21lb Of River Roach on Stick Float...Dream Fishing Part 2

A warm welcome to the second blog covering a Dream week off work i hope i find you all well and your nets wet.  In this second blog i will cover a weekend session fishing the river for roach and it really does go to prove the point i make time and time again on this blog and social media that the best fishing really does come in the deepest coldest days in winter.

So many times on Forums i see the comments "Was going to go today but being so cold i thought i was wasting my time"  This comment time and time again baffles me.  This time of year is by far the best time of year for fishing and it is certainly easier than in Summer.  How can it be easier than summer some would think? Well look at it this way and i use a canal for my example.  In summer you walk the canal and it is alive whith fish along its full length, fish of all species and sizes are spread far and wide along its full length.  Come winter and doing your homework you find that the fish are all packed into one area and the colder it gets the tighter they shoal in these areas.

The huge bonus here is that once you find the winter grounds, unless you get a huge change in temperature, then these fish will be here all winter.  The fish tightly shoaled and hungry due to the cold you can really bag up and when you take this idea and add it to a river scenario where the fish are even more on the feed as they are constantly swimming against the flow you will be amazed how ferocious these fish can come onto the feed.

Winter fishing is not for everyone and on the cold days i can understand how some just dont think about going fishing when they look out the window at a howling gale or a hard frost on the ground but if you are the type who thinks i dont want to go because i wont catch then just go out and try it.  You do need to do your homework to be on the fish but in most cases a walk on first light will give them away as the will always top as dawn breaks.  Winter really is the time of plenty for anglers and some amazing days fishing can be had for the price of a few pints of maggot and hemp seed.

On to one such session:

A Dream Winter Session For Roach.....

Waking up to the sound of rain tapping like an annoying alarm call on the window i knew we where in for a wet day on the bank.  A look at all the river levels and they looked to be OK but we both knew the rise was coming and would probably see the River rise during our session, not always a bad thing though as the fish can really come on the feed if they sense a rise coming.

The rain and the cloud cover that brought it had done little to increase the air temperature and it was a harsh cold that nipped at my nose as i loaded my fishing tackle into the car.  For the session i loaded my 13ft Korum Float Rod and my MAP125 Pole as i did not know what to expect when i arrived on the bank and if it was to be a session fishing a slack on a flooding river then the pole might come into play.  Walking the banks before the session the ground was saturated and slippy and the river up and slightly coloured, i was glad of my thermal boots for sure!

A good walk of the banks revealed two likely looking swims we had fished before, one with a slack on the far side and the other with a nearside slack, although at this point the main flow of the river was not too bad.   Plumbing up i found the bottom to be of an even depth but it was a deeper depression in the river bed i was trying to locate and eventually my float that was lying at dead depth sunk away revealing the line i wanted to fish.   Depth plummets are the most important piece of kit you can own for sure.

I started to run through the swim a few times before i committed to putting any bait in, looking for that snag free line, a clear trot found i began drip feeding 5-6 maggots every trot through and a few grains of hemp seed to coincide where i though my maggots where hitting the deck.  This way you feel your way into the swim, gaining an idea of how many fish are in the area.  you can then judge your feed based on what you catch and how fast.

Trickling maggots down the line and a few changes made to depth it was a good 45 minutes before my first bite and it was the tinniest of dips on the float but still a start and where there is one there is more.

I love river fishing for the mere fact you always feel like you can make something happen.  10 men round a lake and ones bagging how do you get the fish away or into your area but on a river you can slowly draw fish from no where up the river. Like a light switch going on the fish arrived and it was a bite a chuck with a bite coming every cast, only small at first but it was bites.

Not long after the bites coming on the rain arrived and it came on really heavy to the point the brolly went up.  The fishing went through the roof as the level began to go back up again.  The small fish at first although still showing where being mixed in with so solid size roach that had taken up residence right on my hemp.

It really was a bite a chuck fishing right through the session with small roach mixed in with the odd better one.  The key to bites was to hold back right on the hemp and as soon as the float righted itself again it would sail under.  Set in a rhythm of cast in, feed, hold back and then strike i almost was not even watching the float so loaded with fish was the swim.

Then came a run of bites i will never forget as a proper shoal of fish moved into the swim.  A hold back on the hemp and striking into something that felt a good stamp bigger.  Jagging from side to side in the current i knew it was a roach but i was not expecting it to be so big.  A huge slab of silver in my palm i quickly jumped of my seat box and raced to my uncles peg "jesus azz look at this!!" i shouted, it was easily a new pb roach for me.  What i did not expect was a few more to be down there and in the rest of the session i had 4 more special roach show.

The ones in the pic below went 1lb10z, 1lb8oz, 1lb,8oz and 1lb 4oz. Ant the mad thing was the fact that come the end these roach where the four biggest over a pound there was at least two more in that bracket.

As the session drew to an end i knew i had a decent net of fish.  I had been catching steady all session and some of the fish had been of a good size so i thought i had a few pound in the net.  My estimate was around the 12-15lb mark but when i come to pull my net in and lifting it i could feel the strain on my arms and net i knew i thought a little different.  On the scales the net went 21lb 11oz""

A 21lb 11oz mainly roach net i was over the moon.

My uncle had also had a fantastic day on the float with a net of 10lb of pristine roach and  nice chub

All in all a session to remember and as a stick float man it does not really get much better than this!!

A 17lb pike and a 20lb plus roach net from a river.....A truly dream weeks fishing

Danny

The Right Time To Fish The River and Cold Weather Top Tips...

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet and speaking of wet how good is it to finally see a bit of the wet stuff falling from the sky! more than overdue and will do our rivers a world of good.  The mild temperatures of late have seen the fish still spread wide and far as we eagerly await the first frosts of the year, all the signs of them coming are there with dew on the windows of the car of a morning but we just need to come out now and find that sparkle of a first glistening on the tarmac as we leave the house, i, like many other anglers can not wait.

In this weeks update the fishing see's us hitting the river just at the right time for it to fish its head off and we both bag up on a morale boosting session on the stick.  The introduction sees me looking at the upcoming weeks fishing i have planned and also an update or recap on my piking to date and we finish with a little bit on how i prepare for winter and cold days on the bank with a few tops tips.

On to the Update...

The Weeks To Come....

November is always a difficult month fishing wise i find as the fish we associate with summer and autumn begin to shut down for winter and the fish like dace, roach, chub and pike are all in transition into their winter quarters it is a time of change, as drastic as the arrival on spring if you look closely, which means fishing can be very hard to predict and as such very hit and miss.

From a river stick float point of view it can be a hard time with leaves coming down the river and with the ground still hard rain can have a huge effect on rivers and see them going from really low and on their bones too completely in flood, just look at the Ribble this past week.  The piker in me is unsure what is going to happen if i am honest with it being only my second full season targeting pike its a bit of a unknown for me as to what to expect as we go through this transition.

The coming weeks will see me targeting the new area i have found to unlock its secrets, im sure there is a pike there that could be very special and in the next week or so i have a social coming up on a huge piece of water with my mates Garry and Ste.  A session i am looking forward too but at the same time i know its a huge step up in my pike fishing, a huge one, just one fish would be a dream come true for me on the day.

River wise i am hoping to spend some time on the banks of the River Dane to again try and fisnd the areas the fish go in winter and best ways to catch them and i am also looking forward to trips on the Dee and other smaller tributaries.  I am certainly going top bite the bullet this year and have a session aimed at catching pike from the Dee.  Having moved away from fishing this river consistently i have missed my run ins with the pike that seemed such a regular occurrence in the past.

Piking Blog Update

The decision to move all my trips to one link is still one that is playing on my mind a lot as it does take a lot of pushing on social media for it to get noticed as there is no space to add links of tags to the post for it to show on search engines.  Actual views do not really matter to me but i do also put a lot of time into catching these fish and it does play a huge part in my fishing so i do want it to be noticed as it is kind of tucked away in the corner of the blog page.

The pike fishing for me is going great i am really enjoying the fishing and getting my teeth into the new challenge this year is presenting with 10 doubles my target and finding and fishing my own areas the next i could  not wish for it to go any better.  There has been an update this week to the blog and there is also one wrote to be added this coming week its great to see my hard work paying off with plenty of fish to blog about, the blanks will come but that's fishing.

I will go into more detail in the coming weeks about the new spot and how it is fishing but at this moment in time i have done 4 morning sessions on there equating to 2 full days fishing time and it has produced i think 9 fish with two of these double figure pike so its going better then the blank i envisioned.

Keep up with the pike blog here: http://satonmyperch.blogspot.co.uk/p/201516-pike-seaon.html

Preparing for Winter

A common question i receive on the blogs email is around what i do to prepare for winter fishing.  Tackle wise i don't really change any thing as i fish all year with light hook lengths and size 20 hooks so not much changes there and the main place you should be focusing your time on is on LOCATION.  Away from the actual fishing the other main area you should be spending time and investing in is in the stuff you wear on the bank at this time of year as it can be brutally cold at times on the bank especially if you are out in the sticks.

For me i wear thermal socks as well as thermal lines boots, your feet is always the first area to feel the cold for sure and keeping your feet warm is vital.  I do feel having a foot plate on my box really helps as it keeps your feet off the cold ground.  I wouldn't say my set up keeps my feet warm on the bank but i don't sit there thinking my feet are cold which is all you can ask for in the depths of winter.

Working up i probably look like i'm wearing a pair of jeans a hoodie, which i am, but under neath then jeans is a pair of thermal pants and under the hoodie is a tee shirt and a thermal top which at times can see me sweating like mad in the snow but its a lot better than being cold.  A buff for my face is normally just kept for the piking where you can be really inactive waiting for a bite and a thermal bob hat stops you losing heat through your head.  All in all it keeps me warm in the coldest of days on the bank.

Top Tip:  When pouring a brew from your flask fill it to the middle recess in the cup, this way you get twice as many brews and can spread the drinks through the day at closer intervals.

Cracking Session On Stick

From the moment we looked at the chart in my uncles house and saw the Dane was not yet showing the rise in level from the rain over night we knew we where in for a good session.  The river would already be starting to show a bit of colour and would rise during the session which the fish would get on to and feed well, we also knew there was not enough rain for the rise to be mega and push the fish off the feed.  The lovely red sky as we joined the motorway, a perfect start to the days fishing trip.

The main choice on the day was what swim to fish, one swim a fast glide around 4ft deep had the potential to throw up nice nets of roach and dace but on the other hand if the fish where not there it also had the potential to throw up a net full of gudgeon!  The other swim was a deeper swim on a bend that offered a nice slack on the inside, not as much a comfy swim as the first but did again offer the chance of a nice net of fish. 

The fact this swim held a bit more depth and also had a slack on the inside off a sunken tree to try if i was wrong about the amount of rise we would get i chose the second swim.  My uncle settled in a swim down stream, a new swim for us both and one that the extra water would see him able to run a stick through. 

My swim a uniform depth of around 5ft i opted for a 6 number 4 alloy stick and to sum up the autumnal feel of the day with plenty of cloud cover and grey skies the float sat nicely on a bed of autumnal leaves.

The rod set up i began to run the float through and the extra little bit of pace in the river was not yet evident, it would come.  One thing i have learnt about this river is the fact the fish can come right up on the feed so i fed the swim lightly and down stream of there i was casting so my float was settled by the time it reached the area i was feeding, planing to hold back to simulate bait falling through the swim here.  My hemp seed was placed further down stream where i thought the maggots would reach the bottom.

The customary madness of the first bites was instant as fish came quickly to the net, nothing of any size but it was frantic.  It is always like this on this river and the test would come if the bites continued passed the frantic feeding period.  This type of fishing is seen as a special art and although it takes practice to master the actually amount of gear you need is minimal.  This is my side tray for the session and apart from my float and bait that is all i use.

The swim eventually settled down and to my relief the bites started to come on my hemp but the bites where a bit hit and miss to say the least and the session was not looking good.  Around 10am i noticed the odd twig and bits of Himalayan balsam coming down and not long after this the whole flow on the river changed.  The trot gained pace and with it the bites came on strong, it was fantastic fishing.

The type of fishing i love where you can chuck your maggots in, then a good but of hemp and then the float and you hold back right on the spot knowing the bite will come, its stick float fishing at its best.  The float going down and i held the float back just a tiny bit right before my hemp, the finger released of the line and BANG the float would bury and this continued for the rest of the session as dace roach and chublets came one after to the net.

It was evident i had a big shoal of fish in front of me, not of any huge size and certainly nothing to warrant a landing net, but the bites where steady and it was more than i could have asked for.  My uncle down stream was also having a good day and i could hear him striking regular into fish and he had also caught a few nice chub.

The session moved on in to the afternoon and the bites would drop off a little as the shoal spooked but a good pouch hemp saw the fish coming back on the feed.  A session i really enjoyed and come the end of the day it was a shame to pack in.  These sessions go by in the blink of an eye they really do but we have to make the most of them.

My final net went over 14lb and contained quite a lot of individual fish to make that weight up.

My uncle had also caught well and had the extra fight of a few chub to boot.

All in all a session to remember and both rewarding in the fact we had put the time in to learn the river and fish the right swims at the right time to catch the fish and also rewarding  in the fact the fish also turned up.

Till next time

i wish you all tight lines

Danny

Stick Float Fishin' For Chub...

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet.  Life at the moment is about as hectic as it comes with the little mastering crawling at speed and also learning to climb its all go keeping tabs on him although my plan to test my delkims for the coming pike season by typing line to his feet and running it though the sensor seems a sound one!  Away from home and i recently applied to be deputy in work and that is just starting to involve my devoting my attention to this, all this along with making preparations for the coming pike season its safe to say every aspect of my life is really chaos at the moment, its good to be busy though.

Sometimes i have no choice but let this blog take a back seat, something has to give and as this is a hobby and does not really put money on the table as such it is always the first thing i have to drop, there literally is not enough hours in the day to get it all done.  As such it has meant my normal schedule for uploading on a Friday evening and writing my blog on my dinner hour in work is not possible so the updates for the foreseeable future will be a bit sporadic.

That bit of life trivia out of the way lets get into this update...

First Pike Social Booked!!

So we are literally days off the start of he new pike season and i had booked the 1st of October off work with the view of a early attack on the waterways that had produced for me last year.  The blog is there for me to share my fishing adventures with the world but it does also offer me and journal of my visits to the bank.  Although i do not share locations on the posts, through fear of it attracting the wrong type of people in poachers, i know myself where i have fished on each session so as such i can look back through my own blogs and look at locations that fished well at certain times of year.

Work came up to me a few days ago and mentioned that the leave was really low on the day i had booked so i agreed to come in on the 1st October and swapped it for the following Tuesday.  Garry, a fellow piker, is not able to get out on the bank till the 6th October so it will be a great social for us both to start our piking campaign.  Talks have been on going for the past week but we have settled on a location and a plan of action for the day.  I will of course be heading out with the same mentality i did last year, aim for one fish on the bank and go from there.  Writing this now i am really excited to get out and although it is not mentioned in this update the weekend just gone i managed a pike on the bank and it really has lit the torch for the piker inside to be released again!!

Pike Season Ahead - My Plans and Mindset......


So we sit on the cusp of the start of the new season and looking back over October last year i really did hit the ground running.  My fist session on the bank saw me banking 5 pike, nothing massive but with the target of 100 pike it got the ball rolling and i was on my way.  October was a month to remember for me with me breaking my Personal Best twice with one pike going over 20lb and shortly in November i had days where i caught multiple doubles in one day.  This is fantastic and great memories but what i have to do this year is keep my feet on the ground, continue to build on lessons learnt last season and always know that this season may be very different and it may be a season where i don't land lucky on bigger fish and i do not have half as much success as i did last season.  I have to remain realistic about it and be prepared to work a lot harder for my captures whilst also remembering to enjoy what has become a time of the year i look forward to so much now.

This season i will obviously be continuing to share the bank with my piking mates Ste and Garry and although Ryan has moved further afield now i am sure he will make the odd appearance on trips with his supermarket jumbo mackerel baits.  Towards the end of last season i was really happy to spend some time on the bank with one of Stes mates, Dave, a man who was coming back into fishing after a gap and was keen to try pike fishing.  Me. still wet behind the ears in my piking baptism, was happy to help him as much as i could and i was really impressed by his determination and passion for the sport and i can not wait to see him catch his first double.

The target last season of 300 or 400 pike, 30 doubles and 1 twenty pound pike did give us all focus during the season with us all working towards a common goal but i myself did find i was going places to catch numbers of fish rather than going places where the chances of less fish but of a larger size was possible.  The list also unavoidably took over and really at times did dictate locations i fished and also, especially towards the end where 100 was i sight, developed a unhealthy obsession with getting out fishing.

This season is slightly different as we have done away with the huge total target of hundreds of pike and also the twenty pound target has also been done away with and we have set a fun, but achievable goal, of 40 double figure pike between us.  That equates to 10 doubles each and this gives us all freedom to devote a days fishing to a 1 take but a big fish water without worrying the pike total is not moving.  Moving into my second year of piking i am really seeing this as a target i should be achieving but i fully know how frustrating piking can be so if i don't reach it then that's life as they say.  My own personal goals for the year are to have fun and utilise methods i picked up last year and put them into practise.  Here's to the adventures to come.

Chubbers Delight.....

Fishing for me now is like a ritual, its part of my weekly routine and as such it is very rarely that sequence is broken.  Saturday morning comes around and loading the car i head to my uncles to pick him up, a quick chat and we set of in search of new adventures on the bank.  This week was different as an opportunity of overtime in work saw my uncle missing the trip out this week.

Regular blog readers will remember my blogs about piking last year where i openly documented how i found it hard heading out on my own and spending time on the bank.  A big part of my fishing is the craic and laugh we have and the sharing of achievements or sussing out new areas, this session was different as the seat next to me was empty and the tackle fist easily into my boot with no need for tactile persuasion. 

No rain for a week saw all the rivers running low and clear so it was a case of picking the best of what was available.  It may sound unusual but i chose the part of the river where it was really shallow and running low and it was for good reason.  Why would you not head for the deep areas with plenty of cover from the sun? That is a very good question but think about it like this, when the river is at its normal level or has some water in the fish can be in any swim along the length but on a shallow river running low the  natural deep spots and dark areas where you can not see the bottom are where all the fish will be crammed into.  So you will have all the fish from one area of the river in one deep hole and this includes the trout, chub, dace and gudgeon.

Fishing these holes in the river you will get quick results but the fish will spook eventually but what you have straight away is competition for food and this not only helps you get the fish out with minimal disruption to the shoal but when they do spook you are literally running bait right through them, they have no where else to go so eventually the will to feed and not turn up a free meal takes over and the fish come back on.

I moved away from my normal mantra of taking my tackle box and sitting in one swim all day and decided to lighten up my gear and walk the bank trying to land on a nice shoal of chub, i would know it once i found the swim to stay in.  The first swim i arrived in i knew held some nice chub and setting up in the light of my head torch i could see the slow was going directly where i wanted it to and where i would expect to find the fish.  Feeding the swim as i set up the first trot through i eagerly awaited the battle of a chub.  Rivers are weird animals and despite fishing a 4 number 4 stick float the flow that looked steady held no power to even pull the float through the swim!!  A change of plan and a move to approach the swim from a different angle saw me trotting away for a good two hours with a dace and chub to show for my efforts.

Knowing the potential of the river and sat there knowing the chub where there i stubbornly remained in station before admitting defeat.  Moving on down river it was great to travel light with just a rod, landing net, keep net bag and pockets full of bits i was up and away in no time.  I hit the first swim, a short glide along some overhanging blackberry bushes i caught a few nice dace but after hitting a big trout and losing it i knew it was time to move on.

My hopes of fishing a deep bend where dashed by a herd of cows and a big bull in the field who i knew would not welcome my intrusion so i settled in on the bend upstream.  The flow right under my feet i had the option to run right along the inside snags but it was filled with risk.  Hooking the fish would be no problem but getting it out would be the main issue.  The fast flow on my inside had gouged out a deep run but it had also created a deep slack on its inside and i targeting this as my main point if attack.  In went a good handful of hemp and i began feeding maggots, building up the fishes confidence, first run though and a dace fell to the baiting up tactic.

The next few trots through the swim brought the ever confident but ever annoying bites from minnows as one by one i ploughed through these fish.  Its a game i first played on the banks of the river dane on the Warrington anglers stretch many moons ago, anglers would turn up with all manner of big baits like cheese paste, worm, bread, meat and so on and i armed with a few pints of maggot would head off.  I knew i would be getting bites every time down from minnows but i also knew that once the minnows went it was CHUB TIME!.  So these minnows although a irritant gave me great insight to what was happening below the water and sure enough all of a sudden the minnow bites went and i struck into the bottom or as us river anglers know them a chub.  The swim i was in allowed no room to give the fish an inch and like all chub it knew where safety was, in this swim, all the overhanging brambles.  Plenty of side strain and the tip of my 13ft float float well under the water she bent round in a smooth satisfying bend

The chub in the net i was one happy angler and after a quick picture it was into the keep net as not to spook the shoal that was down there.  I was proven not to be wrong either as the very next cast the bait dropped of the ledge into the deep dark water and bang under the float went and i was into another chevin.  A great battle with plenty of hairy moments along the way but with the drag set right and my 1.7 bottom holding i was in control and waited for that first opportunity to net the fish and reduce commotion in the swim.

These two fish came at 11.10 and 11.14 am and a good 20 minutes passed till the next chub at 11.37.  This marked a landslide of bites from the chub as fish came one a chuck to the net for the next half hour with chub coming at 11.45am, 12.01am, 12.08am, 12.16am.

After weeks catching dace and roach an not much else having the carbon bend double was an amazing feeling and boy did that feel good!  I decided to call it a day there as in the warm conditions i was fully aware that the chub had been in the net four a good 2 hours.  Releasing them i new would kill the swim completely so i packed down the gear and prepared my camera and unhooking matt for a quick picture of the net of fish.    Seven chub in total i was over the moon and even more happy as to how well behaved the chub where for the picture, a first time shot was acquired for the blog and back the chub went. 

Not out fishing for another week the maggots where looking a little worse for wear and certainly would not last till the next weekend so as a thank you gesture i deposited a good half pint of maggots into the swim.  They, and the minnows, would get through them in no time.

Well that's another blog update completed, i am a little far behind on trips, purely down to life away from angling.  Finding time to blog is so hard at the moment so please bear with me i will get them out as soon as possible.

Till next week

Tight lines

Danny

Stick Float Fishing for Dace On A Rising River

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet.  A huge thank you to all the people who emailed me this week with regards help with their fishing it was great to sit down on Sunday and write the replies to them all.  I do get out fishing a lot but i really do not see myself as one of these amazing anglers who knows everything, i try to reply to the questions with as much knowledge as i can pass on and it is great to receive the replies when people go out and catch from your help, it is so fulfilling.  There are of course the emails where people just get in touch to thank me for writing the blog and how they enjoy reading it and again these emails are what give you that boost to know you are doing something right.  Again thank you to all who emailed me this week made a angler and blogger really happy on Sunday.

On to this weeks blog update

Splitting the Hemp...

So my hemp order came in a week or so ago and coming home to a huge 20kg sack of dry hemp seed i knew the daunting but ever so therapeutic task of splitting it down into 1 pint session bags was on the horizon.  I still had one or two bags left from last years batch so i put this task off for a week or so, last weeks session saw the last bag boiled and used so there was no option.  It was out with the sack of hemp and with the early morning sun warming the patio it was time to set up the production line.

My little girl was at the front of the Queue her job to pass the bags to Lucy, her job to keep the bag open while i scooped and poured in a pint of seeds.  This worked a treat and in no time at all we had a pile of sealed food bags covering the floor.  These orders come in a hessian type sack and then the actual seeds inside are held in a card type bag and this is fantastic as you can literally use each bag to split the order, one for me one for you and we soon had them bagged up and over my uncles for him to use.

Pike Dead Bait The Order Of The Day....

So the start of the pike season is literally a few days away now and i can almost see that pike float gently moving to the rhythmic motion of the water as it waits to be ignited into life by a passing esox.  Like last year Garry was very generous in asking us if we wanted to be put in on his bait order on line as the bulk buy saves on shipping and also you can get some cracking discounts on bulk buy popular baits.  I was very selective this year in my bait choice and went for baits i caught well on last year in Smelts, joey mackerel, sardines jacks and roach.  These baits should be fine for the start of the campaign and see me right for the first month or so depending on how many times i get out and how many pike i catch of course.

I am sure Ste will join me here in thanking Garry for putting this order together and splitting it down for us, cheers mate. 

On to this weeks fishing...

With all the weeks of trying to work out the River Dane we had probably seen enough of this river to last us both a lifetime so we made a decision on the Friday that no matter what we would be fishing a different river the next day.  A quick stop in the tackle shop revealed my rod replacement section still being mark as awaiting delivery, a quick phone call by the shop owner and hopefully it will be here next week. 

To say it rained on Friday was an understatement and when this down pour continued into the evening i knew we would have a decision to make the next morning.  This time of year is great for that as we meet up around 5am and the EA chart for that morning are normally posted on their site to give us an idea of the levels of the local rivers.  All the charts showed no rises in the rivers, very odd we thought given the rain, but we knew the rise was to come for sure, there had been too much rain for it not too.

We sat for a second and thought about aborting the river session and going a local pond but we decided to go the river and the reason was this.  Fish go on a big feed when i river begins to rise as all food washed into the river comes down, we both knew the fishing would be good but also knew once the colour came things would change and the fishing on the float would subside.  At max we thought we had from first light till around 9am, 10am max, before the river would be unfishable.

Arriving on the banks of the river she was gin clear and running low with no signs of any extra water or colour in the system.  We quickly set up in our swims as we knew time was of the essence and i quickly fed maggots into the swim while i set up as i knew there was a chance of a chub in this area and where as other sessions where i was happy to wait for them to edge onto the feed i felt today i needed to enforce the message that free food was coming in upstream and almost push the fish into moving up.  The first few trots down brought no action at all as the float trundled through the swim time and time again.

Incidentally the float i used was a 6 number 4 stick float with 6lb line down to a 2.1lb bottom and a size 20 hook.  This set up seems light but you will be surprised just how much strain you can put on a chub with this set up.  I do hasten to add that the river is not really snaggy and in most swims its a case of keeping the fish out of the brambles on the surface and under the water than and severe sunken trees of even trolleys you find on other rivers. 

Around a hour and half into the session and still i plugged away with nothing to show as reward for my efforts.  It was during the next hour though things changed.  I began to notice a lot of debris coming down the river, grass cuttings at first and as time went on the off twig and branch and there was one big swell in the eddy to my right that confirmed a rise in the river was happening for sure.  A tinge of colour at this point, nothing more, and the first bite came with this cracking dace below.

As predicted the rise in river had triggered the fish to come on the feed and another dace followed shortly after.  This next half hour to forty minutes the swim went mad with fish solid on the feed right on my hemp.  I knew this would not last but with dace of this quality i knew we had made the right decision.

A hour into the rise and the colour was starting to show really bad.  I could no longer see the bottom at all on any part of the river and the colour was beginning to look more like milky hot chocolate than the weak tea of an hour or so ago.  The bites where also tailing off now as the fish sensed the rise in the river was too great and i think moved into the slacks out of the main flow. 

I decided to abandon my torrent down the middle that was once a gently glide and began to fish the slack to my right.  A few minnows at first but the fact i was getting bites was the main thing and then i struck into something a bit more substantial that went straight into the flow.  My line was perilously down the middle of the river and with logs coming down it was more a case of dodging the snags than the fish finding one as a game of line tetris was played out, oh how kids of today will never know the joys of a game boy :-)

The fish was the best fish of the day and although not big was the chub i was after.

Not long after this i saw the shape of my uncle coming down the field.  His swim was just a glide with no slack so i knew the game was up with regards fishing the river.  We both going fishing together and as a team we fish all manner of rivers and lakes but we also do work as a team if the fishing is good for one and not the other.  My uncle had caught well taking a few nice dace and a chub to boot he had a cracking net of fish that showed how valuable it is to know the rivers you fish.  We both knew we would catch and catch well but not for a long duration and i think i speak for us both when i say it was good to finally get some bend in the carbon.

We both left the river in a right mess but happy with our exciting but brief session.  That concludes another weekly blog update and i hopefully the next update will see us build on this one. 

Till next time

Tight lines

Danny

River Dane Stick Float: Bumper Chub Nets 'N' Move Pays Off

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update I  hope i find you all well and your nets wet.  Well we are fast approaching the end of 2014 and most blogs out there are now thinking about writing their summery of their angling year.  I must say 2014 has been some year for me for both trotting and of course predators but as a River angler i feel my year runs, not the conventional 12 months, but March to March when the River Close so i will be doing my summery of the season then.  I blog i am already excited to put together.

In this weeks update the fishing comes from the River Dane where we find the river in perfect nick but the temperatures well into the minus figures, the results of this session are more than worth reading on for.  The next day i was of course out piking for the morning and again it was nice to get a few pike on the bank and keep my total ticking over towards the challenge of 100 in a season.

The introduction this weeks covers our River Dane campaign and what where we are at with discovering this intimate river and a general look at how me and my uncle tackle new rivers over the year, a little bit on the yearly carp stocking charade from Warrington Anglers and a little piece on my fishing plans for the coming weeks over Christmas.

With that its onto the Update:

New River Need A Plan....

I have lost count how many times i have seen the following question on Forums and social Media pages "I have recently moved next to a river, how do i tackle it".  In my early years river fishing with my uncle the River Dee was the river we dedicated all of our trips too and week in week out we travelled to her banks and unless she was flooded or unfishable we wet a line.

To start off with we did our home work by locating all the EA water level stations along the rivers length and on all the major tributaries feeding the main river and every time we headed out i saved a copy of the water levels to go with the trips we were fishing.  Sometimes the level station might not bee in the length you are fishing, sometimes it can be miles away, but the key is remembering that the level at certain stations is all relative to the stretch you are fishing.  An example being i know if the level at Farndon on Dee is below 4.75 i knew the gravel bars at almere where not under water the two places are a good distance apart but you can see how one level lets you know information about the other when you learn your river.

The next stage of our plan is always to fish a wide range of water and fish as many locations along the river as possible taking in the deeper lower reaches as well as the middle reaches to try and locate the fish.  The dace especially is a fish that does shoal up in winter but in summer spreads far and wide but what we did find was these dace shoals would also return to the same areas in summer and finding these hot spots proved invaluable to us and to this day the fish still return to the same spring and summer spots before heading to the well known winter spots to form the huge shoals the river is famous for.

Dont get me wrong it took a long time and many many blanks fishing stretches that looked like they would hold fish but in truth did not to pin down the hot spots along the river.  Once these areas where known we then had a range of river to go at where we know good shoals of fish lived and we set about learning how the river fished in different conditions.  Many people will tell you that the river Dee is not worth fishing if it is over 6.5m high but you would be wrong to stick to these set in stone laws as i recall a session when we fished the river at 7.5m and bagged up on dace taking 20lb each from a swollen tributary on the stick float.  The key to this was knowing the dace where in the area in hue numbers and that come the main river rising they would all push into the slower tributary that had back up.

 I guess learning on such a big river gave us the confidence to then take this these principles onto the small river dane and have confidence in our plan, at the end of the day most rivers are the same just on a smaller or larger scale the same featured such as back eddys, under cut banks, smooth shallow dace glides and long deep roach swims are still there.   So far this season we have fished all the lower and middle reaches of the Dane and have already located areas that hold nice Roach, chublets and perch and we are currently moving into our first winter fishing this river as our main river so we hope to learn areas that will fish in high water and also see if the better chub in the 3-4lb bracket come more to play as the cold sets in and they come to the feed.

One thing is for sure to learn a river you need to get out there on the banks both summer and winter and sometimes you learn a lot more from the blanks than you do the sessions you bag up and it comes easy.  The road may be hard and sometimes you think why go here when we can go somewhere we know we will catch but in the long run it pays and this year we have reaped the rewards of having a good knowledge of the River Dee, Dane and Bollin and is the main reason the blanks on the rivers this year have been few and far between.  In short its worth the effort in the ling run.

Got To Keep Them Carpers Happy....

Reading Franks Collumn again this week a post came up i had been expecting for some time.  It was the yearly communal invite to come and rejoice on the banks of the local carp waters as the latest batch of carp where stocked into the waters.  Some people may laugh at the words genetically modified but the fact of the matter is in this day and age you can literally go these places and if you want a fully scaled mirror carp or a linear mirror carp then the answer is "of course sir we can breed you one of those".  Long gone are the times when these fish where the jewels and one in a life time fish you caught and admired and personally i think you lose the whole magic of such a magnificent creature when there more the norm than the exception.

At the time of me being excluded from the WAA facebook for merely acquiring the numbers of carp stocked from the Chairman's own blog and using these numbers to out my point across that the numbers of carp being stocked to silver fish was grossly unfair, i guess its easier to adopt a dictatorship mentality than actually listen to a member.  I mean like at the time of being kicked of i think i counted over 650 individual carp stocked and that was two yearly stockings ago now so i guess we must be fast approaching the stocking of 800-900 carp now.

I guess its only fitting at this most biblical time of year that the chairman and his band of disciples can now claim to achieve the feet of waling on water as there must be that many carp in Sandiway and Grey mist that you know must be able to walk on their backs there are that many.  I wonder how many people turning up to witness the stocking will then relieve our chairman of begging for catch reports by actually owning up when they catch these fish....hmmmm it would be interesting to count, yes lets count, fingers and thumbs at ready...doubt i will need my toes.

Don't let my moaning form time to time about these carp lead you to believe i am anti carp, i actually enjoy fishing for the species.  My upset is around the equality of the club and how just a small amount of the money spent on these huge amount of carp could do so much for one or two waters silver fish population.  I mean what does the average 20lb carp cost these days 400-500 quid??  you but 3 fish in roach and you would have a healthy weight of fish to stock the other pools with.  I said a few years ago High legh needed silvers stocking when they put the carp in as the fishery is not balanced and hey ho i read a week or so ago a WAA angler complaining he was blanking on there.  Well hey ho mucka the carp have shut down in the cold and on the long cold blank just think of the fun you could have had on a light whip for roach.

Merry Christmas.....

With the birth of our little boy imminent it may mean this is my last blog update before Christmas and maybe before 2015 arrives.  2014 has been a great year on the bank but it has been an equally fantastic year off the bank and it has been great to meet so many anglers who read my weekly blog both on social media. emails and on the bank.  I have also met a lot of people this year from the angling world with business like Beechwood Baits, Pondip, Water to Go, ALDI, Go Outdoors and the BBC all being fantastic people to work with on projects.

I would like to wish you and your Families a Very Merry Christmas a Happy New Year and a Safe Festive period.  May 2015 bring you all the tightest of lines and Success in your ventures.

On to this weeks fishing....

River Dane Stick Float: Bumper Chub Nets and Move Pays Off...

After a long hard week in work 4.30Pm on Friday had arrived and the weekend beckoned she had been a long time coming.  There had been little rain through the week so the River Dane was in fine fettle and after just dropping down from flood conditions we expected a good days sport the next morning.  That evening i spent a few hours on the bank with Garry fishing for pike at a well lit location but unfortunately none where forthcoming but it was great to back out on the bank with him as December is by far the busiest time of the year for him and bank time has been at a minimum so it was great to meet up again.

i recently came across a feature on Blogspot that allows you to schedule your blog posts to go live a certain time and Friday at 6pm was the first time i utilised this tool so sat on the bank i had a quick check and bang on time it went live and all updated fine so that will certainly be a feature i will be using more its just a pitty the pike where not as punchual in their appearance.

That evening i spent a few hours knocking up some rigs for the session on the river the next day.  With rivers and especially with trotting a float where you can really be hunting out snags this preparation the night before saves so much time on the bank.  I normally make up between  4 and 10 hook lengths the night before a session and if and when i want to change its a simple as attaching the hook length loop to loop.

Leaving the bustle of the town behind on the morning of the session myself and my uncle both commented on how mild the temperature was again despite it being a clear sky.  A quick glance at the temperature gauge on my car showed 40oc.  Passing out of the town the temperature dropped with every mile of the journey and then plummeted as we entered the dane valley to a water freezing 28oc. Luckily with flowing water you get some extra scope with water freezing so we where really confident when we pulled up in swims we had caught good nets from before the recent floods.

The first hour and half and i had one small chublet to show for my efforts and i was sat mulling what was wrong when my uncle visited my peg having caught 3 proper chub in the same time.  This let me know the fish where on the feed and it was the peg i was fishing not the fish that was the problem with the lack of success so far.  Whether you subscribe to the theory that frosts or the amount of day light hours cause fish to migrate to different swims on rivers there is no doubt that silver fish certainly do and it was quite possible that the fish that where holding in my swim all summer where now residing in their winter haunts elsewhere, it was time for a move.

If fishing was ever easy it would be boring and at the age of 30 i am thinking that you could waste a lifetime trying to work out fish and still come up miles short, work this one out.  Ste turned up for a chat and being the good man he is he helped me move my gear to a new swim.  The swim i left was 4-5ft deep and normally held a good head of roach and chublets.  I moved literally 40 yards to a straight glide and plumed up the swim, exactly the same depth as my previous one so no need to alter my depth.  Within 10 trots down i had netted around 6-7 fish and it left both me and Ste shocked how you could leave on swim so close and move and then be straight into fish.

Ste left to have a chat with Azza and i continued to catch well in the swim i had moved to.  The time was 12 and upon Ste and Azzas return around a hour later i had amassed a nice net of fish weighing around 5-6lb and was well on my way to a good net.  Azza had continued to build on his early chub by putting some more quality chevins in his keep net.

Ste left us both catching fish and during the remaining hours the swim i was in went from strength to strength as the fish really came on the feed, nothing massive but great sport and fun and like always with this river it was great to catch such a variety of species with Roach, Dace, Chub, skimmers, perch and even a rogue ide making up the net.

It was one of those sessions where the morning when i was not catching dragged and was hard work and when i found the fish in the afternoon time flew bye and before i knew it the light was closing in and it was time to weigh the nets.  My uncle was first and my god did he nail it with a 25.5lb net of all chub.  It was a net that was great to see and as i said in the introduction this is our first season on this river and we are already building a picture of where the fish hold in winter.

uncles net and weight

My net went 15.5lb and was a net i was really made up with as it came in around 3.5 hours of fishing.

my net

Few Hours For Mr Pike...

The next morning i had a few hours to burn and i decided to drop in on a spot where i had caught some pike recently in the hope i would find one or two pike willing to take my float fished smelt dead bait.

It was a set up of one rod fished on a float fished dead bait while the other i fished on my small wobble rod.  The first 20-30 minutes passed by with no sign of a fish in the clear water and it was beginning to feel like time for a move when right under my feet a flash of olive green and yellow propelled from no where and engulfed my free lined smelt.......GOT YOU i thought as i watched the pike turn the bait and it disappear into its mouth.  I could quite clearly see it was a small jack so once the smelt was out of sight I struck immediately to set the hooks in the roof of its mouth.  The fight on the small light spinning rod is always good no matter when the size of the fish and with the drag set light so not to pull the hooks it was fun to see the pike pulling line from the reel.

not the biggest pike in the world but most welcome.

With the first pike of the day on the bank you always breathe a sigh of relief and its almost as if the pressure is off and you can relax.  An early fish is always welcome on the pike trips although sometimes it can be a kiss of death as its the only bite you get on some trips.

I may have only been dead baiting for pike for a few months but i have certainly began to piece together some theories from my trips for these fish.  Two stand out ones are 1) there is certainly a pike feeding spell during the day where the pike seem to switch on and on some days all your bites will come in that short window 2) With jack pike i believe if they move off fast its to get the meal they have found away from the other pike in the area before the meal attracts attentions so they can sulk off and eat it in peace.   The fish that i caught first certainly did not hang around after it nailed the wobbled bait so i was confident of more action.

A quick glance at the static dead bait rod is all that is required and with each glance your hopes are heightened and then dashed as the float remains motionless.  Then out of the corner of my eye the static dead bait float began to show signs of a bite developing so i calmly brought in the wobbles bait and slowly tip toed past the float to pick up my rod and waited for the right time to set the hooks.  The result of the short fight under my feet was another jack pike but a fish is a fish in this game when piking and i will take them while they keep coming.

Unfortunately despite many moves this was all the action for the morning session out for pike and i left the bank feeling a little disheartened as i had caught two pike really early on but spent the next few hours chasing their tails.


Well that is it for this weeks blog update.  It was due to go out before Christmas but since the birth of our little boy all safe and well on December 19th time has literally not been there.

Till next time

Tight Lines

Danny

River Dee Dace On Stick And Autumn Arrives

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet.  This passed week or so the signs of the Seasons changing have been all around us for sure with Horse Chestnut trees starting to deposit their hardened fruits that will no doubt need some time in the vinegar pot before being at a stage where they are released for battle, at least it was the case when i used to collect them.  The whole sight of a horse chestnut tree with its brown broken fragile leaves and conkers glinting through their casing conjures up memories of my childhood where our our door step we had arguable the best conker tree around and many a stick was lost in its branches as we tried to knock down the fruits too early alas that tree no longer exists for a picture as it was cut down many years ago.

There have been many other signs on my travels this passed week where i have seen the V shaped formation of Canada Geese disturbing the tranquil peace as they travel over head of an evening, local elder berry trees and black berry trees laden with fruit and farmers fields with their stacks of hay drying in the late summer sun ready to be bailed and stored away for the harder months to come and the only surprise has been the fact that there still seems to be a good number of swallows left on these shores and this was still the case on Saturday when we visited the River Dane and they were skimming the fields picking off bugs.

The seasons above the water are changing dramatically but these changes are also happening below the water as the fish sense a drop in temperatures and i suspect when it rains they also notice the water coming into the water is also cooler than the warm showers of summer.  The text books will say this time now is the best time to be an angler as carp and barbel go on the feed for the long months to come but for me the good times are a good month or so off when the first frosts arrive, that is when i start to think things get interesting as the dace start to shoal and the pike follow and being mainly a stick float angler the extra colour, cold and the fact the fish are constantly against the flow forcing them to feed hard you see the change in the feeding habits of the river fish as winter gets a grip, colder the better for me.

Away from my stick float fishing i do like my piking and last year wet my toes into to the world of dead baiting for pike and loved it.  This year i hope to do more dead baiting on both rivers and still waters and with the pike season only a month away as i write this update the pike thoughts are well and truly flowing through my mind, that and a special recent capture which will feature in  a mid week blog on its own next week, till then here is a sneak preview of that blog update..

I am a firm believer in angling being a journey as you go through life and along the way you learn bits that all come together for you to pass onto the next generation later on in life and most of the time this learning comes from mistakes we have made and to develop we have to analyse and learn from these mistakes before we move on and i am seriously looking to do that with this years piking.  The last pike season i lost far two many fish after getting the bite and this came down to two reason, 1. Landing net being too small and the hooks getting stuck in mesh seeing the pike turn and flip from the hooks leaving me with a landing net full of hooks  2. The hooks not setting proper on the strike and the fish coming off.  I have put plenty of thought the past month into the piking and made two decisions around this and they are to purchase a bigger deeper landing net and also to come to terms that losing fishing by hooks net setting is just part of pike fishing with their bony mouths but to do as much as i can i am going to be making my own traces this season for my pike fishing, so the past few days has saw plenty of deliveries including all the bits to make a pike trace which i will be featuring as a guide in a future update as i learn how too and also a 30 inch Fox Rubber Mesh Predator net.  Sorry for the lack of diversity in product companies i have been infected by a Fox Addict.

All the components in place all remains now is to build some pike traces and the purchase of some dead baits next month and to batter the hours in work to get some Flexi to get the 01st of October off to get out on the bank for Esox on the opening day, excitement is growing.

Before we get into this weeks fishing which was on the banks of the river dee i would like to say how great it was during this trip to see Nation Resources Wales on the river in a boat checking the licences of anglers on the bank.  The guys apologised for disturbing my swim and thanked me for having a licence and my time and you my reply was simple "no worries, great to see you on the river, Winter time at 6am in the morning is the time to catch the people causing proper damage on the river taking pike two and three at a time" i then passed on any information i had witnessed over the last year or so and he did make some notes which was great to see.  This going up the river in a boat is a fantastic way of doing it as it means there is no hiding place no mater how many fields you walk from your car to the river bank the boat see's every swim and every angler, fantastic to see and i would not mind seeing it every week.

I thought i would include this in the blog as all to often we read bad news stories about how little these and the EA do to protect our rivers from poaching and non paying anglers so here is a good news story, great to see as said.

on to this weeks fishing....

River Dee Dace On Stick - Autumn and the Hemp Begins to Work.

The video above probably defines why i love rivers so much as there is no better feeling than walking the banks just before first light with only the sounds of the birds and flowing water to break the silence although i must admit being in such a remote location on this session and being the only one out die to uncle having other business to deal with it was a little eerie.  In the early morning light i could just make out the river and i was looking for the depth as i planned to fish on some rocks in the margin before a deep gorge dug out by the river as it sweep round a bend.

Rivers are dangerous places there is no doubt about that and you have always got to be on the ball on the banks and also do your homework off them.  I knew that all being well and no one being on the peg i was going to be not only fishing low to the river but actually a few feet in the river so building up to the session i was checking the water levels on the EA and also checking the tides time tables as i was low enough down to be effected by a high tide.  The thing to remember is that the water does not always rise where you are say, a lot of the time the first sign you get is the gear behind you floating past you as the water comes up behind you, had it happen to me once on almere but thank fully my uncle was with me and we managed to get all my gear off the shingle bank in time.

That experience is not something i am ever planning on repeating and as such do always take care to look into and learn the water level and tide charts for river i fish.   Setting up in the dark is something you learn to do over time and you would be amazed just how much you can do rig wise in the dark by just feel alone, knots can be tied and even hooks tied just by feel.  Stood threading a 17ft rod in the light offered by my cars headlamps is nothing new but is still one of the best memories of a days fishing as you do think to yourself just what are you doing at the age of 30 in the dark threading a rod in your car lamps.....got it bad haha.

The river dee is full of special swims and secluded little oasis's of privacy but i don't think i have ever fished in such a special and varied swim as this one.  The flow flowing round a bend and speeding up as it comes off into a slight straight the flow increases as it reaches my swim where the power of the flow has dug out a deep canyon in the river bed it looked good early light as i could make out a slower run along the far bank  down to a over hanging tree, looked good i thought.

The rod set up and my basket on some solid stones i must admit to struggling to find a place for my keep net as out in front was certainly out of the question in such a flow so a quick move further down the swim saw me finding a drop off to my left with enough water to place my keepnet.  All set i was ready to make my first cast.

By the time i had set up it was light enough to see the swim in its entirety and i instantly was left with a feeling like i had made a mistake the water was a lot faster than i had thought so i knew feeding was going to be hard and also i could see a few boils on the inside suggesting the presence of some big abstractions on the bottoms so i instantly ruled out a line down the inside.  Sitting in the swim for a few moments i was looking for a line to fish and i noticed a slow run with a smooth  glide to it across the other side of the fast flow so i began feeding this line.  The first trot down the float settled and buried striking i was met with the solid feeling of a snag!! Great i thought as i reached for another hook length and with a few rigs made up i was soon back fishing again, not for long though as just a bit further down the far bank run i hit another snag, not good and after that i abandoned the near and far bank line, what to do.

I placed the rod at my side and took a bit of time to think about a plan and began throwing maggots in places int he swim and watching where they went, it was during this i spotted that a piece of flow coming off the bend would go from my inside line right across to the tree on the far bank if i fed it right and place the float right on my rod tip.  I had finally found a set line i could fish that in knew should hold fish.  Now if anything sums up river fishing it was the next hours fishing, i know it was around a hour as i got a phone call and it was 6am and also got a text of the better half at 7.05 and i had just had my first fish, as for about an hour i fed and trotted away without a tap from a fish you would swear the river had no fish in it at all but i kept feeding as i knew that eventually i would draw fish and this is the good thing about rivers your bait is going in your swim and all over the river down stream for hundreds of metres if it has too but somewhere those maggots and hemp are getting eaten and eventually they move up far enough that your trot covers them.

After a hours fishing i had my first fishing i had my first fish, a dace.

Now some people would be a bit put off by such a tiny fish for all that effort but i was delighted as you never ever find dace alone, where there is one there is almost certainly more.  The next bit of the session i picked up the odd fish right as the swim was level with the far bank tree and it wasn't long before i clocked that this is where they wanted to hold so i began feeding my hemp so it was landing where i was getting my bites.  The bites where quite confident at this point and holding back just at the killing zone and letting go i soon got into a rhythm of feeding casting holding back let go and strike and it was amazing to see how alive the swim was considering it had been dead as a door nail for a hour, like i say that is the beauty of river fishing you always feel like something can happen.

For the next few hours i caught well and missed a shed load of bites as the fish came too soon after letting go after holding back for me to strike and i missed some sail away bites.  This was not all plain sailing though as the fish did seem to move out of the swim and it was noticeable that a big pouch of hemp fed over brought the fish back on hard.  Hemp is a fantastic bait for holding fish but it does not always work and can be hit or miss for silver fishing in summer but this time of year as autumn takes a grip and we move into winter hemp comes into its own for fishing for me and on this session i doubt i would have done so well had i not had brought hemp.

The fish kept coming lured in by the trickle of maggots and the bed of hemp that i am sure was being washed away quickly hence me having to feed it so much to bring them back on and it was during the later stages of the fishing right in the flow i caught probably the most unusual capture in this perch, a fish normally caught in  slacker water.

The fish i was catching were by no means the big dace but in the flow they all felt good fish and i enjoyed a fantastic morning's dace fishing and even the odd heavy shower could not ruin my happy days fishing although a well placed stick was always glanced at to see if the down pours upstream were having an effect on levels.

The final net went 10lb 10oz and packing in around 1pm i was more than happy with my morning efforts and pleased i stuck by my guns and believed the fish would come.

i got back in the car just in time to miss a big down pour

Till next time its tight lines from me and look out for a blog update midweek of a evening session i had on a small river where the cold really brought the predators on the feed.

Danny