New River?

A Sunday session for a change this week (yes I'm still car sharing!) and with cold weather predicted I decided to pursue Pike again on the river. It was 0C when I arrived and it felt a bit cooler than that with the wind chill.

The river was the lowest I'd seen it in months - perphaps within an inch or so of normal. It was still carrying a nice tinge of colour too. I felt a strange, perhaps misplaced, confidence, on what seemed like a new river. I'd actually been like a child waiting for Christmas morning over the previous couple of days - knowing for once that I'd find the river bang on, rather than having to battle against what it was throwing at me.

I had the section to myself, which is par for the course at this time of year. I went for my usual plan of starting out in one of the banker pegs (also the shortest walk) and then I'd move further upstream taking in a few other pegs, before working my way back over the same ground.

I kicked off with 2 floatfished deadbaits and worked my way around the swim, alternating Lamprey, Smelt and Roach.

An hour or so in and nothing was happening. I moved to the next peg and repeated the dose. Same result! Things weren't going to plan.

Time for another move to the next peg, which was a tighter peg and only suited to 1 rod. Although halving my options I don't mind giving the peg a chance as it has thrown up a mid double for me in the past. Not today though!

I had one further upstream move in mind, but I before I went for it I moved back a peg and made the best decision of the day. I broke down one of the float rigs and set it up for wobbling a deadbait - just tying on a trace and pinching on a couple of swan shot directly above it.

To cut that wobbling story short, it failed miserably across all 3 pegs I tried it on. So why was it such a good decision you ask? When I settled back down to a static approach on the penultimate peg of the day, I now had a float rig and my wobbling rig. The advantage of the wobbling rig is that it's also ideal for legering deadbaits in the margins.

After about 5 minutes I noticed the line twitch on the legered set up. The line tightened briefly, went slack again and then fully tightened. Fish on at last! It put up a good scrap while it remained deeper in the water and I was thinking it might be a double. It surrendered tamely when it hit the surface though, at which point the double went out of the window.

It was a clean fish of 8lb 6oz and is a step in the right direction, albeit a long way short of the mid/upper double I've been aiming for this year.

That was the only fish, but on a bitterly cold day I was happy with anything.

It looks like we're in for more of the cooler weather this week, but thankfully not too much of the wet stuff and the frosts aren't too severe either. Dare I tempt fate and look forward to the river being in decent nick again next week?! My car situation should also be sorted out by next week, which will be a great relief. No more asking to be dropped off or having to ask permission to go fishing!

Just happy to be fishing



Three weeks have slipped on by since my last post and my fishing has been very much on hold. I fell foul of a very nasty bug a couple of weeks ago that completely wiped out a whole weekend for me.

 

Around the same time my Mondeo developed an engine management fault completely out of the blue. The repair costs are too high for what the car is worth, so it's being written off. For now I'm relegated to car sharing with my wife which means that I can't just head off when it suits me.

 

With the car situation I was in, I decided to avoid last week's sleety/snowy conditions, despite the river being somewhere near normal. I decided to get further ahead with decorating the house, which is time well spent if it frees me up for fishing when some half decent weather eventually arrives. 

 

The thought of having three weekends off fishing was a bit too much to contemplate, so I managed to squeeze in a quick session at Ryton Pool. Prior to the session I'd been down to the fishing show at the Ricoh Arena. Once again it was a very decent show with a good range of goods and I stocked up on plenty of smaller items. A fair amount it will no doubt end up in the River Wye later in the year!

 

Back to the fishing and I had been dropped off by my wife on her way to visit family in Rugby. It was a weird feeling as it's the first time in my life that I've ever been dropped off for fishing and just left to get on with it. When you normally have the scope to drive to another venue at will and to choose when you leave, it's a culture shock to know that you're in one place for a set time. On this occasion the weather was good and the session was only going to be 3-4 hours, so I knew I'd be happy enough anyway. I really want another car soon though!

Given the short session I decided to go for Pike. Ryton can be a tough nut to crack and my two previous efforts to catch one of its big Pike have failed miserably. This session was to end in the same fate. I worked hard and alernated deadbaits between 2 rods, working my way around a large amount of water over 3 pegs. I didn't have a sniff of a fish.

Barry the bailiff popped by and took delight in showing me various pictues of upper double figure Pike he'd taken this season. It's good to talk to someone with reliable information and just knowing that the pool does still hold fish into the low 20s is a confidence booster. He did say he'd blanked on his last 3 visits though, which again shows that the pool is not easy to crack.

Looking at the week ahead it looks like we're heading into a slightly drier period for once. As I write this, the river is already starting to fine down (about 1ft up on the stretch I normally fish) and it should be bang on at some point in the next few days. Hopefully it will be in decent nick for next weekend, as time is now running out for the rivers.

I can't recall such a lengthy spell of dire fishing conditions for quite some time. Looking back at my posts, I've only managed 4 sessions on the river since the end of October. I managed more than that in January alone last year!

Bad Timing

I'd set my stall out this week for a Saturday session on the river for Pike. I'd been hopeful that the snow would hang around just long enough to avoid the dreaded snow melt entering the river. Right up to Friday evening the river level was perfect, but then the heavens opened and the first stage of the big melt was underway.

I woke up on Saturday morning and loaded up the EA river level site. The Avon had risen 8 inches overnight on my intended stretch and the cold stuff was clearly piling in. I said my goodbyes to my wife, informing her that the river was buggered and that I'd be home by lunch! Nothing like confidence is there?!

The weather was quite glorious actually and it presented a nice sun rise.

The fishing was as dire as I expected it to be. I fished 2 rods in the slackest area I could find, alternating Lamprey, Sardine, Smelt and Roach deadbaits. I never had a sniff.

The river rose a further 6 inches during the short time I was there and by 11am it was obvious that conditions were only going to get much worse. The predicted blank, the first I can recall for a long time, had come to fruition

One positive I can take from the session was that my new winter attire acquired at Christmas performed admirably once again. I was as warm as toast throughout.

As I write this, the river is now over 5ft above normal and still on the rise. With heavy rain forecast for the early part of the week and potentially more rain towards the back end of the working week, the prospects for getting on the river next weekend look very bleak. At least the stillwaters will be back on limits and will be benefitting from the much milder temperatures we have on the cards this week.

Change of Peg - Same Result!

Back to the Avon this week for a short morning session after Pike. The river looked in decent nick and was only a few inches up, still retaining a healthy colour. I was with Brian this week and he decided to set up in peg 3, which I'd fished the week before. I slotted in next door on peg 4.

 

It was somewhat cooler this week with a biting wind at times, coupled with some light showers. Conditions under foot were treacherous, meaning that moving around with gear wasn't exactly desirable.

 

I had an early fish out of peg 4 which took a Lamprey section on the drop. I'd only just put the rod down and picked up my other rod to reposition the Smelt bait, when I saw the float careering off into mid river. It turned out to be a small jack, sporting gill damage from a previous encounter. It didn't seem to bother it though and it was lively enough. 



 

I then decided to have half an hour on peg 9 which has produced for me in the past. No sooner had I left than Brian was into a fish that took a Sardine. Only when he'd banked it, did I realise that I hadn't brought my scales with me this week. I'd swapped my gear around to allow for a more mobile approach and didn't pack them. Fortunately it wasn't a pb shaker, but it was a solid fish and similar in size to one that Charlie caught the previous week (which went just over 9lb).

Peg 9 was a dead duck, so I eventually moved back to peg 4 for the last hour. I had one more fish on Smelt. Again, it was another jack.

 

 

I seem to be cursed with jacks this season and it's becoming a bit of a joke now. I shouldn't moan though because catching anything is better than blanking. I'm sure my time will come and I suffered a similar pattern in January last year before landing a couple of doubles.

Back on the River...At Last!

I kicked off the 2013 campaign by reacquainting myself with the Warwickshire Avon. At long last a period of dry, unseasonably warm and settled weather had taken a grip and it was clear from early in the week that running water fishing was on the cards for me again.

Having been kept off the river for nearly 2 months and knowing that the water level on this stretch had been around 7-8ft up at its recent peak, I was keen to assess the impact. I didn't have to look too far to see a big change to peg 3.

The large snag protruding out from the nearside bank used to be about 12ft nearer to the camera. It's the remnants of an overhanging willow that used to be a feature on peg 3, but has now created an even bulkier feature for peg 2.

I was joined by fellow club member Charlie on this trip and we both decided to hedge our bets by tackling up one rod for Pike and another for anything else that might be feeding. We found it tough going in the main part, but we both found a few Roach and Dace on maggot and caster. I moved on to bread flake and prawns to see if any Chub or Perch would oblige, but nothing showed up. I felt confident of finding a Bream or two in the coloured conditions, but that was totally misplaced.

I managed a couple of Pike, both taken on Smelt deadbait. The usually reliable Lamprey section got zero interest though. Both of my fish were only jacks around the 5lb mark - the story of my winter Pike campaign so far (albeit a very short and interrupted one) .

Charlie is a reluctant Piker, but he still winkled one out himself. It was quite a solid fish and the best of the day at 9lb 2oz. You can see from his handling and the almost pained expression that he's not too keen - although he is a Wolves fan, so sporting a pained expression on a Saturday afternoon is par for the course!

I shouldn't take the mickey about Pike handling though, as I was left sporting some battle scars from one of these feisty buggers! Two months off has left me out of practice - well that's my excuse.

It's good to be fishing a river again. Onwards and upwards from here until March I hope.

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly!

A combination of foul weather and family duties has prevented me from wetting a line this Christmas. The odd days where I have been available to fish, it has bucketed down and I took the easy option of staying at home. The days that had slightly better weather have seen me otherwise enagaged or just far too hungover to venture out.

 

The river has been mostly buggered throughout though, so I haven't missed much really. We have been promised some dry conditions in the week ahead and I hope that bears fruit. I have plenty of deadbait in my freezer that's just screaming out to be used before the season is done. 

 

As I have no reports to post, I thought I'd go back through some of the year's photos and share some of the best and worst. The worst ones are those that never made it on to the blog. Most are self takes and anyone who has attempted these will know how tricky they can be at times. Even when you prepare things properly, if that fish makes a lunge at the wrong moment, then you can end up looking like a right fool!

 

Here's a dozen that went wrong:



Pike Wrestling

 

Sleeping beauty!

 

Pike Wrestling 2 and where did that dog come from?!

A small carp - honest!

An interesting view of my seatbox!

 

An angler has a lobotomy mid photo!

 

An eel is returned - but it was way too quick!

 

Wrong on so many counts!

 

Half a head - a blessing some might say!

Chopped head again!



Bream wrestling!



 

Timing could have been better!

With that dubious selection out of the way, here's a few shots I've taken on my travels throughout 2012:

Winter



 

Spring
 

Summer

 

Autumn
 

Happy New Year and tight lines to you all.

It Never Rains, It Pours!

All week long I'd been monitoring the Avon river level and had been encouraged to see things improving day by day. The drop in level had been very gradual though, with the Avon almost stubbornly refusing to return to normal. By Friday the river was only a few inches up and the temperature was on the rise too. A long overdue return to the river was on the cards surely?

Sadly the big band of rain predicted for Friday became a reality and with the ground still relatively saturated, it wouldn't take long to push the levels beyond comfort. I got up at 6-15am on Saturday and checked the river level. 1.6m (and rising) at Warwick. Relating that figure to my normal stretch would mean that all platforms would be submerged and water would be lapping over the bank.

I decided against the river and instead headed off to College Pool which I last visited back in April. How things have changed for the better down there. On my previous visit the water level was very low. OK, the pool was still bloody deep, but the drop from the neatly laid out pegs to the water was about 4ft and it made things a bit uncomfortable.

All the rain we've had has solved the problem though and if anything it's gone too far! Most of the slabs that make up the pegs were under water. I settled on the end peg which afforded me a bit more shelter from the wind, with the bonus of being fishable from the normal peg position. 
 
I only had a shade over 3 hours of actual fishing time to play with, so I decided to put out two rods with a simple straight lead set up, fished over groundbait. Other preparations included setting up a brolly to keep out the wind and rain, along with donning the winter hat, having first popped in my earpiece for some essential test cricket listening. Soup and coffee were also to hand and I was as happy as a pig in muck. All I needed now was a bite or two!  

It was tough going and bites were hard to come by. Seeing a few fish topping I started to think that I should have gone on the float instead, but I was committed now and decided to stick it out on the lead. A Robin kept me amused, momentarily even perching on one of my rods. It lapped up the many free offerings I threw its way.

Finally the blank was avoided when a Bream of about 3.5lbs obliged.

A couple of small Perch were also caught before I had to call time on this brief session. Hopefully the weather will settle down to allow a return to the river next week. The forecast suggests that might be wishful thinking though, but at least the temperatures are milder.