On with this update and we start with a addition i have made to the kitchen, yes the kitchen! A place i thought was only for boiling hemp seed and preparing luncheon meat turns out there is more too it than meets the eye. I do jest of course but this addition could turn out to be a bit of a game changer. The next part of the update is a little trip on bank holiday Monday with my little daughter who madly turned 4 last week!! The main bit of fishing is a short trip on the river where i literally had a hour or so to target its occupants, sit back grab a brew and lets get into the update.
A Great Addition...
As regular blog readers will know i am quite fond of my winter pike fishing and at the start of each season a few of us put together a bulk order of dead baits from a website. I myself am now moving into my 3rd season on the run piking and as such i feel i have learnt a good number of lessons about the venues i fish and more so around what baits i will probably be using this season. My first bait order back in 2014 i was like a kid in a sweet shop and ordered a multitude of different baits but only a few samples of each and i spent around 20 odd quid.
This year is a lot different and i will go into more detail on the contents of my bait order and why i have chosen these baits in next weeks update when the order is here but it is safe to say a bait order of near £50.00 has presented its own problem. Till now i have been splitting my bait order between two fridges at my house and my dads and i have to say its caused a bit of friction, not least last year when my partner defrosted half a kilo of roach instead of chicken for tea!
Problem was resolved on Friday when i collected my very own bait freezer! The bait order due on Tuesday it will soon be full but it also offers me some great time saving opportunities as i am planning on boiling up pint sized bag so f hemp so i can literally gab a frozen bag on Friday evening rather than having to boil it up after work.
Bank Holiday Fun With My Little Fisher.
Bank holiday Monday and with the other half in work i asked my little girl if she fancied going fishing with daddy, of course she jumped at the opportunity to catch some little fish. The weather was not ideal as it was quite windy and to be honest heading for the canal at 10am is never a great time as there is a good reason you see my canal blogs are from first light till 10am and this down to one thing..boats! Boats don't really do much damage to your fishing but on this canal it is not just the one its four or five at a time when they get going.
My daughter is only 4 this week so i am knew to the whole taking her fishing but i have picked up one big lesson over my years fishing and that is KEEP THE SESSIONS SHORT. Over the years i have lost count how many times i have been fishing and seen dads taking their kids fishing and a hour or two in the dad is pulling his hair out, kid is crying to go home bored and the whole thing is not fun at all.
A short session on the local canal using up some maggots on the short whip. The development is there in here fishing as last year she knew she was catching fish but was not really understanding the whole float going under where as in the sessions this year she has put two and two together and on this short session of only a half an hour she struck all these bites herself!
She was more than made up with her little net of fish and she left the water full of excitement from the little amount of fishing she had just done. Right now half an hour to an hour is about right for her to go and not lose interest. It might be the last session of the year for me and my little girl fishing as i dont think she is ready to be sitting waiting for a bite.
Packing up we where rewarded with a visit from the local swam family,
One of the things i love about fishing is the development of the wildlife through the year, my how they have come on. Well done mum and dad!
Morning Fun On the Acolyte...
Having purchased my 14ft Acolyte a few weeks ago i have found opportunities to get some use out of the rod few and far between and with my car also playing silly beggars with spare wheels being employed till pay day and such like it has meant long distance trips have been out of the question. The recent roach nets as the bolo method suggested have been on a deeper rivers so the 17ft rod has been my tool of choice giving my that extra control.
A few days off work last week for a short family trip to Blackpool i arrived back with a day to spare before the return to work on the Thursday. I was determined to get out on the river so a slow drive to the river was in order. I arrived to find her as low as i have ever seen her and to be honest i knew the length of the session would not be down to myself as much as how long the fish would not spook from the dark deep recesses they where residing in.
Reading the river in these scenario really is child's play and about as easy as watercraft comes. Anywhere you can not see the bottom there will be fish and all the spots that look lovely and serene with wavy green weed dancing the the rivers methodic beat forget about as the fish in such low clear conditions just wont be on these shallows.
I settled in a nice swim on the inside of a bend. The water rushing round the out side of the bend had created a 10 to 15ft deep run with the back eddy and slacker water on the inside under my feed carving out a deeper whole in the river bed. I knew the fish would be under there and it was a case of how many not if i would get a bite.
The first few casts brought two really fat plump dace that in february could go on to be very special fish indeed.
The dace kept popping up one by one at a time and bites where hard to come by and i was working hard each time to get a bite, holding the float back as much as a dared to prolong the time my bait was in the killing zone of darker water. The swim did go through a lull and i knew straight away the big chub had come into the line of feed and muscled out the dace. A theory that was confirmed seconds later when the float buried, as only chub do, resulting in a more than healthy bend in toe acolyte rod.
I can not express enough just how much of a joy these rods are to use they are as light as air and the action in them when you get a better fish is fantastic. The have you on the edge of your box as you play a fish and you do need to play the fish. If you are an angler that is hit and hold and give no ground in the fight type of angler then you are certainly going to end up with a three piece rod becoming a five piece rod really quickly, you have to actually play the fish with these rods.
The chub was soon followed by the next family member in the shoal and then as predicted the chub show was over and the dace packed up not long after them. It left a swim full of gudgeon and oh my god what a joy it was to bag up on these mini barbel for a good half an hour of so and there was some lumps among them!
Eventually the sun came over the trees behind me illuminating the whole swim in its warming glow. We live in a world full of electrical alarms and clocks when the truth is that if you spend time on the bank you kind of fall into a time when there was no break down of the beautiful day into hours and minutes and learn to follow natures own time zone.
In short it was an enjoyable little few hours on the river before the bustling world around me awoke for their daily musings, i was gone long before the roads became busy and back home in time for a warm break fast.
Sat drinking my coffee and tucking into a bacon buttie i reflected on a morning of bliss spent beside a beautiful river as i watched the last of my worries from my working life float off down stream and left feeling refreshed and ready to attack the two days in work before my next angling adventure into the unknown.
till next time i wish you all tight lines
Danny
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