Short river session

I had a short 4 hour session on my local river today, targeting roach and skimmers. I was on the riverbank and setup by around 0730hrs, I initially started with a 5m whip fishing maggot on the deck and I started getting bites after a couple of minutes.

After around 30 minutes it was a bite a chuck and I was catching small perch and roach every put in. I decided to setup a feeder rod and fish further out to see if I could tempt anything larger into feeding. I clipped up the feeder rod around 40 yards out and balled in 4 large caster laced brown-crumb balls. After around 15 minutes I had a small eel on the feeder. I continued on the feeder line for another 15 minutes but I didn't have another knock. I went back to the 5m whip swim and it was still a bite a chuck, mainly small perch.

Better stamp of fish on feeder

After another half an hour I went back to the feeder and started to get bites straight away, a better stamp of roach and some similar sized skimmers.

Typical river bream

I had a couple of larger bream on the feeder, whilst the 5m whip swim was still producing numbers of small perch and roach. Bites were still coming on the feeder line, then I had a cast off and decided to call it a day as I had things to do in the afternoon.

60 (ish) fish for around 6lb

I ended up with around 60 fish in just over 4 hours made up of mainly perch, roach, a few skimmers, a couple of dace and a solitary eel. The largest skimmer being just under 2lb. Next time I'll try and concentrate on the feeder line and try get some larger bream as they run to around 6lb on this stretch of the river.

Last week I also had a day at a local commercial that I hadn't fished for over 10 years, I ended up with 15 small carp to around 1 1/2lb and around 15 roach and rudd up to a pound.

Long overdue update

I've had a hectic 6 months or so (car crash, job loss, family bereavement etc....) and haven't really had the time to get out and do much fishing. Things are finally starting to settle down now so hopefully I will be able to get out more now.

On the odd occasion I have been able to get out over the last few months I haven't really had much success !


1st time Pike fishing in the Lake District

Home for the 2nd day

A two day stint on one of the smaller waters in the Lake District frustratingly ended in a blank. Conditions on the 1st day seemed perfect but after 10 hours and one missed take I decided to move to the other side of the lake for the second day. The weather turned on the second day making casting any distance virtually impossible, I had to rely on the bait boat but as the weather became worse it became obvious I was going to lose the boat so I had to call it a day. A very disappointing blank but it was a good break and I'm looking forward to my next trip in the coming season.  

Next up was a water in the Yorkshire Dales that I had been wanting to fish for a while, I didn't really know a lot about the water (and still don't !), but after some research online I decided to give it a try. After about an hours drive I approached the water which is set in a very picturesque valley in the Yorkshire Dales, within 20 minutes of getting there the wind picked up and before long it was blowing a gale. Other than a follow on the lure rod I haven't got a lot to report. I will definitely be going back when the weather cools


Starting to blow.....

At least the dog had a decent time !

Other than the 2 mentioned sessions I only managed 1 or 2 quick lure sessions on the local river before the season ended.

Lure caught pike - Only fish of 2012/13 season !

 These quick sessions resulted in a solitary jack pike, the only pike of my season - a very disappointing season !

Since the end of the season I have had a couple of short sessions fly fishing the small streams of the North Yorkshire moors without a lot of success. More recently I have started going back to my fishing roots, match style fishing. I have had a few decent sessions on a local commercial complex with hauls pushing the 100lb barrier on a couple of occasions.

Pellet caught - 11lb 8 oz

14lb 4 oz Common caught in the margin

Pellet waggler caught common - 9lb 4oz

Hopefully over the next few months I'll be able to continue getting out every week or so and I'm also hoping to fit in a few night sessions for the eels before the summer ends.