Were going through changes........

  This week more than ever the change in the seasons has become more apparent the leaves once a deep vibrant green are now starting to turn brown, the farmers once busy sowing seeds in the field are now trudging down their tracks laden with bails of hay that will get their live stock though the colder months and the biggest sign of a change being on the way came today as the once warm breeze that we had all become accustomed too over the past few months was replaced with gusty winds with an icy chill to them all tell tale signs of the changes to come in the not too distant future.

  The change in seasons from my fishing point of view should see the rivers go from strength to strength, the lack of the abundant natural larder the fish have had at their disposal all summer will see the fish coming on the bait in greater numbers and should see us catching bigger bags of silver fish from our visits.  The cold weather will also see my attention turn to the veracious pike that will no doubt be close behind the shoals of dace and will also see us visiting the canals on the warrington card when the rivers are unfishable.

On to this weeks fishing.....

Saturday 27th August

  Saturday saw both me and my uncle back on the banks of the River Dee on the same stretch we fished last week, after taking our time walking some more of the river we scouted out some swims to try on future visits and found some really good looking water to try out in the coming weeks.  After last weeks fishing there was only one place we had in mind and although we spent a few moments contemplating trying the new swims we found we ultimately ended up in the same swims as last week.

  In the last few months I have started to take my time setting up when I first arrive and I must admit I have seen the benefits in my catch rate and longevity of my rigs throughout the session.  Saturday was no different and after I was all set to go I took a picture of my setup for the day.

Wish I was stood their now!!!



  One of the most useful pieces of kit I have bought this year has been my bait waiter it makes life so much easier than constantly turning around to get your bait putting it back down then trotting down behind your maggots.  With the bait waiter I can cast in with my bail arm off and let the float trot down a bit and the easily grab a pinch of bait and throw it in so the bait and the maggots go down side by side.  The bait waiter really is a must have bit of kit for me now when trotting the river and I don't know how I got on before I had it. 

All set and ready for a days fishing with all my bait and bits to hand:

  The swim I was fishing on Saturday really is a dream of a trotting swim, it is an even depth the whole way down the run and if you can get the fish feeding it really is a bite a chuck and with careful feeding you can get the fish at the same point down the run every time.

The Swim:

  The fishing was from the off was harder that last week with the fish being very hard to pin down in one spot on the run , usually when trotting you can get the fish relatively in one place but on Saturday the bites where very spread out with one minute a fish coming right under my feet and the next coming 20 yards down the run. It was during one of these longer trots down I caught my best dace of the day a nice fat silver dart.

  The fish today just seemed like they where not up for maggot and it was a good job I had caster because it was on these crunchy critters I did the damage.  As soon as I started feeding caster and fishing it on the hook the fishing changed and it was a bite a cast although on Saturday I don't think I have ever missed so many bites.

  The majority of fish I have caught here have been dace with the odd trout and grayling thrown in throughout the day but on Saturday my uncle lost a nice chub and also managed to get a smaller one in the net so the signs are there that there may be some shoals of chub in the area and we have both since had long chats about possible tactics for future visits regarding some new rigs and baits to see if we can lure some of these chub to our swims.

  Around 11.30 on Saturday the heavens really opened and we got caught in a really heavy downpour which seemed to breathe life into both mine and my uncles swim after a quiet patch.  The rain also coincided with my first roach caught on this stretch and what a perfectly marked fish it was, fin perfect.

  Throughout the next few hours the sport really picked up but I still could not get the fish consistently on maggot but I was oddly enough catching fish on caster that had mouths full of maggots so I guess it must have been solely down to a presentation thing on my part.  The killer bait for me on the day was Castor and hemp and as you can see below, by the end of the session I was cleaned out of both!!!

Castor and hemp , deadly on its day!!

  During the day I did pick up a cracking grayling and two greedy trout which gave a really good account for themselves on a 1.7lb hook length and as with last week by the end of the session we both had nets full of fish with the total again for us both coming to over 25lb of fish!!.

My uncles net of fish:

My net of fish:

  After weighing the fish and packing away we began our trek back to the car but so far the walk has been made easier by the fact we had both caught well, on a bad day this walk may well be alot harder lol.  We both have had a great two weeks fishing from this stretch of the majestic River Dee and hopefully there is still more to come from here. 

  Next week will see us both back on the banks of the River and all being well we should have a new river to report on, weather permitting of course!!  The River we are going to be targeting I have fished once before about 2 years ago and I had only just started river fishing and didn't do too well, next week will I hope give me an idea of how far I've come on the rivers.  As I am writing this now I'm already excited about next weeks fishing trip to this new river so its going to be a long four days in work I think!!.

Monday 29th August

  Just a quick report on today's fishing which saw me and my uncle dust down our poles and make our way to a carp pond where we expected to bag up on carp as me and my did a few weeks ago when we took over 17lb.  Unfortunately the wind today made fishing really difficult and made presenting a bait almost impossible at times, still as I always say a bad days fishing is better than a good day in work and is there such thing as a bad days fishing??

Below is a picture of the few carp we did manage to catch today.  Today also saw me using my white hydro elastic for the first time and it performed really well, slowly but surely I am learning the limitations of the elastics in my pole sections.

 

  As mentioned above next week will see us on a new river hopefully so until next week I wish you all tight lines

Danny

New place and a big bag of dace.......

  This past week has got to go down as one of the worst weeks I can remember in work with us all being informed we would have to re-apply for our jobs as the company looks to reduce the numbers by around 

thirty staff.  The upside of this is that the ones not selected will be relocated to other offices in the local area which is not ideal but its still better than being unemployed.  

  When I was asked about what I thought about it all and what I was going to do I just said to them my best advise was to put the following song on full belt in the car on the way home and get themselves to the local tackle shop and get themselves out on the river bank as there is no better way to forget your troubles than a day on the bank.

  And now we are all chilled out and a brighter look on things its onto this weeks fishing........

Wednesday 17th August

  With the bad news on Wednesday afternoon came the good as an opportunity to get away from it all for a few hours as I received a text from my uncle confirming his mate was still going fishing that evening to a local pond.  I had initially intended on dropping in on him to see how he was getting on but that soon changed to me stopping off on the way home for a tin of the jolly green giant.  A quick run in the house to pick up my holdall and I was on my way.

  The venue was a small pond that backed onto the one mentioned in this previous blog update http://satonmyperch.blogspot.com/2011/07/rudd-barbel-and-really-ugly.html and although the two ponds basically touch the back pond was still a mystery to us as it lacked any of the signs of life the adjacent pond did although two really big carp had been sighted in this back pond and passing dog walkers and fishermen had also commented that it held a lot of tench, tonight's trip would give an answer if rumours where true....

  I arrived at the pond around 5pm and passed two anglers on the first pond catching a fish a chuck and I was tempted to set up shop on the one free peg that was left but resisted the urge and continued on to the other pond where I found Curly already set up and introducing some freebies into his swim.  I set up along side him and with the pond not looking to hold a great deal of fish I baited up with just a few grains of corn and was basically fishing for one bite.

  For the next hour and a half we both sat there full of optimism but it was becoming quite clear what little head of fish in this pond there was where feeding after dark as the water was so clear and with not a single sign of fish movement we moved onto the first pond.

    The time wasted on the other pond meant it was getting on for 7.30pm when we finally got set up on the first pool and again it was a few grains of corn fished tight to the reeds in the hope for a tench or a nice roach.  The pool, to look at, looks like nothing more than a deep puddle but its looks are deceiving as it has depths of up to 7ft just off the reeds in the picture shown above.  With depths like that its no wonder it holds so many large roach and rudd and I would not be surprised if it also holds some crewies as well as the small tench.

  For the next hour Curly caught roach and rudd steadily on maggot while I only had the small tench shown above to show for my time but what a great laugh we had in the process and really took my mind of the day events.  The one other thing this night highlighted to me was how the nights are drawing in it was dark by 8.45pm.

Saturday 20th August

  With work finished for the week and a crucial demolition victory in my pool game after work I headed off to the bait shop and this week decided to purchase a decent amount of bait.

1 Tin of hemp seed

2 pints of maggot

1/2 pint of casters.

  With the bait bought we were all set for a days trotting on the River Dee and having spent a lot of time in the week on Google earth scouting out new areas to target the venue was also set in stone and what was even better was the new venue was completely free fishing.

  We arrived under the cover of darkness as normal but the venue was a fair walk from where we parked the car up and as you can see from the picture above it was already light when we arrived at our chosen swims.  Our first glance at the river was one I wont forget in a while with so many colours in the sky a vivid mixture of purples, pinks and lilac's reflected on the rivers silky surface it was a real privilege to have experienced such a gracious morning and to think with the rivers being so empty a scene not many people get to see.

  We quickly set up and from the off the fishing was first class with dace coming thick and fast on caster and maggot trotted down the swim.  The swims we chose where both of an even depth and the flow was just a bit quicker than walking pace. 

  The only noise you could hear all morning apart from the resident buzzards calling to each other was the unmistakable noise of anglers striking as the float shot under on each trot down the swim.  All the practising over the previous weeks was all coming together and I was getting bite after bite just by holding the float back over my bed of hemp and swapping and changing between caster and maggot kept the bites coming all morning.

  The thing I liked about this stretch is you could all easily see each other and all three of us where on top form with the banter being right up there with previous trips.  Around 9am I decided to take a few minutes out as I had just been snapped on a snag at the bottom of the swim and made my way up to my uncles swim for a cup of coffee,  on the way I managed to capture this brightly coloured butterfly fluttering from thistle to thistle.

  I got a quick snap of the butterfly and left him to get on his way and made my way to my uncles peg and he was full of good things to say about the new stretch we had found and was for want of a better word "wonging" the fish out one after another.

  I arrived back in my peg just in the nick of time as no sooner had I started trotting down again I heard something rather large approaching the top of the bank I just prayed it wasn't the bull we had passed earlier on in the morning as he didn't look to inviting!!. 

A slow glance over my shoulder revealed it to be the Bull!! 

  Thankfully my greatest fears of the bull coming down the bank where not made into reality and the big fella carried on along the bank and joined the herd.

  The fishing by now was going from strength to strength and as more bait went in the better fished started to show up and like always the first fish to come to the net was a greedy trout.

  The trout, although I did not weigh it was looking back a new personal best for the blog and just to show how greedy they are, looking down its throat I could see no less than 30-40 crushed up maggots.  The nature of my swim meant that there was always going to be more chance of me getting a mixed bag of fish and with fast water not to far below me it was not long before the lady of the stream made an appearance.

The lady of the stream, the grayling:

  As grayling give their all in the fight its never just a cast of dropping this lovely fish into the keep net as you would a dace, time must be taken to hold the fish in the margin in the landing net to make sure the fish has fully recovered before placing it in your keep net.  

  The fishing did have a brief barren spell when the sun came out for around half an hour but that gave us all time to get our rigs sorted and some bait down ready for when the action picked up and almost as soon as the cloud cover closed back in the action picked up and the first fish to signal the start of this action was another greedy trout.

  For a brief second I thought the fish was a sea trout due to how silver the fish looked in the light but I'm sure now looking at the picture its a normal brown trout, the markings around the head giving it away.  The fishing from then on in was solid wall to wall dace and we both enjoyed the best day on the River Dee so far this season and like all good days it was over all to soon!!!

  First to take their net out was my uncle and I knew he had a decent weight in there going on the amount I had seen him catch alone and what a bag of fish just under 14lb, that bag along would have done us both proud.

video of my uncles bag of fish:

Next up was me and although I thought I had done well I was shocked by just how well I had done:

Video of my bag of fish:

  A combined weight of over 25lb of fish and we fished from around 5.45 till 2pm and where both still catching as the time come to pack in, I can only imagine what the net would have looked like had we stayed and had enough bait to fish all day.

  On the way back to the car we came across a rather gruesome sight on the field and certainly goes to prove the old farmers saying of where there's livestock there's dead stock. 

No wonder the buzzards where calling all morning.

  This place is certainly a venue we will be visiting again and I should think in the not to distant future, it is a bit of a hike to the pegs but its worth it for a days fishing like that and goes to show if you put the time in before you go sometimes you strike lucky as we did on Saturday.

Sunday 21st August

Sunday saw me visiting Flushing Meadows fishery and from a blog point a view turned out to be a disaster as after recording me playing a fish in the pole I put my phone down and left it running and in the end recorded a full 30 minutes of the sky lol, this completely killed my battery on my phone.

  

  I ended up with a total of 4 carp of which I got pictures of three of them.  I took the remainder of the maggots I had left from Saturday and if silver fishing if your thing get yourself down there as the place is stuffed with roach, rudd and skimmers,  you could literally catch them all day long if you wanted too.

  Below are the pictures of the carp I managed to capture on my camera:

  All the fish where taken on 5-6 maggots on the hook fished over a large pot of maggots each put in and a heavy bulk shot to get my bait through the ravenous rudd.  Flushing meadows I can see not being every one's cup of tea with there being so many silver fish present but I love the place and come winter when the rivers are in flood I will be making a visit here to sample to winter silvers fishing.

Till next week one very happy angler wishing you all,

tight lines

Danny

Finally the rivers get a drink.........

    This week a very strange thing happened in that I spotted a problem and the very next day the answer was right there in my email inbox.  My journey home from work crosses the path of a small pond that I stop off at from time to time to see how the fishing is going and in the warmer weather try and catch a glimpse of any larger inhabitants that may call it home.

  This week with it being the summer holiday's the pond was full of young kids all trying to catch fish but each equipped with one of those fishing kits you see in hobby shops for under five quid with line you could pull a small car with, their chances of catching a fish where minimal and I doubt had they caught a fish they would have had a disgorger to get the hook out.  It got me thinking how I got into fishing and how lucky I was to have a father that liked fishing and showed me the ropes and how to fish properly but more of that memory lane stuff on a future blog update.

  The next day in work I received an email from a representative at lymm anglers junior section showing me his blog and I have got to say after spending some time reading the blog I am really impressed with it.  The site address is www.lymmjuniors.blogspot.com and they are currently running a course aimed at getting youngsters to a stage where they know the basics to go out fishing themselves, with the afternoon sessions full it sounds like they are doing a great job already but the site does say there are spaces available on the morning sessions so get yourselves booked on!!!.  A link to the blog will be available in the top right hand side of my blog also and congratulations to all connected with this initiative.

On to this weeks fishing......

Saturday 13th August


  As per normal it was still dark as me and my dad made our way down the M56 motorway, our destination the majestic River Dee.  We arrived on the banks just as the morning was breaking in the distance and after a turbulent week in work it was nice to take the shackles off and relax!!!.

Nice to be out:

  

  The River was carrying a bit of extra water from the rain in the week but with the dry banks acting like a sponge the extra water that had found its way into the river was well on its way to being flushed out of the system.

The swim we had chosen to fish was a slow moving deep part of the river with depths up to 14ft and lined with Lilly's along its margin, the place to me screamed perch and pike but thankfully, at least for this week, the toothy critters remained in their gloomy lairs.

The River Dee's back garden:

  Believe it or not just beyond the Lilly's its over 6ft deep dropping steeply down to around 14ft of water, not a place you want to fall in!!  Trotting here can be hard due to the lack of flow and the most productive method is on the feeder.  With me wanting to get more practice at trotting deep swims I opted for the harder option of trotting and really struggled to be honest with a big snag (tree branch) half way down the trot that accounted for a few hook lengths throughout the morning and also saw me loose a decent fish into its twiggy maze.

  With me on the float rod my dads chosen weapon of attack was his trust puddle chucker carp feeder, utilising its power to deliver a 50g maggot feeder just of the Lilly's.  The bites where few and far between with the odd dace coming from time to time but like me on the float the bites where very sporadic.

  I decided to fish the slack water caused by the Lilly's on the top three sections of my pole and after catching two small perch I hit something that had my elastic working overtime to get it off the bottom,  my money at this time was on a big perch but what rose from the depths made me forget the hard morning I had endured as a new species for me was landed.

A r"eel" surprise:

  Needless to say my dad who has caught a lot of eels in his time used all his experience in unhooking them to good effect by sitting back in his chair and waiting for the fun to begin and he got his money's worth with me ending up covered in eel slime!!!

  That was as good as the fishing got for me but the best was yet to come for my dad as no sooner had we put the eel into the keep net and he cast back in his tip tentatively pushed round and my dad struck into a fish that was all out for getting into the Lilly stems, a quick application of side pressure got the fish on the move again and into open water and onto the surface where the fish was revealed as a nice perch and my hunch on this venue was proved to be correct, a few more jagged darts for freedom averted and it was time for my dad to put his make up on for his photo shoot. 

All Smiles:

  The rest of the morning passed in a flash with the only action of note being my dad catching another bootlace of an eel and with my dad being on a night shift the previous evening we decided to dry the net out early around 1pm.

Not much to write home about on a poor day on the Dee:

 


The net drying nicely at the top of the bank I took my time packing away my gear while my dad with only a feeder rod to take down made one final cast,  in went a feeder full of red maggots with a double maggot on the hook..............WHACK!! the tip shot round and my dad grabbed his rod and struck into a fish that looked to be a a decent fish displaying the main attribute of keeping deep.  My money again was on a perch but all my predicting fish luck had been well and truly used up as my dad landed a big roach bream hybrid.

Say cheese!!:

  This fished marked the end of our fishing on Saturday and yet again two surprise fish save our blushes. The river Dee really does hold some really superb fish and I cant believe how little angling pressure it attracts throughout the summer months.

Sunday 14th August:

  Today Saw both me and my uncle travel back to the River Dee to try an new stretch of river on the Warrington Anglers Card.  First things first and I have to say who ever posted on the official website that this road was fixed needs a good trip to the opticians, the road is a disgrace!! A good mile long and had I been travelling to this river for the first time in winter I could well be looking at a new car exhaust, luckily the road was dry and I could navigate my way around the "holes" in the road.  It does make me wonder had there been a lake full of carp at the end of this road would it still be in such a state??.  Rant over and back onto the fishing.

  What awaits the dedicated angler at the end of the road is a truly majestic piece of river, truly breath taking to look at. From the car park you cross the sty and you get your first glance at the river and she was looking on top form.

 A quick glance to our right showed us we were not alone on in this field and judging by the big bull in the herd we would have to be on best behaviour to be allowed to wet a line in his drinking water.

  

  It did not take long for us both to find a swim each to trot for the morning and with the river carrying just a tinge of colour the conditions where perfect for a day on the the float rod trotting maggots down a steady glide.

All set ready to go:

  There was a special moment today that summed up why I go fishing, stood there trotting a swim catching dace as a family of swans made there way upstream while a pair of buzzards circled the sky up above our  heads not another angler in sight apart from my uncle and just when I thought the scene could not get any better seconds after I stopped recording the swans a pair of swallows cut through the air scooping up a drink as they skimmed along the surface of the water, escapism at it most pure!!

Some times you just want to tell them its easier to get out and walk :-)

  The fishing was first class with me and my uncle both taking a mixed bag of dace, roach, grayling and trout.  My uncle took the lions share and its a joy to watch how easy he makes trotting look and yet again have him to thank for how my trotting has come on recently.

My net of fish:

My uncles net:

The highlight of the the session for my uncle was a nice grayling of around a pound and a half.

Till next week 

tight lines 

Danny

New pole christened with carp PB...........

   

  This week I used my new pole for the first time and I must say I am really impressed with how solid the pole is with no bending when used at its full length although with the final section on the pole does become noticeably heavier.  The power sections equipped with black hydro certainly stood up to the task of landing carp and the odd lump and I felt just as in control of the fish as I did when using my really strong elastic on my margin pole.  I have not had enough fish on my match sections to judge what the limitations of blue and white hydro elastic are at the moment to comment.

 

 This week I purchased a roller for my pole and decided to go with a Sensas tripod V roller and well it rolls!! A nice touch is it comes in its own carry case and it also fits nicely into the back pocket of my rod holdall so its easy to carry round.  Once I am done updating the River and Still water sections of the blog I am going to add another page aimed at providing an in depth review of some of the kit I use.

On to this weeks fishing adventures.

Wednesday Evening

  Wednesday evening gave me the first chance to use my new pole and with £4 in hand for an evening day ticket I made my way to Flushing Meadows Fishery and boy did I get my monies worth.  I arrived not long after 5pm and was greeted by two very upset anglers packing away, cursing how bad a days fishing they had experienced. After querying the peg and bait they had used I knew exactly where to find a nice pre-baited swim and as luck would have it they had used the same bait as I was hoping to lure a crafty carp with. 

  As the target species would be carp from 2lb to double figures I only took my two power top sections fitted with black hydro and straight away set up two rigs one for the margins and another for the far side shelf.  In went two large cups of corn and meat and I settled down to a nice up of coffee while I scanned the areas for signs of fish and straight away I could see the tell take swirls on the surface made by the tail of a feeding carp over my baited area.

  In went a rig with a piece of sweetcorn on the hook and after a few tentative minutes the knocks on the float caused by a fish feeding were replaced with the float "zooming" under and the new pole got a chance to cut its teeth on slightly below average common carp.

First fish on new pole:

The fish was slipped back and the dreaded blank was averted, in went another pot of bait and after a short wait another very obliging carp was soon onto the bait waving its tail to signal its soon to be surrender, which was not long in coming and what a lovely marked fish.

second carp of the session:

 The next two carp came in really quick succession and I remember after landing the second fish looking at the clock and it only being 6.15.

The next two fish making the total to four in just over an hour:

 The first hour was a complete opposite to the second hour as the swim got invaded by the millions of veracious skimmer bream that live in the pool.  I knew though to get the carp back in I needed to keep the bait going in so after every skimmer I potted in a full pot of bait.

  It took over an hour for a carp to move in but when it did it was in another league to anything I had ever hooked on the pole and I couldn't move it off the bottom of the pool, the black hydro had been purposely set on the light side as not to bump the skimmers but despite this I still felt in control of the fish and was able to turn the carp when it made deep lunges for the deep water in the middle on the pool.

  Because I hooked the fish in the near margin it meant I could easily add more sections to the pole and keep above the fish and let the elastic tire the fish out and the first time it came to the surface I took my opportunity and quickly scooped the fish into the net.

7lb 7oz an new personal best!!

 My personal best carp at this point was just over 6lb and my hands where shaking as I folded the mat and hooked it onto the scales which settled on 7lb 7oz a new personal best carp!!

  Alternating between my two swims and hook baits I managed to keep the fish coming, and took four more carp, three of which are shown below, the one missing came while I gladly paid my money to the fishery owner.

I was quite clear at this point the fish where on the feed and I had the whole pool to myself!!

  At 8.30 I had to call it day, not because my arm was aching from all the carp or the fact the fish had stopped feeding but the reason was one that doesn't pop its head up much in a fisherman's lifetime and that was I was fresh out of bait!! One large tin of meat and two tins of sweetcorn GONE!!  

  A quality evenings fishing nine carp and countless skimmers all for under 7 quid for bait and the day ticket.  Great value for money!!.

Saturday 6th August


After hearing rumours of yet more free fishing on offer I made a trip to a new venue on Saturday with my dad we found a real gem of a place taking just under 18lb of carp in just a morning session alone.

                                      

Sunday 07th August

  Sunday saw both me and my uncle visit a desperately low River Dee, our chosen venue was the free stretch at farndon and we arrived nice and early and due to this being a prolific spot in winter the car park was empty.

  My uncle settled down in a open swim hoping to make to most of the little flow to trot a float down while I set up to the right of a tree fishing the pole.  My uncle made a good start getting a few fish on the float while I could not buy a bite on the pole even going down to a size 20 hook and a pound bottom hook length, something was not right at all.

  I paid my uncle a visit to chew the fat on what I could be doing wrong and could only think of one thing, pike!! Deep down I hoped it was a pike it would certainly rescue a poor day on my behalf!!.  I returned to my peg and decided to try the opposite margin and had two fish in the net straight away, finally some fish I thought but as quick as I caught them the swim died again.

  It was becoming obvious no mater what I did it wasn't going to work, I tried shallow, deep, near in, far out.....nothing while all the time I could hear my uncle striking at bites just 15 yards up the bank. Then after hours of trying to work it out the answer was there as plain as day for all to see as just inches from my keep net lay a pike in wait and in a split second he was off under the tree to my right.

 Having only 4lb line and a float road to hand it was going to be a battle if I managed to lure this fish from under the tree but as the past weeks have proven as long as the pike is in your swim you wont catch so out went a small roach.

Unlike past weeks where the pike took the live bait almost instantly this pike took a good 10-15 minutes to give in to the rhythmic pulses emitted by the roach trying to get away and when he did all hell broke loose with the pike tail walking trying to spit the hooks.  The line held and after an electric fight the fish was in the net and on the bank.

  Weighing in at 4lb 7oz he had obviously been feeding well recently as he had a proper belly on him and after taking a few seconds to admire the variety of colours on the fish I returned him to his watery home a bit further up the bank.  

I had a few more fish from the swim after this fish was removed and decided to finish the rest of my flask of coffee on my uncles peg.  While I was there my uncle was getting some small dace and roach but not the type of fish you expect to catch from this venue and it is very noticeable on there that you can catch consistently but the bigger species like chub don't seem to turn up.

The water was really clear close in and I could see the fish as my uncle was bringing them in but in a split second it also became very apparent that a pike had also not missed the precession of silvery food being reeling in all morning and decided it was time for dinner and nailed a roach as my uncle was bringing it in.

Usually you just see a swirl and its good night but this pike had taken the fish and was still on and heading for the middle of the river.  My enthusiasm in grabbing the net was short lived as my uncle said that the pike will spit the bait out as soon as we get it to the top.  With my uncle on a one pound hook length this battle looked to be a short one but the longer it went on the more the excitement grew with the fish pulling line from the reel at will and making lunges for snags only for my uncle to somehow turn it.  It was a good five minutes before we even saw the fish and it looked a decent pike and it was with the first showing the pike spat out a chewed up roach but the pike was still on the end of the line.

  The longer the battle went on the more it looked like he might just get this fish in and after a real tussle he managed to get the fish up to the top and heading towards the net, I made a lunge for it with the net and it went in first time only for it to jump right out in mid air, was that our chance gone???? hopefully not as if we lost it now it would be down to me.  The fish now seemed to know what was coming and found a second wind almost as if it had just been hooked and the epic battle continued till eventually he managed to get it to the top again and this time there was no mistake the fish was in the the net and on the bank.

To our amazement my uncle had hooked the fish inside its mouth, how the line did not get cut on the pikes teeth I do not know but my uncle wasn't complaining.

 

  A quick weigh on the scales showed the fish to be just under 5lb at 4lb 15oz and I safely returned the fish back to the swim I released the other fish.  These two pike covered up what was a really poor day on the Dee hopefully some rain will not be far away and give the river a much needed flush through.

On a final note if the person who arrived around 11.30 on Farndon is reading this and is wondering why they had a really bad day it could be that two jack pike where released in your swim within an hour before you arrived!! I really didn't have the guts to approach him and tell him!!

Till next week 

tight lines

Danny