River Dee Fishing: Dog Roach On The Bolo and Pole

A warm welcome to this weeks update i hope i find you all well and your autumnal nets wet.  General observations this week are that summer is not going without a fight as temperatures of 26oc being still a common midday temperature which has presented a few problems in my fishing of late but more on that later in the update.  Before we move onto the main update i would just like to say a huge thank you to all the people who have taken the time to email this week either to comment on their liking of the blog or for some hints and tips on how i go about catching the fish on my blogs.  These emails are very welcome and if you have sent one this week i will do my best to get back to you ASAP but this week the email has gone made but i will get to them all.

Pondip Time and My Second Blog......

The 18th of the month for myself is fast becoming associated with a small Brown box called a Pondip Tackle Box as its the time when i come home to the box of goodies on my door mat.  There certainly is a lot of fun with these boxes and i am loving how varied the boxes are with Septembers containing items that cover all aspects of coarse fishing from pole fishing margins or commercials to night fishing a river.  This months blog was all around the contents of the box and writing about them  and as soon as i opened this months box it just screamed Autumn fishing to me either fishing into darkness for that special big fish or using a fine hook and pole float on a slow river for roach and bream it looked a fantastic little box of fishing tackle to really get out there and tackle an autumn session.   A link to my review is below.

Link to my Pondip Blog: http://blog.pondiptacklebox.com/2014/september/coarse-tackle-box-autumn/

Full Steam Ahead....

It has taken the best part of two months buying a bit her and a bit there and of course a huge bait order but this week i finally got to the stage where i now have two pike rods rigged up ready to go.  The sessions pike fishing are ones i love but not only for the fishing but the fact i get to leave my heavy seat box, clunky net bag and chunky holdall behind and just grab a landing net, my ruck sack and two made up rods and i am away for a days pike hunting.  Pike fishing and my silver fishing are so far apart in this respect but in reality they go together like cheese on toast as the sheer act of silver fishing a river attracts the pike to you,  any how i do digress it feels great to know that at any moment from now on i am only a few minutes away from finishing work to being on the road to a pike swim.

Hitting The Ground Running....

With all the pike gear set to go i am planning on hitting the ground running next week as i have booked off two days from work on the 01st of October and the 3rd October and at least one of these sessions will be dedicated to just piking with the other i am hoping to sneak in a cheeky pole session as well as sneak out a pike rod with all being well. 

These two days off work will make the start of a bumper few days as i will be fishing my normal river session on the Saturday and will finish the few days off with a session piking on a water with fellow piker Ste on the Sunday.  The weather at the moment is far from ideal, in fact for piking its diabolical, but i am hoping for us to put a few pike on the bank and as always with a few social sessions planned a some great banter a long the way to mark the start of my first full season in the pursuit of Esox Lucius.

Fail to Prepare, Prepare To Fail.....

There is a well know saying "Fail to Prepare, Prepare to Fail" and it is so true.  How many times as anglers have we fished a session and at its end said well i should have done this or got to the venue and found you have no tackle to fish the swim in front of you, this all comes down to preparation.  Over the past few months i have been reading up and trying to understand the world of the pike, how and where they feed, underwater videos of them taking baits so i know where is best to put my hooks and general tactics that other anglers have published on the Internet to how they go abut their dead baiting for pike.

I am also very fortunate that in the past year i have met three guys who are well into their pike fishing and share a mutual enthusiasm for the species and targeting them in the coming months.  It is safe to say that my piking has come on leaps and bounds in the short time i have met this group of piking pirates, from tying my own rigs to general help and tips on piking it really has seen me at a stage where i am feeling not only prepared but confident when i load up the car.

All in all from where i was last year struggling on the canal and not really knowing if what i was doing was right or wrong it feels good to be looking forward to a season knowing i am prepared as i can be,  i will go more into my terminal set up as the season progresses but for now, lets get out there and have em!!

Piking Gods Look Down On The Piking JetSetter....

As i mentioned above the rods set up it is now a quick run in the house to get changed and grab my gear and i am away for me now for my piking and this was certainly the case on Monday this week.  I knew two of the lads where out piking on a local river from first light and although the news from them i received on my break was bad in only one run and that coming off i was dying to get out and wet a line for an esox. 

I pondered my annual leave sheet in work for a few seconds before making the decision that in the year of our lord 22nd September 2014 was not going to be a day Danny spent a whole day in work and a hastily booked the afternoon off.  Eventually the clock creeped its way round to 12.30, i am sure someone makes time go slower when your looking at the clock, i was off out the doors or work and on my way home to load the car and before i knew it i was walking the bank to place my two floats alongside the four already in position. 

With 6 baits in the water spread evenly along the length of water and pike in the area was spoilt for choice as a banquet of the best sushi in the world dangled tantalisingly in their faces.  The midday temperature was 26oc and there was a few clouds in the sky but nothing that was making any difference.  A hour in and we had not had so much as a tap on any of the rods despite a few recasts so we settled down and Garry began to go through some rig making with me as i had come across one or too issues making them myself at home. 

Just about to thread the hook onto the line and Garry twitched and a urgency appeared in his eyes as out of the corner of one of them he spotted the slight movement on his left hand rod.  Another dip on the float confirmed the presence of a fishes interest before the fish fully committed and the float slid away, 1, 2, 3 and strike and his rod hooped over as he connected with a feisty fish that we all thought was a lot bigger than it was on the bank.  The fish obviously still full of life in the warm weather had energy to burn as it made run after run and continued to fight in the net and on the bank.  The pike was a welcome start to the fishing and we all gained confidence from this capture as the fish might just be going on the feed.

At this stage we were all spread along a short area, it was a bit of a social after all, but with bites not forthcoming and no activity on the floats we decided to spread out a little.  Garry was again first to reap the rewards of a move as in the space of half an hour he banked another two pike which both grabbed his baits as he was bringing them in.  Three pike in a short spell and Garry was having a good session indeed and getting a very good send off for his upcoming break with a pike of 6lb and another smaller jack pike. Great to see so many in the area.

These pike released i returned to my rods.  I placed one static on the bottom in front of a reed bed but having seen them taking a moving bait i shallowed right up on my other rod and began casting and slowly reeling in the bait.  It took a number of casts but eventually i felt a aggressive tug on the bait as a bike lunged out and grabbed the dead bait.  Letting the line go slack so the fish could take the bait for a second i watched as the float sunk away and just as i was about to set the hooks the float shit right back up in the water, dam the fish had spat the bait out!.  In hindsight maybe i should have stuck as the float was moving and not waited for it to go under but i guess that's fishing.  I cursed as i thought my chance had almost certainly gone!

In all honesty i was just about to move back down to the main group before this fish struck but the fact i knew i had a feeding fish in my swim spurred me on to stick it out.  I kept twitching the bait back with no success so i decided to shallow up and cast the bait fight tight along the reeds when the fish had struck.  When fishing shallow you are always susceptible to the bait drifting so it was only the fact i saw the float moving slowly towards the reeds that alerted me to the fact a fish was having a go at the bait and sure enough the float slid away as the pike took its dinner back to its dark lair. 

I struck and was met with one of the most energetic pike i have ever hooked, only a small jack pike, but Jesus did it fight with tail walking and head shakes galore during the fight.  The tackle you have to fish with for pike does make you the boss in these fights with small jacks but still great fun and i was glad to pick up a fish.

We stuck the session out till dark hoping for Ryan to pick a fish up and i have never seen a guy put so much effort into it, he had been fishing all day and even on last knockings he was still going strong, if ever a man deserved a fish it was Ryan on this session.  There are plenty of more sessions earmarked in the coming months together so i am sure Ryan will have his day where he catches and catches well and we all struggle, i only hope i can match his enthusiasm.  Great day out and a nice catch up with Garry and Ryan and looking forward to the sessions to come.

River Dee Dog Roach On Pole and Bolo.......Smashing Session!!!

Saturday morning and i don't think i have ever done so much preparation for a session in my life before as i set about making up pole rigs to fish a swim i knew was around 15-16ft deep.  This depth equated to the bottom of my number 5 section of my pole and a swim this deep certainly called for some heavy gear so i set up with a 3 gram float fished with a Olivette 2ft from the hook with a hook length of 1.7oz Bayer Peron.

Inspecting my pole at this point as i put it away i did notice a little tiny crack in the bottom of my number three section but it was a knock that had been there for some time so i didn't pay it too much thought and continued to pack the gear away. 

Walking the banks of the river in the dark we were both startled but a own flying low to the bank close in as it turned and a ghost like flash of white let off a terrible racket as it flew off upstream.  I settled into a swim and my uncle set up just down stream form myself, its been a while since we have fished close enough to have a natter all day so it was good to have a nice social fish.

A rare sight for regular blog readers, danny fishing a river with a pole, but i guess with the River Weaver on the card its a sight that we will be seeing a little more.

Setting up in no time at all i was feeding the swim and running a float through in no time at all and it wasn't long before i got my first bite on the pole which saw me land this nice little roach, i always take a picture of the first fish of the session as i know one day it will be the only fish of the update.

The next few put in saw similar small roach and perch but after that i connected with the first fish of the standard i had hoped for in a fin perfect roach that must have been up around the 1lb mark it was a stonking roach.  In fact this first roach marked the start of a precession of 3 roach that all came on the pole rig and i was excited for a good, if not exceptional, session ahead.

The next bites after the three nice roach saw some smaller roach come to the pole rig.  I was fishing away over the moon with me really getting to grips with a new method and i was delighted that my plan to eradicate the missed bites you get striking upwards on the bolo was coming into fruition.  Fishing 67 sections of pole i was comfortably fishing just over the ledge and to land fish it was simply an act of removing one section of pole and it was then fish to hand unless the net was needed.

Sadly whilst striking a bite i heard an almighty crack and upon inspecting my top two section i noticed a split right up the blank, that little crack was not a big crack and this certainly marked the end of the session on the pole as this was the only top kit i had packed, gutted was not the word.  At the time i was more upset at the fact i knew i was doing well and was on for a nice weight of roach had it continued, of course later on you are upset at the financial loss.

I took a second to lick my wounds before setting about making up my 17ft trotting rod, set up wise it was the same weight bolo float just moved over on to running line.   Moving over to the rod and fishing so deep does have its problems both with presentation and also with the line wrapping around the tip all the time, both very frustrating.  It took a while to get the bites going again as i struggled with accuracy of the line i was trotting.  Eventually my persistence was rewarded as i began to again pick up some nice roach.  In fact once i got to grips with the swim and putting the float through i caught some cracking roach steadily for the next few hours with palm sized roach coming between a few smaller roach.  A few are below and looking at the pics i think a few could be mixed with chub.

From 12 noon till around 2 pm the swim completely died of death as the roach just seemed to do a disappearing act.  It has been a while since we have been on a river where pike trouble is a regular occurrence and as such i spent a long time thinking i was doing something wrong rather that having my mind homed into the fact there was a pike in the swim.  It all clicked when right down the swim i connected with a small fish that suddenly went really heavy.  I had the fish on for a while and in typical pike fashion the jack spewed the bait at the last minute.  What a mess even a jack makes.

I knew in the back of my head this pike had no clue it was being fished for so i quickly reached for the pike rod and presented a bait at 12ft as to miss the snags.  It did not take long for the float to bob away and i knew from the erratic bobbing and the fact the float would not go under i had a small jack at the bait, i struck, but again the fish was too small to turn the bait as it had clamped across the fish and just spat it out, very frustrating.

After this fish come off i moved back onto the bolo and it must have been this fish that was putting the fish off as over the last hour i picked up a few more nice roach.

There really is not enough space to post all the separate roach i caught that i took pictures of and there was a few i did not photograph and it really was one of those sessions you look back on when you write your blog and think that was some session.  I put a little video of all the fish i took a photo of on the little slide show below.

My final net went just under 14lb.  I have had some of the best fishing of my life on this river and some nets of dace that i could only dream if years ago but as i took a second to look at this net of roach i knew i had just had a special session, i was on cloud nine.

My uncle just upstream also had got into the roach but had also connected with a nice shoal of dace as well and this will certainly be an area we visit again.

till next time thank you for reading,

tight lines

Danny

AN EVENING ONE THE RIVER DEE...

A warm welcome to this midweek blog update, Tuesday has for me now become a day where i start to think of the possibility of a sneaky midweek trip after work tomorrow and with the nights slowly beginning to draw in time for a river session after work is surely running out and we must take advantage of this time as before long we will be depressingly coming and going from work in the dark.

Work of late has been getting me down i have to say as the repetitive nature of my job leaves me craving freedom at times and i guess that is why i love the serenity, calmness and peace and quiet of the river bank so much.  We recently moved offices and for most the extra walk or the new surroundings worried most folk, for me, well it was the fact the new building contains only  9 windows, 9 planes to view the outside world where i am now lucky to catch a glimpse of a passing seagull  as opposed the wealth of nature we used to witness around our old building where you would see the swallows arriving on the fields and then departing so anonymously with the impending winter, V flocks of Canada geese and the occasional gliding buzzard all now not part of my yearly life walking into work or glancing out of my desk window but i guess most of all i miss seeing the seasons change the coming and going of the leaves , that crisp first frost tickling your face as you left your car in short there is a lot to be said for the loss of a desk side window lol.

Looking out of the 9 panes now writing this weekly blog update on my lunch break i can feel that suffocating feeling i did last week like an animal in a zoo i can smell the freedom of the outside world beyond the small windows, last week i could take now more i had to get out and with it a evening session was arranged on the banks of the serene and open banks of the River Dee,  her banks i knew off me the natural antidote for my most urban of illnesses.

"An Evening On The River Dee"

The drive to the banks of the Dee on a week day was a brand new experience for me an even more so given the lack of visits to her bank over the past 9 months but driving there i was back on autopilot the car knew the way, her wheels had worm down this path so many times before it was like she was bounded by her own tyre tracks. Passing Chester we headed to an area we had yet to wet a line in and given the few swims in this area we did not know until we passed the last bend if the pegs we had chatted about along the B Roads was free or not.  My heart sank as a parked car on the grass verge had me thinking we were out of luck but thankfully the parked car on this occasion belonged to a dog walker and not an angler.

Like two naughty children skiving from school to go fishing we unloaded the car and began setting up our swims.  The time we had set up the time was 1pm and i knew we were due a tide this afternoon but was unsure just how much it would effect us being just that little bit further upstream.  The river quite low i trusted to luck and set up on the lower flat part of the swim with a good foot or so down to the river surface, surely i was OK up here i thought as i plumed the depth and in front of me i found a nice depth for trotting, plumbing up further down i noticed it shallowed up on the inside about half way down the swim but as the flow came round a sweeping bend and of the outside of a tree above my swim i hoped i could hold a line about a 3rd of the way across as i had miles or river below me to trot into, surely i would draw fish into my swim from here and catch a few i thought.

My uncle settled in upstream on a peg that was not really ideal for trotting but with a tide due the other shingle bank peg was a no go and in all intents and purposes it was a feeder peg he fished situated between two trees fishing the float it was an all or nothing attempt to catch the fish under his feet. 

Trotting a stick down between a third and half way across the river feeding hemp and maggot i was soon picking up the odd dace along the fast glide.  The first fish of the session was a nice dace which was closely followed by a few of its family members and all looked well for a steady session.

I was optimistic of a good session ahead for us both as i could hear the striking and subsequent splashing of my uncle picking up a few fish above me.  During sessions fishing a river for silvers you do hit those points where you get a few bites and your confidence is high and you feel like you are nailing it, of course its an amazing feeling that all us anglers crave and love...but we all know that can all be dashed as quickly as that confidence was built and catching a decent snag can bring that feeling on really quick, but for a brief second i thought i had sorted it was the line slowly started coming towards me and i lifted to see me line clear of the water attached to a whole length of line from a snag on the inside right across the whole river to the far bank trees.  I can only presume someone on a feeder had snagged on the far bank and pulled for a break and their line had snapped at the rod end and the whole lot of line had sunk and snagged on the inside snag in effect putting line across the whole river, quite possibly, barring setting up on a sunken whole tree, a trotters nightmare.

It was not long after hitting this snag and then hitting another one against the far bank that i first noticed the river backing up a bit.  Over the next 20-30 minutes the river backed up and backed up and its level rose higher and higher.  In the picture above you can see the whole of the peg is under water where before the level was down the bank a good few feet.

After a while the river began to flow back on itself and this is when i got my better, love it when you know a bite is coming and you can really strike into it.

It was during this spell i put together a few decent fish including this very nice roach below, easily one of the highlights of the session

Unfortunately the tide began to ebb and after a few moments the normal flow of the river was resumed and with it the trials and tribulations with the snag.  The problem was not knowing exactly where it was situated as i guess the flow of the river would cause it to flow and i did go on to catch it a few more times before the session was out, very frustrating!

I made a big change to my plans and it was similar to my uncles where i tried to get the fish really close in almost in the slack in front of me and it did seem to work as a few small dace came quickly to the net and then it died and died solid for a good half hour.  Feeding the swim gently i began to get a few knocks of feeding fish and then the float slid away confidently, striking into the fish i was instantly in trouble with snags all around me and a tree to me right still half submerged i was connected with something solid and with a 1lb 7oz bottom on i was not confident.

From the feel of the battle i instantly ruled out a chub or barbel as is had not made a solid run yet and  then with a few flicks of its tail instantly knew i was into a billy and a nice one to boot.  The past fights on the dane have put me in good stead for dealing with perch and as soon as the fish came within sight it was scooped up, no second chances, they go mad in the landing net but at least you bank the fish. 

a 1lb 13oz perch and what a year for perch it has been for me!

After this perch i picked up a few more dace and roach but nothing really to shout home about and hitting another snag 30 mins before wrap up time i put out the pike rod for the last part of the session but nothing showed on it.  My uncle had a steady session catching some really nice roach and dace.

my net 

uncle net

All in all it was just what the doctor ordered and great to fish yet another new stretch of this fantastic river.

till. next time,

tight lines 

Danny



Its not how you start.....its how you finish.........

A warm welcome to this week’s blog update and I hope I find you all well.  This week has got me really thinking of the year ahead, a strange feeling really as I don’t normally count this as the beginning of my angling year as I tend to work more not from march to march with the closing of the river season.  A few things need rectifying this coming closed season with the number one priority being to find more time to dedicate to my quest for a 10lb carp blog which succumbed to the big life changes I went through last year away from fishing.

Last year I moved house and it has landed me on the doorstep of some relatively untapped canal fishing so I have some plans around that for summer with regards the carp challenge but more of that too come and I will be going into full detail of exactly everything that I do from baiting up to the fishing trips out.  Looking short term between now and the close of the season I am really hoping to squeeze in a trip to a new river and also planning a few targeted sessions on the Dee for pike, it will mean sacrificing some quality time chasing the dace but when I look at it I know what I want more right now and that’s a river dee pike.

Moving attention back to this week and the day after the session detailed below we decided to take a family day out and made our way to a place I haven’t visited in years, Walton Gardens.  Very little has changed at this venue with the old bridge over the Bridgewater canal there and all the animals I spent hours and hours watching in the petting Zoo still occupying the same space in the Gardens.  One part of Walton Gardens though holds a very special place in my heart and that is the small overgrown pond that as a kid was filled with all manner of ornamental carp, but would they still be there??

Approaching the pond it was a lot shallower than I remembered as a kid and the first half of the pool look dead and devoid of anything that could house and support a decent amount of hungry carp.  I worked my way round the pool which was actually iced over in parts and eventually caught up with the carp in the far corner of the pool, all shoaled up together tightly in one corner.  Is this the corner they are fed from of did it go to prove what a lot of anglers say that the fish do shoal up tightly  in winter and had I been fishing here and set up on the other side of the pool would I have sat their frozen solid in gnome form without a bite while the whole population of fish in the pool lay sulking against the other bank??  I guess that’s the mystery that goes with fishing and one we will never understand.

I stood, childlike, gazing at the colourful shapes, mesmerised by their every movement and how easily they navigated through the crystal clear water.  My other half gave me a few extra minutes than I deserved before politely asking if we could move on and so we did to s small room full of information on how the main house on the estate was back in 1905 I began reading the menu from back then it showed the fish course to be Dee Salmon, now this could be the river dee in Scotland but in my head I hoped it was the local river Dee I have grown to love so much, it filled me with such happiness that this glorious river was alive back then as it is now and supporting local people.  I wonder if the dace fishing was so good back then?

One more note before we get onto this week’s fishing, I would like to say big congratulations to fellow Warrington Anglers member Ade Green who showed real dedication this week to try a WAA water a fair distance away and had some real success with some really nice grayling.  Warrington Anglers have so many waters far and wide it was great to read a river report form a lesser known, more remote venue, well done Ade and nice unhooking mat lol.

On to this weeks fishing.

Saturday 15^th January 2013 – River Dee

Saturday morning and while most of the normal world were probably turning over and settling in for a relaxing lie in I was shovel in hand clearing all the mud from my chosen peg on the banks of a very soggy and muddy River Dee.  A civil servant is my occupation through the week and I am not ashamed to admit it has been a while since I have put my soft, smooth palms though such vigorous work.  With a decent spattering of sediment built up on the peg it was a while before I had the peg as clean as I wanted.  Walking back to the car with a shovel in hand I got a few strange looks from one or two early dog walkers, who could blame them!!

Next it was time to set up my peg and in the dim early morning light I began my setting up ritual and just like in my rugby days I am really superstitious things have to be done in the right order!!,  first of all its my seat box, then landing net, then my side tray, next in go in is my keep net and so on till I am all set.  Well today was a little different, maybe my mind was elsewhere but for some reason I set my box up and then decided to put my keep net in.  No sooner had the end of the keep net hit the water I heard that dreaded noise of another splash a bit further out, it may have been dark but I could clearly see the blue rim of my landing net sinking out of sight!! GREAT I thought as I ran up the steps to grab the pole to try and reach it but when I got back it had disappeared into the murky depths.

I quickly set up my pike rod with a weight and trace on the end to try and snag the netting but after a hour of trying all I had to show was a small maggot feeder someone had lost recently.  This accident meant any ideas I had for pike fishing were straight out of the window, I did have a pike angler offer to net my fish if I gave him a shout but that was far from ideal, in fact the whole idea of fishing for anything without a landing net was far from ideal.  Luckily my uncle was set up in the swim near to me and we both had our mobile phones and with the likely hood being I was only going to catch dace in my chosen fast glide I set up my float rod.

The time on the river always fly’s by and Saturday was no different, no sooner had I plumed up than it was midday.  The morning was tough with only a few fish coming to the net, it really was turning out to be a very slow day on the bank and coupled with the loss of the landing net it was starting to become frustrating.

My homework firmly done before hand I knew around 12.30am there was a pretty sizable tide due to hit which would see the river level rise a noticeable amount.  The tides normally see sport on the river decline as the river backs up so I was far from optimistic, I took this opportunity to take a visit to my uncles peg and he reported he was having a decent day and had a few nice roach, the best of which is this stunning roach below we estimated to be around the 1lb mark.

I sipped my coffee and chewed the fat with my uncle for a while and I have found over the months that this act of leaving my peg completely for a good 10-15 minutes really does recharge my batteries and gets my head focused back on my fishing and I returned to my peg with a new found optimism.  I made a few changes to my depth to match the swelling height of the river and began to increase my feed rate, this change had instant effect and I started to hit some proper dace just past a down stream snag. 

The fishing form this point on went from strength to strength as I started to pick up some nice fish with some regularity and even had a few fish over my hemp line.  In the last half of the session I would say I put together the vast majority of the final net of fish.  The one thing that has become very noticeable this year though is the lack of pike striking at my fish, I am yet to have one where normally you would get at least one a session and I have done two sessions now without any sign of them.

My net 10lb

Uncles net

Uncles net weight

My uncle weighed in an impressive net of fish considering the floods we have had recently and the fish never settled over his bait like they can in winter on the Dee.  We both left two happy anglers, after we had helped a fellow angler push his car out of a massive rut it had got stuck in.

I got home and on Sunday evening I got online and ordered some replacement gear, I had strict orders to get online and order one single landing net, of course this order developed to a landing net, a new reel and some line for said reel.  I have to say i have used www.harrissportsmail.com a few times now and there delivery is second to none the stuff below was waiting for me when i got home on Tuesday, not sponsored by them, not supported by them just believe that good service deserves a mention, imagine if that philosophy was adopted by the bigger anglers we see in the weekly papers.

Publishing this blog now, looking out of my window to a blanket of white this week’s trip to the bank really is in the balance we are certainly not on the bank tomorrow and hope to wet a line on Sunday, I have a sneak feeling though when I go the bait shop tomorrow morning there may be a few dead baits finding their way into my basket, let’s hope I can find some still water not wearing its ice cap.

Till next time tight lines

Danny

Whippin' it up on the River Dee

A warm welcome to this week’s blog update, with Christmas and my birthday only a matter of weeks away my attention was drawn to what presents I would want from my fiancé.  In past years we have been quite extravagant at this time of year but now with a new baby to think of times have changed and rightfully so, I guess many people would call it growing up!! So this year it’s a pair of thermal welly’s and a Martin Bowler DVD, by far the best gift this Christmas wont cost a penny as sitting watching my daughter playing with her Christmas presents, her first Christmas, will be the most magical thing ever, I cant wait.

I have long been a great admirer of the writings and film work of Martin Bowler, I am sure many of you are familiar with his most noticeable work, Catching the Impossible, that is being repeated constantly on the Discovery shed channel, I think this program truly is the only modern day program made by an angler that can compete with the great “A passion for Angling” that for me is the best series ever made.

A few years ago I decided to purchase another video series made by Martin Bowler, A fish for all seasons, in this series of DVD’s it takes you through a year in the angling life of Martin and documents how his fishing and tactics vary as the seasons change around him.  I think it’s the link in with nature that really captivates me and engrosses me in his films and his new series out this month called “Seeking Shadows” is certainly number one on my Christmas list, I just hope it lives up to his past work but judging by the preview videos and pictures it looks fantastic.

On to this weeks fishing:

We decided with the river levels being quite steady and the temperature remaining low to fish the same stretch as we did last week and as normal it was a nocturnal start.  Arriving at my dads to load the car the house was filled with that mouth watering, ever appetising sound and smell of bacon and sausage cooking in a pan.  After last weeks cold, shop bought, tasteless cheese and onion pasties my dad was taking no chances on going hungry this week and was taking care of our bagging himself, bacon sandwiches for breakfast and cold sausage sandwiches for dinner, boy I love my dad and even more when he decides to come fishing and do the bagging J.

After washing down our carnivorous breakfast with a warm coffee we set off to pick up my uncle and headed off into the gloom.  The clear sky from the previous evening had been replaced with a thick blanket of cloud that had seen the early evening temperatures rise above freezing overnight which resulted in quite a mild walk along the bank picking our pegs in the early morning moonlight.

The forecast for the day ahead was for heavy cold showers and a fair bit of wind to be blowing downstream off the welsh mountains so the brolly was one of the first things out of the holdall, “I think I will be needing that today” a voice in my head said as I released it from its protective cover.  The norm these days for camouflaged or green umbrellas was lost on me but a least my bright blue brolly will match my fingertips in the coming months.

The swims chosen we began about setting our stall out for the day ahead, I touched on my plans last week of keeping things one dimensional and I stuck to it this week as I went all out for the silvers, the pike rod was still with me but more as a means of moving any stubborn pike that show up rather than fishing for them.

River fishing does not have to be a branch of our sport that costs the earth, after the main outlay of purchasing a decent float rod and reel the basic terminal tackle is relatively cheap from week to week.  Here is a picture of my side tray from the session on Saturday and as you will see it is very simple, hooks, hook length line, weights, disgorger and a depth plummet will all last you a great number of sessions before needing replenishing, as you can see the weights are a little low but fishing 8 number 4 float I have actually been using the same weights since the beginning of the season in June if you always put them above your hook length all you loose is your hook a little bit of hook length line and a few number 8 weights.

The fishing on the day was very good from the off with small dace coming at a steady pace, I had, as always, set myself the target of 20 fish for the session and was well on my way to beating that in the first few hours.  The fish although not massive were still there and I also lost count at the amount of fast bites I missed from these small silver darts, no wonder my dad was struggling to hit bites on the feeder.

With a slack on my inside line I decided to try a slower trot down towards a submerged tree and this instantly saw me picking up some small roach, these fish on the River Dee really are beginning to get a name in my book as being a really lazy species, you rarely catch them in the mail flow but you trot a slower line even sometimes laying it a foot or so on bottom they are on it in a flash.

I continued on the dace line for the rest of the morning as there was a snag on the slower line and after losing two hook lengths in quick succession I got tired of playing snag/fish roulette if you missed the snag you got a decent roach if not it was hook length practice again.  The dace line continued to produce the goods all morning and the quality of the fish improved it seemed the further into the flow I went.

Eventually though the swim died off a bit, in fact to a complete stand still as I started to pick up the odd minnow!!, how a swim goes from dace and roach to minnows is beyond me, well I say beyond me I have a sneaky feeling a toothy critter had moved in as the bites where just to confident and steady for them just to turn off feeding.

I decided on trying a different method and one I had read about in the Anglers Mail in the week and that was using the whip.  With the slack water being quite close in I set up an old whip I had as a kid and at 9m long it was ideal I thought for the river.  It took me a while to get the feeding and bait placement right but eventually I started picking up the odd fish and when I did they where roach of a decent stamp.

It is a method I need to work on if I am honest but I am sure I with have time over the coming months to fish swims where this method can be utilised with good effect on the river Dee. If I had stayed on the trotting line I have no doubt I would have picked up more fish than on the whip but my aim is to be an all round more complete river angler and my whip fishing and my feeder fishing certainly need more work.

I continued to persevere with the method and was pleased to be joined by my first Robin of the year, with no zoom function on my iPhone it’s a picture that is more like spot the robin that look at this lovely robin but rest assured he is there.

As I messed around trying to tinker with my depth on the whip my uncles peg continued to produce dace after dace after dace while my dad improved on last weekends hard session with some cracking dace to show for his days efforts.  My uncles net at the end went easily over the 10lb bracket and I would this was closer to 15lb but with the light fading a quick picture was all we had time for, the dark really creeps up on you at this time of the year.

My net

Uncles net

On the morning of writing this update I was greeted to the sight every winter angler likes to see and that’s the windscreen of your car frozen solid with ice, so it gave me great pleasure to dust off the old de-icer and clear it off, the good times wills soon be here, I so cant wait for that first proper session of the year.

This chilly weather has got me thinking of frosty mornings chasing grayling on a small river with only a tub of maggots and a centrepin for company, I thinik this weekend I might go in search of a few ladies of the stream, if conditions hold that is.

Till next time,

Tight lines

Danny

Finally no rain!!! and the roach and chub show up!!

A warm welcome to this week’s angling blog update and a start with an apology for last weeks update not being up to the normal standard, I really have had no time recently for writing the blog at all and I thought it was better to put out something rather than nothing to keep things ticking over.  The events of this past week being so busy has really got me thinking about my angling routine once the baby is here and it quickly dawned on me that I may not be able to get out for my weekly fix all the time once she is here, especially around the birth and it really got me thinking, I don’t want the blog to really loose the momentum it has got at the moment and really want to keep up with a weekly post going up so I am opening the floor up to you, the blog followers, if you have had a red letter session recently and would like to have a go at writing a piece about your adventures feel free to send it into the blogs email.

This week marked the start of the London Olympics 2012 and unlike a lot of people I spoke to about the opening ceremony, I was really impressed with it, I thought it was imaginative and the choreography was something else to keep the show rolling for a full 3 hours was a feat in itself!! Should Danny Boyle be knighted?? Well that really is down to opinion but in my opinion he does deserve some recognition for the effort that went into the event.  A highlight for me, like most, was the Mr Bean sketch, pure class!! Lets hope the athletes live up to their expectations now.

This week also saw me visiting the doctors about my angling addiction and I was quickly diagnosed by the doctor and put on the relevant medication of fishing at every opportunity possible as the saying goes Feed a Cold and starve a fever well this addiction is definitely dealt with by the cold remedy so on Saturday I took the doctors advice and hit the bank.

On to this weeks adventure:

The week leading up to Saturday had been very unlike the so called summer that had gone before in the fact it was warm and sunny, go figure a warm sunny summer who would have thought it eh? This welcome break in the relentless rain we have been seeing of late meant the river was bob on come Friday afternoon and was at a very agreeable 4.84m, perfect for running a float through.

We arrived as normal under the cover of darkness with only the rustling of the resident rats and the distant cooing of an owl breaking the eerie silence that you find at such an insane hour on the bank side.  Quietly we walked the bank checking out our swims for the day and getting our gear in position ready to make a start at first light, its amazing how quickly your eyes adjust to the low light levels and you begin to see more and more of the world around you and take in a big deep breath of the countryside and the realisation that for just one day you are away from the hustle and bustle of the fast paced towns we spend the whole week in and I was determined to make the most of it, it had been a very long hard week indeed, time to relax.

Chewing the fat on my uncles peg about the day ahead as the very first signs of a new day glowed on the horizon we were both full on anticipation for the day ahead, surely we were in for a few fish today.  The river, even in the darkness, looked to be in fine fettle and there was no shortage of fish topping all around us from small fry dimpling in the margins to the loud crash of a mighty salmon rising clean out of the water in the main flow, the river looked to be back to her normal self again.

The plan for me for the day was to spend the early part of the day trying for a decent chub on pellet while feeding the swim with hemp and castor in preparation of trotting it later on in the day.  My uncle chose to fish two tactics one on the float trotting and the other on the pole I was really interested to see how he fared using a tactic I have long wondered what results it would produce.  My dad shared my peg with me and decided to fish on the feeder close to a bank side feature, a tactic he has used before to good effect.

With my heavy gear already set up at home the previous evening along with my dads feeder rod it took longer to set up our baskets, keep net and bank sticks than it did our fishing rods and with the sun rising above the horizon we made our first casts of the day, I really love fishing with my dad it takes me back to the canal fishing as a kid and is them moments that live with you forever, even if we didn’t catch it would great to share a swim with him for a day.

My dad on the maggot feeder was straight into small dace and the odd nice roach where I was sat motionless waiting for the tip to wrap round as it does when a chub or even a barbell takes the bait but apart from a few knocks and rattles that could have been big dace or chub there was very little activity on the heavy gear and it was getting on for around 9am before I gave in and set up my trotting rod, the culmination of my dad catching regular and me visiting my uncle and seeing him pulling out nice roach broke my resolve.

The quality of fish being caught was good to see with both my dad and uncle picking up the odd roach of the stamp shown below.

My trotting rod set up I was just about to cast in when my dad struck into a fish that was solid on the strike and went straight out into the flow, my dad instantly thought it was a decent chub or barbell but I had my reservations the fish looked like it had taken it on the drop as the feeder was falling through the water so I thought it unlikely to be a barbell but a chub was a fair guess as any.  The battle continued with my dads drag set just right to cushion this fishes hard runs and with only a 1.5lb hook length he had to be careful.

The fish eventually topped and flipped and revealed its self to be a jack pike of around 3lb bracket but it was using every bit of force it could from the flow of the river to make things hard for him, I was amazed it hadn’t bit through the line but to our amazement the fish came to the net and I quickly scooped it up and a quick look at the pikes jaw revealed why we had got it in the hook had transferred into the pikes mouth from the fish, very lucky indeed if only he had been so luck the previous nights lottery.

Some gnashers of this young jack pike, impressive dentistry with the hook firmly in a gap in its jaw.

The pike returned I got to my trotting and my pre baiting all morning paid off instantly with me catching a few top quality roach and dace with the best of the bunch of roach shown below a pleasure to catch and proves the bonus of using castor and waiting for the bigger fish it brings.

After a while I decided to stretch my legs and visited my uncle who had settled in on the pole and was pulling out quality roach and the odd chub.  He was having a real good day and I must admit I spent a good hour just sat there watching him catch it was great to see how he held the bait back and then let it go again and watch the bits come at the exact moment it dropped down again, one a chuck!!.

A typical roach and chub my uncle was picking up:

On my way back to my swim I noticed just how clear of a day it was you could see quite clearly the welsh mountains in the distance and what looked like a decent amount of cloud rolling in off them, it wouldn’t be long till there was a dramatic change in the weather, from experience of fishing our peg before I knew it being a quite open peg it would effect our fishing.

The clouds and more importantly the wind, did arrive, and caused havoc with my trotting line blowing the float literally sideways in the flow and into the bank; no fish was ever going to fall for that type of presentation.  In the gaps in the wind I did pick up some more nice dace and roach and my dad also continued to steadily pick up fish close in through out the remainder of the day.

One major highlight of the day was to admire the energy of the local kingfishers who kept going back and two all day across the river and up the small tributary to their burrow no doubt feeding their young on a diet of minnows and small fry that seemed to turn parts of the margins black with their tight shoals. I will one day get a picture of these most beautiful of birds but for now I will just have to settle for admiring them as they shoot past my swim with a flash of blue and orange as they turn downstream.

Me and my dad ended the day with a nice net of roach, dace, perch and a solitary small chub in a day that we thoroughly enjoyed spending together on the bank.

My uncle fared a lot better with this net below the picture does it little justice but we estimated it to be between 13-15lb going on what we catch in winter a proper net of silvers showing the fish were back and in a big way.

That is it for this week don’t forget you can follow the blog on twitter by following @Satonmyperch and you can also keep up with the blog on its own facebook page by clicking like on this link:

Till next time

I wish you all tight lines

danny