That said this week has been a week where the Internet in my house has been down so the distraction of other peoples content so time will tell in the coming weeks if there is still scope for this routine. One thing i can say is look out this Friday for a special capture in a pike video! Its a video for me that i think shows what pike fishing is like for most people around the country, hard work, blanks and moments of joy as you come out the other side.
On to the update..
Trip Down Memory Lane....
This week i snagged on bottom whilst wobbling a roach on the river which involved me pulling hard to straighten the hooks out but after only moderate pressure on the line the line just exploded. Doing some tests on the line i noticed the line was fragile in places and must have literally gone all of a sudden as i certainly had no issues in previous weeks. A trip to my dads was in order to pick up a new spool of braid to replace the reel with.
While i was there my dad pulled out a box he had found at the bottom of the cupboard during a recent clear out, what it contained saw memories come flooding back form my youth. Firstly the two lures in the picture tell quite a different story, with the rainbow one being, as i remember it, absolutely useless on the local cut. On the opposite side of the coin the Abu Garcia "Terminator" was a killer lure as the scars down its flank are testament to. Shallow diving and flashes of silver i remember it being the best lure for the canal as it did not dive deep and kept out of the way of the trolleys, bikes, dead bodies and traffic cones in the local cut.
Now this picture of the pike bobber brings back memories of my teenage years fishing with my dad. Pike had just started to appear on the canal and where becoming a regular appearance on our trips for roach and bream. My dad always had a cantilever tackle box and in one of the compartments was this old school pike bobber float and some may remember when pike traces came in a see through bag with a yellow that i think where made by kamasan. How pike fishing has taken off from these days when a live bait was presented under a float that was held in position only by the tension form the stick through the middle.
I always remember me getting one pike on a live perch, quite a funny story and one maybe for another blog. In my head it was certainly a double but at the time it was my PB pike and with no pictures back then when we went fishing i have the best image of the pike you can have, in my memory.
A Little Angler Called Camie...
From my memories of my childhood to a father and son creating their own memories right now, a journey that will create moments in time that, like mine with my dad, will last a lifetime and will need no pictures to recreate the magic. I have had the pleasure over the past 2 years to have met a polite young gentleman called Cam he is a cracking little lad who already has developed a love for catching the fishy's that live beneath the water.
Under the wing of his dad Ste he has been placed firmly on the right path to becoming a cracking little angler, learning his trade on the local canal and ponds this summer it was not long before he had bagged his first silver fish on the whip and moved up to tackling some carp later on in the warmer months.
Winter has come and after seeing his dad catching some "sharks!!" as Cam calls them he decided himself the time had come for him to catch one for himself. In what is a cracking feat for an angler so young he hooked and played from start to finish his first pike. Not happy with catching one he then went on to catch another with his PB now standing at 8lb6oz!!. Showing the grace of a gentleman he let his dad have the last run of the day having fed his appetite for shark catching for another week :-)
A side bet of a quid with Ste has me betting he has his first 20lb pike by the time he is 12 :-) At this rate it will before his next birthday! Well done Cammy!!!
Forget Me Knots....
A quick final piece before we get into this fishing is a cracking little diagram a company sent me this week and asked me to share on the blog. Noticing how great this little picture is i quickly agreed and below is a collection of fantastic knots for all your fishing needs i know i certainly have saved it for my own personal use.
River Dee Session on the Bolo...
A video of the session below is available here on the youtube channel:
Early evening and with hemp seed cooking on the stove myself and my uncle discussed out plans for the following day. A weekend where weather conditions in the week meant all of our venues where in prime fettle to wet a line on and to be honest all would have produced the goods on the day.
We had spend a good amount of time on one or two venues this season but one that had not saw our foot prints was the banks of the muddy river Dee. A big decision for us to visit at this time of year as it involves a very early start to get there in time to get a peg so its a venue we love to fish but the jaunt of going there is a little off putting to say the least.
Arriving under the cover of darkness we where met with the familiar sight of a number of pegs already taken so we both settled on pegs we knew would be an awkward fish but we could catch from. Not wasting the hour before first light i got to work using the car light to tie up a few hook lengths.
First light revealed a river in fine fettle with not a breathe of wind and a cracking pace to her, it looked bob on for a few bites.
The video explains this a little better but the swim was situated to the Right of a tree that over hanged the water causing a big slack behind and the flow coming off the end of its branches. This tress over the years had diverted the flow as such that a deep hole had been created behind the tree so for about 10 to 15 metres of the run it was deep and then of course it shallowed up slightly as the normal bank side depth was found further down the run.
It left me with two options. 1, feed heavy with hemp and castor on the tree and try and control my feed to catch in the deep water or 2, feed downstream on the shallow run and completely miss out the deep water. On the day i felt fishing the deep water would be the best as i felt this is where the fish would be and also striking up i did not have to worry about my 17ft rod becoming a 12ft rod on the tree to my left.
A 3 gram bolo fished with a bulk shot and two number 8 droppers to a size 20 hook on 2lb 1oz bayer perlon was the set up for the day and feeding castor but fishing maggot on the hook i was soon catching dace of all sizes steadily.
The bites where coming right on my hemp and with the fish coming in with a mouth full of maggots it also told me i was getting my feeding right and my castors and hemp where both getting down to the bottom. The fish will always tell you if you are feeding right/ The bites go then maybe you are feeding to heavy or too far up the swim and the fish are above where you rig is settling.
Alternating between maggot and castor saw fish coming all morning and when bites went funny on castor a change to maggot would always give me two bites at the cherry at catching on the trot rather than the one bite and done scenario with the castor. This is a approach that can work well and when using red maggot you can get away with as they kind of resemble the castors in colour, more so than say a White maggot.
The castors of course brought better fish like the roach above and i did hope at the time that a shoal of these fish had moved in, a scenario that can turn a good days fishing into an exceptional one.
Into the afternoon and the bites did start to dry up on the out side line. Experience had taught me to expect this so i had purposely fed the swim in a way that the feed covered both the outside line and slightly into the slack. This tactic i knew would mean some maggot would be falling into the slack behind the tree.
Dropping in here kept the bites coming and remembering to keep feeding the outside line meant i knew fish where building up confidence out there with no line going through. The fish where of course not as big in the slack but it kept the net ticking over.
After around a hour i moved over to the outside line and it worked a treat as a shoal of small chublets had moved in and although i was travelling now onto the shallows for my bites i was getting a bite every run down. The final net of 15lb showed how it had been a day of many bites and also that i had not really attracted caster stamp sized fish into my swim.
I left the banks happy with a days fishing that saw me only use the one hook link all day and have an bite packed session on the bank.
Till next time i wish you all a very merry Xmas and a safe and prosperous new year
Tight Lines
Danny
