Early Promise?

No weekend fishing for me this time around, but Monday saw me with a day off work and I headed down to Ryton Pool. With memories of past years' early season Ryton trips in mind, I was more inclined towards pessimism than optimism. An overnight frost and bright conditions did nothing to bolster my confidence.

Those thoughts aside, I wasn't at work and the day was pleasant enough, so I'd give it my best shot and just enjoy a relaxing session doing what I enjoy. I wandered round to the sand bank area and opted for the right hand peg. I baited up and rigged up a straight lead sleeper rod to sit on the alarm, while also planning to do some float fishing.

It was only when I'd set up the float rod and threaded the line through the rings that I realised the minimum requirement for float fishing is having at least one float at your disposal! I'd slipped up because I had an enforced garage clear out in the week, due to the gas board doing work in our area and wanting access. Naturally, I cleared the fishing gear out of harms way.

The float box which was surplus to requirements on my previous trip got moved and didn't make it back into my bag. Float fishing was therefore off limits. Plan B was to simply fish two straight lead rigs and it gave me an excuse to test out my new bite indicators.

Plan C then had to be hatched because I now realised that during the time wasted in setting up the float rod, the Coots had moved in. Four of the little buggers were dive bombing the baited area with ever increasing vigour. They thought that Christmas had come early! I tried to dissuade them as best as I could, but it became all too clear that they weren't going anywhere. In all honesty I knew it was only likely to end in a hooked bird at some point if I didn't constantly keep on their case. Yelling out obscenities at wildfowl for an entire session isn't good for your state of mind. Something had to give...

So, plan C was to leave them to gorge on the baited area and I would rebait the left hand peg on the sand bank. The theory was that they wouldn't bother me if I didn't bother them and that's the way it worked out. It cost me a bit of wasted bait, but probably worth it in the end. I had lost a lot of time and it was gone 10-30 before I wet a line properly.

Now when I say worth it, the action wasn't exactly frantic. It was a tough old session with nothing to show until well into the afternoon. Then, as if by magic, I had an indication on each rod - both within 15 seconds of each other. Just like buses I guess! The first bite was missed, but the second connected and I banked a small Roach.  

A further Roach followed later on and I had a couple of other brief connections with small fish that resulted in the hook pulling out early on. The first fish that gave any sort of fight was a very feisty Tench of 3lb 7oz that didn't half scrap and came well into my final hour. I thought it was going to be closer to 5lb judging by the power of it. 

Not long after a second Tench put in an appearance. This one was a little better at 4lb 4oz.

I gave it a few extra minutes to try for one more fish and I duly connected to a Rudd of maybe 8-10oz that slipped the hook close in. I would have liked to carry on fishing, but time got the better of me again.

I can't recall getting amongst the Tench at Ryton during March before, so I was more than happy to bank a brace. I'll be giving them some stick over the next few months for sure. I always like the challenge at Ryton - it can be such a fickle place, but get it right and it can bring some nice rewards.

I also noted that the bank work has now started on the road bank which now looks very open and bland - there's a lot of information desk pegs now! I'll reserve judgement for now.

End Of Season Chubbing

The final weekend of the season arrived and I was struggling to find a slot to get out. With the weather feeling very spring-like, I simply had to find a few hours - especially as I had bait already waiting in the fridge. I managed to squeeze a 4 hour session into Saturday afternoon and I took a punt that a small pool on the River Blythe would be empty. I'm pleased to say that it was!

I spent a very pleasant 4 hours alternating maggots, caster and bread on a light straight lead set up. Bites came fairly quickly on the maggot and I caught a few Chub in the 6-8oz class. A better stamp fish of around 2.5lbs then put in an appearance, which gave me a chance to test out my new camera adaptor that I'd rigged up in anticipation for some self takes.

I snaffled another similar stamp fish a while later,  but this one had  been in a few scrapes in its time. The photo actually shows its best side!

A switch to bread saw me pull out of a fish early in the scrap and things went quiet for a while. Even a switch back to maggots didn't see any improvement. I didn't use my brain quickly enough though - if I'd remembered back to my only previous session in this swim, I'd have recalled that the fish seemed to drop back down the swim as the session wore on.

As soon as I chucked the lead an extra 5 yards downstream, the tip started moving again. I managed a couple of small fish and one other Chub in the 2.5lb class before time got the better of me.

In total I had around 10lb of Chub to end my river season. No big fish, but a pleasant enough end to the campaign on a small river.

A Day At The Palace

This week saw me heading off to Blenheim Palace with Brian. I'd seen other bloggers' reports from their past trips, as well as a few other articles and I was inspired to give it a try. At £25 per boat at this time of year, it's a cracking deal when you consider the potential of the venue. Anticipation was high, but we knew it wasn't going to be easy.

A bit of homework gave me a few ideas of areas to try, but the number of other boats on the lake would dictate things. We arrived about 10 minutes after opening time and we were last on the lake, albeit only the third boat out! I didn't think it would be that quiet on a mild March day.

We headed off towards the Grand Bridge, taking a somewhat haphazard path through the water. I don't think the GB rowing team will be calling on our skills later this year! I quite enjoyed it though and being in a boat makes changing swims an awful lot easier.

I was suprised to get some early action on a Lamprey section on my first cast. I didn't actually see the float move, but I saw the line tightening up and hit it, but there was no resistance. I recast and also plopped out a second rig with a Roach deadbait.

The Roach was on the move next and this time I did connect with the fish. It knew instantly that it wasn't a monster, but I was happy to boat my first Blenheim Pike - a fish of 5-6lb.

I had a further Pike a bit later - this time on the Lamprey section. It was a smaller sample though. At this stage we were tucked up under the bridge itself, which was providing some welcome shelter from the rain that had moved in. Once it had cleared we went on a mooch around the lake taking in various swims on the way.

We didn't catch any more fish, despite returning the the Grand Bridge area for the final hour. It was good experience and one that we'll definitely do again at some point. I'd like to see the lake in the height of summer and to have a long day going for some of the other species it holds.

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.