M'thud Fishing

 I'd decide some time ago to give the local still waters a go over the Easter holidays rather than battle the traffic to get to and from a trout water, especially as warm sunny weather was predicted. Arriving at the lake around 8:30 I was surprised to be the only one there. I'd expected other to have already arrived. Maybe they thought it was going to be crowded and had given it a miss. 

I selected a corner swim as I knew where the feature was that often attracted bream, my target species. I intended to fish method feeder on one rod and float fished maggots on the other. Despite owning several method feeders I'd never actually used them so this would be something new to me. First order of the day was mix up the groundbait. I'd been advised that a 50:50 mix of pellets and groundbait worked well here. I don't own one of those fancy branded mixing buckets but I do have a rather splendid blue two gallon bucket of considerable vintage. I believe it's getting on for fifty years old, but it's not been heavily used. I even know which shop I bought it from, or where the shop was more precisely. For bait I had a selection of pellets and some small bollies in various colours, flavours unknown. 

After a few casts to get the correct distance I clipped up and proceeded to fish. Recasting every three minutes for the first half hour to get a bed of bait down. After half an hour I was leaving the rod ten minutes, so with it resting on the squawk box I set up the float rod. This didn't go well. As I was threading the line through the rings I dropped it and broke the tip just above the next guide. It was still useable, which was a good job as I only had the one float rod with me. Actually I did have another, but it was a specimen float and way too stiff for flicking out a little 3BB insert waggler. After a spot of plumbing three balls of groundbait and some loose fed maggots were dropped on the chosen spot.

With the alarm on the phone set to go every fifteen minutes for recasting the method rod I proceeded to fish the float rod as well. Initially the signs were good. Fishing double maggot I managed to get every third bite and soon managed a dozen small roach before getting bitten off by a little jack that grabbed the maggots as I wound in. As I replaced the hook length I remembered I'd brought the keepnet so set that up, hoping for a nice bag of roach. This was not to be. I was then plagued by a string of unmissable bites. Single maggot didn't get any bites, but bites on double and triple maggot rarely contacted with anything. Meanwhile the method rod failed to elicit a bite. I'd changed the hookbait every hour, but nothing was to the bream's liking. Three more times I was bitten off by small jack pike. I ended up a few roach, a perch and a couple of hand sized skimmers.

A couple more anglers had turned up for a few hours both taking a few roach. There was quite a lot of alder beetle about and a tree creeper kept tormenting me by waiting long enough for me to get the phone set to camera mode before hopping round the back of the tree. The toads were also about, playing piggy back rides, but sinking away before i could get a photo. I did manage to snag length of spawn which took a bit of removing from the hook. It's incredibly sticky stuff.

It All Adds Up

 With the local trout streams up and coloured, again, I was pondering what to do when I was informed one of the local canals had woken up. At least a couple of sections had anyway. An acquaintance and his mate had had a steady day stream of small perch and jack pike on a little fished section. Unfortunately they'd caught on a dull overcast day and today was glorious sunshine. Still the canal had coloured up a lot so they may still feed.

Things were looking good when in the second swim I had a take. Sadly I couldn't get a good hook set as the rod was up against a hawthorn so as I could get the right angle for bring the lure along the edge of the freshly emerging reeds. As the fish turned the lure came adrift. A jack about 2lb swirled on the surface and disappeared. Something was feeding though. A bit later I spotted another jack of similar size sunning itself but managed to spook it as I stumbled down the bank. Should look where I'm going really. I then spotted another next to the reed mace on the far bank. I managed to land the lure about 18" in front of the fish and about a foot above it right into the reed mace.It needed more than a gentle tweak to release the lure which spooked the pike. I then met one half of the duo that had had the good session previously. All he'd managed was a foul hooked roach. Between us we'd tried a good selection of lures and couldn't really muster up any thing that would break the deadlock.

As I headed back to the car for lunch, and some inspiration, I spotted something writhing about on the bank of a drainage ditch. A closer look showed it to be some Adders seemingly trying to get comfortable. Given their darker brownish colour I believe they were all females. I sat and watched them for quite some time. The largest appeared to be around two foot long, but the others were somewhat smaller. I've no real idea how many there were, possibly half a dozen.

I endeavoured to take pictures of them with my phone, but struggled to get it to focus properly in telephoto mode. After a bit of faffing about, switching things off and on, clearing the cache, etc. I managed to get things a tad better. The focus in telephoto mode seems to be somewhat random so there's only the odd photo truly in focus. But still it was nice to watch them. I did consider fording the ditch but a poke about with a long stick showed it to be six inches of water and a foot or more of sticking smelly muck. Besides the bank was very steep and I wasn't sure if I could get back up and the far bank had a good thick cover of brambles.

After lunch I tried a spot of dropshotting along the edges of the reed beds but only managed a few sticks and lots of dead weeds. Still the sight of the adders made up for the lack of fish. I did look for them after lunch but a tree was now casting a shadow on the area I'd seen them. I did keep an eye on the far bank of the ditch but didn't see any more.

Kicking Out Time

Today I had the chance to get out at first light for a couple of hours on the local canal. As expected the water was very clear and the cabbages were starting to show on the bottom. Staring into the water it can often look fish-less, but they seem to be able to hide under what little vegetation there is. I also had the advantage that the wind was getting up creating a nice ripple on the water. 

I started with a small Savage Gear crucian crankbait as it's quite natural looking so shouldn't frighten anything in the clear water.  This failed to stir any fish in to action so I went the opposite way selecting a fire tiger 4-play. A lure that's worked well in the past down here. This too failed to elicit a response. Opening the lure box for some inspiration a Cannibal Shad in white with a sparkly back fell out. I took this as a hint despite the fact it had a 5g jig head. This meant it would have to be moved pretty quickly to stop it snagging on the cabbages. Two casts later and a good solid hit produced a rather nice hard fighting 30cm perch. 

A little while later a small jack shot out from the bankside vegetation  and grabbed the lure. It came in like a wet rag until it got near the landing net where it proceeded to leap about all over the place before being bundled into the net. I was contemplating another change of lure when another pike struck grabbing the lure not long after it hit the water near the far bank. This one was clearly larger and put up a good struggle on the light gear. Having got it in the net I lifted it from the water to see a distinct lack of pike. At first I thought I'd missed it with the net, but the line was heading straight to the net and through a large hole. A bit of faffing about and I had it back in the net and by lifting the net vertically kept the fish away from the hole. Quite why this hole had appeared I've no idea. I'm pretty sure it wasn't there earlier as I'd given all my nets a damn good check after a mouse infestation.

Time had flown by and it was time to leave. Walking back I noticed  three yearling swans heading towards me. I then heard the distinctive noise of a swan taking off. Looking behind me the cob of the resident pair was heading very quickly towards them just above water level. The camera app on the phone decided it wasn't going to work in video mode and kept crashing. The youngsters took off and headed away from the canal before swing back towards it. The cob had landed on the water but wasn't entirely convinced they'd left and was swimming downstream, against the wind at walking pace. It swam along parallel to me as walked back to the car. It kept this pace up for nearly half a mile. The territorial boundary is appears to be the bridge. As soon as the yearlings passed under it it stopped swimming after them. The problem for the youngsters now was that they'd swam into another pair's territory and would be chased away again.

Not a bad couple of hours fishing wise. I'd have loved to get a video of the cob doing it's under the radar flight as it's quite spectacular.

First Day Of The Yorkshire Trout Season

The twenty-fifth, the first day of the trout season here in Yorkshire. I don't often fish the first day, normally I wait until April as the rivers I fish just don't fish well early. The weather is often lousy as well. Today, though, was a glorious day. Chilly to start with but T-shirt weather by ten o'clock. Not really conducive to trout fishing to trout fishing either. I nearly missed the parking spot as it it's marked by a large oak. Said oak had been brought down in the earlier storms apparently and all that's left is a stump and some debris. A few areas of bank were also denuded of trees for the same reason. They looked to be mainly willow, which had been coppiced, so should grow back soon enough.

After an hours wander about I'd seen no insect life at all. Much as expected, so opted for a euro nymph setup with a PTN on point and a red tag on the dropper. The red tag proved very popular with the small grayling so was soon removed and replaced with a small GRHE which did a sterling job attracting dace. By now there was the odd splashy rise, but from the silvery flash it looked like they were small dace or grayling.

 

After a spot of lunch I moved to a different section. I continued on with the euro nymph setup. The were considerably less grayling and dace on this section. By mid afternoon things were beginning to look a bit desperate when I finally latched onto a small trout on the dropper.  Unfortunately the point fly snagged and the trout shook itself free. This gave me some renewed optimism. 

 

As I wandered up to the next swim there was a bit of a commotion, as several small fish scattered near the bank. I suspected it was either a pike or maybe an otter. As I got to the swim the same thing happened again, but this time I could see a large silver flash and just a hint of pink. It looked like one of the large feral rainbows was hunting. I put on a small white jig streamer and tried every know retrieve but could elicit a strike. I stuck with the lure as I headed back towards the car. By now a chill breeze had got up and it wasn't quite T-shirt weather any more. I was soon warmed up again when a little jack took the jig streamer. After a brief dash about the river, though the hook came adrift.

 

I hadn't really expected much from the day so hooking a trout was a bonus. From what I've been told the dace and grayling were noticeable for their absence over winter so why they've turned up now I don't know. I probably should have taken the 6 weight with me and fished some larger heavier streamers. Something I'll try next time. One thing that is going to be a problem later in the year is the fileds of rape seed which play havoc with my hay fever.

More Last Pike Of The Season

 I'd been undecided where to go today as we're between the river coarse season and the trout season. Tidying the bait fridge out help me decide. There were a few dead baits in rather sorry condition so I decided on a trip to the estate lake to use them up. The weather forecast wasn't good for pike fishing, warm with bright sunshine. The bait wasn't too good either, most of it having a bit of freezer burn. Not that I'd had much of a problem with manky baits like that in the past. The pike should be getting ready to spawn so would be very hungry I hoped. As I drove past the gravel pit on my way to the estate lake I couldn't help but notice a complete lack of anglers. I had expected it to be busy. A change of plan was in order so I stopped there.

The first bait out of the bag was a herring head which was dropped near some tree roots. The next bait was a small smelt. This was chucked well out to near where there would be weeds in summer. I didn't have to wait long for the first run.. A little jack had taken a liking to the herring. A very sorry looking sardine was next out towards the tree roots. I then had a dropped run on the smelt. This was replaced by a roach. Around lunch time another angler arrived for a couple of hours and blanked. The sardine had to be replaced a couple of times as they were very soft and soon fell apart. Finally been replaced with an eel section. Another little jack took a liking to it, but throw the hooks the moment I grabbed the trace. The eel section had dropped of in the shallows so was reattached and dropped back by the tree roots. Just before a was packing up another, or the same, little jack grabbed the eel section.

Two, or three, little jacks was less than I was hoping for, but better than nowt given how bright it was.

 

Next Friday is the start of the trout season so I hope to be flinging a few flies about for a brownie or two.

Last Day Of The River Fishing Season 2022

Quite why I still participate in this  ritual of fishing the last day of the season I don't really know. It never amounts to much fishing wise, but like any other fishing day there's always a chance of something special. I had been sort of undecided what to do and where to go.  A couple of good reports from the Derwent suggested there was still some chub to be had despite it still been a good 18" up. I was surprised when I got there to find myself alone. I assumed everybody had had their fill over the weekend. It was a cold but sunny start to the day making it quite pleasant to be out. A silly gusty swirling wind was the only thing spoiling it. The wind made float fishing very hard work. I'd brought a float rod a feeder rod with me, along with bread for flake, cheese paste, and liquidised bread. I should have had some worms with m as well, but had managed to lave them at home.

I started with the feeder, alternating between flake and cheese paste. This produced just the one bite, a real three foot twitch which resulted in nothing. When the wind dropped I had a run through with the float. The next couple of swims failed to produce anything despite spending a couple of hours in each. The fourth swim, somewhat slower than the previous three produce a few rattles on flake before  a good steady pull of the tip to cheese paste. Fifteen minutes later same  thing, but still no contact. I tried trotting a pea size piece of cheese paste, but to no avail. Back on the feeder with a marble size bit of paste the tip went over again. A slow steady pull like debris hitting the line. This time though I contacted with some which felt a bit odd like a small foul hooked chub. When it surfaced it turned out to be a reasonable size bream around the 5-6lb mark. This was the first one I'd caught from the Derwent in over ten years. Half an hour later I had another, but managed to bump it off near the net. Despite plenty of feed going in that was it.

Talking to another angler there were plenty fishing down stream but not a lot coming out. As I left there was one other angler fishing a swim I'd blanked in earlier and another after a last river pike. Not the greatest day. Not that I expected much. A rare Derwent bream as  a blank saver is a bad way to end the season.

 

Last Pike Of The Season?

In a once in a blue moon event Friday saw two mates and myself all have the same day off. As Steve had been doing quite well with the pike it was decided that's where we'd head. The only problem with the area he'd been fishing was it was a long, muddy, trek in from either end.  Thankfully he'd become friends with a local farmer and was allowed down one of the the tracks to within 300 yards of the river. With the tackle piled on the back of his Landy we bounced down the track to the river. It was clear no other anglers had been this far as the only foot prints in the swims where his. The tactics he'd found best was to spend an hour or so in each swim until the fish were found and then stay there another hour or so. He'd normally catch three or four fish from swim. His best being nine, including four doubles.

We settled into the first three swims. While the other two opted for lamprey and roach as baits I went with sardine and trout. We'd fished three swims before the first fish was caught. A tiny jack to Mark on lamprey. Steve and myself both hooked and lost  a small fish. Mark had three more little jacks in quick succession all to roach. I lost a decent fish when it snagged a branch and freed itself. I got the branch though, along with my bait. We moved along. The wind was getting quite strong by now. Waves were occasionally breaking on the river as the wind was blowing upstream. The willows were also creaking and groaning. As we sat and had lunch Steve wasn't perturbed as it had fished for him like this before. The only problem he could see was that the river had been higher when he'd fished it. It was current;y two foot up, but he'd been fishing it when it was four to six foot up and the slack areas had been a lot bigger

.

It was very quiet after lunch. By four we were back at the first three swims and it was starting to rain. These swims, though, would be more comfortable than the others in the rain as they were out of the the wind. They also had large flat areas so sliding into the river on the wet mud wasn't as likely. Within a few minutes of casting out the float popped under. It didn't go anywhere, just sat a couple of inches under the water. I wound down and was into a very spirited fish which took longer than it should to land. A typical long river fish of 7lb 6oz and 90cm length. The other two soon followed with fish of similar size. I then lost one when a branch got blown out of the overhanging tree . and hit the line with the float getting temporarily snagged in a vee in the branch. Meanwhile Steve had a series of dropped runs and/or fish falling off the hooks.

Mark had a really good hours fishing with four more fish to 9lb. I then had a searing run with the fish out near the middle of the river before I could set the hooks. It took a bit of getting in as it attempted to get round the back of the fallen tree upstream of me. Eventually a lovely fish of 17lb 3oz and 107cm was landed. The frightened look on my face in the picture is because of an almighty crack from the willow above me. Steve then managed a fish of exactly 10lb that came in like a wet blanket apparently. 

Around six the rain stopped so we took the opportunity to pack up in the dry and get back to the Landy in the light. On the way back the strap on Mark's bag broke causing it to roll into the rather deep ditch we had to walk alongside. Been 7-8' deep we couldn't quite reach it with a landing net. Like all Landy owners Steve had a length of rope in the vehicle and so we were able to lower Mark onto the ditch and retrieve him and the bag.

Not a bad days sport was had by all. Strangely only the one fish came to lamprey which had done so well for Steve previously. While all my fish and runs had come to sardine all theirs had come to roach. I should imagine the rivers will be busy this weekend with the end of the season near and the river s been at a reasonable level for a change. Monday is the last day and I'll be out again, probably not pike fishing though. I don't know why as I never do particularly well,