Aerial Shot of Rixton Clay Pits
This week while browsing Maggot Drowners (http://www.maggotdrowning.com/forum/default.asp), a forum , I came across a thread about using prawns as a bait for tench in the spring and not being one who is shy of trying new baits and techniques I decided I would use this bait on my sleeper rod come the weekend.
Saturday morning and we arrived at Rixton in the pitch black to find around 6 cars in the car park, we quickly unpacked the car and was on our way around the pit looking for a swim, all the swims i had wanted to fish all were taken by people fishing overnight, including the swim from last week which i was really hoping we could have dropped on as i was looking for a mixed bag of fish. We finally arrived at a vacant peg to situated towards the far right of the pit and began to set up.
The swim for the day:
From the out-set it just felt different than the last few times i have fished Rixton there was very little evidence of fish feeding in the area and the bites I was getting were very tentative and to be honest I think the fish just were just not feeding as vigorously as they had been on past visits, there was none of the normal signs there and this resulted in a very quiet morning for both me and my dad, to show how funny the fish were being one of the few fish I had caught by midday was a Rudd on the method feeder and it wasn't on the drop.
In the afternoon I decided to move next to me dad so we could at least have a bit of a natter and I moved my two rods with me, from that moment on it seemed the skimmers really turned on and me on the method feeder and my dad float fishing right under his rod tip started to get into some fish with a skimmer coming around every 5-10 minutes. Around 2pm me and my dad were talking about the fact he hadn't caught a tench yet this year and I questioned whether he thought the tench would come in that close when mid conversation my dad struck and his rod suddenly bend right over, judging by his calls of this is no skimmer, he had hooked either a carp or a tench which was not happy and doing all it could to get to the deeper water, What followed was one of those close quarter battles where nine times out of ten the hook pulls under the strain of been hooked so close in, luckily it wasn't a really big fish and after a short battle my dad had his first tench of the year.
Dad with his "monster" tench (3lb 3oz):
After this a few more skimmers followed but around 3pm we called it a day and headed of home, the sleeper rod sat there the whole day without a touch despite being recast every hour, I guess it was always going to be a method that catches you a better stamp of fish and had the fish been more in a feeding mood I might of got a take but then again from what I read its a bait that varies in success from venue to venue but I have to admit I was gutted I dint get any takes on it.
My dog Pippa:
Sunday came and with it come some really nice weather, so me and Lucy, my fiance, decided to take our dog Pippa for a walk along the banks of the River Dee at Farndon.
A picture of the River Dee with Farndon Bridge in the distance:
The place was alive with wildlife and the river was teeming with fish all the way across its width with small fish and the odd larger one taking flies of the top. I'm a great believer in the close season for giving the fish a break but after the lack of action this winter due to atrocious weather conditions I have to say would have gave my right arm to have had a trot through.
Teeming with fish:
The changes here in 2 months have been remarkable and basically one of my first posts on this blog was form a swim here and as you can see below the changes are truly amazing you would swear it was a different river all together.
1st March 2011:
Today:
I love my spring course fishing but there is something magical about rivers and I cant wait for the river season to re-open after today!!, I have booked the three days off over Easter so there may be a few more frequent maybe less detailed updates over the next two weeks and a few more venues.
tight lines
Danny
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