Monday 28 November 2016

Where I Fish? and Top 30 Fishing Blog Award....

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet.  Last week i mentioned i had been off work the past month and although i wont be going into any detail about the reasons its again fishing that shows its worth for proving that there is so much more to getting out on the bank than catching fish.  That's not to say i have been out every day fishing, parental duties still have to be completed, but when i have managed to get out to wet a line i have to say those few hours alone with my thoughts have really helped me these past weeks and of course the company and support of good family and friends.

I generally keep family off this blog to keep the fishing and that separate but the good friends side is easy to share, this session for pike took my mind off all my problems, just for that day, thank you.



On to the blog.....

Top 30 Fishing Blogs on the Web Recognition...

It was great this week to get an email from Feedspot in which they congratulated me for the blog making the top 30 on their best fishing blogs on the web.  Starting the blog all those years ago for a bit of fun its amazing to see where it is today and how its developed and almost taken on its own identity as time has gone on.

The blog has been mentioned before in such lists but when i had a good look at the list it was blogs from all over the world and the majority of the top ones where all american, not a bad thing, but showed it was a list compiled form blogs all over the world.  Dannys angling Blog come in at a respectable number 28 on the list and i was proud to have even made the list never mind the top 30.

I would like to thank the organisers for not only putting the list together but also show casing angling blogs as i do think as we move into an age where anyone can write a blog or create videos of their fishing experiences that bloggers and video loggers will be the face of angling in the future.  As paper sales of the weekly magazines decline we will see them unable to pay such high salaries to their stars and as such we will see a decline in variety in the papers and thats when we will see these companies go full out paperless and online and part of that will be embracing bloggers and video loggers int he angling world.

You only have to look at the quality of videos out there and i even my little bit of the world is regularly getting 10k a month views,  in short its great that finally the people putting their heart and souls into their blogs and videos are getting some recognition and long may it continue.

Where do You Fish Danny??

If there was one question i get asked more than any other it is this one.  Dont get me wrong you put your fishing out there for all to see, you should expect it, right?  As much as i disagree with this there is a bit that is right i do put my fishing out there for all too see and if you go back to my very first blogs i cover the main reason i started this blog, the lack of information out there on fishing and i hoped tis blog would inspire people to get out there and find fishing based of what i share that proves the rewards are there.   Of course the internet is now approaching saturation point with information to the point you can get the low down on any venue out there before you even see the place and if we look at the carp word on some venues you can read how many doubles, 20's, how many 30's and then a roll call of their names, such is the world we live in.  To first know where i fish you need to get into my frame of mind, simply put its as far away from these places as i can get.



My fishing involves hours of looking on google earth for places to fish and although we do from time to time fish match lengths or popular haunts i would say the huge majority of my fishing is done on places that have no queue in the car park, no rush to get a peg and certainly places where the fish have no names.  When i do visit the busier places i almost leave with a headache from the constant reams and reams of absolute drivel some anglers find it necessary to shout to each other on the bank, some anglers i am sure don't know how to be quiet.

Have you ever drove down the road in the car or looked out the window of a bus and caught a glimpse of a spit of a pond or gone over a bridge and thought that "i wonder if there is fish in there?".  Well this is where you will find me fishing, i looked out the window and didnt just think i went out and found out.  It baffles me how people actually pay commercial prices in winter to catch silvers when most to get to the gates in time to get "the peg" they must drive past hundreds and thousands of silvers in their local canal.

Fishing the local cut or river you are not going to leave the superstar angler you will after catching a tonne from the commercial but what you will leave the canal or river with is a sense of achievement.  How many times do we hear in matches, "well hes won hes on the peg" or "billys on the flier"  we hear this all the time dont we? Well believe me once you have saw a water, got on their first light to look for fishing topping and then fished the area, you will have found your own flier! And you know what? Its all yours to enjoy, no queuing up at gates, no paying a land owner to fish.  I would say over 50% of my fishing is done for free.

So in short, where do i fish?  I fish all those crap places that people see day in and day out but turn either  their nose up at or pass wondering what if......Dont thin what if get out there and wet a line trust me its the best feeling in the world.

On the to the fishing...

Long Rod And The Bolo...

The rain had been falling hard all through Friday and it continued to tap against my bedroom window as i tried to get off to sleep, a hard enough task the night before a fishing trip as it is, waking up at silly o'clock in the morning i quickly went about my pre fishing routine part of which involves opening the back door the check what mother natures mood is.  In short she was in the same stubborn sour mood she left me in the night before with steady rain falling still.

A quick check on the EA levels page revealed them all to be on a steady rise and carrying water.  We decided on the river we where going to fish, a good depth and the fact it normally has a slow pace at best we knew with the extra water in it might have a decent flow and there was a good chance of a fish or two.

Arriving on the banks there was a few fish topping and we took the lazy option of the first two pegs we come too.



My plan for the session was to fish rod tip on the bolo float and the picture above shows just how simple the components are for river fishing.  My rod of choice was my 17ft Preston Carbon active rod teamed with my shimano reel loaded with 4lb line down to a 2ft long bayer perlon hook length.  The bait on the day was 2 pints of red maggot and about the same of hemp seed.

My plan was to fish rod tip and finding around 8ft under my feet i did think about putting a stick float on.  I fished this line from the off and started to pick up the odd small roach but i soon began to notice a snag or some sort of weed on the bottom i kept hitting.  Time and time again i would go down and right where i wanted to get my bites i would clip a snag.  Some of the time it was a fish and the bites

The times is was bites i was rewarded with a roach.



With silver fishing the basic tackle is simple, for this session it was a simple as putting on a float and adding a hook length with most of the shot in a bulk using a 2.5 gram olivette, skill in this form of fishing comes from repetition and learning the method and the art of bolo or stick float fishing.  As you trot the peg you begin to map out the line you want to fish, parts of the peg where you need to hold back to get over a depth change or a rock.

In this peg on the line i was fishing the bite dropped back below the snag on the bottom and despite me trying the feed further upstream to draw them back up the peg it was to no avail and the snag on the bottom was becoming the end point of the swim as it became a case of get a bite before the snag or no bite at all.



I eventually hit the snag solid and there was no moving it so it was game over with the hook length.  At this stage i was a tad frustrated by striking at, and missing, bites so i decided to abandon the line completely and go just this side of the middle.  It was a case of my regretting not doing it sooner as i was quickly into roach on the bolo.

This is where the beauty of owning a long rod comes to its own.  At 17 feet long i had amazing control on the inside line as i was right behind the line of the float but when it come to then going down the middle the extra length of the rod meant it was as easy fishing as it was under my feet.

Settling into a rhythm of under arm casting out, feeding maggot and then feeding hemp.....run it through, hold it back and strike.  I was quickly putting a few better roach in the net.



I got chatting to a guy and as i did i managed a run of skimmers to around a pound and a half which really boosted the final net.  No pictures unfortunately as i was too busy nattering to take one of the skimmer.  We ended the session with two nice upper single figure nets of fish on a day where most rivers in the country where in flood.  Location and knowing your rivers and picking the right one from your armory is the key.




till next time i wish you all tight lines

danny

Thursday 17 November 2016

Catch Up and Red Letter Pike Day....

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet.  The written blog and fishing in general at the moment has taken a bit of a back seat with me taking some time off work.  This is of course the wrong format to be going into any detail on but its safe to say that the motivation just has not been there to sit in front of the screen and put a written blog together.  The main reason is to be honest content, to the point of going off work i had done quite a bit of pike fishing and i had accumulated quite a bit of video content to keep the pike blog and the youtube side of things ticking over with a weekly video.

The main blog did suffer a little as the last session before i went off work was a session on the river where i went all out for pike but the silver fishing of side was really poor so it really did mean the fat reserves for a fishing blog just was not there.  With blogging it is always good to keep things ticking over so in this update i will be doing a bit of a recap on the piking and where i am up to.  Luckily i also had a good session for pike before i went off where i had a real red letter day for them.  The pike diary is good but it does make blogging red letter sessions in detail really hard as the real estate on the page is not great.

With that all said lets get into the update:

Pike Fishing Progress

Well its safe to say the pike season hit the ground running and it has seen me have some good success chasing the old esox.  As it stands now i have caught 48 pike with 7 of my target of 10 doubles on the bank.  It has been a solid start to the campaign but with November being a but of write off with me being off work then progress will slow and right at the wrong time really with November being a great dead baiting month.  Such is live and i am sure i will be making up for lost time when i get back into work with my new leave year starting next month.

So the piking vlog is coming along well I'm comfortable speaking to the camera and its getting to a point where my editing is becoming easier as i learn the package.  I can also see this video logging being part of the angling year now out side pike fishing with sessions on the canal and river being a real possibility.

There is already plenty of content on the youtube page with some dedicated tutorials and actual sessions on the bank.  For anyone looking to save money with their fishing then piking is a great way to save money and a huge part of that can be making your own pike traces.





There is plenty of content coming on the pike blog as we are a few weeks behind but there have been some lovely pike caught so far, not least this lovely 14lb pike.





Red Letter Pike Session

A early start on the river and driving through the lanes in the dark i was optimistic of catching some pike as the forecast was for plenty of cloud cover and there was a nice nip in the air.  I of course got stuck behind the slowest of slow tractors heading there so it was already light when i arrived on the bank.

My tactic for the session was my trust paternoster live bait rig and setting up in a swim i had caught some pike in recently i was confident of a bite or two.  The sun rising over the river revealed the river to be in fine fettle with plenty of clarity for presenting a bait.  A good two hours in the swim and the rods remained motionless, i say motionless they or course dances to the live baits erratic tune.

A change was in order as it was clear the recent drops in temp had pushed the fish from the area.  The beauty of pike fishing is how simple and quickly you can pack in a move.  A ruck sack, two rods, two bank sticks and a landing net meant i was soon on the road to a new location.

One rod in i set about plumbing up the depth for the next one and i was soon presenting two baits in a new spot, a quick turn round and my first rod had gone and line was peeling off the open bail arm.  A strong strike and the rod hooped over straight away, a sure sign of a ok fish.  To this point i had caught two doubles and quite a few jack pike so i was pleased of the hard fight from the first fish.  A hard fight later i was pleased to slip the net under a 10lb 7ox pike, a great start.



The pike returned it was a great start to the new spot.  Of course the fish was rested in the net before releasing her back to her home and it did seem like it was only seconds after releasing the pike that the rod went again.  This time a jack just under the 6lb mark.



This pike was caught at 12.19am and showing how much the pike where on the feed the 3rd pike was caught and banked at 12.41 showing how hard they where on the feed.  Nothing in 2 hours in one spot yet 3 pike in no time at all in the other.




A nice break in the action allowed time for me to grab a warming brew and i was visited by a friend i have not seen in a while and it was great to catch up on our angling adventures since our paths crossed last time.  A good angler and it was great to see some of his angling pictures form recent silver fishing ventures.  Of course being the good man he is he also gave me a few pointers about potential other hot spots to try and the river in general, all of which i was grateful for.

1.30pm till 2pm brought on another flurry of activity with two lost fish and two more small jacks on the bank with a 5lb14oz fish followed up with a 5lb on the nose barrel of a jack pike.



Moving into the last hour the light levels really began to drop rapidly and with it so did the temperature.  Stood watching the floats i knew it was only a matter of time before the float went.  The odds so stacked i the favour of the predators they just had to be on the feed.  You could feel the tension building and hard flurry's by the baits gave a sign that something was about down deep.

My feeling was right as the right hand rod slid slowly away, a slow take that was so different to the other jack takes and i let the run develop before setting the hooks.  The reward a nice conditioned 9lb pike



The fish back the last half hour of the session was upon me and it was a session that passed in the blink of an eye.  I know there was 40 mins between takes but it did not feel like that to experience it, it felt like it was manic.  The time for the slow pack away had come and i was fresh out of baits baring one roach.  I decided to slowly pack all the other gear away and spent 15 minutes with just the one rod out.

Reaching for the rod it was time to call it a day and as i reached down i caught the float disappearing out of the corner of my eye.  Another slow take and striking i knew i was into another nice pike.  A hard fighting pike had me on all types of runs as line oozed from the spool.  The fight was a good one and up from the depths came a dark green shape of a lovely pike.  A double for sure and i thought around the 13-15lb mark.

On the bank she went 11lb and i mist admit i weighed her again and low and behold she was 11lb she just looked a lot bigger.



A cracking way to end a nice session with two doubles and 7 pike on the bank i left a happy angler.  At least the fishing was going ok and providing a space for solace away form the troubles developing in work.

Till next time

tight lins

Danny