A warm welcome to this weeks blog update and I start with a
thank you to all the people who have contacted me and sent me emails in support
of my decision to edit the pictures on last weeks blog update and to air there disgust
at the actions being carried out on the River Dee. What immediately became apparent is the scale
of these incidents as it would seem they are now a common scene across the
whole of the country on a variety of waters, only last night a post was put up
on the Warrington Anglers Facebook page by an angler visiting a club water only
to be greeted with a group of people lingering in the car park. The water in question is really shallow which
raises the concern around netting and is a real worry as it’s a seen a one of
the jewels in the Warrington Anglers crown and holds some specimen fish.
Closer to home it has come to my attention this week that
the Bridgewater Canal
in Runcorn which was once owned by Halton Joint Anglers and more recently
Runcorn Angling Centre is now free fishing.
There are a few rumours doing the rounds as to why the bait shop closed
but I was told on the bank this week that the upside of the shop closing is
they no longer hold the tenancy of the stretch so it’s free till a new tenant is
found, so get trolley dodging and get catching those carrier bags that strewn
the bottom of this urban canal.
The last point I want to get to before I go onto this weeks
fishing is the fact I will be ceasing my pike fishing on the River Dee with
immediate effect. I got speaking to an
angler on the bank on Saturday and the conversation moved over to pike gear,
upon seeing his gear it hit me straight away I have been fishing far too light
for these river fish. The gear I have
used for years to catch the pike from the canal has always done me proud with
10lb maxima being my chosen line and so I have kept faith in this line as I moved
over to my river piking and after hearing the guy speak it is certainly not up
to the task should I connect with a decent upper double specimen, which is
highly possible on this productive river system.
I got home and took advice from some really helpful piker’s
who follow the blog on Facebook who where great at pointing me in the right
direction for a good quality braided line that will be good enough for the job
in hand, so I again thank both the angler on the bank and the people on
Facebook for their help and understanding, thank you. So as soon as I have the line sorted and have
nailed to new knots to a point where I am confident as I am with my mono knots
that they are up to the task I will be back out after those river dee pike and I
am actually looking forward to seeing how different the fight is on the braided
line.
This week update on the fishing side of things will be quite
short and sweet as the fishing was not the best as for some reason the fish
where all up in the water and the only bites we could get on the bottom was
from tiny dace. The rising sun and clear
water soon revealed that the dace where nailing all the bait just under the
surface so no bait was getting any where near the bottom.
I quickly changed over to my pole and a poly ball to catch
these fish on the drop and found it really difficult to hit the rapid
bites. I eventually got to grips with it
by tweaking the bait and I also managed to draw the fish closer in which made
it a lot easier to control the bait and I was amazed at the quality of the dace
just under the water.
My uncle on the peg up from me was also catching the same
small dace on the bottom but persevered with it and made changes to his line
and feeding and soon the better fish were showing with some really pristine
roach making an appearance. My dad was getting
tonnes of bites on the feeder and was missing them and had we not been on the
float rod catching these tiny dace on the bottom he could have been in a
situation where he was loosing his mind but in reality you are never going to
hit such fast bites on the feeder.
My dads fortunes changed later on in the day when the bigger
dace settled on the bottom and he began to catch some quality dace like the one
shown below.
Catching the fish on the drop is never a method that is
going to catch you fish all day and my bites tailed off and I continued to pick
up the odd fish through the afternoon but nothing that was going to put
together an amazing net of dace but still I enjoyed my relaxing day on the
bank.
My net
Uncles net
As I write this short update the rivers have just had a good
run through and hopefully will start to fine off for our trip on Saturday but
the reality of it is should be have any more rain between now and Saturday the
river is almost certainly going to be a washout.
Till next time I wish you all tight lines
Danny
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