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!).

Autumn and winter perch part 1

A little burnt out from barbel fishing hard all summer and early autumn, I had a couple of weeks off with the thoughts of targeting pike on my local rivers on my return. However the rivers have been constantly up and coloured, far from ideal conditions for pike. 

Luckily a water that had been closed to fishing for a few years had changed hands and was now open to anglers again. The water, a small farm pond, holds some carp, the odd tench, a ridiculous amount of roach/rudd and some quality perch. Ben fished it a dozen or so times a few years back and caught good perch every session, with the largest going 3.02lb.

My first session was a good one, fishing live baits on light float paternoster rigs I landed 6 perch over 1lb with the largest going 3.06lb (a new p.b) and a brace of high 2lb’ers to back the ‘3’ up. 

My first fish from this water, a new p.b of  3.06lb

I also lost a lot of good fish, which I eventually put down to using too stiff a rod. Ben also landed a p.b on his first session back with a fish of 3.05lb but he was also losing more than he landed. We were both using avon rods, I was using Drennan series 7 1.25’s and Ben had an older pair or  rapier 1.5lb’s both over gunned but I thought the 1.25lb’s would be just about ok, however they were just slightly too stiff in the tip.

3.05lb 

Good perch have been landed on each visit with Ben landing the largest so far, 3.10lb. My aim was to catch a ‘3’ from this venue but after that first session visit we have both decided to try and get a four pounder from there before they spawn in the spring. The farm pond is a good 2 hours drive from home so visits there are going to be infrequent but I have also started looking at other waters closer to home. I’m hoping to visit the farm pond a couple of times a month before the end of spring, hopefully we can find those bigger fish.

New rods 

We have both invested in new rods specifically for the perch I initially bought a pair of 11ft series 7 pellet waggler rods, soft in the tip, bend forever but with enough power in the butt to stop commercial sized carp these rods are ideal for perch and have all but stopped hook pulls. However when underarm casting a fair size livebait and rig set between 6 and 8ft they struggled to achieved the distance needed so I also bought a pair of the new Drennan Specialist 1lb twin tips. These rods will be used when live baiting in deeper water or when distance is required, for most of my perch fishing I’ll be sticking to the pellet waggler rods.

Ben went for a pair of Greys 1lb TXL specimen rods, a bargain in the sale at around £60 a rod. Although I haven’t used them they seem a nice rod and have significantly reduced hook pulls.

Another catch up - January to March

The last three months of the season were spent chasing pike during the day and chub on night sessions. Nothing significant in terms of size was caught but chub and pike were landed on most sessions.

A session on the coldest day of the year, - 6.5°C when I arrived rising to - 3°C by the end of the session. I knew the river banks would be empty so I could of headed to any stretch and had my pick of pegs but I choose a completely new stretch. 

A few small chub were had on bread and cheese paste, definitely one of my favourite sessions of the season.

It was my nephews birthday in February so after a trip to the tackle shop we went out in search of grayling. Despite the river being in good condition we struggled to locate any, but found plenty of willing minnows to avoid a birthday blank.

Steady action during my evening chub sessions with a few going over 5lb, not troubling my 6lb target from this river but very enjoyable sessions, which are usually a flying visit after work.

The pike captures slowed down and things got worse as I managed to snap one of my rods whilst roving on a small river.

I had put holidays in for the final week of the season and typically my local rivers flooded with 10ft + of icy cold water and killed the fishing. A few attempts for chub with only one bite to show for my efforts. Levels started to drop and I was hopeful of a final day pike session but we had another flood, slightly warmer water this time though so I had a go for barbel.

Surprisingly I managed one, 8lb 6oz which is a good size for this river, a nice end to the river season. 

A few days later I headed down to a canal for a final pike session, a first visit to this waterway. I was hopeful of a pike or two to wrap up the season but it was hard going, a difficult session with zero interest in the baits, perhaps with the warmer weather the pike were focusing on something other than feeding.

A quick one

A quick hour before work, the river levels seemed fine but I couldn’t be sure about the colour so I grabbed the chub gear instead of the pike gear.

1.25lb Avon, 3oz tip, 5lb hypersensor straight through to a size 8 bread and cheese paste for bait.

The river looked great for this time of year but it was pushing through fast, which didn’t really matter that much as I was fishing the near bank margins. 3 pegs fished, 20 mins in each without a touch. Never mind, I don’t expect to catch on short off the cuff sessions like this, on the odd occasion I bank something I class it as a bonus.

Chub rods

I purchased an original Drennan medium feeder (a bargain at £25) for my chub fishing this winter, the main reason being you can store spare tips in the butt section of the rod. I’ve found fishing as light a tip as conditions allow a massive help when winter chub fishing. 

During a chub session on the final day of last season, on a different river but similar tactics, using a 2oz tip I was getting very delicate bites, very difficult to see and not something I would of usually struck at when chub fishing. However I did strike at one of them and it was a good chub. I went on to land 3 on that final session including a river best, would I of even seen the bites with a heavier tip? Probably not, I’m almost certain that if I was fishing with the 1.25lb Avon top (like I always used to whilst chub fishing) the bites wouldn’t of registered on the tip.

That’s where the medium feeder comes into play, one tip on the rod and another 2 in the butt, giving the option of changing tips to suit conditions. I’ve had a few chub on the medium feeder and it’s a lovely rod, lightweight with enough backbone to keep chub away from the snags. The medium feeders only downfall is that it doesn’t break down into equal lengths and is a pain in the arse to store in the back of the car built up, ready to go with a rig on.

I prefer carrying minimal kit whilst chub fishing trying to stay as mobile as possible, carrying a tube with a couple of spare tips doesn’t really fit in with this, maybe I can customise the newer rod to hold spare tips in the butt....

It's been a while

Six months have past since my last update, family and work commitments leaving little spare time for fishing, never mind blogging.
I'll use this first post back to review 2016 and then bring the blog upto date over the next few posts.

2016 wasn't my greatest years fishing, poor conditions on my local rivers at the start of the year, a struggle on both my eel and tench campaigns and then a period of losing almost every pike I hooked.

Eel and tench sessions
I started targetting both species in April, quite early in the year this far north. However I managed a 2lb 8oz eel on my first session but blanked on the first attempt for tench.
I had planned to commit every session until autumn trying to achieve my target of a 4lb plus eel and 50lb of tench. I stayed on track fishing days for tench and nights for eels until the 16th of June when the lure of running water tempted me from the still waters. A few hard going barbel sessions later and I was on the eel trail again.
I fished a couple of new waters for the eels with varying success, one of the waters is very close to home and produced eels on both occasions I fished there so I'll try again there next season.

Eel round up -

Number sessions - 8
Number of eels caught - 5
Largest eel caught - 2lb 8oz

Another very disappointing attempt for the eels, not enough sessions fished and not enough time spent on the water I think has the most potential for large eels. I'm determined to catch a large eel from a local water and will be trying again this spring/summer.

The first of the season - 2lb 8oz

A two pounder from my local river

Tench round up -
Number of sessions - 6
Largest tench - 2lb 14oz
Total weight - 16lb 7oz

Disaster. Tench fishing in my local area is always a struggle, but I thought 50lb would be achievable. I've found a water which holds plenty of tench, probably not capable of beating my p.b, but they do go over 4lb and are usually a reasonable average size. On both visits I caught tench but struggled to get past the smaller samples, a change of tactics needed if I ever revisit.

The largest of the season, caught during an eel session

Other sessions -

A double figure net of silvers on my only stick float session

Late season mackerel to 1lb 8oz

The only barbel of the season, 8lb 4oz, my best from this river

Start of 2016/17 pike season

A change of job means I am working closer to my local river which makes it a lot easier to fit a quick session after/before work. I started my pike season towards the end of September and started catching fairly regularly.

A brace of early season doubles, good going for this river !

By mid October I was pleased with how my season was going, fish on most sessions and a number of which were doubles. Then I started losing almost every pike I hooked. A fish of 8lb at the net, a good 15lb plus whilst live baiting, an unseen heavy fish and then the biggest pike I've ever hooked.

A fish of easily 25lb was lost for no apparent (at the time) reason, I fought this fish for a good few minutes, a solid and very long river fish, easily capable of stripping 30/40yards of braid at will. But I was winning, heart pounding, fish on the surface a few rod lengths out, easing it towards the net when everything went slack.

That fish was lost on the 1st of November and I can still remember that gut wrenching, kick in the balls feeling after realising the fish was gone. I've been chasing a '20' from this river for years, they are rare fish, this was a special fish.

Trying to get my head around the run of lost fish lead to a closer look at my tackle. The only weakness I could see was my reel, Shimano 6010 GT's. Solid reels but the drag isn't the greatest, fine if you back wind but I don't. The drag on my Shimano's needed a good 'jerk' to engage, then it was fine, I'm convinced that the jerky action of the drag costing me fish. I looked into servicing but was advised that parts are no longer made. Time for a change.

I ordered a pair of Shimano 6000 OC and haven't looked back. Solid reels, a bit bigger and more blingy than I'm used to, but they are a quality bit of kit. The drag is very smooth, no jerky action and I'm glad to say it stopped my loss of fish.

I continued my pursuit for a twenty from my local, often visiting the spot I'd lost the big one from, catching a few upto 13lb 6oz.

The largest and best looking pike of the year

River conditions suffered with some snow melt but I was still catching the odd pike and caught a p.b equalling perch.

2lb 4oz, equal p.b

I also started to get the odd chub on deadbait, always after the light had faded, these went to 4lb 4oz, my best from this river.

A solid chub on dead bait

My final session was a visit to a canal, hard going but good fun, we landed 5 pike between us, all taken on lives fished in the upper layers. Ben caught the lions share but I managed the largest.

Final fish of the year, an urban pike

2016 highlights -

Barbel - 8lb 5oz
Bleak - d.n.w
Bream - approx 12oz
Chub - 4lb 4oz
Dace - approx 6oz
Eel - 2lb 8oz
Grayling - approx 12oz
Perch - 2lb 4oz*
Pike - 13lb 6oz
Tench - 2lb 14oz.

* equals my personal best

Not my greatest year but we can't all be Terry Lampard!

Anyway 2017 has started well, hopefully I can get something up in the next day or two.

School holidays.....

The kids broke up for Easter last Friday and I've been too busy to get on the bank since. I've had one session since my last update, a failed attempt for pike on a new still water. Nothing of note to report from the session, a difficult session in horrible weather conditions. No pike were landed, 3 pike anglers, 3 blanks. The water holds a decent head of pike to upper doubles and as it is only a 45 minute drive from home it is another option for later in the year when the rivers are up.

The water also holds a good head of bream, carp and tench that are larger than my bests, as well as reportedly holding eels to a good size. I'm hoping to spend some time on this water over the coming months.

By not spending any time on the bank, it's given me the opportunity to have an overdue end of season spring clean. The braid on my pike reels has been reversed, a punctured barrow wheel has been repaired, waders repaired, winter bib and brace cleaned, new line for tench fishing bought, and a few odds and ends found that I have no use for (which will eventually up on eBay).

I've been doing some preparation for a mini tench campaign, probably no more than half a dozen sessions before the rivers open. I bagged a bargain pod from eBay because the seller listed it as a 'Solor' pod, found some cheap alarms, some decent indicators, narrowed the rigs/methods down I'll be using and have starting to think about bait.

The methods I'm planning to use are an inline maggot feeder, scaled down carp tactics with small boilies and the method feeder. I'll also do some float fishing in the margins. I have a few waters to target where I stand a good chance of catching a few fish and one water in particular where I could possibly catch a new best. The tench in that water go over 8lb, not particularly massive to the lads fishing down south but an 8lber would be a fish of a lifetime for most lads up north. The biggest tench I have seen on the bank is my best, a fish of 6 pound.

My best tench, should any like this grace my net this season I will be more than pleased.

In the next week or two I will be having a go at making some 10/12mm boilies, probably sweetcorn and crushed hemp. I've watched a couple of YouTube videos and bought a few ingredients, it seems easy enough and will be more cost effective than paying the £10 per kilo most shop bought boilies cost.

Even though I haven't wet a line for over a week, I'm not climbing the walls yet. I am looking forward to my next session on Wednesday though, which will also probably be my last pike session until autumn. Weather permitting I will be heading over to the Lake District for the day, checking the weather forecast (daily) I think should be ok, but I have a backup venue just in case as conditions over there are hard to predict.

Back for barbel

After my latest failed barbel attempt I was planning on concentrating on the eels, however I decided to give the barbel another go. The plan for the session was to use a simple running ledger rig with a small pva bag or stringer.

Tackle used

Rod - 1.75lb Series 7 Avon
Reel - Shimano 5010 baitrunner
Line - 12lb sensor
Hook length - 10lb ESP Ghost Fluro or 10lb Super Specialist Sink Braid
Hook - size 8 or 10 Super Specialist Barbel

For bait I had boilies, garlic spam and a mix of pellets. I had my first cast by 0615hrs and for the first hour the tip remained motionless. At 0715hrs the tip went round and the baitrunner started spinning, a small barbel was hooked. It didn't take long to land, weigh and take a quick photo, the barbel was held in the margin to recover and shortly after it swam off strongly.

2lb 6oz

It took another 2 hours for the tip to go round again and when it did it felt like a better fish. After a 3 minute fight I had another barbel in the net and it was a definite p.b. The barbel went 5lb 1oz and beats my previous best by around 2lb.

5lb 1oz - a new p.b

At roughly 1000hrs the sun came out and the bites dried up, despite trying different baits, hook length material, hook sizes, longer hook lengths  etc... I couldn't tempt another fish. The rain clouds returned by 1500hrs and almost instantly I had another take, the fish felt a decent size but after a minute it managed to find some weed and the hook pulled ! I took my time packing up, hoping for another chance but it never came.

All takes came to a hair rigged boilie on the braid hook length, it was the first time I'd used the Drennan Sink Braid and it seems to do the job well.

Boilie/stringer combo

My next session should be on Tuesday, possibly another attempt for the barbel or a stick float session for chub and perch. I'm also aiming to be out on Thursday night for the eels....

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.

New rod day

After failing to catch any of the larger chub on my last couple of sessions I have decided to try further upstream for them. I will also be chancing my luck for a barbel as well. The barbel on this river are fairly scarce but to give myself a much better chance of landing one, (should I be fortunate enough to hook one) I have just bought a new Drennan Series 7 - 1.75lb avon rod.

New rod, to be christened soon (hopefully)

I am very pleased with 1.25lb versions (reviewed here) so when I decided on a rod for the barbel the heavier Drennan version was an obvious choice. The rod has two top sections the 1.75lb avon and a feeder top with 4oz glass and a 6oz carbon tips. The rod is in the usual series 7 style and apart from being a bit beefier it looks the same as the 1.25lb version.

If things go as planned I will be using the rod on Tuesday, hopefully I will get a decent bend in them, I can't wait !

Drennan Series 7 1.25lb Specialist Avon Quiver - Review

I bought a pair of Drennan Series 7 1.25lb Specialist Avon Quivers at the beginning of the year to use as multipurpose rods, so far I have used them whilst targeting bream,chub, perch and tench. I have been very impressed with the rods so decided to review them.

Drennan series 7 avon/quiver - well matched with a Shimano 5010

What the manufacturer has to say -

Info from Drennan website

My thoughts -

I already owned a Drennan series 7 rod (13ft competition float) before I purchased these so I knew what to expect in terms of build quality, finish etc... I wasn't disappointed with these rods either as they are both built to Drennans usual high standard. The aspect I found most pleasing is the rods action. Admittedly I haven't managed many large fish on the rods yet, however whilst targeting tench I landed a near 17lb common carp on one. Although the carp took a while to land and despite the rod being bent through to the butt on a number of times I felt in control, equally at the opposite end of the scale I have caught a number of more delicate fish (crucians, roach etc...) and I never felt over gunned.

16lb 10oz common carp caught on 1.25lb Series7 avon and 6lb line

Verdict -

Anglers have a large selection of sub £100 avon/combo rods to choose from as most manufacturers have a number of these rods in there range. The Drennan avon combos have an rrp of £99.95 (although they can be found a lot cheaper if you shop around) I believe they are well worth the price.

The action and build quality of these rods are excellent, I would definitely reccomend these to other anglers, infact I am going to buy myself a 1.75lb version as a barbel rod !

Farm pond perch

I decided to wait another week or so before trying for tench, so in the mean time I thought I would have a try for perch. I have never specifically targeted perch so after a little research I decided on a small farm pond that I thought would hold perch. I decided on a 2 rod approach, the first rod was set up with a basic low resistance running lead with a lob worm as bait, I also added chopped worm via a small pva bag. The second rod was to be fished with a small float paternoster live bait (after I caught some bait).

Initially I cast the ledgered worm to my right, under some overhanging bushes. This gave me an opportunity to use my rollover indicators for the first time.

Backbiter and roll over combination 

I started fishing a 5m whip with a very light pole rig to catch some bait for my second rod. It took
around 10 minutes for a bite on the whip line, which turned out to be a 4oz perch, a little to big for bait but a pleasing start.

Bites on the whip were irregular and after an hour I had another 3 perch of a similar size in the net. I had a take on the worm rod, I struck and briefly felt the kick of a fish but hook didn't hold. Eventually I started getting fish more regularly on the whip, with a few being small enough for bait.

A lip hooked 2oz perch was placed around 5meters out and I continued to trickle maggots over the top. I had another take on the worm rod which I hooked and it turned out to be a 6oz perch. The live bait hadn't been touched so I switched back to the whip and maggot. The float buried on the first put in and a decent perch was hooked, the perch put up a decent scrap which was magnified on the light tackle (No 3 elastic and 1lb line).

Largest of the day, exactly 1lb 

I changed to a worm on the whip and this was quickly taken by a skimmer, 4 more skimmers were
quickly added before I switched back to the live bait. Throughout the session all live baits went untouched and I had most interest on the maggot and worm, with the largest perch caught on a maggot. I finished the session with 10 perch and 7 skimmers, not a bad first visit and I will definitely be returning and having another perch session. I was also pleased with how the back biters and rollovers worked together, although I will be testing this combination further in future sessions I can see no reasons why I won't be using this combo long term.