No 2

I'm working nights this weekend so I thought the best way to get back into a night time routine would be to fish Thurday night.

The session was fairly difficult and the temperatures dropped so it wasn't the most enjoyable either. I had two takes and managed to land one barbel, slightly larger than the last one.

I had planned to stay until after first light but a family of otters came through my swim at 02:30 so I decided to pack up and head home.

I'm busy with work next week so I probably won't be on the bank for a while.

First barbel of the season

Another short barbel session on a local river. I was running a bit late so didn't arrive at the river until 20:30, bait in, sort my rods out, cast out, sit back and relax. That was the plan but stupidly I had left all my leads at home, luckily a mate was fishing half a mile upstream, so I went on the scrounge and loaned a few leads.

The chub were on the baits fairly quickly but I was using longer hairs this session and it took nearly an hour for the tip to fly round. A definite barbel, a good fight, not overly long, but it did make it to the weedbeds a couple of times.

A decent start, hopefully the next one I manage to land will be bigger

With the first barbel of the season banked I was hopeful of another, it took another 40 minutes for the tip to go round. This time the fish was a lot more substantial, I struggled to keep control of the fish in this tight peg and unfortunately it made it to a snag. The fish was lost, a shame as it would of easily beaten my p.b.

A quick re-tackle, a bit more bait in and another cast towards the willows, this time it took nearly 2 hours for the to go round, another good fish on. I was determined to keep control and not allow the fish to make to any snags, unfortunately the pressure I was needed to apply was too much and the hook pulled! Gutted, two potential p.b barbel lost on the same session.

I packed up shortly after. I'm hoping to give it another go this week (if time allows), next time I will use a more powerful rod to try and keep control in this tight peg.

Barbel on, barbel off

A short four hour session, one fish lost, one landed. The lost fish was a definite barbel, a screaming run upstream, due to the tight swim I had to fight it hard to keep it from the willows, the  hook pulled after 10 seconds.

Plenty of interest from the  chub, sit on hands time, although I probably should of struck at one of the bites. All the chub interest was on some spicy sausage pellets I was using for the first time.

The fish landed came to the same rod as the lost fish, another screamer. Although the run was short lived,  as soon as I turned the fish I knew something was amiss. I was still hoping for a small barbel but it was a chub of about 3lb.

No more interest after the chub, no fish topping, temp  dropped so I left at 01:00. I'll be back for another go next week.

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.

Non-starter

It takes a lot for me to give up a chance to wet a line, but I'm currently struggling with a severe bout of hay fever. Usually if I get hay fever an antihistamine sorts me out. Not on this time. Zero sleep, swollen face, loss of hearing and balance, its knocked me for six.

Looking at the pollen count, it's going to be the same all week, but I've been out bought some stronger tablets and am fishing tomorrow regardless.

I'm just back from a recce of the stretch I'm heading to, although the river is fairly low, it looks good. Actually comparing the levels to last year they are fairly similar, I had some decent results from this stretch last season, hoping for a result tomorrow.

Previous sessions (last week)

Before heading home I managed a last session on the clay pit, a difficult session, 4 anglers on the bank and I was the only one who needed to wet a landing net. Two decent hybrids and a bream pushing 7lb, I can't complain too much as I've managed a few p.b's from this water over the last couple of weeks.

5lb hybrid and 6lb 14oz bream

I also managed a session on the Trent, aiming for the zander, but I also had a rod out for the barbel. Not a lot to report really no barbel, no zander but I did manage to catch a few bleak whilst bait snatching, a first for me, as we don't have bleak in my local rivers.

Not a complete blank as I did manage a couple of decent bream. Not the session I was hoping for but I'll be back for another crack at the zander at a later date.

A first bleak and couple of decent river bream

Out for first light tomorrow,  mid river stick float session, 4 pints of maggots, a few caster and a tub of worms, aiming for a nice mixed bag. Although a few good chub and perch would be more than welcome.

3 in a row

Most probably my last session here in North East Lincolnshire before heading home ended with a p.b carp. I'm too tired for a full update (just finishing nights and I still have reports to write up), so I'll keep it short.

I landed a few carp mainly small carp with only one double, a 17lb 9oz common which beats my previous best by almost a pound.

 
The carp was taken on a 15mm coconut bottom bait, over a decent bed of freebies. That's a new best on each of my last three sessions, very pleased, a new p.b for each of the species I have targeted whilst 'working' away.

Hopefully my next session will be on a river but as of yet I'm not sure on my finish date, all I know that it is soon. I'm aiming to get a session on the Trent, before heading north, then I will be concentrating on my local rivers. I can't wait it seems along time since my last river session (110 days and counting !).

 Hopefully I can continue this form on the rivers (not likely!).

Latest pit session

My most recent session the clay pit was on Saturday, again targeting the bream and tench with a third rod out for the eels.

Bream/tench setup - 1.25lb series 7 avon, Shimano 5010, 8lb Hypersensor, 25g method feeder, 6lb sink braid to a size 12 super specialist.

           Bait - pellet based method mix, with different 10mm boilies for each species.

Eel setup - DLST P2, 8010, 50lb powerpro, running rig with homemade ledger stem to 20lb wire trace and a size 10 ESP Raptor T6.

           Bait - worms and squid. Small silvers are impossible to catch on this water.

I decided to move back to the first peg that I had fished on this water. It has a large gravel bar running parallel to the marginal reeds which I was hoping would hold some good tench, one rod would be cast here, the other in open water for the bream.

I bought some squid to try as a change bait for the eels, usually I prefer roach heads, but there seems to be very few small fish in this water, probably due to the large number of cormorants nearby. It took a couple of hours to get some interest in any of the baits offered and it was the squid on the eel rod which was taken first.

Squid caught eel.

The eel wasn't particularly large but up to that point it was a blank saver. An hour passed, nothing was happening so I decided to try and grab an hours sleep. Less than a minute after I laid on the bedchair the alarm from the open water rod sounded. I knew it was a bream straight away and it felt a decent weight but even on this light(ish) gear it didn't put up much of a fight and it was soon netted. Whilst the bream was resting in the landing net the margin rod ripped off, a definite tench take. After a good scrap, in which the tackle was well tested a good tench shared the net with the bream. A possible p.b bream and a good tench in the net, well pleased.

The bream did beat my best by 9oz, with the scales settling at 9lb exactly, the tench went 5lb 7oz.

Rain was forecast for about 10:00 so I had a quick sort out, recast the rods (the eel rod was left on the bank) and decided to try and get some sleep. I was briefly woken at midday when Ben caught a bream of about 4 and 1/2lb, but then I went undisturbed until 16:00 when I had top pack away and get ready for a night shift.

Only 3 fish to my rods this session a p.b bream, a good tench, a nice eel and 5 hours sleep a good session in my eyes!

Exactly 9lb

5lb 7oz

I've been having a lot of trouble with eel runs on this water, probably because the water contains lots of bootlaces. Many unhittable runs, loads of baits whittled down to nothing etc.... I thought squid might work and it did to some extent, but I'm hoping for a bigger eel from this water, which will be difficult as I can't fish beyond 17:00.

Next time I'm at the water I'll try fishing squid or worms on the dyson rig, hopefully the suspended bait will put off the smaller eels and allow the bigger one more time to find the bait.

I'm heading to a day ticket carp water in the morning, I've never fished it before and can't find much info on the place. Hoping for a good day as I'll be heading home soon and won't be fishing anywhere near as much as I am now, but on the plus side I'll be able to fish my local rivers again.

Still on the stillwaters

With the nearest 'proper' river an hours drive away, I'm continuing to fish the stillwaters local to my accommodation.

On Tuesday I was back on the clay pit for my second session, conditions were less than ideal, bright, hot and a flat calm. I knew the session was going to be difficult and I feel I did well to avoid a blank.

After many missed runs I connected with one and landed an eel, nothing massive but a decent start.

Scaling down to a size 10 was need to hook this eel

I also managed a decent hybrid before calling it a day.

Wednesday I headed to the farm pond again, two rods for the carp and one for the eels. I've never seen an eel from this water but I've been told that the odd one comes out.

I was fishing 15mm boilies on a rod tight to some reeds and 10mm's on my second rod, which was placed near the pads. The smaller bait was the first taken and shortly after a  small tench was landed. A couple more tench and a bream of about 4 pound were also caught on this rod.

One of three farm pond tench during the session, the largest getting on for two and a half pounds.

The only take from a carp was on the rod with a 15mm bait on, unfortunately I lost the carp in the reeds.

On Thursday I fished the clay pit again, a different peg this time, similar tactics, again hopeful that the bream and tench would show.

I didn't have to wait long for the first fish, an eel took a worm bait within a few minutes of it being in the water, again nothing of size but a welcome start.

The first fish on the bream/tench gear was a 7lb 4oz bream, caught on a 10mm boilie/method feeder approach.

The second fish was a bit of a surprise and probably had outgrown someones garden pond. An 8lb 8oz grass carp picked up the bait and gave a good account of itself before it was reluctantly netted. Being only the second grass carp I have landed, the first being a pound or so, this was a definite p.b.

Next up was a hybrid of 5lb 4oz, definitely the biggest I have caught, so another p.b. The next two fish were both tench, my new p.b of 6lb 12oz and a male tench of 4lb 14oz. Both fish came to a method mix that I had specifically made for tench.

4lb 14oz male and a new p.b of 6lb 12oz

 The final fish of the session was a bream of over 5 pounds.

(top to bottom) 7lb 14oz, 5lb 4oz, 5lb 4oz, 4lb 14oz and 6lb 12oz)

Although I'm missing the rivers I'm really enjoying fishing for these bream and tench. I'm hoping to fit another session or two on the clay pit before my short term contract is over and then I'll be hitting the rivers again.

P.b Tench

I'm struggling for time to post updates from my most recent sessions, but as I have 2 minutes spare I thought I would share my new p.b tench.

A new best - caught from a mature clay pit, on a boilie/method feeder approach.

I also had a few other decent fish during this session, hopefully I can post a full update in the next day or so.

Farm pond carp

Another session on a farm pond which is only a couple of miles from my accommodation, the session was very quiet with only one take each so we managed a few hours sleep on the bank.

I had the first fish of the day, an 11lb 11oz common, Ben had the second, a mirror 10lb 6oz (which is the first mirror we have seen in this pond).

Unfortunately I'll have to delay the start of my river season but I'm back on a local clay pit tomorrow targeting the bream, eels and tench.