady procession of fish to stick and 'pin in the sunshine is a lovely way to spend the afternoon into evening. The keepnet is definitely a write-off. Next week I'll be exploring some stretches in this manner that I've not fished for a long time. I'll also have to sharpen the machete. While it's adequate for taking balsam down it was struggling a it with the nettles.

Third Session of the 2022 River Season

 Tuesday's session was to a stretch that I've regularly fished for pike but not done any maggot drowning in for years.  It didn't get of to a particularly good start though. I found a nice swim with a six foot shelf a rod length out, just beyond some weeds. A couple of rod lengths further out the depth doubled. I set up a stick and 'pin for the inside line as it was protected from the downstream breeze. The deep line I set up a waggler rig with an ABU 506 as waggler fishing with a 'pin is a pain. By now the hayfever had kicked in. My nose was streaming and sneezing so bad I thought I'd dislocate my head. Still I persevered.

Hayfever like that doesn't do much for your concentration. Three time I snagged a tree when casting forcing me to re rig. I developed a total inability to throw groundbait with any form of accuracy other than hitting the river. Just to ad insult to injury one wellie had developed a leak. The inside line produce nothing but bleak, not the perch I was expecting. The waggler line also produced bleak, but by bulking the shot well down the line I was able to bypass them more often them not. Despite scattering groundbait all over the place I was into bream pretty quickly. Between sneezing and a streaming nose I managed to bump off three of them and lost another three in the weeds. At this point I decided a cuppa and some medication may be the order of the day.

While partaking of a cuppa I chucked a feeder rod out. All this did was bounce about and I'd wind in some chewed maggots. Eventually a small perch hung itself on the hook. Admittedly I was far too busy trying to get a photo of an egret chasing fry on the far bank, I failed. I did manage a, poor, photo of some of the four dozen gooses that same past. A couple of lambs charged them as they arrived at the cattle drink. The lambs weren't as brave when a couple of gooses flew at them. A heron was also chased off by the gooses as well.

After forty five minutes or so the sneezing and streaming nose had stopped. After a few trots down the inside line only to find the bleak were still there. I chucked some more groundbait in, this time with a lot more accuracy. First up on the waggler line were roach and the occasional perch. Much to my surprise the odd, three to the pound, chub turned up. This was nice to see as chub have notable for their absence in recent years. Late on I started to pick up skimmers, most of which I managed to get to the net. I still managed to bump more than I should have done.

I think if I'd not scattered groundbait everywhere early on I could have put quite a nice bag of fish together. Still it wasn't a bad day in the end. It appeared I was on an Oyster Catcher's flight path as it came backwards and forwards across the river. Whistling just before it came over the flood bank it never really gave me enough notice to get a photo. There was also a surprising amount of salmon leaping about. Some coloured and some still a shiny silver. On the way back to the car I also saw a very large hare zig-zaging across the field. Not seen one that size for years. There was also a quite a few hedgepigs wandering about. I nearly stood on one as it came out of the long grass on to the path.

Second Session of the 2022 River Season

Monday's venue was to be a section I hadn't fished this century. A slow deep section that has more renown as a winter venue. The first thing to do was open up a swim. One had been created but I fancied a stretch further downstream. Not that there was really much difference. Having spotted a big stand of Himalayan Balsam by the river I decide it would kill two birds with one stone. Create a swim and rid the country of a patch of these nasty weeds. Twenty minutes with the machete and a nice swim was created and a large area of balsam lay dead and dying.

I knew this stretch was deep so opted for a 3g Bolo float. Plumbing about showed there to be 15' 6" just beyond the rod tip and it remained that depth across the river. The old tactic was to use a slider float but with a 15' rod this wasn't needed, besides I never really like slider fishing on running water. A few droppers of hemp were put in and the maggot hook bait cast out. As the olivette settled the float bobbed about and the first of many tiny bleak was swung in. Their ability to intercept a bait as it plummets through the water is quit incredible. Next cast the bait got through the bleak and when it dipped I was into my first Tommy of the season.

If the bait got through the bleak I was able to pick up small roach and tiny dace, along with some mini gonks and the occasional minnow. I took to using the bait dropper to introduce the maggots as well as hemp in the hope of avoiding the bleak, but this didn't work as they dropped down to the bottom and were been taken where I expected the hemp to have ended up.

A lot of missed bites from the tiny dace grow rather frustrating so I decide to introduce some ground bait to see if I could attract something a tad larger. I introduced the groundbait further out and further upstream. The idea being if a I missed a bite on that line I could still run the bait over the hemp. After allowing the groundbait to do it's magic while I had a cuppa, the first trot down produced a small perch. The second trot had me into something a lot bigger that careered about the swim before snagging me up on the inside. Steady pressure had it free and a rather nice 37cm perch weighing 1lb 13oz was in the net.

After that performance it took a little while for the bites to start again. It was back to the tiny dace and occasional small roach, along with a couple of Tommys. For the last hour the bites were few and far between. I gave up before it got dark . Lifting the keepnet from the water there seemed to be a bit of a shortage of fish in it. Only one of the half dozen gonks was still there. I'd forgotten to repair the hole from the pike attack on the last session. I'll be back to this stretch as I think it has potential even if fishing at 15' is a bit of a chore.

First Day of the River Season 2022

 As is my wont, I started the new river season trotting maggots with the stick and pin. I've never found early morning o be particularly special., finding afternoon evening to fish better on this river, so arrived mid-afternoon. They car park was busy with three vehicles already there. I had a plumb around in a couple of swims. I wanted one shallow and one deeper one. My intention being if the shallow one didn't produce then maybe a deeper one would be better.

A 5 No 6 stick float was set up with a sixteen hook and double maggot. In the first dozen casts I had a roach, bleak, gudgeon, dace, perch, and chublet. Not a bad start. Feeding a few maggots each cast I was into a steady flow of fish, probably one every other cast. After two and a half hours of steady fishing the inevitable pike turned up attacking the keepnet. I gave it a poke with a bankstick but it just kept coming back. After fifteen minutes of this, and very few bites, I decided to get rid of the keepnet. Forty six fish were emptied into the river in the upstream swim.

After ten minutes or so the bites returned, but so did the pike. A rather small, foot long, little beastie grab a decent dace for a short while before releasing it.  Again the bites dried up. Tim to decamp to the other swim. Unfortunately somebody else had arrived and claimed it. Time for a cuppa.

Refreshed I had another trot down and contacted a decent sized something only for the hook to pull. A couple of trots later the same thing. The hook was plenty sharp. A couple of trots later and the same again, but this time I got a scale pinned to the hook. Next cast the float dipped and I was into a high velocity some thing that got straight into a snag. Time for the bug guns as I suspected the barbel had turned up. Heavy trotting rod and 8lb hook length. Apart from a couple of chublets Nothing. A change back to the lighter set up and I was into a barbel straight away. This time it kindly stayed away from the snags and after a protracted battle was in the landing net, all 4lb 6oz of it. I managed to loose two more on the light gear. I just couldn't get them to take on the heavy stuff even when I dropped to a 6lb hooklength.

Come nine o'clock and all bites had dried up, and as I had no torch I thought it time to go. Not a bad start, but I do wish the pike would stay away. More river fishing next week. Lets see what else we can catch on float.

First Trout of the Season

This was only my second trip out fly fishing for trout and boy was it hard work. The first trip was on the same venue on opening day, some months back. I reckon I walked 10-11 miles up and down the stretch looking for fly life and/or rising fishing.  The lack of fly life was astonishing even for this water. It wasn't until late afternoon that any appeared and even then there wasn't much. A couple of LDO, some sedge and a few medium olives.were all I saw. The odd fish was rising when I arrived and as I walked along, but judging by the silver flashes and splashy rises I think they were dace or grayling. Dace were among them as I caught a few prospecting.

It was quite late in the afternoon when I spotted my first trout rise. I didn't see what it took and in the ten minutes I sat and watched it I didn't see it rise again. I tried to tempt it with a couple of flies but only managed to put it down after the fifth cast. The next fish I spotted was similarly close to the bank awaiting passing food and again ignored my offerings. This happened a couple more times before I got to the top of the stretch. Heading back one of the fish I'd tried for earlier was back on station. By now I'd been through the usual suspects in the way of flies. Back near the car I spotted another rise and again failed to see what was taken. I'd recently found a bit of dubbing I'd been given by a gentleman years ago. that went into a fly he was using to great effect that he called the green ginger. Green bodied fly seem to do quite well down here.

 Green Ginger

Size 16 Hook

Thread            Brown

Hackle            Ginger

Body                Mint Green Dubbing

Rib                    Brown Thread Furled

Tail                    Ginger Cock Fibres

As I'd tied a few up I put one on and cast it to the trout only to have it intercepted by a dace. A second cast and the trout got there first. After a couple of seconds I thought I'd lost it only to realise it was heading towards me. After a bit of acrobatics it was in the net. A rather nice fish of 35cm. It would be nice to have been fishing on one of those nice gravel tout stream but I was at the bottom of a very steep muddy bank. Not the most photogenic of spots. Still it was nice to be off the mark.

I didn't see any more trout or rises over the next hour so called it a day.  So intent was I at finding fly life that i really didn't take any photos as I wandered about. I did get to film a buzzard been harassed by a crow earlier in the day before I nearly tripped over.

I'll have to get up into the dales next week for some proper trouting.