Local River 27-7-14

A few hours and a pint of maggots. This is how all good short sessions on the river usually start.

I should be targeting barbel (I fancy a pb this year), but today I wanted a few bites and see what came along.

So, first peg was 'the bend'. The water level was a little lower than my last visit, so wading across in my wellies was easier as I started running the stick float down. It's a pleasant way to spend half an hour or so - small chub and dace followed along with one better lump, a chub of about two and a half pounds.

After the bend I tried the weir pool. I still couldn't get this to trot properly despite going for a heavier float. I'm going to have to have a think about this. Still a few more fish appeared.

Next up, the dog dip swim. Normally this fished well tight under a tree on the inside as the flow swings in close. But not this time - the fish were out in the middle of the flow and readily taking my loose fed maggots. A few chub and small dace followed with one small roach for good measure.

Then I bypassed my usual swims to head up to the confluence where the stream flows in from the far side. This is a desperate swim - it looks full of fish, but normally a few bleak would be a good result. I fish it on the basis that one day I might pick up a bonus fish. But not today. No, today it was a roach a chuck, not huge fish, but a steady stream of fish to 6oz were easily swung to hand. I lost one fish due to a pike attack - I saw the jack concerned, it was no more than a foot long - but other than that it was uneventful.

So last up was a go at the post swim. Normally this is devoid of bites (although the barbel anglers head for it every time). It was hard work - the flow is well over and that meant an awkward cast and the need for the catapult. I thought I'd feed heavy to see if I could trick a chub. I couldn't. But I did bag a fair few quality roach as well. Not as fast as the previous swim. But very encouraging.

So it looks like there a silver fish all the way through where previous there were none. Happy days.

Catch List:
Roach: 30
Chub: 15
Minnow: 1
Bleak: 5
Dace: 10
Perch: 6

Total weight: 8lb

Local River 20-7-14

I know... it's been a while. I have been fishing, just not had the chance to write up the catches. 

So a quick summary of last Sunday. I decided to try for a good fish or two from the weirpool. For three hours I alternated between trotting maggot and legering a big pellet (30 mins on each). Trotting was hard work - the higher than normal water levels, plus a change in the weir lip has made this difficult. You can catch but you cant really trot properly. It's a shame  :-( One of these days I'm going to take all the pole gear down there... but not today.

Nothing showed on the big pellet, but there were some really good telltale plinks on the line - I suspect I need a longer hooklength. 

Trotting worked after a fashion, although it was mostly perch up to 6oz that showed, although three small barbel put in an appearance aswell along with the usual suspects. 

Final half hour (that may have overrun a little) was further upstream above the playground. The pegs that were traditionally devoid of small fish had recently been producing small roach, and this was true on this visit as well. I assume the fish were washed down the river from the canal in the winter floods - but no complaints here. A good few fish before I bagged a six and a half pound pike that took a fancy to a small perch on the way in. 

Duly landed and released 20 metres downstream, I hung around for a few more fish before heading home. Great bag of small fish. 

Catch list:
Barbel: 3
Perch: 25
Roach: 30
Pike: 1
Gudgeon: 1
Bleak: 5
Chub: 10
Dace: 10
Minnow: 1

Total weight: 12lb

Last weekend of the river season (9-3-14)

It's been a while.

I have had a few session out, but this is the first trip down to the river for about 6 months. Following the heavy rains of winter, the river has been nigh on unfishable and a scouting trip yesterday on the mountain bike suggested it was still a bit iffy. However, with one last chance for this season, it was do or die. A pint of maggots and the hope of one fish - avoid the blank in a few hours and go home happy. 

7am and on the bank. A simple float rod, trotting gear (heavy at 4BB) and the hope of finding some fish in a slack or two. 

First peg: the bend. The river was tanking through - at least a foot up and the platform was just above the water, although the coating of mud on top was a little less than ideal. 

I ran the rig through (minus bait) on the near side to check the shotting and it duly buried. Job done, a suicidal minnow and the blank was avoided. So I packed up and went home. 

Well, actually no. I stayed to try and add to the total. 

The next 15 mins added two more minnows, but try as I might I couldn't get the rig to run through anywhere but the near side at anything like the right pace. Time to move on. 

Disabled swim: a flick to the far side, and the usual problem of holding the line out of the flow. As the rig drifted round to the left it bobbled and submerged. A chunky river roach of 3oz was my reward. And that was that. Try as I might nothing else was playing ball. 

The bend (again): I don't usually revisit swims, but I knew that good pegs were limited today. First run down and all went solid and a hulking beast stayed on the bottom and headed across into the flow. It all went solid, and a suspected big barbel was lost. Next put in and a little further down and the float went under and this time a fight ensued that was a little more balanced. Second time round a chub was in the net - 3lb 2oz. Not a barbel, but very welcome. 

Next the weir: I thought I might get lucky on the far side. 10 mins later and I gave up on luck. Nadda. 

The ski hut: Nothing. But nice trotting conditions on what was still a swollen river. 

Peg 12 ish: Lovely trotting conditions, probably the best conditions I've ever seen on this stretch. Shame about the lack of bites though. 

Peg 4 (above the weir): This was last chance saloon, could I tempt some silver fish that had drifted in from the canal? Er no. Despite and depth and reasonable pace, the usually reliable roach and perch were AWOL. 

But, as the float reached the bottom of the run, it buried. Suspecting the usual snag I struck. It went solid with a healthy kick and my quarry stuck to the river bed like a limpet. Convinced it was a big bream, I took my time worked it slowly upstream and a chub appeared. In the net, job done. 3lb 12oz. Another nice fish. 

And that, was that. 

It's a long time since i had two nice fish out the river in the single session, so I went home a happy man. Roll on June 16th.

Catch list:
Minnow 3
Roach 1
Chub 2

Total weight 7lb

Timberland Fishery 28-12-2013

I had great difficultly deciding where to fish today. I could have gone back to Finch Farm which always guarantees a few bites, I could have tried Southend Farm (a new venue for me), but for a change I decided to go to Timberland Fishery in Harlow. I’m not sure when I fished there last, but it was a good few years back. What attracted me was the head of F1s which feed well even in the coldest of weather and the chance to see how the fishery had matured.

So on a cold, frosty morning I headed off to shallowest blondest Essex (I used to say deepest and darkest Essex, but apparently that’s not PC anymore). I had decided to stop off for some breakfast on the way to fill the tank up, but when I got to the café it was closed. So a nearby Greggs filled the void.

I was first in the queue at 8am when the gates opened, and having had a look around the place decided to fish peg 14 (ish) on Baggers Lake with my back to the warehouse which would give some shelter if the wind picked up and offered a snag feature to the left and right margins. On balance this wasn’t a bad call, but it did mean I was in the shade almost all day, further up the short arm of the lake might have been a better decision in hindsight.

The right hand margin

I set up light (for me) with two K2s on 0.13mm line to 0.08mm hooklinks and 18 hooks. One 4x12 for the margins (about 3ft deep) and a 4x14 for the 11m line where it was 4ft deep.

By the time I’d tuned the rigs, potted in some maggots and a pinch of 4mm pellets on all three lines (left and right margins 2+2) and 11m it was 0835 – time for some  fishing.

Single white maggot at 11m and within a couple of minutes the float buried and produced a micro-roach. Three more put-ins produced more tiny roach, two of which didn’t stay on during shipping in, so I tried the left margin. Nothing.

Right margin. Bite. Solid resistance and a spirited fight produced a nice little F1 carp that went 3lb 8oz. That was more like it. A few more decent roach followed then another carp of 4lb and I was motoring. And then it all went dead. I fed a little extra and went back to 11m.

Micro roach again. 

I tried a 4mm soft pellet at 11m (partly out of hope and partly out of experience – pellet had got me through the micro fish on my last visit) and waited. It was only 5 mins or so and the float sailed away and a 3lb f1 was my eventual reward – they take a few minutes to land on a no 6 elastic.

10 mins later a repeat and suddenly I had 14lb of fish to my name. I was starting to do the mental arithmetic to see what I might do today – 4 fish an hour for 10lb for 5 hours… you get the idea.

15 mins later and nothing. And before I knew it (having had a look at the inside line) I’d not caught for over 30 minutes.

I played with maggot again at 11m for more micro roach, and one better fish that shed the hook, before  I started to pick up the odd fish through quiet periods. Putting a maggot on the hook helped bites, but they were always small fish (mostly one ounce type fish).

During on these periods I started flicking maggots to the left hand 2+2 line and after 15 minutes I had a look. Straight away a roach – but a nice roach of 6oz or so. I fished this line out for 20 minutes or so, this produced a good selection of quality roach in the 6-12oz bracket, one carp of 4lb and one better roach that shed the hook (I’d love to know how big that was, but it was easy a pound). Then it went quiet. 

One of the better fish - there were several that went 4lb

Out to 11m, small fish and one carp. Back to the left a few fish, and the roach were still better than on the far line and at 2 or 3 fish to the pound they made my estimated weight tick along.

As the left hand line started to die and had a look back at the right (it had been pretty dead since the early start). A quick quality roach followed so it was time to see what would happen if I fed a little more. Well, it turns out it was all about presentation – drop the rig in and you’d get nothing, lay the rig in and just as it settled it’d sail away with a roach or occasionally a fat gudgeon as the culprit.

By this time, I was starting to run low on maggots (a pint doesn’t last long if you’re feeding three lines) so I concentrated on the left until the bait ran out. I gave in ten minutes on pellet and missed one bite and then called it quits. A hard fought 35lb. Not bad for a freezing day in December.  

Some of the walks from your car to your peg at Timberland can be exhausting

Catch List:

Common carp - 2

F1 carp - 7

Rudd - 1

Perch - 3

Gudgeon - 8

Roach - 59

Total weight 35lb

Finch Farm 22-12-2013

Having finished work for the year, I had a chance for a few hours fishing. The weather forecast was dry with some sun (but very windy) so I headed off to Finch Farm for a few bites.

Lech the bailiff was there on my arrival, I paid my tenner and got a free cup of tea (most welcome I might add) and set off with my gear.

You can usually find some shelter there and with larger numbers of small fish present you can usually bag a fish or two, although the average size is a bit small. But hey, it's December and any fish is a good fish. 

I had the intention of fishing a different part of the lake to normal, but there was shelter on my usual island peg (hiding behind two pampas grasses) so that would do. 

The plan was to fish maggot and small pellet and catch what I could. I set up a pole rig with an old favourite, the Tubertini K2 float with the aim to fish light (no.6 elastic on a pulla, to 2.6lb line through to an 18 hook). I started at about 10 m, just where the far slope settles down. The far bank here has collapsed and the bottom is very steep, there's a shallow shelf tight for about 6-12 inches and then it drops off to 4ft or so very quickly - so much so that the plummet usually rolls down towards you if you're not touching the far bank. 

The plan was to fish to the right and left (where there's a bush) and hopefully move onto soft pellet as the day went on.

I settled for the deeper part, potted in a few maggots, added the cad pot to the pole tip and went for it.

 

First put in and the float went under as I brought in a nice roach of about 6oz. A good start. More bites followed as I put in a pinch of maggots via the cad pot each time, a chub, a goldfish, a rudd, an F1 carp of about a pound and a half - I felt like I was making good progress. 

One of the many plump goldfish in the lake

I was missing some bites, but by the time the first hour was up I was on 12 fish. Not bad for this time of year. 

Then, disaster, the hook pulled out of a goldfish under the top 3 and the rig flicked off behind me, never to be seen again. 

I re-rigged and started producing a run of more fish, but somewhat slower. I tried the bush a few fish, up the shelf (a few roach) down the shelf (odd bite) and so it continued. 

It was frustrating, just when you thought it was happening the bites would slow. Or I'd have a patch of bites that I couldn't hit or I'd pull out of a fish under the top 3. And a few times I'd connect with a big fish (probably foul hooked) and lose it as soon as it'd gone a few yards. 

I played with pellet - just the odd knock, but nothing special, so it was back to maggot to catch whatever was present. 

Perseverance kept the fish coming, but the rate was slow and intermittent.

Surprise fish of the session was a nice perch of 1lb 11oz, which is a fair but bigger than I've caught here before and one of only two perch on the day.

1lb 11oz stripey

At 1:15pm I lost my rig to a far bank bramble, so decided to give the pellet a bash on the far shelf on a new rig.

First put in a 4lb F1 - my best fish of the day. Next put in a mirror of about a pound. Then a quiet spell. Then another F1. A couple of small fish added and a few more bites missed. 

Best F1 of the day - 4lb

I was just about to call it quits when the float went under and one of the pools larger residents took the pellet. And shot straight under the bush. It shed the hook and left me tethered to the snag. I pulled for a break and called it quits. It would have been nice to have landed it, but with light gear and so many snags in the peg it was always going to be a challenge. 

Not a bad session for late December. 

Catch List:
F1 carp - 12
Mirror carp - 1
Goldfish - 20
Gudgeon - 1
Perch - 2
Chub - 2
Rudd -1
Bream - 2
Roach - 20

Total weight - 25lb

River Cherwell 9-8-13

In a moment of madness I fancied a change (not exactly an uncommon theme on this blog, but bear with me), so I found myself charging up the M40 towards the River Cherwell near Kidlington.

I'd done quite well on my previous visit about a year back, but as the water was tanking through at time, I thought a visit when the flow was more normal was in order. Plus I had a new toy to try out and I was very keen to ensure that I had a chance of catching and secondly, that I wouldn't have an audience if it all went Pete Tong.

In case you're wondering, the new toy was a centrepin that SWMBO had kindly bought me. It was a Matt Hayes jobbie, and it seemed ok for what it was.

I arrived on a beautiful misty morning - the kind of thing us anglers take for granted, and a great many people never see. I hoped this was the sign of things to come.

I set up a reasonably heavy stick float (4BB) plumbed up to find about 5ft (the Cherwell is quite deep) and threw in a handful of maggots.

I took a few fingers of line, swung the rig out and dropped in mid-river for my first trot on the pin. It must have gone all of 6ft when the float dipped and a small chublet was swung to hand - my first centrepin fish. Job done.

More runs through and a dabble on the inside was fairly unproductive, the fish were few and far between - a roach and a few bleak, so I moved on.

Next swim on the bend got a few small fish, but again it was slow.

Next drop in was a long channel which was unfishable on my previous visit - the rig just went through too fast - but today with the reduced flow it was perfect. I even managed to find a narrow ledge on the inside where I could stand ankle deep in the river, which aided presentation and control. Trotting on this swim was a delight to behold.

Thankfully, the fish thought so too. If I ran through carefully I could pick up fish about 5-8 rod lengths down. Nothing special, but roach, dace and chublets featured. I cant say that I'd got the 'pin working perfectly (far from it), but I was catching some fish.

I had a habit of over-rotating the 'pin, which meant the line starting wrapping around the drum in the wrong way, but I was learning (I think) albeit slowly.

The bites eased off, so I moved off downstream to try a few other spots.

Next spot (where I had the barbel last time) was a blank.

Next spot - a large slack on the inside - produced two fish in two put-ins. But I lost both on the way in. I found that as I reeled in, I didn't have the same rate of retrieve as a fixed-spool reel, and the fish would shed the barbless hook as it broke the surface. Frustrating, but not disastrous.

A couple more fish followed from a slower peg further down, but it was hard work. So back up to nice trotting swim to work my way back to the car. A few more fish, a few more tangles, until a complete 'pin disaster.

Line around the back of the drum and a complete lock-up. Not to mention I was also without my fishing scissors, so cutting my way free was out of the question. It was the end of the 'pin for the day.

Resorting back to my usual fixed-spool reel produced a few more fish and that was it for the fishing.

What was interesting though was the appearance of a crayfish in the water in front of me (just where I'd been standing previously). It's actually the first time I've seen one in the water - as opposed to on the end of my line. It may have gone some way to explaining why there were so many holes in the near side bank, and why there were so many bank collapses nearby. Not a great thing to see, but another place where the chub and perch might be getting a bit bigger. Food for thought there.

I took a photo of the crayfish, but you can just about make it out (towards the top, left of centre). I'll leave you to judge.

So, overall and interesting little session. Nothing special, (I think a 6oz roach was my best fish) but nice to be out and try the 'pin. I clearly have a lot more to learn, and it'll take a while before it feels in any way natural, but a good day on the bank never the less.

Catch List:
About 20 fish - 3lb or so.

Club Lake 28-8-13

So now for something completely different.

A family outing and the kid's first time fishing. I was a little nervous to say the least.

The plan was simple - a short whip, a few maggot and hopefully a chance for my two kids to catch a fish or two, without anyone falling in, upsetting the other anglers or generally committing too many angling faux pas.

We went as a family to the local club lake, heart in mouth that it would be ok - it was. No weed, no other anglers, no problems.

We set up in one swim, a 3m whip and a few maggots, with the plan to let each of the boys fish for a short while and then swap over. It seemed a little easier that way, so they'd be constantly on the go.

A few maggot fed while I set up (the rig was already attached, it just needed plumbing up), and there were bubbles straight-away.

So, Otis major was called up (4 years old). Sat down, handed the whip and we watched the float. And, it sank. A few seconds later his first fish, a pristine rudd of 3oz or so.

First fish - a rudd

Then it was the turn of Otis minor (three years old). Could we manage a repeat performance? Swing out the rig, let it settle and watch the float. It sank again! But not a rudd - this time a perfectly formed crucian carp.

First fish - a crucian carp

Well suffice to say, the next hour and a half whizzed by - catch two fish, and then change places. Total catch was 16 fish each:

Otis major - 1 rudd, 14 crucians and a tench

Otis minor - 1 rudd, 15 crucians

Two carp lost (boo) and a great little session was had by all. (I'm going back with an elasticated top set at some point.)

So two new apprentice fishermen.. roll on the next trip.

The only tench of the session

 

Look at the bend in that whip

 

A meeting of the minds