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

Best Laid Plans On The Sankey Canal

A warm welcome to this week’s blog update, I hope I find you well and your nets brimming with fish. This week there have been some slight but noticeable changes in the weather as we move slightly on from the relentless scorching sunshine into a period of more changeable unsettled weather in the form of heavy showers and periods of really humid weather. This extra water has been a blessing for our rivers and I have been keeping an eye on their levels and although none have flooded all have had a good flush through which will do them no harm at all and should see sport on our rivers improve drastically.

I use a calendar on a daily basis I work but that didn’t prepare myself for the shock that hit me this week that we are already in the month of August, just where have the months gone this year. My weekly fishing trips and subsequent weekly blog do give my life structure but still it doesn’t seem like yesterday that I wrote about my joy for the river season reopening and that most magical of days was two months ago now. I guess it also hits you more when you realise the fact that my little girl is 1 year old next month and time really does fly bye.

With regards my fishing I have been for some time now at a cross roads of uncertainty around what direction I want to take my fishing into as I really do enjoy building up net of silvers but slowly that urge to sit and wait it out for bigger species is creeping into my mind and thoughts of a net of silver darts are slowly being eroded with thoughts of loading the car with just a feeder rod and a few pellets and heading off in search of some chub and barbel, is this just an itch that needs a scratch or is it a sign of things to come? I guess only time will tell but there is certainly a sense of change in the air and I feeling of certainty that trips for species like barbel and pike could be on the card in the coming weeks.

For the time being at least I have been resisting the urge to grab my trust barbel rod of an evening and spending that time walking the local canal to my house, the Sankey canal. I must say with the hustle and bustle of work of late that comes with a new project of work the walks along the canal of an evening have proved to be a great mind clearer and isn’t it amazing how problems that twist our thoughts can be so easily unravelled by some fresh air and a good dose of British wildlife.

Along these trips, being the wildlife enthusiast I am, I of course made a few friends and in true Danny’s Angling Blog fashion they just had to be in white with long necks, the ever featuring swans.

I must say the sight of these swans took my mind back to a breeding pair of swans I used to cross paths with on Almere Ferry every year. Year on year this same two of swans would pair up and breed on a nest constructed in the branches of a half sub-merged tree, great memories and sad to think I will never cross paths with these most proud of parents again, hope they are doing well.

Along my walk I also had the opportunity to witness countless wild flowers in bloom and the swarms of busy bees working tirelessly to relieve the flowers of their sweet nectar. The walk along the Sankey Canal also revealed the vast amount of fish this venue holds it was absolutely alive with fish of all sizes from this year’s fry to some nice sized carp, maybe I should have brought the rod along I cursed as I continued my walk.

As you plod along the path of the Sankey Canal it opens up in a few places to give big wide views of the Mersey estuary and the vast array of birdlife that call this place home. Later on in the week I went for a stroll around a local nature reserve and took this picture of a seat overlooking the Mersey estuary, I wonder how many people have sat in this seat trying to clear their thoughts.

On Thursday night the back-up account on the Warrington Anglers Facebook page was threatening to bear fruit and I was hoping to bring you some news on the new stretch of the River Alyn that WAA has reportedly purchased but it seems that the club has purchased a stretch of river and no one knows where it is!!! The party who led negotiations are saying it is around the Molde area and reports from the higher up members close to the committee suggesting it is around the Weir in Rossett. It really baffles me how you can announce you have purchased rights to a beat and yet not know what water you have bid on. More news on this as and when the club decide which postcode they have purchased rights too. J

Onto this week’s fishing trip

“Best laid Plans”

I like to keep my fishing quite varied and as such I never like to do the same thing more than two weeks on the spin there are of course times when the fishing is just too good not too keep going as for instance the dace fishing on the River Dee in winter time but even then after a few weeks I like to at least change species and target the pike. We have fished the river Dee the past two weeks, same peg and same tactics, so this week I was more than ready for a change of both scenery and direction and not to forget the financial benefits of fishing a local venue on the old petrol tank once in a while.

I really fancied a session on the local Sankey Canal and this feeling was there very early on in the week, I think the introduction to this week’s blog gave that fact away. I grew up a stone’s throw away from the Bridgewater Canal in Runcorn and during my childhood I spent many a weekend fishing with my dad while my mum was out doing the weekend shopping, I never really knew the finer details of why we caught the fish only that if I fished with a small “snatcher” whip and light pound bottom hook lengths I caught my fair share of fish and I guess these childhood memories are why I still have a massive passion for this facet of my angling.

I spent the week looking at tactics for canal fishing and soon came across a cracking video on Youtube featuring the greatest silver angler of all time, Bob Nudd. When you ask most people who their favourite anglers are and why the reason they give for liking them is normally down to the size of fish they have caught or how many big fish they have caught. I really like Bob Nudd because no matter what fish, big or small, he always gives the impression he is over the moon with it and really seems like he appreciates every fish he catches from a small gudgeon to a pound roach.

The video I watched: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5HnljW5LoM

In this video above bob uses two distinct tactics in he fishes a bread line close in and then a maggot and groundbait line across to the far side and I really wanted to try and replicate this approach for my session this week. I ordered half a pint of pinkies, a pint of white maggot and some dynamite silver X ground bait form the bait shop and spent the rest of my Friday evening liquidising some bread for my nearside bread line and making up some delicate rigs.

I only really have one top kit on my main pole for silver fishing in my blue hydro elastic match kit as I see my other match kit that is loaded with white hydro as being too heavy for canal fishing so I was left with a bit of a dilemma as I really didn’t want to be swapping and changing rigs all session when moving between lines. I came up with the idea to utilise my very first pole I purchased in my White knuckle margin pole to fish the bread line and I just hoped it was long enough to reach a decent depth of water as the sankey canal has got really shallow nearside margins.

As is the norm with our fishing we arrived on the banks as the moon was just about departing and I have to say the sky looked terrible and to make things worse my uncle had miss placed his umbrella so all the chat to the pegs was around when not if the rain would arrive.

As mentioned above we normally arrive on the banks under the cover of darkness and depending on how far we have to walk we time our arrival at the pegs to co-inside with first light so we are ready to fish that magical first hour of daylight where you have the feeling that you may hit that special fish at any moment and not only that we fish a fair few new stretches of river during the year and anyone that’s done any exploratory fishing will tell you if you want to find out if there is any fish in a stretch then first light and the hour into dusk is the time you will see any fish if there is any about.

As always there was a beautiful sunrise on the sankey canal and we were treated to a glorious sunrise, some of the pictures we have captured on this venue I am seriously thinking about developing for a big picture in my house as I find them so thought provoking and just make me want to go out fishing.

The rigs where all pre tied so when I arrived at the swim it was all about getting myself comfortable and ready to fish. As soon as my box and bait tray was in place I quickly set up my margin pole and plumbed up and to my joy a found a nice depth at around 7m and I potted in two balls of bread crumb so it was settling and starting to attract some fish while I set about rigging up my long pole and mixing up the ground bait. I took my time and made sure I was happy with all my bait before I began to fish. My bait tray seemed to have a tonne of bait on it compared to my normal canal sessions but I was confident in my plan of attack and fully expected to make full use of the bait at hand.

I potted out three balls of ground bait laced with pinkie over my long line at around 12-13m and the plan was to fish the bread line for the first hour or until the bites dried up whilst topping up the far line with loose fed pinkie and another ball of ground bait every 20 minutes. I would say apart from how I prepare for my dace fishing this is the most rigid I have been with a session and I was determined to stick to the plan.

The far line topped up and settling I set about the bread line and for the first few minutes not a lot happened but I remained confident and like I had seen on the video I began to impart some movement myself on the float and you know what it worked as the float slowly sank away and I lifted into the first fish of the session in a small Rudd, it was a start and I was happy the fish had showed on the bread line and at this stage was thinking that the swim would develop over time and the better fish would move in as the peg matured.

The other reason I chose to fish bread punch was the fact that if the rivers flood come winter we will be looking to fish this as a back-up venue and bread punch will be a vital weapon to have in my armoury. The bread line produced a steady stream of bites but they were all small rudd. I did also notice that I got a lot of small knocks on the float and fast bites that where hard to hit but I put this down to small rudd. I persevered with the bread line and caught steady for the first hour and a quarter of the session before the bites completely dried up, all the fish where rudd and I never really got any signs that anything better had moved into the swim.

While I was fishing the bread line I had been feeding the 13metre line and there were signs that fish where feeding in the form of bubbles in and around the baited area. There are a fair amount of quality bream in this canal as well as a good number of skimmers that could have been responsible for the bubbling but I have noticed on previous sessions that you also get these bubbles when there is an eel about.

Shipping out to the 13 metre line I hadn’t even flicked the line out over the swim before a rudd had taken the bait, not a good sign I thought. Back out and this time I got to the swim and before the float even registered any shot it had zoomed off and I was into another rudd. The only way I can sum how many rudd I caught and how hard it was getting through them was it took an hour and a half before my float settled and I realised I had over shotted my float.

The amount of rudd in the swim didn’t bear thinking about as time and time again a rudd would take the bait on the drop, 3,4,5 maggots on the hook made no difference to these ravenous fish. I began to get into a rhythm and put together countless numbers of these rudd but fishing at 13m it soon became a labour of love so I set up a waggler float and this just speeded up the rate at which I put these fish in the net, below is a video of the bite a chuck action on the waggler.

The session soon became a numbers game and the challenge changed from if I would catch a better fish to a game of how many I could put together. My uncle a few yards up the bank was still getting troubled with rudd but was actually getting through the rudd and getting a bait on the deck and actually picked up some solid roach with the best shown below.

The final nets bore testament to the hard work we had put in, I ended with just under 10lb of rudd and my uncle just over 11lb of rudd and roach, I don’t think I have ever worked so hard for a net of fish, it was a bite a chuck and boy did I know it.

My net:

Uncles net

The session taught me that although you can lay down the best plans possible you can never plan for what is in your swim on the day. The positive I took from the session was that I put some time in on the bread punch fishing and I think I made the best of a bad situation.

Till next time
I wish you all
Tight lines

Danny

Hardest fishing trip of the year so far...........

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update in a week that saw the England team win the Fisho-mania Home nations match at Cudmore Fisheries for the second year in succession.  I didn’t watch the Fisho-mania Final as I mentioned last week’s update I was out on the bank while that was on but I made sure I was free the following day to watch the Home nations match.

I really think the commentators did a great job over the course of the event to keep it interesting and informative as lets face it live match fishing does not have great prospects of being spectator sport for television viewers but as I have said I thought they all did a great job and I picked up loads of little hints and tips from listening to what Tommy and Keith had to say during the match.  I could think of only one idea to improve what sky sports do in this event and it is to have a few anglers available on the Red button where you can just watch that angler for the entire duration and see exactly how they feed and go about fishing a match of this calibre.

Match fishing is not something that has ever interested me to the extent where I would want to take part in one but I do love seeing these anglers applying their trade and it was great to see that a lot of the anglers on the commercial scene actually started their fishing on rivers with one of the Welsh lads holding the River match record of over 300lb of chub!!! What a haul that is a catch of unimaginable proportions.  I look forward already to next years fisho-mania final as it’s a great event to have in the calendar.

On to this weeks fishing:

To be honest this weeks fishing was really tough, there where times where I just felt like knocking it on the head and heading home to watch the fishomania final and writing the fishing off completely, it was tough both mentally and physically the toughest days fishing ive experienced since writing the blog.

All week the river had been running off nicely down to a level that would finally see us on the better stretches of the river fishing some of the lovely dace glides we discovered last year.  All week the texts where full of the joys of last years trips where we bagged up on fat dace and stream lined grayling and our thoughts turned to this years tactics and trying to lure some of the chub shoals we know also live there, in our minds we were already there on the bank, our plan was set and with only Friday to go we knew our day on the river wasn’t far away.

Friday morning and I set off from my house with that Friday feeling we all get that there is only one more day till two days of freedom. A joy that was cut short abruptly 10 minutes from work when from no where the heavens opened and it started raining quite heavily.  I at first just thought it would be a shower but it rained and it rained and it rained and before I knew it, it was 4pm and I was leaving work with the soul wrenching persistent tip tap of rain hitting my umbrella, each drop making that trip to the river even more and more unlikely.

The EA river level site was my constant companion all through Friday and it wasn’t till gone 1pm that the River Dee showed the levels increasing and that was only a minimal increase at that.  Work finished and with another update in levels due around 5pm it was off to buy the bait bought in the form of a pint of castor and maggot, that done and I was all set baring the task of cooking my hemp seed.

The next few updates showed an increase to around 5.8m and a quick check of other levels on local tributaries showed them all to be flooded so a fair amount of water was entering the system, the next morning we set off into the gloom not knowing what we was heading too.

We arrived at the tributary we fished 2 weeks ago to find the river running through fast and the colour of chocolate but we decided to set up and give it a hour or so to see what it fished like, in hindsight we should never of entertained the idea the flow was far too fast and although the levels where fishable with the river rising the flow was ferocious and after a hour or so we decided to move to the much wider and deeper part of the river hoping to find some slower water or a slack where the fish might be holding up out of the flow.

I quickly set up on a peg I had done well on in winter that I knew was relatively shallow but the flow could be relied on to be steady as it is situated between two trees with the flow running gently down to a tree at the bottom of the trot.  As you can see from the picture above the levels where up and rising with the peg already under a few inches of water.

The river as I imagined was quite shallow compared to the deeper sections and the trot was delightful with the float going down and a lovely pace that just screamed bites, as you can see on the picture above a dream of a trot but what it made up fro in looks it lacked in fish.

What became noticeable from the off was the river was rising and it was rising at an alarming rate with it almost now reaching my footplate, this was certainly not going to be a swim I could fish all day.  I continued to persevere hoping to pick up a few fish and both me and my uncle did pick up some small roach holding in the slack like the one shown below but was certainly nothing to make it worthwhile fishing a river that was certainly on the rise and we decided to call it a day and pick a still water venue for the rest of the day.

As you can see from the picture above the river had rose significantly since my arrival and with my uncle fishing an even more precarious swim upstream we decided to admit defeat on the river and headed for High Legh Fishery on the Warrington Anglers Card for the rest of the session, no one can say we don’t try!!

When you arrive at high legh you go thorough a farmer’s gate and the fishery is in the middle of the field, there is a gravel track covering half of the field and the rest is across rough ground.  The rough ground is exactly that and we decided to park the car half way to the fishery and not risk the path.  Anyone who wants a true idea what to expect from access tracks to Warrington anglers waters need look no further than this picture below, deep ruts that would certainly see your car stuck and need pushing or pulling out, no wonder the fishery was empty.

We walked the small distance to the fishery and I decided to set up and fish a method I had not fished in a long time in the waggler and my uncle fished the pole to some reeds in the margin.  Feeding castors regularly over the top via the catapult with the odd pouch of hemp I was straight away into rudd both on the drop and on the bottom.

The greedy rudd kept me busy for the whole day greedily hovering up my free offerings as they kit the surface.  As the swim progressed I began catching some lovely small tench and I fully expected the swim to keep developing and for the carp to move in but alas it just never materialised for me but I thoroughly enjoyed my dad fishing for bits on the waggler.  The one strange thing was I didn’t catch one roach or bream all the silver fish where rudd.

My uncle, also on maggot and castor, was picking up small fish but was also hitting the odd carp which, on his light gear was making short work of his hook lengths so he stepped it up with impressive results with him taking 6 carp in total with the best ones shown below.

That was it for the day really and I have to be honest one of the hardest days on the bank for me I really cannot wait to get back trotting on the river I just hope this weekend we have a change of luck and we can get into those dace shoals on the River Dee.

Till next week

I wish you all tight lines

Danny