Clear water, clear loss

Date fished 24/2/18

With the river levels a lot lower than in recent weeks, when it came to deciding where I would fish if came down to a coin toss. Tails was river Tees obviously, and heads was the Swale. The coin tossed and heads it was, I was off to the Swale.

With the lost fish last time, I would go for Pike and Chub again. Deadbaits and meat or paste for chub, and I would try something else for them too.

Arriving at the river at 7am conditions looked good. The river had dropped a lot and I settled into a swim for Pike. As the sun got up, it was apparent I did not need beanie and gloves, it was more a cap and glasses day! As it got lighter I realised just how clear the water was. If I had tossed the coin into the river I would have been able to see the side in 6ft of water and maybe the date on the coin!!! It was gin clear with added finings for clarity! (Google it)

It was going to be tough.
After nothing on the Pike rod, I tackled up for chub. Having caught Chub whilst on deadbaits, I cut some Lamprey into chunks and used a meat spike to present it under likely looking trees and rafts. The majority of time it had to be right under or I could see the bait.

I wondered where on days like this the fish would be. Where they would shelter from predators. I have seen the water this clear in summer, lower too and always seen fish swimming about. Today I saw nothing, the river cupboard was bare.

After walking the stretch and counting stones on the bottom, I thought I was better off having an early bath and giving up. After packing up and driving off, I heard a clumping noise. Thinking it was the frozen puddles, I stopped looked in the mirror and seeing nothing, drove off.

As I was unpacking the car and seeing no net in the boot, I realised I had left the net propped against the car as I drove off. Completely oblivious as it's a piece of kit I have not been using since 2018 started!!
Annoyed at myself for the loss, I got settled down to watch the Rugby, do some on line retail therapy and generally curse some more, (the rugby score and out of stock net)

Who needs to be old to be grumpy? I am doing just fine!?

It certainly beat a day not fishing........just.

Quest continues

Date fished 18/02/2018

Dave and I hit the Tees to see if we could tempt a Pike. The river had been unfishable for a while with heavy rain, cold weather, flooding and a lot of sediment. Today looked better. It was a day of walking and casting. Dave using his large lures on heavy tackle, me with deadbaits and small soft plastics on a light rod for a change.

We started off at a new area for me, in a classic looking pike swim. As the fog cleared, the river looked perfect. The peacefulness only interruted by the splash of the large burts or other type of lure Dave flung on his 80lb braid.

As I watched my float, I saw a large head break the surface right next to it, it's snake like neck and body coming completely out the water as a Cormorant looked as surprised to see us as we were to see it!! It must have been after my bait, but the float did not move, so assume it did not get it. Assuming the Cormorant must also be here where bait fish are, we fished on.  We continued in a few more swims, only seeing a Heron. Again assuming this to be a good area for bait fish and therefore Pike, we fished on.

A quick change of location saw us walking a good few miles. We spotted so many good swims for both Pike and Chub.

So it just leaves me to tell you how we got on, as is normally the case when I have something to show, this is best done in picture format, so I will leave you with this...

Blanks continue

Date fished 10/2/18

Today I was back on the Swale, this time at Morton. I was fishing both the Stockton water and the Northallerton sections. My intended target was chub and pike.

The weather was described as blustery with sleet! But it was a day I could go fishing, so fishing I was going!!

I  had dead baits,  cheese paste and curried meat. All taken out the freezer just before I was leaving, put in my well used cool bag, into the boot and off. However, today was different. My bait did not defrost all day, that's how cold it was... frozen meat all day, non eupho!

It was cold when I arrived, just before 8am. Firstly I was going to target pike. I had lamprey as bait. It is my go to choice as pike bait. Has also caught me some big chub on the Swale and Tees.

The float looked perfect in the slack water, waiting. I tackled up the other rod, ledgering with a meat spike (bait anchor). Hopefully my cheese paste would stay on this. As my first attempt, it's not quite right, last time out it was not staying on the hook properly and was crumbly instead of a paste.

The float laying flat, suddenly tilted up, then sailed away. I struck instantly, connecting with the fish, I saw it in the water, it looked bronze and did a complete 360 and the line went slack. It looked like a chub, I  put the bait straight back there. Nothing. I inspected the bait and there were small tooth marks across the middle of the bait. It must have been a pike, just grabbed the bait and was not hooked. I have seen the white underside as bronze before, I put it down to the water colour making the white look bronze because of the sediment in the water. I wonder how often we mis-identify? Only   knowing once it's safely in the net.

It was good to be having bites, but in this cold, I needed to be catching too.

I fished on, but with no more interest, I went downstream to try a swim I have caught from before. No pike here, just a huge mud slide which had defrosted by now making it not only treacherous but fun!! No pike though.
I fished on my way back to the car, opting for chub on meat and cheese. The cheese stayed on better, but think that was because it never really thawed.

As the wind picked up, I decided to call it a day. Another blank, well a half blank, a bla.

I will be out again next weekend, to hopefully break this barren 2018 start, conditions are tough but I see some fish being caught. Please leave me a comment about when and what was your last fish caught of 2018, if nothing else it will keep me from going mad with the picture close ups!!

Say Cheese!

Date fished 28/1/2018

I will start with the result and then describe the day, 2-1 to Ellis.

Ellis and I went to Cundal on the Swale again, to see if we could avenge the New Year’s Day blank. The river had been high but was dropping down and was still heavily coloured. We had planned a different trip, but the conditions were not right so Mother Nature had us changing our plans and visiting Cundal.

I would be fishing for Pike and Chub (Barbel, secretly) and Ellis was going to have a couple of rods for Chub (Barbel, hopefully!) He was also going to be trying his new Burts on the Oxbow lake, that he had recently bought.

In preparation for the day, I had reviewed the deadbaits in the freezer, ensured the worms in the boot of my car were happy and then made cheese paste!

It was a first for me. I had never used or made cheese paste before, but read many a good article regarding its potency on cold coloured rivers for greedy chub.  The paste looked good and really did tick all the boxes in the “stinky” division.

We arrived at 8am and parked in the first field again, the track was very wet and we did not want to get stuck. Immediately it was different to our last trip, there was 3 other cars! We counted about 10 of us fishing over the day, the most I have ever seen on any river trip!

We started on the Oxbow, Ellis chucking burts whilst I sat behind Lamprey on one rod and worm on the other. No fish in the Oxbow wanted to have their picture taken so we moved to the main river.

Fishing above the weir in a very likely looking area we both went after Chub and Barbel. Ellis was first off the mark with a great slip in his first swim. 1-0 to him. In terms of fishing, he had a couple cracking bites but was unable to connect to the fish, chub assumed.

We continued up the river, chatting to the anglers and trying likely looking swims. The current was strong, 5.5 ounces needed to hold bottom. Here Ellis extended his lead slipping again in a new swim. 2-0 to him.

We settled in a section that had no cover on our bank, but was thick with willows on the far bank. I was looking to present a cheese bait close to the overhanging trees, unfortunately I slipped, falling straight on my bum for 2-1, was this the come back?

As we fished here, a lot of debris came down the river, noticeably a dead sheep. What caught my eye was how close to the overhanging trees the sheep kept. I had thought the main flow would be in the centre of the river, but the sheep stayed in a near straight line directly under the trees. Is this watercraft I thought? Is this me learning where on a river the flow goes, and where the fish may be waiting for food? Or did I just bang my head?

Further up the river we met an angler who was wearing a life jacket and had a boat strap securing him to a peg in the ground. Discussing this with him, his friend had fallen in last season and been fortunate enough to be grabbed before he drifted too far or became too waterlogged. There have been several articles regarding this in Angler’s Mail recently and it certainly got us thinking about safety on these slippery banks at this time of year.

We walked most of the stretch and found some nice looking swims. Due to scaling down of the tackle, I had to make do with equipment I found or made. I found a whole packet of shot and then had to make my own rod rest, or should this be a bank stick?!

Finally settling in a couple towards the end of the day that appeared perfect. Sat on my hands, watching the river flow past, it was a great end to the day. I sat watching as my rod hooped over, the fish obviously liking my cheese paste. Unfortunately my hands did not move, my brain did not register and I watched the rod spring back to its position.

Approaching 1630 it was time to trudge back to the cars. Both delighted to be going back to work the next day! (not)

Another great day on the bank, and as I said, it was 2-1 to Ellis, now we need to decide if was I talking about bites or slips, or both?

Fishing with Finygo

Date fished 14/01/2018

Today I was invited to fish a new river to me for Grayling. Chris, CEO of Finygo, the fishing app I use, invited me to fish with him and Harry, also of Finygo,on the River Ribble.

Heading to North Yorksire but down the M6, I was excited to be fishing a new water and chatting with more friendly fishing folk.

We met close to the River and tackled up. I was trotting worm and they were both fly fishing.
Later I found out nymphing with French leader was the method!!

I had a similar set up to the Grayling fishing on the Tees, however I had a small swivel, size 20 between the main line and the hook link. This was to avoid tangles and spinning when retrieving the bait. It worked well and also acted as a small weight down the line. This coupled with a bigger worm meant the bait got quite quickly to the bottom.

The river was a lot more intimate than the Tees and Swale, in places it was a stream. The water was gin clear and low.  There were many deeper pools but the majority you could still see the bottom it was that clear, which meant the fish could see us. A point demonstrated by Chris fishing from a crouching postion, not quite commando crawling to the waters edge!

The float looked perfect as it went down the glides, unfortunately it never did anything else. We walked the beat, trying many swims. Chris and Harry commenting expertly on areas that hold fish, plotting them on their apps and being contiually surprised by the changes of the River. They explained large areas that had been reshaped by the flow, ever changing the dynamics.

This got me thinking, I needed to "get to know" some stretches of my rivers.

We fished until we could no longer see the float, and then went to the pub for a pint and a chat.

It was great to meet new people and learn new methods. The app continues to aid with analysis of catches and if I can use it to record picture changes to my rivers and meet new people doing it, then we have one very happy user.

New Year, New Venue, No new catches

Date fished 1/1/2018

Ellis and I went to fish the River Swale at Cundall Lodge Farm.
I was going to be using the Finygo app again and hopefully catch something so I could record it.

We decided on two rods each, one using dead baits for Pike. We had Smelt, Sardine, Herring and Mackerel.

The other ledgering for Chub using various meats.
I had curried luncheon meat in big chunks, Ellis had Garlic meat in cylindrical pieces, steak and mince. It was turning into "The Great British Meat Off"!!

We had navigated the paying ritual and started down the track to the River. It involved driving through fields, through gates and off road!  In the  summer months you can park behind most swims, in the winter we were advised not to drive beyond field two. We parked up two thirds of the way down field one!! It was so boggy and muddy we did not want to be stuck come 1600.

It was only a short walk to the Ox bow lake, an area of water that was once the river. It was now cut off from the river, waiting for a flood when it would be re connected. Who knew what fish had remained in the lake after the last flood, waiting to get back into the river?

We fished several swims in here, but no fish. There was another angler here, who also joined us with the blank!

We then hit the main river, two metres up according to the river levels gauge.
Several swims were fished, using all baits. The river was high, fast and carried the odd tree down stream.

Checking the Finygo App, it perfectly mapped the route we took, which is great for keeping a record of today's trip, but also swims for the future.Although we did not catch anything today, we have the plan of attack for next time.

With the banks and track treacherous we walked back to the cars. No slipping over and neither car was stuck, all and all a great trip, with no soggy bottoms!!

I "cinq" on the canal

Date fished 28/12/2017

5 of us converged onto the Aire and Calder canal for a bit of Perch and Pike fishing. Giles and Rich were Perch fishing with light plastic lures, Dave was Pike fising with Burts, Ellis was doing a mixture of both plus drop shotting and I was dead baiting for Pike.

The weather was cold, but all suitably dressed we got to the canal, initially at either end of the section. We worked out our way towards the middle. Giles and Rich working their lures slowly along the bottom were first to catch Perch.

As I walked towards Dave and Ellis I could see the net being used. A lovely looking Pike at 7lb 10oz, it had a good belly on it! Had taken to the Lure.

We all continued our methods, a few follows of the lures and a few more Perch was the reward on this cold day.  Not a sniff on the deadbaits, but I heard laughs, chat and it was a great day to be out!