Ain't Chasing No Pellet

With a bit of fresh water flowing through the rivers I decided to have another go at float fishing for barbel, on the Swale. Even though there was only three inches or so of extra water the river looked a bit healthier than it had. In order to avoid the minnows I'd decided to fish pellets. Again I'd forgotten to bring the waders which would limit the number of swims available due to the overhanging trees. The swim I picked was near the top of the stretch and one I'd looked at before, but never thought it looked right. The little bit of extra water had changed it though. A nice run around four foot deep following a shallow riffle. A few trots through showed that it was just over four foot to start with, shallowing slightly in the middle then dropping to four and a half foot over the later part. By using an under-shotted chubber float I was able to keep the banded pellet on the bottom with out the float been constantly dragged under.

Third trot down with a bait I was in to a reasonable sized something that managed to snag itself up a couple of times, but constant pressure got it free. It turned out to be a lovely bronze chevin around the three and half pound mark.  There then followed several foul hooked dinky little chub/dace yearlings that appeared to have a liking for 8mm pellets.

Nothing more happened for the next hour despite a steady flow of pellets going in. While I had a sarnie and cuppa I chucked the feeder rod out with a 12mmm pellet on. Before I could even start my sarnie the rod was hooped over and I was into what felt like a barbel, which came adrift after about a minute. Having eaten the sarnie I was just waiting for the tea to brew when the rod went over again. Again it felt like a barbel which, apart form the usual shenanigans around the net, came in quite fuss free. A bit bigger than the chub it showed there were barbel in the swim right where I judged the pellets would be washed down to.

Having finished my cuppa I continued trotting until the light prevented me seeing the float. Although it was far from dark the low light and rippling water just seemed to obscure the float no matter what colour I used. Back out went the feeder rod and after a little while the tip started to rattle about. Even though it wasn't a classic barbel bite a little barbel around the two pound mark  was soon wound in. That was it despite staying an hour into dark.

It was nice to know there was barbel in the swim, but why they won't take moving baits some days I don't know.

Luring Perch

Nearly every time I've been down to the river I've witnessed perch scattering small fish and/or  pike chase or take a fish I was winding in and I've always wished I had a lure rod with me. So, Thursday I went down with a couple of lure rods. One light perch set up and a light pike heavy perch set up. As I wandered along the bank the lack of fish activity was very noticeable. I'd put a small popper on one rod and a small paddle tail roach in bleak pattern on the other, my intention being to cast to scattering fish. As it was I'd just have to cast to features and hope for the best.

The first couple of swims produced nothing to either lure. The third, though, produced a few bumps to the paddle tail but no hook ups even after I'd added a stinger. A change to a 9cm Salmo Executer in a whitish pattern produced several perch around 6oz. All to a straight retrieve. Adding to the action or varying the retrieve produced nothing.

A couple of swims later and again I was into a similar size perch. Next cast I managed to snag to lure good and proper which resulted in it's loss. Despite trying several other similar lures in a variety of colour schemes I could get a take. The only other lure I had in the same colour was a Salmo Minnow in 6cm. While it did produce, the fish were considerably smaller. Quite how I've managed to run out of white lures I don't know, as perch love them.

The next few swims produced nothing despite several changes of lure. I did get a couple of half-hearted follows from a couple of jacks before a tiny little 'un grabbed the paddle tail. Despite the claims that perch feed best at dawn and dusk I didn't see any more.

The session was not quite as I'd hoped, given it was generally overcast which are usually the bet for perch.  There again all the activity I'd seen previously was when it was bright sunshine. Looks like I'll have to get some more white(ish) lures and try again.

New PB Plank

Thursday I intended to go a bit further afield, but the washing machine had other ideas.  By the time I'd persuaded it to complete the wash cycle it was getting a bit late. A trip to the Ouse seemed the best option as the tackle shop is on the way. Armed with hemp and two pints of best reds for a spot of float fishing again.

I'd brought the barbel rod with me so quickly clipped a maggot feeder on and stuck three maggots ion the size 12 to 10lb hook length. It hadn't been in long before the tip rattled round good and proper. I thought I'd missed the bite, but a shiny little bleak was impaled on the hook. I had several more real tip rattlers while I set the float rod up. Nearly every time it was a bleak, along with the occasional perch.

With a large Bolo float set up at around ten foot and feeding hemp and red maggots I started to get a few chublets, the odd dace, and occasional perch. The fish seemed to come in groups of five or six, before going quiet for there or four trots down. On more than one occasion a perch was grabbed by a pike as I wound in. There was barely a mark on the perch when the pike let go of it.

For the time of year the boat traffic wasn't too bad at all. Half a dozen white plastic tubs, paddle boarders and a few canoes. One group of three did witness me catching a rather fine blank. They, along with me, also witnessed a fish jumping near the snags on the far bank. It had been throwing itself out of the water for a couple of hours. It was very silvery what ever i was.

Near the end of the session I hooked into something very solid, which took the best part of ten minutes to get near the net. This was not surprising, as when I finally got to see it it turned out to be a decent sized pike which came adrift about a yard from the net. It's rampage around the swim seemed to have put everything of. A change back to feeder  produced nothing either, even though I stayed into dark.

Swale Meet Again

With recent heavy rains here and there I hoped that the Swale had coloured up a bit. As it happens it hadn't, it was still clear and low. The water had cooled though. It has to be said this section is not the best for float fishing. Most of the swims are bordered by trees pushing out over the water. Being quite shallow though wading could overcome this, if only I'd put them in the car.  Still trotting for barbel with maggots was what I was going to do, so that's what I did. I suppose I could have tried wet wading, but  with the temp of the water and the fact it was a cool breezy evening I didn't think I'd last long at it.

The first trotable (is that a word?) swim I found was a nice fast section after a shallow section. Rigged up with a 4.5g loafer and size 14 hook I was quickly into little chublets and even smaller dace. After an hour or so a couple of hungry pike showed up. A little jack that popped out of a slack chasing the double red maggots, but the fish. Just after it seemed to give up a larger pike appeared and had several goes at fish I was bringing in. After a while it too gave up, but the swim was now dead. I gave it another half hour but didn't even get so much as a chewed maggot.

I moved to the swim I fished last time I was here. There was no sign of any chub for me to frighten this time. The swim seemed to be full of gudgeon when I good get a good run down the swim. There seemed to be a lot of twigs and weed in it now. Shallowing up to avoid the debris resulted in chewed maggots and tiny dace/chublets occasionally.  After an hour I moved on.

The final swim was awash with minnows. I was about to give up when I bumped what felt like a decent fish off. I took to chucking maggots in by the handful to see if I could feed the minnows off. This seemed to work as I got less and less chewed maggots. By now it was starting to drizzle again. I'd been lucky with the rain or lack of it, just the occasional drizzle. By now it was getting dark, an hour early. Retiring seemed a good idea, especially as I thought I'd heard thunder in the distance. I got back to the car as the wind got up and the heavens opened.

The drive home was fun. The heavy rain and gusts of wind had brought a lot of debris down out of the trees, some of it quite big. I had to sop a couple of times to drag branches off the road. As the rain eased a new problem in the shape of a diversion appeared. Thankfully the signage was quite good but I got a bit disorientated as these were roads I'd hardly ever been down. Finally I arrived at the main road and the rest of the drive was uneventful. If we could just have a bit of heavy rain in the right place and raise the river levels a bit the barbel might come on the feed.

A Bit Less Balsam

With reports that the Nidd had cooled down a bit and contained extra water due to the recent thunderstorms I decided to pop down to see if I could catch a barbel on float. I don't often use a 15' rod on this little river, but with a gusty downstream wind I thought it may give more control. A 3.5g loafer was all that was needed in the shallow swim. A size 12 hook to 6.6lb hook length finished the rig off. After a few trots down to get the correct depth and see if there was any snags I flung out a goodly helping of hemp and a few red maggots, I left the swim alone for awhile and took the machete to a large stand of Himalayan Balsam. Some of it was over six foot tall, but it was very satisfying to see it crash to the ground.

After few trots down with a bait on it soon became apparent that there was a lot of small fish in the swim as I kept get chewed maggots. I dropped to a 18 on a 4.6lb hook length to see what they were. Straight away I was into gudgeon. Half a dozen later and I hit something bigger. At first it came towards me easily, which suggested it was a barbel. This was confirmed as it shot back down stream and the hook length gave. The hook length looked like it had been cut by scissors so it may have been a pike.

Back to the 6.6lb hook length and a size 14 hook. A couple more gudgeon came in before hitting something heavy. Again it came towards me fairly easily before shooting down stream. Again the hook length parted in virtually the same spot, and again it was a clean cut. I had a wander along the top of the bank with the polarising lenses, but because of the the coloured water could see anything. I carried on with the same rig and stated to pick up a few chublets. One or two had mouths full of maggots which I'd started to feed quite heavily as the barbel had moved in.

I put a lot more hemp and maggots in, but closer to me in the hope the barbel would move up and I'd have time to stop them getting to whatever was cutting the line. I partook of a cuppa and sarnie while the hemp did it's magic. First cast after the break and I was in. Whatever it was shot straight towards the "cut-off point". I just stuck my thumb behind the handle on the 'pin and hoped. Again I parted with the fish, but this time retrieved a couple of scales. Looks like I'd foul-hooked one. After a few more gudgeon and a couple of chublets I was again into something bigger. This time it made no rapid runs and stuck doggedly to the middle of the river. Apart from one half-hearted attempt at getting into the tree roots opposite it stubbornly came upstream. When it got opposite me I thought it had snagged as it went nowhere. Then suddenly it gave up and came to the net. A barbel around the 4-5lb mark. As the water was still not cold I left it in the water as much as I could and with the minimum of handling.

A few more chublets were caught before it started to spot with rain. With mission accomplished I packed up and headed home. I'd love to know what was cutting the line. I've never had that problem before in this swim. Normally it's the tree roots opposite you have to worry about. Which is why I tended to play the fish downstream in the hope they would be too tired to make a dash for the roots once I got them up to me.

 

I'm now half way to my target of catching a barbel on float from the Derwent, Nidd, Ouse,  Swale, Ure and Wharfe. I suspect the Ouse will be the hardest as I've never landed one on float from there. I've hooked them, but on roach gear and never really stood a chance.

The Hidden Swim

Thursday morning I had a few little tasks to perform. These seemed to conspire against me and took longer than they should, so it was late afternoon before I got the tackle together. In the rush to get up the road before the traffic built up I forgot to put the hemp and sweetcorn in the bait bucket. I'd decided to return to the same stretch I'd been fishing as a few barbel had come out during a match at the weekend and I'd found a swim last week that looked nice. I'd first seen this swim in winter. It looked like you would be able to run a float down the inside by the over hanging willows. When I came back here two weeks ago I had looked for it, but was looking to far upstream. Last week I found it as somebody had trampled the vegetation down that lead to it, hiding behind the now leafy willows. Sadly somebody was fishing in it. He'd had some nice roach and a couple of barbel on ledgered pellets. When I got down to it this time it was clear the floods had remodelled it somewhat and cut he bank back, but you could see down the tree line OK.

 

With only pellets, and some Peperami, to fish with my options were a bit limited. I set up a 4BB avon to fish alongside the willows, but there seemed to be no flow along side them. As I pondered what to do a bailiff found me, he'd seen me disappear into the swim. Having checked my credentials he confirmed the barbel caught in the match, but added that this peg had be left out because of a big snag in the middle of it. The chap last week hadn't mentioned one. As we were talking a few leaves flowed down and showed the current was turned away from the over hanging willows leaving a slack on the inside. I had a chuck round with a lead, and apart from a little bit of weed couldn't find anything. I set up The feeder rod to fish the slack by the willows and a float rod with a 4g avon to fish down the middle.

 

I put a bit of Peperami on the feeder rod and alternated between Peperami and pellets on the float rod which was fished about 6" over depth. It took a little while to get bites. These were from roach around the 8oz mark. Occasionally perch would follow the spinning pellet in, but never went for it. Apart from the odd twig I never did find the snag. I ended up with about a dozen roach all from just after the weed bed where I'd calculated the loose fed pellets would hit bottom. The feeder rod didn't do a thing even when dropped out in the middle while I had a cuppa.

 

I think this swim will be reshaped again come the next flood as the bank was crumbling away while I was fishing. It's just several layers of sand an leaf litter which isn't the most stable of things. Apparently last year it was an island when the river came up, but the bigger floods had filled the back of it in. I had thought of fishing into dark, but a bit of bank behind me collapse as I moved appeared to be a hint that this was not a good idea. 

 

I like to have a target for the year and I've diced this year's is to catch a barbel on float from the Derwent, Nidd, Ouse, Swale, Ure and Wharfe. I've managed the Derwent and Wharfe. The Nidd should be too hard as I've caught most of  float fished barbel from there. The only one I've never caught a float fished barbel from is the Ouse. I have lost a few in the past, but never landed one.

Same Swim As Last Week

Wednesday evening I was looking at the river gauges to see what the rivers were doing after the recent rain. Some were on the way up, some already up. Most would probably be falling by Thursday afternoon. I asked the computer to select me a venue. It kindly picked the same venue as last week, one I'd selected myself. I could have asked for another one, but decided why not. The river would be about a foot up and falling, so a spot of trotting would be possible. Arriving at the parking spot OI wasn't surprised to see a few cars there. I suspected the barbel anglers may turn up. It wasn't my intention to fish the same swim as last week, but it did look good and I couldn't be bothered to wander about in the heat of the afternoon. The river wasn't as coloured as I expected it to be either.

In the past I've done quite well trotting sweetcorn for roach. Not only does it tend to pick out the bigger fish, it also keeps the bleak form being a nuisance.If the water is clear fishing it over hemp worked well, but in coloured water a dark groundbait seemed to work better. It was the later tactic I decided on. I had my 14' rod with me this time and the 'pin had new line on it so life should be a bit easier. I used a slightly heavier float this time. 4BB instead of 3BB, with the shot strung out over the bottom half to get the bait down quicker. I put half a dozen golf balls of my special blend of whatever odds 'n sods of groundbait I had leftover in. It took nearly and hour for the first bite which turned out to be a roach around the 6oz mark. Over the next two hours I managed 27 roach in the 6-10oz bracket before the swim died. I'd been adding another ball every 15mins or so, whether this was two much I don't know. I suspect it may have been as some of the groundbait I'd mixed in had quite a lot of feed in it. I had brought some worms with me as well, but they didn't attract any bites either.

A change to straight lead with either sweetcorn of worm didn't seem to make a difference until the tip whacked round barbel style. At first I thought I was into a chub, but once I'd tightened the clutch up a bream surfaced. A reasonably tidy fish around the 4lb mark. The bream from the Ouse can be a bit tatty. This proved to be the last fish of the evening. It's one of the strange things about the Ouse that you can catch a single bream. I don't know if they're loners or there is a shoal but it's on a mission to somewhere.

Things didn't go totally to plan on a slowly falling river, but a decent catch was had. I was surprised no perch chowed up to worm. Normally a worm would attract one in no time.

Having spent so much time fault finding the camera problems you'd think I'd make sure it was switched on. Having got it set up using the phone to get things framed. I forgot to set it to record. It wasn't until I checked it while having a cuppa when the roach stopped biting that I realised  what I'd done. Not only had I missed all the roach, but also  a red kite gliding up and down the far bank along with two kingfishers chasing each other back and forth across the river.