Barbel Blues and Sneaking on the Pike Shoes...

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet.  Pike, Pike, Pike and more pike has all that's been flowing through my mind the past week.  The excitement to get out there and catch them is there, even if it only seems seconds ago the season finished, but the weather at the moment is making it really difficult to imagine casting out a dead bait in earnest for these fish.

In this weeks blog i look a little more at my ideas and thought for the upcoming season and incorporated in this will be a little bit or reason as to why i decided to hit the bank with the idea of catching a pike this weekend.  The other fishing is a session on the river for barbel, a species i have not really given enough time and attention to if i am honest over the past month or two.

Lets get into the update..

Piker with a Plan

So we stand on the cusp of another pike season and with it a whole host of memories are waiting to be created and lived and i can not wait to find out what this season has to hold for me.  The past few seasons we have always had a numeric target for the three of us to aim.  Past seasons have proved this idea to be a fun target to aim for but needing numbers of pike it does put you off trying those areas for quality rather than quantity so this year i wont be getting involved in chasing a numeric total of individual pike.

Last season i did set myself a target of 10 double figure pike and i think given the venues i fished last season this 10 doubles was an obtainable and nice target to go at so again this season i will be setting myself a personal goal of 10 double figure pike.  A target I hit last season and a target i actually enjoyed chasing.  In my piking i think as the season goes on it gives you that push to keep on getting out trying for pike even on the days where it seems a complete waste of time.

10 doubles will be a nice target to chase and I'm hoping will also fit in with my change of direction with my piking this season.  The past two and a half seasons i have been very lucky to share the bank with anglers who have been piking a good number of years and there is no escaping that hours spent on the bank with experienced pikers has seen my learning and understanding of pike fishing drastically truncated.  Although my main focus of going fishing with other pikers is for the laugh, chin wag and hopefully catch the odd pike while there you can not go fishing with someone who has been piking over 20 years and not learn and improve yourself as an angler.

This season i hope to start on a new adventure on a bigger waterway and take some of the lessons learnt and try and adapt them for fishing for pike on my own.  Using my water craft mixed with my determination to put the hours in i'm hoping i will find some success.  Last season i tried a new area of water and managed to bank some small pike and a few doubles so i would  ecstatic to replicate those results but as with all fishing you don't know until you get out there with a bait in the water, right now? I am chomping at the bit to get out, lets hope the pike are as veracious.

On to this weeks fishing...

Barbel Blues...

So far i have done two evening trips for barbel fishing into dark with two eels and a lost barbel to show for my efforts.  I say efforts loosely as in all honesty i do not deserve to put a barbel on the bank right now, i have put minimal effort into it and the time just has not been there to travel to the river to try for these fish.  I think there are a number of factors surrounding why the effort hasn't been there but mainly it just hasn't grabbed me like new adventures normally do and i don't think it has helped that i have enjoyed and had success in my carp fishing adventures this summer.  A venue a lot closer than the river as well.

That said recently we decided to go back and try the river again.  My uncle on the stick float and myself sitting it out for a barbel or chub.  My bait for the day was luncheon meat that had been cut at home and frozen in a food bag that contained a mixture of chili flakes, hot chili powder and garlic granules and i planned to fish this over a big bed of hemp seed so i boiled up 3 pints of chili flavoured hemp.

The day was going to be a warm one so i picked a swim that on paper looked a dream.  It had bags of cover and a good depth, in fact it would make a cracking winter swim i reckon.  Settled back in the swim i made my first cast of the day and sat back.  No action for two hours but i continued to drip feed hemp into the swim and a good hand full of hemp every 30 minutes.

Out of the blue with no warning the tip walloped round and striking i expected to feel the reistance of a fish but the rig just come back at me.  Casting back in i fed hemp again and sat back in my seat waiting for a second chance.  The chance came sooner than i thought around 15 mins after casting in the tip again went round but again nothing was on the end.

A change of tactics to a bigger hook, size 4 instead of a size 6, i was back into the swim.  A long wait till our midday pack up saw the tip go round again with the same result.  A frustrating day on the bank to say the least, i would say at least one was a barbel judging by the how hard the tip went round but not knowing barbel fishing i don't really know where i went wrong.  I upped the size of hook which was buried in the meat i can only think maybe increasing the weight of the lead maybe bit all the books say fish with enough to hold bottom and my one ounce lead was doing that easily.

All part of the learning curve and with piking coming up soon i think the barbel may well have to wait for next summer now and a rethink on tactics as it seems location is nailed in me getting bites.  This update should please those followers who believe we catch every visit we go out lol.

Sneaking on the Pike Shoes....

I have been doing my homework for some time now with regards the upcoming pike season.  I have been scouring Google earth and printings out maps of my destinations for the coming months whilst making the odd visit to plumb the depths of the areas in want to fish.

Baring rain fall and the water being up and coloured i have earmarked one location for a visit come Saturday 1st October.  It has a nice summer depth and a few features on top and beneath the water that really interests me with regards pike and with that in mind we decided to visit it for a day session on the pole recently.

My plan for the day was simple, fish the pole for silvers and put a rod out to the side on a live bait paternoster for a pike. Prepping the Paternoster rig the night before it felt weird prepping a pike rig as it only feels like 5 minutes since i packed the pike gear away.

My main focus on the day was to fish the pole to the best of my ability and as such preparation for the pole was as in depth as the preparation for the piking.  I must admit though i got some really really funny looks this week collecting my molehill soil.  I knew rain was coming in the evening so it was on my way home from work i decided it best to collect the dry soil form the molehill.  There i was, dressing in my work shirt and pants, at the side of the road at rush hour riddling molehill soil into a bucket.  All in the name of fishing, some of the looks where priceless.

The preparation done it was time to see the next morning if the location had any legs in it from a pike point of view.  I know this should really be the session on the 1st of october but excitement got to much for me.  The first fish caught won the prize as a live bait and the pike rig held up well in the water as it allowed the fish to move freely around a centre point and the bigger float was enough to hold it there with a weak bit of 5lb line as a rotten bottom to a lead.

The whole process of adding molehill soil to my ground bait is new to me but i am learning a few lessons and will be posting a in depth blog about this in the coming weeks.  The ground bait mixed i added the soil till i got the mix i was looking for.  I was aiming for a 50/50 mix as i wanted there to be feed as well as colour in the mix and i think i achieved that.

The bites where steady on the pole line bit there where not many better fish showing on the line.  The swim as producing mainly roach and the odd perch at around 5 metres.  I was hoping for the odd bream to show and as i fished the pole line i kept one eye on my pike rod and on the water for signs of pike striking.

It was becoming clear that the area held a decent number of silver fish at this time of year and with one predator in the perch already here in numbers i knew the apex predator would not be far behind.  It took around a hour and half but eventually one found the bait and the paternoster float began to move off into the deeper water.  Temperatures warm it was a quick strike, in fact it was an instant strike, trying my best to avoid foul hooking the pike.

Worth remembering here i was not really out pike fishing i just wanted to gauge if the area was any good for pike come october.  A nice pike around 6lb was soon on the bank and one treble right on the tip of its mouth it was soon unhooked and back int he water to rest.  A quick lift out for a picture and back in till he was fully recovered and ready to go.

A fantastic result so far with plenty of bait fish and a lovely marked pike showing.  The fish continued to bite on the pole line till our midday pack up.  The ground bait did not bring any bream in but the perch did muscle the roach out in the end and it was a perch a chuck for the final hour or so of the session.

I decided to try a perch as a live bait just to prove to myself that pike will take these fish as well as roach and this plodded away on the paternoster that again showed itself to be a great rig and one i will certainly be using come october, especially if the temperatures are still high.

The final net showed a great number of bait fish in this area.

This was proved when the pike rod went again while we where drying our nets in the sun.

All in all a worthwhile exercise and one that sets me up nicely for october 1st.  I now know the area holds pike and come that opening days session i am going to be hitting the bank confident in this area and if i get the same result then i will be over the moon.

Till next time

tight lines

Danny

Doubles Keep Coming and Bream Delight On River

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and you nets wet.  In life it surely is true that it is impossible to find balance in all aspects of life and boy is that a stage i am going through right now.  I normally split my life into three areas, homes life, fishing and work and you find that at no time or should i say for such a very short time are all three all going well at the same time.  Right now? i would say we are hitting the mark with two of them, in short work is as about as depressing as a job can get, new desk facing the beige wall i talked about in last weeks blog is lets just say not inspirational one bit.  It does serve one purpose though in making you really appreciate the other two aspects, walking out of work and home to the family it really increases that sense of excitement knowing your going home to a happy home and of course when fishing comes along at the end of the week, well lets just say i could not wait to feel that fresh air against my face on Saturday.

Situations like this do also focus the mind and as always i find solace and a sense of escapism from writing these weekly musings, however ironic it might be that most of them are wrote at beige HQ.  Speaking of the blog it really is going from strength to strength under its own steam and on social media it really is being well received with the blogs Twitter account now passing 2k followers and Facebook quickly closing in on 750 likes.  Where this long road of blogging will end god only knows but all i can say is thank you to all those who come back each week to read it and in a world where we have celebrity anglers pushing their sponsors products at anglers in the weekly repetitive mags maybe amateur bloggers portraying their fishing adventures will be where its at in the coming years.

On to this weeks blog update and its just the two trips in this update but when one of the sessions contains over 10 carp then there is going to plenty of pictures for those who just like to flick though the pictures on the blog. The second trip is a trip to a new part of the river searching out unfinished swims along over grown banks.

On to the fishing

A morning of doubles....

Travelling to the lake i had began to get a feel for where the carp would be and more importantly where to present my baits.  The shocking thing i was finding was how quiet the banks where.  Arriving at first light i never really had to worry about getting in a swim or the bread drifting and ruining someone else fishing.

On this session it was a period of warm weather and i knew, like most of my sessions for carp, it was going to be a short session but i hoped a for a fish or two.  The warmer weather i knew would see the fish come up into the layers a lot quicker than previous sessions where the mornings had been quite cool.

Arriving i was glad to see the ducks had moved on and i fed quite a bit of bread under my feet, in the snags and off them as well.  The thinking here was to quickly get the carp up in top and confidently feeding and then pick out the ones taking the bread confidently.  What i got truly shocked me as the carp where straight up on top and in good numbers. In went a piece of crust sprayed with Bubble Cream Stinky Stuff and I quickly picked up a nice double to kick off the session.

As i have said regular on these carp sessions it was all about fun for me on these sessions now hence the floating crust.  I also on this session decided to use my 1.75lb test curve barbel rod and as i said on the video the carp where taking off the top and it was not long till the carbon was bent again.

The second carp again falling to the bread sprayed with stinky stuff was another double at just under 14lb.

After this double a six other carp in single figures slipped up on the floating crust and it was clear the carp where up for it as all the carp where slurping down the crust.  The best of the carp a lovely marked fish below.

These carp i have never come across before in the sessions but i was grateful to have found them and what lovely markings.  You can imagine my excitement when i slid the net under my third double and 9th carp of the morning when it had similar markings, a lovely 11lb common.

Casting the bread right over the far side i got a take from a fish and it did not fight at all, it came in like a wet lettuce if i am honest.  It was a carp and a double figure one at that and it looked to have a lovely dark colour.  The fish on the bank was very calm and if i am honest weird for carp.  All the other carp had been a real battle on the mat but this one just lied there.  I gave the fish a quick look over but could see no obvious reason for it.

A quick pic and back she went.

This double was followed by three more smaller carp and it looked like the doubles had spooked off the area altogether.  I have noticed once the sun gets to a certain point in the sky the carp turn off.  I knew my time on the lake was almost coming to an end.  One more cast i thought and i knew to get a take it would be down to getting a carp that was sitting just under some overhanging trees to come out.

A peach of a cast, well a lucky cast, saw the bread land just on the edges of the leaves.  It was one of those takes where you don't see the bread get taken as all you see is line stripping along the surface of the water a quick lift of the rod and i was connected to another good carp that decided she wanted to go back to her home under the trees.

The rod was bent right over and with my hand on the reel giving no inch i managed to stop the initial run.  As soon as you stop that initial run the carp do seem to slowly move out into the lake and this is when you can really just enjoy the battle.  Taking line and making long surges with the reel ticking over it was a good fight and i was mad up to slip the net under the biggest carp of the session in a 15lb 10oz common.

All in all a great mornings fishing with 5 doubles on the bank and like the previous sessions i left to the sound of people arriving in their cars and the sight of carp all over the top basking.

Bream On The Stick...

It feels great again to be scouring Google Earth looking for new virgin waters to fish.  We have dedicated so much time to one area of river that we hit the same areas time and time again trying to work the river out, most of the time in the same swims just different conditions.  So this week it felt good to be zoomed in on the river and following her every twist and turn to find the deeper runs and then of course the dreaded task of finding a place "close" to park the fish mobile.

A bit of likely looking river found it was a case of parking the car and making the walk to the river.  Down the first field and into the second we where greeted with livestock, never my favourite sight i can tell you, but these where horses, a new animal to share a field with for me, they seemed ok.

In hindsight my green ground bait bucket did me no favours at all and i guess the smell of sweet ground bait that lingered around it also added to the attention i was getting.  Across the fields and along the river they followed till eventually we left our "friends" behind.  The river looked deep and had a gentle pace across its width with trees lining the far bank it screamed fish.  A nice gap between us both we set up full of expectation and this was heightened when a big carp jump clear of the water just down stream, i had no chance of landing such a prize but proved this area held fish.

Early trots down i clipped the bottom a few times and i guessed this was down to streamer weed on the bottom, this would be a problem all day.  Knowing we had caught bream on other bits of this river i decided to mix up a good amount of ground bait.  The first few trots down and eventually i started catching the odd small roach.

Once the line i was going to fish was established i made my move and in went 3 big balls of ground bait laced with maggot and hemp seed.  This is entirely new to me in i never normally feed ground bait on the river but it is a branch of the sport i am trying to learn.  The feeding of the bait is easy its getting the "mix" right and also how much to feed i need to master and i have to be honest when i fed the three balls i knew nothing as to if it would kill of make the swim.

The swim continued to produce the roach and the odd chublet till it died completely and i mean it was like a light switch going off.  I trotted through the swim time and time again for around 15-20 minutes and then all of a sudden the float buried and my 14ft drennan acolyte hooped round.  It felt a huge fish in the flow and it just held there for a moment before moving over to the far tree line.  Turned it then came into the middle again and then up came a huge bream.

I don't quite know how to put in words the fight of a bream i guess if you have ever caught one you will know where i am coming from.  They kind of twist and turn in the flow in a horrible erratic way and i did struggle to get the fish upstream but eventually she came up and into the net,  buzzing the ground bait had certainly worked its magic.

The fish in the net i was straight back in and you can imagine what was going through my head when on the very next cast the float buried again and i was playing another nice bream.

Two bream in two casts and i was at a cross roads with the swim, do i feed more ground bait or do i fish it out? I decided with two of the bream there that size that there surely could be more so in went another two balls of ground bait.  If i was going to learn it was going to have to be a case of suck it and see.  If i hadn't of fed again and not caught then i would have walked away thinking what if i had fed again, did they clear me out and move on?

The second trot down after feeding the ground bait i again hit another bream and my excitement levels hit the roof and i am not going to lie here thought of a huge net of bream where flying through my head.  I think rightly so as well with 3 proper bream in 3 casts who could blame me?

The third bream in the net i settled back in and weirdly i started picking up roach again and some nice chublets

Around 9am i felt this burning on the back of my neck as the sun came up over the trees and slowly it rose till it was completely on the water.  This was the kiss of death as both mine and my uncles swims completely died.  The beauty of two of you fishing is you know if its a predator or not as if your mate is catching nicely and you are not then you know something is not right but as soon as that sun hit the water it killed both swims dead.

We called it a day around 11am after two hours with no bites but we both left having fished a new area of river.  We both took away how important ground bait was going to be on the river and again how much this river will be impacted by hot clear days.

I felt i learnt a lot in feeding the ground bait and getting the mix right.  On top of that i think i learnt that i need to get the bream out of the swim as soon as possible as i think on that last bream it certainly flapped about alot right in the swim which could have spooked the shoal prematurely.

All in all a nice quiet day on the bank and good to get amongst the fish.

Till next time

tight lines

Danny 

November Carp, big perch and Wobbling for pike....

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet.  Its been all go for myself and my partner of late as we prepare for our little boys arrival next month.  The last scan revealed the baby had not yet moved into position so we were booked in for another scan this week and although its not ideally what you want to hear during a pregnancy it gave us both another chance to see our little man before he arrives and thankfully after this scan we received the good news that all is fine and baby is doing well and he even decided to give us a little wave on the machine, o the future fishing trips to come, i can't wait.

on to the update...

Never Checked By the EA, waste of time.....

This comment above is probably the most commonly made statement when the subject of the Environment Agency comes up in anglers conversations and although it is always sad when we read or see instances where we feel the EA could do better its always worth baring in mind just how much waterway there is just in the North West and how few officers there are patrolling them.

That said it was great this week to have my EA licence checked again, third time this season on three separate waterways, what was also great was the time they took speaking to my mate Garry about fish being taken early mornings from the locations we fish.  It is a sight i know only too well from my days fishing the Dee where carrier bags of pike would be hauled up into a car before first light and those who say a few fish does little damage only have to look at the decline in pike on this river to see first hand the damage that has been done.  

Keeping on with the good news theme around the EA it was also great to see the EA officers check many anglers licences and not see the sight of a single angler packing in as they did not have a licence.  Its a great feeling knowing you are sharing the waters with similar law abiding anglers who are paying their way and putting back into our lovely sport and countryside.

The only sad part about seeing the EA was seeing just how bad the decline in human natures has become that these officers now more resemble police offices than water bailiffs as they now walk the bank with a stab proof vest and I'm sure they had a baton.   Has society really declined that much that these officers when asking for a licence are met with weapons being wielded and violence? sad sad times if this is the case, just pack in and go home or better still why not pay the small amount of £27.00 and not spend the time watching your back and enjoy your fishing.

So Mild....

With pike playing such a big part in my fishing of late i have been keeping a close eye on the temperature gauge on my car and although we have now dropped down from the barmy 20+oC temperatures of a few weeks ago we are still regularly into double figures during the day and even sometimes in the morning i will get into my car and the temp will read 9-12oc, if we have some cloud cover.

When i imagined pike fishing i always imagined rock hard frosty ground and my thermal boots crashing through ice capped puddles.  So far this season there has been none of that and we are quickly approaching December.  Long term readers of my blog will remember a couple of years ago when the angling mags where full of reports of fish not surviving the torrential floods that seemed to last the whole of autumn and winter and i said then that mother nature works in cycles and we will get really mild winters, like this one, where the fry survival rates are high and the natural food larders remain well stocked, just look at how many midges we are still seeing of an evening hatching.

On the fishing front it may well mean that dead baits continue to be sparsely taken and wobbling may be the method for the whole of the season as the pike remain active in the warmer temperatures chasing the roach shoals.  It may also mean shoaling fish like dace and roach on rivers don't migrate in as many numbers to their normal winter haunts and may choose to spawn in areas of the river more local to them as they don't feel that drop in temperature that triggers them to move.

Personally i hope the frosts are not too far away and we get a consistent drop in the temperature to just above freezing.  It is by far my favourite time of year and the once busy banks become desolate of the fair weather dog walkers, ramblers and of course anglers, proper peace and quiet.

River Fest Final......

This weekend just passed saw the RiverFest Final take place on the River Wye,  marking the culmination of many weeks matches along the length and breadth of the country the actual final going ahead lay in the balance on Friday evening as the heavy rains leading up to the competition took their toll.  I follow dave harrell on Facebook and its great to see how a seasoned river angler plans their trips to the river and also over the year you see just how much money he puts into the competition by entering a lot of the matches.

The river was high and coloured on Friday evening and after many discussions with the EA, who apparently where great and provided predicted levels for the competitors, the decision was made by the match referee for the competition to go ahead.  The final was a two day competition with the winner being the highest weight of fish over the two days.  It is testament to the work the Angling Trust and Dave Harell has done that this competition now attracts the Sky Sports Camera's and will feature on tight lines but also the prize money on offer was now £12,000 for the winner.

The winner over the two days was Steve Sadler who fished a stormer over the two days and was the deserved winner of the competition that saw one angler capture a 20lb carp on the second day.  The match over and people packing away take a look at this for a pike caught after the match had finished.

All in all a great competition and one that is doing wonders to put river angling back on the map and maybe one day we will see the days my uncle and dad talk about where the Dee is lined with anglers and a River Fest competition.

Wide Hole'y Mess....

One of the trips this week was a social trip with myself, Garry, Ryan and Ste, the afternoon of it is featured further in the update, where we decided to visit Wide Hole on the Macclesfield canal.  This place was said to be a well maintained and well bailiffed water by Warrington Anglers.  Unfortunately what we found resembled more and overgrown landfill sight with mountains of litter strewn all over the place, inflatable bed boxes and signs of open fires and barbeque's. 

The fishing was poor but is that really a surprise given how the place is being abused? The banks looked like they had never seen any type of attention in years with most of the swims down the far end completely reclaimed by nature and literally enough rubbish to fill 3 skips.  Maybe its time for this club to employ a team of dedicated bailiffs instead of buying carp.  Yet again another example of a water on the card in disrepair as many of you will remember the feature i wrote on Rixton Clay pits being in a complete state.

In essence you can have as many clean up a water work parties as you want but until you deal with the problem, i.e the anglers your club is attracting, then you will never solve this issue.

on to this weeks fishing...

Wobblin Jacks and One Very Hungry/Silly Pike...

Saturday morning and i was sat in my car at the front of my house with the wind blowing in the trees all around me thinking of what direction to point my car in.  My dead baiting to this point has taken in so many different venues across so many different types of fishing that i honestly did not know where to head for the best.  I eventually settled on a venue all four of us had fished not long ago that had thrown up a double for myself and a few jacks for Ryan and Ste.  With a trip to the river dane planned the next day i had only relaxation in mind and i had packed all but the kitchen sink for this pike trip, chair, holdall, flask the lot, which is quite unusual for me and my piking.

Walking the banks to my peg i set up my base for the day, a nice comfy chair and 2 dead bait rods out fishing hoping the pike where hungry, i sat back and awaited events and hoped my floats would sink below the late Autumn leaves.

A hour or so passed and the leaves where becoming a nightmare, the wind dropped and left the whole swim covered in a thick layer of leaves that was not moving at all and was making keeping the bait nailed down on the bottom impossible. A quick moan on facey was met with a text from Garry that changed my whole session

"Get off your chair, put your gear away in the car and just take a dead bait rod and wobbling rod and cover the whole venue and MAKE SOMETHING HAPPEN they wont always come to you"

He was right i was getting lazy with my piking and sitting in one spot was not how i had fished to this point but i was slowly session on session falling into a lazy approach of waiting for the pike to find me.  A quick walk to the car to drop off my holdall and chair i was armed with a landing net, ruck sack with my tackle and bait in and two rods and i marched to another peg a good 200-300m away from where i had set up.   My first job was to set up the dead bait rod and my chosen bait was a nice joey mackerel that i placed just over the drop off in the margin, madly enough whilst doing this i felt a tug on the line, then another and another and the float slid away.  I gave it a few seconds as in knew i had a decent bait on and struck, up to the top came a small jack which i was surprised wasn't being strangled by the bait it was so small.  More importantly i could see the pike had just mouthed the bait and i knew it was going to let go at any moment and no sooner had the thought left my head than it did the very think, still fish in the area and active, confidence was high.

The rod set in place i mounted up a smelt for a bit of wobbling and it didn't take long for it to get noticed, second cast in fact, twitching it back in i could see the bait working in the water and then a mouth come in and completely nail the bait.  The adrenalin of the bang and then the feeling of, "gotya!", as you let the fish take some line before striking to see what you have lured into taking is a rush indeed and like i said last week, what have i been missing!  The fish was only a jack but the venue i was fishing i knew it was a case of mainly jacks with possibly a double being the icing on a days fishing.

No sooner had i released this fish than the next fish was doing its best to make an appearance as again the float fished mackerel rod began to show some signs of attention and slowly move away, i again gave it a few seconds and struck but again the fish came off, my god i thought you are blowing some chances here Danny.  Returning to my wobbling rod i cast back in and very next cast there was a swirl right at my feet as a pike shot out from no where to claim its mid morning snack.  This time i showed no mercy and on the first opportunity the pike was scooped up.

At this point the move was paying off big time and things only got better when a short move to the next peg saw a hard solid thud mid water that there was no missing, letting the line go loose saw it zipping from the reel as the fish moved confidently off with the bait.  As i had not seen this fish i gave it a bit of time before winding down and setting the hooks and on my small wobbling rod i was met with the feeling of a solid fish on the end.  This rod i use is really old, i am sure its got to be getting on for 15 years old now but boy what fun it is.  Its had fish to 14lb on the river so i am always confident using it and i have to admit since getting my proper pike/carp rods i had forgotten what fun it was.  The fish in the net and another fish for the wobbling rod, she went just over 4lb but it was another one off the total and three for the day so far.

The next pike took an age in coming and i have to admit to suffering four missed fish, one came off on the dead bait and 3 either spat the hooks or just followed the bait in without taking and it was into the afternoon till i connected with my fourth pike of the session, again only a jack but great fun.

I mentioned earlier on about having a fish follow in and not take, what i forgot to say was it was quite a nice fish.  In the same swim, and i think the same fish, i had a pike come out and swirl at the bait without taking.  I had tried a few times to tempt a bite and even the old letting it die in the edge trick but nothing was forthcoming so i decided to pop a smelt right in the margins on my dead bait rod in the hope the free lunch would prove too resisting to refuse.   The rod was in a hour or so before i caught a glimpse of a dip on the float before the float zoomed off and i mean zoomed it was easily the fastest run i have ever had from a pike.  It was so fast my rod that was laying flat on the bank was in danger of not being able to let line off quickly enough so the rod started to move.  I quickly grabbed the rod and let the fish continue to move off.

When pike do this its normally a jack rushing off to eat its prize away from the other predators that may want to take its meal or even turn itself into their dinner but striking i knew this was no jack and it zooomed off on big long hard runs and kept really deep.  The fight was a good one and i remember thinking if i get this one in then it would be a lovely way to end the session.  Thankfully i did and the hooks where in a nice place just in the top of the mouth and it was time to take a picture.

She went over 12lb in the net but subtracting the net we was looking at a fish just over 11lb.

That fish marked the end of the session and i left with 5 pike for the session, 4 on the wobble and one on dead baits and it proved what Garry said was true, sometimes you have to find the fish and simply waiting with a dead bait wont work, he was right.   Garry also keeps gill pictures of all the fish he catches and he recognised this fish, it was a fish i had caught in February and again in the social last week and just to prove how much these fish move i had again caught it on this session a good 300-400m away from where i caught it last.

Chocolate River and November Carp....

Sunday and it was time to wet a line on the river Dane hopefully trotting for a dace and chub.  I arrived at my uncles to find the river the previous day was a eye watering 1.78m but it had dropped on the day to 0.78 so we travelled through hopeful of finding a river in favourable condition.  The swim i was in had a fast run on the far side and a slack on the inside and in normal conditions you catch well all the way across, today though she was bombing through and like chocolate and even the slack was pushing through.  I set up to fish the slower slack but i was far from confident and i even set a wager with Ste who was pike fishing on a water that he would catch more individual fish than me.

A hour and half in and i had not had so much as a knock on the float despite my best efforts and i could hear my uncles foot steps approaching my swim, a sure sign he was having the same experience.  While speaking about moving i hit my first bit of the day in a nice silver dace which prompted us to give it another hour.  In the next painful hour i took one more small dace and a daddy ruffe and my uncle in a terrible boiling and fast swim had found every snag, it was time to make a decision.  We first took a look at the lower reaches but it was still boiling through at a huge speed so we then had a look at the weaver but with matches on its length it was a no go.  We eventually decided to stop off on Curlston mere, what a decision that turned out to be.

We both set up side by side and decided to fish the waggler out in the middle of the pool hoping to catch some nice roach.  The warm temperatures where clearly shown by the sheer amount of fish topping on the water, barmy when you think this is a water that really does close down in winter.  We only had a few hours but we both enjoyed catching a roach a chuck on maggot and to show what a fertile water this is we caught roach of all year classes.

We knew this water contained a good head of wild carp but we didnt think we would encounter any on this trip, that was until azza struck and line started zipping from his reel as the carp made for the sanctuary of the trees.  The fish came off mid water but what a fight to that point and it gave us both a lift that the carp where feeding as you can normally put a few together.  I was next to hit a carp and again i had an epic battle on my hands, to this point i had only ever fished the pole on this water and boy had i been missing out and come summer i will certainly be hitting this pool with my 13 ft waggler rod.  The fight was immense from the turbo charged carp and eventually i slid the net under her buttery flanks.

The pool was alive with roach and we did notice from time to time the schools of fry being spread far and wide and as i had never caught a pike on this water and i had caught some perch i could only imagine it was perch chasing the fry.  I quickly set about making a rig and presented a small roach fry live bait out and it didnt take long for the float to slide away.  As i expected it was a perch but what i wasnt ready for was the sheer size of the fish and when i eventually landed it and placed it on the scales it went a crazy 2lb 10oz and has really opened my eyes to the potential of this water for these stripey predators.

the final net was one that made up for a horrible morning on the river.

Wide Hole Blank But Ryan comes Good...

As mentioned above our trip to the wide hole was a complete disaster both from a fishing and location point of view with neglected banks and rubbish to rival any landfill.  The morning was spent on the banks of this canal back water but we decided to move location for the afternoon.  I endured a frustrating afternoon with one pike following my wobbled roach in time and time again without taking and when i did trick it into taking under my feet the fish had just mouthed the bait and spat the hooks before netting.

Ryan was the star man of this trip taking two jack pike in quick succession with one on the humble sprat and another on the monster mackerel tails that are his trade mark.

fantastic effort mate

Well that sums up another few trips i have had on the bank.  I have two more trips saved up to blog and you wont believe when i blog next who turns up on my next trip. Till then i leave you with a beautiful fish caught by Garry on a recent trip over 11lb,lovely fish mate.

till next time

tight lines

Danny

River Dane Fishing: Perch Heaven and Exploration

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update.  The past few weeks i have managed to get out on the bank on a number of occasions during the week and as such i have decided to break the sessions down into a midweek blog update, as such it has meant that the main weekly blog update for that week has not been live on the front page of the blog for long at all.   I thought it might be worth including a few links to the
past few updates since the season has started.

Chub Fishing on the River Tame: http://satonmyperch.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/river-tame-fishing-sticking-it-out-for.html
Session to Forget on Dane and how i prepare Hemp: http://satonmyperch.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/river-dane-fishing-tough-times-how-to.html
Busted by the coppers on the bank: http://satonmyperch.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/river-dane-fishing-coppers-show-for.html

As of writing this introduction section of this blog I am just about to start a week and a half break from work and at the moment the only plan i have is to get out on the Dane on Thursday and of course our Saturday stint where i think we have got plans to get our discovering boots on to hike a few farmers fields discovering those never fished before swims hidden behind the walls of Balsam that suffocate the river further upstream.  After Saturday I have no idea what I am doing fishing wise, a bit of me wants to put some hours in on the carp quest but I am a running water man at heart and the lure of those rivers pulls hard for me when setting off in the car but its something i need to get my head back on track with so i may find my way out for a few evenings for the carp and maybe a sneak trip to the Tame, either way its going to be an exciting week to be off work and on the bank.  Born to fish Forced to Work.

This weekend is always a weekend i look forward to so much and that is because it is the Fishomania final.  As regular readers will know Saturdays are my normal fishing day so i will be setting a recording on Sky Plus for the match on Saturday but it is the Sunday International match i look forward too more and i guess that is down to the fact it is more similar to to the fishing I do in the way they target all species and the emphasis is not so much on carp catching methods and you get to see baits like worm and caster used.

Fishomania has been a great success and we can only hope that one day the Riverfest gains as much popularity that it also gets a televised final on Sky although the logistics of filming such an event along a long stretch of river bank may a problem.  The hope that this will on day feature may not be far off being a reality though in future years given the fact that every match in this years competition has sold out and the competition is attracting some big sponsors this year.

Away from the actual fishing i have this week been contacted by a company with a view of me writing a review of their product on my blog.  As i have said before on the blog i get many of these emails asking me to review all types of products and it may seem silly to stare a gift horse in the mouth but if i can not relate the product back to my fishing in some way then i politely decline, in past years there has been some "out there" ones like Hammocks and a full head to toe mozzy clothing!  As said may seem mad to  turn it down but it is what it is and if i can not find a use for it and relate it back to my fishing in some way then how can i give it a true review.

Speaking of past reviews i to this day still use most of the products i have done reviews for on the blog.  The lamp get used every week when walking the bank in the dark and to thread my line through the rod rings in the dark and the grill to go get used on the few sessions where you can get close to the car to name a few.

Before we get onto this weeks fishing I thought i would just go into where i feel we are up to this year with the river fishing and write up a bit of an update.  When i set out my plans for the season it was aimed predominantly around discovering what the river Dane has to offer and not just in the popular well fished areas.  I feel in the past few weeks we  learnt a lot about the lower reaches of the Dane in that it offers us a steady 10lb net of fish at least on most sessions when the river is in low summer conditions and looking back to the winter sessions it seems the chub stick around but in winter the better fish seem to shoal up as you would expect in certain areas of the river.

The steady nets available here and the good fishing we have found i must admit has halted our exploration upstream and this has been remedied a little in this update but in all honesty i had in my mind that we would have began moving a little earlier but it is so hard to branch out to other spots when you have such steady fishing with easy access already there and as such hacking your way through brambles upstream to fish the same river makes you think twice.  Then there is the River Dee, a river both me and my uncle love to fish but a river that seems to have fallen by the wayside of late but i am sure that will all change come winter and then there is the River Weaver that i planned to fish and i am pleased to say that i have a session planned on the Weaver next Friday so that will feature as a midweek blog during the following week as it will be too late for that nights blog so keep an eye out for that.

on to this weeks fishing.

River Dane Fishing: Perch Heaven and Exploration 

The idea this weekend was to take advantage of the dry conditions and head for a section of the River Dee that fishes really well for dace at this time of year if the river is at the right level so all day Friday whilst i was in work i had in my head we would be heading off to my beloved River Dee the next day.  All the bait bought as i headed home from work i had a quick glance at my phone and it showed that the next day we were in for some rain, not a problem for us as we go out all weathers, it was the predicted high winds that drew our attention as the venue on the dee is very open and does involve you to fish right down the middle of the river so these high winds would make line control and presentation of the bait difficult.  With this in mind we went back to the drawing board and looked through the venues we had at our disposal and we decided to scrap the idea of fishing the river Dee and decided on a early start on the River Dane at a very sheltered spot.

Waking in morning to the sound of rain tapping against the window i set about my normal morning routine, cup of coffee, round of toast, bait out of fridge and into my basket and all set to load the car.  The time come to load the car and in the pitch black and with the rain bettering down i loaded the car as one or two of the younger neighbours stumbled home from a drunken night out, been there done that and i was glad i was going fishing although i did wonder just how many anglers had set their alarms, woken up and saw the rain and turned back over.  You think it does not happen but when you see how quiet the banks are on these days it makes you realise it does effect a lot of peoples decisions to go fishing although this nature is not confined to angling as dog walkers, bikers and ever boats on the local cuts numbers are drastically reduced, at least until mr sunshine comes back out. Heading out along the roads with the window wipers doing double time we chatted about the session ahead and what we expected.  The river Dane is a river that shows the effects of rainfall quite quickly and even after a good month of hardly any rain we knew she would be carrying a little bit of water and we thought maybe a bit of colour too.

Walking the banks in the early morning light with the rain coming down we quickly scouted out two pegs and set about getting out gear set up, now i did say before fishing in the rain does not bother me but i must admit setting up in the stuff does as everything it soaking we through before you start so priority one for me was to get my basket down and the brolly set up over it and as we had chosen our venue wisely there was no wind so the risk of my box getting blown in was eliminated totally.  Putting the landing net in the margin i noticed the water clarity was quite good and i could see quite a bit of the keep net in the water even in the dim light.

Tackle and Bait

Rod: 17ft Preston Carbon-active Float rod  Line: 5lb Drennan Float Fish 2.2oz Bayer Perlon (hooklength)
Float: Dave Harrell 8 number 4  Hook: Size 20 Kamasan Animal
Bait - 2 Pints of white maggot 1 pint of hemp

We had timed our arrival well as no sooner had I set up it was light enough to run a flat through and as normal with this venue the fish had come straight onto the feed i had put in while setting up and the very first run down the fish where there.  I always take a photo of the first fish of the day and in this case it was a small roach.  The rain was still coming down at this point but with fish coming quite regular and my brolly up i was as happy as a pig in muck.  The great variety of this river was shown in the first three fish of the day which were a roach, dace and a chublet and this variety is what draws me to this river, not knowing what the next fish is or what is in the river that day just makes the session for me.

Having fished this river since the season has opened we have began to get a feel for how she fishes and it has been very noticeable that the swim starts with smaller fish and builds in both number of fish and the odd better fish start to show and it is normally around a hour or so into the session.  It has also been a huge feature that the swims build and build and then completely die so although i was catching very well i knew to make the best of it as it would almost certainly not last.

After around a hour and a half the better fish had started to show on my peg in the form or a few nice skimmers and perch.  It is around this time that my uncle normally visits my peg or vice versa to see how the other is fairing and when my uncle visited he brought the news he was having a session similar to mine the previous week where nothing had gone right to the point he had not even cast in yet with a mixture of getting caught on the trees and stuck on bottom first cast accounting for two hook lengths, needless to say he was far from happy and i would have been exactly the same, well i was the previous week so i knew how he felt.  A quick brew and he was back on his way to his peg and i got back to my peg and set about trying to get as many fish together in the early bumper period as possible.

The session moving along nicely i was catching some nice roach and even had one or two better chublets coming on my trots down the swim.  It was great to also see some nice perch showing if the float dropped into a slack on the far side of the swim and although we have caught perch on here before these where of a better standard.

Another reoccurring feature of our trips so far on the River Dane has been the appearance of some really nice perch both harassing small fish as they come in and also stalking the fish in our keep nets.  I knew they were ever present on the peg in was on so i had set out with a game plan and ever since setting up i had been feeding a margin line with bait and around two hours into the session i saw the first signs of predators in the area with all the silver fish coming up in my keep net and i was sure i saw the flash of a perch following my feed down.  The swim in front of me was starting to die off a little with fish coming in dribs and drabs and having to be worked for so it all pointed to it being time to try for the perch.

In i went with my bait and no sooner had the float settled was it sliding under and i struck into a fish that left no doubts to its identity as it went straight for the margins and feeling the pounding of its tail down the rod blank i knew it was a perch.  When the fish surfaced i was taken back as to the size of the perch it was massive and with that i started praying for it not to come off and playing the fish with a lose drag i managed to get it to the top only for it to dive time and time again and with every dive my heart rate increased till eventually i managed to slide my net under its crocodile skin flanks.

On the unhooking matt it looked huge and i thought it was for sure a new personal best but on the scales she went exactly 2lb and her stomach felt quite hollow.  I was in no way upset i was over the moon in fact and this fish was the fish of the season so far and could quite possibly be the fish of the season.

over the moon!!

As i was landing this fish my uncle appeared at the back of my peg and after taking some pictures and returning the perch back we got chatting and my after my uncles late start the fish had been poor and i concurred that the fishing down the swim had got worse over time so we decided to photograph my net and go and spend a few hours discovering an area we had scouted out upstream.

The Discovering Continues Upstream, 

Heading of upstream to discover what the fishing was like on an area we had scouted out a few weeks back filled us both with excitement and although we only had around 3 hours of fishing on the new stretch we knew it would give us a good idea of the potential of the area.  What would we find?  What species were present? and would we find the location of the better chub that we know must be in this river?

My uncle set up in a swim that had a deep run on its inside that led down to some really fast water and it was at this really fast water i set up in a swim.  This was not the plan but the upside of setting up in these swims would ultimately give us a chance to see what fish species are up here as you would think we would encounter fish that live in slow glides as well as the fast runs.

The great news is that although we did not break any records with the weight if our nets what we did catch gave us great confidence.  We both had a good few silver fish in roach, dace and even a perch while we both caught some nice grayling one of two i caught is shown below and was two fish of a 13 fish haul of grayling i caught and returned.

 We both caught chublets and my uncle also had a better stamp of chub than we had been catching down stream which really pleased us both.  The highlight of the short session for me was two brown trout i caught which both put up an epic fight in the fast water.

The two final nets although not going to set the world alight weight wise will give us the push to search out other areas around here and let us know that dedicating a full day to this area will be worthwhile.

till next time its tight lines from me,

Danny