River Dee Bolo Session and The Little Daley Angler...

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet.  Settling back into a routine with the blog and other commitments now on Youtube and it does seem to be knitting in nicely.  I have found as long as i get the videos out of the way and scheduled early in the week then it leaves the rest of the week to put together the corresponding blog update,

That said this week has been a week where the Internet in my house has been down so the distraction of other peoples content so time will tell in the coming weeks if there is still scope for this routine.  One thing i can say is look out this Friday for a special capture in a pike video!  Its a video for me that i think shows what pike fishing is like for most people around the country, hard work, blanks and moments of joy as you come out the other side.

On to the update..

Trip Down Memory Lane....

This week i snagged on bottom whilst wobbling a roach on the river which involved me pulling hard to straighten the hooks out but after only moderate pressure on the line the line just exploded.  Doing some tests on the line i noticed the line was fragile in places and must have literally gone all of a sudden as i certainly had no issues in previous weeks.  A trip to my dads was in order to pick up a new spool of braid to replace the reel with.

While i was there my dad pulled out a box he had found at the bottom of the cupboard during a recent clear out, what it contained saw memories come flooding back form my youth.  Firstly the two lures in the picture tell quite a different story, with the rainbow one being, as i remember it, absolutely useless  on the local cut.  On the opposite side of the coin the Abu Garcia "Terminator" was a killer lure as the scars down its flank are testament to.  Shallow diving and flashes of silver i remember it being the best lure for the canal as it did not dive deep and kept out of the way of the trolleys, bikes, dead bodies and traffic cones in the local cut.

Now this picture of the pike bobber brings back memories of my teenage years fishing with my dad.  Pike had just started to appear on the canal and where becoming a regular appearance on our trips for roach and bream.  My dad always had a cantilever tackle box and in one of the compartments was this old school pike bobber float and some may remember when pike traces came in a see through bag with a yellow that i think where made by kamasan.  How pike fishing has taken off from these days when a live bait was presented under a float that was held in position only by the tension form the stick through the middle.

I always remember me getting one pike on a live perch, quite a funny story and one maybe for another blog.  In my head it was certainly a double but at the time it was my PB pike and with no pictures back then when we went fishing i have the best image of the pike you can have, in my memory.

A Little Angler Called Camie...

From my memories of  my childhood to a father and son creating their own memories right now, a journey that will create moments in time that, like mine with my dad, will last a lifetime and will need no pictures to recreate the magic.  I have had the pleasure over the past 2 years to have met a polite young gentleman called Cam he is a cracking little lad who already has developed a love for catching the fishy's that live beneath the water.

Under the wing of his dad Ste he has been placed firmly on the right path to becoming a cracking little angler, learning his trade on the local canal and ponds this summer it was not long before he had bagged his first silver fish on the whip and moved up to tackling some carp later on in the warmer months.

Winter has come and after seeing his dad catching some "sharks!!" as Cam calls them he decided himself the time had come for him to catch one for himself.  In what is a cracking feat for an angler so young he hooked and played from start to finish his first pike.  Not happy with catching one he then went on to catch another with his PB now standing at 8lb6oz!!.   Showing the grace of a gentleman he let his dad have the last run of the day having fed his appetite for shark catching for another week :-)

A side bet of a quid with Ste has me betting he has his first 20lb pike by the time he is 12 :-)  At this rate it will before his next birthday! Well done Cammy!!!

Forget Me Knots....

A quick final piece before we get into this fishing is a cracking little diagram a company sent me this week and asked me to share on the blog.  Noticing how great this little picture is i quickly agreed and below is a collection of fantastic knots for all your fishing needs i know i certainly have saved it for my own personal use.

River Dee Session on the Bolo...

A video of the session below is available here on the youtube channel:

Early evening and with hemp seed cooking on the stove myself and my uncle discussed out plans for the following day.  A weekend where weather conditions in the week meant all of our venues where in prime fettle to wet a line on and to be honest all would have produced the goods on the day.

We had spend a good amount of time on one or two venues this season but one that had not saw our foot prints was the banks of the muddy river Dee.  A big decision for us to visit at this time of year as it involves a very early start to get there in time to get a peg so its a venue we love to fish but the jaunt of going there is a little off putting to say the least.

Arriving under the cover of darkness we where met with the familiar sight of a number of pegs already taken so we both settled on pegs we knew would be an awkward fish but we could catch from.  Not wasting the hour before first light i got to work using the car light to tie up a few hook lengths.

First light revealed a river in fine fettle with not a breathe of wind and a cracking pace to her, it looked bob on for a few bites.  

The video explains this a little better but the swim was situated to the Right of a tree that over hanged the water causing a big slack behind and the flow coming off the end of its branches.  This tress over the years had diverted the flow as such that a deep hole had been created behind the tree so for about 10 to 15 metres of the run it was deep and then of course it shallowed up slightly as the normal bank side depth was found further down the run.

It left me with two options. 1, feed heavy with hemp and castor on the tree and try and control my feed to catch in the deep water or 2, feed downstream on the shallow run and completely miss out the deep water. On the day i felt fishing the deep water would be the best as i felt this is where the fish would be and also striking up i did not have to worry about my 17ft rod becoming a 12ft rod on the tree to my left. 

A 3 gram bolo fished with a bulk shot and two number 8 droppers to a size 20 hook on 2lb 1oz bayer perlon was the set up for the day and  feeding castor but fishing maggot on the hook i was soon catching dace of all sizes steadily.

The bites where coming right on my hemp and with the fish coming in with a mouth full of maggots it also told me i was getting my feeding right and my castors and hemp where both getting down to the bottom. The fish will always tell you if you are feeding right/  The bites go then maybe you are feeding to heavy or too far up the swim and the fish are above where you rig is settling. 

Alternating between maggot and castor saw fish coming all morning and when bites went funny on castor a change to maggot would always give me two bites at the cherry at catching on the trot rather than the one bite and done scenario with the castor.  This is a approach that can work well and when using red maggot you can get away with as they kind of resemble the castors in colour, more so than say a White maggot.  

The castors of course brought better fish like the roach above and i did hope at the time that a shoal of these fish had moved in, a scenario that can turn a good days fishing into an exceptional one.  

Into the afternoon and the bites did start to dry up on the out side line.  Experience had taught me to expect this so i had purposely fed the swim in a way that the feed covered both the outside line and slightly into the slack.  This tactic i knew would mean some maggot would be falling into the slack behind the tree.  

Dropping in here kept the bites coming and remembering to keep feeding the outside line meant i knew fish where building up confidence out there with no line going through.  The fish where of course not as big in the slack but it kept the net ticking over.

After around a hour i moved over to the outside line and it worked a treat as a shoal of small chublets had moved in and although i was travelling now onto the shallows for my bites i was getting a bite every run down.  The final net of 15lb showed how it had been a day of many bites and also that i had not really attracted caster stamp sized fish into my swim.

I left the banks happy with a days fishing that saw me only use the one hook link all day and have an bite packed session on the bank.

Till next time i wish you all a very merry Xmas and a safe and prosperous new year

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 Dee Farndon Dace, Piking in the Snow and kitshack Buff Review..

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update in what is the second update in the space of a week.  I missed my normal update last Friday basically due to my laptop playing silly beggars and keeping on shuting down a few minutes after loading up so that is in with the repair people as we speak.  What it has meant is me lending a family members laptop here and there but it is not ideal at all.  I normally put my updates together during my dinner hour in work and then a little bit each night at home and normally by Friday i am there or there abouts with it but its just not been possible of late.  Add to that last week i was off work with a bad dose of the Flu it meant getting an update out last Friday was impossible.

Fishing wise after this update i will be two trips behind not including two short trips i went out for a few hours and blanked so we are getting there slowly but surely to being up to date.  It is probably the best time ever to be following the blogs page on Facebook or Twitter as i have been blogging after each trip as they happen so most of the fish this blog is missing are on that page as we speak if you want to see what is coming up.  There has just been a cracking session for pike where me and Ste have a dream social session with 9 pike including 4 doubles.

Check them out and give them a follow or like on the links below if you are interested.

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dannys-Angling-Blog/282860255069146
Twitter: https://twitter.com/satonmyperch

So onto this update, in this update i review the first products sent to be by the new blogs supporter, Kitshack.com from their new angling range, we begin a three part series of updates in the introduction where i talk about the three different reels i use for my stick float fishing and then i talk a little about how i feel my pike fishing is going as we move into THE time for a special pike,

With that lets get into the update...

Kitshack Buff Review...

I was recently contacted by a representative from Kitshack with regards working together on a possible product review.  I do receive quite a few emails from companies asking me to review all types of products both angling and non angling related and i always do some thorough research before i reply back to the company concerned to see if it is both a product and company i want to work with.  Upon checking out Kitshack.com i was really excited to see they had a new range aimed directly for anglers see here: http://www.kitshack.com/new-angler-14-15-collection.

My expectation was to click the link and find one maybe two Buffs with a fishing related design but i have to admit i was blown away by the sheer variety of garments available and such a depth of designs,literally pages.  I was instantly exited by their products and quickly agreed to do a product review for them, this product had already captured my imagination and you need that if you are going to write about a product i feel.   I asked if i could review a Buff Neck warmer Buff and asked if they would send my uncle one out as well which they happily agreed too, we both put equal into the fishing for this blog and it was great that they agreed to send two out.

So on with the Review..

Kitshack BUFF Neck Warmer Buff Review

Pic of Buff

Technical Info

-Link To Buff: http://www.kitshack.com/blackblack-combi-buff-1

-Price: £15.00

- Weigth 42g/1.5oz with drawstring.

- Made with Classic Polartec Fleece sewn Both ends

- Machine Washable, Colourfast and will not fade.

- Treated with Polygiene BUFF remains fresh as silver ions prevent build up of bacteria in fabric

- Certified to meet Oeko-Tex Standard 100

Product Info:

An evolution on Classic neck protection using BUFF quality, design and technology.  Made with Classic Polartec fleece with printed trim on the ends.  Its ideal for any outdoor activity, particularly in winter and also as fun street wear.  The leather finish draw strings allow for a quick easy transition from neck to head wear.  Neck warmer BUFF can be worn as a headband, scarf,mask or cap and ideal for skiing, snow boarding, climbing and skating. 

My Review:

First of all i would like to say how pleased i was with the professional nature of this company they replied within 24 hours to all my correspondence and where very well presented by their representative.  Delivery of the BUFF was within 48 hours from the email and it was great to get home to the package sat waiting for me to check out when i was not expecting delivery till the Monday.

The BUFF was well presented on a cardboard holder and i liked the idea that had it been hanging up in a shop i could have felt the products material before purchasing rather than it being sold in a protective polythene bag which i thought was a nice touch.   The packaging was both stylish and the information on the packaging was kept to a minimum with just the main facts about the product presented.  It looked cool and well designed and i could see it appealing to a wide audience.  Moving onto my first thoughts on the BUFF, it felt quite soft to the touch and thicker than i expected it to be for the price.  Trying the item on for the first time it felt comfortable and felt snugly against my neck without being too tight if you get me.  It was also a nice touch that the company included loads of little gifts in the box including BUFF sticker,  phone cleaner and temporary tattoos which my daughter loved.

This company emailing me was really ironic as in past weeks out pike fishing in the howling wind i had suffered quite a bit with earache and my uncle who works outside a lot in Winter had suggested that i buy one of these items.  I set off onto the bank and the temperature in the car read 2oc dropping to 1oc on arrival and on the day i was out trotting on the river i was grateful of this item as i had a upstream wind blowing right in my face.

It was a weird experience to wear this item i have to be honest as i am not a person who really wears scarfs or any neck items and i first it was noticeable but as the session wore on i got used to it and have to say i began to notice a few good features about this item.  I loved the way i could wear it in different ways in i could pull it up right over half my face if i felt cold and when if i warmed up it was really simple to drop it down into a complete neck warmer.  I am not the smallest of people and i was amazed how the BUFF went from being stretched over my faced to fitting back snug round my neck instantly and the final good point i noticed on the session was the fact i could breathe through the item quite easily with none of my warm breath making breathing uncomfortable and causing condensation, as my breath seemed to pass out through the material yet non of the cold wind came in the other way which i thought was really cool.

The next session i used the BUFF for was a pike session where the temperature was up round 10oc and i misjudged the conditions and found myself boiling hot in my thermals and the BUFF to the point i was sweating in it all.  Taking the item off it was simple task of placing it in my pocket and forgetting about it so i guess on sessions you could literally carry it in your pants pocket and pull it out as and when its needed and it was light enough i forgot all about it.  So far the BUFF has been out on 4 full day sessions with me and i have been thank full for it on most of them bar the hot one and although it has been too short a period to test the smell reduction qualities of this item so far its not got any smell to it at all.

In summary i was really pleased with the BUFF Neck wear and was really pleased to review their product which i am sure i will be grate full of next winter and for the remainder of this season.

What Reels I Use For Trotting....

I thought it would be fun to cover the different reels i use for my river fishing and go into a little bit of detail on each one in the introduction of a few updates.  There are three main reels i use for my trotting, normal fixed spool reel, closed face reel and a centre pin and all three are shown below.

In this update i will be concentrating on the reel i use for 90% of mt trotting and that is my Fixed Spool reel.First of all i am not an angler that goes out and buys a top of the range reel for my fixed spool reel as the basic are of trotting involves a constant opening and flipping over of the bail arm on the reel and as such you are putting the reel mechanics under a lot of stress and in my experience ultimately breaking the reel.  As such i find it much easier to make the most of the bottom end reels on the market that now can be picked up for around £20.00 if you shop around and i find fishing every week the rivers are open i normally get around 2 full river seasons from each reel.  Of course a more expensive reel may last longer as its possibly more robust but i don't see how they can overcome the constant wear on the bail arm.

As above i use this reel for most of my fishing and that is basically down to comfort and ease of use.  You can fish with the fixed spool in all conditions and cast with ease all day long without the need for any specialised casts as with the centre pin reel.  You do have a lot of control of the fish with a fixed spool whether you use the drag or the back wind but compared to the control a centre pin offers you it is greatly reduced with the fixed spool.  You do also eliminate problems like line bedding in and a lot of the mechanical issues you can have with the closed face and you certainly do not experience as many tangles as you can with the centre pin.

All in all the fixed spool reel is my go to reel and is the reel i would recommend anyone starting out river fishing to use to begin with and only moving on to the more specialised reels when they feel they have got to grips with the basics of trotting like feathering the line, holding back and locking the finger across the line to strike.

Time for a Lunker....

The updates being a few trips behind it seems weird to be talking about my fishing right now as the trips in the updates date back into January.  I guess this is why it is important when writing a blog to keep up to date and try as much as possible to get that update out each week.   February is now upon us and i am firmly now in pike mode hunting for that last capture of the season.  I will be doing a complete blog based around my first full season pike fishing using dead baits when the season is over but it is safe to say this season has surpassed all my expectations.  I have caught steady all through the season and had the odd red letter session along the way. 

December and January saw me picking up the odd very rare double and catching mainly jacks so as i now move into the final chapter of the pike season i am firmly set on trying to catch one nice double figure fish before the end.  At this stage i would be happy with one more double before the end of the pike season and they go off to spawn.  I feel i have done my best with the challenge of catching 100 pike in a season, i feel i could have done no more, i got out on the bank as much as i could at every opportunity available to me and i guess i just didn't catch enough pike on them sessions. 

The challenge is still there for me and if i get close i get close but i think a lot of our energy now as a group is aimed at getting those 30 doubles.  If we could catch 30 doubles and at least 1 20lb pike in a season it will feel like we have achieved something great as a group of people.  So for whatever is left of the season i will be trying to target areas where i have a good chance of a breeding female and hopefully get that last double to end the season on a high.

Now is the time people to get out there and search for that special pike, tight lines and best of fishes.

Onto the update

River Dee Farndon Dace Fishing....

We had been travelling all over the north west of England and wales over the last few years with our river fishing and have some what neglected the place where we started river fishing, the river Dee.  She is a fantastic river that demands you to respect her moody ways but when she is on form she can offer fishing that would challenge any river in the country.

We travelled to the banks of the dee hoping for a nice days dace fishing but arrived to find most of the pegs taken by pike anglers fishing through the night for their quarry, not against the rules but when these lads are occupying pegs for three or four nights at a time then i do feel it is not "right" and instance where these anglers are setting up in peg 3 for example with two rods and their bivvy and are then placing two more rods 20 yards upstream down to banking on a peg.  With a pike who can quickly engulf a bait and the nature of the river being so snaggy with a sunken tree at the head of most swims i feel it is irresponsible angling in my opinion.

Anyhow moving on, on the day in question we arrived to find a number of pegs free from anglers but where certainly not the pegs you wanted to be on in the conditions.  My uncle set up in a shallow glide and i set up on the inside of a slack where i hoped i could fish down the crease and pick up a few dace.  It was great waiting for first light to be greeted by a few anglers who read my blog and it was great chewing the fat with them on the bank while we waited for the light levels to increase for us to see our floats.

I was in a swim i had fished a number of times in the past so i began feeding hemp as i rigged up and the off handful of maggots.  The first cast on the dee at this time of year is full of expectation and when the float goes through a few times with no action you do start to worry.  When that first few casts turns into 35 minutes to a hour you are really worrying.  My uncle was a early visitor to my peg and he was also lost for bites with not a single bite in the first hour.  I changed over to a 3 gram bolo float hoping the extra weight would keep my line in the gusting wind and first cast it worked and i landed the first dace of the day.

With a second dace in the next cast i thought i had nailed it but then as soon as the bites where there they were gone and what was worse half way down the trot i hot a snag, disaster.  If i got a bite before the snag or my bait missed the snag the fish where there and it was a certain bite but it was high stakes fishing and not really enjoyable playing snag roulette.  In the next few hours i did try an outside line but the fish just where not on the line and the inside snag line was the only area producing.

Slowly and surely through the day i put together a new of dace but it was hard work and in some stages it was really annoying when you lose two hook lengths on consecutive casts.  I tried to feed my hemp up from the snag to draw the fish up and it did seem to work but not for a great deal of time.  I did not have a pike strike but it screamed of a pike in the areas as you normally get this snag hugging and shoaling mentality when a pike is in the area.

The end of the session and i reckon i had about 10lb of dace in the net, not the best days fishing both in the net and for enjoyment and i was glad to be getting back in the car,

Piking in a Winter Wonderland....

The 31st of January and with snow on the ground i headed off to meet up with Ste for a social pike session.  The weather was bitterly cold and there was a real nip in the air as we walked the bank to the swim.  I was thankful for my thermal wellies and thermal under layer on the session and Ste with all his experience rightly said if we got one fish between us on the session we would be doing well as the fish would be lying low on the bottom.

Our baits where loaded up with oils and fished in places we had caught fish from before and we sat back to await some action.  We both talked ourselves into expecting a blank but as all us anglers know fish don't keep to the rules and as much as we try to work these fish out as a species they come along and rip up what we know.  Ste's float was the first to go and it was a solid run.  Fishing with Ste i am always amazed by his calmness as he gets a take, he slowly walks up to the rod then gently feels the line in his fingers to judge the size of fish by the pulls on the line he almost assesses the size of the quarry that has his bait and as such can judge how long to leave the run before striking.

At first i was thinking about how soon i would have struck and if this method worked but i have now been out with Ste on quite a few social sessions both before and after this one and he is bang on with his technique with most of his fish either in the jaw of the pike or in the mouth of the pike.  It has been a steep but fantastic learning curve this year with both Garry and Ste and just from watching how they go about their piking it has been fascinating.

Striking into the fish with a homage to Azzer zorro strike he bent into a fish that in the cold conditions didn't put up a huge fight and i have to say since messing up netting the fist fish i ever netted for Ste by getting the hooks on the outside of the net i have come a long way.  A nice upper single pike on the bank it was a solid start in the snow.

We waited another half hour before the place erupted with striking fish as they chased the shoals of fish and the pike had certainly gone into feeding mode.   Wobbling baits through the water the pike where just not after our sized baits and seemed set on battering the fry shoals.  I cast out my roach dead bait to the area they where feeding and i had one big tug on the bait almost as if the pike had picked up the bait and dropped it, something was around the bait,  i watched hoping for something to develop.   Half a hour later the float cocked and dropped again as the fish again dropped the bait, it obviously was hungry but didn't want the roach so i quickly changed over to a sardine bait and within a minute the float sailed away and i was into a pike.

This is the first time ever pike fishing i have questioned my bait choice and seen first hand how picky a pike can be.  It left me asking myself do i change bait enough during a session?  I had approached this pike fishing thinking a pike was this opportunistic feeder and would take advantage of any free meal no matter what size or shape and it also saw me questioning how many times my bait gets looked at and the fish doesn't take the bait for me to know it has dropped it.  This year has certainly taught me a lot of lessons about pike and also left me with a few more questions than when i set out on new years day 2014.

Most of my pike sessions have been very short half day affairs and this one was no different and we left at midday happy we had done really all we could to get a bite and had both succeeded in catching a fish each on a day where cold conditions and the pike when they did feed being occupied on fry so it was a bit pat on the back as we headed back to the cars.

Bait  Droppin' Trotting

The last trip in this update takes us to the banks of the river in search of chub.  I set up in swim miles off the beaten track and down a steep bank that for all intents and purposes looked unfishable and down right dangerous but what I could see was a flat bit of banking hidden beneath the leaf litter.  It was a swim I noticed on a previous trip and on this trip I went fully prepared with the spade to cut myself in a swim.

I must say when I first started river fishing the idea of cutting in steps and a peg was madness and being a young office nine to five worker I was far from cut out for such manual work and would be the first to admit I am not the most artistic of people so it has taken time for me to dig out something that remotely resembles a swim.  I knew the swim below me would contain some fish so I was in no hurry and took my time cutting in a few footings and flattened out the bottom with enough space for the essentials and my baits as always where simplicity itself with maggots and hemp.

The swim was a fast run along a tree line and I could see the run did shallow up towards the tail of the pool so I knew I didn't have enough river for my bait to get to the bottom before It reached the end of the run if I fed by hand so while setting up my gear I fed the swim with my bait dropper.

Four bait droppers of maggot and hemp and I left the swim to rest for a good ten to fifteen minutes.  I already knew before my first trot through that a bite was going to be instant.  These fish seem like they have never seen a hook in their lives and from my understanding no one else is fishing this beat so the maggots and hemp soon get the fish hard on the feed.

As predicted the float buried as soon as the last shot dotted the float down and a chub was my reward.

These chub don't mess around and I knew getting the fish out of the swim and not losing them was the key to keeping them coming, lose one and the shoal does spook.  I managed two more chub in quick succession and I was really pleased my hunch on this swim had shown some results.  Three chub in the first hour and I was already getting close to 10lb in the net.  I then suffered the dreaded hook pull in two certain chub and as predicted this killed the swim dead for a good hour or so despite me pushing the fish to overcome their fear with a few large bait droppers of hemp.

As with a lot of my sessions of late I only had the morning so I always had in the back of my mind that time was ticking and I knew this swim had so much more to offer me.  I decided to add one more dropper of maggot and hemp and then completely reset the swim for a hour.  I knew doing this it would only leave me the last hour to fish the swim but I hoped no pressure would see me get more bites in the last hour of the session.

The plan worked a treat as the last hour saw me putting a number of trout on the bank but also two more chub in the onion sack.  The final net went just over 10lb but with 5 chub in the net and plenty of rod bending action from the trout I left the banks a happy angler, although I still thought there was more to come from this swim.

Well that sums up anther chapter of my angling world,

till next time I wish you all

tight lines

Danny,

Stick Float Fishing the River Dee And Poaching Joke Fines..

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you well and your nets wet and not just from the precipitation we have been experiencing of late.  Well December 2014 is going to be a month to remember for myself i feel as just this Monday i turned 30 and also there is around a week and a half as i write this till the arrival of our second child, exciting times indeed.

In this update we travel back to the River Dee and have a crack at her in normal winter conditions hoping to find the sport as good as the previous week.  The next day i had a short pike session, would i get my one chance i go out to get? and more importantly would i take it?  In this update i also cover the terrible news i read in this weeks Anglers Mail around fines given to poachers, an update on our pike challenge and also a bit on my birthday and turning the age of 30.

On to this weeks blog update...

Your Taking The.....

This week i picked up a copy of the anglers mail as i wanted to read the Action Replay piece that featured a fellow piking pirate, Ste Daley.  The piece as i expected was great reading and i was made up i had picked up a copy.  Once i had read the piece in question i delved deeper into the other articles in this copy and came across the story on page 6-7 around court fines for poachers caught in the closed season and the fines handed to them by the court, see picture below.

So basically to sum up the story the EA catch 4 anglers fishing in the closed season with over 20 kilos of eels and spawn laden coarse fish dead in a bucket.  As is standard protocol the, well can i say anglers?, had their tackle taken and where summoned to appear in a Magistrates Court at a later date.

The offenders pleaded guilty to the charges and where then sentenced to pay the fines in the picture above, £25.00 per offence!!  Looking back over the frequency of my blogs you can see how often i am out on the bank and i see first hand the raping of our waterways by these people, i have seen the River Dee go from a river alive with pike to one where you are no longer seeing them attacking your fish as they are simply not there due to these parasites of our sport taking 3-4 10lb fish in carrier bags away at 4-6am in the morning before anyone is around.  These people know full well its wrong or they would not be doing such an act at such a early unsocial hour.

Again i now see this on all the venues i fish from night lines on ponds to groups of 6-7 walking in a line, no landing net pulling lures behind them and when they catch out comes a carrier bag.  Most anglers go out alone so us as anglers can no longer police our own waters working at such a ration of between 3or 7 to 1.  It then leaves us to trust the EA with their patrols will catch these people as we report them and as i have mentioned in previous weeks the EA officers are out in force.  They ARE doing their job.

These people then go to court and are handed a £25.00 quid per offence fine, i never swear on my blog but what the hell is that?? what type of deterrent is that to stop these people from committing such atrocities.  Hand them a couple of thousand pound fine, catch them again and hand them another couple of thousand pound fine and like the word spreads of good waters to poach amongst these reptiles the word will spread about the consequences of being caught poaching our waters.

I have got to say the biggest joke in this part is the last part where they say all angers had their tackle handing back to them, jesus christ that is like fining a burglar £25.00 and then waiting at the door to hand him his crowbar back on the way out! What an absolute joke.  This is not down to a lack of understanding of licencing laws as these people pleaded guilty to the offence they know is wrong so give them a fine it deserves and start protecting out waterways that are being raped of their fish.

This is OUR way!!!!....Rant over....

Hitting the Big 30...

Well the boy is most certainly a man now and i have to say the rebel youth that joined my current place of work at the age of 19 not really knowing anything about the real world and working life is a a distant memory.  Weekends i now spend fishing where at this stage of my life spent recovering from a heavy drinking session the night before with my mates or playing rugby league and then drinking a little bit more with them after the game.  Those days are now long gone and i can honestly say the time from 20-30 has seen me change so much both as a person and in life as i turn the age of 30 about to meet mine and my partners second child and i can honestly say i have never been happier.
The last 10 years have also been times of great sadness with the passing of my mother some 5 years ago in January so its safe to say its not been all sweetness and like and there isn't a day that goes by that i don't look at our little girl and feel a huge sadness that my mum never met her.

One person has been a constant through all those years and that person is my best friend and partner Lucy, without whom there would be certainly no blog you are reading now.  She lets me pursue my crazy angling dreams and spend money we sometimes don't have on as she calls it "feeding the fishes".  She really is a star and i know she reads my blog so thank you!

For my birthday i was expecting an present to mark the occasion, a watch or pendant etc but just showing how well she knows me i woke up on the Friday before my birthday to this tidy collection of birthday gifts, she knows me so well.  A new bait waiter as my last one had come apart after years of abuse, so to my keep net, two fox bite indicators, some new braid, landing net pole and a sneaky cheeky t-shirt saw me a happy man and i hit the bank a happy angler with a beaming smile, more on that session next week.

Trotting..Cheap as Chips.......

I read a lot on forums about "the art of trotting a stick float" and i guess its the same as anything in life the more you do it the better you get and with stick float fishing practise and repetition is what will see you getting bite on this method for sure.  I see so many arms of our sport though in the press and on the Internet being so over complicated by companies looking to part anglers with their cash for the latest set up or fishing tackle to catch you more fish.

Look at carp fishing as a major example of this in the modern fishing scene.  As a kid i remember casting out a ledger Arley bomb lead running free on the line stopped with a number 4 shot and a hook tied on the end with a piece of corn on a size 10 hook. You then look at the rigs of today with all their component parts some rigs can now incorporate 10 to 15 elements to just he end rig alone.  Pike fishing is also another example of a branch of our sport that is slowly becoming over complicated with ever elaborate rigs when in reality most of my fish in the last few weeks have come on a wire trace tied directly to my braid and a smelt twitched on the end or left lying under my feet free-lined using the line for bite indication.

Stick float fishing is a section of angling that has not yet been hit by the dissection of each element of the set up, apart from floats that is, so it means that this part of our sport is relatively cheap to participate in and it was during a visit from Ste to the bank for a chat this week i noticed just how simplistic the tackle is i use.  On a normal session on the bank my terminal tackle and side tray consists of a 10 number 4 stick float, a tub of number 4 weights, a tub of number 8 weights, a depth plummet, hook length line and a pack of size 18/20 hooks.

My bait trays are even more simple with one box containing hemp the other a few pints of maggot and i might push the boat out and sometimes open a tin of corn but as a general rule that is my side tray for 90 percent of my trotting and it costs me in bait about 6.50 a trip.  When you think this can see you sometimes putting a weight of fish over 20lb in the net of silvers then it really is a part of our sport that is great fun for very little money, so why not check out you local river and give it a try and let me know on facebook or email how you get on.

On to this weeks fishing..

River Dee Stick Float Fishing - Solid Dace and Roach Nets....

The previous weeks trips to this location saw us fishing a rising river and catching quite well indeed until a certain point when the fish just switched off as the rising water got too coloured.  This session told us that the fish where about for sure and that they where of the stamp you would associate with this venue so we had no hesitation in setting the River Dee as our chosen destination.  This decision was also made a lot easier by the fact that high tides where due the following week and with our baby due any moment it could mean our last chance for a while to get on the banks of this beautiful river.

I made up a few hook lengths before setting my alarm on my phone for a barmy 4.45am to be at my uncles for 5.15am.  Getting a peg on this location can be a nightmare at times with over night pike anglers and cars that contain 4 anglers or more camping through the night at weekends so we hoped to arrive at around 6am and anyone beating us, well good luck to them.  Dreaming of landing a monster dace i was just swinging it in as i felt the heavy thump on my feet of our dog Pippa and then the cold wet lick on my face that instantly wakes you from any dream.  A quick glance at the clock and it was 6am!! dam i had overslept and thank god for the dog as i was well away.

Rushing round the house the car was quickly loaded the car and picked my uncle up but i knew we would be lucky to get a peg i hurried along the B roads as quickly as legally allowed.  Turning the final bend i saw the disheartening sight of cars parked up but like last week they had fell for the old pegs you read about on the Internet forums and had paid no attention to the conditions on the day. The best pegs lay empty for us to drop on, as i always say there is no replacement or quick track to doing well than time on the bank and learning your rivers and how they fish in different conditions and water levels.

There is no need for a description of tackle as it was the set up your read above fished with my 17ft float rod.  I fed the swim with maggots as i set up and placed hemp where i was expecting the bites to come on the day.  Unusually for us we set up in the light of day as we are normally seen threading line through the eyes of our rods in car lights or head torches and it was easily gone 7.45 by the time we where both fishing.   I love this time of year fishing with my uncle as all the Himalayan balsam has died Right back and the banks are laid bare, for once it actually looked like winter on the river as the scene painted a picture of dull browns and black tea coloured water, it looked mint.  I knew on the day the problem we would have would be fish up in the water and no bait getting down but i had a plan for that with my trust bait dropper.

My uncle was into some clonking roach from the off that saw him using his keep net on many occasions during the early part of the session.  I was on my sixth or seventh trot down without a bite and then i hit a snag right at the beginning of my line and it was a proper lump of a snag that i had no doubt was laden with plooms of anglers lines and feeders.  What it meant was i started casting over the snag and bringing the line back in onto My line i was trotting to fish it but it also meant there would be no way i was risking casting my bait dropper in the swim today as the snag was bang on where i would put it and i was sure it would snag coming in.

As above my uncle had made a solid start with some mint roach but i was a lot slower off the mark but what i was catching was of a nice quality and again with it being a dace i was ultra confident as where there is one dace there is certainly a lot more.  Feeding by hand we where both getting swirls and great numbers of fish topping as we fed and i was sure not a allot of our maggot was getting down so i had to make a decision.  Do i up the feed to try and feed these fish off or do i reduce the feed and up the hemp hoping this will keep what fish are on the bottom there to take my maggot trotted through.   Mother nature soon made the decision for me as a nice pike swirly through the dace battering my maggots dispersing them every where.  This seemed to scare them off for a good hour or two and allowed me to feed maggots in the swim and begin to put together a decent run of quality dace.

The swim i was fishing had a sunken tree right to my left and my trot was down to a much larger tree on my inside and i noticed a lot of my bites came on or around level with the tree so i quickly began to feed my hemp there and although it was much further down the swim that i would normally feed hemp it was where the fish where and this steady stream of hemp certainly kept them there.

I also kept feeding a little inside line next to the sunken tree to my left where a steady flow coming off an eddy meant the was going straight down and i knew it was a perch dream swim.  Dark and mysterious water around the snag providing a perfect lair for a big perch I fed the swim for a good hour or so before giving it a go and it was a fantastic feeling when the first fish i caught was a pristine billy, not massive but the right species.

This half hour to a hour fishing the slack produced some smaller dace as well but it was certainly not as productive as the swim down to the snag that i had kept feeding.  Resting a swim when trotting certainly does do it some good, as long as you keep feeding it, don't just walk away and not feed it as the fish will literally move off to the next angler feeding bait and you will literally have to start to build the swim again.  Keep drip feeding the swim as if you are fishing it but don't run the line through it certainly brings the fish on better in my opinion.

After a hour trying for a better billy i felt like i was not getting the fish i expected to get and moved back over to my main line and the fish where literally stacked up and for a good hour it was dace soup as the fish came one after the other after the other, bite a chuck and great fishing.

My uncle i could see down stream was also having a good session and we where pretty much matching each other fish for fish right until we packed up at 4pm.  I must admit i hate packing in when you are still catching it really is a killer.

My uncle smashed it with a net of 21lb or dace and some stonking roach.

my net went 18lb 12oz and again a respectable net for the day.

In summary the session was one that gave us both great pleasure, not only in the catching of a decent net of silvers but the fact we had put confidence in what we had learnt in previous years and it had come good.  A great buzz and we drove home full of excitement and a feeling of achievement as we trundled along the B-Roads home.

Not Quite A Double...

The following morning i was up with the dawn chorus again, this time alone and out chasing pike.  I had been putting the odd bit of bait in during the week prior to this session so i was excited to get out on the bank and see if the effort had been worth it.  I baited up two spots both on Wednesday evening and again on Friday.

I arrived on the bank in the pitch black and set off on along the bank to my chosen pegs, a bit of a walk but in these times where some anglers can be quite lazy that little bit of effort can deter those car park swim anglers from ever fishing your spot.

The dawn just about to break over the hills i took a picture just as i was placing my dead bait mackerel on a drop off.  The rod in place i then set about rigging up my small bait rod for a spot of wobbling, a really simple task as the rod is always set up and its a case of literally putting the pieces together and attaching a bait.  The dead bait rod could just be made out in the dark and i began by wobbling a bait slowly back through the dark water.

A few chucks in with nothing to show i tried a cheeky chuck into some shallow water that then dropped off and half way in i felt that solid thud on the line, in fact its the hardest bite i have had wobbling the fish must have proper nailed the bait.  I quickly flicked the bail arm over and let the fish move off with the bait and the jagged pulls on the line let me know the pike was turning the bait for eating.  I gave it a few more seconds before testing the drag and striking hard and over the rod hooped as the fish kept deep and went on a long run right under my other line.

I quickly sunk the rod tip under the water and began to tighten the drag to bring the fish back towards me.  She was a feisty character to say the least and with violent almost petulant head shakes she defiantly came back under my other rod and under my rod tip where the fight continued.  She did eventually calm down a bit and come to the top where i gratefully slid my net under her green and gold flanks, a fist pump at an early fish i was over the moon.

She was a short but deep fish and i thought that there was a possibility she could go double figures but sadly the scales settled on 9lb 7oz, not quit a double but a more than welcome fish and so early on in the session.  The fish released the light was just breaking through and i quickly set about trying for another pike on the wobble.

When the sun came up onto the water my heart sank as i could see the recent cold weather had taken all the colour out of the water and it was gin clear.  I knew i had around a hour to try and winkle a bite out of the swim before the clear conditions would see the pike move for cover.

No pike where forth coming in the next hour or so and there was zero interest in both wobbled and static deads despite many moves.  It was great to come across this lovely bright red toadstool.

I decided not long after taking the photo to make a move to another location with more colour and it did pay off in a way as i lost two fish due to them coming off in the fight so i would say it was a sort of successful move but losing two fish i did leave with a feeling of i should have done better.  With piking though and losing fish i cant see how i could have prevented it as i certainly don't want to be leaving the runs any longer.

In reflection of the baiting up i feel it did work as i have fished this spot quite a bit in the past month or so and the fish is a fish i have not caught before, did the pre bait bring him into the area? I guess as with all angling we will never ever know.

Till next time

I wish you all tight lines

Danny