Opposites

I've been out on consecutive days this week, visiting two venues that were vastly different. The first session was on the River Teme, which is a venue I'd never fished before. I was accompanied by Charlie and the intention was to act on a tip off from his cousin, who had said that plenty of Grayling were showing up in a certain section. Having never caught a Grayling before (or even seen one in person) I was well up for this venture.

It was a cracking bit of water, if perhaps running a little on the clear side. Mountain goat blood and climbing skills are required in many places though to cope with the steep banks. That said, there were plenty of pegs to go at and we covered quite a bit of water.

Sadly though, the Grayling never showed up and the fishing was actually quite hard. I thought I was going to blank, but a chub of around two and a half pounds saved me from that fate. Charlie managed a couple of Chub of that stamp and also came off second best when hooking a Barbel on gear that was under-gunned.

The next day saw me heading off to tackle the more sedate College Pool with Brian. Although clearly around 4 foot below normal level, there's still plenty of depth to it. I was hoping for Perch and set up a couple of leger rods - one with prawns and the other with red maggots. I would have liked some worms, but my preparation was hampered (bad planning on my part) and I had to do without them.

The Perch didn't show up and I eventually moved from prawns to bread, pellet and boilies at various times throughout the session. All of the action came on the maggot rig, but it was tough going to find the bites. I only had 6 fish all session.

The Bream put in an appearance and I had 3 of them. The two best went 5lb 5oz and 5lb 8oz.

The other fish were small Rudd, Roach and a pretty little Carp, the latter of which gave a right old pull around on the quiver tip and tore off with such force that I thought I'd hooked one of the Barbel.

Brian didn't trouble the scorecard on this occasion.

What's Gone Wrong?

Some of you will be quick to notice a lack of photos within this post and that's never a good sign is it?

I had a session last Sunday - a day which saw the temperature lifting very quickly from the cold snap we'd endured for the previous couple of weeks. I was on the Avon at Alveston, but a different part to my usual haunt. It fished woefully and I never had a bite. I was initially targeting Chub, but the session ended up with me going for Pike again, but I might as well have been fishing for Marlin!

I blamed it squarely on the section of river I was fishing, as the conditions seemed fine - well, I was hardly going to blame myself was I?! It's a section that I struggled on at this time last year and I figured that maybe history was repeating itself. I convinced myself that the fish had shoaled up elsewhere, as I'd had plenty of bites off another section a few hundred yards away just 2 weeks earlier.

I started to wonder though, when I saw the reports coming in from other bloggers, suggesting that even the banker sections of the upper Avon were now struggling.

This week I had a Friday to spare and I went back to Alveston on my favoured village section. The result was just the same though. No bites and no fish topping. The Pike weren't playing ball either. It's suddenly turned into a tough cookie. I gave up and popped into Victoria Park (Leamington) on my way home to have a quick hour on the Leam. I should have just gone straight home though! Another blank hour passed me by and again no signs of anything fishy.

I had a busy day planned for Saturday, but part of that was to pop into the fishing show at the Ricoh for a couple of hours. I picked up a few bits, including a cheap adaptor for attaching a camera to a bankstick. Finally, no more precarious balancing of my camera on all manner of objects for those self-take shots. If only I had something to photograph...

Some Might Call It Insanity

I knew it was going to be a cold one and at -7C I wasn't to be disappointed. I briefly questioned my sanity, but then thought about the other options. Either I stay at home and find jobs to do (or more likely someone else would find jobs for me!), or go fishing. It didn't take long to decide!

With ice removed from the car, I was on my way through the Warwickshire countryside to my usual haunt of the Avon at Alveston. Any thoughts of doing anything other than Pike fishing were banished to the back of my mind. Most pegs had ice in the margins, but were perfectly fishable with a bit of thought and care.

I settled into peg 3 and deployed two deadbait rods - one with a large chunk of Sardine and the other with a Sprat. Both baits came courtesy of Morrisons fish counter. My spare freezer at home houses quite a selection of bargain basement supermarket bought baits, to complement the tackle shop deadbait purchases that Morrisons would struggle to sell! 

I didn't have to wait long for some action - in fact the first cast with the Sardine to the right hand side of the swim, resulted in a take. It looked a bit finnicky so I had to be patient to let it develop. I connected with the fish though and it came in reasonably easily. Deja vu crept into mind again,as it looked very similar to the fish Brian caught a week earlier. I removed the hooks and gave it a chance to recover in the margins while I prepared to weigh and photograph it.

I put it on to the scales just as a dog walker came by. "It's a bit cold for fishing" he said, while failing to notice me holding a lump of a fish in a dirty great net. I pointed out that the fish didn't seem all that bothered! His eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw I'd caught something. I was set up for a self take, but his dog got in the way and the fish flipped round at the wrong moment! One day I'll have to get round to posting some of my outtakes on here! Fortunately the dog walker took the camera for me and made life a little easier.

It weighed in at 10lb 2oz, which was 1oz different to Brian's fish last week. A check of the photos when I got in confirmed that it was the same fish.

I moved pegs straight away and went over to peg 4. It produced nothing, so I moved past the unfishable peg 5 and down to peg 9. It had the advantage of a nice bench, which I was able to customise with my unhooking mat for extra comfort (dry side up of course!).

I slobbed  it out for a couple of hours, but nothing showed up. A few snowflakes started to appear and reports on the radio suggested that more widespread snow was starting to push through the Midlands. As I wasn't exactly bagging up, I took the sensible option of retreating home.

Brian's Day

Another day out on the Avon at Alveston and this time I was accompanied by Brian on his maiden outing of 2012. We both hedged our bets with some silver fish gear and the inevitable predator gear.

I'll cut my story short by saying that I didn't have a great day. I was plagued by small Dace and couldn't find any way through them. The tip never stopped rattling, but the bonus Chub I was hoping for never showed up. Early on in the session my sleeper deadbait rod briefly woke up and I connected with a small Pike, but the fight was short lived and the fish was off.

Brian was on the next peg down and he was also having the odd Dace. The difference was that he made better use of his sleeper rod. He saw the tip pull round and something was onto his legered Sprat. I popped over to help net the fish and it went in very tamely. We guessed it might be knocking double figures and so it proved - just about! It weighed in at 10lb 1oz. It was an immaculate looking fish and certainly one that I hadn't seen before.



He had a further Pike later on, courtesy of his legered maggot rig! This one was a much smaller and sporting some battle scars. It was 4lb 10oz.

He nearly made it three, when a fish picked up his deadbait just as he was lifting it up through the water. The fish quickly spat the bait out though. 

Time for a Change

With an afternoon to spare, I took the chance of checking out the River Blythe for a change. My only previous trip to the river a couple of seasons ago ended in a disaster with just a single signal crayfish. I was hoping for much better this time around. 

I settled into the obvious swim and kicked off by legering 3 maggots on a size 15. It didn't take too long to open my account with a Chub of around 8oz. Another one about of about a pound followed not too long after.

I then had to endure a longish biteless spell, during which time I decided to set up a second rod so I could fish with bread at the same time. That change had an instant impact when I took another pound class Chub on my second drop in with the bread.

Things then went quiet - very quiet indeed. I felt that I wasn't really fishing either rod properly and I decided to go back to one rod with the bread. During the lean spell a Robin popped by to amuse me. I thought the cheeky little bugger was going to dive into my maggot box! It got what it came for though.

The bread was proving frustrating and I had a few occasions where the tip banged round, but nothing was there. It was possibly line bites, but I always take encouragement from any fishy movements on the rod tip. I stuck it out into overtime - convinced that another  Chub was going to come. It duly arrived on my very last cast, but at 2lb 15oz it wasn't the clonker I'd been holding out for.



A pleasant little experiment and now I know what to expect, I'm sure I can improve on things next time.

Justice

I had some work on in Bristol and with the weather forecast looking good, I decided to make the best use of my day - which meant getting the hell out of work as quickly as possible. I closed things off just after midday and was back on the road back to destination Warwickshire Avon. By 2-15pm I was on the bank and ready for some Piking up to dusk.

I'd only got the one rod (my trusty 8ft telescopic) and it was already set up for thrashing a Sprat bait around a few swims to see if any Pike were willing to chase a bait. Nothing happened across the 3 banker swims (conveniently also the shortest walks!) so I broke down the set up and rigged up for a float leger approach on peg 3 with a bigger bait - a chunk of Sardine.

I moved the bait several times to different parts of the swim and was about a coffee break away from giving peg 4 a try. The float then started to bob and I had to wait a short while for it to turn into a definite take. I struck into it and it was very solid from the off. I knew this was another of those doubles that I have been losing all too often recently. .

After a few powerful runs and a couple of close misses with the net, the fish was finally mine. The barbless hooks were nicely positioned and popped out easily. On the scales it went 15lb 11oz. The mat in the picture is 38 inches long.

Having now checked some other photos of a 15lb 13oz fish I caught in December from 2 pegs upstream, it's definitely the same fish - now 2oz lighter. As I also photographed both sides of the fish this time, I compared it to one that Brian caught at 13lb 15oz last February and I can at least say it wasn't the same fish as that one! 

I had no other bites, but I was happy to bank a decent fish at last. Perhaps it's now time to turn my attention to other species again. I note there have been a number of 4lb+ Chub showing up in other bloggers catches already this year. Maybe a bit of Chubbing is on the cards?

Could Do Better!

More Piking again for me this week. I'm convinced that a mid/upper double is around the corner and so I keep putting in the groundwork on my favoured Pike haunt on the Avon.

This week I took a more static approach and rigged up a couple of deadbaits under floats. For this approach I left the smaller Sprats out of it and opted for Roach and Lamprey. After an hour of nothing I couldn't help but have a speculative wobble of the Lamprey as I lifted the rig out of the swim. Bugger me, a Pike grabbed it straight away! It was only a small Jack and it ejected the bait pretty quickly.

I moved off to the next swim and managed to repeat the above feat almost to perfect execution - a long biteless period, followed by a small Jack snatching the bait as I enticingly lifted it up. I ditched one of the float rigs and decided that maybe a more roving approach with the Sprats was in order again. It didn't work though and I settled in with a single Roach deadbait, which eventually resulted in a small Jack.

I don't know whether to call this fish lucky or unlucky. It was battered up and had an awful wound down one side. I don't recall anything untoward during the fight - like a bigger Esox getting stuck into it. Whatever this fish had been through it was still capable of feeding though, but it really needs to get a bit more street wise! It swam off with reasonable intent.

I had one further hook up later in the day on a wobbled Sprat. It was the best fish of the day, but once again the hooks didn't take a proper hold and the fish was gone. It wasn't a huge fish - certainly short of a double, but would have been enough to leave me with a more satisfying feeling to end the day.

Yet again, I've lost more fish than I've banked, which is starting to annoy me. I'm going to take a closer look at my rigs, as there must be a way to improve my chances. I don't expect to bank every fish, but I'm currently around the 40% mark in 2012 for Pike, which feels too low. Time for some homework and maybe a change of hook pattern.