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

Red letter Day trotting the River Dee

A warm welcome to this week’s Blog update and from an angling point of view it finally feels like things are coming back together.  I have spent a fair amount of time in the past few days investigating the Dee Anglers AA card with a view to becoming a member next year, if there are any Dee Angler members out there who read my blog I would be eternally grateful if you could take the time to point me in the direction where I can find some information on the stretches of the Dee they have or if you know of them yourself.

Arriving at my desk on a Monday morning is very rarely met with a feeling of happiness but this Monday was an exception as I was greeted with quite possibly the best gift we have received for our little baby girl (in my eyes), what greater incentive to get our little girl into the joys of fishing than starting her off from an early age with a magnetic fishing game with real fishing rods, I literally can not wait now for her to be old enough to use it, lets just hope I can refrain from opening it till then.

On to this weeks fishing escapade,

The week building up to Saturday I was struck down with a Flu bug so I had plenty of time to see what the weather was up to looking out of my bedroom window and surprisingly the weather on the whole was dry.  I kept a check on the Dee levels when I could and apart from some really high tides the river level was dropping slowly but the level was still well up with it being over 6m on the EA chart.

Saturday morning arrived and it was on with the Thermal bib and brace, 3 pairs of socks, a hoody and thermal bob hat, I was taking no chances on being cold on the bank of the river. We arrived on the banks with just enough early morning light to set up and to our amazement were greeted with a sight I thought I would never see on the River Dee and that was the sight of an otter working the river upstream of us. 

The re-introduction of otters into our waterways over the past few years has been met with divided opinions form the angling community and to be honest I can see both points of view on the matter. I personally was privileged to have witnessed one of these rare and beautiful creatures in the flesh and will certainly be approaching the river from now on with stealth in mind in this area and I agree with the introduction of otters but only in rivers that can support such a predator.  The river Dee is a huge expanse of water with a healthy population of fish both large and small so I do feel this river could support a controlled population of otters, would I have been so happy seeing it on the River Dane, probably not as I don’t think this water could sustain it long term given the stocking of fish in this river being mainly big chub and barbell, I have heard from a reliable source that there is otters now on the River Dane.

The otter was not the only predator we saw on the bank on Saturday morning with both a kingfisher and a Grebe also working the area we had chosen to fish, the sight of these predators ciupled with a lot of fish topping in the area filled us both with confidence that we were in for a good days sport and we couldn’t set up fast enough, like two school kids we hurriedly set about our work whilst priming the swim ready for our first trot through.

I was situated downstream of my uncle and as there was only a small section of banking available to fish it would mean we were fishing closer than we would normally like.  Over the course of the year on the river this scenario pops up from time to time and we take it in turns to be the downstream rod, mainly because the person downstream generally has the better day as some of the bait introduced by the upstream rod inevitably runs through the bottom rods trot and its almost like it receives twice as much bait.

We both started fishing at the same time and from the off we were both into fish, myself I seemed to have hit on a shoal of dace while early indications suggested my uncle was attracting the beautiful grayling into his swim.

Uncle grayling

my dace

 I tried to feed a different line to my uncle as much as I could to give him the best possible chance of attracting fish upstream to him and for the most part it worked as we both then started to catch mixed bags with myself starting to pick up the odd grayling and my uncle started to see some “stonking” dace come to the net.

Grayling of a certain size should not really be kept in your keep net and I have to hold my hands up and say I have been guilty of this in the past but ideally its best to walk them down the bank and rest them in the net before letting them go.  My uncle throughout the day must have been shattered walking back and two as he actually finished the day on 36 grayling between half an pound and a pound and half.  I also lost count at the number of grayling I caught and below are some of the grayling we landed.

uncle grayling

My grayling

The grayling has to be one of the most beautiful fish swimming in our rivers and time after time I am taken back by their beauty and its not only in their majestic dorsal fins but all along their silvery body that every so often catches the sunlight and reveals all manor of colours from deep purples to electric blues they really are a joy to catch and best of all they feed in the coldest of weather.

Grayling spots and gill cover

As the day wore on many anglers visited our peg and chewed the fat with us and the fishing went from strength to strength with dace and grayling coming with great regularity and the sport only improved as we approached the later end of the day as we began to really “hoof” the bait in. 

After so many hard trips on the Dee this year it was a joy to be catching so well and the swim must have been literally jam packed with dace as time and time again the float buried in the same spot and a plump dace of grayling made its way to the net, the grayling providing a great strong thudding scrap between the short jagged fights of the dace.

As the session came to an end it was time to weigh in our nets and we started with my uncle he weighed in 8lb of dace from his keep net but he did return 36 grayling which were all of a decent size which would have easily took this net into the 20 to 25lb bracket.

uncle net pic

Uncle net weight

It was time for me to weigh my net in and I was absolutely knocked back when I lifted the net from the water I honestly didn’t realise how good of a day’s fishing I had done. Lifting the net from the water my uncle instantly said well done to me and congratulated me on a cracking net, but to be honest I owe so much of this to my uncle 2 years ago I couldn’t imagine catching this many fish trotting, I just want doing anything right at all on the bigger rivers and again I thank you for all he has shown me.

Weighing my net it went 19lb of dace, roach and the odd small grayling that much have snook in when I wasn’t concentrating this coupled with the 10-15 grayling I caught easily smashes my previous best net of 17lb of dace from winter last year, even writing the blog now a few days on I am still buzzing!!

My net videos

My net pic

My net weight

Well that’s it for this week and I thoroughly cannot wait to get back on the bank this weekend I am sure the fishing wont be as good as the previous weekend but one thing is for sure we will have a great time finding out.  Fishing wise this weekend I think I might spend half the day trotting and spend the second half really trying for my first pike of the season.

Till next time its tight lines from one ecstatic angler,

Danny

The dangers of river fishing

They say two of the most stressful things you do in your life are having a baby and moving house so with our baby due some time this month there was no better time than now to move into our new house, what a week its been, very tiring and non stop but at least its all done now and I even managed to get it all done with Sunday to spare for a few hours on the river!!

On to the fishing:

All week there have been high tides showing up on the level stations on the Dee so we travelled to the Dee knowing the river would be dropping and due to rise again around 2-3pm in the afternoon. With the water levels due to be so changeable through out the whole session I decided not to trot a float through a swim but settled in a swim where I knew there was a decent slack behind a sunken tree that I could easily reach with 3 sections of pole.

This type of fishing can bring some real surprises and can on certain days see you really bag up and can out fish the float rod in some instances. My plan for the day was to fish the pole for a few hours and then pack the gear away and try a pike spot that has been good to me over the years in the afternoon hoping to pick up an odd jack pike or two.

In the dark setting up I could hear all manor of rodents rustling around in the undergrowth but it was a large animal swimming across the river that caught my eye. In the dark I could not make out what it was only that it was really large, certainly not a mink. It was a few moments later my uncle came down the bank saying he had seen something on his peg but like me couldn’t make it out. We will never know for certain what it was but after looking on Google it does seem from time to time seals make there way up the estuary above the weir chasing the salmon runs I can only imagine it was one of these as it was too big to be anything else. If anyone reading this fished the Dee a lot leave a message in the comments if you have witnessed anything like this before on the Dee.

​As the morning broke we were treated to some glorious sunshine I started to feed the slack with castor and hemp and it wasn’t long before my efforts paid off and I was into some dace and small roach. I did hit one fish that was solid on the strike and went straight out into the flow when the hook pulled which was more of a relief than anything because there was no chance of me landing it, it was a serious fish judging by the power of its run.

Surrounded by a dense patch of nettles and other flowers it at times felt like there was a whole swarm of bees and wasps behind me as they both worked the blooming flowers in vast numbers, it was at time quite deafening.

The fishing after the hook pull went really quiet as can be expected but after feeding the swim for around half an hour without a bite the float buried and I was into a decent fish that had the elastic really stretching as it made dive after dive for the tree roots. I managed to turn the fish and it came to the surface and revealed itself to be a beautifully marked perch which I was more than pleased with.

After this perch the small silver fish seemed to return and I continued to pick up dace, roach and the odd small chublet and I thoroughly enjoyed the change from trotting. I packed the gear away around midday pleased with my morning efforts on the pole and I feel I improved as the morning went on with my presentation.

The gear packed away and my keep net drying up the bank I decided to take the opportunity to just relax and have a coffee on the bank and I for a good 20 minutes just sat back and took in the sights and sounds of the river, after a few hectic days sorting out the new house, ringing energy providers, building and moving furniture it was bliss to have a few moments to relax and in my opinion there is no better place than by the river bank.

After finishing my brew and watching the resident king fisher scurry back up river it was time to make a move myself and I made the short walk to my uncles peg to store the gear behind him and see how he was getting on. He was having a good day on the float rod picking up some stonking roach along with the dace that are so plentiful in the river dee system now.

​

I decided to take a wander onto the gravel bar that was no accessible with the low tide and I was amazed to see all the fry that was a bout, the place was teeming with small fry. I did manage to catch one and it was certainly a chub fry judging by the size of its mouth. This bodes really well for the future of the river to see so much upcoming life and also goes to explain the presence of some nice perch in the stretch which would make short work of these fry.

After watching the fry for a bit I decided to get my trust pike rod out and began to wobble dead bait in a spot I know holds a few pike. It is always a great feeling when you get it right and a plan comes together and after a few casts I could see the silver bait fluttering in the clear water before a massive bow wave rolled in behind the bait and a sharp tug on the rod tip registered the pike was on and I struck into a real feisty pike that did everything to throw the hooks giving me a right display of its aerial capabilities.

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Pike in summer can be really full of energy, more so than winter where there fights seem to be more hard runs than tail walking leaps from the water. I know I mention this a lot in my blog but giving the pike time to recover in the margins before release is even more important in summer for these fish and great care should be taken to make sure they are ready to go back.

The pike safely returned I joined my uncle for a bit watching him catching some lovely roach and dace that moved into his swim late on in the session. After while I returned to my pike fishing and managed to entice another, much bigger pike, but thankfully it threw the hooks as when I looked at my feet the tide had started to rise around me and I was stood in a foot of water with it rising fast. I quickly grabbed my gear and made my way to the top of the bank looking back to see the plateau where I was stood 2 minutes earlier covered in water. This goes to show the dangers of fishing the rivers and how vigilant you need to be at all times.

I had lost track of time, I should have know that at 3pm the tide would come in and I needed to be off but I got complacent, it is so easy to do. Arriving at the top of the bank we could hear loud rumbles of thunder approaching so we quickly grabbed a quick picture of his net of fish which for the swim was really impressive.

We literally packed hi gear away as the heavens opened and in the space of 10 minutes we were both soaked to the bone as was all the gear. We quickly loaded the car and got on our way and already the roads leaving the beat where approaching being impassable with flood water. We made our way along the B road towards Chester and at times it was approaching dangerous with water literally flowing off the fields and into the river, I can honestly put my hand on my heart and say in my 7 years of driving so far it was the most scared I have ever been in my car. The water in places covered the whole road and we had no idea just how deep it was. Thankfully we managed to navigate our way along the road, safely and continued on our way home through the torrential rain.

I can honestly say I have never experienced weather like that, as you can see form the pictures the morning was glorious sunshine and even when the thunder was rumbling we where still in the warm sunshine, yet less than 30 minutes later we where navigating completely flooded roads. It certainly opened my eyes to the dangers of fishing the rivers.

Till next time

Stay safe and tight lines

Danny

Confidence in the Confluence......

A warm welcome to this week’s blog update which again comes after a week of unseasonable wet weather, one bit of brightness to come out of the past week came from the Twitter account which saw an weekly increase of around 30 followers which took us over the 300 follower milestone.  Don’t forget if you like keeping up with our blog adventures you can follow the blog on twitter by following  @SATONMYPERCH and you can also keep up with myself during the week on the blogs Facebook Page, both get regular updates about my angling adventures as they happen and all things going on in the angling world.

Some sad news reached me this week while I was on the bank and that was the rumour,  and I stress at the moment this is only a rumour, that Warrington Anglers may be about to loose a stretch of the River Dee come November, this is due to members behaviour during the early hours of the morning on the opening morning of the season, if true it is a really disappointing way to loose a bit of water and as with most things in life it’s the actions of the minority that can ruin it for the majority,  I do hope these rumours turn out not to be true and are just that, a rumour, but with no Official words coming from the club I guess only time will tell if this rumour holds any substance. 

 Just to clarify in response to comments made in Franks Weekly column, in the last paragraph of the update (link: http://frankscolumn.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/3rd-july-2012-warrington-anglers.html ).  I am not willing to go out of my way to write an email to club the secretaries or chairman to reinforce a point I have already made them aware of on a Social media site that 1) they are an active member on 2) they chose worthy to delete and 3) only Warrington Anglers members, who have been allowed access by an admin may I add, can view,. The club as high up as the Chairman are now obviously aware of the “rumour” for it to be posted on the Chairman’s weekly blog which was all the post on Facebook was aimed at doing, to raise awareness of a possible future issue that by all accounts they wouldn’t be aware of till it was too late. The post obviously generated a number of views from members who fish the water in question, if the club feel it not right to release an official message to all the paying members that commented on this thread to ally their worries then we all have to respect their decision. I am and angler that is on the banks of Warrington Anglers waters probably a great deal more than most as I am on the bank week in week out and I will certainly not be going out of my way anymore to relay information on such “rumours”, these two paragraphs are my last comments on the matter.

On to this weeks update

Arriving on the banks of the river we quietly parked the car up and for a few seconds sat back and just took in the atmosphere around us, these mornings on the bank where the wildlife loose all fear under the cover of darkness are truly magical, from the small bats scooting around low to the fields capturing a quick last minute snack before retreating to their roost to the ghostly figure in the distance of a Barn owl swooping down into a meadow in its relentless task of feeding its chicks ever demanding appetites no doubt these all are parts in the massive jigsaw that is angling. 

It is amazing how you get used to the not so nice visitors you come across as well as not too long after setting up I was visited by a decent size rat, a year or so back I would have been running for the hills screaming and shouting but over time you get used to their early morning scuttling about in the undergrowth cumulating in them following their nose to you bait tubs and the inevitable head popping up and the uncomfortable moment where you come face to face both faces etched with a sense of shock before normally the rat clears off,  thankfully Saturday was one of these times.

As the light of the new day filled the sky completely the final acts of the aerial display came out in the form of countless swallows which gracefully glided inches above the river grabbing an early morning drink before heading off in there day time pursuit of insects, these birds have to rank as one of my favourites just for the fact of the huge migratory patterns, how such a small bird flies to England for Africa amazes me every time I see them and always imagine how different the banks of the River Dee must look as opposed the African Plains although I suppose they could always travel 2o minutes down the road to Chester Zoo to help them thorough our so called summer.

The plan for the day fishing wise was to spend the morning chasing the bigger specimens and the afternoon trotting. I started on my Shimano Purist Barbel rod utilising that bait for all seasons, the halibut pellet.  The river was a great deal lower than last week but boy she was bombing through at a crazy pace and there was no chance of holding bottom any more than a third of the way across with the gear I had packed.  The upside of the river pushing through so hard is the crease in the river is moved a lot closer in and was easily accessible with a small underarm flick and this is where I chose to lay my trap.  The bait as I said was a 14mm halibut pellet and it was used in conjunction with a open end feeder filled with 6mm pellets and plugged with the heady smelling halibut method ground bait, I felt I cast accurately and regularly enough to warrant my actions being rewarded with a better fish but alas by 10am I was blanking in style, not even a knock.

I went to visit my uncle to see how he was getting on but not before locked my bait away in my box away from Mr rat.  My uncle on the peg below me was catching roach steadily on the float and seemed to be on course for a steady day with both castor and maggot taking fish.

I decided to set up my much underused Korum 13ft Float rod, since purchasing my 17ft float rod a few years ago this rod has become a bit redundant in my fishing with me favouring the improved float control of the 17ft rod.  The one thing that was immediately apparent is how much quicker it is to thread up the 13ft rod I was set up in no time at all.  Whilst setting up I began drip feeding my swim with hemp and castor to begin the process of building up a few feeding fish in the swim.

Today would be my first time trying out the Dave Harrell 10 No4 Dome top float I purchased a month or so ago so that was attached to the line with the customary three silicon rubbers and I teamed it up with a bulk shot of number 4 shot with a few dropper shot, the business end was a number 18 barbed Animal eyed hook.  I have to say before we go any further I was more than impressed with the float which given the right shotting can be shotted right down to pick up the slightest bites which proved to be essential on this session.

First trot down produced the lovely roach above and its amazing how much confidence a bite first cast down can give you, you know the fish are there and being a roach you know they are not alone.  The bait continued to be applied well upstream of the trott allowing for the float to run down amongst the free offerings and I was soon getting to the stage where I could predict when the float would go under.  Roach mixed in with the odd small chublet where the quarry that was coming to the net in the early exchanges and this mix continued till I decided to try the much slower outside trotting line and I instantly hit a much better fish that flew out of the tributary and straight into the main flow of the river, initial thoughts where I have connected with a barbel or chub although the former was less likely as a chub would no doubt have stuck it our solidly in the tributary flow.  The fight continued I was very conscious of the fish getting into the main fast flow as on 3lb line there was no way of bullying it upstream against the flow.

The battle of wills continued and in one massive jump in the air the fish revealed itself not to be the barbel I thought but either a brown trout or sea trout.  A quick phone call to my uncle to help with the net was answered and between us we managed to get the fish into the net by letting he fish run downstream into the waiting landing net.

The fish in question was a new personal best trout for me but given the fight it had put up and us being quite a bit up fro the water we decided to rest it in the landing net held in the keep net for it to recover rather than releasing it to the mercy of the flow and I cant believe I actually forgot to weigh the fish when we packed in at the end of the day.

After this fish the Dace moved into the swim and I began picking up dace of all sizes from small fry to fish approaching 5-6oz in size, these fish really are in great abundance through the whole system and provide food for all predators along the rivers course from herons and cormorants to the greedy pike they all rely on these silver darts.

It was not long after hitting the dace I began a series of bites where I struck into what felt a decent fish only for my line to come flying back at me and it wasn’t till after I had put on three more hook lengths and while I was speaking to a good friend on the river the answer made itself known as when I connected with a nice roach a big swirl of oily green and yellow was seen beneath the surface as a pike grabbed hold of the fish in its jaws.

The pike was on for a good 5 minutes before it knew it was hooked and I made a hasty estimate at the fish’s size being around 6 to 7lb mark.  As the pike was approaching being beat it let go of the fish and swam off, this is a common ending in these fights with only a few ending in you actually catching the pike but this pikes card had well and truly been marked as I am sure it was the same one that took my uncles fish last week.

Fishing the rivers you have to learn to roam the fields along with the other animals that live there and although most are wild there are some more captive animals you come across like the farmers cattle and when you have fished a stretch for long enough you begin to realise just how much these animals are creatures of habit, they will be in the same part of the field at the same time every day and on this stretch midday is always the time these cows come down to drink and no one was getting in between these cows and a drink of water.

As the cows came and went in groups of two or three I began about the task or rebuilding my swim that had been no doubt devastated by a pike thrashing around it.  I began by introducing some handfuls of hemp and a few sprinklings of castor to build the fishes confidence.  The new fishing box I use has plenty of space for winders so I always have a few hook lengths made up ready to go so it wasn’t long before I was back in after the fish.

 A few trots down it was soon apparent something was drastically wrong, the float was going down a dream but the missing the vital part of the equation, the float being buried, was missing and it wasn’t the pike that was missing for sure I knew that girl or one of her mates was still around.  It hard to explain but trotting the river for so long you get a feeling when things are not right and I put away my trotting rod and pulled out my pike gear, it was time move this pike on away fro the swim.

The float had not long settled before it dipped twice and buried and starting heading for the snags on the far side of the swim, a quick application of side strain steered the fish away from the snag and back into open water, as with all summer pike the fight included plenty of aerobatic leaps as the fish tried to throw the hooks but thankfully they held in place as the fish angrily made persistent deep runs for the far bank cover.  Armed with a reel with a decent smooth drag and loaded with 10lb line the fish was soon tiring and ready for the net and I duly obliged, a nice pike in great physical condition was on the net and ready for a picture.

There was some signs of scale damage to the rear of the pike when it seemed to have a red tinge which I think may be down to when these pike have spawned.  It being a summer pike it is even more important to rest the pike in the margin so I took the pike a good way down stream and gave her as long as she needed in the net to recover before she swan away strongly, thankfully in the opposite direction to my swim.

After returning to my swim there was a definite change of weather in the air as the relatively clear skies where being replaced with dark heavy rain laden clouds straight off the welsh mountains, you could literally see the weather closing in and I managed to capture this picture below illustrating the change in weather.

The next hour or so we were treated to some lovely refreshing downpours that really didn’t bother me as the morning had been so warm the rain actually brought myself some relief.  The fish also didn’t seem to mind the rain as they came back on the feed no sooner than I had returned back after releasing the pike.  The fish were steadily getting better as well and as the afternoon wore on and the steady stream of bait continued so the average size of the fish improved culminating in this nice chub around a pound and to add even more variety a surprise capture in this prickly perch.

All in all it was a very enjoyable day on the bank, it was a pity no really big fish showed up as for moments in the day it felt I was going to connect with a decent fish at any moment but I suppose with that pike lurking around it was always going to be difficult to keep the swim active long enough for the better fish to move in. Final net was 11lb of fish and a very enjoyable day.

 

Till next time I wish you all

Tight lines

danny

A year in my shoes.......

  A year ago this week a conversation between me and a colleague from work took place on our afternoon break, the topic of which centred around his blog about the sights and sounds he and his companion max, the German shepherd, experienced whilst on there long walks of a weekend.  The conversation soon took a more humorous note when the conversation turned to me starting a blog about my adventures on the bank, that evening the thought stayed with me so much so I began to develop the beginning of the blog you now see before you and I am so glad I made that decision to do so.

 Writing a blog can be tough at times as any blogger will tell you and there are times when even after a decent day on the bank it’s difficult to know where to start but when I started to write this blog I set myself two rules, one to update my blog weekly and two to update no matter what I had caught to give a true representation of what my angling life is truly like.  The last thing I wanted was my blog to be, like so many seem to be, just about blogging about the good times when they come along and as any angler knows fishing just isn’t like that and I hope my blog this year has shown the highs and lows that we all experience throughout our angling year

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This year looking back has easily been the best angling year of my life there has been so many new experiences and firsts for me.  This year saw me fishing a commercial fishery for the first time, opening my eyes to what potential these places have for anglers after a hectic days fishing with lots of bites, not long after this I purchased my first ever proper fishing pole and had some great days sport on both commercials and local natural ponds.  One experience that will stick with me this year was the capture of my first ever barbel from the my local River Dee, a challenge that I thought would take me hours of angling on the bank but in reality was something I was lucky enough to achieve on  my first attempt.

  I have always said angling is so much more than catching fish and like the Bernard Cribbins so famously said “it is just an excuse for being there!!”   The banks of both rivers and still waters have been kind this year allowing me to share some special moments with the creatures that call its place home, so many special moments where experienced this year on the banks and I only wished I had been able to capture the moments of film for the blog.  The graceful Buzzards that soar over the fields and the lightning fast kingfishers now seem to be just part and parcel of a day on the river bank and how easily the wildest of wildlife find it to come so close to us still baffles me.

  Throughout the past year many families of swans have made an appearance on the weekly blog on all manner of waters  but none really stick in my mind as much as the family we met last spring on a warm day on the river Dee, clearly only days out of the nest they made their way past me only feet away from me and was one of those experiences that stays with you, how ironic that this week fishing the same spot and as the blog comes full circle that the same family should seek me out at a stage where the two cygnets that made it this far looked ready to fledge and leave their family group, deep down I just know it’s the last time I will see them together and in my own way would like to think this was their farewell to me.

  Summer continued to push on with regular visits to the commercial and trips learning the art of trotting on the Dee and this year I have been guilty of spending too much time trotting and not enough time targeting other species but it really is a branch of our sport that has really captured me and I must admit to have become a bit obsessed with chasing the shoals or silver darts that reside in the gentle glides on this most majestic of rivers.  The best of these days has to be the 17lb bag of dace I caught on the Dee a few months ago and still is the bench mark I mark any sessions against now, individually the dace below has to make as my best river capture this year, how much I wish I had weighed this obvious specimen.

As the year moved from summer to autumn and the rivers received their first proper drink in a while the intimate River Dane took my eye and with that came the lovely capture of the following net of chub which was a day that saw both my dad and uncle all on the bank together and even if we hadn’t caught that day it would still have gone down as a great day on the bank as we all had some great fun chasing the chub that day and it holds plenty of happy memories.  Around this time we also made a fleeting visit to the River Severn, a river that will certainly feature this summer as we chase the barbell and chub, on the subject of chub the best fish this year to feature on the blog that I didn’t catch has got to belong to my uncles 6lb 110z chub he caught on that sole visit to the Severn, a colossal fish and some of you may have seen this capture feature in the angling times section where you send your own pictures in a few weeks ago.

The winter never really truly arrived in my eyes until the last few weeks but with the river high with rain water we were forced onto the canals in search of action; little did we know what the pike had in store for us, greedily gulping down fish as we brought them in!! The next week I went armed and managed to land my first double figure pike in quite some time!!

All in all this year has been really good to me in the fishing stakes and if next year equals it I will be a happy man indeed!! Life of course, away from fishing, will have a say over the next coming months with the expected arrival of our first child but I am determined to keep the blog going in its current format of weekly updates and hope you all continue to follow us as we began a whole new year of discovery on waters old a new and believe me we already have a few plans up our sleeves regarding some new venues and targets which I will be discussing over the next few weeks as the river season comes to a close.

On to this week’s fishing……

This week I arrived at a popular spot on the river Dee with a few pegs still spare but I decided to try something different and chose to chase the lady of the stream, the grayling.  This fish is one of the most beautifully marked fish in the river and for their size I doubt there is a fish that can match their strong fighting ability, the river higher up towards Bala is rumoured to be the possible place of the next record but as a person that is not out to catch the biggest fish in the pond I see their presence in the river as a signal of just how far the river has come from the catastrophic fish kill a few years ago a true sign the river is as clean as it can be.

I also decided to divert away from my usual trotting tactics and target these fish on the feeder rod with a simple set up of a Drennan maggot feeder loaded with hemp and caster and a long took length to a size 18 hook with castor as bait.  I chose a spot where I had caught a few grayling before so I was confident of a bite or two but also knew that there would be nowhere near as many bite as I had experienced the past few weeks trotting and set my target at catching one decent grayling.

The feeder was cast time after time at the same spot as to try and build up a steady stream of crunchy castors for the fish to home in on and it was well into the morning before I connected with my first grayling and what a beauty it was. 

Back in and the wait for my next bite began, over time catching many small grayling in the many streams that feed the Dee I have noticed that the smaller grayling seem to stick around and are not spooked by you capturing their buddies but the bigger grayling are a different animal and once one is captured it can often take some time to snare another and it was well into the afternoon I landed my second grayling of the day, not as big as the first but still a nice size fish.

You will notice I used my keep net here to hold the fish and it can be quite a controversial subject due to the fact that grayling give their all in the fish and can often go belly up in the net.  My advice would be that if you are fishing in a situation where you can’t wade out and hold the fish in the net to recover then you should find a place to return the fish where you can hold them to recover and not put them in your net.  When I know I am going to be putting grayling in my net I always wade our and pin my net top and bottom in the flow to make sure water is always flowing through the net so the fish has plenty of oxygenated water as they would in the swims we catch them from, fish welfare should always be paramount and that doesn’t just got for big carp and barbell, all fish deserve our respect and should be treated so.

No more grayling came to my castor tactics and all too soon my time on the bank was up for another week and I ended the session by feeding the swans with the bread I had brought to try and tempt a chub earlier on in the session.

Till next week

Tight lines

Danny