Grand Theft Farndon

Before we get onto the blog this week I would like to send my thoughts out to the families of the Angler than lost his life on the River Trent over the weekend and may this event heed as a warning to all anglers across the country as to the dangers of fishing our rivers, not only at this time of year, but all through the seasons. Take care and be keep safe.

This week saw the publication of an article in the Angling Times rag of the 30lb pike caught from the River Mersey which is sure to arouse more attention to this once severely polluted waterway.  Reading the article you get a sense of the lengths specimen anglers will go to for their quarry from crawling on his belly through brambles to the monetary costs of breaking five rods in the process not to mention the hours he spent each week fishing this spot for its giant resident.

Living on the banks of the River Mersey myself you always hear stories on the grapevine and in this last year alone I have heard nothing but positives from this local river which come from the full length of its course from salmon running the river higher up, 40lb plus weights coming out in matches        in Warrington, 20lb plus carp being caught and even the estuary is making a comeback with numerous anglers now sea fishing from Spike island in Widnes all this bodes well for the future and who knows in a few years time I may not have to travel to Wales for a good days dace fishing, fingers crossed!!!

On to this week’s fishing which I am really pleased to say was back on the River!!! (finally!!)

  With the weather settling and the rain that had caused our rivers to flood now reduced to a few small showers the River Dee finally showed some sign of falling a process that would take a few days of little rain to be any where near fishable by the next weekend.  Every morning I tentatively pulled back the curtains and prayed there had been no overnight heavy downpours and religiously checked the EA site to track the waters decent.  Thursday morning came and still no rain and the river levels had dropped to around 6.5m at Farndon, al level I knew would still be tough fishing but was definitely fishable and with frosts due the next day and all weekend I hastily booked the following day off work with a view to fishing Farndon the next morning, all that stood between that was a gruelling overtime shift in work till 7.30pm!!.

Red clear sky at 4pm from work window confirmed I was in for a bitter cold calm on the bank.

  Thursday night was taken up preparing my hemp and creating a few hook lengths for the following day but it is a task I now have come to love as it means fishing the following morning and this week it was a day earlier than normal, rigs prepared and hemp cooling I was all set for a day on the river the following morning.

  The alarm clock ringing in my ear at 6am was regrettably not put back on a 10 minute snooze and it was closer to 7am when I left my house for the river bank and was undoubtedly an error that would see me not getting a peg on such a busy stretch of river.  The whole journey there down the motorway I refused to let myself even think about what lay ahead as to not be disappointed when I arrived but to my amazement I pulled into an empty car park when I arrived at Farndon and was a sight that could only mean two things either one the river was fishing poorly or two the cold sharp frost that hit on Friday had seen a few anglers turn over and give it a miss.

I pulled up in a peg that although wasn’t the best peg on the beat was one that would allow me to fish comfortably and that is exactly what I was looking for on such a bitterly cold day.  My first view of the river took me back as she looked to have a bit more water in that I expected but once I saw the peg I realised it wasn’t so bad with it just covering the bottom step. 

With the first step out of bounds this would normally have seen me standing for the entire session on the next step up but with my new seat box I could easily fit the first four legs on the second step and have the foot plate legs extended down onto bottom step and made for a really comfortable days fishing sat trotting the river, worth the purchase already in my eyes.

The river itself was like ice with not a breath of wind to cause any problems with presentation and although the main flow was moving at some pace as the rain water filed off the water in front of me was at a more manageably pace so I decided to scrap the heavy 5gram bolo float I had intended to use and went with a much more sensitive stick float dotted right down to detect the slightest most delicate of bites.

During the first part of the session there was a lot of commotion from peg 1 closest to the bridge and upon investigating I found out it was the Environment Agency removing the debris that had got lodged behind the arches of the bridge in the recent floods and great to see them hard at work so soon after the floods have subsided.  The commotion caused by the operation was as expected loud but the speed at which they worked was outstanding and certainly earned my praises and within an hour had completed their job and packed away.

The fishing from the off was like any other recent visit to farndon, fast and furious, with bites coming in quick succession as the fish held over my hemp offerings and as time wore on the quality of the fish improved and saw me taking the fish below  a chunky roach that was holding in the inside slack.  The inside line produced some decent fish through out the session but trotting that line was lined with danger as there was a hook length stealing snag lying on the bed of the river that greedily took three hook lengths off me in the space of an hour and although that line produced some decent roach I quickly decided to go with the line further out that was producing small dace.

Not long after this roach I was happily fishing away when out of the corner of my eye I caught the sight of two men walking along the top of the path in suits, very unusual I thought as the location I was fishing in farndon is more accustomed to fishermen, ramblers and dog walkers and I just thought they where looking at the derelict houses that line the fishing at Farndon and carried on with my fishing.

A few more roach and dace came to the net when I heard the guy on the peg next to me speaking to someone about these two people in suits and as she walked past the top of my peg I realised it was a police woman who had been talking to him and with that all hell broke loose with two police cars turning up and coppers getting out with sniffer dogs followed by the police helicopter arriving overhead and methodically flying low above our heads and the surrounding village.  I remember thinking whatever they have done it must be serious and I must admit I was just glad I had decided against going the loo a few minutes earlier!!!!

  The helicopter seemed to stick around for what seemed like and age just scouring the area and as the commotion was taking place towards the end of the stretch I got back to my fishing that had hit a mixed patch as the bites where more scrappy as if the fish where darting in and out of the peg for the bait and I also remember looking down at my keep net to see all my catch up in the net and this is always a sure fire sign that there is a pike down there somewhere.

The distance I was trotting was improving cast on cast to try and search the fish out  and after around 20-30 minutes without a bite I eventually hooked into a decent dace right at the bottom of the trot and just as it was coming into sight from nowhere a pike nailed it and slowly headed into the depths.  The pike was solid on the bottom of the river and there was nothing I could do with it every time I got it half way up in the water column it made a strong run back to the bottom and was on the line for 5-10 minutes before it spat the bait out, as you can see from the video below it was a decent pike judging by the bend in the rod.

  In these scenarios I never get too confident and reach for the net as 99 times out of 100 the pike will either bite through your line or let go of the fish and that can be at any time in the fight even at the point where you have it on top beat!! Only rarely does the hook transfer from the fish into the pike and hook somewhere its teeth cant cut through the line and you get them in.  The dace was a right mess when I finally got it in.

The pike during the fight really did cover the whole of my peg and to be honest the fishing never really recovered I did catch steadily through out the day but nothing like I had at the start and the fish never really got their heads down over the bait again and as the day wound on the fish in fact came up in the water and had I packed my pole I am sure I would have had them one a chuck on the drop.

Below are the final pictures of the nets and of course they never do them justice.

  All in all it was a very enjoyable day on the bank and was so good to be back on the river again, canals are great places and my time on them in the past few weeks produced some lovely pike but the rivers just hold that magic about them that is so addictive.

I nipped out on Sunday for a few hours with my uncle to another stretch on the dee that fished well in the summer and really struggled but what we where treated to was a visit form the resident swans from summer with their nearly fledged cygnets.  Any one that followed this blog back at the start of summer will appreciate this following picture as the small family we met on a warm summer morning has come through the rough and smooth one the river and come out the other side, a sight that warmed up even the coldest morning on the bank.

till next time

tight lines 

danny

p.s searched high and low for what the guys in suits had done on local news but turned up nothing.

Silver fishing on the River Dee at Farndon....

 

After around two to three months of fishing both Saturday and Sunday continuously I purposely decided early on last week that I would only be fishing one day come the weekend to one, give me a little break and two to catch up on the mountain or errands that have crept up over the weeks and to be honest as we delve deeper into winters grasp there will be a gradual decline towards a one day a week approach which isn't anything new in my angling year but will have an effect on the blog in that the updates will not be as long as normal, obviously as there is one day less to report on but this will not effect the frequency of my updates which will continue to be posted weekly.

 With that out of the way lets get onto this weeks fishing:

Saturday 09th October


  I recently got asked in an email from a regular reader of the blog, who contacted me via the "contact me"  page on the blog, asking if I had any tips I could give him regarding river fishing and  I replied with tips on what to look for feature wise and what rigs I use etc but I thought I would share with you the biggest tool in my armory as a river fisherman and that is the Environment Agency Water Level site found here http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/default.asp.  This site gives you the current level of the river at certain points along its course and if you are lucky one of the water stations will be situated at your chosen destination like mine was this week.  Studying this chart before and after you go fishing you can get to learn the river you are fishing and how catch rates and conditions change in relation to the water level and whether or not the river is rising of dropping after a recent down pour, it also will save you a lot of money in petrol as you can see before you travel if the river is in flood and unfishable, a brilliant source of information.

Saturdays destination was dictated by the weather and with high winds and rain due this weeks destination would have to be easily accessible and easy to "batten down" against the weather on.  One destination sprung straight to mind and that was Farndon and that is where we headed for.As I said earlier this stretch has one of the environment agency water level station situated on it and it was this graph I monitored during the week and is shown below:

  As you can see the river was carrying around half a metre of water which considering the amount of rain we have had the past week was about right and as the river had stopped rising when we were due to arrive on Saturday morning it meant we were in with a good chance of a few fish.

  The river Dee at Farndon is well known in angling circles as being a top dace and pike venue in the winter months and to be honest I thought we might struggle as its a venue I usually leave till a few weeks after the first frosts of the year to visit but after our success of late on the river I was really optimistic.

  We arrived at the river quite late on Saturday and it wasn't until the local church bells rang 8 times that I made my first cast.  As you can see the pegs at farndon are really sheltered and ideal for getting out of the wind.  This cover though will eventually die away to the point where you will be bale to see the person fishing the peg below and above you, good if your catching but soul destroying if your not and they are.

The church in the distance:

  My past visits to farndon have not been the best to be honest I really find it difficult when trotting swims over 7ft deep but in the past few months I have done more trotting and I set myself a target of just getting a few fish throughout the day but making sure I was accurate with my hemp and bait placement to get as much practice as possible in preparation for when the river is deeper in winter.

The swim I chose had a sunken tree at the end off the run which would stop re running the float down too far and also had a sunken tree at the top of my swim that would help me get my bait going in consistently at the same spot.

Few pictures of  the swim:

Upstream tree:

Downstream trot:

    As you can see on the bottom picture the downstream visibility was really hindered by some bank side vegetation hanging out over the river but this only really became a problem if I trotted down past my bed of hemp.  My bait for the river was the same as any other week with maggots, caster and hemp making up my line of attack.

Bait waiter:

 The day that was forecast to be wet and windy lived up to its name for the first twenty minutes at least as after that we were treated to flat calm conditions which came as a real surprise to say the least.  My uncle was the very next swim up from me and to say he got off to a flier was an understatement as every few seconds the peaceful noise of the world going by was broken by the unmistakable sound of an angler striking into fish and from the sound of it he was doing very well indeed.

  From my peg's point of view I made a slow but steady start and although my bait placement was spot on I was struggling with smaller fish, the bait was coming back battered but there was no indication on the float to show a bite, a change was needed and I scaled right down and manage to fish with some regularity and all over my baited area how I had planned and got to the stage where even if I hadn't caught another fish for the rest of the session I would still go home happy.

  During the morning I had a regular visitor to my swim in the form of a majestic swan that elegantly moved from angler to angler picking up any bait that had fallen into the margins, it constantly amazes me how close you can get to the birds on the river its almost as if they know the anglers pose no threat to them and it was a real privilege to get so close to this beautiful bird.

Visitor to the swim:

  I 

  

    The swan game and went throughout the whole morning just like the bites from the fish came and went from time to time although it never seemed to be the case from my uncles point of view who had set a target of 20 fish for the day when we first arrived, such a target now seemed silly as it was easily passed after the first hour.

  I did eventually get snagged on bottom which is par for the course when fishing the river, days where it doesn't happen are few and far between but rather than get annoyed about it I always take the opportunity to take a few minutes away from the peg.  I would normally go for a quick wander to see what wildlife was about but there was a masterclass on how to trot a deep river on the peg next to me and it was like poetry in motion to see how methodical he is in catching fish and like all things when done well made to look very easy.

  Full of enthusiasm I returned to my peg and put in to practice the little changes I had seen moments earlier with instant effects as my catch rate increased dramatically for the final few hours of the session.  The river was not being kind to everyone it seemed though as this picture below shows, a car park that was full when we set up was eerily empty, a sure sign not everyone had fared so well.

  The day, like all good days on the bank flew by in a blur and it was over all too soon and we were both still catching right up until we had to call it a day a 2.30pm.  It is one of the hardest things in the world to leave a swim whilst you are still catching but when the time is up the time is up and we both met up to compare our catches.

My bag shown below is by no means the heaviest bag of fish I have caught from the dee but that net of fish below meant a lot more to me than any other bag of fish I have ever caught on the dee before as it stands as a marker of how much my trotting has come on.  A year ago I fished the same stretch and caught a seven fish trotting in the whole day and left so dejected I only ever fished the stretch on the feeder there on after so this bag of fish marks a real landmark for me on my continued apprenticeship on this mighty river.

my bag;

  My uncles net:

  As you can see my uncle had a cracking day on the river and what was really good about the bags of fish they had all ages of fish in them from this years fry to well established fish approaching a pound all good signs for the future of this river.

  Next week will see my back on the river again and after this weekend i cant wait to get back on the bank and do it all again!!

till next week

tight lines

Danny

New pole christened with carp PB...........

   

  This week I used my new pole for the first time and I must say I am really impressed with how solid the pole is with no bending when used at its full length although with the final section on the pole does become noticeably heavier.  The power sections equipped with black hydro certainly stood up to the task of landing carp and the odd lump and I felt just as in control of the fish as I did when using my really strong elastic on my margin pole.  I have not had enough fish on my match sections to judge what the limitations of blue and white hydro elastic are at the moment to comment.

 

 This week I purchased a roller for my pole and decided to go with a Sensas tripod V roller and well it rolls!! A nice touch is it comes in its own carry case and it also fits nicely into the back pocket of my rod holdall so its easy to carry round.  Once I am done updating the River and Still water sections of the blog I am going to add another page aimed at providing an in depth review of some of the kit I use.

On to this weeks fishing adventures.

Wednesday Evening

  Wednesday evening gave me the first chance to use my new pole and with £4 in hand for an evening day ticket I made my way to Flushing Meadows Fishery and boy did I get my monies worth.  I arrived not long after 5pm and was greeted by two very upset anglers packing away, cursing how bad a days fishing they had experienced. After querying the peg and bait they had used I knew exactly where to find a nice pre-baited swim and as luck would have it they had used the same bait as I was hoping to lure a crafty carp with. 

  As the target species would be carp from 2lb to double figures I only took my two power top sections fitted with black hydro and straight away set up two rigs one for the margins and another for the far side shelf.  In went two large cups of corn and meat and I settled down to a nice up of coffee while I scanned the areas for signs of fish and straight away I could see the tell take swirls on the surface made by the tail of a feeding carp over my baited area.

  In went a rig with a piece of sweetcorn on the hook and after a few tentative minutes the knocks on the float caused by a fish feeding were replaced with the float "zooming" under and the new pole got a chance to cut its teeth on slightly below average common carp.

First fish on new pole:

The fish was slipped back and the dreaded blank was averted, in went another pot of bait and after a short wait another very obliging carp was soon onto the bait waving its tail to signal its soon to be surrender, which was not long in coming and what a lovely marked fish.

second carp of the session:

 The next two carp came in really quick succession and I remember after landing the second fish looking at the clock and it only being 6.15.

The next two fish making the total to four in just over an hour:

 The first hour was a complete opposite to the second hour as the swim got invaded by the millions of veracious skimmer bream that live in the pool.  I knew though to get the carp back in I needed to keep the bait going in so after every skimmer I potted in a full pot of bait.

  It took over an hour for a carp to move in but when it did it was in another league to anything I had ever hooked on the pole and I couldn't move it off the bottom of the pool, the black hydro had been purposely set on the light side as not to bump the skimmers but despite this I still felt in control of the fish and was able to turn the carp when it made deep lunges for the deep water in the middle on the pool.

  Because I hooked the fish in the near margin it meant I could easily add more sections to the pole and keep above the fish and let the elastic tire the fish out and the first time it came to the surface I took my opportunity and quickly scooped the fish into the net.

7lb 7oz an new personal best!!

 My personal best carp at this point was just over 6lb and my hands where shaking as I folded the mat and hooked it onto the scales which settled on 7lb 7oz a new personal best carp!!

  Alternating between my two swims and hook baits I managed to keep the fish coming, and took four more carp, three of which are shown below, the one missing came while I gladly paid my money to the fishery owner.

I was quite clear at this point the fish where on the feed and I had the whole pool to myself!!

  At 8.30 I had to call it day, not because my arm was aching from all the carp or the fact the fish had stopped feeding but the reason was one that doesn't pop its head up much in a fisherman's lifetime and that was I was fresh out of bait!! One large tin of meat and two tins of sweetcorn GONE!!  

  A quality evenings fishing nine carp and countless skimmers all for under 7 quid for bait and the day ticket.  Great value for money!!.

Saturday 6th August


After hearing rumours of yet more free fishing on offer I made a trip to a new venue on Saturday with my dad we found a real gem of a place taking just under 18lb of carp in just a morning session alone.

                                      

Sunday 07th August

  Sunday saw both me and my uncle visit a desperately low River Dee, our chosen venue was the free stretch at farndon and we arrived nice and early and due to this being a prolific spot in winter the car park was empty.

  My uncle settled down in a open swim hoping to make to most of the little flow to trot a float down while I set up to the right of a tree fishing the pole.  My uncle made a good start getting a few fish on the float while I could not buy a bite on the pole even going down to a size 20 hook and a pound bottom hook length, something was not right at all.

  I paid my uncle a visit to chew the fat on what I could be doing wrong and could only think of one thing, pike!! Deep down I hoped it was a pike it would certainly rescue a poor day on my behalf!!.  I returned to my peg and decided to try the opposite margin and had two fish in the net straight away, finally some fish I thought but as quick as I caught them the swim died again.

  It was becoming obvious no mater what I did it wasn't going to work, I tried shallow, deep, near in, far out.....nothing while all the time I could hear my uncle striking at bites just 15 yards up the bank. Then after hours of trying to work it out the answer was there as plain as day for all to see as just inches from my keep net lay a pike in wait and in a split second he was off under the tree to my right.

 Having only 4lb line and a float road to hand it was going to be a battle if I managed to lure this fish from under the tree but as the past weeks have proven as long as the pike is in your swim you wont catch so out went a small roach.

Unlike past weeks where the pike took the live bait almost instantly this pike took a good 10-15 minutes to give in to the rhythmic pulses emitted by the roach trying to get away and when he did all hell broke loose with the pike tail walking trying to spit the hooks.  The line held and after an electric fight the fish was in the net and on the bank.

  Weighing in at 4lb 7oz he had obviously been feeding well recently as he had a proper belly on him and after taking a few seconds to admire the variety of colours on the fish I returned him to his watery home a bit further up the bank.  

I had a few more fish from the swim after this fish was removed and decided to finish the rest of my flask of coffee on my uncles peg.  While I was there my uncle was getting some small dace and roach but not the type of fish you expect to catch from this venue and it is very noticeable on there that you can catch consistently but the bigger species like chub don't seem to turn up.

The water was really clear close in and I could see the fish as my uncle was bringing them in but in a split second it also became very apparent that a pike had also not missed the precession of silvery food being reeling in all morning and decided it was time for dinner and nailed a roach as my uncle was bringing it in.

Usually you just see a swirl and its good night but this pike had taken the fish and was still on and heading for the middle of the river.  My enthusiasm in grabbing the net was short lived as my uncle said that the pike will spit the bait out as soon as we get it to the top.  With my uncle on a one pound hook length this battle looked to be a short one but the longer it went on the more the excitement grew with the fish pulling line from the reel at will and making lunges for snags only for my uncle to somehow turn it.  It was a good five minutes before we even saw the fish and it looked a decent pike and it was with the first showing the pike spat out a chewed up roach but the pike was still on the end of the line.

  The longer the battle went on the more it looked like he might just get this fish in and after a real tussle he managed to get the fish up to the top and heading towards the net, I made a lunge for it with the net and it went in first time only for it to jump right out in mid air, was that our chance gone???? hopefully not as if we lost it now it would be down to me.  The fish now seemed to know what was coming and found a second wind almost as if it had just been hooked and the epic battle continued till eventually he managed to get it to the top again and this time there was no mistake the fish was in the the net and on the bank.

To our amazement my uncle had hooked the fish inside its mouth, how the line did not get cut on the pikes teeth I do not know but my uncle wasn't complaining.

 

  A quick weigh on the scales showed the fish to be just under 5lb at 4lb 15oz and I safely returned the fish back to the swim I released the other fish.  These two pike covered up what was a really poor day on the Dee hopefully some rain will not be far away and give the river a much needed flush through.

On a final note if the person who arrived around 11.30 on Farndon is reading this and is wondering why they had a really bad day it could be that two jack pike where released in your swim within an hour before you arrived!! I really didn't have the guts to approach him and tell him!!

Till next week 

tight lines

Danny