Back to Blithfield

After last autumns successful perch trials the management at Blithfield res decided to release a couple more dates so last weekend saw me headed back over there to do battle once more. Phil was to be my boat partner this time around and seeing as this was his first time out on a trout ressie I was praying for a good day to whet his appetite for future trips.

 

As we approached the lake it didn't look too bad but as we got closer I was slightly disappointed that there was a good chop on. Being relatively inexperienced at boat fishing myself I had visions of spending most of the day wrestling with the boat in the wind but in the event, although we were drifting a little too quickly for my liking, the drogue did it's job and it wasn't too bad.

The fishing itself proved to be a pretty slow burner and although we were getting a few taps we were struggling to connect with anything. My first fish came after I had put the rod down and reached for a sandwich. Phil pointed out that my rod tip was pulling over at an alarming rate and I turned around and struck into a small but feisty Perch.

 

After that we fished on with more confidence and actually managed to catch a few even though we were still missing a fair few plucks from the depths. I'd say it was prolific but I'd be lying, there was just enough action to keep the interest up but at least we were getting our string pulled.

 

 

Small red Berkeley minnows and silver savage gear minnows seemed to produce most pulls. At one point I hooked what I though was to be a proper mansize perch but it turned out to be a lively overwintered rainbow trout, a pleasing result on the ultralite outfit.

 

We seemed to find a better stamp of fish later on in the day but the fishing didn't get any easier. Nevertheless Phil and I both enjoyed ourselves and the quicker the autumn arrives so we can get on the other midlands ressies the better!

 

 

 

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Last one of 2014

I've been all too aware that my posts have been most infrequent of late and I've decided that I really must try harder in 2015. As usual , life has gotten in the way and my blog has really been overlooked this year as is obvious from looking at my annual post count compared to previous years.

So what have I been up to since my last update? Well, the lure thing has continued it's hold over me and the back end of November saw me taking part in the Perch fishing trials on Blithfield res in the company of Steve Collett. We were quite lucky weatherwise and although it was chilly it wasn't too windy so we managed to set up some lovely drifts.

The bottom of that lake must be carpeted with Perch in much the same way that Rutland is heaving with Zander! We had loads of action dropshotting tiny lures in around 30-40ft of water, fish to mid-2 pulled our strings and I even managed a rogue trout. The average size wasn't great but it was good practice and you never knew what size was going hit the lure next. Heres a few pics anyway;

A jig fishing session on the Soar followed on from Blithfield and although it took me a while to find some fish, when I did it got hectic! I managed around 20 perch and a couple of jacks in the space of an hour or so. A few days later we had some hefty rainfall and that put paid to my river chances for the rest of December to date.

It got cold aswell and I thought that would be it on the lure front but an afternoon session on a local pool yielded a few small Perch to ultra-tiny grub type lures which was encouraging especially as the pool is noted for switching off once the weather cools.

It occurred to me I'd not done any chub fishing this winter and I found myself with a hankering to get out and quivertip some bread. I really couldn't muster up any enthusiasm to fish my usual haunts even though I knew I'd get a few and be in with a chance of a lump. I had a look through some of my club tickets to see what else was about and soon found a couple of interesting leads. One was a small river and the other a brook, both held Chub that much was certain but I'd never even seen either before let alone fished them, my angling juices were well and truly intrigued.

The river was up first and upon our arrival I was a little disappointed to see it coloured and it looked to be carrying a few inches too. It looked pretty damn Chubby though and it was also deceptively deep, my first swim being around 5-6ft. It was also surprisingly lacking in the fish department too as one missed bite in the first hour testified! It was bitterly cold though so I wasn't expecting to set records.

A move upstream was called for and after a passing dog walker informed us we were wasting our time 'cos the Cormorants and Otters have wiped the place out' Phil and I weren't exactly stoked with confidence! Our main problem was finding potential fish holding swims because there was long stretches of fast shallow water and it seemed all the deeper slower areas were overgrown with trees and unfishable. We did manage to find a couple of swims in the end though and I caught four small Chub which proved there was still fish there afterall!

 

After that we retired to the warmth of the truck and headed 20miles up the road into Derbyshire and the brook we had our eye on. This proved to be much the same as the river in width and colour but was much shallower. Again we struggled to find some fish and it wasn't until the last couple of swims we tried when we started to catch. I only managed a Roach and a couple of Chub but I felt I'd really had to work for them that's for sure!

The most recent trip was to commercial in search of Perch and although I planned to bait fish I also look the lure rod along just in case! It was wasn't cold but it was windy and after trying the dropshot for nothing more than a couple of taps I switched to worm and prawn. A couple of carp hooked early on certainly pulled my string but the perch were noticeable by their absence.

I switched back to the dropshot gear and managed to catch a couple of tiddlers and aswell as getting a few other enquiries but it proved to be exceptionally snaggy where they were so I gave it up as a bad job and carried on with the bait fishing. I used worms only seeing as the prawns were carp magnets and eventually managed to snare a nice Perch of a tad over 2lb.

So that's about it for 2014, not a bad year but not exactly exceptional either. I do have a couple of trips planned before the new year so hopefully I'll have something to blog about next time! In the meantime, merry Christmas everybody and have a happy new year!

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