Fluff chucking and wood wanging!

 I headed out for something a little different today with my mate Martin, a bit of piking and, for the first time ever for me a bit of fly fishing. Martin had originally planned a days fly fishing for trout on the upper River Dearne and offered me the chance to borrow some of his gear and hopefully teach me how to fly fish. However with the bits of rain we have had over the last couple of weeks the river is running around normal winter level and holding some colour so an alternative had to be found as it would be just too much like hard work for a total novice like my self. So Martin suggested a few hours pike fishing on a large local reservoir before moving onto a tiny pond he knew of to try and tempt some rudd on dry flies. As I have only done odd bits of pike fishing before I used Martins bait casting rod and multiplier reel and had the use of his lure collection and himself opting to fly fish for them. I must say the large flies he ties himself for pike look just like bits of fluff to me but once underwater look more realistic than the lures I was using, some of which he also makes him self
 So we slipped our waders on and proceeded to work our way along the shallow margins chucking wood and flinging fluff for the pike. The first spot we came to had a long wooden jetty poking out through the dense reed beds into a large bay, I had a few trial casts to get used to the short rod and upside down reel before working the lure along the edge of the reed beds. It wasn't long before a jack took a liking to the lure and promptly had it yanked from its grasp by my over enthusiasm, I had another follow before we decided to move on. We worked our way along with no further interest to flies or lures until we got near the dam wall and re-joined the bank. It was now time for me to attempt fluff chucking, or should I say budgie chucking! Now over the years I have been able to quickly turn my hand to most things fishing but this was bloody hard work and soon had me beat, although Martin did say it would be far far easier to learn with light dry flies and lighter rods. So after hooking the floor behind me twice (and I mean hooking not snagging!) nearly taking both our heads off and looking like I lost a silly string fight at a party I handed the fly rod over and we worked our way back towards the car. Martin decided to stay in the water and work a fly along the reeds again and I opted to stay on the bank and head to the spot we started in and try to catch a pike whilst waiting for the fluff chucker to arrive. I had had a few casts by the time he arrived and he suggested we made a move to the small pond just as a small jack followed the lure in and missed it again, one more go I announced and dropped the lure back in the same spot. This time I let the fish have it and in the clear water I could see the fish chase the lure before grabbing hold and giving it a shake, I wound down and set the hooks home.
And here it is, my first ever lure caught pike................................... yer yer yer lets have it, that's proper pike bait!

We decided it was time to move on and jumped in the car. We arrived at the pond not long after and its very nice looking although rather small but seems to be teaming with rudd, there were obviously lots of fish around as we could plenty of movement on the surface. It also contains a few carp so we put some dog mixers out in the hope we could try and get them up and try a large fly for one, the rudd took a liking to them right away and made finding the fish easy although they seemed to be a bit far out for my limited fly casting skills. Now kitted out with a much lighter outfit and tiny dry fly I started to get the hang of it and was actually managing to get the fly in the water on just about every attempt, but not long after arriving it started to rain and the felt much cooler than it had in the morning and this seemed to push the fish down in the water. I honed my skills for an hour or so and just like this morning with the pike, managed to pull the fly right from the fishes mouth on a couple of occasions. Martin was catching the odd tiny rudd, and I mean tiny! although he was rather happy when he caught a small but very nice true golden rudd taking his tally to 9 different species caught on the fly which I find excellent. The rain was getting heavier by the minuet now and Martin suggested I try fishing a tiny nymph lower in the water, he quickly tied me one on and I was back fishing or should I say poaching as I seemed to have stolen his spot. However with the slightly heavier nymph and my ever increasing skills I was able to get the bait out and along the reed bed the rudd were hiding around and soon felt a small tug on the end of the line, missed it but next cast I hook one and was chuffed to bits with my first ever fly caught fish. If you thought the pike was small then take a look at this rudd.

All in all I had an enjoyable day even if it did result in two of the smallest fish your ever likely to see species wise. Should the offer come again, which I'm sure it will to do a spot of fluff chucking I'll jump at the chance although I think I'll stick to dry flies and nymph's for now but I don't think I'll be trading the rods in for a fly outfit any time soon. On the other hand I think I will be looking for a lure rod and reel though.

Success at last

 Its been a while since i was last on the bank due to taking on the task or extending the driveway at home and flagging along the house, which in turn meant installing 15 meters of surface drain to please the local council.
 So today saw me making a dawn return to the old estate lake where i suffered at the hands of the tench last time out. I felt i was right in my tactics but in hindsight knew i could do a little more to entice a few more fish, and so this well planned trip proved. I had half of last week and the rest of this booked off work mainly to crack on at home but i managed to get lots done before the weekend leaving me plenty of time for fishing. I have been keeping a watchful eye on the weather and with a low front forecast to move across the area last night bringing warmer temperatures and a nice south westerly wind with it i knew today had to be the day. I made a change to my gear yesterday from my previous session in that i opted to dump the seat box and usual still water rods in favour of my chair and a pair of avon type rods. i still wanted to fish a quiver tip as its just nice to sit and be alert rather than be behind alarms all day so my light avon was chosen for this task, i also rigged up my heavier avon rod to fish as a sleeper with an alarm and bolt rigged maggot feeder set up.
I sat in the dining room yesterday evening full of eager anticipation of what this morning would bring as i rigged the rods up and get everything sorted ready to go.
 I arrived around 5am just as the sun was peeking through the trees behind me and the lake looked stunning with the morning mist starting to rise and the fresh growth of the rushes swaying around in the light breeze. I got settled into my chosen swim and had both rods out for 5.30. The bolt rigged maggot feeder was punched well out past now ever expanding weed bed and the groundbait feeder was placed perfectly on a clear area around 40 yards out along with half a dozen previous casts to get some bait down. Like last time my mix consisted of sensas lake, magic and brown crumb along with liberal helpings of dead maggots, casters, hemp and corn although i also added a good helping of chopped worm as i learnt last time the tench in here do have a taste for it, and so it proved. I gave it 30 Min's or so before re-casting both rods and making changes to hook baits, i knew it would be a waiting game but it was a glorious morning just to be out on the bank, I even had my coat off for the first time this year before half 6!
Before i knew it was was 7am and i was feeling a little peckish now so i tooked into pot of nice warm instant porridge. I was just putting the flask and spoon back in my bag when i noticed the quiver tip nudge a couple of times before been dragged lake wards, a dogged fight lasted a good 5 minuets before the fish decided it wanted to be in the nearside reed bed. Luckily i just managed to keep it out of the thick stuff and guide it into the net with the water swilling almost around my welly tops. I realised then i should really have brought the waders rather than boots. The fish was a real old warrior of a tench, very dark and almost round in shape with a few old deep scars along its flanks. I was well happy that I had finally broken my tench duck for the year and it went 4lb 8oz on the scales.
I waited only an hour or less for the next bite when out of the blue the tip was savagely ripped around and the fish took a powerful short run, again with the water around my welly tops i wadded out and managed to keep this one away from the nearside reeds as it came into the shallow margins and into the net after making 3 very powerful runs from under the rod tip and this one went 5lb dead.
 It was now around 9am and feeling hungry again I decided to re-cast the rods before making some more porridge and a cup of tea, the rods had not been back out 5 minuets when just as i was pouring water the tip ripped around again. This fish went on a good few runs before deciding it too liked the nearside reed bed and buried its head right in there. I waded along only to find the fish well stuck a little further out, now how far dare i get to try and scoop the fish from the weed? You guessed it, TOO FAR. Water just seeped over the tops as i scooped the fish up weed and all and although not a proper boot full my legs and socks were a little damp. I kind of guessed from the fight that this fish would be a little bigger and as i parted the weed in the net i could see it was and a very nice golden colour, on the scales she went 5lb 4oz. not quite a PB but worth slightly soggy feet.

Apologies for the fingers but I am rather impressed with my first ever self take shot.











 What happened shortly afterwards almost scared me to death and I momentarily sat and stared before realising what i should be doing. After over 4 hours the silent bite alarm on the sleeper rod gave out a couple of beeps before the bobbin slowly rose to the rod before the the alarm sounded an almighty one toner and the bait runner nearly went into melt down! I picked up the rod and wound down to see it hoop over and the clutch start to give line, the fish felt heavy and rather angry as I could feel it shaking its head to try and dislodge the hook, well after another heavy run and a couple of shakes the beast succeeded as the line went slack. Bummer, that's twice I have lost a big fish on this water. Tench? or one of Nostell's resident large carp? I'm not sure but it felt a big old heavy lump. Anyway onwards and upwards as they say.
 Shortly after I hooked another good fish on the tip and again she decided she liked the look of the nearside reeds. After a couple of good runs she kitted left, how the hell do they know from 40 yards????? this time I took a step too far and I squelched back to the bank with another at bang on 5lb in the net, waders are defiantly required next time!
 I was now running short of time as I had to be home for 12 to take the other half to work, so with cold wet feet I decided to call it a day and squelched back to the car one happy angler.

Two nil to the tench

I was a little pessimistic about today's trip as it was to a water I have not fished for a good number of years. It is also very large, not heavily stocked and is often solid with weed. On the plus side it has been throwing a few up over the last couple of weeks and my friend JD had a pb tench of just over 4lb last week.
 To be honest I was actually quite looking forward to fishing the old mature lake with more traditional baits and methods, too many places these days respond well to some kind of fishmeal groundbait and or pellets. You can't hide the fact that fish do have a liking for it but I felt this place did not require it.
 So, at around 7.30am I loaded the gear onto the barrow and headed to the field side on the upper lake at Nostell Priory, once I had my self comfy I set about mixing my all time favourite groundbait up, sensas lake, sensas magic and brown crumb mixed in equal parts. This stuff just smells so good I could eat it my self! into the mix went a good helping each of dead maggots, hemp, corn and casters. I had a few chucks around and found a nice clear spot in the remains of last years weed which seems not to have fully died off and chucked ten big feeder loads out to try and entice the fish to come and dine. I knew that I could be in for a long wait and just got my self into a rhythm of changing hook baits and re-casting every 15 minuets or so.
 After what seemed like forever but was actually around two hours the tip slammed round and stayed put. two red worms and a rubber caster had enticed a fish to bits, I lifted into it and the rod hooped over. I managed to gain a few turns of the reel to give me some leeway as I was fishing clipped up, it felt a very good fish but one big shake of its head and it was gone. All that remained was the tell tale rubbery slime of a tench on my hook link. I was gutted, sat two hours for what could very easily be my only bite of the day and I lost it to a hook pull. I was also ruing my choice of hook as when tackling up I couldn't decide weather to go for a 16 or 14 hook and with it still been on the cool side I had opted for the smaller. I made the decision then to put on a bigger hook, at least I knew there were fish about and feeding.
So back into a rhythm of casting and changing baits again. At around 11am I was out  again with a worm hook bait but this time tipped with two dead red maggots when the tip twitched and steadily pulled around, again the rod hooped over but this fish was not as big and I was slowly gaining line from the off as it kited to my left. It was coming right into the bank so I grabbed the net and waded out to the edge of the near side weeds and regained control of the fish, it rolled on the surface and I saw it was a good tench of around 4lb's, it woke up then and went on a couple of short runs before I turned it towards the net. That's when disaster struck, as soon as it saw the net it turned away and shook its head leaving me feeling sick as a dog. I wound in only to find the curly whirly bit of line on my hook link where my hook used to be. It was my own incompetence that led to the fish escaping and I was angry with my self for allowing it to happen.
 I carried on for a few more hours without look before coming to the conclusion the tench, like usual had shut up shop for the day by dinner time. As i was about to start packing up JD appeared on the bank with his gear and decided he would jump into the swim I was vacating. No doubt he will empty it this evening!

**Edit**
make that two nil to JD too!
He's not only gone and bagged a good 5 but also an absolute cracker of 7lb 4oz. Well done mate. I will be back for revenge

Pond life

As its that time year again when we have to stick to still water I thought I would get my tench fishing season off to a start. Think what you may of the nice weather, it was far from good. Red hot by day but still cold enough to be frosty by night, trust me I was up for work most of the week at half past four.
 Friday morning saw me heading to an old neglected club water for a few tinca's, I arrived early but less than impressed to find two Eastern Europeans in my fancied swim, the jibber jabber in their voices giving it away and my second choice swim was also occupied although by the look of his attire and equipment he was English. There was also a chilly wind blowing down the lake that saw me heading for a more sheltered spot. I got settled into a peg between two large over hanging trees and got just a single rod out, my Grey's specimen float rod to be exact and a trusty reel loaded with 4lb Maxima, onto this I slid an 8in long hand made swan quill float and a size 16 hook to 4.4lb hook link, a single swan shot 3in from the hook finished things off.
I introduced a good hand full each of small mixed pellets, hemp, casters, dead maggots and a few bits of corn and baited up with a fresh red worm from my allotment and two red maggots.

 It looked good for a bite

 I dropped the float in, sat back and got the flask out and waited for things to happen. Half an hour or so passed before I decided to try a bit of corn and a caster, and about the same again before I tried double maggot. The float never even twitched so I made a change to the rig and removed the swan shot down by the hook and made a more usual waggler type rig in the hope they were just been a bit finicky. Two more hours of steady loose feeding maggots and casters failed to see the float move so when the chilly breeze swung into my face I called it a day.
One thing I will point out is that this lake is rather deep, a good 8ft where I was fishing but anything from 12 to 14ft deep a couple of rod lengths out around the other side and more in the middle. My thinking is that the up and down day and night temperature had not put the fish off but the fact that the lake is so deep they have not yet fully woken up, so I'll give it a few more weeks and see what the weather is like before I return for another try.


Today gave me an opportunity to get back on the bank and use up the bait I had left from yesterdays session. I only had a few hours to spare this afternoon so I headed back to Sally Walsh's Dam as its close by.
When I arrived it was quite busy but i could see most of the anglers had opted to fish from the dam wall with the now strong wind coming from behind them or the first few pegs up either side. I was having none of that, with bream and skimmers on my mind I didn't mind sitting it out in the rough as fishing a tip rod I could have the wind over my shoulder anyway. So with that in mind I headed half way up the field side to a peg in the mid 40's a few pegs up from two guys carp fishing with 3 rods each leaving plenty of room for them.
Firstly I knocked some ground bait up before anything else so as it had time to soak up the water fully before i was ready to fish. Next I set my trusty old Kamazan feeder rod out, more known for their hooks in the early 90's the brought out a range of just 3 rods and I acquired the medium feeder as a birthday present from my parents. You could compare it to some of the old Tricast rods that were about in the same era, a real nice still water rod and a joy to use. I added a simple running feeder rig and a size 16 hook. I gave the ground bait a quick riddle to get rid of any lumps, a 50/50 mix of plain brown crumb and fish meal(you can buy this in shops for about 4 quid a bag, its called Ringer's mine cost about £2.50 for twice as much!) and added dead maggots, casters, hemp and half a pint of 4mm skrettings pellets. 10 quick chucks with a large feeder and i was ready to go.
I put on two dead red maggots and cast out, now why when your doing something do you always get a bite??? i had just lit a cig and was taking my first sip of tea when the tip flew round, yup missed it, second cast and it went again but I struck too early. Third time lucky and I was in, the first skimmer of day slid over the net. Great I thought were going to get a few. For some reason it went very quiet and I missed two bites over the next half an hour before I added two more and the missed bites started again. I shortened the hook link and got one right away only for it to go quiet again, I tried a little further out past my baited spot and also a bit shorter but for a couple of hours it was miss two hit one, the now stronger wind making it a bit hard to see the bites clearly and I was striking too late for some of themand thought to my self I would give it an hour. The fish did come onto the feed and over the then hour and half I added around 10 decent skimmers before calling it a day as the cold wind was now cutting straight through me. The walk back to the car warmed me up and I was happy with the nice net of fish I had put together in just a few hours and the swans were impressed with my bait.

Dad and Lad time

As the weather has now turned some what warmer I thought it time I took my 7 year old son for his first session of the year. After a word in my ear last week that a local venue was producing a few fish I thought it was about time I showed him something other than chucking a pole around, as for the past two years all he has really done(quite well though I must add) is catch ide and small carp on a local puddle and I think even he was getting a bit tired of catching a fish every put in at ten meters. So we headed down to Sally Walsh's dam for a lesson in feeder fishing. Nice banks with no features as such to get hung up in whilst casting and lots of open water to go at makes it a good water for improving casting skills.
We arrived to find a fair few people fishing so jumped into the third peg up from the dam wall, mainly because he was moaning by now about carrying his seat box after walking all of 30 yards from the car! I got us sat comfy and set about explaining how the feeder works and why we had no float, he did comment that he would like it as he didn't have to keep his eyes on a tiny dot out in the middle, next for a bit of casting practise. It went...................... erm lets just say he'll do better once his arms and fingers stretch but I have seen far worse on the banks. Once I had him in position I set about sorting a light float rod for my self.

Within a few minuets Kyle was into his first fish, a skimmer of around 6-8oz and I had a small roach first chuck. I was expecting a few more to follow but it was a bit slow to get going really with the warm spring sun and almost flat surface not helping much. Kyle had no more fish in the next hour and I kept plugging away picking up the odd small roach. he was getting a bit bored now so I altered the hook length and made it a fair bit longer and also un-clipped the spool and cast a rod length or two further and clipped back up, this improved things slightly as did the bit of breeze and he started to miss 3 hit one and net a few small skimmers and roach whilst I kept picking a few roach up loose feeding maggots. He kept having a few goes at casting him self and was getting the hang of it right until his feeder almost landed right on top of my float! Cheater I muttered to him just as the tip flew round. The little bugger only bagged him self a skimmer of around a pound right from under my nose! He was rather confused by the next bite as the tip, as he put it 'went the wrong way' before I told him a fish had swam towards him and he should strike. The sun stayed out and the wind dropped and the fishing got harder so we called it a day. I managed just a few small roach in between helping Kyle out. I chucked all mine back but for Kyle it was the fist time he has been able to use a keep net and was nice for him to see what he had at the end of the day.

Last chance saloon

Its that time of year again when we look forward (or not) to three months of pond fishing, and we make that one last trip of the season onto a river. Today was my last river trip and I headed up to the River Nidd at Pool bridge farm hoping for a bit of fun catching silvers on the float before switching tactics and hopefully bagging a few good chub later in the day. Things didn't go quite to plan (hey at least I'm getting to be consistent this year) as the wind was a night mare!
I arrived around 10.30 and was actually delighted that the rather annoying cows on this section of river were not in residence for once, however on stepping out of the car and wandering along the banks it was clear the wind was going to make trotting hard work. I found a likely looking spot and started to feed a few maggots while I rigged the rod up. More in hope that anticipation I waited for the float to disappear and waited and waited some more for around 30 minuets before I convinced my self that actually I didn't even like the look of the spot I was in and was only there to get out of the wind. I quickly shifted down stream and got settled into a nice looking peg on the outside of where a bend started, an hour quickly passed before I thought to my self that float fishing was just not going to work today and I was flogging a dead horse.
Away went the float gear and out came a tip rod and bag of bread. I filled the small cage feeder with mash bread and squeezed a lump of bread flake onto the size ten hook and dropped it along the crease, I sat back to roll a cig and pour a cup of tea when the tip started to knock then pull and drop back before a steady pull resulted in me connecting with thin air, bugger missed it. cast back out and after a few minuets it went again this time I left it a bit longer and connected with nothing! the fish were clearly playing games with me so I fought back, this time a nice lump of cheese paste went out and I sat patiently with my eyes glued to the tip, this time it was a proper pull although not exactly a '3ft twitch' but I connected and after a short fight a nice chub not quite 4lb graced my net. I chucked back out but the tip never mover for for 30 mins on both cheese and bread so I decided to wander up stream and try a few likely looking places. The wind was still a nightmare and each spot I tried resulted in the same motionless tip apart from the battering from the wind. I walked most of the length before deciding to settle back into the peg I had had the chub from earlier and stick it out till dusk. I dropped back in with a lump of flake on the hook and after not ten minuets the tip twitched a few times before pulling round and I was into another fish, a bit smaller this time just scraping 3lb but made a good account of its self in the water.
No more fish followed and I packed up a little disappointed with the lack of fish particularly on the float but also pleased with a couple of nice chub. So that's it for another season work next week so no chance of sneaking one in although I do have an early season tench fishing trip planned for next weekend so lets hope this warm weather keeps up.

Maggot drowning exersise

As the title suggest, that is what today's session became!
I had been stuck in house for over two weeks just itching to get out on the bank and with a week off work and a substantial rise in air temp i was off, but not without a bit of careful thought first. As we all know we have just froze and had the usual yearly light dusting of snow that grinds the whole country to a halt, despite the roads been clear for a week there was still a fair bit of snow laid down on the ground of the hills that feed most of the Yorkshire rivers. This rise in temperature would soon see them filling up with freezing cold snow melt, the worst thing for any river FACT. So through Sunday and Monday i checked the EA river level web site morning and night and felt sure i could get onto the Calder for the first time since October before the cold water made its way down to where  I was heading. One final check this morning before I left the house had me thinking I had made the right  decision to get on the bank today rather than later in the week. WRONG!!!

I made my way to the very bottom of the length I had fished previously as I knew it would be deeper down there and felt sure the fish would move down here in the winter months. I soon found a very nice looking swim that some kind person had spent a long time creating, three steps made of small paving flags made the usual climb down the bank very easy for once and a  larger one just above the water made for a nice comfy day sat right by the waters edge. I tackled up with a new Team Woody's 8x 4no stick float in 8 to 9 feet of water and started to flick half a dozen maggots in every minute or so, i also set a light feeder rig up too and started on a small maggot feeder 2/3rds of the way over the river but after 30 or 40 minute without so much as a twitch I decided to see if anything had moved onto the float line.
Eeerrrmmmmmm nope. Despite my best efforts of dancing a stick float down the swim, bait changes, shotting pattern changes, depth changes and a switch back onto the feeder, three hours passed without so much as a burst maggot. Then the cold breeze picked up and blew straight at me instantly making my decision to move for me. I quickly bundled the gear into the car that was conveniently parked right behind my peg and headed a couple of mile down stream to another deeper area.
Now I have only fished this stretch of the river further up just below a large weir so i left the gear in the car and walked downstream to the deeper, slower water away from the weir pool. This part of the river doesn't see many anglers but i soon found a low part of the relatively steep high bank that some kind sole had made a half decent effort of making a peg. As it was pretty featureless and it was now mid afternoon a decided to just plop a maggot feeder out for an hour or two and see what came along. Well after a hour and half of drowning maggots I decided to call it a day, a little disappointed but better than been stuck in the house.

I will be out servicing for my mate on the Riponian Stages Rally at the weekend and then family life resumes for a couple of weeks before I can get back out on the bank, that gives me just one last chance to catch a few fish from a river before the season ends once again. I'm thinking of heading back up to Pool on the Wharfe for one more crack at them grayling but if anyone knows of  a stretch of river that's good for a days sport on the stick then I'm open to suggestions.

Dave