Black Death

Unseasonably warm and I bet the tench are having a nose around. Might trickle  some bait in a few spots just in case. After an epic struggle against a fatberg with some serious chemicals I headed off up up Cyanide  Straight again but got distracted by following an otter up two bends and right up to the church so a good half mile. I headed back to set up the gear and came across this cormorant. Couldn't see any signs of it being shot. The neck though was chewed to the bone.

I worked down the straight but with nothing to show for my reasonable efforts. I spent the last hour trotting maggots with two missed bites and a very decent roach that came off.  Several rolled as I was packing away so it's bread or bust next time.

Apologies for the poor quality but heavily cropped from a 18-55m.

Double D's

Even windier today but dry. Had 20 minutes in the pool but too gusty so swapped to pike gear and headed off up Cyanide Straight just below the second bend above the Mill. I use to fish this straight a lot, it once threw up a twenty, several doubles and some back up singles in a frenetic last day morning. That was several years back and though I do fish it now takes seem far and few between and otter signs are frequent.

Today though something made me stop at the big bend and set up to leapfrog down to the stile through some serious waves. I'd just got the middle rod in straight out in the main push when the buzzer and baitunner signalled a take.  A decent fish powered down then back up into the push. I reached for the net which had snagged and as I pulled it one arm snapped just above the spreader. I managed to bodge it and got the fish in.

A bit marked on one flank and some hook damage on the upper jaw but  a plump'un to be sure

Always best to get a bait back out on the spot and within 2 minutes the smelt was away again but  a lot smaller this time. Perhaps a consort for the one I'd just caught?

An hour in and as I went to twitch a bait the float shot away and this one gave  even more welly, staying unseen for over a minute The uneven net arms  caused some grief before I'd got the fish over the net cord. Though my hooks were only just nicked in a trace with a big single had been left in the fish and this looked far worse than the earlier one. I applied some carp care having removed the trace which had stayed in due to a knot failure it seemed.

I  got the battered  and torn mackerel back out there but perhaps it was too battered as when I went to retrieve it 20 minutes later it had come off.

I paused at the stile to watch a fellow member take two lovely roach either side of a pound on bread trotted under a crow quill Avon and made a note to explore....

Sossidge sandwich

Spent a windswept day on a bleak East Midlands still water drinking lots of tea and eating a rather fine sossidge sandwich with HP Sauce.

Ex-pat man mountain Shanus is back for a week from Canada and the Essex Loafer and  I selflessly invited him to watch us blank in an absolute hoolie with a  40mph+ SW meaning swim choice was purely limited to somewhere with that swirling dervish on our backs. We  worked the near grebe line with  nothing but wind relate clip outs for our efforts.

We did however surgically dissect that ridiculous orange wank puffin Trump and concocted several special hells for him to be banished to.

Shanus headed back  to make firm plans to drive his truck back onto a frozen river, pitch a shelter and bore holes to to catch pike and goldeneye. I called into Jimmy's Farm to leer at a few Boden clad yummie mummies.

What are the chances...

Twice now in one spot I've trotted a bait, got a drag under bite and hooked a Mepps or similar fair and square in the eye and both sans trace...

Sunday was bright, clear and cold and I thought the dace would be tucked right in under the cover of that grass mat so the pin would be well matched.  I had  a few but not as many as I hoped so I popped up on the iron work for a look see. There were significant numbers of dace and an odd bigger roach,  mostly in the further faster water but enough a little bit further than I'd been feeding to persevere.

A fixedie and a chubber or perhaps one of those carp dibbers would have been the better set up over just this side of that fast push so next time that's what I'll do, with plenty of hemp and maggot. I didn't pull up any trees but did enough to keep it fun and make the pain in my near frost bitten fingers in the still icy shade of the bridge just this side of bearable.

It was lovely to be able to catch fish virtually on demand when an inquisitive head poked over the bridge parapet and explain what they were to the myriad of families out walking and running. They had a perfect birds eye view of the shoal, the float approaching, burying and the fish darting and twisting once hooked in the clear water. Perhaps just one or two of the children will insist that their parents  keep good that promise to take them fishing one day.

Bish, bash, bosh

Very quick attack on the maggot in amongst the sleet showers. Found  some decent dace and the pike were in a feeding mood chasing fish everywhere so if all goes well I'll be back tomorrow for a longer  session. Lot of black spot on this river. It affects the chub, roach and dace.

Best laid plans

Despite still being lergied, and with 50mph winds suggested, with 63% chance of rain I got myself on the river for an hour this afternoon. I swapped the pin for a small fixed spool  but kept the 15 footer as I would be fishing over the fast water so needed to keep the line up. The maggots were mostly casters and the ones that weren't were quite torpid. I also stepped up considerably to a 5AA cane avon given the swirling water and wind.

The currents and wind were as mixed up as I'd thought they would be but not in the little shelter I had between the tank trap blocks.  I was able to keep the line up and off the water and not too badly wind affected given the length of the rod but was finding I had far less control  fishing open bale with the finger on the spool and perhaps because the little 1000 Hyperloop was perhaps under gunned for the rod and not really positioned well. I'd actually have managed to avoid line wrap round the pin where I was sitting and had far more control if I'd stuck to my guns.

However, despite missing or just pricking several fish I found dace in most spots round the pool. Nothing of great size but all hand or hand plus. The strong flow meant that the Greys was often nicely bent as well.

I picked up one roach just where I thought there might be one which was pleasing. I haven't seen many cormorants but a lot of the fish did have telltale signs

There were several slashes in the whiter water but no trout fell to the bait today. The last fish was the best,  it didn't thump or go airborne so I guessed it might be a chublet and it was. Just about attaining chub size I'd say.....

I'd had another delirium affected hour on Friday, this time for pike. A blank that left me thinking a bit and perhaps leading to further experimentation. We'll see.

Tackle tarts

It seems these days that rods just have to be shorter and shorter. What are the point of these?