More Max Fishing

My blog is in danger of being completely taken over by a small boy whose passion for angling is showing no signs of waning. He has however started his own blog now, check it out.
Thursdays (cut short by the weather) afternoon session again at Willow Farm was highlighted by Max's first Carp. A pretty apple slice scaled Mirror that led him a merry dance. Max float fished maggots while I plonked a prawn down by the lilies to give us a back-up option. The Carp picked up the prawn and made the boys day.

His next session was scheduled for Saturday but we gave storm Brian a wide berth and postponed until Sunday morning. The wind was still blowing a hooley so we kept the rod tip as low as possible while feeder fishing maggots. The swim took some getting going but after an hour or so the fish started to oblige.
Ever since our first session Max has had a weird obsession about catching an Eel. I have told him that the time of year meant that it was unlikely and that the numbers of Eels are not what they used to be, trying to soften the blow of disappointment. Well I shouldn't have wasted my breath. We had already landed a quality netful of Perch, Roach, Dace, Chublets and the biggest Bleak I have ever seen, when the rod bent over and stayed bent over. Max laid into the unseen adversary, I thought he was attached to a decent Chub so imagine our surprise when an Eel appeared at the net. Excited high fives followed. It was not going in the keepnet so we weighed and photographed it and put it straight back.

Max insisted he was going to hold it for the trophy shot, he obviously had no idea what is involved in holding an Eel. His expressions speak a thousand words.

Eventually he got it under control.

And it took him about half an hour to get the slime off his hands.

Posing with the biggest Perch of the day was much easier!

Max Bagging Up

Max has got the bug bad. All he has spoken this week is going fishing, different species, places to go. He has always had a passion for animals but that has now transpired to all things fish as well.
This week I planned an action packed morning to add further fuel to the fire in his belly and to give him more experience of casting, playing and also unhooking some fish for himself. As sad as it is a commercial would be the best place but not somewhere catching pasties and mud pigs. A silver pool like the one at Willow Farm was ideal, plenty of bites and a lovely variety of silver fish.

First cast a decent Roach and he insisted the camera came out to record the historic moment. Several more followed along with some decent sized Silver Bream and a few dainty Perch.

When he started to get the hang of things it gave me an opportunity to get the camera out and take some action shots.

A quick learner it was a joy to hear his squeals of delight when he got a fish on.

Biggest fish of the day was this 2lb 2oz Common Bream.

Pleased as punch with a quality netful of Silvers. Back on the river next time....

An Indian Summer Evening

When I arrived at the river late afternoon it could have been the middle of July not early Autumn. Blazing sunshine from bright blue skies, temperatures in the high teens, the swifts flitting across the surface taking in as much of the abundant fly life as possible.

Coots and Moorhens busying themselves above the (despite resent downpours) crystal clear water and weed growth still in abundance. I was in no rush to cast as I planned to be there until nightfall which is now at a much more convenient time for a family man. I lightly baited a swim before Tazzy and I wandered the bank to check if anyone else was wetting a line. Just the one chap way downstream and the conditions meant he was having a blanking time.
When we did finally start fishing I chose a deep hole feeling it might give me the best chance of a few fish. The targets were Barbel on one rod and Roach on the other, rumours abound of a recent two pounder taken from the stretch and I know they can be had from this area so there might be some merit in it. It is several years since I last had one of that size and I have a yearning to try and repeat the feat to prove it was no fluke.

It took a while but eventually the first bite of the session materialised. A decent scrap on light gear had me wondering as to the identity of the unseen adversary especially when it buried itself in a ball of Canadian pondweed that was between my swim and the main flow. I probably should have removed the obstacle prior to fishing but it did not matter as I managed to bundle the whole lot into the net including the still unseen fish. I unwrapped my prize and should have guessed really, a sneaky Chub of about three pounds.

Once the sun had dropped below the horizon the action hotted up ever so slightly as more Chub took a liking to my pellet offerings.

All very similar in size but a lot easier to land with the weed removal completed.

Finally on my last cast (as I could not see to rebait and had forgotten my head torch) one of my targets came to the net, not as big as I had hoped but a respectable 14oz specimen. I am sure the catch rate will increase as soon as we get some more typical Autumnal weather.

Trotting the Wye

A day spent trotting for Roach on the glorious River Wye was an opportunity I was not going to pass up. The river was perfect having a few extra feet on, lovely colour and had been fairly settled for a few days.

The day started well with some lovely Perch, Roach and Dace finding the maggots irresistible but then the Bleak moved in in their thousands and absolutely mullered every grub thrown their way.

It was time for a move downstream. Thankfully the Bleak didn't follow and we were able to catch more quality Roach of about a pound, some small Chub and some more Perch.

It was such a pleasure to fish this stunning fish-filled river, I just hope I get to return soon!

More Birding than Fishing

Another short snatched session on the Avon and this time my target was more specific than last week, namely Roach. Not little live bait sized Roach but the sort of stamp of Roach that remains unbothered by most predators aside from the bigger Pike. Roach above a pound. I set up in a swim where I know they sometimes reside, hair-rigged a small pellet and fed some alongside. Within ten minutes I had the first Roach in the net, 1lb 1oz. A perfect start.

From there on the session went downhill fast. Over an hour of inactivity had me reaching for the maggots. Another hour of relative inactivity aside from a few tiny twitches saw me go back onto pellet. My thinking being that I would rather catch another biggie or nothing at all than be bothered with tiddlers.

As often happens when the fishing is slow the camera came out and I amused myself trying to capture the pigeon that kept flying back and forth across the river in front of me.

As luck would have it while the camera was in hand the Kingfisher decided to pay us a visit and gave me a rare opportunity to capture some flying shots before it wizzed upstream out of sight.

The rest of the action took place above the surface of the water but I still enjoyed it none the less.

Nuisance Barbel?!

With the wife and kids away in Yorkshire for a few days I had the opportunity to get back on the bank and retest my Roach/pellet theories to see if last nights success was a one off or a viable method. The weather was a lot more settled and to begin with the fishing was slow but as darkness descended the fish became a lot more active. There was crashing and splashing and fish rolling all over the place including some very big Roach and I knew it was only a matter of time before one would trip up.

A very similar stamp to the previous nights capture weighing only a couple of ounces more at 1lb 6oz. I am sure this is just the tip of the iceberg and am confident there are larger to come from this area. My target has to be a two pounder, that holy grail of river fishing. Somehow I need to improve my catch rate to several fish in a session but I think have a plan to help me succeed, just a slight tweek of the rig and method. Fingers and toes crossed!!

There was plenty of time for more fish after the Roach was released but there was one issue, a shoal of Barbel had found the pellets and decided it was supper time.
Size twelve hooks and four pound line is not ideal for hard fighting Barbel but thankfully the swim I was in is relatively snag free so I was able to land my adversaries.

A five pounder was soon followed by a seven.

I would never describe Barbel as nuisance fish and it was great fun catching them on light tackle but when your targeting Roach they can get in the way a little. Not unsurprisingly there was no more Roach.

The Plan Worked

In certain swims that I have fished of late there have been a lot of twitchy bites, little plucks on the rod tip that have not developed into fish. I suspected them to be Roach picking up the two eight mm pellets but not getting close to the size eight hook on the hair rig. I decided to investigate and tonight just fished one pellet and a size twelve hook to see if I could land one.
The heavens opened early on but once the shower had dissipated the bites started. Frustratingly I lost a good fish to and unseen snag. I suspected it to be a Tench but will never know, the risk of using light tackle. First fish was a small chublet but then just as the light faded my plan cam to fruition and I netted a decent Roach of 1lb 4oz

Maybe there is something in this method as there were a few more plucks on the tip before I ran out of light and retired to the pub.

Three Session Catch-up

Friday I managed to get two sessions in, one in the morning on my own and one in the evening spent in the company of Jeff and Martin. Both times it rained and both times I was after Barbel but I only managed one of about seven pounds, however I did land a lot of Chub.

Pellets were the bait of choice and whilst Barbel love them they are not discerning when it comes to Chub, a hazard of the game I suppose. I don't have a major problem with catching Chub, in fact I quite enjoy it but when heavy Barbel gear is employed the fun is definitely lessened.

Rain and cameras are not good bedfellows hence the quality of the photos might not be quite up to scratch but the cygnets below did make pretty subjects.

The rain held off tonight as I once again popped down to the Avon for a bonus session. There was a kind of change of tactics too as I felt like fishing for bites and a bit of fun rather than going all out for just one species. So with that in mind I popped into the tackle shop for a pint of maggots and some hemp. They were deployed on one rod but I still fished pellets on a 'sleeper' rod.

Several small Roach, Bream, and a couple of bonus Silver Bream came my way before as the light faded the sleeper rod suddenly burst into life. An interesting fight ensued that didn't have the all out pace of a Barbel or the short dogged bursts of a Chub but I was still surprised when my unseen adversary turned out to be a river Tench. Not a massive one and really I should have guessed it might be a Tinca as the swim does have previous form but a stunningly coloured example weighing 3lb 4oz.