Dork hat

Date fished 3/11/2024

8am until 12.30pm

You may remember, I asked the kids what they wanted to try and catch this year. Rupe said a pike and Martha said a chub, (she has since changed this to a river carp!!) . I wondered if I could sort both together? Well, I could try. 

Earlier in the week, I went to Tight Lines North East and bought some dead baits. It's been a while since I did this style of fishing. I remember why now.  It can be frustrating, but rewarding! 

We set off early with pain au chocolate, wrapped in tin foil. They were eaten well before we left Hexham. We had two rods, one for pike and one for chub. The usual tactics. 

Martha wore waders, but hadn't checked if they fitted. She had tried the boot on but not pulled up the legs. She waddled all the way to the river moaning! 

We started at the washing machine peg. I was hoping for a chub here but thought a pike may be on the cards too.  We lacked stealth, the kids creating the actual noise of a washing machine! 

It just turned into a place for selfies. We moved on upstream and found the perfect swim. We waited and only got snagged. I remembered the pit falls of pike fishing. 

You can see Rupes float, waiting for a bite

We moved on and found another perfect swim. No bushes, no cover. Just a slack on our bank in an otherwise expanse of flowing river. It was 10.40am, we cast in and gave ourselves until 11am. 

I had explained to Rupe about reeling in slowly when we are moving on as this can still produce a bite. At 11am he started to reel, the bait came inches to the bank and rose in the clear water. We both saw the pike follow and lunge at his bait. It grabbed it and he held on. He played it like a pro and we were soon netting (a bit downstream) his first pike. Very proud dad. At 8lb 7oz it was a great first fish. 

We moved on upstream and found a swim we thought was chubby, we could also sit here and eat our lunch, chubby too! 

The cheesepaste was cast in by the bush and we waited. I am not sure if it was Martha wiggling on the chair or a fish but the rod definitely did something. There was nothing on the end though and even the trick of giving it until 12.30 didnt work. We left happy and still wanting more, isn't that the best way!? 

The dork hat was a phrase coined by my dad and his mate Les on a fishing trip. I think Rupe wears it well!!

Title intentionally left blank

Date fished 11/11/2023

8:30am until 3.30pm 

Two blanks from my last two trips, I was starting to get worried. With cold weather now approaching, the fishing was going to get tough. Looking at the conditions, and discussing with Ellis and Tom, a Tees trip was planned. 

What actually happened was Ellis and I went to a club water for pike and chub and Tom headed to an association water in search of pike. More on him later. 

I dropped in to get maggots and met Ellis at the venue at 8.30. A short walk to the river and we saw the frost waiting for us. In truth, the sun came out quite strongly and we both regretted not having sunglasses (for only about five minutes).

Ellis had pike gear and a ledger rod for chub, I had a chub ledger rod and a float rod for ..............

We walked a fair way upstream, avoiding a suicidal pheasant and decided on a spot, in hindsight the wrong spot. A few casts and some leaves caught.

I watched some bubbles move towards me, I knew what it was. An otter surfaced five feet in front of me, did a 360 flip and splashed away. A moment later popping its head out to look at me again. Was great to see. A few more leaves caught, so we moved on. 

Another spot fished, even more leaves caught here, so we headed back to the start of the beat. 

The fact this whole time was a few hours, shows the type of fishing trip we had, the highlight being a new jetty.

However, as always, it's not just about catching. Ellis and I had a good old chat and a giggle as every swim we fished in together. 

Picking a swim we both fancied, and should of started in. We fished again. After a few minutes Ellis's deadbait was away and a spirited pike swimming around in the deep slack. 

As we fished on, I remarked that we had not seen a Kingfisher. Not ten minutes later, one then two flew past, settled on branches opposite and fished there most of the afternoon. They caught more than me too!! 

With that premonition coming true so quick, I then tried my luck with declaring I had not caught a big chub, Ellis quickly announced he had not won the lottery yet! If he's not around tomorrow, he's won and not told us!! 

The phone was soon beeping with news from Tom's "lottery" win. He had caught a tiddler (his words). At 18lb 5oz, ( A new pb) it was a great pike. Well done to him!!

Soon it was getting colder and a quick move to another slack had me clutching for another blank saver. I had already tried and failed to catch a minnow. Ellis and I had both some snags to our tally though. 

It was not to be and the drive home was spent feeling proud of my mates and their pike! And I just got worms, not those kind!! Oh, and three blanks in a row! 

Pike Fishing by A.R. Chumbley

29/12/2021

8am until 3.30pm

I always wondered what it would be like to write a book. Let's see how it might go. 

A snappy cover pic would probably be something like this: 

Then I would detail how my fishing trip went, maybe like this:

A red sky in the morning.... well you know the rest. However, Ellis and I are not shepherd's, so we didn't let a red sky stop us going fishing. We met just after 8am at a section of the Tees we usually fish in summer. We usually trot the stick float with maggots and catch some decent fish. We also get plagued with Pike when we have 2lb hook links and size 18 hooks. So, today we came with 15lb line, trebles, newly made traces and Pike gear only! 

A gentle down hill walk got us to the river. Quite a bit up on normal level and with some pace, but the gauge said it was dropping. Some mild weather expected later in the week, so hopefully the Pike would be on the munch and we would find them in the slacks. 

We walked to the first swim and cast in. We had decided to fish in every swim together, with only one rod each there was enough space. I had (very old) Lamprey as bait and Ellis had Mackerel. As the floats bobbed around in the water we chatted about past and future trips, work, life and generally just caught up. 

It was Ellis that saw my float start to bob, twitch and slowly slide away. I was straight on the rod, fish on. I soon realised this was the first fish on my new (now 12 months old) Pike rod and I didn't want to lose it. I played it carefully and soon it was guided to the net. Ellis rested it while I got ready. Soon the fish was unhooked (easy with barbless trebles), photographed, weighed and returned. A pristine Pike of 8lb 8oz definitely worth a good few pics! 

We tried a while in this swim, but no more fish so headed downstream. We fished our way down to where the trees blocked our path even though we think our club water continues further along this bank. We will have to consult the maps. By now the skies had darkened and the rain heavy. The wind soon picked up too and the day was turning miserable. We turned around and headed back up stream to fish some swims we had walked past. Every swim was fished for 20 to 30 mins, two rods. Checking all the slack water, even that only inches from the bank. We were sure another Pike would be waiting. 

Eventually we were back to the first swim and we swapped positions ( I had caught my fish on the left, so Ellis now fished here. I am a goodun!?!) and fished on. Nothing doing the second time so we headed further upstream to areas we had not fished today and never seen before in summer! They were always covered by thick vegetation. We found a perfect looking swim. After getting snagged, but getting all my tackle back, I sat back and we both watched Ellis's float, desperate for it to slide away. 

Sadly the float stayed still and as the sun came out and dried us off, we tried our last swim. Ellis even got the lure rod out and tried with a large lure to knock the Pike over the head, when that didn't work it was time to call it a day. A slow trudge up the hill to the cars. Once the cars were loaded, Ellis gave me a Christmas present. Not a typewriter or dictionary to aid my writing skills, but a soup thermos. It seems my envious stares of him tucking into hot soup on cold winter days had not gone unnoticed!!

So back to writing my book. Two things I think I would struggle with:

1. Editing and selecting one picture. Clearly, as seen above, I just put all the pictures in as I couldn't choose.

2. My books title. I don't think Mr Hartley would appreciate me just nicking his! 

Contigency

Date fished 18/11/2021

7.30am until 1.57pm

I am heading down to that there London to spend the weekend with the boys. We have decided to do Movember, so myself and the tash jumped in the car and headed South. As Dwix was not going to be home until later in the evening, I thought I  would stop on my way past the Swale and see if I could bag a Chub or two.

Bags all packed for the fishing and then the weekend, I set off at 6am and drove to the river. The car told me it was 16 degrees, don't think I needed the thermals on. I walked to the river and immediately saw changes. A few trees that were close to the bank have fallen in. These have created new slacks and potentially new fish holding areas. I thought I would put this to the test. 

I filled a small feeder with breadcrumb,  moulded cheese paste around  the cork ball and cast in. After a while, there was a knock, then a gentle pull. I struck, fish on. I played it in the tight gap between trees, it felt very much like a Chub. Then the hook hold gave way. No break, no snag, just came free. I fished on but this incident must have spooked them as no further bites. I decided to head off downstream. I do like this time of year, the bank vegetation is really low, you can access more swims but the fish still get cover. Plus, in reality the fish are probably well hidden in the roots, stuff we never get to see. 

I walked downstream and just looked at the river, I was thinking of where to fish and I remembered a few trips ago seeing a Chub on my bank, trying to tempt it with bait but it swam across the river to a bush on the far side. I decided to go fish there. I cast in and waited, it must have been less than five minutes and the rod pulled tight, I struck and the drag gave out line. A good fight from a good sized Chub. 

I tried to weigh it, but the battery had died. I hoped I would not live to regret this later!? It made me think about packing a spare, and a spare spare, and well you know what I mean? Where does contingency stop? 

It was easily over 4lb but I don't think over 5lb, so I was happy. I was glad I went for the walk, although when the sun came out, with the thermals on I had to take my coat off! 

I walked back the way I had came and fished in the first swim again, deciding to eat my lunch here and see if the fish were hungry again. No bites, but in the sun you could of been mistaken that it was a summers day. 

After no action, I decided a short walk upstream. About the same distance as I had walked down, just to balance it out! A few good swims but nothing. Literally nothing! I realised I had left my cheese paste in the first swim.

A quick walk and I was reunited with my cheesy bait. It works magic this time of year. I have caught numerous Chub on it, Trout and even Pike! Amazing, definitely a fluke and a one off! 

As I was so close to where I started, I thought I would give it another go. Third time lucky? I only had 30 minutes before I was going to set off for London. I cast in and waited. I had a strange bite, and then nothing. I waited a few seconds but nothing happened. A fish must have taken my bait, so I wound down to check. As the line tightened, something pulled back. It woke up and lunged around the swim. This was no Chub, big lunges caused the drag to spin. It was toothy as expected and was quickly netted. Two pike on Cheese paste now, how many more before I list cheesepaste as a dead bait!? 

It seemed a good time to end, it was 1.57pm and I planned to stop at 2pm. 

I have persuaded Dwix to try some fishing again. We blanked last time, so tomorrow we are heading to the Grand Union Canal to see what we can catch. I do hope he has some batteries!! 

Backwards twist with Pike

Date fished 11/9/2021

7am until 3.30pm

For reasons we all understand, I know where I was 20 years ago today. I was in Botswana, no fishing that trip but having watched River Monsters and similar, I would of loved to have fished for some African monsters, maybe one day. Now, I think of it I have not fished much abroad. Once in France when I was away with a mate in our early teens, unfortunately 70 pence bottles of wine and girls took over that fishing experience. Secondly off Marbella with Davey and my nan, we were Marlin fishing, sadly a big fat blank, and that's my lot. Note to self - need more fishing experience abroad!

Nothing as exotic today, although Ellis and I went to fish a part of the Tees we have not fished much, if ever together. I think I have only fished it a few times and Ellis the same. We came to look at it once but were not fishing so just looked from the bridge. It was an ATDAC water at Over Dinsdale. Armed with just trotting gear, we set off to the river. As is often on these rivers, the vegetation was huge and although we could see the river, having a swim (to fish from) was something entirely different. 

I was already set up and fishing whilst Ellis was getting ready. I had a Dace, Roach, Chub and Gudgeon in about six casts.  

Those eagle eyed of you will notice that these are different fish. I did indeed catch two different Gudgeon. Ellis got one too. It made us laugh as a recent post on Big Elbow Facebook page was asking about Tees Gudgeon only this week! 

We fished on as we needed a Perch to "complete the set". We wondered how many species we could catch in the Tees? 

Ellis soon adding the Perch. 

We had waded to the middle of the river, this was the shallower part and we fished along the edges. Usually, like most anglers we headed to the far bank. Today though, most of the fish were on our nearside bank, and barely a rod length out. Ellis quickly changed to some ledgered meat to see if a Chub (or Barbel) was hiding on the far bank. I switched to worm and caught four good sized Perch in as many casts. 

Ellis soon came back and we were both stood mid river enjoying a fish a chuck session. I added another species, a Grayling being caught. Honest it's there!! 

Being stood in the water, it dived safely back into the river. We decided to move, yes we were catching but we wanted to see some more or this stretch too. 

We fished where we could, plenty of the river was fishable if you got through the vegetation. We walked a good 100 metres and the swim numbers only went down by one! This really was a spread out section.

We caught in most of the swims, but moved on regularly to cover more ground. We targeted the faster sections as we assumed the fish would be in the oxygen rich water. Ellis found a fast run and caught a few Chub. The rain came down but it didn't dampen our mood. I wondered off upstream to try against a fallen tree. 

"I have a Barbel!!" Came the cry from Ellis. 

I could see him, his rod nearly bent double and line coming off his spool. I was only 30 metres upstream but I set off to see. Not looking properly, I slipped on a rock and fell in the river. I put my arm out and it went in up to my shoulder. Water coming in over my waders as I jumped up!! Quick as a flash I carried on to see what Ellis had caught. A few laughs as he saw how wet I was, was quickly changed to seriousness as he played this fish. I got the net ready and we finally saw his float. The rod still bent double, he played it towards us. Suddenly the rod sprang back, the weight was released and his prize was in the net! 

Clearly a good sized Pike had grabbed this Chub. We didn't make it eight species and we were both left stunned, and me very wet!!

After all this commotion, we moved again. I squelched as we went. 

We fished another fast glide, I managed a Perch and then a Chub on worm before being snagged. A few hooklinks later and we were catching in the fastest of white water. 

20 minutes walking and we had gone from swim 71 to 67. We found a swim and started to feed. At first glance there was no fish, but as the feed went in, suddenly it came alive. I was soon into some good Perch, this being the pick of them. 

It was soon going to be time for me to leave so we agreed 20 more minutes and we would pack up. After 30 minutes it was time to go. We had caught lots of fish and managed six species. 

A steady trudge back to the car and I could take off the waders. I rung out my socks and emptied the river water out of my boots. Still soaking there was nothing left to do, so it was trousers off and driving home in my pants. Sorry, no picture of that, ripped like Tom Daley I am not!!