30/11/13 The One Pike.

I spent a very pleasant day today in the company of my piking buddy Dave W on our most favourite stretch of river, and fishing for our most favourite winter freshwater adversary.
Dave's done extremely well of late here with three nice doubles in the last couple of trips so, It was with high hopes that we fished, particularly as the river was in near perfect condition.
The problem was, nobody had told the pike this and the only take of the day was a very long, thin distinctively marked seven pounder that took a shine to my sardine and turned out to be a recapture from Dave's previous trip from a swim about a couple of hundred yards upstream.
Once again we are reminded of the small number of pike in this water.

27/11/13 Mixed Species and a P.B cod.

 

I had two choices for this trip. I'd been tipped off that some good bass were about but that the shoals were tight and could be tricky to locate(vertical fishing with lures??) OR, I could follow my own instinct and have another go for blonde rays on one of the big sand banks 'out west'.

 

I chose to pursue the latter but couldn't resist  a quick 'scan' of a very shallow reef en route to the mark. Nothing showed and, as I felt  like having a nice 'lazy' day at anchor anyway, rather than the hard work of drifting with plastic, I dropped the pick and settled down comfortably on the 'numbers'.

Small tides and bass don't really compute in my world but, it's only when the tides are relatively small that its possible to anchor up and fish these shallow sand banks. I'd done well in January with blondes but, something that someone with far more experience than myself had mentioned to me had firmly stuck in my mind;

'There's always the chance of a stray bass or cod turning up'

How right that man was. The bites were slow in materialising with just a couple of cat shark(read; dogfish) nibbling at my whole squid baits during the prolonged slack period that is characteristic of such small tides but, once the flood started pushing properly, something better came along in the shape of the target specie- a blonde ray.

Not a 'biggun' but it confirmed at least, that I was in the right place. It was quickly followed by a nice spotted ray but that turned out to be the final showing of the 'squashed sharks'.

A violent take followed and with a head banging fight giving the game away immediately, I knew I had something pelagic on the other end. Up came a bass of between six and seven pounds which was cleanly released at the side of the boat (lol it slipped the hook).

As the tide really 'filled in' another wrench on the rod tip had me thinking a second bass was on the way up however, this one didn't stop fighting after a few 'head bangs' and I was pleased as punch to see the appearance of a decent sized cod hit the surface and successfully slide into my waiting net. This one wasn't going back. A new p.b cod at 17-08 which tasted absolutely spectacular dipped in beer batter for the following day's tea.

Somehow, chip shop cod will never be the same again. Let's have some more of that!

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

November-Very average fishing until...........

Not, it must be said, a very productive month's fishing at all which is why I'm condensing reports of these trips into one entry.
Firstly, a  short run out in the boat in search of a cod and , concentrating on BIG baits, I managed to land just two dogfish. However, all was not wasted because, one of our local charter skippers was very close by and doing  very well with conger-a species I'd like to turn some time to in the future.
Thanks Dick for sharing all the necessary information. I'll be back on this one.

Following on from that I had another visit to the lake in search of pike and blanked. Well, that's not strictly true as I did catch a rather nice roach of close to a pound on a pole rig baited with maggot intending to trap live bait for the session. Unfortunately, the roach was just too nice to use, and I set it free. The only other action was two perch that were probably too tiny to even attract a bigger fellow of their own specie.

 

 

Later in the month I travelled to central France with my mate Dave Nevatt to visit a place he's recently bought down there with , both a river running through it(Charente), and a pond. Dave's caught barbel, bream and carp there this year so it all sounded idyllic, and indeed was but..............with me in attendance....the fish just did not want to play ball. I fished super hard for four days for two bites,the smallest barbel I've ever seen................and a bream , which Dave landed himself.
It was good to be able to help my mate out with some work on his new 'project' and I suspect it will be well worth a revisit in warmer temperatures as it's a beautiful spot.

 To well and truly put the icing on the cake, while i'd been away, the U.K weather had been kind and some of my mates had been 'avin' it away big time with some superb catches of bass and a few cod-well done Clive.

Back home again and I desperately needed some decent fish action so, with strong winds confining the boat to it's mooring, it was time for another trip up to the river but, with a change of specie in mind.
I like chub fishing with bread. It's clean, simple and interesting and the 'new' stretch of river that I'm exploring this season has got 'heritage' when it comes to good old 'chevin'.Travelling light I selected a narrow 'streamy' stretch with lots of interesting, 'tight' 'chubby' looking swims to drop my liquidised loaded feeder into.
First cast-bang a chub, not big but a good start and a reminder of what it felt like to have a fish on the end of my line. In short, I tried four different swims  for three chub- none of them big , up to two and a half pounds but, terrific fun and again, something I shall return to again soon.
Back in the game again.

My good mate Mick (Pinchers)Pinchbeck recently sent me some pics of fish he's been catching out in his own boat and I couldn't resist sticking this one on the blog.A truly excellent specimen spurdog-not that common a specie around our way and something i'd love to latch on to one day myself. Well done Mick.

30/10/13 Stillwater Piking

.....is not something I get to try that often but, with the recent heavy rain leaving my favourite rivers high and dirty, it was time to try something different, and explore a new lake venue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The fishing was pretty slow and three takes, possibly all the same fish , produced only one small jack pike to my paternostered sardine dead baits so, decidedly average fishing.