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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Odds and sods

Without dwelling on the weather subject too much all I can say is its wrecked my fishing good and proper this year. In my locality the rivers haven't really been fishable for a month or more, the brooks and streams are up and down like a whores drawers and the canals are also very coloured up. Most of the lakes I fish are now also part of the Trent and all in all I've been left with pretty limited options. I certainly can't fish for what I want to be fishing for in the places I want to catch them from.

The other week, after a weekend off due to a monster chest infection, I had a mind to try for some canal chub and although the place was chocolate colored it still looked pretty good for bite. The weather was sunny with a brisk breeze but sheltered areas were easy enough to find. I was hoping the coloured water might offset the effect of the bright conditions but by the end of the day I'd only had three missed bites and was left feeling very despondent indeed.

 

The following week I decided to hit one of our club waters in the hope of a carp or two. The fact the place was well flooded with the Trent flowing in at one end should've acted as a warning sign but I was determined to wet a line. In hindsight a session elsewhere would've perhaps been more productive but I was in a stubborn mood and a fish caught in tough conditions is worth so much more to me than an easy fish from a well stocked water.

 

Because I had to set my rods up in the water I was forced to wear my chesties all day and the combination of unlined waders and bitterly cold strong wind made for some shockingly cold legs and feet! Of course I finished on a very cold and miserable blank but I resolved that my next trip would be somewhere I could guarantee some action, a commercial it was, the conditions had broken me.

That brings me up to my most recent session, a perch trip to a local commercial and believe it or not I actually caught some fish! Small they may have been but it was an absolute joy to get my string pulled again after the dour time I've had of late. I was surprised to find the lake iced up upon my arrival which limited where I could fish but the sun was out and gathering strength all the time so I knew it wouldn't take long to melt.

 

After breaking a channel in the ice I commenced fishing with quivertipped prawns and it didn't take long to get some interest either. After a couple of missed bites I caught a small perch of around a pound to kick things off and although it wasn't prolific fishing it was great to see the tip going around again.

 

During the course of the morning I had a couple more perch, some nice roach and even a small carp of around 3lb but the bigger perch were conspicuous by their absence. By early afternoon things had slowed right down but the weather was absolutely glorious, the sun was actually burning my face and the gentle breeze even felt mild. I still caught the odd roach and even a chunky little Rudd throughout the afternoon but It was the perch I was there for and they weren't playing ball!

 

By now it was four o'clock and I was getting twitchy, I should have had at least a couple of 2lbers by now but nothing even approaching that had graced my net so far. 4.30 ticked by, packup time was fast approaching then suddenly the tip pulled round properly and it was perch on! My session was saved as a 2lb6oz fish slid into the net, job done!

 

I lost two on my next two casts, my swim had come alive! Another small carp interrupted play and had me thinking I'd hooked a beast of a perch but it gave me a good scrap and beggars can't be choosers!

 

The light was fading as I hooked and landed my last fish of the day, a perch of around a pound and a half and I packed up with a smile on my face so pleased at having caught a few.

I don't know what my next trip out has in store for me because I don't even know when or where I'll be going, obviously I'd like to get back on the rivers but unless something drastic happens like two weeks of dry weather then I'm doubtful they'll even be right enough to fish again this season, we shall see.

 

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Stalled

I've just realised its been a full month since I last posted on this blog! I really must try harder but it does help if I actually have something to post about in the first place!

After such a cracking end to 2013 I was hoping to continue in 2014 where I left off but as usual the weather put paid to any plans I may have had. Torrential rain and floods have knocked any chance of much river action on the head and seeing as I'm not at all keen on fishing lakes in the winter months I haven't been doing a great deal. A chest infection has stopped me in my tracks over the last week or so aswell so basically my fishing seems to have stalled somewhat.

A Perch session on a local commercial in early Jan was a success in that I caught a lot of fish unfortunately nothing substantial though. I was pleased to find another water where they respond to prawns pretty well though so it could be worth a second look with deadbaits to see if they can tempt something bigger.

I did attempt a river session mid January and nearly didn't bother due to it pulling through like a train but the colour was nice and I managed to find a bit of slack water whereupon I tempted a fine Perch of 3lb8oz on a worm. It was the only bite of the trip and I haven't been out since.

Hopefully the weather will break soon because were fast running out of fishing season!

 

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On Canal and Commercial

With Christmas fast approaching I finished work early on Friday so I could head into town to do some shopping. Whilst in town I stopped by the tackle shop to get some maggots and as I waited I allowed myself to look at the various lure rods on display. A couple caught my eye and ten minutes later I was walking out of the shop with them! An impulse buy if ever there was one!

Obviously I couldn't wait to try them out and the following morning I took the lighter of the two, a Korum number, down to my local canal to see if I could catch something to put it though its paces. The area I chose was a fairly urbanised section between two sets of locks, I'd not fished there for years so I wasn't sure what to expect. As it turned out It didn't take long to find out because within a few casts a small pike put in an appearance.

 

As I worked my way down the cut I had a couple of Perch drop off before eventually catching a small one to round the trip off. The little rod had performed exactly as I had hoped and I'm looking forward to catching plenty more on it in the future.

We had a lot of rain on Friday which made a bit of a mess of the rivers so Sundays day out was to be a visit to a local commercial with Perch in mind. I awoke Sunday morning and could hear the rain and wind outside lashing the windows and was sorely tempted to stay in my nice warm bed. Phil was picking me up at 6.30 however so bed was no longer an option!

It was still pitch black when we arrived lakeside and after all the rain the place was a total quagmire. Not surprisingly we were the only god forsaken souls there and we quickly endeavoured to get setup in some comfy swims with our backs to the wind.

Prawns were the bait of choice and due to the wind I decided to fish under the rod tip where I had about 5ft of water. I began to get knocks and bumps on the float straight away and despite my best efforts I simply couldn't connect with anything. It was obvious that small fish were to blame and this was confirmed when I eventually hooked a small gudgeon with eyes bigger than its belly!

 

The knocks continued and after catching an 8oz Roach I decided to switch to maggot to see what was down there. Straight away the float shot away and I netted the first Perch of the session at around a pound, a most welcome capture. After persevering with maggots for a short while longer I decided to switch back to Prawn. Over the next half hour I had another gudgeon and lots more knocks on the float as the small fish pecked away at the bait. Suddenly the swim went dead and I hoped it was because something big and stripey had moved in. I missed a sailaway bite before hitting another on the drop on my next cast, this time my strike met a dogged resistance and a decent looking Perch breached on the surface before bolting into the dead reeds at my feet. A brief tussle ensued and finally a proper Perch was bristling in the bottom of the net. At 2.4 it wasn't as heavy as its gut suggested but it was nice to get a 2lber at last after the mornings struggles.

Morning soon became afternoon and I was really getting fed up with the small fishes relentless assault on my Prawns. I decided to set up a quiver tip and fish further along the margin to my left where I'd been trickling bait in all morning. It took a while to get a bite but I struck at the tiniest movement on the tip and the rod hooped over. The fish thumped away in the open water before making a mad rush into a dead reed bed and breaking my hooklink. Much cursing ensued because judging by the disturbance in the reeds it looked a good fish.

After this, bites on the tip rod proved to be pretty hard to come by but I stuck with it and managed to hook another Perch which transferred my hook into a snag, I was having no luck! I recast and as I tensioned the tip it carried on going round so I struck and hooked another Perch. All went well with this one and it proved to be identical in weight to my last fish, giving me a nice brace of twos.

 

That fish had strange growths on the lips which were almost bonelike, a feature shared with many other Perch in the lake. I don't know what causes the lips to go like that on these fish but I've not really come across it elsewhere before, maybe this is what causes so many hook pulls here. Anyway back to the fishing and after frustratingly losing two more fish to hook pulls over the next hour I decided to play about with my rig to try and put more fish on the bank.

A shorter hooklink and a larger wide gaped hook seemed to do the trick as I successfully landed my next fish. At 2.10 it was the biggest of the day and exhibited the same boney growths in its mouth as the previous fish. The growths are visible in both the pics below and make for quite a strange looking Perch!

That was about it other than another lost fish as it got dark. A hat-trick of 2lb Perch on a cold December day was a decent result but I still left feeling pretty damn frustrated at losing so many, still there's always next time I guess. Tight lines all!

 

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