Opening Day

 I didn't manage to wet a line during the close season, a handful of recce's to new stretches (usually followed by a pint) was as close as I got to fishing.

The 16th of June came around quickly this year, I couldn't get on the bank for a midnight start so I decided to be on the bank at first light and have a few hours trotting for silvers hoping to draw in some large perch and target them with a light live bait outfit.

The river was on its arse, a fair bit lower than I had expected. Fishing was difficult, most trots down went ignored, eventually, I tempted a few small silvers but constant changes to the depth of the rig and to the shotting pattern were needed to keep the bites coming.

Around 50 small dace and chublets with the odd slighter better perch

A difficult first session back on running water, the larger perch failed to show, not surprising given the extremely low river and bright conditions. I'll be trying this stretch again in a couple of months when conditions are better, I've had perch to well over 2lb on the section and have a feeling that there's bigger to be had. 

Barely touched the sides!

Close season recces

I dropped a couple of clubs this season and added a couple of new tickets with numerous stretches of river that I've never laid eyes on so I've probably spent about 30 hours in the close season ( would have been more if we weren't getting bent over every time we need to fuel up!) visiting new waters, walking the banks, finding deeper areas with a castable sonar, all time well spent (hopefully!).

Catch up

As usual I have been struggling for time to get on the bank and on the odd occasion I have a few spare hours the rivers have been in flood.

The planned chub session I wrote about on my last post didn't happen, a visit to Roker Lights lasted longer than I thought and by the time we were back home I couldn't really be arsed.

My latest sessions have both been on still waters, two very different waters and on both occasions it was my first visit to each water.

Gravel pit pike

A first visit to a water that I recced a couple of months back, an old gravel pit, actually an old coal pit which was later used for gravel extraction. Gravel pits are alien to me having only fished one on one previous session (a blank!).

I decided on a static approach, three rods, bait boat and sounder with various deads and a few lives. Fishing into the wind I spent a while with the boat and sounder locating a few underwater features. On two rods I fished with sea deads, either on the bottom or popped up and on the third I used lives with a drifter. The drifter was ferried out with the bait boat with the strong wind directing the float back towards the bank and passing over a number of features on the way back.

The first take of the day came just before 09:00, a mackerel was taken, a very positive take. Somehow I missed it and the bait was taken. A quick recast to the same area with a decent sized smelt and within two minutes the rod was away again.

Another very positive take but I waited slightly longer before winding down this time and felt some resistance on the strike.

A first pike from this water

Nothing massive, but blank avoided and it's always nice to catch a first pike from a new water. The jack was only just hooked on the bottom treble, seems like they are grabbing the bait then running. No more interest for the next hour, so I got the drifter back out, however whilst retrieving the bait boat from the margin I stupidly picked it up by the aerial and it snapped off!

Another expensive session

Not having the bait boat made fishing into an increasing wind difficult, so I decided to move to the opposite bank and fish with the wind on my back. Whilst packing away a Labrador came running over a swallowed a full mackerel complete with balsa popup and retaining wire, luckily I had just removed the trace! The owner was in a bit of a panic when I showed him what was in the mackerel, but admitted that it wasn't the first time that the dog has done this (you would think that the owner would learn to keep his dog under control!)

I suggested a packet of laxatives.

Despite trying various baits and presentations I had no further interest and surprisingly the live baits went untouched all morning.

Gravel pits are a bit thin on the ground in my local area, as are still waters that hold a decent head of pike, no doubt I'll have a second visit in the coming months.

Commercial perch

Last Sunday I headed to a commercial to target the outsized perch that the water is rumoured to hold. The comfort of manicured paths and wooden platforms appealed more than the usual waters I head to whilst the rivers are up.

Tactics were simple, 1.25lb avons, 1 running lead (with a rollover for indication) and 1 over depth waggler. Hook baits were small deadbaits, lobworms and prawns, with some chopped dendra and maggots for attraction.

The fishing was very slow with only two bites on the perch gear, one small chub was landed (air injected lobworm) and the other was missed (prawn).

Despite the healthy bend in the rod, the fish wasn't particularly large or the intended species

Even scaling down and switching to maggot I struggled to get any interest from anything other than the odd small roach. A disappointing session but it was something different, the water has produced perch that would add a couple of pound to my current best so I will be returning at some point.

The forecast for the coming weekend is more of the same, the rivers will be well up and coloured, another still water session beckons......

Limited time

With limited time last weekend it was either a very short morning pike session or an evening after the barbel. The pike won.

I was on the bank early, too early to watch a float, so I chucked a ledgered sardine mid-river. No interest in the dead bait, so as soon as it was light enough I began drip feeding maggots a rod length out. Small chub and dace and some reasonable perch were easily caught on the stick float, a better perch of about 2lb was hooked and lost as the hook pulled. 

After half an hour the float rod was packed away and a few small silvers were retained for bait. During my last session the pike on this stretch were very active but it seemed very quiet this time. Three pegs without any interest from the pike, then a take on the first trot downstream in the 4th peg, nothing massive but more than welcome during this short session.

A couple of casts in some upstream pegs but nothing further happened. Size didn't matter on this session, I was just pleased to catch, an enjoyable morning.

Cheese paste

A bit of bait prep this week. I made some cheese paste a couple of winters ago, a simple mix of shortcrust pastry, blue cheese and some mature cheddar. It has worked well on the odd occasion I have used it but to try and make it more effective I've added some Boursin garlic and herb soft cheese and some Sonubaits hemp and cheesy garlic liquid enhancer, needless to say it stinks!

I'll be on the bank at some point this weekend, I've heard reports of large shoals of small grayling and I will be targeting these areas for the pike.

P.b pike

Looking back through my blog and diary, this time last year I was having some success with livebaits. So Sunday mornings plan was to fish maggot on the stick float and hope the predators would follow the chub and dace.

The morning didn't start too well, falling down a rabbit hole then later snapping my Drennan Acoloyte wasn't an ideal start to the session, but it got better. Interest from pike in the first two pegs I fished, then a perch of about a pound in the third.

The fourth peg had a nice near bank glide and on the first run down the small dace bait was snatched. After an epic battle I managed to net a definite new best at the first attempt.

A long, lean and mean river pike - 17lb 9oz

The next peg and another perch, 2.01lb this time, again taken on a small dace.

I was running out of time but called in on one final peg for a last cast, a cast to the far bank, then a long trot downstream. Just as I started to retrieve there was a big swirl a foot behind the bait, but it didn't take the dace, never mind, a very enjoyable but no doubt expensive session.

Usually I like to call into to a pub for a celebratory drink (a p.b pint) but I had rush back as we were taking the kids swimming in the afternoon. I did enough a couple of beers later though.

Plenty of pike activity on this stretch, which I will be hoping to revisit a few times over the coming months.

Back on home turf

It's been over one hundred days since I've fished my local river, well one hundred and eleven days (F*"#ing close season!!)

For my first session of the new season I decided on an early morning stickfloat session on the middle reaches. 14ft Acolyte plus, Abu 506, 3.3lb float fish straight through to a size 18 B520. Four pints of maggots, some caster and a tub of worm for bait. I also took a live baiting outfit.

On the bank for 05:00 but didn't have my first cast until closer to 06:00. Dace a chuck from the off, a decent stamp as well, averaging 3 to 4oz with the occasional one pushing 8oz. I started increasing the feed hoping to draw in the chub and the larger perch but it was still a dace a chuck. I started catching small chub about 4oz average, as many chub as dace now, still a fish a chuck.

Things went quiet so I continued to feed fairly heavily, hoping to draw the fish back. A switch to double red and a decent perch was on, good fight easily over a pound. Struggled for a while so I put a small live bait (2" dace) on, a few trots down and another decent perch, this one over 1.5lbs.

After the perch things went quiet again. nothing on maggot, caster or worm. I was thinking there was a pike in the swim so I put a decent (4") dace on, within a second of the bait touching the water the float buried and line was being taken from a reasonably tight drag. A good pike I thought, I struck still thinking pike, as I was bringing it in I thought I'd lost it, then I thought small jack, get the fish in netting range, a chub! Nothing massive, I guessimated 3.08lb but it only went 3.04lb when I later weighed it.

A live bait caught chub, a first for me.

The chub and dace returned, another 20 or so in the net before they went again. This time it was perch in the swim, hard work catching them though. Chopped worm seemed to be the answer about six chopped worms drip fed into the swim over a few minutes, first run down with a decent section on usually resulted in a fish. Good average size as well most over a pound.

If I lost a perch it took a good 15/20 mins to get another bite, the chub and dace had moved 40yards downstream, so if I needed a bait I just had to let the float drift as far as I could and usually I could get another dace. I lost a few perch and a decent grayling being lazy and trying to hand land them.

I ended up with the one decent chub, 15 perch (10 over 1lb, biggest 1.10lb) and a lot of smaller chub and dace, the odd nicer dace of 6 to 8oz as well. Probably over 25lb in total, not a bad first session back on the river.

Unsure when my next session will be, hopefully early next week, an evening barbel session sounds good.

My last session for a while....

With a short term, long hours contract starting in the coming days, today was the last chance I would have to get on the bank for a while.

I had my mind set on pike and decided to head for a stretch that is very lightly fished due to the long walk involved. I arrived just before first light and found a few areas to explore, I set up a light stickfloat to try and snatch some bait and fished a deadbait into the slack water. I was expecting plenty of small dace but they were harder to catch than I thought they would be. The kingfisher on the opposite bank was easily out fishing me taking 3 small fish in succession.

I started to pick up the odd fish but they were quite small, after a few (slightly) better fish were taken I decided to stick one on as the deadbait hadn't been touched. After 20 minutes with the live bait on the float slowly went under and held just under the surface, a few seconds later it slowly slid away towards the middle of the river. I leant into the fish and it seemed like a decent size, the fish but up a decent scrap and I had a bit of trouble netting it (could do with a longer net handle), but eventually the fish was sat in the bottom of the net.

The pike went 14lb 6oz and is my second largest to date. I spent another half an hour in the swim and had a few casts with the lure rod, the first cast with a 'Manta' and I briefly had another fish on, it felt decent but was off after a few seconds. The lure was also taken on the next cast but I pulled out as I struck. I had a couple of moves downstream spending 45 minutes in each without any more action. On the way home I called into a different stretch further downstream for an hour, I dropped a lamprey section into the margin and spent the hour casting a few lures. The bait went untouched and I didn't get any interest on the lures either.

I was hoping for another fish but I wasn't too disappointed, hopefully I'll be able to fit the odd session in-between shifts but I'd be surprised if I was out again this side of Xmas.

An unexpected personal best

I had arranged to go barbel fishing with a mate (Ben) on Saturday, however things came up making it a non-starter so we decided on a short stick float session today instead. The day didn't get off to the best of starts, the fridge that our maggots were in had been turned off and most of the maggots were dead, the ones that were alive smelt, were sweaty and crawling all over the fridge!

After a bit of a mess on we arrived at the car park well before light and even after a 20 minute walk to  our chosen stretch it was still dark. I was aiming to fish the stick for the dace and perch, then live bait for the bigger perch later in the session.

Tackle I used

Stick float - 14ft Drennan Acolyte Plus, Abu 506, 4.4lb Float fish, 5BB stick float, size 18 hook

Live bait - Drennan 1.25lb Series 7 Avon, 5010 reel, 6lb sensor, medium loafer float, 15lb trace, size 12 hook

My rods were already made up so I spent some time baiting the swim, 10 maggots every 20/30 seconds for about 5 minutes. I was getting bites straight away but it took a few adjustments to the rig before I started to hook the small dace. The swim was building steadily and I was getting a fish most casts. The dace on this stretch seemed larger than other parts that I'd fished this season. Although there seemed to be less, the average size was bigger and most averaged around 3oz with the odd better ones going to 6/7oz.

The perch started to show but these were smaller than I was hoping for, averaging 4oz with the best going 12oz. I had around 30 fish in the net (mostly dace and perch with 2 grayling and a small chub) when the swim died. I could see some movement in the water, a large shadow or two moving in the current, I stopped casting and fed a pinch of maggots every 10 seconds for 10 minutes. I was hoping the shadows were chub or large perch. On my next cast the float buried and I hooked another small dace, this was quickly snatched by a pike.

I grabbed a dace from the net, lightly lip hooked it and dropped it into the swim. The bait was taken instantly but I pulled it straight out of the pikes mouth. It was taken a second time and the pike was on for about 10 seconds before the line went slack.

I decided to keep the feed going in whilst fishing a live bait, nothing happened for 20 minutes and the bait went untouched. Eventually the dace was grabbed, I struck and I was confident that the hook had found a good hold. The pike fought hard on the light perch set up, I missed a chance to net it early on but I saw that it was hooked in the scissors and I was confident I would get it in. I applied pressure only when the fish was heading towards the snags and I give it line when it was in open water. Eventually I got the pike on the surface and could see it was easily a double, after a couple of failed attempts I managed to get the fish upstream of the net and allowed the current to push the fish into the waiting net.

Easily beats my 3 year old p.b

A new p.b and a smile!

The pike went 15lb 14oz and beat my old p.b by more than 2lb. The light gear performed well and although I wouldn't specifically target pike with it, it's good to know that it's capable enough to land a decent sized pike if hooked.

After the pike I only managed 2 more perch before we had to go. Ben ended up with a similar net of fish as I did but he had more perch than dace, his perch went to around the 1lb mark.

A first grayling and the lightly hooked pike

He also managed to catch his first grayling, which went 1lb 1oz and equalled my p.b. We took a detour on the way home for a pint to celebrate our new p.b's.

New rod - average session

Over the weekend I acquired a new rod, a 14ft Drennan Acolyte Plus. I mainly plan on using the rod for stick float sessions were there is a chance of a bigger fish, also it will come in handy for fishing the slider on the lower reaches of the river.

Today I managed to get out and test the rod, I planned to fish the same tactics as my last session, just replacing the Series 7 rod for the new Acolyte. I took 5 pints of maggots and a tub of worms, hoping to feed off the dace and attract the bigger perch.

Impressive so far - 14ft Drennan Acolyte Plus

The morning started the same as the recent sessions, the small dace were coming fairly regularly and by 6am I had around 10 fish in the keepnet. I steadily increased the rate of feed hoping the perch would follow but it took around 3 hours to get the first perch in the net. The perch were a lot smaller than on my more recent sessions, nothing more than 8oz. Eventually I hooked a better fish, nothing massive but a perch of 1lb 2oz was soon in the net. I switched over to the avon rod, lip hooked a small dace and ran it down the margin, after a few seconds there was a large swirl and the dace was taken. A better perch was on, it was a definite 2lb + fish, but the hook pulled shortly after I managed to get it to the surface. That was the only perch I managed to tempt on the livebait.

I ended the day with just under 9lb of fish, around 70 dace and 11 perch. The dace were mainly small but there was the odd 5 or 6oz fish in amongst them, the perch averaged about 6oz with only one going over a pound.

Initial impressions of the rod are good, it's a lot lighter than the shorter rod I've been using. I bumped quite a few small dace but that could be down to using a larger hook than I was last time out. I was hoping to hook a chub or a large perch to give the rod a more thorough testing, hopefully next time....

Another perch session

This morning was spent targeting perch on the river. I started fishing the stick float using the same tackle as my last session but I didn't bother with a hook length this time and just used 4.4lb Drennan Float Fish straight through. I also had a 1.25lb avon rod set up for live baiting, tackle on this rod was 6lb Sensor, a large loafer float and a 12" 15lb trace to a size 8 hook.

The session started pretty much the same as the last, I was catching small dace every other trot down the swim, as I gradually increased the feed the dace obliged and I was soon catching a dace every cast. After around 20 dace in the net I switched over to double red maggot and instantly hooked a good fish. The fish fought very hard for a couple of minutes but the hooked pulled, I didn't see the fish but I am pretty certain it was a large perch. I continued feeding fairly heavily (around a pint of maggots per hour) and the dace continued to feed freely, eventually I landed my first perch of the day which was well over a pound.

I continued to catch the odd dace, but as the morning progressed the perch starting showing more and the dace became more scarce. I tried the live bait rod and instantly caught a 1lb + perch, this was followed by 2 or 3 more but slightly smaller examples. A change back to the stick and a better fish was hooked, the fish fought well but not as aggressively as the perch, it made a number of attempts to get behind some marginal tree roots but I manged to net it at the first attempt.

My largest running water chub

A chub of 4lb 3oz was placed in the keepnet, I quickly recast to try and get another. The float went straight under and another decent perch was landed. The next fish hooked was another chub but after a short but spirited fight it swam around a boulder in the margin and the hooked pulled. At this point I had ran out of bait so had a few last casts with a dace live bait and a 10oz perch was landed.

1lb 10oz and 1lb 15oz, the largest two perch of the session

I ended the session with 1 chub (4lb 3oz) 13 perch for 11lb 2oz (largest 1lb 15oz) and approximately 50 dace.

The morning was very enjoyable but was over far too quickly, the 4 pints of bait I had lasted around 4 hours and I can't help thinking that I would of had a real red letter day if I had taken more. The chub I caught is my best running water chub which is very pleasing as is the fact that I am now catching 1lb plus perch more regularly. To finish the morning in style we stopped off, had a couple of pints of Amstel in a nice beer garden, I can't think of many better ways to spend a summers morning.

Successful stick session - 2 new p.b's

This morning was spent fishing the stick float on a stretch upstream from where I have spent my last few stick sessions. Tackle for the day was kept simple and I used a  Drennan Series 7 13ft competition float rod coupled with an Abu 506 reel, a small  5 no 4 cane stick float, 4.4lb float fish mainline to a 3.3lb (0.10mm) hook length to a size 16 Kamasan B520 hook. I took 4 pints of maggots (white with a handful of reds) and a pint of caster left from my last session.

A view from the peg at 0530hrs

I was aiming to gradually build the swim by feeding maggots every 30 seconds or so and when the better fish turned up introduce the caster. I was getting bites from the first cast but it took a few adjustments to the rig before I began to hook them, the bites were mainly from small dace ranging from 1/2oz to around 4oz. The first decent fish came on the first trot down with double red maggot it was a grayling of 11oz, this was only the second grayling I have caught and it was a lot bigger than the first so a definite p.b.

Over the next hour I gradually increased the feed, the dace were now coming every trot down. I hooked into something a lot larger. At first I thought I had hooked into a snag but the line started moving upstream steadily, the fish was hugging the bottom, it felt heavy but didn't seem to be fighting too hard. I increased the pressure to try and get the fish to the surface, but it was having none of it and I realised that I was going to struggle to land the fish on the tackle I was using. I managed to get the fish off the bottom and I got a brief glimpse of its bronze flank and large tail, then it realised it was hooked and it rapidly headed for the far bank. The hook length snapped fairly easy and the fish was gone, I wasn't too disappointed as I knew I wouldn't have been able to land it anyway. 

I continued to feed the swim while I had a bit of a rest and sorted out the rig. The next run down I hooked something else decent, a perch of around a pound. I continued upping the feed and was still getting the dace nearly every trot downstream. I tried double red maggot again and hooked into something that fought very hard, the fish made several runs upstream, however each run was shorter than the last and after a minute or two I could see that it was a very large perch, easily 3lb plus. I had the perch on the surface and was guiding it towards the net when the perch flipped and snapped the hook length ! I was gutted as this perch would of easily doubled my best. I kept the feed going in whilst I sorted the rig, I decided that I would fish the 4.4lb mainline straight through to the hook.

First run down on the new rig and I was into a decent fish again, I was sure it was a perch and I knew it would be a definite p.b if I landed it. The perch fought hard and made several attempts to get into the tree roots but I managed to net it at the first attempt.

A new p.b 2lb 4oz

After weighing the perch I would put 'the perch that got away' at over 3lb and probably pushing 3lb 8oz.

I kept up the rhythm of feeding, casting, feeding then striking, if I missed the bite I would feed again before reeling in, if I hooked into a dace I would feed before unhooking it. Every 15 minutes or so the float would make it to the end of the run without going under, so then I would put double red maggot on hook for the next run through. More often than not this would result in a perch, this continued until around 1000hrs when bites started to become less frequent, even from the dace. The river had dropped an inch or two and it was losing its colour fast, I stuck at it but once the sun broke the tree line it became even more difficult. Bites became very infrequent and I was running low on bait so I switched to the caster, the dace left the caster alone and I managed to tempt a few more perch.

Some of the perch

I had my last cast just before midday and took a very small chub on a rubber caster. I ended up with 1 grayling (11oz - new p.b) 2 very small chub, 12 perch (1 over 2lb and 4 over 1lb, smallest 6oz) and over 100 dace (I lost count after 50) with the biggest dace going to around 8 oz.

2 new bests

At the beginning of the year I set myself the target of catching a 2lb eel and a 2lb perch, I will try to concentrate on the eels now until the autumn but I can see myself having a few more stick sessions after these perch.

A social session

Yesterday I spent the day on a river with the members of a local forum - Teesside Angling. We arranged to meet up at around 7am but I struggled to sleep so I decided to get up early and get an hours lure fishing in on a water close to the river.

The water is choked with weed so I was using weedless frog lures on the surface. I was expecting plenty of action but the pike seemed fairly inactive and although plenty of fish were topping I didn't see any pike strikes. After 20 minutes I had a take but it was off after a few seconds, another 10 minutes later and I had another take which again quickly freed itself, both times the lure was taken very close to the marginal reeds. The takes were half hearted unlike the usual takes I have been getting with these lures, the pike have been launching themselves at the lure, I was hoping that this start wasn't the sign of things to come.

My first gudgeon in 15 years

I met up with the lads and picked an area with a bit of depth and plenty of overhanging bushes which screamed chub. I heavily baited an area with boilies and a mix of pellet and used my heavier rod with a running lead and a hair rigged bait over the top.

I used a basic blockend feeder on my lighter rod with a caster/maggot mix aiming to pick up whatever came along. It took around half an hour for bites on the feeder to materialise and the first fish caught was a gudgeon, then a small dace and another gudgeon soon followed.

A lucky escap

A positive take on the feeder and a better fish was on, I thought it was a chub but as I got it closer to the net I saw it was a small pike. The fish was going to be netted the pike bit through the hooklength. After that I went for a bit of a wander and had a chat with the other lads and it seemed that no one had caught anything of note.

After an hour or so I rebaited my heavy line with 6 baitdroppers worth of hemp and pellet and carried on fishing the feeder. I had a couple of small dace and was considering setting up the stickfloat rod but then the tip went round and I struck into a better fish. The fish was giving a good account of itself and I was having to put a lot of pressure on to keep it out of the snags, I had the net ready and I could see the fish was a chub of about 3 - 4 pounds. I was drawing the chub towards the net when it made an attempt to get to the tree roots on the near bank, it succeeded and managed to break the hooklink on the roots! I quickly retied a hooklength, cast into a similar area within 30 seconds the rod was off again and I struck into what seemed to be a similar fish to the last. The fish took me into a mid-river snag and the line went solid, I allowed the line to slacken hoping the fish would swim out but it wasn't to be and the fish was off. Two decent fish lost within 5 minutes!

After losing the second fish I went for another walk to see if anyone had caught anything decent, which they hadn't. At around 6ish I baited the heavy line again ( during which I lost my baitdropper in a bush), I then gave the swim a rest for an hour. After another chat with the lads I had my final cast and I sat it out until 1030pm without a touch on the heavy rod. After checking this morning the two lads that stayed on until midnight didn't get anything either. Between the 7 of us fishing we failed to land either a barbel or chub although the water was a little low, the river had a bit of colour in and it was overcast for long periods so I'm surprised we didn't catch. I ended up with 5 dace to 6oz, 4 gudgeon and 2 perch, fishing wise the day was a bit of a disaster but it was good to put names to faces and I'll be definitely be attending the next 'forum fish in'.

Difficult stick session but a first grayling

I spent most of today fishing a new stretch of my usual river, the first hour or so was spent walking the banks, finding a few areas to fish and trying to spot a few fish. I found a few areas that I will be trying out over the next few weeks but didn't manage to spot any fish.

A beautiful place to spend a morning

I decided to fish the stick on a section that seemed to have a bit of depth and a bit of colour, things started well I had a grayling on my second cast then a perch on the next. The grayling was around 3oz and was the first time I had seen a grayling on the bank, unfortunately I couldn't get a photo as it flipped back into the river before I got my phone out. I quickly added a few dace and small chub to the net but then bites dried up.

The river was clearing and dropping quickly and after the first hour it had dropped a good 6 inches, I struggled in the changed conditions especially when the sun came out. The small chub and dace were very obliging almost to the point of becoming a nuisance as they were only an ounce or two. A small jack pike caused havoc in my swim for a while and helped itself to a few small dace.

The river seemed very low and each time the wind dropped or the sun broke from the clouds the bites would stop. This continued until early afternoon, I then spent an hour on the feeder and straight lead hoping to tempt a chub but I didn't get on touch on either rod. The last hour was spent heavily feeding the stick float line, the dace returned, I then had 3 more perch to around 10 oz on consecutive casts and a few more small chub before I had to call it a day and rush home for the school run !

Best of the bunch, the biggest went 10oz or so

After the grayling I was hoping for a few more, but I will be spending some time further upstream targeting these this winter. Although today's session wasn't the most productive, it was nice being out surrounded by the wildlife, the kingfishers were very active, a female goosander was teaching her offspring to catch fish and I caught a brief glimpse of an otter messing in the margins.

Still no eels but a brace of p.b tench

Last night I fished my syndicate water for eels, things didn't start too well with a few issues at home meaning I didn't set off until half past 8. Things started to pick up as I got to the car park and I found that I had the water to myself again. By half past 9 I had 3 rods in the water, 1 dyson rig with a small perch deadbait and the other rods were JS rigs with homemade ledger stems baited with worms and a roach head.

After 45minutes I had a take on the worm rig, which was a perch of around 4oz. On this rod I was using a blockend feeder instead of the usual lead, this was filled with blended worms to try and attract the eels.

Small perch

Over the next few hours everything stayed quiet and I nodded off listening to the radio, at around 0130hrs I was woken by back biter sounding and line was peeling off reel on the worm rod. I was in a bit of a daze but I got to the rod quickly, closed the bale arm, wound down and struck, I felt the kick of a fish then everything went solid. The fish had taken me into the weed bed, I kept the pressure on as I was convinced it was an eel and I didn't want it taking me further into the weed, eventually the fish was clear and came to the net fairly easy. It was a surprise tench and a definite p.b. The tench went into a sack so I could get a decent photo at first light.

4lb 15oz - the first p.b tench of the night

Three hours later it was light enough for a photo and as I just about to take the sack out of the water, the worm rod was off again. I managed to stop the fish from getting to the weed bed and although it tried to put up a fight it was no match for the heavy tackle I was using. I netted it fairly quickly, another tench and it looked a fair bit bigger than the first.

Second p.b tench of the session, 6lb

After a couple of photos the tench were returned and I recast the worm rod whilst slowly packing up, within a minute of the bait being in the water I had another take, line was peeling from the spool and I was hoping for an eel, unfortunately it was another perch of similar size to the first. I packed up and was home for just after 6.

I had 4 runs in total and landed all of them, I was slightly concerned/frustrated that I didn't get any attention from the eels but a brace of p.b tench more than made up for it!

Stick float session

On Tuesday I had another morning fishing the stick, the river was very low and clear and with the bright sun I struggled to get anything of size. Bites were steady but mainly from minnow size chub and dace, I had around 50 fish but nothing bigger than 5/6oz, I will probably wait until the river gets some more water in before fishing again.

The largest of a very difficult session

Effort equals reward ?

Unfortunately that wasn't the case today, I was up before 4am, in the car and set off by half past and had parked up by just after 5. I had a 15 minute walk to the bank, then I had to clear a peg for the day. The giant hogweed was everywhere and as it hadn't been disturbed for the last few months it was approaching 12ft in height, it took 45 minutes to clear a path and a section of bank.

I was targeting the chub but also hoping for a barbel, I had a 1.25lb avon set up with a blockend end feeder using maggot, caster and hemp as bait. This was fished mid river in a deep section for chub or whatever came along. I also had a 1.75lb avon set up for the barbel using boilies and various pellets as bait, this rod was fished in all the likely areas that I could cast to with either a pva bag or a stringer offering some attraction.

It didn't take long start getting knocks on the lighter rod and after a few missed bites I suspected I was being 'minnowed', eventually I hooked one of them and it turned out to be a small chub the size of a minnow! 

Target species just at the wrong end of the scale

I stopped feeding maggots and fed a mix of caster and hemp in the feeder and used an imitation caster on the hook. I was getting the odd indication but I was sitting on my hands until something more positive happened. Eventually the tip went round, but it turned out to be a dace of a couple of ounces. I was recasting every 5 minutes to get some feed in the swim but bites were very sporadic, I caught a few more dace to around 5/6oz mark but the small chub were ruthless, even taking treble imitation caster. A small jack grabbed the feeder and made a mess of the rig so I packed that rod away first.

First dace of the day

The heavy rod was quiet all morning, despite regularly changing bait and covering a lot of water I couldn't get any interest. I ended the session just before 1pm as I had things to do in the afternoon, the session didn't go as planned and I probably should of moved to a different area, but after spending so much time clearing the bank I wanted to catch something from it.

I am hopeful of another session this week, possibly an evening chub or eel session hopefully it will be more successful than today's effort.

Morning on the stick

After an early start I was parked up by 5 and was making my way through the fields toward the stretch I fished on the 16th, usually a peaceful 10 minutes walk, however today the fields were full of cattle. Normally this isn't a problem but the young bulls have put on size and gained confidence and they weren't happy with me being in their field. After a couple of aborted charges I decided to jump a fence and walk the (very) long way round. I was set up and feeding the swim by 6 and had a minnow sized chub on the first cast.

I decided to feed more heavily than I did on the last stick float session, hoping to attract the larger chub. In total I had 6 pints of caster, hemp and maggots and I was confident that I could entice something bigger than last time. After 20 minutes or so I was getting a bite each trot down the swim mainly roach in the 2 - 6oz range with the odd small chub. After a change to caster as hook bait a better fish was hooked, a decent perch of about a pound and a half but the hook pulled as I was bringing it over the net. The next two fish were both perch, one just over and one just under a pound. I was hoping that I could get one over two pounds as I have set myself that target this year, no other perch came to the net though.

Caster caught perch - both around the 1lb mark

The swim kept going dead for 10 to 15 minute spells and then I would start catching again, I had a feeling that a pike was in the area. It was confirmed when I saw a pike striking at fish in the far side margin. A decent pike then followed a small dace to the net and stayed a couple of rod lengths out, probably waiting for my next catch. I quickly put a roach on my pike rod and within a second of the bait touching the water the roach was gone. The fish gave a good account of itself with a few runs down stream and a bit of tail walking  but I had a feeling that it wasn't the pike I had seen on opening day. After I netted the pike it was obvious that it wasn't the one from Monday, but it was still a good double. The fish went 12lb 10oz but looked bigger as it was very long for its weight, as is often the case with pike this far upstream.

Lean fit river pike

After the pike I had a few more roach, but the sun came out and I struggled in the bright conditions. Other than the perch and pike I had plenty of roach to 10oz, dace to 6oz and a few very small chublets.

Tip of the day!

If  you use one of those self-inflating mattresses as an unhooking mat it's not a good idea to stand on it whilst wearing studded waders!

Opening day

It has been a long time since I've had the opportunity to fish opening day so I took advantage and set the alarm for half past three with the aim of being on the bank by first light. I decided to fish the stick float for dace and roach but use heavy enough tackle to land a bonus chub or two if they came along. As I approached the river it was obvious that no one had been down during the closed season as the path I needed to take was 6ft overgrown, as was the riverbank. I spent around half an hour clearing a path and enough space on the bank.

The path to the the river bank 

I spent a while sorting out my rig, running the float through the stretch finding the weed beds and by a quarter to six I was fishing. After a couple of missed bites and a couple of adjustments to the rig I caught a small roach, the first fish of the new season.

1st of the season from the river

I was steadily building the swim and had another 3 or 4 similar sized roach in the net when I noticed a pike eyeing up the keepnet, however it quickly spooked and swam off. After I had a couple more fish in the net the pike was back and it looked a very good size, again it spooked and I went back to rebuilding my swim. Each time the pike came it took around 20 to 30 minutes to get a bite again and over the next few hours I had 4 roach snatched as I was bringing them in.

Towards the end of the session the large pike returned and was lurking around the net again, the pike was almost 3 sections of the net long, around 40 " and was most probably a twenty. I had a lure rod with me and I tried every lure I had but the pike didn't show any interest in them, at times I was lifting a shad 2" from its mouth but it never reacted.

I made a single treble trace by removing a treble from a lure and attaching it to the quick clip on the lure trace, took a 4oz roach from the net and free lined the roach in the margin, suddenly the bait started panicking and the pike appeared from the mid river depths and nailed it first time! I would love to be able to continue the story and post a picture of a new pb and a first twenty pounder however after 10 seconds of fight the pike found a patch of streamer weed and managed to free itself!

The result of a pleasing day fishing the stick

Even with the disappointment of losing that big pike I thoroughly enjoyed the day, I ended up with around 30 fish mainly roach plus a few chublets, a couple of perch and a solitary dace. I will be heading back to this stretch at some point this season with a bucket of 'fresh' roach with one target in mind........

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.