Tough Times on River and Pondip Tip card!!

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet.  The blog has been quiet of late and in truth i have really found it hard to find time to update the blog.  Friday nights are my usual slot but after a long week in work i was so tired on Friday night i just had to get some sleep before hitting the river the next morning.  There is nothing worse than going fishing tired and thats even more so with stick float fishing as it is so mentally draining.

Back to the normal routine now and this weeks update is one i have been looking forward to writing for a while as it covers a little project i have been working with pondip on, look out for that in the introduction.  The rest of the introduction covers a round up of how the fishing is going this year on the river so far and also a piece on how hard I'm finding it without my longer rod.  The fishing is a session on the river where the fishing is really tough but the day is saved by a nice fish right on last knockings.

Lets get into the update....

Pondip Rig Card...

At the beginning of last month i began working with the team at Pondip to create some pieces for their Pondip boxes.  The idea is to create a laminated card to go into each box with a carp tip on one side and a coarse one on the other.  My task was the coarse fishing tip and i thoroughly enjoyed putting the Rig card together.  The whole experience i found a challenge as it is a real step up from the blog in both the expectation in the quality of the writing and even more challenging for me an update in quality of the photos.

The writing i found quite easy if i am honest as i was well within my comfort zone talking about a rig for fishing the canal but i found it a real challenge with the pictures.  The problem is with coarse fishing rigs is the fact the line and hooks is so thin that getting a quality picture is so hard.  With the carp rigs you are dealing with thick line and big hooks that focus and show up nicely on any back ground whereas 1lb 7oz hook lengths are a different Kettle of fish all together.  These lines placed on a black background show well but the picture looks awful!!

The blog is all done on my iPhone and i take all the pictures on the phone and then upload them to an on line photo storage site via an app before uploading them to the blog.  This allows me to then use the IMG code for websites, any how i digress. The point being the images are ok for my blog and fit the purpose of use on here but for a company with a set image they are not, well good enough.  I really enjoyed working with the team and putting this together, working out styles and images and working to meet their expectations was interesting and now we have done it i can use that to make other ones in the future that are there or there abouts first time.

I was so proud this month opening my pondip box to see my rig card inside and knowing everyone who got a box this month will have seen this card!, so proud.

Tough Start To The Season....

Our time on the river dee a few years ago was spent really discovering this fantastic river and along the way we learnt a great deal about where the fish shoal up during the seasons to a point we had quite a good portfolio of locations to choose from all through the year.  The move to the river Dane and we set ourselves a goal of learning this fantastic waterway with the hope of extracting the best sport possible from its depths.  Last season was our first full year on this river and although we did deviate form time to time to other rivers this river was always our main stay.  We learnt a huge amount in that first summer to autumn but once the rains arrived progress slowed and we learnt that this river can not really handle a lot of water and still fish, not on the stick any way.

There is no doubting the river holds some mature chub, it has to given the amount of chublets, but we have time and time again found the same scenario, frantic bites for around a hour or so and then like a switch going off the bites are gone.  Pike where the chief culprit but with no fish taken it is getting hard to believe that mr pike is solely to blame.  Big fish is another option but surely with the amount of hours we have put in we would have connected with one of them by now? It is a puzzle that is proving hard to crack and i must admit is hitting the moral a little as we are not progressing with this river at all.  We have hit a brick wall and having tried new methods and tactics are yet to suss and crack this tricky little water way.

Not ones to give in we will continue to adapt and dig out new swims to find the areas the better fish are, we will crack it.  This is a glimpse at just how much hard work goes into our fishing to find the real jewels in a river.  One day we will find that area and with big nets of chub the reward for all this hard work, before that though i feel a complete change of direction is needed and a complete change of scenery.

Size Really Is Everything....

Having snapped my 17ft float rod at the end of the last river season i have started this one fishing with my 13ft Korum Flaot Rod.  The small waterway like the Dane it has proved a use able tool but i  must say you don't half miss that extra length...oooo err vicar....joking aside though that extra 4 feet of rod brings so much more to the party that makes trotting so much easier. 

First of all you have the fact that your rod reaches further across the river so in some swims the tip of your rod is almost behind the float all the time aiding that control of the float.  You then have that extra length of rod in the air to keep so much more line off the surface of the river, stopping line from dragging on the inside flow and ruining presentation.  The biggest problem though comes in striking, when that float is quite a way down the river your strike with a 17ft rod is so much more direct as you are in complete control of that float.

The part i have missed moat though about not having my longer rod is the fact it is halting our trips to the river Dee.  The river dee is a monster of a river compared to the small dane and with depths of 14 ft in places you need that longer rod to even reach the bottom, unless you fish the slider.  All in all i am praying for overtime to get this rod fixed and will not be making the same mistake again!.

On to the fishing...

Tough Session on the Bank...

The night before the session started like any other as the ritual of cooking hemp seed and making up rigs was enacted.  Mid way through a rig i heard the tapping of rain on the window sill, we have a small hole in the gutter on the new house and the rain drips down onto the window sill so any rain is heard straight away.  This tapping was followed by the window being illuminated by a flash of lightning followed by the long low rumble of thunder, we were in for an interesting session the next morning.

Waking up at 2am i was amazed not to hear the rain still coming down and even a hour later loading the car the sky was unusually clear, Accuweather, an weather app i use, was telling a far different story.  Heavy rain and thunderstorms where predicted in the early morning with it clearing up afterwards so in went the brolly and the seat box, this was not a day to be stood in the river or not under cover. 

The river looked in mint condition as we arrived, holding a tinge of colour with the margins just showing bottom it looked set for a good days sport.  I set up in a peg where previous trips had revealed a big snag at my feet but a clear run down the middle and the far run that shallowed up as it reached the tail of the trot.

Expectations where high but settled in the first few trots down the float trundled through without even a knock, strange i thought as normally the fish are crawling up the line form the off on this river.  I persevered with the line as with river fishing a shoal can arrive in the blink of an eye as your bait trundling along the river draws fish up to its source. 

Eventually the fish arrived in the peg and predictably they where small silvers, almost on their arrival the sky went jet black and in the distance you could hear loud claps of thunder as a storm passed by.  Luckily we seemed to be right on the edge of the weather front so barring a quick burst of heavy rain we escaped untouched.

The swim then was alive with these small fish but the bites where lightning fast as they battered the bait on the drop with the float on some occasions not even settling.  I put in a few droppers of bait to ensure bait in the swim on the deck and this did seem to settle the swim down a little and bring in the odd small perch.

All of a sudden the bites completely died, all the knocks on the float and the bites on the drop went and it was like a light going out in the swim. Pike? or bigger fish who knows but neither showed when i did finally connect with another fish.  A quick try down the indie line i had been feeding with maggot all session brought a few knocks followed by a better roach.  Then the float slid away and i was into a different animal all together, at first i thought it was an eel as was its strength but the jagged pulse of a tail gave it away to be a perch even before its green flanks and spiky shark like dorsal broke the surface.

A big snag at my feet i knew i had to pile the pressure on the delicate 1lb 7oz hook length if i was to lure it away from its obvious snaggy home.  Time and time again i put maximum side strain on the fish before eventually it broke the surface and flipped on its side, as it did so i took my chance and made sure its turn landed in the net.

On the bank it seems lay the apex predator of these waters and at 1lb 12oz a fish that turned the session round.

The session after this fish plodded away without much to shout about and the final net showed what a poor day it would have been without the perch

final net

Till next time i wish you all

tight lines

danny

Session To Remember And New Perch PB

A warm welcome to this week's blog update I hope I find you all well.  I would like to start this week's blog update with a picture that for me really does speak a thousand words for me and says a great deal about the reasons why i have joined Northwich Anglers.

Now this picture above to most just looks like a pile of rubble and in essence it is but its the fact that this pile of rubble is being used to resurface a road on one of Norwch's waters and to my shock its a River, yes believe it or not a club is actually investing time and effort in getting a road down to car parks on on river resurfaced, crazy or what.  To understand my shock you have to know the club i joined from, Warrington Anglers, stance on all things river related, they basically could not care less is the simple way of putting it.  Regular readers will have heard me mention this before but for newcomers i will recap, basically there is a stretch of the River Dee at Worthenbury that is superb fishing but the mile long track down to the river resembles more a lunar landscape than a track and a few of the river anglers asked the club for the materials to sort the road out, we were politely told its not the clubs responsibility to fix roads down to the rivers as they don't own the stretch. 

What a refreshing breath of fresh air it was to see that Norwich Anglers have either purchased or arranged for this road (that is no way near as bad as worthenbury) to be fixed and actually care about the well being of the anglers who actually sustain the club.  I have fished a fair few of Northwich waters this year and i have to say this care and attention is not just limited to the Rivers as every water i have visited on the card has been well maintained and looked after, stages built all around it and well bailiffed, this is in stark reflection to my time with WAA where i had my card checked once and how long has Rixton clay pits had only 4 proper pegs for now with the rest left unfinished??  As say i not here to bring clubs down but i feel i am bound to be honest and put across the truth of what i see and my experiences of being in both clubs.

Moving on and this week the weather has been baking hot with little or no respite from the searing temperatures, a busy week last week travelling far and wide with the family and fishing has left me watching my fuel gauge a little this week so chances to get out with some floating baits for some carp has not been there for me but that's life i guess.  That does move me nicely on to my plans for the month of August and although i am not one who likes to plan what fishing i am going to be doing so far in advance I am fully aware that the Carp Quest 2014 has fallen a bit by the way side since the opening of the season and I am hoping that during August i can really get my head together and begin to hit this quest again with earnest.  I have passed the carp water a few times on the way home from the river of late and have noticed the cars have drastically reduced and i have not seen Dumb and Dumbers car there at all, so all is looking well for getting back at it so what this space with that one, it is in my thoughts.

One big plus point that has come out of writing my weekly blog is the Social Media side of things and both on Facebook and Twitter the blog has a good following of really nice anglers.  I am a member of a few pages on Facebook and to see some of the problems the Admins have to deal with is scary and it makes me really happy when i think what a great group of people follow my blog on Facebook and Twitter as still to this day I have not had to delete any comments or people for any bad language or inappropiate comments which given what people are on others pages i see is fantastic.  Facebook and Twitter is a great place to keep up with the blog and I regularly post as i am fishing on both and many of the fish you see in this update where posted on Facebook and Twitter the night of their capture.  Feel free to come  along and join in on Facebook and Twitter and feel free to post your own captures on any of the walls, i love seeing how people who read about my fishing are getting on with theirs,  links to both are on the right hand margin of the blog of you can follow the links below:

Dannys Angling Blog On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dannys-Angling-Blog/282860255069146?ref_type=bookmark
Dannys Angling Blong on Twitter:https://twitter.com/satonmyperch

Looking forward to this weekend's fishing i think we are going to have to certainly find some river with some shade in this heat and bright sunshine.  I will also be reviewing the product i was sent last week this weekend and putting together my review to hopefully be published in next weeks blog update so i am looking forward to the sparking delights of testing a water bottle that claims to make any water source drinkable! Really am looking forward to this review!!

On to this Weeks Fishing.

Session to Remember and New 3lb Pb Perch. 

I normally set my alarm for an hour before i am due to meet up with my uncle and set out to the river bank, this hour gives me plenty of time to get my stuff together and load the car, Saturday morning was no different as at 2am the Alarm awoke me from my slumber but for some reason after knocking my alarm off on my phone i must have drifted straight back off and it was a whole hour and a quarter later i suddenly woke, i do not know what woke me but i was soon rushing round getting ready and it was during this short period of frantically trying to find my clothes i noticed what had surely woken me as the whole living room was illuminated by lightning and a very close deep rumble of thunder had me very much awake.

Not one to ever let the weather dictate my fishing i carried on and loaded the car and set off on my way to my uncles, only a short 5 minute journey.  It was during this short journey the rain started coming down heavy, again not something that i even notice really as it does not bother me but something that really had me concerned was the amount of lightning and the severe electrical storm i was driving through, from starting to count after leaving my road i counted 35 individual lightning strikes and at one point i passed over a large clearing that gave me a view over the estuary and the lightning was happening all over the place at the same time, large forks across the sky all over the area.

Arriving at my uncles he was all set for the off quoting "you can only get struck once", he does make me laugh and it was me that suggested that with this thunder reported to be in all day we left our fishing trip till the Sunday.  The next hour the storm continued with no let up so i made my  way back home and get some more shut eye.  The weather man for once had got it wrong and from 4am till gone 11am there was no sign of the thunderstorms so a quick call was made and before we knew it, it was 1am and we were on the banks setting up.

We knew from past trips we would have no competition for a peg as lets face it we have not seen an angler on there in the fair weather never mind after a thunderstorm and out thoughts were proved right as we parked up and strolled right onto the pegs we had planned to fish a few hours earlier.  The river was carrying a bit of extra water but not as much as i had expected from the down pour but was well within fish able limits and what got me even more excited was the tad tinge of colour and the extra pace, it looked bang on.

No matter how good a river looks or how confident i am in catching a fish i always take a picture of the first fish as one time it will be the only fish i catch so always think it best to take a picture and on this river the first fish nearly always is a chublet, i guess their greedy nature pulls them in faster to the early offerings.  I did make a slight change to my tactics for this session and it was around  my feed as i chose to incorporate the feeding of ground bait to the swim and it has been the catching of skimmer bream all along this rivers length that prompted this decision.

There is a saying "dont expect different results if you keep doing the same thing" and it has been this that has been ringing in my head of late as searching this river and trying to crack how to keep bites coming all day and how to improve the stamp of fish is not going to happen if we are sticking to the same tactics of maggot and hemp each session, so my hope was to try and break away from the norm and feed the swim with ground bait laced with maggot and hemp seed.  At the start of the session i had a fair idea of where i wanted to feed but i wanted to wait till i knew this was the line i was going to catch on before i committed to putting my bait there.  A few bites and fish down the same line i was sure there were fish to be had so in went a few balls of ground bait and one down the far bank and the reason for this is i knew if as the evening came the shadow of a far bank tree would be where i would find the fish when bites died down middle, i also fed another swim hoping to attract in some of the big perch i  had seen caught on past trips.

After a few trots down i hit my first skimmer, would i have caught this had i not fed ground bait? we will never know but that's the magic of fishing is it not.  The fishing at this point was steady and i was getting a fish or a bite each trot down with small skimmers and roach making up the lions share of the fish.  It was very noticeable during this session that allot more of my bites where over the baited area than when i had been feeding hemp on other sessions.  As the session developed i started to get a few more variety showing in the swim with a lovely marked perch shown below, i did wonder if he rubbed shoulders with his older, larger relatives.

The session was going fantastic and even better was the lovely cloudy cover we had over head which kept the bright sunlight restrained to the odd brief spell.  The river and the issues we face with bites was summed up in the next two fish, one trot down i caught a nice roach and all was well but the very next i couldn't buy a bite and after 10-20 bite less trots i struck at a dip in the float to be met with a tiny gudgeon and the swim was like it was devoid of any fish.

With the swim all quiet i decided to keep feeding the swim and take a walk to see how my uncle was getting on.  He was in a swim around 10ft deep and was struggling with getting his bait down on the bottom but had just managed to alter bis depth bit by bit till he started to hit some fish with some regularity and they were certainly better quality roach than i was hitting down stream.  I returned to my swim and fed two more balls of ground bait and three over the far bank line to prime it for what i was sure would be my line in the coming hour. At this point i kept feeding but my attention turned to my perch spot, dropping a bait in i knew conditions were bang on for a perch, overcast and a tinge of colour in the water.

Dropping in a bait i could not have expected a better result as the float settled in the swim before two violent bobs on the float before it slowly slid away into the depths, striking i hit solid as the road hooped over and the drag began to give line as the fish head down and hugging the bottom made a hard run for freedom.  Trotting the swim all afternoon i had a fair idea of the location of one or two snags and boy did this fish know about them as i counted as he made runs for each one.  I knew this pressure was putting great strain on the hook length and i also knew from experience that once i got this fish to the top it would almost certainly dive again so i broke a cardinal rule of mine ad grabbed the landing net and had it prepared well in advance of the fish being ready.

The thudding of the tail let me know i was into either a Perch or an Eel but i knew deep down i was into a nice perch.  The fish began to tire a little and as i lifted it up through the water layers i began to see my weights and i knew the fish was not far below and in that moment up came a colossal perch, it was huge!  I was so taken back by the depth of the fish i got lost in the moment and i admit i  was shaking as the fish turned and dived for the bottom.  At this point i was in that horrible situation that all anglers hate being when you know the enormity of what you are attached too, my personal best at this point was a 2lb 5oz perch from the River Dee and was certainly bigger, i began again to make some line and up again she came and this time i took my chance and scooped her up, i always remember pulling that landing net back and holding the net between my legs to unhook her with those dark green flanks, perfect dorsal fin erect in the net and jet black back and mouth being the complete opposite to her white plump bell, she was as deep as my stretched hand and long to boot, she was perfect.

I dropped her and the landing net into to top of my keep net for her to rest while i got myself and the weighing gear together, shaking i grabbed my carrier bag and zero'd the scales, in she went and the scales settled on exactly 3lb, i lifter her again to check and take a picture and a new personal best perch was confirmed, a quick call to my uncle and she was rested till he came along to verify and take some pictures what a special moment.

The fish in the keep net as not to scare the swim as i fancied it for another fish i set about feeding the trotting line as it had been severely neglected over the past 10 minutes so in went some ground bait and i began to drip feed the maggots.  I don't know what prompted me to not start trotting my normal lines and go for another perch but i did and jesus was it a good decision as after letting the float settle and waiting around 1 or 2 minutes maximum the float shook again violently and again slowly slid away a firm strike and i was again connected with another perch that again was street wise to the snags in the area but i must admit at this point i was still floating on air from the previous capture and much of this fight is a blur to me as i can remember thinking is take your chance with this one and soon as it comes up nail it and as soon as that fish hit the surface she was scooped up in a erratic crazy stab that some how bagged the fish on the downward dive.  Needless to say netting it early had bad results in the landing net as it went ballistic but thankfully i had my unhooking mat and weighing gear still handy from the past capture so it was a smooth procedure to weigh the fish that went 2lb 2oz and take a quick mat picture before resting her in the landing net before releasing her into the keep net.

The fish rested and released i had to chance my arm again, who wouldn't? It was very quiet for the next 15 minutes and while i waited i kept feeding the trotting line and eventually moved back over to it.  The swim down the middle saw me put a few skimmers and roach but they were few and far between and cloud cover had broken and the sun was shining right down on the swim so i knew it was time to move over to the far line.  My experience of the swim taught me that the far line shallows slightly as you do down so i took on board what my uncle had taught me the last few weeks and altered my shotting pattern accordingly to allow my bait to trundle along without getting the float dragging under.  The first run down the float buried over the ground bait and a small roach was the reward.

Over the next hour or so i caught these roach solidly as time and time again these roach came to a single white maggot and a sprinkling fed upstream, this with a nugget of ground bait every few fish kept them coming and i knew if i kept these fish coming i would be in with a chance of catching over 20lb of fish. The fishing over the last few hours of the session was exceptional and stick float fishing at tits best as bites kept coming and coming and it was obvious there was some head of roach in front of me.  The float rarely went more than 10 yards down the river before i had a bite and it was one of those great sessions where you know when you are going to get a bite and can anticipate the bite, great stuff.

During one of the trots down i did not get a bite for one reason or another and the float continued to trundle another 10 yards down stream and i was just about to bring it back in when a huge lift bite saw me striking and hitting i initially thought i had hit a snag but then it started thudding really violently, it felt enormous but then all resistance went for a second and i made line before it stopped again and this battle was all along the bottom till right under my rod tip the fish surfaced........and eel! Lovely to see and to say my luck was in was an understatement as i can count on one hand the amount of times i have caught an eel, unhooked it and still had a fish able hook length after it.

I had in the back of my head that i wanted another crack on the perch before it got too dark and i was fully aware that with the weather moving in this was not going to be one of those ling evenings we have experienced of late where it is light till gone 10am so even though i was catching on the roach line i just had to have another go for mr perch.  I went in over the perch line and instantly getting signs of fish in the swim and in a bite that mirrored the previous two so i knew it was a perch and out of all three this one had certainly had its porridge oats as it easily out powered the first fish and my original plan was still in my mind of an early netting but the reality was far different as this fish went upstream and only heft side strain and pressure where i was certain i was going to lose the fish was applied and thankfully she saw my side of the argument, eventually.

The fish again being a perch knew the places i did not want it to get too as it gave me another tour of the snags, not getting in them but going hard for them and the fish breaking the surface i knew it was up there with the first as again it looked very big!  Sliding the net under the fish and into my lap i looked down and shook my head, what a session!!

On the scales she went 2lb12oz and again it was a case of a quick weigh and a photo on the mat before resting and releasing into the keep net and i have to say the perch sat on the bottom of the keep net as every roach was up in the next staying well clear of the three 2lb plus perch below.  There was not long left of the session at this point and i continued to pick up roach right till the last.

Both myself and uncle had caught well with my uncle having a note able better stamp of roach in his net.  The Final nets gave us plenty to think about around times of day and the use of ground bait.

my net

uncle net

After letting the silvers go i got a few pictures of the perch together and i have to say i wish i had packed in earlier as the light was bad at this point but as always i will have the memories of the session as well as the photos.

Just before releasing the fish to terrorise the roach shoals i took one last look at them and after my uncle had gone to pack up i sat for a moment alone on my basket and just took it all in, you have too, you realise that sessions like that are few and far between and moments like this you have to savour the moment and i took a second to take it all in, happy memories.
.

Till next week i wish you all tight lines

Danny

River Dane Fishing: No Work and All Play And a FREE Days Fishing!!

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update.  I start this weeks update off with the news of a fantastic incentive being offered by the Environment Agency to support and promote National Fishing Month.  For those not aware National Fishing Month runs from the 18th July to the 31st August and to celebrate this the Environment Agency are running an offer for any angler to take a friend or family member with them for one days fishing between the 18th July and 27th July.  You can cut out the voucher that will be in all the angling press this week or you can go to this link and download a voucher
link: http://www.takeafriendfishing.co.uk/offers/free-rod-licence-voucher/

I think it is great to see the Environment agency supporting this incentive to get not only try and get children into angling but also offer an opportunity for adults to get "hooked" on our fantastic sport and who knows just how many new anglers there will be to our sport after this incentive, great stuff and fantastic to see.

As i mentioned in last weeks update i have been off work for the last week and i have to say apart from the fishing trips you will read about later on i have loved getting out and spending time with the family.  The first stop for us was to Alton Towers to take our little girl to CBeebies Land.  I have to say i was really impressed with it and she loved it, highly recommended.  In the middle of Alton Towers is a huge lake and it straight away had my angling senses buzzing so whilst eating my sandwiches i decided to see what lived in such a lovely lake and it didn't take long for my offerings of pieces of salmon butties to attract interest from some really nice looking and hungry carp.  My missus comments of "can we not take you anywhere without you finding fish!!" drew a laugh from myself, she knows me too well and i think she was on to me as soon as i wandered down to the water. 

Regular reader of the blog will also remember a scathing review i gave to the Blue Planet Aquarium on a recent blog where i was really disappointed by their lack of thought in putting games and rides in every room you go into which i feel really distracts children away from the main thing they have come to see, the fish.  There was a sea life centre at Alton Towers and seeing my little girls face in the video below as she is taken back by the sheer number of fish and amazed by them really goes to prove my point and how the reactions of a child are different when the flashing lights of the ride in the corner are not there to take away from the experience. 

During the week there were also many visits to the local park and a few of the followers on Facebook may remember me posting a picture a few weeks ago of a pair of swans on a nest, well these swans have done a sterling job and now have a healthy family of cygnets with them as well now and it was great to catch up with these on a recent visit back to this town park lake a few days ago. 

 Nature is a huge part of my life and respecting it and appreciating all the wildlife around us is something i hope to pass onto my little girl as she grows up to hopefully enjoy and appreciate the wildlife that is all around us and it really is everywhere and there are some really great sights to be seen and it can be as easy as getting in your car around evening time and going for a drive down some of the quieter areas of town that have overgrown banks for cover, you will certainly have a chance of seeing some rabbits, foxes and if you are lucky like i was on a trip this week a family of pheasants wandering the margins of some thick scrub land.

Before we get on to this weeks fishing i also spent some time on Sunday writing the blog update and also watching some of the International Fishomania and i have to say what a fantastic show it was as the English pair or Will Raison and Des Ship really put on a master class of match fishing and how to really put together an big weight of fish by catching everything that swims.  It also shocked me to see that these anglers and the ladies team were having to sell raffle tickets and put the prize money they earn back into the pot to fund them going out to the World Championships to defend their titles as World Champions.  When you think at the millions of pounds wasted every two years for our disgrace of a football team to go and humiliate our nation in World Cups and European championships when we have THE WORLD CHAMPIONS of the most participated sport in this country then for me its a disgrace they should be held aloft and celebrated for their amazing accomplishments. 

On to this weeks fishing:

Thursday 10th July:  Striking for Stripeys on the River Dane

As many of you will know last Thursday there was a national strike for all Civil Servants and such is my job i am not allowed to go into detail on my views of the right and wrongs of this on the Internet but I am a person that if i believe in something i think i should show my support and as such Thursday i decided to join the strike action.  My work place is in such a location that it does not allow an official picket line so with no official line to attend i turned to a different type of line and i was definitely planning on doing some striking.

The swim i chose was a swim i had fished for a few hours a week or so ago  and done quite well in.  The swim stands in the shadow of a large tree which offers the angler a line to run the float down all day out of the sun light which i feel is a big factor on this river.   It is a swim that has done bites through most of the day on past visits and does not seem to die like the other ones we have fished.

The set up does vary for this swim to account for the over head trees so the 17ft rod was safely tucked away in my holdall and i chose my really under used 13ft Korum float rod, a rod i rarely use now as the extra length of the 17ft and the control it gives you always  sees me fishing this rod if the swim allows, regardless of depth or width of river.

Setting up my basket i positioned it as such so that i would see the float in the shadow of the tree where i expected to get my bites and this is a part of river fishing i feel people go wrong before they have even started and is a lesson i have learned the hard way, setting up so your comfy is not the best way.  I now sit on my basket before even setting up and try to imagine where i am expecting to get bites and try my best to set up so i am trotting down over water where i can clearly see my bites when the float is dotted down to a mere dimple.

The peg has been good to us recently for some roach and small chublet nets so it was no surprise that the first trot down brought a small roach.  The slack on the inside i feel has a lot to do with this and it is very noticeable on the rivers that no matter how slow the flow is roach will always sit in the slack as opposed to the dace and chublets that you seem to get in the main flow most of the time.

The small roach and dace come steady through the first few hours and it was great to see a few dace showing up as well as the odd skimmer which offer some variety in a days sport on the river.  As the session moved on the fish naturally backed off towards the far bank and it was during this time i started to struggle with line control and hitting the bites as the pick up of the line to the float was poor due to the 13ft rod.  I tried my best to try and improve what control i could get on the float by upping the weight of the float from a 6 number 4 to a 3 gram bolo and it worked to a certain extent.

The swim on our previous visit had seen my uncle hounded by a jack pike in his swim and going into the last hour i noticed the fish in my keep net going mad and this coupled with the swim dying i knew it was time for a change.  If you ever see this activity in your net on the river and you do not have a big fish like a perch or a bream in your keep net to disturb the silvers in there then chances are you have some sort of predator about.

I had been waiting for these signs and i had no intention of trying to catch mr pike as i was hoping mr perch was about and i had fed a line in a slack hoping for a perch later on in the day.  With the swim dead a few pound of silvers in the onion sack i moved over to the other line.  Dropping a bait in over the spot it did not take long for the float to slide lazily away, striking into the fish i could feel the pounding and direct downwards fight of the fish letting me know i had a decent perch on the other end.  At this moment you are just hoping the knots and hook hold is good and me personally am always looking for an early opportunity to net the fish.

After a short fish i saw the dark green and black flanks of a perch break to surface and i took my chance and scooped the fish into the net and not a second too quick as the hook came out in the net.  The fish in the net i knew it was a nice perch but not in the same league as last weeks 2lb fish.  On the scales he went 1lb 12oz and with my uncle not around for pictures it was just a simple hand shot of the fish.

It was just about time to call it a day after this fish and from four hours fishing i had put together a combined net of silvers and the perch of 9lb 6oz, not a bad result at all and i left refreshed for the next days trip to alton towers refreshed and buzzing from another nice perch capture.

Saturday 12th July - River Dane -Exploration Time. 

The exploration the previous week where we caught such a wide variety of species saw us both setting of the the river on Saturday with a spring in our steps.  The exploration of  a new stretch or even a completely new river is a big reason why i go fishing, i love the unknown of it and this is probably the same reason that fishing for carp caught so many times they have their own names does not appeal to me so much.  The previous week we had caught Roach, perch, dace, chublets, grayling, minnow, gudgeon and trout so we knew that all the species we had found else where on the river where also present up here and its our hope to find an area where there are good numbers of silvers but also the better chub.  It may be that such an area does not exist but till you have put the hours in and that involves walking field after field knocking down thick walls of Himalayan balsam and getting stung countless time by nettles creating and fishing new swims, not everyone idea of fun but we love it!

As always it was an early start....

In the week leading up the the session we had discussed an area we wanted to target so i had spent a few hours on Google Earth trying to find areas that looked to not only have the depth but the cover for the better chub this is so valuable when searching and creating new swims as believe me from experience its no fun knocking a path to the river bank through thick vegetation to find a stretch of river a foot deep and no good for running a stick through.

I do not normally post my swim on the blog, i put in too much effort for others just to read the blog to find some easy and prepared fishing but i make an exception with this one as if people who are just reading my blog for a free ride to good fishing find this swim they will have done a fair amount of work. The swim had a nice gentle pace to it and setting up i was confident of drawing a few fish from one or two snags further down stream and on the far bank.

The set up was the same as the trip above apart from i swapped my 13ft korum rod for my 17ft Preston carbon active float rod, again for control.  What happened from their on in left me more frustrated that happy with the session and followers on Facebook may remember me posting up how frustrated this river was leaving me.

Basically we have been finding that we are getting bites solid for a good hour or so of the session and then its like a light switch comes on and that is it done the swim dies completely and you can not buy a bite.  sussing this and how to keep the bites coming is the key to unlocking this rivers full potential.  This session started with a bite a chuck, all chublets and all ravenous for the bait with fish coming one after the other.

Then after around a hour or so i went through with out a bite and then again and again.  It was over 2 hours of feeding the swim and trotting through, making slight changes to depth and bait,  before the float zoomed under over my hemp and i struck into what i thought was a snag until in one fast run the fish zoomed from under my feet into a far bank snag, so fast my drag had no chance of keeping up and i was left with no option but to apply side strain to stop it getting to the snag but it was futile as my hook length went, gutted but happy at the same time as it shown better fish where in the area.

It was a good hour or so later i connected with another fish that felt a bit better in the chub shown above but it was not in the league of the previous lost fish and by this point i was struggling with my concentration after going through the swim so many times without a bite.  I had a few trips to my uncle who was trotting some shallow water down to a deeper hole and he had put together a nice net of fish and had some better chub and had also been seen off by one or two better fish but the swim being so snag ridden he had it all one getting a decent chub out with big snags to his inside and far bank and also running down to a deep hole level with a sub merged tree.

my net

uncles net

We left feeling like we had found what we were looking for but needed to work a bit on our swim selection to give us a chance of drawing the fish and also getting them out, it also got us thinking about another trip on heavier gear just for the better fish.

Arriving home i began to unload the car and turning round i was met with the sight below of my little girl sat on my fishing basket.  I cant help but feel our first trip to the bank is nearly upon us as i think even now she would be able to hold a pole but i want to wait till she knows fully what she is doing so she experiences the full magic of seeing that float go under and a little billy perch being on the other end :-).

There have been at least tow more trips out this past week so look out for a midweek update.

till next time tight lines

danny