Odds and sods

I'm not usually one for blaming the weather for my failings as an angler but after having a few poor sessions of late I'm certainly inclined to believe the prevailing conditions have played a huge part in them. We seem to be in something of a transitional period between Autumn and winter and its mild one day and freezing the next with everything else in between. I guess it's no surprise that the fish have been a little reluctant to feed in the varied conditions as they prepare themselves for the really cold stuff ahead.

No more big Perch have troubled my scoresheet since my last post although its not for lack of trying. Two more trips to the Derwent last weekend resulted in just a couple of small fish to around a pound or so and to be honest my heart wasn't really in it. The weather had gone bitterly cold and I ended up just sat there with my teeth chattering waiting to go home. I even put a Pike rod out on one trip and that didn't raise a sniff either. The pretty little fish below was the only highlight really.

This weekend I headed back to the scene of  the four pounder and I had high hopes with the weather turning a bit milder. I was surprised to get quite a few knocks and taps from small fish straight from the off as usually the area is a bit of a grueller. I ended up striking at thin air on several occasions before reasoning that if the bits where there then the big stripeys certainly weren't. A move soon had me fishing a nice swim with a slack and some bushes on the far bank. I had to point my rod skywards to get the line over the bulk of the flow in a bid to hold bottom and I soon worked out how much slack I had to pay out to get it to do so.

After around 20 minutes  I missed  a lovely slow pull on the tip due to not paying attention thanks to a kingfisher which was working the far bank. It's colours were radiant against the backdrop of decaying reeds and fallen leaves. I recast and had another bite within minutes, the rod hooped over and a good fish tried its best to get into the snags. I bullied it a little hard and was left cursing as the hook pulled. My next bite resulted in an exact repeat performance and I was gutted at losing two on the bounce. I changed my hook and after a short wait for another bite I managed to catch a small Perch of around 8oz. It was getting pretty dark by now and no more bites were forthcoming, I packed up promising to come back and even the score the next evening.

The following afternoon I found myself back in the same swim and it didn't take long to get a bit of interest. A positive bite resulted in a small Chub of around 2lb on the bank which was a little disappointing as This suggested that those fish I lost the previous day could've been Chub instead of Perch. This was hammered home ten minutes later when a bigger Chub of around 4lb hit the back of the net. A move was in order.
In the new spot I was getting lots of little knocks and I even missed a couple of half hearted bites but the light was fading fast and I was running out of time. I assumed the swim was full of small fish but as I took a phone call from a mate the tip finally hammered around and a nice fish was hooked. Another nice Chub of around 4lb was a good end to the session and I went home pleased at actually catching something for a change.

Apologies for my lack of posts lately but my laptop has gone tits up so I'm relying solely on the iPad which is useless for blogging. Blogger has been updated in the last week to allow for iPad usage but its extremely limited and adding pics is a nightmare so please bear with me over the coming weeks till I've got the hang of it!