First River Dane Pike As Fish Go Crazy!!

A warm welcome to this midweek update to the blog i hope i find you all well and your nets wet.  In this update i will be covering an evening session i had a week or so ago on the River Dane and i hope to get across how in time you can really get in tune with the rivers you fish and just by how and where the fish are feeding and how they are behaving you can associate this with other things below the surface and what else could be going on in your swim.

Lets Get on to this midweek update...

River Dane Evening Session Stick Float Chasing Pike

As many regular blog readers will know myself and my uncle are anglers that like to get out on the bank really early on Saturday mornings to be set up for first light but sometimes it just is not possible as life and family will always come first and the morning of this session my cousin had a hospital appointment which meant our session would be an midday into evening session on one of our local Rivers.   We have really put the time in over the past few years with the rivers, this blog is testament to that, the upshot of this is we are now spoilt with a whole manner of productive fishing spots on rivers to visit and although we are still discovering the moods of the rivers like the Dane and the Bollin we are travelling to the river of late trying to match the conditions to the right river and location and so far this year we have not done to bad. 

Approaching the motorway we still had not decided on where we were heading and it was not until we approached our turn off we decided that a trip to the River Dane was the place for us.  We travelled to an area we had fished a month or so ago and done ok for dace and chublets but it was the odd better chub we we had been catching that we hoped to slip our landing net under on this session.  The day before our trip it had rained quite a bit so we knew that this rain, although nit effecting the levels, would add some much needed colour to the river and as we parked the car and got our first glimpse of the river we both commented what a great colour it had.  I call it the colour of weak tea where you can barely see the bottom but it is still visible in the margins.  For some rivers this colour can be a kiss of death but for others like the dane and bollin it gives the fish confidence to feed confidently. 

The Himalayan balsam still high i crunched my way though their watery fragile stems till i found the river.  The  presence of a rod rest made out of stick left in the ground  meant the swim had obviously been fished quite recently and i could see why as it had a fast flow down the middle where the flow was pushed together by two trees upstream but it was the inside line that intrigued me as there was a nice slack with just a touch if flow that then lead down to a over hanging tree towards the bottom of the smooth trot. 

The rod still set up from a roving session on the Bollin a few days earlier i was soon set up and ready to start mapping out the swim a little.  Although the water was coloured i was surprised to find the depth down the middle was no more than a foot or two, not good.  Next it was the inside line and i found again a shallow depth under my feet but plumbing up only a foot or so further down the inside line i noticed it dropped off into a deeper run of around 5-6ft, perfect. 

I knew the fish could be any where a long the inside line but in my mind i am always thinking about getting the fish where i want them so i can catch as many as possible during the session and in this swim my plan was to get the fish a few yards down the swim on my inside line where it dropped off, it was so slow a trot the maggots would be nearly dropping straight down to the bottom in that first few feet.   

Feeding maggot and hemp i began to get bites straight away from tiny dace fry and gudgeon and the odd small roach and began putting a few fish in the net, nothing major but a nice start.

Bites are all you are looking for at this early stage as you know your bait is getting down and there is nothing better for confidence than catching fish with mouth fulls of maggot and this is what was happening during this session and with Gudgeon being bottom feeders i felt confident the session would build on the promising early start.  

The size of the fish i was catching was nit really increasing with the amount if time fishing as i had hoped so i began to over cast the swim and when i did noticed the flow went down nicely to the overhanging tree and i began to pick up some better quality roach right down the swim, strange i thought as with the swim being so slow why had these fish not moved up on the bait and pushed the gudgeon and smaller fish out?

All the fish i had been catching had come in straight up the swim and fought up the middle of the swim but then i hit one roach who's fight was totally different as it immediately shot into the inside bank almost chub-esque without the burrowing for snags more wanting hide the fact it was distressed.  The fish lifted from the water and placed into the keep net i knew there and then something was nit right, fish not moving up the swim, only catching small bottom fish like gudgeon up the swim and fish darting into the inside cover in quite a distressed manner all pointed to one thing, a predator was in the area but little did i know how close.

The lack of action after this fish almost certified the fact there was a predator about as it was a good 30 minutes till i hit the next fish and it was a big dace.  As you can see from the top picture i was sat quite low to the river and just as i was about to slide my landing net down to net the dace a nice pike rolled at the fish but a i somehow managed to pull the fish from its dart.  

With silver fishing there really is only one thing to do when you know there is a pike around in your swim and that is to try and catch the pike and release it upstream away from your swim.  As a silver angler on the rivers i always carry a pike rod ready set up for this reason and it is quite simply to move the pike on as a pike in your swim 9/10 means no bites.  I quickly cast to a far bank slack hoping to find a fish on the other bank away form my swim and it worked a treat as i quickly had a small roach to put in as bait, with the pike rolling right near my keep net i did not want to disturb the pike who i knew would be just waiting for an easy meal. 

Out went a small roach bait and for a while the bait just swam round but then with a huge amount of commotion the pike came head and shoulders out of the water and in the air bait in mouth turned and dived for the depths in a spectacular take.  I have caught a lot of pike in my time in this way but dont think i have ever seen such a dramatic take.   The pike looked about the size of the one i had seen roll in the margin and on such a small river i was confident it was the same fish.  The fish was a dramatic as the take as the fish shook its head in defiance as it tried to spit the hooks but eventually i slid the net under a nice solid but lean pike weighing exactly 6lb and my first ever River Dane Pike. 

More than made up with this capture i savoured the moment and admired the sight of my first river dane pike and i remembered the opposite feeling i had when i lost a pike earlier on in the season on this river.  You have to remember these moments as they help you truly appreciate the highs of getting one on the bank and admiring it in all its beauty and it was beautiful with its vast array of vibrant colours including some really nice golden spots and bright orange fins.

The fish returned i settled back into my peg.  After a pike actively feeding in your swim and then the erratic fight of capturing it which normally involves the whole of the swim and plenty of disturbance from the pike being so aggressive at the end of the fight trying to throw the hooks it is always going to take some time to get the silver fish coming to your bait again.  The amount of time for the fish to come back is drastically increased in winter tough as the need to feed soon outweighs the fear of being eaten although your chances of another hungry pike moving in is also drastically increased in the colder months.

We are most certainly now moving into those colder months and as mentioned in Fridays blog the signs are all around us both above and below the water and this session summed up the changes below the water for sure.  Trotting the swim not a lot changed in the next hours fishing as the roach held right down stream and i could only pick up gudgeon close in and i knew something was not right, i cant explain it really its just a feeling you get and low and behold retrieving a small dace my line all went solid as a pike grabbed hold of the fish half way up the swim.

Now it is always hard to tell the size of a pike compared to a previous one on a light float rod but this felt solid and there was no moving this fish off the bottom.  The fish came slowly up the fast flow in front of me before turning side on causing line to scream from the reel.  I was sure at this point the fish knew something was not right but like in all these occasions when you hook pike or have a fish taken you lighten your drag with the hope you can tease the pike into a net able position,  The fish had some power i can tell you that as time and time again it would move under its own steam up the swim before it felt the pressure of me trying ti bring it in the the side before it shot down stream again and unfortunately on one of these turns my fragile hook length must had ran across its teeth as the line came back towards me,  I was not gutted really as you always know the odds are well against you getting these pike in what with the chances of the fish getting the small hook in its mouth and not connecting with its teeth and then of course there is the scenario the fish simply has hold of the fish and spits it out at the last minute.

Moving on i tied on a new hook and was back trotting the swim which was as dead as swims come and then one of the weirdest things happened.  I got to the end of a trot by the lower tree and was returning the float across the top when a pike swirled at the 10 number 4 stick float as i was retrieving it.  It was in the area the pike i had lost had gone to in it s last run but surely not the same fish, it was a big swirl though certainly a nice fish.  I am never one to pass up on an opportunity so i grabbed for the pike rod again and rather than casting to the pike downstream which would put me in all kinds of trouble i let the bait swim round just in the slack down stream as if it was hungry the 10-15 distance would be noting and it would find the bait.

The float trundled around for a good few minutes before i jumped out of my skin and quite literally nearly fell off my basket as the water in front of me erupted as a pike nailed the bait.  The fish felt solid even on my pike rod and out in the flow there was no bullying this fish and i will never know if this was the same fish but the fight was certainly identical as the fish made hard long line striping runs up and down the swim in one of the best fights from a pike i have ever had this was one fit river athlete.

The fight was a battle of attrition as the steely aggressive pike would make defiant runs for the inside bank with the water being coloured i could not see any sign of the fish as it held hard on the bottom.  At this stage i knew it was a better fish than the previous one just by the power but i was quite calm in the fight.  This was until the fish eventually come up thought the water column and when a big head and shoulder broke the surface almost like a crocodile hunting the wildebeest in Africa, at the sight of this all you could hear was me shouting "Az,  Az,  AZZA!!! come give us a hand netting this"  While my uncle was making his way to my peg the fish came up and glided into the bank and i was not going to chance the net and the hook getting stuck and this fish going so leaning down i slid my fingers under its gill flaps and with a firm grip chinned the pike out, on the bank she looked a nice fish but would she be a double?

It was straight into the weigh sling and on the scales and i was delighted to see them go round to 10lb 14oz.

The fish was easily one of the most beautiful pike i have ever caught and i was over the moon with the great pictures my uncle took on the night a fish captured caught in a photo i have not stopped looking at since its capture and i am still buzzing.

Time for one more picture before its release....

The last hour of the session went by in a blur and i think i only had the one bite right on last knocking which was the best silver fish of the night in a a nice chub.

The final net not really testament to the potential of this swim as with so many pike active its hard to judge how well it would have been had the fish felt safe enough to move up the swim.

I leave you with a small video of the session i put together.

Till next time tight lines

Danny

Winter Looms and Paternoster Booms...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Winter Looms and Paternoster Booms 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

pike going back

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

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

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

A silver itch to scratch - Sunday 6th October

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

sunrise over the river Mersey. 

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

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

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

till next week

tight lines 

Danny

You just never know on the river.......

This week I have been catching up on the blog’s I follow and one thing that has been consistent in some of them, apart form the fish of course, is the amount of locations that have had recent pollution problems on them!! It is a sad state of affairs when the biggest problem to a fish population is so avoidable some of the figures mentioned on one of the reports was of a tiny stream that had a pollution incident in 2010 with an estimated fish kill of up to 22,000 fish, thankfully the angler in question went on to catch a few specimen chub for that river that is showing now thankfully showing signs of coming through the other end.

The Angling community at the moment is full of reports of what damage natural predators like cormorants, signal crayfish and otters are doing to fish stocks and rightly fully so but pollution by companies is a completely different kettle of fish all together.  The polluting of a river coarse will kill all types of species along the river banks as well as all generations of fish from this years fry to the old war horse of a chub that has got to his size by being cunning and avoiding all the natural predators, unfortunately the polluting of his water is something he cant escape.

The answer, in my eyes, is simple increase the fines that these companies face for committing such vile and in some cases pre meditated crimes, hit them where it hurts them most, in their pockets!! Some of the fines that are handed out are about as much deterrent as a modern day footballer feels from the fines they receive, pocket money.  As you can probably tell this is a subject I feel deeply on and as much as I get into a rant it’s a problem that can so easy de avoided in most cases.

On to this weeks fishing

The river season is now meandering its way slowly to its close for another year and as luck would have it the last few weeks of its course has seen an influx of case into work leading to an abundance of overtime which at this time of my life I cannot afford to turn down.  This has meant my river wings have been clipped the past few weeks to just one session a week which have the past few weeks been concentrated on the River Dee and this week was no different.  The amount of visits to the Dee has meant my mind has been ever increasingly wandering to the small and intimate river Dane and the crafty wild chub that inhabit its overhanging trees and submerged snags and a trip to this river is more than over due.

I hope to grace the banks of this river in the not too distant future and I am toying with the idea of setting up in one swim or adopting a more mobile approach with just a bag of essential bits and a trotting and feeder set up, searching out the shy shoals of chub and grayling.  With Annual leave in work now being at a premium with the future arrival of our baby to consider it is a tough to justify taking a day’s annual leave to go fishing but as all anglers know fishing is like a bug that burns deep within and never truly leaves us through out the day and I can see me giving into the temptation of a days fishing on this most beautiful of rivers in the not to distant future, no will power what so ever lol.

The adventures on the Dane will wait for another day but as I said earlier it was the River Dee that again lured us in this weekend with the promise of a bag of pristine silver darts and the hope of an ever elusive chub.  We found ourselves arriving on the banks at an insanely mad time and wasted no time waiting for first light as we set up out pegs in nature’s torch, the moonlight.  Some tasks of course need the intervention of some unnatural light, one such job being threading the line through the eyes in your rod and for this we used the headlights of the car.  You really know you have got the fishing bug when you as stood in a freezing cold car park painstakingly trying to thread the thinnest of lines through your eyes in the light of you head lamps while the sensible anglers all sat back in their cars waiting for first light.

Having fished this peg a few times before I knew exactly where I would be trotting so began to introduce some bait while I was setting up thinking it cant do any harm to have a few waiting for me when I would finally be ready to trot through.  Rod set up and no sign of first light I can categorically say that there is only one thing more crazy than setting up in the head lamps and that’s trying to plumb up and trot using the natural light of the moon, crazy!!.

The first few trots down of the morning where full of anticipation, knowing the form of the peg and the fact I had been trickling feed in for a good half an hour but alas nothing was forthcoming apart from a few tiny dips on the float.  Not long into the session the water in front of me came alive with fish topping all over obviously feeding of some type of food source coming down in the flow and believe me this is never a good sign when you are planning on catching fish on the bottom for obvious reasons.

The float was trundling through like a dream and I was mystified as to why I wasn’t having the rod dragged in, the flow, depth and clarity all where perfect and I was completely stumped as to why the fish seem to absent from this location.  It all became a lot clearer when the float buried not long after casting in and was solid straight away on the strike, bottom I thought until the line started moving slowly out into the middle of the river, it could only be one of three things a decent chub or perch or a pike and after what seemed like an eternity of a fight involving my new Abu 706 reel breaking the line flew back at me, cut clean.  Pike in the swim in the first hour of a session is bad enough never mind a pike swimming around the swim hooked I knew there and then the rest of the session would be tough.

The reel breaking really did annoy me, it is no more than a few months old and well maintained and half way through the right I was actually gaining on the pike and reeling in and then as I was reeling the reeling in function on the reel just stuck and would not reel in ant more line, the line was not under a great deal of pressure as i was fishing with a 1lb 7oz hook length so that tells you how little pressure I could had exerted on the line without it breaking on me.  I must admit to being really disappointed in this as my uncle has also recently has his reel that is now out of warrantee break on him.  I will be contacting the company I purchased it off and hoping to get a replacement.

So after all the enthusiasm of setting up early and doing everything by the book I was now left with a broken reel and the prospect of setting up from scratch.  Times like these I always do one thing and that’s take 5 minutes away and go and have a brew and this usually sees me coming back replenished with enthusiasm and today was no different I quickly set up and it wasn’t long before I was back in business trotting away but still with little result till a rare capture for me made an appearance in the form of a perch.

I don’t know what it is about river fish but they seem to have more vibrant colours than their still water counterparts in my experience and this perch was no different the stripes where so dark and it just looked the part and even held its spiny dorsal up for the camera.  This is probably down to the clarity of the river and the fact that most of the still waters I fish are quite coloured.

The day moved slowly on and had a weird type of rhythm to it with one or two dace coming quickly followed by nothing for 10-15 minutes then a few more fish and nothing again and the fish really lacked the standard I was expecting and a lot of the time the fish where small fry.

The sky in the distance over Chester was jet black and with the wind blowing in my face I knew we where in for some bad weather and you could literally see the rain and hail coming up the river towards us and when it hit it really did hot hard with hail and heavy rain battering down, brolly’s appeared from all quarters on all the other pegs and the ferocious wind began to swirl causing me to momentarily make grabs for the umbrella pole to keep it sturdy. 

I looked down toward my hook to re-bait with another caster and I couldn’t believe my eyes what I saw in front of me, a salmon battered from spawning making its was slowly back out to sea.  I have seen these fish throughout the year leaping clear of the water on their way upstream and this lonely fish was a shadow of those earlier on in the year and this fish just goes to show how much effort these fish exert in the journey to reproduce and I have to say what a welcome sight it was to see the fish not only running the river but returning back to sea again to come back in a few more years to reproduce again and it can only be a good thing for the river as a whole.

Not long after this salmon moved on and during the worst of the weather I connected with possibly the best silver fish of the day in a fin perfect roach.  The river does have some nice shoals of roach and the challenge is finding them as they come and go with the wind, a peg that can produce a decent weight of roach one day can be completely devoid of them the very next as if they where never even there.

The weather, as aggressive as it was, passed as quickly as it arrived and we where then basked in complete sunshine and was one of those days had it snowed we would have had all the seasons in one day a really unusual day on the bank.

My expectations of the day where of dace, dace and more dace but it just goes to show you never know with the river and that is where a bit of the magic with rivers lies, you just never know what you are going to catch next and the next fished proved that more than any other.  The float buried and straight away I connected with a fish that was jumping clear of the water producing some amazing aerobatics to loose the hook and put up a very good account for itself, the fish, a trout was the quite possibly the last species I expected to make an appearance on the day but was most welcome and added even more variety to the day.

With the silver fishing being a bit on and off and already had some pike activity in my swim I decided to spend the afternoon trying for a pike and put my trotting rod to one side and set up a live baiting rig.  Live baiting for pike is a controversial way of fishing for pike but in my opinion there is no more deadly method on the river than a live fish. 

Live baiting if you are doing it correctly should allow you to return the bait afterwards if of course the pike doesn’t show up.  I usually hook one treble through the top lip and just nick the other into the fishes back but in a way it leaves no lasting damage should no pike be forth coming, which can be the case some times.

The live bait out I enjoyed a relaxed day sat back having a cup of coffee and feeding the birds with some of the maggots I had left and after weeks trotting on the river it was really good to just sit back and take it all in and its amazing the things you see.

The float was lying calm in the slack and I began to think maybe it wasn’t a pike why the fishing was so off and half an hour turned to an hour but I persevered with it and all of a sudden the pike bung began to dance up on down on the surface and make its way slowly into the middle of the river, I gave it a few second and set the hook and one thing you can guarantee with a pike is one hell of a fight and boy did this pike fight hard.

The drag on the reel I had preset to allow the pike to take line but not snap me and it was working a treat as the line drained effortlessly from the spool and the sort action of my pike rod cushioned its hard determined lunges for the safety of the snags on the bottom of the river.  Eventually the pike saw my side of the argument and slowly slinked its way defiantly into the landing net.

I am not an angler who is interested really in weights of fish, of course if I catch one that’s really big I will weigh it but most of the time I can judge the weight of fish well and I estimated this one to be around the 8 or 9lb mark and really made what was a tough hard day on the bank really worth while what with the broken reel and horrible weather.

I released the fish back into the river and decided to chance my arm for another one and decided to try another swim with a sunken tree in it which just screamed pike to me earlier on in the day.  The bait was only in the water 5 or 10 minutes when the float shot under and I connected with a fish that was no where near in the same league as the previous one and unfortunately it spat the hooks early on in the fight.  A shame really as it would have been nice to catch two pike for my efforts but alas it wasn’t to be.

Pike fishing is something I have done all my life really and I must admit those few hours on Saturday has given me a taste for it and I will certainly be spending a few more afternoons after these lovely fish before the river season closes and maybe after if we get a cold snap in March or June.

The nets on the day where not the best,  my uncle having the better day when he finally got them going in the last few hours but that’s fishing isn’t it and it

My net

Uncles net

Till next time

I wish you tight lines

Danny