17/2/11 Burton Mill

I seem to be pretty good at catching tiddler pike at the moment.The rivers,which I'm desperate to get on, are flooded once again (yawn), so it was off to Burton Mill today,for my annual visit, in a punt, with Jon Cook.
This unspoilt pond has a long heritage of good pike fishing but has always been a challenging proposition despite it being the site of my first ever double figure pike capture, almost exactly nine years ago.Where did that go?
Only take of the day was this little fellah on a dead roach which was a little disappointing especially as It was Jon's first trip to the water.At the moment there is  some seriously noisy construction work being carried out on the culvert outlet, causing quite a bit of commotion.A project that is due to last for about 14 weeks. The disturbance seems to have put the pike off their food! That's my excuse and Im sticking with it!
Also had some potentially tragic news today- Dave's thinking about selling his boat. Don't do it mate.

14/2/11 The Farm Pond

The rivers are high and coloured with recent rain so It was off to The Farm Pond today with half a pint of maggots, a pole, and a stool, for a bit of old fashioned kid's stuff to while away a couple of hours in between night shifts.This tiny little pond certainly has a few hidden surprises and as well as about 20 decent roach(best a pound) and rudd, I managed a tiny perch,and  tench and carp, also of about a pound each .
Typically, the silver fish bites were tricky to hit even on a bristle pole float but I seemed to improve as the session progressed.Felt a bit mean only buying half a pint from Malcolm, but it was the best £1-15 I've spent in a long time.
Amusingly, I paid for my frugal approach as I actually ran out of bait.Saving grace was catching a roach on my very last maggot!

10/2/11 Muddy and Wet

Fished with Andy on the top section at Ham today between 11am-5pm thus completing exploration of the whole Houghton Bridge and District stretch.We covered the bulk of the ebb and finished at dusk on HW on a gentle 4.9 m tide and it rained, at times quite heavily, all day long.However, the mild temperatures made the session a little more bearable despite both of us being wet through.
Andy was first with some action with a 5lb pike taken in mid stream on a trusty sardine, but I had to wait until the end of the day, and the final port of call at the sluice channel  entrance, before my  roach were taken firstly, by a gargantuan pike of about a 1lb (note comedy picture),shortly followed by a better fish of 7lb 12oz (scar left flank).It would seem, with my own and Phil Jones' previous captures, that the sluice swim is something of a holding area.
Once again, persisting when other lesser (sane) mortals would have thrown in the towel,paid off.Great for Drew to finally get a fish after suffering a series of blanks, and also great to catch, as a pair, more than one pike, even if they were pretty small.
It will be interesting to see how the rain affects the state of the river.........I fear the worst.

 

8/2/11 Pulborough Brooks

This really is a beautiful stretch of river  with an abundance of wildlife to entertain the angler on a slow day......and today was a slow day.A barn owl distracted me with visits throughout the session, as well as kestrels and kingfishers, deer and some very docile highland cattle.
Both Dave and Paul had recommended the stretch ,on one hand for it's history of large pike( Dave's had a twenty or two)and secondly for some decent, recent match catches, suggesting the presence of  prey fish.
I hopped my roach baits half way to Washingham but only one pike was landed-a tiny specimen not much bigger than a couple of pounds, which took a shine to my roach bait on the retrieve.
I did have a bit of fun jigging a lemon shad right under the near bank which Induced a pike of about 5lb to attack several times , and not hook up but, but biggest disappointment of the day was losing a sizable fish, which took whilst I was moving my bait net, causing me to sprint about 100yds to the rod(highly irresponsible) and then not tighten up properly. It was on for a few seconds, and I even got a look,but my fumbling trying to reach the landing net must have momentarily given slack, and she was off.
Stayed in the still, sunny conditions until dusk, by which time silver fish, and bream were topping,having fished the majority of the ebb and the whole flood, which wasn't too taxing this high up the river, until slack HW.
Should've banked more, but that little pikelet saved a blank.

 

2/2/11 Ham Jack.

No monsters today I'm afraid.
Morning session  at Ham Corner with Andy, fishing the lower stretch with roach baits.This little fellah was the only taker but, to be fair, the tide was flooding for most of the session-not my favourite conditions.Still, it saved a blank.Quite like Drew's artistic slant with the pic.