New Horizons

I was hoping for a spot of Perch fishing today on the club lake , but on arrival the impending sale of the water has gone through , and the lake is no longer available for fishing . What a shame I really liked it and the Perch fishing was great .

So off to pastures new .

Having consulted the club books I visited a lake complex belonging to another club . It is a place I have been meaning to visit for years but just never managed to get to .

The lakes looked really nice , and I settled in to fish a corner peg in the hope of a sought after Perch . The chopped worm, maggots and prawn approach ..the whole 9 yards .

However the only bite of the day resulted in a nice looking Carp of 12lbs , which gave me the run around on the float rod !

Now with some free time on my hands and the rivers still a bit high and coloured , where to next ?

Cane and Fable ?

Well I have jumped ship !

I have read and enjoyed the delights of Chris Yates and others extolling the virtues of split cane and all things traditional from an angling perspective .

My book collection has focussed on the traditional aspects of the Angling genre .

I own and use a number of centrepin reels so may be I am already half way there ?

My float collection involves an awful lot of quills and cork .

I even own a split cane fly rod bought from a second hand shop many years ago , and it was with that very rod that I learnt to cast and caught my first fly caught trout . I also got some very strange looks and some supposed funny comments from fellow brothers of the angle at Chalk Springs when I used the rod to extract some very nice trout from their watery home . I think the other anglers didn't,  so were quick to cast some barbed comments my way .

Oh and I have to say  I own a Kelly Kettle , so perhaps the writing is on the wall ?

So now I have bought a couple of split cane rods ....oh what have I done ?

They looked so nice . All rich and toffee coloured just waiting to be put back into use .

So there we are , I am on the road to Angling Tradition , where will it stop ?

But I suppose as a collector of vinyl and an avid appreciator of all things turntable related ( that means record player to the un -initiated ) my walk back to the future was always on the cards . Now where is that copy of the Fishing Gazette ?

The Wye's and Wherefore's !

The River Wye must be one of my favourite places , but I have never done very well in my attempts at fishing on her delightful waters . Unfortunately the latest trip again proved that the Wye's fishy secrets are still eluding me !

Melanie and I stayed at the fantastic " Saracen's Head " pub at Symond's Yat , and while there I used the free fishing on offer to try and catch a Pike . Plus of course what a great way to spend Valentine's Day ? !

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I have changed the approach for this winter after Pike , and one rod will be a float fished paternoster and the other a float leger. These traces from Lynx were new to me but they seem to work very well. I had not heard of them before but an E Bay search turned them up .

 

 

Melanie had a go as well .

 

 



 

 

 

 The banks on this stretch of the Wye don't make it easy to get to the water , in fact a rope and crampons wouldn't have gone amiss in some of the places !

 

 A Flying Condom lives up to its name !

Parallel Lines ....the search for a Blonde Ray

Sorry couldn't resist the musical reference !

With the tide and weather conditions being at their best for a trip after Blonde Rays , Jeff took us off in " Jupiter's Moon " to the sandbanks for a try after a big Blonde Ray . It was a good excuse to use my new Avet reel too !

The tide was a small one but the water really does rip across the banks , and our use of braid still meant a pound of lead to hold at the top of the tide run .

But soon parallel lines reached out into the flowing tide ......in search of a big Blonde Ray .

After a whole pack  of Doggies , I managed a small Spotted Ray , but the Blondes eluded us . maybe next time .....

An Adur Morning

Dave N and I met near to the river and guess what ? It had snowed ! Still it was a positively balmy 0 degrees , in comparison to my last trip at -6 degrees. ( balmy or barmy ?) We arrived at the fork with the river at low tide . My paternostered mackerel and a float legered herring soon sat in the tide and we sat on the bank under the brolly sheltering from the freezing wind and the rain . Oh the joys of winter piking !

Dave managed the only spot of interest from the pike as he had a brief encounter with our toothy adversary , but she dropped the bait on the strike . Dave however was convinced it was a "teen fish ", but alas having breakfast taken away so rudely , it didn't return for a second helping .

We did our best to get some action but the frequent moves and changes of spot did nothing to get any action . Next time ......

The Ice Man Cometh !

The thermometer in the car was registering -6 degrees C , when I left it to brave the elements in the search of a Pike or two on the Arun . The first song on the radio was " 10th Avenue Freezeout" too ! Its always interesting on the tidal as the high tide had frozen leaving its mark on the banks , a frozen point in  time .

Sometimes fishing is about " being there" . Deep down you know that the chances of catching are slim ( maybe even non existent !) but you have to be in it to win it .

I had decided to change the approach for this winters Pike fishing , and rather than my tradition long link leger techniques and drop off indicators I would be going back to the floats and bite alarms . On this trip I had intended to fish one rod on a paternoster and one on the deck , but as with all the " best laid plans " , I had managed to leave the paternoster rig tube at home ! So both herrings went in to soak on the bottom .

I moved down the river every 30 minutes but as was to be expected really no Pike came my way . But yet again the turn of the tide brought out the only signs of fishy activity as a number of roach rolled in the swim . But not enough to tempt the Pike from their enforced torpor .

While waiting for the impossible to actually happen , I was fascinated by the patterns in the ice .

 

 With the turn of the tide the best and probably most likely time for a "take" had gone , so I decided to pack up . Still a privilege to be there . The wildlife seems to tolerate us in their world a little bit more when it gets really cold . Maybe they don't want to waste energy on escaping from us if we are not an obvious threat ? The Grey Wagtails were " ice walking " , and the Kingfishers and Dabchicks came really close ( why is the camera always in your bag when the best opportunities present themselves ? I have had Kingfishers land on my rods a number of times now , and my move to get the camera has spoilt the opportunity with a departing flash of blue the only lasting image )

Lots of Cormorants about too .......

I will be back .....