River Bollin Discovery and Step up to the Plate WAA...

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update I hope i find you well and your nets wet.  I thought i would get straight to the point this week and get the bad or should i say disappointing news off my chest straight off the bat and unfortunately as with most of the few and far between bad news stories on this blog it centres around Warrington Anglers.  I have done without the delights of the Warrignton Card for the best part or 2014 and i can't say i have particularly missed the litter and human feces strewn pegs that surround the pits and the carp filled puddles that they own that much but as winter approaches and the arrival of our little boy grows near you have to start thinking a little more local and incorporate shorter sessions and the miles of untouched canal with its pike fit the bill perfectly for me so rather than listen to the hordes of people on the public forums who claim you don't need a licence to fish the canal as you never see a bailiff i chose to purchase one and put it to one side for the months to come.

Anyhow licence in the bag i settled back into my Free and Northwich anglers card fishing and basically forgot about the warrington card altogether and lets face it as a river angler the numerous rivers on the Warrington card are not worth the paper they are written on with a list like Barnton River weaver, River bollin, numerous river Severn and the newly acquired and really really shallow river Alyn being pretty much a waste of time due to either poor river location, low or nill stocks or impossible to access areas of the river.  As i have said before it all looks good on the card but in reality, well i will let you travel to them but just think how many times you see reports from these waters from the club. p.s if anyone does go barnton to fish the river weaver do let me know if you do actually to see the river as last time we went well lets just say a machete would not have got you near. 

  Anyhow i do digress and the main point i wanted to make was around the fact that this week i received my begging letter from the club stating that i had not renewed my licence and as the club had purchased leases and stocks EXPECTING me to have signed up again then would i kindly cough up the full price of a year card for 4 months fishing.

Now my gripe is not so much with the letter being sent out, although it most certainly screams of desperation and i can only imagine in horror the amount of widows that receive this terrible letter each year and have to go through the torment of letting something as insignificant in life as an angling club know of their sad news, but is around the spending or more wasting of money on this act of mailing everyone who has not renewed to cough up for their spending through the year. Add this silly cost to the fact it would seem from this that the secretarial skills of this club are about as up to date as their "diverse" fish stockings it leaves a lot to be desired.  I mean another year and how many silvers stocked this year?  I have been off the Facebook page for over a year now and still the 1000's are being spent on carp and the silver anglers get what?? fairness and equality is all i ask for, hell at this point i would settle for them stocking the value of one 20lb carp of silvers into one of the rivers, alas what am i talking about, what would i know about rivers and the fish stocks in WAA waters, only wasted my time fishing all the rivers on the card barring the Wye and i can tell you compared to free fishing and other smaller clubs their rivers leave a lot to be desired, i am a big river man and i certainly would not recommend this card for the rivers and yes there is more to rivers than the river mersey match length, which could quite possibly be the only river where keep nets are not allowed, well apart from matches of course and then its a roll of the dice for who plonks on and lands 2 or 3 bream to win the match.

Take this blog update for example and although when i get going i can rant there is logic behind it, it is my belief that this club owes it its river men to provide at least one of their rivers that can offer the river man a solid days sport with plenty of chub, dace and roach, perch, gudgeon and dare i say the B word.   They have the potential available already on the card to do this as take the tiny small and insignificant river bollin that this club openly admits to only keeping in case the fishing ever becomes good, well i am sorry powers that be but....rain check!...if the fish are not there it is not going to get any better what are we talking here waiting for a passing heron to lose a male and a female fish from its grasp? or eggs to drop from a ducks feet? come give me a break its not as if we are asking you to build an ark here just to stock some fish into a river.   And before the old rubbish answers like "not everyone wants to sit in one swim and catch silvers" or "its up to nature with rivers" or "its up to the ea" or "cormorants will have em if there not 3lb carp" any of the other gems raises its head, you take our money and as such both carp and silvers should get a fair whack. And guess what also happens with stocking fish into river? well these amazing, hardy and weather worn men called river anglers hear fish are being caught and guess what swims are built through the Himalayan balsam to create swims and as such the river is reopened to anglers by anglers, bait starts going in year on year and before you know it you have thriving river, 

So what can be done with this little, insignificant, tiny and useless river bollin?? what could the potential results be?  well take a long hard look at last weeks, this weeks and the midweek blog update to come next week and you will see what can be done as all these nets come from the river bollin and this is a river that does need a stocking from scratch just think what could be done with an already established river like the river alyn near rossett which is perfect barbel country,  enough of the excuses, rather than make excuses i get out there and provide the FACTS about what is possible with the rivers on this card the only unfortunate thing is i have to fish waters not on the card to prove it.

Moving on to the good news and it was great to receive my Pondip Tackle Box in the post recently, arriving home from work to the two boxes on the coffee table i was excited to see their contents.  I started with the carp tackle box and was pleased to see yet again the box followed the theme of providing a box that all comes together to make a use able rig, this week is was probably the most used rig of all the bottom rig and i was also pleased to see that the company has got the confidence to provide quality over quantity as the bulk of this weeks boxes cost was made up with some quality Vardis sinking coated braid.  It would have been so easy for them to fill the box with a lot of cheaper items but i am certainly all for quality over quantity and with hooks, lead, quick change links, fluoro carbon leader and a free sample of CC Moore baits again you not only have a box of tackle but a usable box that comes together.

Moving onto the coarse box and this box also contained a spool of 6lb line from Krystonite which i instantly had plans for a future chub session as the diameter compared to the line strength was impressive.   It was also good to see that the boxes also seem to follow a theme from month to month with a hook tie in last months and two sets of spade end hooks this month.  Also contained in the box was a set of three pole rigs, size 9 stot refill, a collection of depth plummets and bandit corn method rigs.  Again i was left impressed with the coarse box as in my opinion it is the hardest box to put together as coarse fishing covers such a vast area of angling compared to carp angling and it was great to see as many areas of angling where provided for as possible in the box, carp pole fishing, silver fishing and heavier duty fishing on rivers with the thicker line, all in all a great two boxes to recieve this month.

If you are interested in receiving a monthly Pondip Tackle Box check them out on this link you wont be disappointed: Pondip Tackle Box

In either the midweek blog or next weeks blog i put to use some components of these tackle boxes to put together a rather special net of chub.  I am also currently writing a guest blog for Pondip each month on all aspects of angling so if my blogs are selected i will post the links to it on my social media pages or the following weeks blog update so keep and eye out for that in the coming months a really exciting and nervous experience to actually write a blog to be published on another site but will be really proud should one of my blogs get published.

Finally before we get into the fishing, come on i have missed a few introductions with product reviews there is a back log haha, i thought it would be nice to share some pictures from recent trips we have been on when we just loaded up the car, armed ourselves with a bag of bread and headed off for a walk along the river or around some local ponds with our daughter.  I must say she is coming along great and its crazy to think she is 2 years old in September, how time flies! what is great is the fact she is certainly showing an interest in fishing and recently we have spent some special moments at the computer looking through Daddys fishing pictures, that time is near!  I am sure at this point she would be able to hold a small pole and lift it but i want to wait that little bit longer till she can relate the float going under to catching the fish and experience the magic that comes with that small float moving away and lifting into her first fish, i can not wait.

All set for a days feeding ducks and stomping in puddles!!

Our first trip was to Ackers pit to feed the Ducks.

and then we had a walk along the River Tame to see the wildlife and the big weir.

On to this weeks fishing escapades:

River Bollin Stick Float Fishing: Change of Tactic

Last week i decided to rove the banks of a Private stretch of the River Bollin we have been given access too and was quite success full taking a few fish from each swim before moving onto the next but it was the first and the last swim i fished that i fished that grabbed my attention with its big dace and not forgetting late on it produced a chub for me.

Selecting a venue to go to is really providing us with an headache each week and that is testament to what a fantastic season we have had so far on the rivers and each week we have to choose between the Dane where we are getting solid 10lb plus nets as well as the odd big perch or the Dee where dace nets are on offer with the chance of a pike turning up or the Bollin where we are slowly learning there is some quality fish, its a good headache to have i am not going to lie.

As always we arrived on the bank with the moon still high in the sky.

This arriving and setting up in the dim early light with torches and lamps does offer a more advantages than just getting the swim you want to fish it also means you are fishing near enough in the dark and making the most of that early morning darkness where the better fish are expected.  I do not set up a feeder for these early exchanges but feel for the bite with my finger tips as i trot the float down, with chub and nice dace you feel the bite more than see a float go under and its also a great way to get your mind focused for when its light enough to trust looking at the float.  The fish below was caught near enough in the dark as you can see.

With my sessions i always have a plan for the day ahead and today it was to fish the first swim till bites dried up and it is to be expected with such a small river as eventually either through the commotion of fish being caught or the light levels increasing too much the fish eventually spook and sometimes they can just either go right of the feed or move completely out of the swim, sometimes of course it can be the opposite and its just bigger fish have moved in once this happened i planned to move up to below my uncle where the cover offers more protection from the light.

The first dace of the day always gets my confidence level heightened as you never find a dace on its own so i was confident of crossing paths with a few more of its shoal.  A few more plump dace and then the float slammed under with an unmissable bite, striking it was solid and then came the dart for the cover which saw my hooping the rod over and down under the water to try and keep the line out of the far bank brambles.  The key here is to keep the pressure on as much as possible and don't give an inch in the fight on these tiny rivers and eventually the fish will move back into the flow.  Once the fish is out in the main flow my mind then turns to minimising disturbance of the swim so the rod was hooped back over to my right to try and coax the fish up the swim and not play it on the top only lifting when the fish is under my feet and scooping it up, it worked a treat and in the early morning light i took a moment to admire this chubs brassy flanks.

The thing it seems with chub on this river is they are very much like their dace friends they share the river with as they are rarely alone and as not fished for very much do not seem to spook out of the swim like they would on say the dane and this was proved again as very next cast i was looking down at another chub in the net between my legs, very similar in size.

The chub joined its friend in the keep net and it was back to into the rhythm of casting in, feeding and running the float through and although it was not one a chub fishing what i was catching was quality and believe it or not the dace below is the average for this tiny waterway.

I probably started fishing about 4.45-5am on the day and by 8am i was starting to trot the swim with not a touch so i knew the time to move was close approaching and i was literally about to pull the float back at the end of the run when it zoomed under and at first i thought it was another chub till all hell broke loose with a trout jumping clear of the water and flapping on the top right over my hemp it was making a right mess, eventually i got this slippery customer to the bank, took its picture and put it back into the river.

Lovely fish but boy do the make a mess and i knew then that there was no coming back for the swim after than, i did trot through a few more times but even the minnows had gone. I placed my rod down and set about photographing the fish.  The 3 hours work had produced 8lb of quality dace and two chub i was more than made up with the sport.  It is not a river you can spend all day on unless you travel the banks but for fast paced action it takes some beating.

I slowly moved up the bank to below my uncle and plopped my gear quietly down and i knew with the light the fish would have moved further  down the river to a piece out of reach of my uncles swim.  I checked in with him and he had caught well with a few chub and dace and i think he said he had caught a perch.  We knew this was only ever going to be a morning session so i quickly to back to my peg and began introducing some bait as i set my box up.

My uncle had been trotting down for the past half hour without a touch, similar to me in the other swim, so he decided to go for a wander for the hour we head left.

Well what can i say apart from it was a great feeling to have read the fish so well as first put in i banked a 3lb 5oz chub and was easily the biggest we have had out of this river so far and then i went on to catch two more chub in the next two casts for three of the best succession of bites i have ever had it was explosive and i could not believe it. That was it on the chub front but for the remainder i put together some nice dace to pass the time between us leaving.

not a bad bit of work for the last hour or so of a session.

My uncle returned having fished two more pools taking a chub in each and a solitary trout.  He let his fish go from the morning and again it was a quality net.  Hard to believe so many fish from a river you could jump across and i go back to the introduction on this blog, open your eyes WAA it is possible with the right mentality and not being scared to stock silver fish into our rivers, cormorants do not eat every silver fish in our rivers.

till next time i wish you all tight lines and look out for a midweek update from this river which blew me away..

Tight lines

Danny

Pondip Review and River Bollin On the Stick Float

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update hope i find you all well and your nets full.  There have been some changes over the past week to the blog and I proud to announce that Dannys Angling Blog is now supported by Pondip Tackle Box .

Last week i was sent two boxes from Pondip, one coarse and one carp for review here are my thoughts on the Pondip Tackle Box and what they offer the modern angler.

1. EXCITEMENT 

Opening the front door after a long hard day in work i was met with the sight of two parcels laying invitingly upon the door mat, my tired eyes lit up as i realised it was the two pondip boxes for my review.  Straight away the excitement of the unknown was there, i knew they were being sent out so their swift arrival was expected but their contents were still a mystery as in the past days i had purposely avoided researching June's contents to allow me to experience the full package Pondip Tackle Boxes has to offer.

2.BIG NAMES

I opened the boxes at the same time and upon looking inside and through the contents i was genuinely shocked not only at the quality of the contents but at the BIG names from within the angling world it contained.  Across both boxes there was tackle from Kryston, Taska, Enterprise, Matchman and Kamasan to name a few, excellent stuff.

3. CUTTING EDGE

A lot of the tackle I recognised from my day to day fishing such as the Enterprise Corn and Kamasan hooks but the box also contained some exciting tackle i had never seen before such as the Kryston Doppel Ganger Real Meal Halibut Pellet that certainly got the Carp and Chub senses buzzing. 

It was obvious this box not only offered the angler every day tackle to keep their tackle boxes ticking over but also tackle that could add that edge to their fishing. The box also offered a taste of the old school whilst also incorporating a means to try a different approach for example i am always and angler that uses eyed hooks the addition of the matchman hook tie will certainly see me purchasing some spade end hooks to learn a new method. 




4. FUNCTIONAL

At first the boxes just looked to contain a mixture of different pieces of tackle but upon sitting down and inspecting the boxes further it was clear its contents where put together for a reason.  The carp box contained all the items needed to put together a surface floater rig for carp, within the box was a controller float, float stops, hooks and imitation floating baits such as corn and dog biscuits while it did not take long for the river angler in me to notice the Coarse box contained all items needed to have a days fishing on a river with a stick float, float rubbers, weights and pre tied hook lengths all featured.

Being an angler who is out on the banks of his local rivers nearly every week of the year i was soon using this tackle on my weekly fishing trip and with the contents of the Coarse box i put together this nice net if dace, roach and chub.

5.VALUE FOR MONEY

For just the excitement of that Christmas morning feeling of a package containing the unknown arriving on your lap this box is worth every penny of the £15.00 per month and the fact this box contains fishing tackle only adds to the excitement. When you actually sit down and add up the value of its contents you soon see it stacks up financially as both boxes pass the £20.00 mark all this added to the fact its streamlined design meaning there is no waiting in to sign for a delivery makes this box an exciting, fun and sound investment. 

To find out more why not check them out at: Pondip Tackle Boxes

On to this weeks fishing

Saturday 02 August River Bollin On the Stick Float

I always take great pleasure when talking about my blog to people when i say i am yet to meet one bad person through it and the people i have either shared emails with or actually gone out fishing with have all been a joy to both share angling experience or a bank with and it was one of the latter that contacted me this week with news of a Private stretch of the River Bollin he was fishing and would i be interested in wetting a line in her depths.  

With more than a few weeks under our belt fishing the river dane and learning some of her secrets we were ready to give the big perch and silver nets a rest and if we were honest both me and my uncle were ready for a change of scenery so this opportunity was very timely indeed and with a few pictures of dace and roach in printed in our minds and just enough rumours of recent good sessions still ringing in our ears we arranged an early morning session on the Saturday but before then a was the dreaded long Friday in work.

The river Bollin is a river we both knew little about and is a river i have only been on on the banks of once and from that trip i remember a really really shallow river that was so shallow i could walk across it and not wet my ankles so with those thoughts of a shallow small river in my mind i was worried in work as all day Friday the rain came and went and come on heavy again and with it i knew our chances of getting on this river hung in the balance. 

Waking up Saturday morning loading the car in the rain i made the sort journey to my uncles where we decided to bite the bullet and make the trip to the Bollin instead of visiting the River Dee which was our back up plan. Walking the bank in the pitch dark it was hard to make out where the shallow and deep bits of the river resided as in the dark it all looked deep but as our eyes adjusted we began to make out one or two deeper runs and also that the river had a lovely steady flow to it, full of excitement we unloaded the car and trundled to our chosen swims.

Feeding the swim as i set about my routine of setting up my bait waiter, landing net, keep net and rod it was a good 30 minutes of feeding before i was sat with rod in hand ready to plumb up and make a cast.  Out into the gloom went the depth plummet and after weeks fishing 6-7 feet deep it came as a shock when the plummet registered on bottom almost instantly.  As mentioned in the above review i was using quite a light float and adjusting it to the depth i found a depth of around 2ft, i was a little worried but i need not have been as first trot down the float buried and i was over the early morning departing moon to hold a bar of chunky silver dace in my palms the picture showing just how early it was. 

It doesn't matter what river i am on as soon as i catch a dace or a roach i am a happy bunny as one thing you know about these species is they are very rarely alone and so it proved as the next trot down resulted in a chublet, again great to see as this capture raised my confidence that there could be some better chub specimens around the area.  In the first exchanges i caught fish from a few ounces all the way down to this years fry and as the session went on it became very hard to get 5 yards down the swim before one of these hungry mouths snaffles the bait. The better fish would show around every 5 or 6 fish and it was great when one of these was a roach, another species added to the list.

The amount of fish in the swim was incredible as time and time again the float went under anywhere from under the rod tip as soon as the float settled to my bed of hemp but visits to this hemp filled area where few and far between but when i did i was always met with a better fish and on one of the runs down i struck into a fish that shot off down stream at a rate of knots before eventually turning and shooting back up through the swim before putting on an aerial display all over the swim, thrashing and crashing its way to my landing net and there in front of me was a nice trout i must admit they are much better on the eye than in the water thrashing about all over your swim, still another species ticked off. 

The fishing went quiet for a bit after this and it in fact helped me out in the long run as the really small fish being young and naive stayed at the top of the run and it pushed the bigger fish down into the darker deeper water and as soon as i worked this out i was able to over cast the early part of the run and was getting some nice dace with great regularity and at this stage i reckon i had easily over 60 fish in the net. 

The dace continued to come with the odd smaller fish but then the whole swim went quiet and the float trundled down further than it had all morning and down along some really dark water where it zoomed under striking i hit a fish that showed none of the panic of the trout earlier as it held defiantly in the flow, here i stand mentality. The fish, obviously a stubborn chub, was hell bent on getting me into a snag but thankfully i turned the fish and i must admit using a hook length from the box that i was unfamiliar with i did not know just how much pressure i could put on the fish but the tackle held sure and the fish surfaced its big white lips gulping as the net slid under its brassy flanks.

The very next cast i was shocked to again hook into another nice chub which had me thinking i was in for a extraordinary day as you can not help but feel after two chub like this in two casts you might have a nice shoal in your swim.

The time at this point was getting on fro 7.30am and the initial part of the swim where i had caught so well was clearly visible now as it had become illuminated by the early morning sun.  Fishing from 5.30am till 7.30 i had caught a decent net of fish and over the next hour till we decided to call it a day i only added a few dace to the net as the bites completely died.  With small rivers like this you have to take what you can get and although on most of our trips we fish till 2-3pm we both knew now the sun was up on the water it was time to make a move home and cash in those early return home brownie points ;-

my net

uncle net

We left two happy anglers having added another river to our armoury and caught well.  The drive home we shared our excitement from the session and how we had enjoyed the morning and planned another session later on in the week.

The midweek trip will feature as another blog on its own to go live mid next week sometime.

Till then i wish you all

Tight Lines 

Danny