A warm welcome to this week’s blog update which again comes
after a week of unseasonable wet weather, one bit of brightness to come out of
the past week came from the Twitter account which saw an weekly increase of
around 30 followers which took us over the 300 follower milestone. Don’t forget if you like keeping up with our
blog adventures you can follow the blog on twitter by following @SATONMYPERCH and you can also keep up with
myself during the week on the blogs Facebook Page, both get regular updates
about my angling adventures as they happen and all things going on in the
angling world.
Some sad news reached me this week while I was on the bank
and that was the rumour, and I stress at
the moment this is only a rumour, that Warrington Anglers may be about to loose
a stretch of the River Dee come November, this is due to members behaviour
during the early hours of the morning on the opening morning of the season, if
true it is a really disappointing way to loose a bit of water and as with most
things in life it’s the actions of the minority that can ruin it for the
majority, I do hope these rumours turn
out not to be true and are just that, a rumour, but with no Official words
coming from the club I guess only time will tell if this rumour holds any substance.
Just to clarify in
response to comments made in Franks Weekly column, in the last paragraph of the
update (link: http://frankscolumn.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/3rd-july-2012-warrington-anglers.html
). I am not willing to go out of my way
to write an email to club the secretaries or chairman to reinforce a point I
have already made them aware of on a Social media site that 1) they are an
active member on 2) they chose worthy to delete and 3) only Warrington Anglers
members, who have been allowed access by an admin may I add, can view,. The
club as high up as the Chairman are now obviously aware of the “rumour” for it
to be posted on the Chairman’s weekly blog which was all the post on Facebook
was aimed at doing, to raise awareness of a possible future issue that by all
accounts they wouldn’t be aware of till it was too late. The post obviously
generated a number of views from members who fish the water in question, if the
club feel it not right to release an official message to all the paying members
that commented on this thread to ally their worries then we all have to respect
their decision. I am and angler that is on the banks of Warrington Anglers waters
probably a great deal more than most as I am on the bank week in week out and I
will certainly not be going out of my way anymore to relay information on such
“rumours”, these two paragraphs are my last comments on the matter.
On to this weeks update
Arriving on the banks of the river we quietly parked the car
up and for a few seconds sat back and just took in the atmosphere around us,
these mornings on the bank where the wildlife loose all fear under the cover of
darkness are truly magical, from the small bats scooting around low to the
fields capturing a quick last minute snack before retreating to their roost to
the ghostly figure in the distance of a Barn owl swooping down into a meadow in
its relentless task of feeding its chicks ever demanding appetites no doubt
these all are parts in the massive jigsaw that is angling.
It is amazing how you get used to the not so nice visitors
you come across as well as not too long after setting up I was visited by a
decent size rat, a year or so back I would have been running for the hills
screaming and shouting but over time you get used to their early morning
scuttling about in the undergrowth cumulating in them following their nose to
you bait tubs and the inevitable head popping up and the uncomfortable moment
where you come face to face both faces etched with a sense of shock before
normally the rat clears off, thankfully
Saturday was one of these times.
As the light of the new day filled the sky completely the final
acts of the aerial display came out in the form of countless swallows which
gracefully glided inches above the river grabbing an early morning drink before
heading off in there day time pursuit of insects, these birds have to rank as
one of my favourites just for the fact of the huge migratory patterns, how such
a small bird flies to England for Africa amazes me every time I see them and
always imagine how different the banks of the River Dee must look as opposed
the African Plains although I suppose they could always travel 2o minutes down
the road to Chester Zoo to help them thorough our so called summer.
The plan for the day fishing wise was to spend the morning
chasing the bigger specimens and the afternoon trotting. I started on my
Shimano Purist Barbel rod utilising that bait for all seasons, the halibut
pellet. The river was a great deal lower
than last week but boy she was bombing through at a crazy pace and there was no
chance of holding bottom any more than a third of the way across with the gear
I had packed. The upside of the river
pushing through so hard is the crease in the river is moved a lot closer in and
was easily accessible with a small underarm flick and this is where I chose to
lay my trap. The bait as I said was a
14mm halibut pellet and it was used in conjunction with a open end feeder
filled with 6mm pellets and plugged with the heady smelling halibut method
ground bait, I felt I cast accurately and regularly enough to warrant my
actions being rewarded with a better fish but alas by 10am I was blanking in
style, not even a knock.
I went to visit my uncle to see how he was getting on but
not before locked my bait away in my box away from Mr rat. My uncle on the peg below me was catching
roach steadily on the float and seemed to be on course for a steady day with
both castor and maggot taking fish.
I decided to set up my much underused Korum 13ft Float rod,
since purchasing my 17ft float rod a few years ago this rod has become a bit
redundant in my fishing with me favouring the improved float control of the
17ft rod. The one thing that was
immediately apparent is how much quicker it is to thread up the 13ft rod I was
set up in no time at all. Whilst setting
up I began drip feeding my swim with hemp and castor to begin the process of
building up a few feeding fish in the swim.
Today would be my first time trying out the Dave Harrell 10
No4 Dome top float I purchased a month or so ago so that was attached to the
line with the customary three silicon rubbers and I teamed it up with a bulk
shot of number 4 shot with a few dropper shot, the business end was a number 18
barbed Animal eyed hook. I have to say
before we go any further I was more than impressed with the float which given
the right shotting can be shotted right down to pick up the slightest bites
which proved to be essential on this session.
First trot down produced the lovely roach above and its
amazing how much confidence a bite first cast down can give you, you know the
fish are there and being a roach you know they are not alone. The bait continued to be applied well
upstream of the trott allowing for the float to run down amongst the free
offerings and I was soon getting to the stage where I could predict when the
float would go under. Roach mixed in
with the odd small chublet where the quarry that was coming to the net in the
early exchanges and this mix continued till I decided to try the much slower
outside trotting line and I instantly hit a much better fish that flew out of
the tributary and straight into the main flow of the river, initial thoughts
where I have connected with a barbel or chub although the former was less
likely as a chub would no doubt have stuck it our solidly in the tributary
flow. The fight continued I was very
conscious of the fish getting into the main fast flow as on 3lb line there was
no way of bullying it upstream against the flow.
The battle of wills continued and in one massive jump in the
air the fish revealed itself not to be the barbel I thought but either a brown
trout or sea trout. A quick phone call
to my uncle to help with the net was answered and between us we managed to get
the fish into the net by letting he fish run downstream into the waiting
landing net.
The fish in question was a new personal best trout for me
but given the fight it had put up and us being quite a bit up fro the water we
decided to rest it in the landing net held in the keep net for it to recover
rather than releasing it to the mercy of the flow and I cant believe I actually
forgot to weigh the fish when we packed in at the end of the day.
After this fish the Dace moved into the swim and I began
picking up dace of all sizes from small fry to fish approaching 5-6oz in size,
these fish really are in great abundance through the whole system and provide
food for all predators along the rivers course from herons and cormorants to
the greedy pike they all rely on these silver darts.
It was not long after hitting the dace I began a series of
bites where I struck into what felt a decent fish only for my line to come
flying back at me and it wasn’t till after I had put on three more hook lengths
and while I was speaking to a good friend on the river the answer made itself
known as when I connected with a nice roach a big swirl of oily green and
yellow was seen beneath the surface as a pike grabbed hold of the fish in its
jaws.
The pike was on for a good 5 minutes before it knew it was
hooked and I made a hasty estimate at the fish’s size being around 6 to 7lb
mark. As the pike was approaching being
beat it let go of the fish and swam off, this is a common ending in these
fights with only a few ending in you actually catching the pike but this pikes
card had well and truly been marked as I am sure it was the same one that took
my uncles fish last week.
Fishing the rivers you have to learn to roam the fields
along with the other animals that live there and although most are wild there
are some more captive animals you come across like the farmers cattle and when
you have fished a stretch for long enough you begin to realise just how much
these animals are creatures of habit, they will be in the same part of the
field at the same time every day and on this stretch midday is always the time
these cows come down to drink and no one was getting in between these cows and
a drink of water.
As the cows came and went in groups of two or three I began
about the task or rebuilding my swim that had been no doubt devastated by a
pike thrashing around it. I began by
introducing some handfuls of hemp and a few sprinklings of castor to build the
fishes confidence. The new fishing box I
use has plenty of space for winders so I always have a few hook lengths made up
ready to go so it wasn’t long before I was back in after the fish.
A few trots down it
was soon apparent something was drastically wrong, the float was going down a
dream but the missing the vital part of the equation, the float being buried,
was missing and it wasn’t the pike that was missing for sure I knew that girl
or one of her mates was still around. It
hard to explain but trotting the river for so long you get a feeling when
things are not right and I put away my trotting rod and pulled out my pike
gear, it was time move this pike on away fro the swim.
The float had not long settled before it dipped twice and
buried and starting heading for the snags on the far side of the swim, a quick
application of side strain steered the fish away from the snag and back into
open water, as with all summer pike the fight included plenty of aerobatic
leaps as the fish tried to throw the hooks but thankfully they held in place as
the fish angrily made persistent deep runs for the far bank cover. Armed with a reel with a decent smooth drag
and loaded with 10lb line the fish was soon tiring and ready for the net and I
duly obliged, a nice pike in great physical condition was on the net and ready
for a picture.
There was some signs of scale damage to the rear of the pike
when it seemed to have a red tinge which I think may be down to when these pike
have spawned. It being a summer pike it
is even more important to rest the pike in the margin so I took the pike a good
way down stream and gave her as long as she needed in the net to recover before
she swan away strongly, thankfully in the opposite direction to my swim.
After returning to my swim there was a definite change of
weather in the air as the relatively clear skies where being replaced with dark
heavy rain laden clouds straight off the welsh mountains, you could literally
see the weather closing in and I managed to capture this picture below
illustrating the change in weather.
The next hour or so we were treated to some lovely
refreshing downpours that really didn’t bother me as the morning had been so
warm the rain actually brought myself some relief. The fish also didn’t seem to mind the rain as
they came back on the feed no sooner than I had returned back after releasing
the pike. The fish were steadily getting
better as well and as the afternoon wore on and the steady stream of bait
continued so the average size of the fish improved culminating in this nice
chub around a pound and to add even more variety a surprise capture in this
prickly perch.
All in all it was a very enjoyable day on the bank, it was a
pity no really big fish showed up as for moments in the day it felt I was going
to connect with a decent fish at any moment but I suppose with that pike
lurking around it was always going to be difficult to keep the swim active long
enough for the better fish to move in. Final net was 11lb of fish and a very
enjoyable day.
Till next time I wish you all
Tight lines
danny
