Monday 25 February 2019

Heatwave

Off to the local river and searching for a degree of shade and oxygenated water in the very low mill pool. In hindsight I should have paddled over to the eyeot and stand to fish on there but I didn't and struggled to get  a longer cast sitting on the tank trap block without tangling so not many dace fell to the casters but those that did felt sand papery rough. Having baked enough I switched over to a rolled or twitched bunch of worms on a # 8 wide gape.


I was rewarded with a string of out of season young wild brownies that fairly rattled the 2oz tip round and all of which "got air".


Very light touch and release. 


One felt better but it had stripes not spots and was very greedy indeed.


Off back down the flood bank to the irrigation pond and a refreshing cup of builders made on the camping stove. I'd a lot of rapidly baking casters to use up  and alternating on the hook with red maggot had a reasonable catch bearing in mind the heat if the afternoon.

This plump roach (no skimmers or hybrids today) was the best at about 8oz but it was bite a cast with  a kingfisher bombing the smaller fry in the next swim.


A couple of perch showed up as well, all fins up attitude. The sunlight shining through it's back like an x-ray.


I shallowed off on the micro sardine rig to take advantage of a brief ripple that had sprung up as I was packing away the waggler gear and it didn't take long for the small float to pop under and shoot off. A very deep, surging battle really put the Avon to the test and though probably not quite as big as Saturday's hen fish she was again a spawn plumped fish.


Another cup of fresh tea then off home past the roach straight and not dark at 5.30. It's meant to be overcast with a light nor-westerly on Thursday so I might drop by with some bread along the roach straight into the early part of dusk anyway.

Sunday 24 February 2019

This week I am mostly

This week I am mostly catching pike. Saturday started grey and cool but by the ime I'd slipped past the sentry it had burnt off and though the wind was keen it was bright and cloudless. That put the roaching on bread back in the plan A folder so instead headed for the shadier bank on the irrigation pond and  a bit of  waggler  bashing. Hordes of mixed blades and if the bait got through a few perch. One of the better perch was taken for a swim by a seemingly toothless pike as it came back unscathed so out with the Avon rod and a micro sardine under a mini float and impaled on a 1/0 Aberdeen on 15lb wire. I'd hit on the spot because I had three pike in short order. 


They certainly put a bend in the light rod.


Probably hanging around this plump hen waiting for her to start to shed eggs.  What a superbly marked fish. So quick to unhook with the single too.


On to the Very Little Water Left Very Local Water this afternoon after multiple trips to the dump to use the "free " garden waste skip (everything else is now charged for) just because they can't charge and get narked. I gave myself two hours, just to see if the bream or tench had woken up with the mud pigs. Very clear and very low and in the sun very warm bankside. I did spark some interest with a light scattering of 6mm pellets and a tiny offering of 12mm Source with a couple of dips of the  small loaded float accompanied by odd breamish bubbles and a mud pig did up end by the float but sheared away in clouds of orange silt but in truth. I'd really only gone to get some sun on my bones 

A pike must have been thinking about the micro sardine for a while because as I began the last chance twitch back it pounced. A very stocky fish, and as often on the VLWLVLW  very dark in colouration. As it was on a big single again I decided not to get the the net and mat wet for  a photo and chinned it out. Not carrying spawn like the hen above but still feeling heavy for it's length.

Gonna be  bright and warm again tomorrow so will either head for a mill pool for some dace or perhaps a shady mud pig water for a method feeder frenzy.

Sunday 17 February 2019

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.









Saturday 9 February 2019

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....












Thursday 7 February 2019

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.








Monday 4 February 2019

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.


Saturday 2 February 2019

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.