River Dane Troubles and Daughters Second Trip

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet.  A little change to the update this week as it will not be broken down into an introduction and then the fishing i am just going to use the beginning of the blog to talk about my fishing and where i feel i am with at it at this moment.  This will include what type of fishing and the blog and will be more of a ramble than anything but i am sure we will come out of the other side with a lot off my chest and hopefully a clear sense of direction.  So no script or brain storming with this update i am on my break and lets see where it takes us.

A Wee Ramble.....

The past few years fishing for me i have always had a set goal, a finishing point, a place i wanted to end up and was working towards.  These goals have changed from starting on a complete river and going out each week trying to work out the best spots and methods for finding and catching the best possible nets from a river to my pike fishing where i was learning from scratch.  In all these pursuits there has been a fitting ending with my first 20lb net on the river dee on the stick being a huge milestone and last year catching my first pike on my own trace or going form not knowing what i was doing dead baiting to being able to go out alone without garry or ste and feeling confident i could tackle it, these where all huge milestones and places i had worked hard towards and these where, not so much a fitting ending, but a nice closing point to move onto the next part of that adventure e.g first dead bait double, first wobbled pike.

The river dane has been our latest challenge and when we first tried this river i was full of expectation we could work this river out, find the hot spots, and then go from there with plans to work out best baits and places to go in winter for good sport on this river.  We knew starting out then it would be a hard road but with double figure nets being the norm we knew the target was achievable.  Winter came and we travelled out to this river time and time again only for it to be unfishable or the fish to not be feeding and it was a long hard winter struggling for a bite never mind a decent net on some trips.



We came out the other end and into the new season and we expected nets to again be improved as fish moved and fed in the warm sun, like last year.  To a certain extent this has happened this year but working out this river has been a slog to say the least, a river you walk along alive with fish topping can die once you fish it in a hour or so and die as in a light switch going off its a bite a chuck then boom dead as a door nail.  I cover a lot of things in this blog but i have not really been going into much detail as to my tactics on these sessions and boy have we tried them all, ground bait, feeder with corn, meat and even trying for a pike to see if one is moving in with all not working.   It has left me facing something i have never experienced as an an gler before and that is a feeling of being beaten by a challenge, i find my self becoming unmotivated to visit this river and when i do i know what will happen, bite a chuck then nothing and you winkle out fish over course of the rest of the day bit for the amount of fish in the river you know it should not be that hard, maybe we just need a break from this task and a move to somewhere different if only for a change of scenery.

Away from the fishing the blog continues to tick over, even without much pushing on social media, but with two kids and a 9-5 job i am finding it harder and harder to devote time to putting my all into writing these updates, i love writing my blog, it means a lot to me as it holds so many memories of great times so hence my want to put stuff fount there that is the best it can be.  I think as time goes on it is only going to get harder to do so maybe the format of the blog will have to change to where i update it just with the fishing or find a different way of putting it together, maybe like this in my dinner hour in work.  This may not be a healthy alternative though spending my only free time in work still sat at my PC.

So far this has been as bit of a doom and gloom rant but i am already feeling better for getting it off my chest.  I do still have plenty of ideas for the blog with plans to maybe do some videos when the pike season starts.  I do also have an idea to start taking a more specimen approach to my angling from time to time and maybe taking my barbel rod and big baits like luncheon meat and corn to trips.  I really would have nothing to lose as my uncle on the stick would certainly guarantee some fish on the blog that week regardless if i blanked or not and would serve to mix things up a little for myself.   As i have said before though i find it so hard sitting and waiting for a big fish when you can hear your uncle bagging up on the stick upstream.

Well i think i have just about got it all out and off my chest,  Hopefully it gives some insight as to where i am with my fishing at the moment, reading back the word lost is probably a good way of summing it up.  I have faith in angling that something will come along at reignite a spark that sends me off on another amazing adventure.  Till then all that is left is to plan this weekends fishing and i think a change of river is a must maybe a spot of chub fishing to get a decent bend in the old carbon.

With that it is on to this weeks fishing that See's us fishing the river Dane and then a trip out the next day with my daughter.

Same Old Same Old On The Dane....

Leaving my house to head off into the night to pick my uncle up i crossed paths with a rather large hedgehog, i have seen a number of these over the years but like most normally having met their end in the road or a fleeting glimpse as they trundle into a hedgerow.  Saturday morning was different as in the dark i looked down to see i was literally about to stand on one.  There it was rolled in a ball i waited a few moments and like a jack in a box up he popped and off on his merry way.  I can honestly say i have never heard so much noise in my life as he greedily ate all manner of food in the hedgerow, put it this way you knew he was there!  I left him at this point to go on his merry way and off i went to pick my uncle up.  Funnily enough it must have been the night for hedgehogs as he had one in his yard as i arrived!

Arriving on the banks of the river dane she looked dreadfully low and gin clear, walking the banks you could see the odd fish on the sand banks and there was already one or two topping.  I set up in a swim i had fished a few weeks earlier when i had stood in the river and my uncle set up in a new swim slightly upstream of myself.  We both knew setting up it was going to be a frantic mornings action till the sun got on the water and it would go quiet on the bites front as the fish spooked and seek the safety of cover during the day light hours.

The swim i was in i felt confident of a few bites and from experience i knew the fish would move over the far bank tight to the reeds.  With this in mind and knew i had a hard fish coming up i started off easy down the middle and from the off was picking up fish.  The first fish of the day was a dace, i love it when i catch a dace early on,  they are a shoal fish for one so you know where there is one there is certain to be more and secondly they don't seem to spook as easily as the roach do, one big roach and the shoal can be gone for a while.

A run of dace followed this fish and then came the Roach.  They started off literally as eyes with tiny fish coming thick and fast but eventually a better stamp of fish got their heads down.  This river is unlike any i have fished before with shoals moving in, you will be catching dace one minute and then roach the next but never a mixture its either one species and the same goes for perch.  The perch push all other fish out and for a while you just catch perch, its weird but interesting at the same time.

You learn how to change your approach for what is in your swim, dace like it to go though normal and will normally fall to you holding back right on your hemp where as the roach like it dragging bottom and the bait edging through the swim where as the chublets up in the water at the top of the swim like you to hold back as soon as your bait hits the water.  Its fascinating to learn and really keeps you thinking all the way through the session.

The fish, like i predicted, where coming thick and fast between 5am and 9am, but not settled if you get me? The bites where all over the swim almost as if the fish where in a feeding frenzy.  Trotting you ideally want to get the fish feeding where you want them, right on your hemp.  This way you can feed the swim to keep them there and also you can pre empt the bite and hold back to induce a take.  When the fish are all over the place it makes it hard to work out when you will get a bite.

As 9am approached we both knew it was going to slow down.  Looking at the clock i had just placed a nice roach in the keep net and gone back in and my uncle arrived behind me.  He was in a really shallow swim and it did not have the cover from the sun mine did.  I was not surprised to hear he had started off like a house on fire but had gone the last hour and half without a bite when the sun had come up. 

I was already chasing the fish over the far side and i knew my swim was on the same time line as his was as i could already see the bottom quite clearly 2/3 the way across my swim and as soon as sun reached mine it would be good night Vienna.  We gave it another half hour but then decided to call it a day, both nets testament to a mornings fishing, if only we could find the answer to catching all day it would be some net of fish.

my net

uncles net

We decided to call in on a pond on the way back home for a few hours, we caught a few fish but we spent most of the time chewing the fat trying to work out the river dane.   We left after baiting up a swim for my daughter the next morning as i planned a quick trip for her second foray into the world of angling.

Second Time Out In A Week.....

A week after our first fishing trip and my daughter was all up for another go at this fishing lark.  Picking her up on Friday afternoon after work we nipped through to the bait shop to pick up some bait for my trip to the river and for her trip on the Sunday.  She insisted on holding the maggots haha

Sunday came around and it was time to head off to a little pond close to us.  I thought it would be a really nice touch to ask the man who taught me how to fish to come along for the hour or so, that person being my dad.  You know what it was so special to take a step back and see my dad showing my daughter how to fish and all the memories came flooding back.

I must admit she was not as good at concentrating as the first trip out but as my dad said i have to remember she is not even 3 yet.  This into account she is doing really well and i am made up she shows such interest in both fishing and also admiring her fish as she catches them.  Again seeing her face when she caught her first fish on Sunday was amazing.

Again she got snapped by a carp! i bet if i went solely for these fish i would blank.

Well that sums up another week on the bank, till next time i wish you all tight lines

Danny

Aldi Specialbuy Comp and River Dee trip

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet.  A special update to the blog this week as i am again proud to have been asked to work along side ALDI with regards to them launching their fishing range this Sunday 02nd August. In this update i will be product reviewing two of their products with a further two to come next weekend and there will also be a very special on line competition for all followers of Dannys angling blog on facebook to enter and be in with a chance of getting their hands on some Aldi fishing tackle.  The fishing this week See's us visit the River Dee for the first time in a long time and although low and very clear one or two dace did show and also the odd small perch.

On to the update

Online ALDI Fishing Tackle Competition!!

This Sunday ALDI are are launching their Special Angling Event across all their stores nationwide.  I have personally used their tackle in the past and i was genuinely surprised by the quality of the tackle and price.

Check out the tackle on sale at ALDI stores nationwide here: https://www.aldi.co.uk/en/specialbuys/sun-2-aug/

Working with ALDI and their team has been a real dream i have found their representatives to be fantastic to work with and share ideas between ourselves.  Early on ALDI agreed to run a competition on my blogs facebook page for a carp angling set up but after hearing about my hopes of getting a new angler hooked up with a starting angling set up they also agreed to help promote anglers to fish their local ponds and canals by running a second prize aimed at float fishing.  This for me shows great commitments by the team at ALDI who could have just agreed to the really popular carp angling prize.

The two prizes on offer are as follows:

Carp Prize:  Carp Rod and Reel, Buzz bars and bite alarm and landing net

Float Prize:  Float rod and reel and keep net

Entering the Competition is simple!!, Simply click the link to my blogs facebook page here: DANNYS ANGLING BLOG PAGE

once on the page simply like and share any of the competition posts on there to enter.  The winner must have liked and shared at .least one competition poast and also LIKE the blogs facebook page.

The Competition ends Midnight August 6th..............................Good Luck!!!


ALDI Product Review

Keep net Review

Product Info:
Price:£7.99
Specifications: A Fish Friendly 9 ring safe net for freshwater catches. Features Soft mesh to eliminate damage to your fish.  Suitable for Bream, carp, perch and silverfish. Adjustable tilt mechanism.

My Review:

I have to say the email from ALDI came at a good time for me as i had returned from the trip on the river dane having had my keep net attacked by a pike leaving ti with a big gaping hole.  The list of reviews to choose from the keep net was always on the list and this net joined me on the bank last weekend on the river dee and also on my daughters first fishing trip to a local pond, more on that in next weeks update.

My first impression of the net was how light weight it was and for me as an angler this is really important as on some of our river trips you can be carrying your gear 3-4 farmers fields to the river bank.  The next area i looked at was the mesh and just like the description said it felt really soft to the touch as if it would not be abrasive on the fishes flanks and damage them.  Length wise the net is about as short as i will go for a net as on some banks you can be quite high up from the water.  I was really shocked as well when i noticed the net came with a tilt mechanism, for the price i was sure it would have been a simple screw bolt.  On the bank the net performed well on the pond but i do think it will need added weights to the end for the river trips to get it down in the moving water.

All in all a fantastic and affordable piece of modern fishing tackle and easily worth more than the £7.99 price tag.

Field Boot Review

Product info:
Price: £12.99
Specifications: All weather lace up boot, Removable warm polar fleece lining. Waterproof sole. size 7-11.

My Review:

Waking up on my first trip to the bank using these boots i was really impressed with how comfy they where once on they really did feel comfy.  The second thing that instantly struck me about the boots was how light they where, on those long days in winter walking the canal pike fishing that can only be a good thing.  Walking around in the boots all day i was left shocked as to how good these boots really where, i always say the test of a boots is not in you sitting there thinking these boots are warm or these boots are comfy" but in the fact you are sat there not thinking your feet are cold or uncomfortable.  The ultimate test of these boots will of course come as the temperatures drop but first impressions are really good and amazing they are only £12.99.


On tot he fishing....

Finally back on the River Dee.....

Sat on Friday evening chatting to my uncle about where to wet a line the next day we went over all manner of possibilities from a local pond the a out of the blue trip to the River Severn.  We eventually decided on a trip to the River Dee and it was a trip that was well over due.  It has been a few months since our last trip to the river dee and travelling along the M56 it hit home just how long it has been since i was driving down this most motorway to what i regard as the most beautiful river we fish and who can argue with this as a swim!

The swim i set up in is a really fast flow on a bend with plenty of cover on the far bank and a huge slack on the inside bank.  It is a swim i have done well in the past for dace.  There are a lot of people who visit my blog and i do try to use the blog to help out as many people as possible but the blog for me is a huge help for my fishing as i have a complete record of trips to look back on and the night before i had a quick read of my previous trip and although i did  not go into much detail i did  notice i recorded that it took a while without a bite until the dace shoal arrived in the swim.

With that in mind i fed the swim heavily from the off to try and lure the fish up the swim.  The beauty of this swim is that you can not really over feed the swim due to how fast the flow is here the bait is constantly flushing through the swim.  Feeding heavily with maggot and hemp seed it was still a good hour before the first dace of the session came to grace my palm.

A dace is always a fish that i love to see coming to the net as you know with this fish that where there is one there is always more as they are a shoal fish.  This fish was followed by a steady stream of fish which all seemed to come over my hemp fed area.  It did become very clear on the session that it was the hemp not the maggots that was getting the fish feeding so every trot through i fed a few grains of hemp over my float as it went down and this seems to bring the bites one.

The beauty of fishing the river is you really dont know what you are going to catch and you really do catch what is in the stretch of river you are visiting that day, come back next week the shoal has gone and a swim full of dace can be a swim full of grayling and trout, that's river fishing.  It became apparent during this session that  had a sizable shoal of small dace n the swim as all this fish where quite small and the size did not really change until i tried a slack and picked up the odd perch.

I was treated during this session to a big salmon holding position right at my feet. It would go out of sight then slowly moved back into the slack behind a bug boulder but it was literally underneath my feet and estimated over 10lb it was a sight to see.  The fish seemed to be there all session and was not bothered by my rod going over its head time and time again.

The session was an enjoyable one back on the river i love, a river where it is impossible to leave unhappy due to its stunning views, we called it a day around 2pm.  The net is not the biggest net i have ever caught from the dee but on this session it did  not matter it was great to just catch a few fish and be out on the dee, although a man taking his pet pg for a walk did have me worried!!

Well that's it for another blog update please take the time to enter the competition and good luck,

till next time

tight liens

danny

River Dane Stick float and First Fisho-mania trip...

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet.This weeks update introduction i share some news about my first trip to a angling event, a look at how my new garden in the new house is coming along and we finish the update with a recent trip to a restaurant on the weaver.  The fishing covers a trip on the river dane and a stop off on another waterway on the way home. Lets get into it..

First Angling Event #Excited!

This weekend i will hopefully all being well attending my first ever angling event in the form of the Fisho-Mania Finals.  It is an event i have watched many times on TV but never really thought about visiting but this year I'm hoping will be different.  A few weeks ago i was asked if i was interested in attending the event with Gary and a few mates and after checking the schedule i found there was scope to go so i jumped at the chance.  It is an event i am excited about attending and i cant wait to just sit and watch one professional angler all session and see how they fish a match. 

Many times on TV i have just wanted them to have a choice where you can just watch one anglers, a bit like player cam on the football.  Fishing the day before i am hoping to get a good session under my belt for that weeks blog and then just relax and think about a day in the sun watching the fishing.  So roll on the weekend and fingers crossed for some sun and fantastic fishing!!

Garden in Bloom

Moving into the new house the garden front and back was a nightmare with the grass out of control and covered in weeds, borders and paths where not visible under a blanket of grass and weeks and the square planting area by the gate was thick with deep rooted weeds.  Over the past month or so we have slowly began working on the gardens and although the battle with the weeds is ongoing we are starting to see some results with the plants we have out in with the star being this blue Hydrangea!, i love walking passed this plant on my way too and from work!

The back garden is a haven for all wildlife with all manner of birds being regular visitors including the local sparrow hawk.  Regular followers of my blog on Facebook will remember last week when we got out the paddling pool and had some water fights we were amazed to see a frog appear from nowhere! it was amazing to see given the garden is quite well boxed in by other gardens at all three sides and bodes well for my idea of adding a pond to attract some wildlife into the garden, lets hope i don't end up with a pond full of frogs spawn!!

Riverside Meal

This week also saw us taking a well earned trip out with the kids to a local pub for dinner.  The riverside situated right on the banks of the weaver is always a great choice for me.  Right on the banks of the river you can sit out having a nice cold pint and some food and watch the water which on the day was alive with fish i have to say.  As far as i am aware fishing is free on this section and judging from the signs of fish a good days sport could be had.

The food was nice and the company even better so if you are into fishing and looking for a nice place go thats right next to some river then head here. 

On with the Fishing...

River Dane On Stick and New Venture...

The river dane again attracted out attention this weekend and for the love of god i have no reason why it did.  We have had a torrid time of late on this river but again with my long rod not fixed our options are really short.  The rivers are so low at the moment as well it means the choice of swims is really cut down as you need to be finding cover once that sun comes up to stand any chance of the bites keeping coming.

I set up in a shady swim with plenty of tree cover and really easy access to the peg.  A slack on my inside and the main flow coming of a sunken tree to my left the flow was gentle as it then sweeped round a bend.  I knew the peg well and knew from experience to expect bites close in early on with them tailing off and then the chase of the fish over the far side as they followed the shadow of a overhanging tree,

A 6 number 4 stick float down to a hook length of 1.7lb line to a size 18 eyes whisper barb hook attached loop to loop.  The bait as always was 2 pints of maggots and a pint of hemp seed, a batch that wouldn't chit completely despite hours boiling.

The beauty of getting to know these pegs is you have a good idea of where you are going to fish so you can start baiting up as soon as you arrive, a tactic that  normally See's instant bites on your first trot through.  All set and ready to go you have that magical moment in any session, the first cast.

That first cast is a real leap into the unknown and with river fishing you do not ever really know what is going to come your way.  This is even more so the case with the Dane as she flows into the Weaver close by and you really could be catching what ever is in the river that day.  One day a huge shoal of bream might think of going up there and be settled in your swim, you just never know and that is why i love river fishing so much.

The first fish of the session was a surprise to me as it was a skimmer, on this river you can almost put your money on the greedy chublets being first on the hook as they move in and gorge on the free offerings.  Not today though as the skimmer above took the mantle of first fish.

Normal service was resumed on the next trot down as a greedy chublet came begrudgingly to the net and safely joined the skimmer in the keep net, a nice start.

The chublets moved in quite early on and i was getting them right up in the swim, a quick stop on hand fed maggots and just feeding hemp down the swim soon saw them moving back into line over my hemp seed. 

The swim was building nicely and what was even better was the fact that if i got through the chublets and small roach then right down on the hemp seed where the flow really slowed a little i was often rewarded with a better stamp of roach or perch.  The key was getting the line to go into the faster flow and impart some movement into the bait and this seemed to bring the bite on.

There are some nice roach about in this river but tracking down this traveller can be hard as they do seem to move around a lot, roll on winter eh when you can track them down to their winter haunts.  As the session went on i was starting to think i had some nice fish together and then the swim dies completely! Trotting through the rubbles signifying a good head of fish int he swim where gone and so was any signs of fish around, like a light switch going off the swim died.

Trotting through it all became clear as a sharp dip on the float saw me connect with a small fish that then saw a pike nail it and come clear out of the water as it did.  It was a fantastic sight to see as the pike spectacularly took to the air to nail the fish as it came in.  It only looked like a small pike and that had me worried as piking in winter had taught me these pike done really move on and normally keep feeding in the area.

I had so many small pike in winter take my bait and get them right in the edge before they would come off and then 20 mins later off your bait would go again with the same fish.  I always take a pike rod with me on river trips for the very purpose of catching pike and putting them back in upstream so i can carry on catching the silvers.  A small silver fish was offered out and trotting it down the pike float soon zoomed under, a few seconds and a hard strike and one angry pike made its way in.  Like a defiant teenager it struggled but eventually in it came and i was made up as these fish have such lovely colours when they come from rivers.

To emphasise just how much a pike can disrupt a swim it took me a hour and a half after returning the pike upstream to get another bite which was a roach.

The swim was producing the odd fish but i was working hard for them.  My uncle in another swim had gone a good few hours without a bite or any sign so we decided to call it a day, pack up, and then give a little waterway a go on the way home.  The final net was not really what we had set out for but sometimes in this sport you have to take the rough with the smoother and as i have said many times in this blog.  When you go out each week you see the highs and lows in sport and you have to ride through these lows and experience them to then appreciate the good times when they come.

The waterway a mere spit of water but worth trying as a diversion from the dane and hey we had nothing to lose and if anything the change of scenery was welcome.  We only fished for a hour or two to get a feel for the place and a few roach and some perch gave us a base to build on showing us there where fish present and worth another visit.

Well that is a another weeks blog updated i hope you all have a good week and the weekend brings you the wettest of nets.

Till then,

tight lines

Danny

Pond and Bridgewater Canal Fishing plus All Change...

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet.  It has been a while since i have typed that and i feels it.  A break is as good as a rest as they say and although i have not felt like taking a break from the blog this gap in updates has been totally out of my control what with moving house and all that goes with it as you will read in a bit.  Fishing wise i have been on the odd session but i did take a break from the fishing for a week or two but am now firmly back into a weekly fishing groove, 

In this update i will be covering the changes away from angling that have been going on, a little on what i have been writing while the Internet has been down and will finish the introduction off with a new purchase for the next pike season.  The fishing sees me fishing a little pond you could literally jump across and a session on the Bridgewater Canal on the pole.

With that its on to this weeks update..

New House and No Time....

For some time now we have been living in a two bedroom apartment but it was never ever going to be a permanent residence due to us having a boy and girl that would eventually need a room each.  We decided to make the change early on in their lives so they where not being disrupted when they need stability most around the ages of 10 and 8 where we have had to move by law.  A property came up and with a garden front and back and 3 bedrooms it on paper was ideal.  Inside was a different story as the previous residents had left the house in a right mess with money owing on the bills and the house in a general state of disrepair it has meant long hard hours in an evening and weekend just to get it to the stage where it needs decorating.

The garden was like a jungle and every bit of painting needed doing so as you can imagine fishing time has been of a minimum but to be honest fishing has been the last thing on my mind as with so many jobs to do i could not justify going out fishing.  As i said the previous residents where not the best and predictably there was money outstanding on the Telephone line which has meant a long 3 week battle for BT to take control of the line and allow us to get an Internet line up and running.  This inconvenience was probably a good thing as it has taken away the distraction of writing a blog of an evening.

It is not all doom and gloom as the house is starting to get there and when we gave the garden an much needed hair cut we uncovered a wildlife oasis in our own back yard.  There are so many birds attracted to our garden by the trees and cover offered by an i have on the far boundary wall we just had to get a bird feeder out there.  Sat of an evening with a cuppa in hand it has been fantastic to see such an array of wildlife in my garden, i have never had a garden as grew up in a mid terrace so for me i have been like a kid in a sweet shop.  So far we have a pair of resident robins, a pair of wood pigeons, loads of small birds like blue tits and sparrow, a mob of black birds who really boss things until the real bullies move in and take over in the magpies!

The garden is a working progress at the moment as the house take priority but it is my hope in the years to come to turn this quite wild and messy back garden into a haven for wildlife.  We are boxed in by 3 other gardens so getting animals like hedgehogs and foxes etc around is impossible but it would be nice to provide a habitat for maybe a pond and flowers to attract butterfly's and bees in.  With two big gardens its also my hope to get a wormery or a compost heap up and running which is a bait i don't really use much but could be interesting on some of the places i know contain perch.

I try to include as  much about myself in this blog as i do my fishing so it is going to be great to include updates on this from time to time and also who knows what we might see visiting the bird table :-)

Pike Season Roundup

The Internet being off in the house has meant i have been unable to get on line whilst at home to write my blogs on here but what i have been doing is chipping away at some content for a new page on the blog on here.  It will cover from start to finish my first season dead baiting for pike.  It does go into some detail and i must admit some heavy editing is needed as at the end of November i was up around 2500 words!!

I covers the piking from the first sessions before the start of the season and then the entire pike season its self.  The milestone captures and also some of the lessons i have learnt along the way.  I have included some some of my thoughts during the season and what i was trying to achieve.  It will sit as a complete page on its own on the tool bar at the to of the page and the page is already in place to select waiting for the content to go live.

This new way of writing about the sessions might be the way forward for things like carp quests etc as in the past i have wrote them live as i am on the quest and although this helps capture how i feel each session it does add pressure to them. Any how look out for that round up going live in the next few days.

Savage Gear Purchase...

Wobbling for pike has been a huge part of my pike season this year and for it i have been using a very old spinning rod fro my childhood.  It cost me £6 and it has done me proud this year but its lack of back bone has been questioned on a number of occasions when i have hooked into any better fish into double figures.  With that i thought it was time to give this old warrior a rest before she literally gets snapped and i recently picked up a new lure rod in this Savage gear rod below.

This rod breaks down into 4 pieces so it will easily fit into my car and will mean i will be able to sneak it into my car boot for those opportunistic times where you have a few hours to spare.  I don't know if it will get any use for lure fishing as its not something that i am looking to delve into at the moment but who knows.  I cant wait to get out and catch a pike on it.

With that its on to this weeks fishing...

Morning on a Pond....

There is nothing that gets me more excited when the river season is closed than the thought of a fishing session on a pond of canal.  These completely wild places are where it is at for me and although i do fish on a commercial from time to time these wild waters hold the magic of all that is angling for me.

Some ponds i fish you could literally walk across and maybe even jump across but taking time to actually wet a line in these waters can unearth some really exceptional fishing especially for harden species like roach and perch who can survive in any conditions really.  These places are not always desirably places to fish and are rarely places you are going to find neatly pruned banks and flat pegs but more than often they are worth the effort.  The fact these places are also places where people dump fish that have got to big for their home pond so they can also hold some surprises.

The morning of this session i set up on the Bridgewater canal initially with a view of a canal session and all was going fine from 6am till around 8.30am where i had put together the odd fish including a very surprising DACE!  At 8.30am the predictable boat came and i thought nothing of it but when it was followed by 10 more boats i knew something was up and changes needed to be made, especially when i over heard the word regatta.  I thought more a minute and made the decision to drop on a pond.

Arriving at the pond i quickly set up and i knew from experience the rig i was using on the canal would be fine on here.  The bait was 1/2 pint of pinkies and a pint of maggot which would be fished on the pole with a size 20 hook and 1.7lb line straight through.  The bites where instant as i went in with small roach and the odd perch showing early one to white maggot fished over the bed of pinkie.

The swim would die from time to time and eventually a better fish would be the result and this, early on it was a better roach.

The margins where alive with frogs dancing and merry dance with each other and occasionally hitching a ride if you get my drift, a sure sign of the benefits to wildlife a little pond can bring.  The bites where coming steady now and i was getting a bite most times my bait missed the weed on the way down and got through to the bottom but i was waiting a little bit for the bites to develop and i was missing quite a few sharp dinks on the float.

I made a few changes by adding a small number 12 shot to the line which took the float down to a mere pimple on the surface and i also started to fish double pinkie on the hook.  These two changes saw the missed bites turned into fish and i also found out the swim was fully of skimmers. 

These skimmer bream would come into the swim and i would catch a number of them before the swim would again die and a better fish would either get into the weed or i would get it in.  These better fish ranged from perch, incidental these killed the swim stone dead, and also crucian carp or the fan tail gold fish shown below.

During the session i hit a number of fish that there was no stopping at all and the odd visitor t the place i spoke to did talk of some big carp and tench so it might well be worth a trip on bigger baits one morning to try and tame one of these fish.  I ended the session with 11lb mixed net of fish that included skimmers, roach, rudd, crucian carp, perch and fantail goldfish.  A very enjoyable session.

Pole Fishing on The Bridgewater Canal..

After a week in work and every evening spent decorating or painting i was more than ready for a days fishing in fact i would go as far as saying it was a necessity for my sanity i got out to wet a line.  I put my faith in Accuweather that Sunday would be a dry day and that it would be over cast and not too sunny.  I Spent the evening before preparing my rigs for the canal and i arrived on the bank with two rigs ready to go.  My first rig was 1.7oz line down to a pound bottom hooklength with a size 20 hook and this was to be fished down the middle on my pinkie line with a light size 6 elastic.  I also made up a similar rig line with but with a size 18 hook for my far bank line and this was to be fished with a blue hydroelastic.

I knew the area of canal i was going to target on this session so a recce early on in the week identified the swim i was going to fish.  The swim above was my swim for the day and my plan of attack was simple, like all my fishing normally is.  I was going to fish pinkie and ground bait just off the inside shelf for anything that swims whilst occasionally firing white maggot over the far side up the side of the reeds out of the boat line hoping that while i was fishing down the middle this line would build up some fish who would be ready once the boats got to much.  This is a tactic i have used for years on the canal and it has never let me down and again it worked on the day.  Just for information i find the longer you leave going over the far line the better the fishing is in general but leaving it till the sun is right up and on the water you can miss out on the better fish that feed in the early morning like tench and big perch.

Canal fishing is really like no other in you never really can have any expectations when fishing them as there are so many factors that can effect your success on the day.  Canals can range in size but the one if fish is very long running from runcorn old town to Manchester with a split where it is also connected the the large Trent and Mersey Canal.  success on the day can be simply down to a shoal of roach being in that area on that day and being on the feed, the next week they may well be moved on.

All canals hold big fish like bream, tench, perch and better stamps of roach but you very rarely catch these fish from the off on a session on the canal i fish.  Your swim for the day is like a baby, it needs to be nurtured and built slowly during the session, done right the swim will normally start with small fish like this small roach below and the better fish should slowly move in.  The swim fed with a ball of ground bait and pinkie and first put in the float sailed away and out came the light size 6 elastic, yes even a fish this small needs the light elastic.

My thoughts on fishing canal is i want to make sure i turn as many bites into fish as i can so in my opinion a light elastic is a must for not bumping those smaller fish, some fish might only be the 1--3oz in size but on sessions where the better fish don't show this might be all you catch all day and its better than nothing.   I continued to catch small roach and skimmers on my middle line and every so ofter would ping over a few maggots over the far bank reed line.  As the swim built during those early hours the steady stream of maggots on the bottom eventually attracted the attention of the local bully's, the perch.

I had started fishing around 6.30am and it was 9.30am before  i noticed the line down the middle start to die off.  I had been waiting anything from 30 seconds to 5 minutes for a bite but now the bites where seriously dying off and with all the tricks in the book utilised like moving slightly past my feed and lifting and dropping the bait slightly it was time to think about the far bank line.  As soon as the line had shown signs of dying i had upped the feeding of the far bank line to every 5 minutes, not loads of bait just 5-6 maggots.  Enough to attract but not to over feed.

Over the far side i was expecting better fish but i knew i would also be still running into a smaller stamp as well so i used my blue hydro elastic for the far bank line.  I hoped this would be soft enough hit the small fish but also give me some back bone if i connected with a better fish like a bream, perch or tench.  First put in over the far side and the float had not even settled before it was away and like i predicted it was a better stamp of fish over that far side as shown by this perch.

Isn't it amazing how a swim probably 4-5 metres away from the middle line where i could no longer buy a bite was a bite a chuck.  The swim had been fed for a good few hours and the fish where literally lining up as each put in the float would slide away with either a skimmer of a roach coming to the net and i was beginning to think that i had a few fish in the net.

When pole fishing in general its important to get into a rhythm, don't rush but get into a set rhythm of how you are fishing.  On the day for me it was unhook a fish then feed the swim with a catapult then ship out over the bait, float under strike and ship back in.   Working like this you are quickly putting together a weight of fish without realising it.  The hard part in any fishing session is feeding and even more so on a canal as although bites are coming thick and fast you can easily over feed the swim at this point so its a time not to be carried away.

Boats play a huge part in canals and i hear a lot of anglers complain about boat traffic on them.  Don't get me wrong 5-6 boats on the bounce going fast through the swim is not going to help it at all but a steady stream of boats through the day actually helps the fishing especially on hot days where clear water would certainly spook the fish.  A boat coming through on this session saw the quality of the fish improve as the quality of the skimmers improve it was certainly evident on the far bank line and slowly but surely most fish where of the stamp above.

Earlier on in the blog i mentioned about feeding a swim and it building during the session as at 6am i started fishing i was getting tiny small roach and skimmers and through feeding that far bank line correctly and slowly the swim had built and like predicted the better roach moved in on the action.  On the session i caught some nice skimmers but this roach below for me was the fish of the session.

I only had a set time to fish till and it was quickly approaching 2pm and the end of the session and it was going to kill me to leave especially when some nice bream started showing like the one below.  A proper fish full of skimmer.

Bringing in the fish i noticed a dark shape under neath the fish as it came in, a pike.  I had seen activity in the area all session and during the session i had thought a pike was about as all the signs where there with fish up in the neck of my net and the swim going though very patchy periods.  After putting the skimmer in the keep net i continued to fish on but noticed the fish going made in my keep net and then a flash of olive green up the side of it was a sure sight the pike that followed the skimmer in was after the fish in my net and slowly my keep net moved out into the canal signalling the pike was tugging at the mesh.  Lifting my keep net up there was a pike attached to the side of the net, some nerve i thought!! and with that if fell back in a swam off. 

It was time to end the session so i quickly hook a few pics of the 10.5lb net/

It was going to take a bit for the net to dry and pack away so i thought i would chance my arm and have a serious word with mr pike so out went a small roach live bait.  It did not take long for the free meal to attract his attention.  In the warm weather he put up a great fight compared to the ones i had caught in winter.

Eventually he saw sense and a quick picture and a telling off before he was returned to hunt the roach shoals.

We that's it for another update i hope the gap between the next ones isn't as great as this.

So its tight lines form me,

Danny

Winds of change blow hard on the Dee......

  Driving along the dark country road towards the river Dee my head clogged with the memories of last week and the delights that lay in front of me, talk along the way from my dad and uncle of past trips to the Dee in years gone bye in the pursuit of monster of the deep only fueled my imagination as in my mind the day would pay out like I had dreamed in the week.  The swim would be the same as last week and the fish where as ravenous as ever, crawling up the line and into the keep net, today just had to be another dream session on the Dee.

  The headlights cut through the dark country lane illuminating my path to the river bank and before I knew it we where pulling into the car park and the lights slowly lit up the pegs only for the pegs from last week to be taken and a pike angler bivvy'd up on the peg I was on last week!! my midweek dreams up in smoke in split second but not to be dismayed we knew that the whole stretch was fishing well and we set up on some of the more less fancied pegs.

  With the days getting shorter every day travelling to our destinations during the hours of darkness is essential and will become even more so the deeper we get into winter.  With that in mind I decided to purchase a decent torch for setting up in our chosen pegs as soon as we arrive and as others waited it out in their cars for the first rays of dawn to break through we where busy setting up our pegs and the torch was even enough for us to thread up out rods in its glow, by day break we where all set to cast in.

  The forecast for the day ahead was for some small showers and moderate winds and for once the weatherman was correct.  The swim I chose was the same one as two weeks ago and I knew from that trip their was a bad snag further down the swim so today I would have to try and get the fish where I wanted them and I knew from past experience this can be a all or nothing tactic and I set myself a target of twenty fish.  Sometimes you have to be realistic about the swim your fishing and accept you can only catch what is there in front of you on that day and with that in mind I began to lay my trap of hemp.

  The swim I chose shown above has a tree upstream and a overhanging tree downstream and the flow can be reached quite easily around two rod lengths out but that line was out of the question today due to the snag downstream and the wind which was blowing into my face.  The church in the distance not only beautiful to look at also serves as a reminder of the time and really doesn't help you judge if you are overfeeding or not putting enough bait in.  As you can see on the far bank the cold weather of the past week has already began to claim its first victims of the year with a lot of the bank vegetation turning a dead brown, roll on the first frost which will open up the swims further and make viewing your float a lot easier as it travels downstream.

Vegetation dying back:

  As I said earlier the wind can be a real problem on the river when trotting and can really be the kiss of death and the only way you know how each stretch will be in certain conditions is to get out there on the bank for example I knew from experience that the "bull stretch" would be a no go on Saturday due to how open and exposed it is to the elements and although the river level was spot on for that particular stretch the wind there would be really blowing downstream and would make trotting impossible.  The other side of the coin is we knew the stretch we had chose to travel too would be calm in comparison due to the high rock formations behind the pegs which shelter it from the worst of the wind and although not ideal at least here the wind was manageable.

Protection from the wind:

  After the success of last week on castor's I decided this week to go with an all out castor approach and purchased a pint of castor instead of my usual half pint and only took along a pint of maggot in case they were not having it on castor.  The swim was slow to begin with and it took a while for the fish to start coming with any regularity but what I was catching was a lot of very fat gudgeon, one after another and being an all round angler as long as that floats going under I am a happy man.

Plump Gudgeon 

The gudgeon seemed to be holding a line closer to the bank in the slacker water and every now and again the wind would subside and the trot would hold a better line, when this happened I started to get dace of all sizes and with great regularity until the wind returned and it was back to the ravenous gudgeon.  During the day I always like to take in the wildlife around me and sometimes get caught up in the moment and forget to grab the camera but when two swans strutted upstream wings puffed out with aggression looking to dominate a younger swan which still carried a great deal of brown down I quickly grabbed the camera.  The two groups of swans where swimming head on till the smaller swan got the message and then swiftly turned on its heels and made a break for it.

  The session again flew bye and before we knew it it was time to get together and see how we all had done, my dad had said he had caught a few decent dace but had missed countless bites on the feeder, both me and my uncle trotting knew why as we were catching a lot of this years dace fry which would be nearly impossible to hit on the feeder where they give lightning bites but with our floats dotted right down we were managing to get them on the float, my uncle had also been catching some nice dace and gudgeon but also mixed in he had caught a few perch on the pole while myself had a mixed net of gudgeon, dace and a nice roach.

uncles stripeys:

My uncles net:

My net of fish:

One picture that for me sums up a good days fishing is the scene of your keep nets drying out after you have finished fishing and today was no different.

  Next week we have already decided that we are visiting a new venue, after weeks of fishing the river Dee a change is definitely overdue, of course this decision will depend on the levels of the river we have our eye on but fingers crossed.

till next time

tight lines 

danny