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.

A couple of recce's and a DIY bait bucket

Whilst working this week I managed to fit in a couple of recce's during my breaks. Both are back up waters for when the rivers are in flood over the winter.

The first is a lake which used to hold a good head of double figure pike, the water has been in decline for the last few years, but stillwaters that hold decent pike are few and far between in my area so it's definitely worth a session or two.

The second is a commercial style water that holds good perch, well massive perch, a 'four' came out this week, three pounder's come out fairly often and two pounder's are pretty common. No silly rules, reasonably priced day ticket, livebaits and two rods allowed, sounds like a good place for a bit of a perch campaign. The venue also has an on-site tackle shop so I had a quick look around and found a livebait pump in the bargain bin.

Bait bucket

After struggling to find a suitable livebait bucket I made my own a few years back, very basic, a green bucket with a lid, a length of cord with a peg and a reed clamp. Holes were drilled into the bucket and the lid, which when submerged provide enough water exchange to keep any baits in top condition. The bucket is usually dropped in the margin and secured to some backside vegetation with the reed clamp. If needed (and the margin depth allows) I can use the peg to secure the bucket into the side of the bank, which helps keep the bucket out of view of prying eyes...

The pump will mainly be used whilst roving and moving pegs etc...

Quite pleased with how it turned out, hopefully it should be getting a testing in the morning.

Compensation water

Last weekend, the start of my pike season, a semi static session on my local river. Two rods with simple running lead rigs, backbiters for indication and a selection of frozen bait. The plan was to fish a peg for about an hour then move to the next. 

A cold, foggy start to the morning

Over the course of the morning I covered 6 pegs, with no interest in any of them. Although the river had looked spot on, it remained fairly lifeless, just the odd silver fish surfacing with no sign of any predators.

I bumped into a couple of anglers dropshotting and they hadn't caught anything either. After a bit of a chat it was mutually agreed that 'compensation water' was to blame for the lack of feeding fish.

The river can suffer from high abstraction by farming and heavy industry and compensation water is released from a reservoir to counter this. This reservoir is located high in the Pennines and the water is often very cold so this can effect the fishing for a few days after it has been released.

During the session I checked the water temp, 10.5°C, a couple of degrees lower than normal for this time of year. Well that's the excuse for last weeks blank, just need to think of one for tomorrow now!

Pike prep

Well the planned eel session hasn't happened. Finishing work after dark on consecutive nights and wanting to watch the England match tonight has shelved any attempts for the eels this weekend, instead I will be out for the pike in the morning.

Most of my pike gear is ready to go, just a few final jobs to finish, a few more traces to make and I should be ready for the season ahead. I've managed to get hold of some bargain bait, a box of sardines for £3! These added to the lamprey I bought earlier in the week and the remnants from last season and the bait freezer is looking quite full.

Bargain bait - 30 sardines for £3, now individually wrapped and ready to go

I will be heading to my local river tomorrow, with limited time (taking the kids swimming before dinner) I'll be out well before first light, stretch still to be decided, but I'm hoping for a fish or two to start the season with.

Target achieved

A 36 hour session on the Trent, a birthday treat. This was actually my second visit to this river, the last being a couple of months ago but ultimately wasn't that successful, I was hoping for a better outcome on this trip.

The trip was broken down into 3 x 12 hour sessions. The first of these sessions I was targeting the zander. Initially we had planned to fish a ticket water, but Ben had managed to get us access to a private stretch that we could fish for free, so we opted to fish there.

Home for the first night

The stretch isn't particularly large and without wanting to waste time opening up a new peg, we shared the one peg, which was a bit of a squeeze but manageable.

Ben has fished this stretch before catching quality barbel, bream and chub. We hadn't know of any zander to come out of the stretch, but the section is on the navigable part of the river so has some depth and is relatively slow moving compared to other sections of this powerful river.

I spent some time catching bait and within 30 minutes there was enough bleak and roach in the keepnet to see us through the night. I decided on one rod for the barbel and one for the zander, both setup with simple running rigs, the latter with a small treble wire trace. 

It was a good hour after sunset before the first bait was taken, a live roach was snatched, as soon as I struck I knew it was an eel. A decent size, unweighted, definitely over a pound, but less than two. This is the first eel I have taken on a live bait, we were both surprised with the capture as the bait was a decent size, not what I would usually class as eel size.

About an hour later a bleak was taken, initially I thought it was another eel, it felt a good size too so I was pleased. Ben caught a glimpse of it and said it didn't look like an eel, I wasn't convinced until it surfaced and those trademark eyes reflecting our head torches back towards us were revealed.

Thankfully the fight wasn't very spectacular and although it took a couple of attempts to net, I soon had my first zander resting in the landing net, a decent one as well!

A first zander 8lb 14oz

The rest of the trip could of been a blank, I didn't care, target achieved, a couple of beers were cracked open to celebrate.

The rest of the night passed without any zander being landed. Plenty of runs but they were difficult to hit, the few we did connect with were jacks, two for Ben and just the one on my rod. I also managed a couple of bream on the barbel rod, which probably only just went past the 2lb mark.

The next 24 hours was on a stretch further downstream, much more pace to this section of river so we were going for the barbel. Being a popular ticket water you have to pre-book pegs, unfortunately that meant having to fish a different peg for the day and night session.

The day session was hard, given the low water and clear skies we weren't overly confident in catching barbel during the day. Ben had the only take, on a rod he had scaled down to 6lb fluro and a small 6mm pellet. A pristine 7lb + barbel was his reward. I didn't get so much as a knock all day and I was glad when the evening came.

A new peg, a fresh start, two rods, one downstream to a near bank willow, the second would be cast into open water with a big bait and a heavy lead.

The first hour was spent putting some bait next to the willow, I recast the feeder every 5 minutes, to get a bit of the simple groundbait mix in the area. 

The first take came at 19:45 and I was kept busy thoughtout the night, 10 runs and 7 barbel landed.

My first barbell from this river - 5lb 9oz

The final and largest barbel of the session - 9lb 5oz

The 5 barbel landed between these went - 8lb 14oz, 5lb 15oz, approx 4lb 8oz, 6lb 7oz and 6lb 1oz. A very productive session for me, as the most barbel I had previously caught in the one session was four.

Unfortunately Ben didn't land anything during the night, he lost a good fish first cast, but that was the only take he had.

That's probably my final barbel session of the year, time to concentrate on the predators.

The capture of that zander means that I have achieved one of the targets I set myself at the beginning of the year. The others being a p.b eel, perch and pike. Not asking for much! Probably unachievable but I'm going to give it a good go.

A few sessions for the eels, leaving me the rest of the year to target the perch and pike.

Birthday trip prep

As a birthday treat Lindsey was planning on booking me an overnight stay and a couple of days fishing over the Lake District, but it's still a little early for me to start dead baiting and besides he lakes will still be ridiculously busy given its the last week of the holidays.

Instead I'm heading down to the Trent for a nights zander fishing then a 24 hour barbel session. I'm heading to the same stretch (possibly the same peg) as my first attempt for the zander, a deep slow stretch that (apparently) is usually good for a couple of fish.

My first attempt for the zander was unsuccessful, a bit of interest in the baits, but no confident takes. The interest could of been zander but equally it could of easily of been eels. Besides that session was after finishing 6 weeks of constant nights and I spent most of the time asleep and didn't fish it as well as I could have.

Slow and deep, an ideal peg for my first zander ?

I have more confidence in catching barbel from the stretch I'm booked onto, plenty of info online and some recent catch reports from lads I know. A few fish coming out, mainly during the night which is no surprise given the low water levels. I'll be taking plenty of bait but sticking to a boilie, pellet and ground bait approach.

My gear is 90% ready just a few more hook lengths and some wire traces to make. Hopefully I will be on the bank by 18:00 tomorrow, which should enable me to snatch a few baits and get everything setup well before dusk.

Solar hair gauge

I've been using one of these little tools for a couple of years now. The hair gauge helps take the guess work out of hair lengths and provides a platform to hold the hook while tying the knot less knot, which is handy when it's cold and wet or dark.

A social blank

Out for a barbel session last night, fishing a river with a much larger head of barbel than on my last session, so I was hopeful of a fish or three. I was fishing with Mick for the first time in a few months and we decided to fish a double peg and have a bit of a catch up.

It was a very mild night, still t-shirt weather at 03:00, a very nice evening to be on the bank, unfortunately the fishing wasn't up too much and we didn't have a take between us. Probably should of went eel fishing!

A new book arrived last week, Dilip Sarkar's River Pike, the first book for nearly thirty years dedicated solely to fishing for esox in our rivers. The last effort was the late John Sidleys 'River Piking' which is a bit dated and mainly focuses on a section of the River Severn. The Sidley book has a bit of a following and usually commands a high price on eBay, sometimes up to £100, luckily my copy didn't cost anything like that.

I haven't found the time to start reading the newer book (yet), but I have only heard good things about it so far and I'm looking forward to reading.

I'll be starting to get my pike gear sorted over the next couple of weeks, with the aim of having my first session towards the back end of September. I have a few stretches of river in mind for my first pike session of the season and plenty of areas that I haven't covered before for later sessions. I will also be continuing my search for a local still water that holds pike to a decent size, I want to try and avoid the jacks this winter and finally land that first elusive twenty.

Perfect timing......

With the heavy rain on Friday I was keeping an eye on the river levels, hoping that I would get an opportunity for a few hours barbel fishing over the weekend. I would be targeting them on my local river which isn't know as a barbel river, they are there but they are very few and far between, many blanks are expected and some anglers have spent many a season without landing one. My only barbel from this river came about 15 years ago and probably only weighed a couple of ounces.

Well my opportunity came sooner than I hoped it would, plans for Saturday night and a day trip to the lakes on Sunday meant it was Saturday morning or nothing. I was a bit worried that the river still would still be rising and checking the levels online overnight did nothing to convince me otherwise.

My gear was sorted from my previous outing, but I decided to drop down to the one rod and swap the tip from a 1.75lb to a 2.2lb section, a few heavier leads were also added to the bag.

I arrived just after first light and I had convinced myself that the river would be an unfishable raging torrent, however it looked spot on, high (about 6ft up), coloured, pushing through fast but fishable. I put a marker stick in the margin whilst setting up and within a few minutes it was obvious the level was falling.

Tactics were a cast to the marginal slacks, then 30 to 40 minutes later a cast slightly further out, if no  interest move to the next peg. No interest from the first two pegs, the third had a crease a couple of rod lengths out so I cast the double boilie bait there.

Within 5 minutes the rod went, a brutal fight in the strong current, even with the heavy tip on the rod was bent double and I knew it was a good fish. The fish went on many runs downstream and made it to the now submerged backside himalayan balsam, but some firm pressure soon had it open water again. It was a good 10 minutes before I managed to get the lead to the surface, the fish soon followed, instantly I knew it was a good one.

Netted at the first attempt, a definite new p.b -

11lb 3oz - beats my previous best (which was less than a week old) by over 3lb and my previous best from this river by over 11lb!

Chuffed to bits with this fish, needless to say I had a few beers over the weekend to celebrate.

Back on the bank

It's been a struggle to spend any time on the bank recently, working longer hours than usual and being midway through the school holidays has meant fishing has taken an unwelcome back seat.

I had a couple of unsuccessful barbel sessions just after my last blog entry, both blanks with two fish lost on the first session and despite the more favourable conditions absolutely no interest on the second session.

Three weeks past without being able to wet a line. During periods of 'angling hibernation' I tend to avoid logging on to forums, reading angling blogs and books etc... as it just adds to the frustration of not being able to fish.

Anyway my first chance to spend some time on the bank was on Sunday morning. I had planned on a stickfloat session for perch but I didn't get the time on Saturday to call in the tackle shop and get any bait. Having plenty of boilies and pellets on the shelf, a barbel session it was.

Two takes, two fish, one new p.b.

8lb 2oz - added just over a pound to my previous best

Exactly 6lb, taken as I was packing away