Were going through changes........

  This week more than ever the change in the seasons has become more apparent the leaves once a deep vibrant green are now starting to turn brown, the farmers once busy sowing seeds in the field are now trudging down their tracks laden with bails of hay that will get their live stock though the colder months and the biggest sign of a change being on the way came today as the once warm breeze that we had all become accustomed too over the past few months was replaced with gusty winds with an icy chill to them all tell tale signs of the changes to come in the not too distant future.

  The change in seasons from my fishing point of view should see the rivers go from strength to strength, the lack of the abundant natural larder the fish have had at their disposal all summer will see the fish coming on the bait in greater numbers and should see us catching bigger bags of silver fish from our visits.  The cold weather will also see my attention turn to the veracious pike that will no doubt be close behind the shoals of dace and will also see us visiting the canals on the warrington card when the rivers are unfishable.

On to this weeks fishing.....

Saturday 27th August

  Saturday saw both me and my uncle back on the banks of the River Dee on the same stretch we fished last week, after taking our time walking some more of the river we scouted out some swims to try on future visits and found some really good looking water to try out in the coming weeks.  After last weeks fishing there was only one place we had in mind and although we spent a few moments contemplating trying the new swims we found we ultimately ended up in the same swims as last week.

  In the last few months I have started to take my time setting up when I first arrive and I must admit I have seen the benefits in my catch rate and longevity of my rigs throughout the session.  Saturday was no different and after I was all set to go I took a picture of my setup for the day.

Wish I was stood their now!!!



  One of the most useful pieces of kit I have bought this year has been my bait waiter it makes life so much easier than constantly turning around to get your bait putting it back down then trotting down behind your maggots.  With the bait waiter I can cast in with my bail arm off and let the float trot down a bit and the easily grab a pinch of bait and throw it in so the bait and the maggots go down side by side.  The bait waiter really is a must have bit of kit for me now when trotting the river and I don't know how I got on before I had it. 

All set and ready for a days fishing with all my bait and bits to hand:

  The swim I was fishing on Saturday really is a dream of a trotting swim, it is an even depth the whole way down the run and if you can get the fish feeding it really is a bite a chuck and with careful feeding you can get the fish at the same point down the run every time.

The Swim:

  The fishing was from the off was harder that last week with the fish being very hard to pin down in one spot on the run , usually when trotting you can get the fish relatively in one place but on Saturday the bites where very spread out with one minute a fish coming right under my feet and the next coming 20 yards down the run. It was during one of these longer trots down I caught my best dace of the day a nice fat silver dart.

  The fish today just seemed like they where not up for maggot and it was a good job I had caster because it was on these crunchy critters I did the damage.  As soon as I started feeding caster and fishing it on the hook the fishing changed and it was a bite a cast although on Saturday I don't think I have ever missed so many bites.

  The majority of fish I have caught here have been dace with the odd trout and grayling thrown in throughout the day but on Saturday my uncle lost a nice chub and also managed to get a smaller one in the net so the signs are there that there may be some shoals of chub in the area and we have both since had long chats about possible tactics for future visits regarding some new rigs and baits to see if we can lure some of these chub to our swims.

  Around 11.30 on Saturday the heavens really opened and we got caught in a really heavy downpour which seemed to breathe life into both mine and my uncles swim after a quiet patch.  The rain also coincided with my first roach caught on this stretch and what a perfectly marked fish it was, fin perfect.

  Throughout the next few hours the sport really picked up but I still could not get the fish consistently on maggot but I was oddly enough catching fish on caster that had mouths full of maggots so I guess it must have been solely down to a presentation thing on my part.  The killer bait for me on the day was Castor and hemp and as you can see below, by the end of the session I was cleaned out of both!!!

Castor and hemp , deadly on its day!!

  During the day I did pick up a cracking grayling and two greedy trout which gave a really good account for themselves on a 1.7lb hook length and as with last week by the end of the session we both had nets full of fish with the total again for us both coming to over 25lb of fish!!.

My uncles net of fish:

My net of fish:

  After weighing the fish and packing away we began our trek back to the car but so far the walk has been made easier by the fact we had both caught well, on a bad day this walk may well be alot harder lol.  We both have had a great two weeks fishing from this stretch of the majestic River Dee and hopefully there is still more to come from here. 

  Next week will see us both back on the banks of the River and all being well we should have a new river to report on, weather permitting of course!!  The River we are going to be targeting I have fished once before about 2 years ago and I had only just started river fishing and didn't do too well, next week will I hope give me an idea of how far I've come on the rivers.  As I am writing this now I'm already excited about next weeks fishing trip to this new river so its going to be a long four days in work I think!!.

Monday 29th August

  Just a quick report on today's fishing which saw me and my uncle dust down our poles and make our way to a carp pond where we expected to bag up on carp as me and my did a few weeks ago when we took over 17lb.  Unfortunately the wind today made fishing really difficult and made presenting a bait almost impossible at times, still as I always say a bad days fishing is better than a good day in work and is there such thing as a bad days fishing??

Below is a picture of the few carp we did manage to catch today.  Today also saw me using my white hydro elastic for the first time and it performed really well, slowly but surely I am learning the limitations of the elastics in my pole sections.

 

  As mentioned above next week will see us on a new river hopefully so until next week I wish you all tight lines

Danny