River Dee Piking and Rixton Clay Pit Roach

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update and I had no problem with inspiration for this weeks blog update as having watched the final interview given by John Wilson before he leaves the UK which was published by the Angling Times on You tube I am full of inspiration and have straight away loaded the laptop to get my views down on the blog,

This is the video below:

I grew up fishing with my dad and have fond memories of us both sitting in the house between fishing trips watching John Wilson videos and as anyone from this era will know i am not talking about the new fancy videos that Discovery Shed repeat time and time again, I am talking about the old videos that started off with the loud introduction a sound that is really hard to put into words but a sound that lives with you for a lifetime.  I always remember my dad complaining about the amount of wildlife in the shows and he wanted to see the fishing and at the time I was with him on that but growing up and watching the videos back those part of the videos en-capture everything that angling is for myself and I now appreciate those moments as much as the fishing on show.  My fond Memories of the shows include the one where he fishes he river in full flood below a bridge catching nets of nice roach trotting a float and afterwards when the river has dropped he comes down in a kayak and it just shows how high the river was and then he shows you he was actually trotting over a field!, magical stuff.  In later years I have enjoyed his cameo appearances in some of Martin Bowlers films like Caching the Impossible where he fishes with Bernard Cribbins and that line by Bernard "two anglers, in the Autumn of their years" just encompassed how fishing can last with you for a whole lifetime for me and its true it never leaves you, at least i hope its true.

Returning to the interview John is asked a few questions which he answers honestly and openly and the first I want to cover is when John questions whether the Environment Agency has kept to their promise to maintain and protect the inland lakes and rivers given the 25 million pound of angling revenue they receive annually from anglers licences.  It is a very thought provoking comment given the fact that species like otters where helped to be reintroduced by the environment agency and the damage that these creatures, through no fault of their own i may add, are causing on the rivers and surrounding waterways.  In the piece John says about the environment agency spending more time on surveys than protecting the fish in our rivers and although this may well be the case with regards to the demise of the river roach and other certain aspects of British angling I have to say after following the Environment Agency on Twitter and seeing some of the work they carry out they do more than just complete Surveys although i do feel the spending of flood defences and some of the butchering they do to the bank sides of some streams when cutting back tress to prevent flooding is questionable but as I mention to in my upcoming piece for the angling gazette the stocking they did after the pollution on the river dee in 2000 was first class.

Cormorants and Otters where the running theme of this interview and I must say at the moment i fall into the bracket of anglers John mentions in the piece that has not had their fishing decimated by otters yet although it is a fact that the otter is slowly creeping in as populations grow on the River Gowy, Weaver, Dee, Ribble and Mersey which are all rivers close to myself.   The other predator, the cormorant, I have crossed paths with more than once and also seen the damage they can do both on the River Dee where flocks of 15 to 30 birds are a regular sight in winter to the picturesque Cicily Mill where I spent many a morning in the early years in Warrington Anglers watching cormorants swallowing big crucian's and tench bit what is the answer?  A cull is what many anglers call fro but just look at the protests that are going on now with badger culling and the bad name it is giving the farmers and activists that have give the go ahead for the cull, people forget sometimes that angling already is not seen in the best of lights given the fact we stick hooks in fish and pull them out of their natural environment for sport and does the sport really need to further degrade its name by being seen as a pastime that sees anglers killing uncontrollable amounts of sea birds as lets face it there is no way of knowing the numbers involved once a cull in given the go ahead.  The problem of cormorants is a real issue that is dramatically shaping the angling world of today and is a problem that is of course our own doing by forcing these birds inland by abusing the stocks of fish around our inland coasts lest not forget but the solution to the problem is not one that is going to come easy or quickly I feel,  otters, again a problem caused by humans introducing them in areas that are not able to sustain them over time is one that wont be solved quickly but i do feel in the end the solution will involve some sort of controlling of numbers or if left long enough nature finding its own balance over time.

The next point I want to cover is one I am 100 percent in agreement with John over and that is the demise of what is seen as proper fishing in this country over the past 20 years. I remember fishing on the banks of the local canal for perch and roach and if i was really lucky a big bronze bream being armed only with a "snatcher" pole, maggots and of course Van Der Enyde ground bait and we used to share the bank with many children out with their parents learning to fish  and no doubt had we been closer to a river my dad would have taken me to the river  at a much younger age to learn trotting, an art i only learnt a few years ago.  Now days the children of today, baring a few exceptions, it is all about carp carp carp and although their is nothing wrong with this part of angling it worries me the lack of youngsters I see on the banks of the river and in youngsters i mean anglers under the age of say 25 there is just no one coming through especially where trotting is concerned.  In the video John, who owned a tackle shop himself, mentions about the shops of today being 90 percent full of carp hooks, bolt rigs and bivvy's and its true I mean like three weeks ago I asked my dad to pick me up a pack of size 20 hooks form the local shop, the response he got? "sorry we don't sell them any more as their is no market for them", speaks volumes for me and another sign of the times is how hard it is to find a tackle dealer that sells squats, for shops that border canals its a travesty for squats not to be sold they should be selling out of these to the point you have to put your order in not having to scour the net for suppliers if you want them.  Don't get me wrong I love my carp fishing and it has a place in angling as much as any other aspect of angling and it is not my place to say how people should fish but i just feel the basics of fishing are not instilled into out children any more so how can we expect them to move into other avenues of fishing when the lessons they have been taught is around casting a bolt rig and waiting in a bivy for a bite?, well i did say at the beginning i was ready to write this blog haha.

One thing John this say and i think it was his last comments on the film was to anglers out there to experience all of the British isles and not stay fishing the same venues you fish week in week out and although it is very hard in this financial climate to justify travelling 4 hours to fish a new river is a comment that has stuck with me a bit and hopefully in time the financial constraints of the world we are in will allow me to travel to the River Wye and the Severn around Shrewsbury and the river Trent to experience some of the other rivers this wonderful country has to offer but for now at least i intend to bask in the beauty of a winter on the River Dee and River Ribble.

Before we get onto this weeks blog update we received some information this week on the the new section of the River Alyn Warrington anglers have leased and although this information is being drip fed to us its been released that the stretch is situated in Caergwree and is marked up and if you can find it you can fish it apparently. More good news this week is Warrington have joined forces with the other angling clubs on Budworth Mere and now have access to fishing from the boat club end of the mere which is very good news as this area is reported to be deeper close in and wont mean anglers having to wade a 50 metres into the mere to find a decent depth hopefully.

on to this weeks update:

River Dee Pike and Rixton Clay Pit Roach

All my weekend sessions start on the Friday night for me as after publishing my weekly blog i move onto preparation for the session the next day whether that be getting the Castor's out to turn to a bright red autumnal colour or just getting my gear organised its all part of the preparation for the session the next day.  Friday evening it was time spent tying up some hook lengths for the fishing the next day so out came the Bayer perlon line and the size 20 hooks and whilst the missus watched the end of Coronation street i was well on my way to completing a good batch of rigs that will see me through a few sessions, snags permitting of course. 

The river dee was the destination for the day and we left in good time to get on the banks for first light, my plan was to fish the stick float for the entire day but also packed my pike as the river has been a bit out of sorts of late for the silvers, at least where we have been going at least so the pike rod is always a good alternative to try if the day is slow and boy was a glad i packed it.  

Walking the bank to check out the pegs we could see that the river was low and well down on normal level in fact it is the lowest i have ever seen the Dee since i started fishing her.  We both settled on swims that had some depth them and hastily set about setting  up for the session ahead.  As the light developed we could both see that the slack on this side of the river was enormous covering nearly half the river and there was little if any flow to trot the float down so much so leaving anything more than a few inches of line on the deck would see the float sit stationary.  In my head i thought well if the roach are here i could be in for a good day as they really do hug the slacks on the dee but i was lest optimistic about the possibility of some decent dace action. 

The early exchanges saw me catching the one fish that seems to start of most sessions on the river dee the Gudgeon and it was during the early exchanges i connected with a proper gudgeon it was not so long as it was really wide you could have strapped a saddle to its back it was so thick! It was a clonking big gudgeon and one i definitely took more than a passing moment to admire and what a pleasure it was to see such a beautiful example of the species on the bank. 

A few more gudgeon graced my palm before i got into my first proper fish of the session in the form of a morale boosting roach.  This gave me great confidence because as mentioned before if these fish where around in any numbers i could be on to a really special days fishing.  This initial roach was followed by another around the same size and then another slightly bigger and at this point i was really starting to think a special session could be on the cards, little did i know this would be the penultimate roach of the session. 

The swim continued to develop after that roach and it saw me catch a few dace and that final roach of the session but around 3 hours into the session the swim completely died and saw me trotting away for two hours with only a foul hooked flattie as reward.  I changed depth, the line i was fishing and the amount of feed to no avail and trotting really is one of those types of angling where the hard times are really hard as there is nothing more soul sapping that trotting away with no reward at all.

The swims where very quiet for both of us form that point on and with little chance of that looking like changing i took the opportunity to try and add to my pike tally for the season so it was out with the pike gear and away with the float fishing gear.  In went a paternoster rig just off the marginal  shelf and i sat back and waited for what i hoped would be a toothy visitor. 

What actually happened was a completely new experience for me in my short pike fishing career as not long after introducing the bait i saw the float going mad and moving towards the inside bank so i struck and instantly there was resistance bit it was short lived as the pike spat the bait so i replaced the rod closer to the margin and this time i could see the bait and the pike came in but completely missed the bait all together on a number of occasions it came right up and swam along side the bait but did not take it, very strange behaviour indeed.  

I decided to wait it out and returned the rod back off the marginal shelf and waited it out and eventually the red top of the float descended into the depths and i left it slightly longer than i normally would to make sure if it was the same pike it had time to grasp and turn the bait although i took care not to give it too long and i suppose in pike angling you get a feeling of when the right time is to set the hooks and i struck when it "just felt right".  This stroke was met with solid resistance and from the outset i could feel it was not a bug pike i was dealing with and the pike was up under the surface before i knew it.  The bait fluttered away which let me know i was in full contact with the pike and i took my time to make sure i got this pike in and my patience played off as a pike with lovely markings graced the inside of my landing net,  five pike since the start of the pike campaign i am more than made up with the start i have made and it was time to get some pictures of this nice pike weighing 7lb 110z.

After this pike we decided to pack in and have a hour or so on a small tributary of the river dee on the way home where we hoped to connect with a nice grayling or dace but before we did so we took a picture of the net of fish we had put together during the few hours trotting. 

The river we dropped back on was the tiny river Alyn and is a river i fished a long time ago and since getting to grips with the main river is one i have not been back to in a long time and boy how it has changed in that time, swims that where deep holes in the past where now dry as the river had changed course and now was flowing over to the other bank of the river and one pool in particular below the second bridge was unrecognisable to the swim i fished all those years ago.   The river when i fished it used to contain a good number of grayling and below is one of those fish from yesteryear.

The diversity of fish in this river has really changed as i never really remembered catching many dace but on this short session we caught quite few nice dace and the diversity of this river was shown with the amount of grayling, dace, trout and salmon par we caught.  The fish apart form one really nice grayling i lost at the net where all juvenile fish which goes to show the importance of this side streams and rivers where young fish can grow up before migrating into the big river they really are habitats that need our protection and us to nurture these areas by leaving some cover in the rivers for them to hide from predators in.  I fully enjoyed my few hours back on the river alyn and i will certainly be back on there soon.  One memory of the day that sticks with me is peering through the fence at the car to see this sprightly young fellow staring back at me!

Sunday  Morning Session Rixton Clay Pits

I again found myself with a bit of time free on a Sunday morning and i wasted no time at all in getting my gear sorted and heading for a few hours on Rixton Clay pits.  It is a venue that normally sees you having to arrive early to get the carp park swims so it was up and out around 6am for me and it wasn't too long before i was turning the final corner into the car park.  i expected to see one or two cars in the carp park even though the rain was belting down but to my amazement the car park was completely empty, obviously the over night rains has knocked a few fishing plans on the head and at this time of year into Christmas as the temperatures drop that will be more and more the case.  

I must admit it was quite eerie walking down to the pegs through the trees but i thought the sooner i get to the pegs and set up the sooner it will be light and time to fish so i put me head down and set about getting the peg set up ready to fish the pole and before i knew it it was light and i was setting the landing net up away from fishing. 

peg for the day

The tactic for the day was an all out silver fish approach on the pole and for the first time this season i scaled down my hook length to a pound bottom and went with a really light elastic as i wanted to land every silver fish i hit but knew full well i was probably going to lose and carp or tench i hooked into.  My bait for the day was maggot, ground bait and a change bait of worm with the hope the worm section would get me a better stamp of roach or bream.  I only had a few hours till around 11.30 on the bank and all the time in the early stages i expected another angler to turn up but the never did.

The fishing was steady from the off as was the rain and to make the session even better i was catching my target for the day in some beautifully marked roach that had that lovely blue metallic glisten to them.

I continued to catch fish for the entire session and the with around 30 minutes of the session to go i connected with a fish that was really the fish of the weekend for me in a lovely 1lb roach it filled the palm beautifully and was a good fist full of roach. 

As with all sessions they come to and end all too soon and even more so when its only a short morning session but i departed the scene really happy with my mornings efforts and on a venue as beautiful as this you can not help but enjoy a session on it and it really is amazing just how out of it you feel on the venue given the fact it is right next to a main road.  The final net was one i was happy with and the tactics will be one i will be looking at employing again on this venue as the worm really did single out the bream and better roach.

Well that is it for another weeks fishing,

till next week its,

tight lines 

Danny

Winter Looms and Paternoster Booms...

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update and first of all I want to cover what there was no update on the blog last week.  I was asked at the start of September if i would like to feature as a guest blog on the Angling Gazettes website and after thinking about it for around 2 seconds i said yes, of course i said yes and i was over the moon to have been asked to write a piece for a website i think so highly of.   September was always going to be a hectic month for me when with going on holiday at the start of it and having the Minke fishing tool review to write as soon as i got off holiday i knew time would be tight so i agreed with the Angling Gazette that i would get the blog over to them towards the end of September beginning of October.  Last weeks blog update was that guest blog and I sent the blog over to them on Friday morning and it is currently being edited by their team so i will post a new blog on here when it goes live on their page in the near future with the link on it, so watch out for that one.

So moving on to this weeks update and its been a really good week for me as I have had a few people get in touch with me on the blogs email address and as you all know i love it when readers of the blog get in touch, some just want to say hi and say how much they enjoy reading the blog, some get in touch with pointers and tips for myself and others get in touch looking for help on venues i have fished or on writing a blog, all of these emails i love receiving and i hope all the people who have ever got in touch with me would go away and say that i have always done my best to help them and been honest in my emails to them if i cant.  There are some times that you just cant help people and some aspects of my angling that i do not divulge in private emails and these normally circle around piking spots which is down to protecting this species that does not really take well to angling pressure.

If the email is not your thing the blog does have a Twitter page and a Facebook page, both of which are regularly updated and a great place to keep up with the blog and pictures that do not make it into the weekly blog and unlike some Facebook pages out there feel free to post your catches on the page its there for everyone to interact on and not just for me to post on so why not join others on there and let me know how you are getting on with your fishing.

Blog Facebook Page:https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dannys-Angling-Blog/282860255069146
Blog Twitter Page:  https://twitter.com/satonmyperchor follow @Satonmyperch

 The trees are starting to loose their leaves and coating the ground with natures carpet, trips to the river from now on will be met with a steady stream of browns, oranges and yellows fluttering through the swims. The silver fish will be starting to shoal up and begin to think about migrating to their winter haunts and behind them dressed in a full dinner suit of speckled green will be the hungry pike lurking in the shadows, chub will be feeling the pinch as the natural larder runs dry and the grayling well the grayling will still think its summer and behave accordingly and carry on as if nothing has changed ........winter is just around the corner and as i write this blog on a dark Wednesday night its safe to say the weather has taken a turn for the worse.  There is a draft coming in from the open window to my left and  there is certainly a nip in the air tonight and for the first time this year i think it may be time for the heating to get put on, roll out the extra blankets and on with the slippers.  In fishing terms it means it is time to brush down the thermal pants and bob hat in preparation for the colder sessions ahead and i always like to be prepared for my sessions and in winter this certainly means being warm. This year we will also have the luxury of warm food on the bank as we make the most of the Calor Grill to Go I reviewed in the summer and i said back then i would get my use out of it in the colder months and i am sure sessions like this freezing cold session where the landing net froze upside down and i had icicles in my keep net will be so much easier with a hot meal inside me.

freezing nets blog: http://www.satonmyperch.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/ice-ice-baby.html

In terms of actual fishing it normally starts the feeling inside of freezing cold trips on the River trotting for dace and grayling but this year i am going to try and go down a different line with my fishing.  There will of course be trips trotting for Dace and chub on the blog but i am going to try and add some variety to my fishing with sessions specifically targeting Pike and i am setting myself a target of a 15lb plus pike for this winter, a target i feel is achievable and a target i almost hit in the guest blog i wrote for the Angling Gazette.  It would be so easy for me here to come out and say, right my target is the stereotypical 20lb pike but when i set these targets they are more there for me to keep myself on track and although i ultimately want to beat the target i do not see it as a do or die target as in reality i am happy with whatever i catch on the day whether that be a 3lb or a 10lb pike as i just love admiring the personality of each individual pike and how beautiful their markings are when they come from our rivers.

The one hope i have this year is just to spend some more time on the river bank as last year was a complete washout with the heavy rain, snow and subsequent floods it seemed the river was never really right and was not on proper form till February or march time.  One thing that is going to be hard for us if we get another winter like that is finding somewhere on the river to fish as we used to head to a inlet on the river where the fish used to back into in floods but that is no longer available so we will have to look into alternatives and that may well mean trips to the canal or purchasing a different card with a river that drops quicker than the river dee, one thing that is guaranteed is it will be a cracking adventure finding out what the next few months have in store as we move onto what i regard as the best time of the year....

and with that its on to this weeks fishing...

Winter Looms and Paternoster Booms 

After last weeks trip to the river where we landed a few pike we decided to venture to the same stretch again but this time i set my stall out for just pike.  On the previous trip we had both trotted for a few hours in the morning but we both came to the conclusion that we were fighting for the same fish as one person would be catching solid and the other would be struggling and then vice versa throughout the day so with this in mind i made the decision to go all out for a predatory pike.

It really amazes me when i go out dace fishing just how many times i am approached by anglers fishing for a pike who ask you if you can catch them a dace or a roach and as a rule i generally say no as surely to be able to catch a pike you first have to have the ability to catch the bait? surely catching the bait is part of the whole process, at least it is in my eyes.  With this in mind i spent around a hour or so in the morning catching a few baits for my pike fishing session ahead, only a few and i always make a point of not using baits that are too big although after getting some advice from pike anglers this week this could be one reason i cant get over the 14lb mark and i suppose the theory of big bait big fish can be logical in pike fishing. 

The bait safe and sound in the keep net it was away with the float gear and out with the pike rod and for sessions where i am going to target pike direct on the river i always go with a paternoster rig.  They are fool proof really in their design and i go with the Greys Prowla 360 degree pike boom as this also comes with a up trace and the system is really simple you attach a weak link on the bottom with a lead on the end and set the depth with a slip knot so the bait is held in position at the depth you want.  The trace is attached via a snap link to the boom so its really easy to change trace should a pike make a mess of your trace.  

I only started using these last year and honestly can say i would not be without it now it completely takes away the moving of a bait all the time when it heads for snags like all baits invariably do and on occasions last year i have put a bait in on a short line below a float and not got a bite and then changed over to this and its gone instantly and i am sure this is down to the face this paternoster puts the bait further down in the water column and given sometimes i am fishing in 10ft plus of water it can make the difference. The rig as it would sit in theory is shown below:

My uncle was further upstream and he set out his stall for dace and roach using maggot and hemp tactics and was having a steady session with bites coming steady for longer periods since i stopped feeding my trotting line.  All set up and ready for action i slid down the bank and into my first swim of the afternoon armed with the minimal of tackle i tested the depth to make sure that if a pike did take it did not have enough slack to swallow the bait without me knowing as the last thing we want is a deeply hooked pike and with the depth set it was a case of adding the bait before lowering the it in position.

There is one thing that you can almost guarantee with pike and its if you drop a bait in the right place and there is a pike about they normally do not mess around and today was no different as the float had only settled for a minute or so before it slid away and i always think its almost a sinister look as the float submerges and you loose sight of the bright red top of the pike bung.  I never leave it too long before striking preferring to lose the fish than risk deep hooking one so i gave it a second before striking and setting the hooks and one of the best feelings for me with pike fishing is that feeling of solid resistance on that first strike, whether the pike is big or small that original contact gives nothing away of the fishes size, although i may have to retract that comment if i ever connect with one of the big girls. 

The fish made a hard run for the middle of the river and pulled some line from the spool but at this point i felt the fish did not really know it was hooked as its run was halted it seemed to hold for a second in the fast flow before showing its self just below the surface as it eased back into the slack its tail just caressing the water before with one rapid flick of its tail it flared its anal fins and tail and made a hard run for the submerged tree to my left, this esox certainly knew where home was as it made for this snag twice more during the fight but each subsequent time i was one step ahead and quickly applied the brakes giving no quarter and it was not long after that the fish rolled on the top and i took my opportunity to slide the net under the fish. On the scales it went exactly 8lb and i was over the moon as it was only early on in the session and this fish was a solid start.

The fish rested in the margins upstream of our position till it regained its strength in the landing net before being released it was time for me to rest the pike swim for 15 minutes while i chatted away with my uncle and spent a few minutes watching how my uncle goes about trotting his swim all the time learning little hints and tricks and not only watching what he does but asking why and that is the important part about it i find knowing why he makes a change and what he hopes to achieve from it.  These little bits of information hopefully will all come together to improve my river float fishing when the winter comes and we start to target the big shoals of dace. 

My trotting lesson and two brews later i returned to my pike swim and after no initial take i relaxed into my peg and took in my wonderful surroundings and fully enjoyed being beside the river.  When you are trotting a float you are constantly concentrating and focused on presenting the float right and sometimes this does mean you miss some of the sights and sounds of the river but Saturday, for me, was different i was well and truly spoilt by the nature that resides on the banks of the river dee.  On the day i enjoyed watching a kingfisher work the river upstream form his tiny perch while breaking through the background noise of the river flowing over the shallows upstream was the faintest tap tap tap of a woodpecker searching the bark for grubs.  Later on in the day the warmer air thermals saw a pair of buzzards riding high above much to the annoyance of the local crows who hounded them ferociously causing them to move on out of sight while my session from a nature point of view was topped of with this lovely butterfly that behaved so well letting me have its picture taken. 

Judging by the striking upstream my uncle was still getting a few fish and upon checking my watch it had been a good two hours since my last fish so i upped sticks and dropped in another swim i had my eye on looking to give it half an hour or so.  In total i tried 2 more swims before returning back to my original swim for the rest of the session and after getting to that point you think its not going to happen the float dipped a few times but unlike the normal ebbing and flowing of the float that goes with the occasional swirl of water through the swim these dips where more purposeful and direct and a few seconds later the float skulked away towards the middle of the river.  

This fish felt bigger than the first one during the fight and like the first it knew all about that snag to my left  but unlike the first one i was all onto that tactic from the off and was waiting for it to make for it.  Last year i got some great advice on the blogs Facebook page about line for pike and took their advice and moved over to a strong braided line and i am so glad i did it puts you right in touch with the fish and gives you so much control and this extra confidence in your tackle really puts you in the driving seat when trying to land pike that can be really strong with their runs.  The fish on the bank it had a strange deformation on its back which was well healed and at first i thought it was a cormorant bite but upon checking further along the pikes back there where further marks and it looked like it had been grabbed by a much bigger pike, these wounds were old and healed but proves there are bigger pike in this area. 

During the unhooking i caught my knuckle on the the hook in the pikes mouth as i chinned the fish out of the net which was a shock to say the least and this is the slight bit of blood you can see on the pikes gill plate.  After resting the pike in the margin till it was fully recovered it was time to see it swim away back into its watery home a practise that should be part of any anglers day, that is putting the pike back and not taking them home as unfortunately there are still people on the bank in the early hours looking to catch pike and take them for the table no matter what the size.

pike going back

After this pike i gave the swim another 20 mins while my uncles keep net dried out but no more pike where forthcoming.  My uncle had a good day for the time of year when the dace can be quite dispersed still putting together a 8lb net of dace and i think the odd roach.

the best fish on the day was this fin perfect dace which looked great with a few other decent fish form the session.

All in all i was well pleased with the session, two more pike to add to the pike form last week and with one pike into double figures and a number of separate pike all just under the 10lb mark i feel i have made a steady start to my piking campaign.  With regards the targeting of bigger size pike i think i am going to keep on the way i am at the moment as i am obviously naturally picking the right areas and pike are coming to the bank so i will continue with how i am doing it before i look at making changes. 

A silver itch to scratch - Sunday 6th October

Although i thoroughly enjoyed my pike fishing on Saturday it still left me with a silver fishing itch to scratch so early on Sunday morning i set out for a local pond hoping to put together a nice net of silvers.  Driving along the road to the pond the sky i front was a real picture and i just had to take a detour to capture a picture of such a glorious morning, to all those people who think there is only one 6 o'clock in the day you are missing out big time.

sunrise over the river Mersey. 

The session was one where i got plenty of bites and had a very enjoyable morning on the bank as predicted the carp moved in as the weather warmed and on a number 5 elastic i was not offering up much resistance to these small carp.  I looked back thinking should i have gone heavier and all out for the carp given how close to winter we are but thinking about it in the afternoon after the session i went for roach and rudd and set my stall out for them and i caught my target for the session so looking back on the session i was happy with the result and the carp can wait for another day.

The final net was testament to a steady mornings fishing and although the better roach failed to show i couldn't think of a better way to pass a few hours. 

This weekend we are hoping to get on one of the canals but with the weather turning cold we may end up on the river.

till next week

tight lines 

Danny

River Dee Piking And Big Month Ahead

A warm welcome to this week's blog update and i have noticed that the past few blog introductions have not been as positive as i normally write and i kind of want to apologise for that but also at the same time say to remember that i am quite passionate about certain things and as much as my passion for angling comes out in my blogs for positive stuff the negative stuff will evoke just as much and even more so if it involves my family as they after all are the dearest thing to myself.  So this week i am going all out to fill the introduction with positivity and hopefully it will even out the negativity of the past few weeks.

Firstly i would like to give a big shout out to two guys on Twitter caller Richard Penny @Richspur and Lee Power @power_mr who are aiming to raise money for the Stacey Mowle Appeal and are looking to hold a Carp anglers social get together on the 13th to the 15th of September and it will be held at Barston Lakes in the West Midlands. The price of a ticket for the weekend is £45 and the owner is only charging for the first 20 anglers so any they get over the 20 the whole £45 will go to the appeal.  This is certainly a great cause and good luck to the guys in raising as much cash as possible and i hope this plug goes some way to helping you guys out.

The Angling Gazette has again shown its links with the community by already running this story on their website so full details on how to enter or donate money is available on the following link:  Angling Gazette Barston Charity

Moving on to news closer to home for myself and looking forward to the next few weeks and it is looking like it is going to be a really busy September for me with a few days away with my family to kick it off followed by a few things relating to the blog that will certainly be occupying my time on my return. Some of the things i cant go into much detail on now as the date for them has not been set in stone but needless to say i am really excited for one of them that relates to what i have been writing on my blog and i see it as kind of recognition for the effort i put into writing my blog to a certain standard every week so i am super excited for that is September.

The second thing i cant go into much detail either only to say i was contacted in the past week by a company to do a product review for them.  This year i have had quite a few companies contact me with regards reviewing their products, some i have accepted and others i have declined and it all comes down to a strict criteria i set on my part in 1) is it something i would generally use and this would be able to give a honest review on and 2) is it something that actually grabs my attention and something that i think the readers of my blog would find interesting.  The past year i have turned down a few opportunities because they have not met this criteria, some would say that is silly and you should take all you can for free but i feel it is important to be honest to the company who are going out of the way to give you something if you cant give it the honesty it deserves.

The company who contacted me this past week are looking for me to review a cool looking gadget that is yet to go on general sale to the public.  The power point presentation they sent me was professional and the product looks really interesting in its concept and i cant wait to test it out and give it a review on the blog, more on this review during September if it all goes through smoothly.

So with a small get away coming up it will mean a week with no blog, or does it?  I have a little idea of a update i could write from my phone as a bit of a fun update from our trip and if it comes off lets just say it will certainly be different to anything you will have seen on my blog before.   All in all i am really excited for the coming few weeks for the bog and i hope you all like what is in store.

On to this weeks angling adventure:

Being Adaptable Puts A Few Fish On The Bank

The past weeks we have have gone with the formula of fishing a river in the morning and dropping back on a still water on the way home for a few hours and to be honest at this time of year with the fish stocks on the river being spread far and wide its a formula that i can see us adopting a few more times this year till the first proper frost arrive.  Its fair to say me and my uncle do more fishing than the average angler and with that comes a certain amount of planning, there has to be, some of that planning is based on past years experience such as time of year, weather, wind conditions and this week tides.  The tides on the dee that brought the dolphin up around Chester last week where still hanging around this week and we knew that this would mean the fishing at the destination we planned to visit would die off around midday when the tide hit so we made a plan to fish the River Dee till midday and then drop back for an investigatory visit on our local Bridgewater Canal.

We arrived on the majestic River Dee just as it was getting light and was greeted with the sight of a river in fine fettle she looked as beautiful as i have ever seen her, she was flowing through at a steady pace and had a tinge of colour that was not enough to stop you seeing the bottom in the margins but enough for me to know we should be in for a few fish.  I have to say i never get out of my car on the banks of the river Dee and am not taken back by the beauty of this river, having fished her for a few years now its like a second home for me of a weekend any after the pollution events of yesteryear's i cherish every moment i spend on her

I started off on the stick float and decided to fish it right under my rod tip as the swim i was in was a slack behind a tree.  I knew from experience that i would have to  build the swim from scratch which normally means a fair few gudgeon but sticking with it can produce some nice roach and if i was really lucky a nice perch.  As normal it was a maggot and hemp approach and straight away i was into the gudgeon which gave me a great deal of confidence as although its a fish that is never going to fill your net when you catch a gudgeon with a few maggots in its mouth it lets you know your doing it right as your bait is going down the same line as your free offerings.  The endless line of gudgeon was followed eventually by some better fish in some small perch and one or two small roach and dace so in my eyes the swim was building nicely for me and i was expectant of a steady mornings sport.

None of these fish where the better fish i was expecting to turn up but in all honesty given what was about to happen it was never ever going to be the case.  The plop of two roach hitting the keep net in quick succession marked the end of my silver fishing as from there on out i could not but a bite the swim died instantly where there was knocks on the float all the time form when it settle there was the eerie sight of a motionless float sliding through the swim.  A few more trots down and still nothing, deep inside i began to feel that sense on inevitability that was only compounded by the dimpling of the water in my keep net where all its inhabitants had come to the top then a small shoal of roach shimmered close in tightly knit like sheep marshalled by a farmer's collie, all the signs where there and this week my senses where honed into the river and i instinctively had set up a pike rod the previous evening.

The float rod was retired for the day and i decided there and then with the clarity of the water and the presence of what i thought was a number of jack pike i was going to have some fun trying for a late summer pike or two for the remainder of the session.  A small roach bait will always be my go to bait for pike as i think the light shimmers better of the fish and they are a bite i have real confidence in and that confidence was boosted even further as no more than 5 minutes after introducing the bait i was locked in battle with a really hard fighting pike that tried all the tricks in the book to escape from trying to spit the barbless treble hooks to tail walking and when that failed it made long hard runs for the tree to my left.

A year or so ago i was given some really sound advice from a fellow dee pike angler who pointed me i the right direction for what strength line and rod i should be using so i was more that equipped to deal with this pike that i estimated as still being in the "jack" category and knowing how hard these fish fight in summer i began to exert some pressure on the fish the reduce the length of the battle as there is a fine line between having fun catching the pike and prolonging the battle so long it endangers the pikes ability to recover later on.  I quickly got the pike in and the hooks being barbless came out really easy, it was then quickly placed on the scales for a reference point for the rest of the season and a few pictures taken before i took it a few swims down and rested the pike in the margins in the landing net till it was holding itself upright and showing me some of that tigerish attitude it had demonstrated in the fight.  At this time of year if you are fishing away from weirs or rapids the oxygen levels in the river are really low so it takes the fish a while to recover and we really do owe it to the fish to give it the respect it deserves and who knows that fish in 10 years time could be that 20lb fish of your dreams.

At 6.5lb this fish has got some growing to do till its boxing in the heavyweight class but it certainly has every chance of making it in such a rich river.  The fish returned safely it was back to the pike fishing and i did not have to wait long for another take although this one certainly had eyes bigger than its belly as it hounded the bait before grabbing it across the flank.  In the water with its gills flared it looked a bigger fish but in reality on the bank it was a really small jack pike but goes to show that even at this young age they are more than equipped and the only thing on a pike this sizes mind is getting big enough so its not on a bigger pikes menu.

I returned this pike downstream just as the local church bell sounded out that it was 11.30 and it was time for us to think about packing away and making our way to our second venue but before we did broke camp i decided to have a cheeky try in my uncles swim for a pike as he had also had a period of inactivity from the silvers and with the pike obviously in the mood it was rude not to try for a third.  I have done a fair bit of pike fishing in my life on the local canal and on the river in the past few years and i can honestly say i have never seen a pike take a bait like i did on Saturday as the pike came up from beneath the fish grabbed it, came out of the water and turned in the air with the fish in its mouth it was breathtaking stuff to witness.

This pike was pretty much in the same bracket as the first one and at first i thought it maybe was the same but on closer inspection of the pictures they are separate fish.  The fish again gave a good account for itself but as with the first i tried to reduce the length of the fight as not to endanger the fish going back so it was quickly netted, had a picture taken, rested and returned and with as quick as the pike darted back into its lair we jumped into the car and headed back towards home.

The canal beckoned and although this venue is not normally prolific fishing it can have its days but what it offered us on Saturday was a nice easy fish only a small walk from the car.  We set up the customary 12 yards apart and both chose to fish the far side on the pole to avoid the heavy boat pressure, this was a bank holiday weekend after all.

The reed bed between us offered some structure that we hoped hold some fish and we was not disappointed as we both caught steady for the full two hours we were there and my uncle even got snapped by a rogue fish which had it snapped before he even had chance to ship back, a rogue carp or a tench where at the top of my betting sheet. As i mentioned we both caught steady for the few hours we where there and that showed in the combined final net.  I have promised myself to return before our holiday for a proper go at this canal with ground bait and pinkie.

well that's just about it for this week and i leave you with a tweet from twitter that made me chuckle this week.

"its 50 years since martin Luther king said that famous fishing phrase,I HAVE A BREAM!"

till next week its tight lines

Danny

Hungry ‘Jacks’ Hunting For ‘Roachy’ Snacks

A warm welcome to this week’s angling blog update and what landmark week it is for the blog with at the time of writing this update it is fast approaching the 100,000 views mark a number that I still have to glance twice at to believe and I guess no matter where this blog leads to from this day forward I will always be proud of what I have achieved with this blog to this point, I can honestly put my hand on my heart and say I have not met one bad person through writing this blog and it has been an absolute joy to not only share my angling adventures with people but also hear about other people’s fishing trips who get in touch.  I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has visited my blog, sent me an email, messaged me on twitter, messaged me on facebook or even just dropped into my peg and said hi on the bank, thank you.

I also owe a big thank you to my dad and uncle for putting up with me on the bank when things are not going too well and also for putting up with my “one last cast” which leads to them waiting on me to pack up!  I guess the biggest thank you I need to say though is to my partner Lucy, I know how lucky I am to have such an understanding missus, I mean I don’t think there are many women out there who would be ok with their fella going fishing every weekend and then also putting up with them disappearing into a side room through the week to write an angling blog, I really do know how lucky I am and I know she secretly reads the blog so THANK YOU LUCY J.

Here’s to all the adventures to come and let’s see where the next 100,000 views takes us too, if its takes me through half as many adventures as the first 100,000 I will be a very happy angler.

Moving on to this week’s update and whilst browsing the internet this week I came across and interesting story on the Daily mail website and although the Mail has some of the worst transfer rumours in regard the summer transfers the story I read was full of information and really got me thinking on my dinner hour when I read it.   The story I came across was about information that had been obtained from the environment Agency via the Freedom of information act.

The full story is on the link below: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2384314/Our-biggest-polluters-Water-companies-revealed-worst-incidents-left-Englands-beaches-rivers-areas.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Basically picking out the bits that are of interest it state that the top 10 water companies in this country have been responsible for 1000 separate incidents of polluting our rivers, harbours and streams since 2005.  It also goes on to mention the average fine for these companies was a mere £10,800 which the article is suggesting is quite low considering the fact the companies made a grand total of 10.5 BILLION POUNDS!.  The article then goes on to suggest a minimum fine for deliberate polluting of our waters should be imposed and that should start at £750,000.  The article then gives all the major companies a chance to reply against an allegation that these fines are seen as part and parcel of them releasing sewage into the rivers, an allegation they all reject and go on to state they have spent money on increasing defences against leaks and the fact that pollution incidents have reduced every year since 2005.

As regular readers will know major pollution incidents have featured a few times over the past few years on my blog, off the top of my head I remember a few incidents on the river Irwell in the past year where the river was transformed into something resembling a bath full of bubble bath with the whole river covered in a thick layer of foam, I also remember Mark from the Fishing for memories blog mentioned about pollution incidents in his area and let’s not forget the major incidents that happened on the River Dee where no one was ever fined for a pollution incident that wiped out all the fish stocks in the river! These are only a few incidents that I can remember off the top of my head but even these ones mentioned are too many in my opinion. 

The information released in the article is astonishing to be honest the average fine really shocked me as it is really low and It does make me question how much of a deterrent a fine like that can have and I do think the suggestion of a minimum fine of £750,000 would be a great idea.  In all debates like this though I always try and see the other side of the coin as well and I grew up living next to one of the most polluted rivers in this country, the River Mersey, a river made famous for its 3 eyed “glowing” fish and bank lined factories.  When I was growing up the river had a really bad name and you would often see slicks of chemicals running along the top of the river and I always remember the river as being quite devoid of birdlife.  The river today is a complete turnaround there have been reports of salmon being seen running the river again, otters living in the estuary and as I cross the Runcorn to Widnes Bridge on my daily commute to work I often see anglers fishing along its banks so it is a river that has transformed its image and water clarity immensely over the past 20 years so much so you now see a multitude of birds working the sand banks of low tides proving what abundance of fish must now call this once polluted estuary home.

The vitality of this river now runs through its course with many angling clubs owning rights to its banks as you go upstream and into its tributaries with Warrington Anglers being one club that now holds regular matches on the stretches around Warrington BUT there are of course still the regular incidents we hear about on the tributaries like the River Irwell, Goyt and Tame that still tarnish this image and its these small secluded rivers and streams where wildlife and fish stocks will thrive and find sanctuary to increase their numbers a populate down the river where these pollution incidents do most damage these areas are the nursery grounds for all the smaller species of fish to thrive and these areas need protecting more than ever. My only hope is I never have to live through and witness some of the horrific scenes I hear talked about by other anglers on the river Dee when they recall the day they saw thousands of fish dying in front of their eyes we live in a time where technology can do so many things and I hope the proposed changes marks an end to the deliberate polluting of our waterways, mistakes will always happen but there are no excuses for deliberately releasing pollution.

In other news this week I have heard a rumour that Warrington Anglers have acquired a new stretch of the River Alyn, not much information on the actual beat yet but seen as the stretch Warrington currently have that stops just short of the confluence of the River Dee is really shallow I imagine the river further upstream is just as shallow and the fish species will be mainly trout and grayling.  I will release more information on the stretch as and when an official announcement is made on the clubs website or on the clubs Facebook page, the good old second pseudonym account might just prove to be worthwhile after all.  As with all aspects of life it always pays to think ahead and while I am on the subject of Warrington Anglers Facebook page it makes me laugh so much when I drop in there and read that people are asking the same questions about the road at Worthenbury, the track at dog kennel farm and the fact another angling club now have Almere ferry that my “official” account was kicked off there for, guess it wasn’t just me who had the same feelings on certain issues eh and I must say the argument that broke out about the rumour the club are losing cicily mill to prince Albert sums up how silly this page can be, rather than deleting the post surely responding with an official yes or no puts it all to bed rather than how it is now with the question still being up in the air, they did the same with Almere Ferry and that went in the end, makes you wonder.

Any way that’s enough time wasted on that onto this week’s fishing:

Hungry ‘Jacks’ Hunting For ‘Roachy’ Snacks

In the light of our thunder filled session on the Dee last Sunday there was only ever once place we were going to fish this weekend and it was of course the exact same swims we were perched in last week.  The abundance of roach in the river at the moment is really pleasing to see an with reports of roach being caught all along the lower River Dee it will surly make for an interesting winter when they all shoal up to see if the roach feature as much once the huge shoals of dace start moving in.

The river at the best of times is never really busy so we took our time as we navigated along the quiet B Roads that meander alongside the river dee.  We had both come with a game plan this time, mine was to loose feed hemp and caster with the hope of avoiding some of the really small fry whilst my uncle also was equipped with castors and hemp he chose to also bring along a tin of the trusty sweetcorn, jolly green giant of course as all fisherman will tell you, the fish can tell the difference.   We both brought a few pints of white maggot as well as we do normally for our river trips.

We both started off on castor and could not buy even a knock as the float just drifted through the swim time after time after time even the ever reliable holding back hard on the float could not induce a bite from the fish.  It became quite clear castor was not going to work so we changed over to maggot and instantly we both started to get bite and not from small fish either with this surprise chub around a pound coming on only the third cast after the change to maggot.

The pair of us enjoyed some steady bits for the next few hours with mainly roach coming to the net.  My uncles swim stayed pretty steady all through the day but mine seemed to change dramatically a few hours in as all the steady bites from nice roach I had been getting disappeared and was replaced with sharp lightning fast bites that I put down to being really small roach and dace.  These bites drove me mad to put it bluntly anyone who has done any amount of trotting will be able to relate to me here when I say you know when you have struck bank on and nailed a bite but my strike was met with no fish on the other end and time and time again the float would go under but no fish on the other end.  I of course made all the changes I could think of but the bites continued to be frantic and all other the swim, something was not right.

The Swim to my left occupied by my uncle was still fishing well with nice roach and the odd perch coming to his maggot and hemp and that’s when it all clicked in my head.  Had we been on the river for a few weeks solid maybe it would have hit me sooner but the obvious answer to this situation was that a silent speckled green hunter had skulked into the swim, a quick look at my keep net to see every fish up in the water around the next of the net just confirmed this diagnosis even further.   I decided to persevere with the trotting approach in hope I was wrong about my feelings that a pike had moved in but all this do was confirm my suspicions as half way down the trot I struck into a fish that felt half decent before it suddenly felt a record breaker as it all went solid and the slow determined run of a pike made its way into the middle of the river before its sharp teeth cut through my think hook length.

I was fairly sure the pike had not felt like it was hooked and unfortunately for mr pike I had also left my pike rod in my holdall so it was a quick scoot to the car to set up to try for my first pike of the season.  All set up I introduced a small roach into the swim and set about waiting for the pike to move back in, it didn’t take too long before the floats rhythmic motion became a bit more frantic as the bait sensed trouble was about and I knew to expect a bite at any minute and with that there was an almighty splash as the pike took the bait and headed off into its lair in the middle of the river to digest its midday snack.  The fish was only a jack pike of a few pounds but it didn’t half put up a good account for itself. 

In summer, more than ever, we must always remember to give the pike to rest in the margin by either retaining them in your net or holding them upright in a slack till they recover the pike gives it all in the fight and the low oxygen levels in summer means it take the fish longer to recover.

The one thing that always amazes me about the river is how quick after moving a pike on its way out of your swim the fish move back on the feed as it was my very first trot down after all the commotion from the pike I connected with this lovely plump roach above.  A quick glance at the clock revealed it to be around midday so I decided to rest the swim and get on with cooking us both some dinner on the Calor Grill to Go.  I this bit of kit given to me by Calor Gas to review a few months ago would get some solid use as we moved onto the river and I can see it being a real essential addition to our gear as we move into the colder months.  Sausage barms on the bank, the smell, the sizzle I really don’t know what I have been missing.

Our stomachs seen to I got back to the trotting and it was like going back to the swim I arrived at in them morning with solid bites met with the solid resistance of a fish and for the next few hours we added a steady stream of fish to our haul included in this was a nice eel my uncle caught that did a complete disappearing act as I took its picture so well that I don’t have a picture lol. We ended the session with a solid net of fish each.

My net

Uncle net.

Of course at the end of every session there is that wait while the keep nets dry out and I decided to take full advantage of this by having another cheeky go for a pike but this time in my uncle’s swim.  To say it wasn’t long before the easy meal was pounced upon was an understatement as the small bait was soon taken by a hungry jack that fought like a demon, tail walking on a number of occasions and was certainly one of those pikes you don’t trust.  It seems weird to say you don’t trust a fish but you do get a feeling with pike about their temperament and how they are going to behave on the bank and this one certainly had a glint in its eye that said be extra careful.

Thankfully once he was tamed and on the bank he was was good as gold and soon had his picture taken and was happily resting in the edge.

That’s was it for the session and we both left happy with the session but we both agreed we needed a change of venue the following week so where this weekend will take us is anyone’s guess.

I leave you with a picture from Sunday morning of me and my little girl watching Catching the impossible she really does love her wildlife and I hope wildlife makes up a big park of her life.

Till next week

Tight lines

danny