looking forward and the Dace Chase

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update and forgive me now as this blog is more of an update blog that about the fishing i have been doing although it still features just not in as much detail as normal.

 In past weeks i have covered the RiverFest Tournament in great detail and it was great this week to see it got s mention on Tight Lines and even better that that video is making its way around the angling world via all the social media sites.  All the anglers interviewed, whether they fished the match or not, agreed that this competition will go from strength to strength and i firmly believe this will be the case and with plans already in place for next year i am sure  even more sponsors will jump on this competition given the excellent manner at which it was received and promoted this year.  The video is available on the link below:

Link: http://www1.skysports.com/watch/video/9077019/angling-trust-riverfest-championship

This competition, as i have said before on this blog, is a breath of fresh air to the river angling side of our sport it is literally history being made in front of our eyes as never before has a competition been held on running water for such an amount of money and as participation increases and the need for more venues past the 20 is sought who knows we may see rivers like the River Dee used and maybe just maybe the tales my uncle tells of the meadows of the dee lined with anglers may become a reality in years to come,  the river dee certainly has the fish in the autumn moths to produce good weights and make for a fair competition before the fish shoal up making the match winning location a formality.

Still on the theme of next year and followers on Facebook and Twitter will no doubt know this but i have been mentioning a lot about next years Quest for the blog.  The quest will almost certainly centre around Carp fishing and i have been busy drawing up a list of items so that i am fully prepared for this quest this year in terms of mentality and of course tackle.  I will go a lot more into my tackle choices closer to the time when the quest is a lot closer but for me being able to put together a in depth blog post each week involves a great deal of planning and forward thinking and also lessons have to be learnt and built upon from the previous quest.  The previous quest was a steep learning curve and maybe i bit off more than i could chew asking for a 10lb fish from a non commercial, natural water for my first double but i did it and one thing you can guarantee from myself is dedication.

One of the biggest factors i noticed in the first quest was the amount of times i saw two spots i wanted to fish but only fished one rod, that has been addressed now with the purchase of two new carp rods and this weekend i also visited Stapley Water Gardens and picked up some bank sticks and bars.  I am no tackle tart as long as it does the job it will do for me, money spent on the tackle under the water is money better spent that money spent on how your gear looks above it.  Sunday saw me taking a step into unknown territory again:

These purchases are also an investment in my wider vision for the all round type of angler i want to be as these rods bank sticks and future bite alarms will also cross over into my winter pike fishing and also my tench fishing, both areas i want to get more involved into and learn more about so i am able to just grab a ruck sack and a chair and head off for a relaxing day by the bank and it will no doubt see me being able to capture more wildlife for the blog and add some much needed variety.

Moving back to the quest and it is looking like next years quest will be sponsored by a local bait company, all being well and it is the first time i will be working directly with a a company that wants to sponsor an idea of mine and i have been approached in the past by other companies to do such things but opted  against the idea but this time the guy who runs the company is a guy that has been around my blog since it started many years ago and someone i have shared many emails and location conversations with and is someone who's type of fishing is quite similar to mine and all these together made it the right thing to do from my point of view.

It also got me thinking about opening this up to other companies as well, of course not bait related, but if you have a item of tackle, terminal tackle, PVA bags systems or leads you want featuring in this quest by all means feel free to contact me on the blogs email address, facebook or Twitter.

Moving away from the quest on onto the impeding festive period where we all get a chance to relax and reflect on the year gone by and as is customary with the blog i will be putting together a few highlights of 2013 from the blog in next weeks blog update.  Christmas falls at a nice time of year this year for any angler as Christmas is sandwiched right in the middle of two weekends so it should see me getting out at least twice over the festive period.  I also aim, if i get the missus's present bought that is, to spend some time refreshing the look of the blog, not so much the colour but the layout and removing some dead blogs that are on the list that do not get updated and also updating some of the links to companies that i feel really help me out on twitter and really help the blog to grow like it has over the past few years.

These people help me out for no monetary gain for themselves of self promotion but just because they like reading my blog and believe me i read a fair few angling blogs in my weekly breaks and its amazing how many blogs i promote on my page that do not even have the courtesy to have me mentioned in the sidebar or blogs they follow list.  I spend a lot of time on my blog and i see the regulars who comment, comment of facebook, re tweet, mention me on their blog and really help me out and i think i should be doing more for these people and companies to scratch their back.   There will be also more added to the still waters, rivers and commercials i fish sections if i get time.

Moving along but still on the theme of Christmas i have put together a little fun video for the blog to say Merry Christmas to all the people who take time to read my weekly blog.  Merry Christmas and a Safe and happy new year from Myself, Dad and Uncle.

The weather of late has really surprised me and how mild it is of late was confirmed by the fact Martin Bowler commented on his Facebook page this week that he had just released his fourth barbel of the day back to the river and also another angler i keep in contact with who follows the blog got in touch to say he had caught his first still water barbel from Flushing Meadows Fishery, again in December which is crazy!!  The temperature has creeped down towards freezing but it has not stayed low for ant considerable amount of time, certainly not for more than two days with the daytime temperatures reaching up around the 7oc mark, methinks Santa might be delivering his presents this year in his under crackers at this rate.

and with that we move onto past fishing trips:

Winter and that hunt for Dace Perfection

Expectations of winter normally fill the mind with images of snow covered fields, iced rod rings and friendly visits from plump red breasted robins but this year has been unique as although the pages of the newspapers seem to be full of horror weather reports of the worst storms since records began the reality has been much different.  the morning commute to work has seen me met with fiery red skies with the early rays of sunlight providing a claret tinge to the morning clouds.

The majority of the country wakes and breathes a heavy sigh of relief as yet another promised overnight frost fails to materialise, myself, my heart sinks as yet another day passes by with mild temperatures and rain free days.  The rivers wait in expectation of their yearly refreshing winter deluge of water and subsequent cleansing floods but its a wait that has seen our rivers run clear and low for the majority of the winter of 2013.  We now are fast approaching the middle of winter and the day with the shortest amount of daylight hours is right there in our sights and the majority of river and still water predator anglers hope and pray for the second stanza of winter to be glistened with jack frosts ice cold touch.

My angling confidence of late has been as changeable as the seasons of the year with it being as high as a buzzard in the midday summer sun a few weeks back too it being as low as i can remember of late and the past two sessions i mention in this update have been some of the most difficult sessions i have been on in a long time.  My tactics have not changed from previous dace trips to the river dee and although there has been some really nice fish to remember these session for, such as this pristine roach below that weights just over a 1lb, in reality the sessions as a whole have proved frustrating.

The first session i was well prepared for the fishing to come with hook lengths lined up like soldiers next to a hard boiled egg all waiting to be called upon to be dunked into the murky depths.  The session started off great with me straight into fish and nice ones to boot.  The roach mentioned above was one of these fish that came early on in the session and for the first hour or two i put a decent weight of fish in the net, so much so it had my uncle coming over to check my progress as he was struggling.  I ended the session with 9lb off fish and i would say around 7lb of that came in those two to three hours as from 3 hours in i could not buy a bite, it was like someone had knocked the switch off altogether.  The fish where there but i could not catch them and when preceded to occur was the odd fish capture here and there over the rest of the session.

I say the odd fish here ant there but the fish when they came were worth catching as they were generally fish over 6oz the frustration came in the fact i could not keep more than one or two coming.  The river dee and especially dace fishing on this river is always an ongoing battle with the pike that love to sneak into your swim but i really think this was down to me not doing something right and the answer does not normally show itself till you are back home thinking over the session and this was the case on Saturday.

The reason i feel i struggled after 3 hours of the session was bad feeding of the swim, i basically fed too much which drew the fish up the swim and up in the water and as they where drawn up in the water so my bait was passing down the right line but not the right area of the swim so rather than changing float and line during the session maybe i should have changed depth and not fed as much maggot to bring the fish back down over the hemp where i had caught them in the first few hours.  Over feeding a swim is something i suffer from quite a lot with my fishing as i am an angler that really likes to attack the swim i am in and even more so when the fish are coming thick and fast but in reality once i have the fish in the swim my feeding should change from feeding a lot to drip feeding it into the swim to create competition for bite, fishing is a journey where we are constantly learning in my opinion and although this may not be the reason i caught next time i am in that situation i will have another option to test rather than plodding on with the way i was doing for the first few hours.

My net

My uncle is the master of putting together a net of fish and his feeding and way he catches the fish is a joy to watch and this was the case on this session as although he did not catch much for the first few hours he had almost doubled my net by the end.  The dace on his swim where strangely coy for dace in the river dee and he found that he only got bits when he trotted really close to a downstream snag, he had no bites anywhere else in the swim all day.  Normally when dace fishing the fish grow in confidence and you bring them up onto the feed where you want them during the session but on this occasion these fish where not leaving the sanctuary of the snag.

My uncles net:

The session this week was a complete disaster of a session on the River Dee.  These sessions come along from time to time and in angling terms it was "one of those days".  Sat in the car park with a hour to go till sunrise i got on my phone and loaded up the Blogs Facebook page and began posting about my excitement for the session ahead and the really windy conditions i would be faced with.  I had a plan for these conditions and it was to fish a heavy bolo float as i knew if i could present a bait in the correct depth of water the levels and more importantly the clarity of the river where spot on for a decent weight of fish.

First light came and i set up my box in the swim and set about getting my float rod ready for fishing, line threaded i went in my box for a float and that is when the nightmare began, no float tube!!  I began searching in my side tray for a float and the heaviest i could find was 6 number 4, not ideal and with the wind gusting through i knew i was in trouble but as always i was optimistic, i very rarely am not confident with my fishing especially so when dace fishing the river Dee.

The wind at this point was just coming in gusts with prolonged gaps where i managed to catch some nice dace and roach but it did not last long and by 9am the wind was so strong it was bending the tip of my float road around towards 90 degrees at times.  It was time to make a change so i went to my holdall to get my feeder rod but alas the feeder rod was not to be seen and that is when i realised i had left it on the table at home with my float tube, things could not get any worse surely, or could it as from this moment on the wind got so hard it was blowing the float and rig into the edge as soon as it hit the water, i wasn't even going down the river but trotting back into my bank, side wards haha.

 I persevered for 3 hours on the float rod without a fish to show for my efforts before a gap in the wind saw me in with a chance, i quickly trotted the line further out and hit a fish fist time, a nice dace as well, well lets just say it WAS a nice dace as no sooner had the fish broke the surface a pike came from the depths and took the fish and bit straight through the line which shot into the air and into a birds nest around the float.  Enough was enough, there where all manner of better things i could be doing than struggling on the river so i called it a day and spent the afternoon with my fiance and little girl.

This makes the session sound all doom and gloom when looking back at the better fish from the session it was not so bad.

Well that concludes another blog update, this week i doubt we will get on the dee with this rain but i am sure we will be on the banks somewhere in this wonderful country of ours, might even get on the canal for some piking!!

till next time

tight lines

Danny

Big Bags of Dace on River Dee To End River Seaon

A warm welcome to this week’s blog update and I start with a huge thank you to all the people who gave last week’s product review post such great feedback, from Re-tweets on Twitter to some nice emails sent to the blogs email address, thank you all so much it really means a lot to receive feedback from regular readers of this blog.

What the future holds with regards more product reviews will be down to the companies involved but if nothing comes from this little venture I thoroughly enjoyed writing last week’s blog and any side ventures like this are always there as a luxury or little bonus for all the hard work I put into writing this blog.

This week’s trip to the bank was the last one of the River for us and I thought it would be good in this week’s introduction to look back over the last river season.  I set myself a target this season of having sessions purposely dedicated to targeting pike and I think I did quite well on this front considering the river was rarely at a steady level for more than a week at a time.  The sessions where I did get out for pike and targeted then I did have a few fish to double figures and the season really culminated for me in that pike in the snow.

Trotting is always my passion on the rivers and with the river being flooded for so many weeks it was always going to take pole position once the river dropped to a near normal level and hence the last few weeks of the season the pike fishing took a bit of a back seat towards the end of the season, had the winter not been so wet my plan was to get my fix of dace fishing out of the way in preparation of targeting the pike in February and march when the fish are fattening up in preparation for spawning, this just serves as a reminder that we can make the best of plans but we are ultimately in the hands of mother nature and the end of the day.

A Positive to take from this season, a season I think we did well to get in so much fishing, was us discovering pastures new in our few trips to the River Ribble, a destination that will live long in the memory with the capture by my uncle of that massive 1lb 3oz dace.  This river really captured both mine and my uncle’s interest after our first session it was hard fishing and we worked for every bite but boy was it exciting and a breath of fresh air from the sometimes predictable nets of dace on the River Dee and there will certainly be more of this river to come next season. 

The fish of the season for me would have to be the perch in the snow from the River Dee, just the day itself with the capture of that perch and the two pike on the way home just topped that session off for me but that perch will live long in the memory for myself and has opened up a whole new avenue of exploration for next winter as I really fancy a session dedicated to targeting these tenacious sergeants.

The next three months are always a time I look forward to being on the bank as I love seeing the world around me wake up from its winter slumber and I also can’t wait to welcome our feathered summer visitors back to our shores in the coming months not to mention the return of those long warm evenings after work as the evenings lengthen chasing tench and carp.  I think there is one thing I want to reintroduce into my fishing this year and that is fun, over the past year I feel I have been in an intense frame of mind on the bank, eager to learn new methods and techniques and develop them to a standard I am happy with and I think this year it’s time to get back to the real reason I fell in love with fishing and that’s the fun and excitement of being on the bank so I can see me mixing it up a bit in the coming months on the bank, maybe blow the cobwebs off my centre-pin and have some fun with that or spend some time targeting carp off the top like I used to do as a kid.  My mind really does go into over time thinking about ideas of what I can do, I just hope mother nature is on my side this year.

Tight lines to all if you either changing over from winter to summer fishing or just blowing the dust of your rods from last summer’s campaign, tight lines and the best of fishes for the coming months, I am off to watch a fish for all seasons by Martin Bowler, a great way to get into spring mode, before writing the rest of this update tomorrow.

On to this week’s adventure:-

The end of the river season? Surely not!!

The end of a gruelling river season had arrived and with it our last chance to trot a float on running water for 3 long months we had only one destination in mind and that was the River Dee, a destination we had spent far too little time on during the course of the year but one that now was in perfect condition for a decent bag of dace.

Fishing on Saturday was chalked off due to a family commitment but whilst enjoying the delights of a pint of lager me and my uncle studied how the river was looking and we both agreed she would be just about perfect when we planned to visit the next day.

The last weekend of the season mixed with how good the river was looking we decided to take no chances in not getting prime position so the alarm clock was set for a ridicules time; all I can say is it was a time that makes it very hard to convince doubters of our mental state of mind wrong! Either way effort this time would surely equal success, well at least we hoped.

Turning the penultimate bend before the stretch and the excitement of not knowing what pegs are free was tangible, would we get a decent peg or would we be left settling for a less fancied area?  I have learned from past disappointments not to let myself even think of fishing a certain peg but you never lose that feeling of knowing where you would like to be.

Creeping slowly round last endless corner I strained my neck slightly trying to make out the faint outlines of cars or bivvys on the bank but low and behold my full beam headlights revealed the whole stretch to be derelict, devoid, absent of anything resembling an angler, Result we thought as we parked up in the areas we wanted to fish.

The dusk till dawn lamp out it was time to get the gear unloaded on on the pegs ready for the session ahead and with a good amount of time till even the most enthusiastic of birds began to clear its throat we had plenty of time to make sure we were set up perfectly, this lamp really has saved us loads of time on the bank.

Anyone who reads my blog with any regularity will know my set up by now for trotting so I won’t go into it again apart from mentioning I decided to go with the 3 gram Dave Harell Bolo over a stick float.  I would say at this point I went with my 17ft rod to give it one final outing for a few months but I have plans to use this rod on a deep pond on the WAA card in the coming weeks.

The dawn began to break and it revealed the river to be in perfect condition, she was flat calm without a breath of wind and was carrying a few feet of water with a tinge of colour but not enough for us to be reaching for the feeder rod.  The conditions were far from ideal though as a icy chill had moved in the valley and with it a smattering a snow than would unfortunately be with us the whole day long

The first cast of the morning is always a special moment in branch of our sport but few branches of our sport is the first cast met with such instant results as the final shot had only just registered as the float zipped under and the first dace of the session graced the palm of my hand and what a pretty sight it was and I remember thinking to myself to make the most of every minute of this session.

The session was a cracker from the off and even the on off snow could not dampen my enthusiasm the fish were there and there in numbers and I was determined to learn from last week and be prepared for the midday lull when the tide came in.  The fish at first where like the one above around the 2-4oz mark and smaller but I wasn’t too bothered as that float was still going under and to me that was all that mattered.  I continued to drip feed the swim and the better fish settled in over my bait and it was during the early stages of the better fish moving I landed one of the most stunning dace I have ever caught, it really was fin perfect, scales like pearls and a fins that went from dark purple to clear at the tips it really was a pleasure to catch this dace.

The action continued to be consistent and the general standard was upheld with the odd splattering of “eyes” but by dinnertime I had no room to complain at all and was more than made up with my efforts.  It was not long after visiting my uncles peg around dinner time that the peg started to change, the bites where coming further and further down the peg and where all over the place instead of in the place I had been getting them all morning, something was aria and I knew exactly what it was, a pike.  Two or three dace came in the space of around half an hour as the peg ground to a halt and then it happened I struck and was met with solid resistance as a large fish swam upstream and held deep, there was that few moments where the pike just thinks its swimming off with its lunch but doesn’t quite know why it can’t move off as smoothly as it would like.

The battle went on for around 5 minutes and I eventually managed to get the fish up near the top and caught a glimpse of it and I estimate it to be around the 5lb mark and with one flip of its tail it made a lunge for the depths and with it my hook came flying back at me. I was more gutted about the fact it had covered my whole swim on its foray for freedom  than I was about losing a jack pike and I knew I was basically back at square one and would have to feed the swim back up again. 

The dace being temporarily moved out seemed to make room for some different species to move in and the first fish I connected with after the pike went was a nice grayling shown above. The grayling was a welcome and refreshing change to the precession of dace I had caught in the morning but unfortunately this grayling was the only diversion away from the dace for the rest of the day, not that I am complaining.

The swim began to again build slowly with smaller dace at first and then the better fish moved in but in all it took a long time for the bigger dace to build their confidence and move into the swim in any numbers.  My uncle fishing the peg just up form me had took a bit longer to get them going but was more than making up for lost time and was caught regular through the whole day on both his trotting line and under his feet.

We both continued to catch steady and was both still catching when we decided to call it a day at 3pm, it was always the plan to pack in at this time to get back for the football but I must admit had I known how close I was to 20lb I would have carried on for another 15 minutes.

It came to the time for us to see what we had caught, we both knew we had caught well and had a very good net and in my head I thought my uncle had piped me because he had caught so steady all day.

My uncle weighed in first and his net look colossal I was certain he had battered me on the scales as they went round to 16lb 9oz.

My turn and as I pulled my net out of the water I was shocked at the weight at what I had caught it was, for me, no matter what the weight a net I was going to be proud of.

The scales went round to an astonishing 19lb 10oz!! I must admit I had to check it again as it was a  new personal best net from this location and I was over the moon.

We both agreed we had given the season a good send off and we packed up and left happy it could not have gone any better and with that we said goodbye to the most majestic of rivers for another 3 months and vowed to return enthusiastic as ever in June, hungry to search out new locations and the summer dace shoals.

Till next time I wish you all tight lines

Danny

  

Sports Direct Dusk till Dawn Lamp Review and more relaxing on the Dee

A warm welcome to this week’s angling blog, a few weeks ago I was approached by Sports Direct to see if I was interested in reviewing some of their products on the list was a whole host of products to review but I decided to go with the product that I thought I could get the most use out of and also therefore write a relevant review about.  The product I decided to go with was the Dusk till Dawn Lamp.  I would just like to add here I receive no affiliation money from people purchasing this product from this review.

Dusk Till Dawn Bivvy Lamp Review

Product info:

The 18 LED Bivvy Lamp is ideal for all types of fishing. The Bivvy Lamp has a built in compass. Included are carrying handles that will fold down for storage. 

Fishing Bivvy Lamp 
> Low glo sleep feature 
> Dimmer switch 
> Takes 3 D batteries (not supplied) 
> 100,000 hours LED life 

Price:  £6.99

Check lamp out here:  fishing gear online

My Review

I purchase a lot of my fishing tackle online and have had my fair share of products arriving broken and late so one thing I find really important since this is how much care a company takes in making sure the item you have purchased reaches you in a perfect condition and in a quick as time as possible, I have to say the product was issued on a Wednesday and reached me on the Thursday afternoon and was very well packaged indeed. 

Once I opened the lamp the first thing that stood out to me was the look of the lamp, it looked really stylish with a nice metallic green smooth feel to the outside of the lamp.  The base of the lamp had a wide circumference which made sure the produce was sturdy when left on its base and this was only added too when the batteries where installed, all that was left was to test it out on the bank.

I gave myself 3 weeks to properly field test the product and the use I had it in mind for it was to walk the river bank when we normally arrive an hour or so before sunrise and also to use it to provide light for me to safely set up my peg and the ultimate test for it was to see if I could use it to thread up my rod in the dark in preparation for the day ahead.   I have to say the lamp surpassed my expectations on its highest setting it was great for looking at the pegs in the pitch dark both on the River Dee and River Ribble.  

The lamps handles fold up for carrying the lamp in hand where sturdy and for setting up my peg before sunrise.  When I put the lamp in the empty boot of my car it provided more than enough light for me to tie my hook lengths which I have to say at size 20 hook and 1lb 2oz mainline it was some feat for a product of this price and it also provided enough light for me to thread my 17ft rod up. The lamp does come with a compass on top of the lamp, for my fishing I did not find much use for this but I am sure anglers that take wind direction into account with their fishing will see this as a great feature to have.

In review, for the price it is a fantastic product that I wouldn’t be without now on the bank of a morning and it has saved me so much time setting up and as a result has meant me spending more time with a float in the river.

A link to what other fishing tackle Sports Direct have to offer is here : fishing gear online

On to this weeks fishing:

Stress Relieving Time On The Bank………..

Recently work has really been getting on top of me the enclosed artificial feel of an office was stifling and I could feel myself dragging my heels as I tried to make the short walk to work from my car as long as possible as to make the most of the sights and sounds of the birds going about their morning rituals, always the highlight of my day.  The remedy to this sickness was clear; I needed a day away from it all, a day on the bank, just me, the river and the wildlife so no sooner had my boss’s feet touched the maroon carpet of our office I was there making the arrangements for the following day, Friday, off work. 

A quick prayer to the angling gods and all I could do was wait for my reply, in my head I was there already trotting a small stick float down a clear river with its crystal clear reflections standing clear and proud uninterrupted by any unwelcome breeze, my day dream slumber came to an abrupt end as I received the email I had waited for, the answer was yes and with that a big thank you to the angling gods and with the found enthusiasm that comes with the countdown to a fishing trip I got about my work.

Its been a long time since I did two trips out in one week and I knew two full days trotting on the river would be too much and also I now had a family to think of so I limited my Friday session to just the early morning with a view to packing in around 1pm, just in time to pick my fiancé up from work. 

The drive to the river had a weird eerie feeling to is as for two years now the seat next to me has always been occupied by either my Dad or my uncle, it was really weird trundling along the same roads with no one to chew the fat with or discuss what our expectations or tactics would be for the session ahead, it is not until you are in this situation you really realise how long it has been.

Waiting for first light I ditched the Smooth Fm radio station in favour of the dawn chorus and what a chorus it was with all the birds in full voice all playing their part in natures very own daily opera.  Lost in the moment I failed to notice the increasing light levels and I was soon rushing around getting ready for the mornings fishing ahead.  My 17ft float rod, 10 number 4 Dave Harrell stick float and my trust Abu 706 reel where all put into action as I settled into a swim that was alive with fish on the top, not exactly what I was hoping to see as my plan was to catch the fish on the bottom, I had a plan and it involved getting these fish where I wanted them.

In fishing you really do need to learn from your mistakes and a year ago I was presented with the same scenario as this, the fish where boiling on the top at the maggots as soon as they touched the water’s surface so I knew not to feed maggot at all and what I decided to do was to just feed hemp seed for the first hour.

This tactic saw a few bars of silver grace my palm but it was hardly prolific and the fish continued to gorge themselves on the delicacy’s being washed down to them by the flow.  I decided to have a change to a stick float and this gave me more control than the stick float and saw my catch rate increase considerably and I began to put quite a respectable net together.

As with all the times we go fishing my peace and tranquillity was soon broken by the sound of my phone alarm alerting me to the fact it was time to think about packing in and heading off to pick my partner up from work.  After far too many last casts I only had time to take a quick picture of the net and load the car before it was time to leave the tranquillity of the river behind for the fast paced world of a British motorway.  All in all it was a relaxing session on the bank and the perfect tonic to release the build-up of stress in work.

Session Two: Time to Explore a little but always know when to quit

Saturday morning came along and it was time to explore, on the river Dee the hot spots in winter are well known and because of this they are very busy, loud and frantic places and to be honest I can only fish them for one or two weeks at a time before I have to just get away from there as my soul craves the quietness and escapism that comes with being at the bottom of a frost laden farmers field with only the noise of the wildlife as a back drop.

Now it is very easy to keep going to these prolific stretches every week and bag up but as me and my uncle found last year you can just drop on an area that holds fish away from these areas and if you can locate these needles in the haystack they can be worth their weight in gold.  The plan for the day was ideally to catch fish in this location and stay there all day but we did have a contingency that had we now had a bight in the first 3 hours we would move to a more well-known area for the afternoon, just to get a bend in the rod.

Saturday  confirmed one thing to me, I need to start taking my better camera with me to the river bank, my iphone is great for taking point and shoot pictures but when it comes to anything that requires a bit of zoom I am lacking in a big way.  On Saturday I could hear a pair of woodpeckers in my area, one in front and one behind, whilst re-baiting my hook I saw a small movement across the river on the side of the tree, a quick second glance and it was my first ever sighting of a woodpecker in the wild!! Forget the fishing I thought as I laid the rod down on its rest and just watched this amazing creature go about its work, what a special moment and a moment that will live with me for a long time, if only I had a decent camera on me!!

In truth the fishing at this location was a none starter but I am so glad we went, the area just had a great feel to it and it has been a while since I have just downed tools and headed of for a walk with just me and my phone and I thoroughly enjoyed it from a nice sunrise to the first buds on the trees.

After returning to my peg and giving it a good couple of three hours without so much as a knock we decided to call it a day and spent the afternoon on a more prolific venue.  Arriving late we had only a handful of the less fancied swims to choose from and I was left with a swim that was not the best for trotting due to the fact it shallows up half way down the run.  This is where all the time spent throughout the year with the same make of float becomes important as any bites below the point where the river shallows up would not see the float go under but see the float act differently when I had a bite, it is hard to explain on paper but by knowing the float I could tell when I had fish on or not over the shallow ground.

In the short afternoon session I estimate I had around 6lb of dace from the swim which given the short amount of time fishing the swim and fact when we arrived the other anglers had a good 4 hours of baiting up ahead of us I was more than happy with my net.

I hope you enjoyed this update and the variety the product review brings to the table, it is not going to be an every week thing but I am sure it will add some variety to my blog.

Till next time I wish you all

Tight line

Danny

"One a Chuck" on the River Dee

A warm welcome to this week’s blog update and thank you to all the people who contacted me this week in support of my introduction to last week’s update, it came from the heart and was written at a time when my emotions where high about the subject.  A week on I am still upset about the loss of this water but with a river laden heavy with fish I am positive I will find new spots on the other venues I visit and with the loss of Almere which was a water I spent a fair deal of time on I will have more time to dedicate to other venues on the River Dee, both free and on the WAA card.

Another decision that has to be made in the coming months is the decision around what card we want to go with or should I say cards.  I am sure we will decide to give the Warrington Anglers Card one more year, one to see what the other waters on the Dee produce and two we have at least one venue we want to visit on the River Ribble that we want to visit.  There are other cards on our radar as possibilities to add to the WAA card and they are the Winsford, Northwich or Dee anglers card and in principle they all have their pros and cons so a bit more investigation is needed before we decide for certain and I guess it will all come down to the quality of the other WAA waters on the Dee.

The past few week s my blogs sub-page where I am on the hunt for a 10lb carp has been playing on my mind, last year I had plenty of enthusiasm to get out there and managed to pre bait a few spots well but I found finding time to fish the spots quite hard to come by, a lot of this was of course down to me and my partner expecting our first child, there are many reasons to be unhappy in life when you cannot make it to the bank but the arrival of our beautiful little girl, well let’s just say the carp could wait for another year, this year?? Let the adventure begin, well I say begin its already began as this week the pre-baiting begins!!

I had planned to begin my baiting up a few weeks ago but just when it seemed like the weather was changing it look a turn for the worst and the temperatures plummeted which would have saw the carps movements slow down and thus their digestive system slow down as well and I want to  bait up at the right time when I know carp will be on the move a little more and have a chance of finding my spots.  My plan is to attract anything that swims into the swim, bream, roach, perch, rudd as I am a firm believer in what the excellent blogger Stewart Bloor says “A crowd attracts a crowd” and I think my chosen mix of liquidised bread, corn, chosen boilie and any bait left over from out weekends excursions should see the fish becoming accustomed to being fed in a certain area. 

As I have said before on the blog, for my carp skill level, a ten pound carp is a big target and I know I could go any commercial with a decent head of fish and fish the margins on my pole and no doubt catch a 10lb carp by just wading through the numbers but I want this quest to have some type of story to it and to have worked for it but I think  more than that I want it to be a “wild” fish and I feel I have found a location where I can get to regular and also fish of an evening after work or for a few hours on a Sunday without it costing me anything in petrol.

To see how I get on and keep up with my pre baiting and sessions etc you can either select the link form the tool bar at the top of my blog of find it on the link below.

Link to 10lb carp mini blog: http://satonmyperch.blogspot.co.uk/p/10lb-carp-mini-blog.html

On to this week’s trip and with the river spot on it’s a trip I have waited a few weeks for!!

No rain, No snow, No Flooding…........time to catch some Dace

I managed to catch the end of Countryfile this week and for once there were no reports of snow or rain, I admit I had to rewind it a watch it again just to make sure I wasn’t hearing things but no it was definitely being reported that there would be no rain or snow in the coming week.  The river Dee last week was only a tad too high for us to risk a trip to her so a week with no rain would certainly see the sediment drop out of the river and her levels continue to drop as the week progressed leaving a near perfect river, well at least that’s how I imagined it.

My hands shook with excitement as I threaded up my 17ft carbon active float rod using my new Dusk till Dawn lamp to illuminate the area, a product which I am currently reviewing for Sports Direct and that review will be part of next week’s update.   I don’t know what it is about fishing that gets me like that but the excitement when I first arrive at the bank is a buzz that I hope I never loose, I guess the day that happens is the day I think about calling it a day.

It is always a great feeling when you are in tune with your water and arriving at the river on Saturday morning the river was just as I had dreamt the previous night, the sun rising revealed the true beauty of this river in its winter colours the water a dark tea colour with a good few feet of clarity she was flowing at a gentle pace with no breaks in the trot to give away any submerged snags, in truth the swim looked like a perfect dace swim and I was really confident.  The light gave away one more secret as well, the fact I wasn’t the first person on the river that morning. 

One of the great things about a river that has recently been dropping is the face its wet banks give away the creatures of the nights presence, I have never seen mink on this stretch bit I know they are on the river in numbers my guess is a mink but I could well be a rat as I saw some proper “splinters” here last year.

With the river only carrying a few feet on summer level and the prospects of a decent day ahead I decided to stick to a method I was confident with and decided against fishing the 3 gram bolo and went with a 10 No 4 Dave Harrell stick float and fished it shirt button style.  A few pints of maggots and same of hemp and I was ready to really attack the swim.  The swim had been fed since I picked the swim and come my first cast I expected the float to bury and I was not to be disappointed as the float had barely cocked before it went for its first dunking of the day and as predicted it was a dace on the other end and boy was I pleased to see a river dee silver dart, holding her in my hands I looked down and it said one thing to me, welcome home.

From there the day just got better and better and with bites coming thick and fast, so fast in fact on a number of occasions the float was under before I had time to feed the swim with maggot or hemp, it truly was the dee river dee at its best and the phrase “a bite a chuck” was banded out as me and my uncle both caught steady.

The river had a slight change in level around midday, a tide I thought but on reflection there was no tide showing on the EA levels that night so I am guessing it was a release from Bala lake either way it really messed up my trot and this reflected in my catch rate, I can only imagine the net had it carried on like it had started for the whole day.

During this lull in the action we did still catch a few fish and one in particular that stuck in my mind was a dace that in my opinion has to be the luckiest dace in the Dee.  The lacerations down its flanks testament to a near miss with a large pike with some towards its tail end really deep, so deep in fact I am amazed the fish not only survived the attack but also lived to tell the tale as the fish would have been bleeding severely after this attack and I can only imagine tis down to luck the pike did not track its escaped, injured meal down to finish it off.  The dace does have loose scales along its flank for this reason to escape the jaws of its predators, not as loose as a bleak but they are still loose enough to give the dace a chance to escape the jaws of the pike as the pike momentarily loosens its grip to turn the fish head first to swallow.

The day wore on and my uncle moved over to the pole which he fished to a slack behind a tree, this saw the bites keep coming for him.  My swim, being very open, lacked that luxury and I continued to winkle out fish from all over the swim.  The levels eventually settled and the fishing picked up again for the afternoon and we both continued to bag up on the stick float.

The end of a great session drew near and it was time to compare nets, we both knew we had done quite well but just how well we didn’t quite know.

My uncle was first to weight in and it was a dace bag of 16lb

My net was next and I was amazed to see the scales go round to over 17lb, I really didn’t think I had done so well.

Well that’s it for this week, I am off to continue my pre baiting for the carp campaign and to thoroughly enjoy my new found freedom of an evening after being relived of my duties as WAA Facebook page’s picture amnesty villain, least with me gone the pictures will now roll in (no excuses now) and will save the club begging for pictures of carp for shows eh, what is it they say about every cloud and silver linings??

Till next week I wish you all

Tight lines

Danny