Ultralight river fishing

I've only just found enough time to write up what i got up to last week having every day of the week to fish straight from work until dark if needs be. I chose to fish ultralight, mostly small cranks as it was pacey water i was mostly going to be fishing and wading allot of it too.

Tuesday was to be a day fishing with my mate Steve whom id not fished with for nearly a year so it was going to be a nice catch up more than anything else, the river spot we chose to fish though had always done us well so we was looking forward to getting amongst some fish too.
The further we got down the river stretch the more and more we was realising that spots we usually catch from every time were not producing and despite a few perch it wasn't really producing anything at all. We fished the stretch through though with Steve catching the majority of perch while i just had one or two and a bonus chub. Disappointing, and we wasn't sure if the lack of rain and oxygen had anything to do with it.

We moved off to another river next a smaller river which would be a nice change and good chances of big chub and trout. Again it was more of the same, that being a bit of a struggle. I manged to find a half decent chub which was a result but the most interesting part of the session was finding all the big crays that we kept seeing on the river bed.

On Wednesday I met up with Paul whom and we both agreed that we fancied a half days trout fishing and then move onto a canal or river later in the day for a hopefully a mixed bag.

So we started off on a small stream that i had not fished before so I'd have that exciting feeling of not knowing what the pool round the next corner was going to be like or have lurking in it! We were off to a good start straight away but that soon fizzled off when it was evident that the stream was lacking in water so it was a case of walking further to find any deeper holes. When ever we did find any they produced fish. Nothing massive was caught but we had fun getting amongst fish and missing lots of hits from smaller ones.

Later in the day we headed closer to home for an evening on a bigger river and there was always the chance of a treble here, but again things proved difficult for what ever reason and we were struggling to find many fish with just the odd perch showing, sadly no pike action though. I got a bonus fish in the form of a chub so i was pushing hard for a pike later on to complete a treble but it never came. We had a flurry of perch late in the evening but that was it. Pretty knackered by the end of the day after being up for work at 4:10am and not getting home till 22:30pm with just the odd crisp sandwich to sustain me all day.

On Thursday my fuel was running low and i nearly made the decision not to bother but as soon as i finished work i thought sod it and off i went again, a bit of a drive to where i wanted to fish but hopefully it would be worth it.

Things started off slow as i had the difficulty of getting good river access as the area i wanted to fish was taken up by stick float fishers and any further downstream was going to be too deep to wade and no bank access at all. I really wanted to get amongst the chub with a fly rod but this just didn't suit where was going to have to fish. Pretty frustrated i thought id just get in the river where i could and see how far i could wade downstream before it became too dangerous.

I picked up a nice chub early on and then the odd few perch here and there before id fished out that area. i thought I'd go back upstream and fish through it again as id spooked a decent chub under a tree and thought id get a second shot at it. As i neared the spot i saw the chub come up and take something off the top so thought it would be great to see if i could catch it on a floating bean crank. I must have spooked it again as it never showed any interest but i suddenly started catch allot more fish all be it smaller in size, both chub and perch and a few pike to complete a treble. The bean was a floating crank that skittered across the surface but by casting it downstream and pulling it across or into the flow it dived a few inches and the fish seemed to really like this.

After fishing through that stretch again and catching much more i thought id go see if the other guys had gone as it was now reaching early evening. I was pleased to see they had gone and i then enjoyed a great hour or so catching fish after fish, most perch but i also had more chub with some better ones mixed in. I'd now had chub from 4 different rivers this week and it was great to get amongst them.

I'd saved the best untill last and despite being frustrated early on about more than i mentioned which i won't go into on here, it ended up a really good day with plenty caught.

Another season starts.

I always book a few days off for the new river season and this year was no exception, i had a few plans on the go for weeks leading up to the 16th. Monday was going to be a day on the boat with Neil, Tuesday was a bank day with Paul and I wasn't exactly sure where i was ending up Wednesday.

 

I was out all day Sunday for fathers day and didn't get in till late evening so I was pretty much going to be full on for 5 days in a row as Saturday had been a long day, as Sunday night drew near i was getting excited again though, just one more sleep and up early to fish with Neil on his boat.
We was a little disappointed to find the river low but still carrying quite allot of colour, you couldn't see that far past the length of a trace, so we wondered if our excitement was going to soon turn to disappointment.
We started trolling ultralight lures and covered a bit of water before we got a take but it was great to get a fish and give us a bit of hope. We was probably a little hasty in worrying about the colour as we steadily picked up fish, we also caught quite a few drifting and casting into areas which doesn't always go to plan when we have tried it in the past. I would say on this session we caught more fish casting than we did trolling.
Nothing massive caught but we had some decent perch and pike big enough to pull back which were actually amazing fun on the ultralight gear, fit river fish don't half fight!
We bumped into quite a few of the Yorkshire lot who had also had the same plans and at one point i think there was five boats all within view. everyone seemed to be having a decent day and catching plenty.
Another highlight was when we saw an otter asleep on a rock right next to the boat, it was curled up like a cat but soon woke up and went into the river. A brilliant sight and surprising how big they can get, not sure its a good thing for the river though taking into account where we saw it being quite urban.
One more thing to mention was a perch Neil had on that surfaced and looked very big, we only got a glimpse of it and to me it looked a good 3lber but we will never know as sadly it came off!

 

I was still pretty shattered Tuesday after the long day on the boat and was up again early to fish all day. I had planned to meet Paul for a days bank fishing and hopefully some chub. Paul only had the morning to fish so i had some ideas for where i could move onto.
No sooner had i pulled up and was walking to check out the river than i get a text from Paul saying he had slept in, this didn't come as a surprise as Paul has a bit of a habit of this.  My first thought was well at least there will be more fish for me.
As it turned out the small river was still carrying allot of colour too and i didn't fancy it, i didn't give this spot too long i just had a feeling i was wasting my time so thought I'd put plan B into effect.
I had a drive to the second spot then realised I'd have to wait nearly 2hours for the postie to open to buy a fishing permit! I thought id have a walk and check out all the swims while i waited. What swims? the bank vegetation was over head height and you could not even see the river, i pushed my way though but i was getting covered in pollen which made the hay fever i was suffering with even worse. I was getting a bit annoyed at this point as my plans for today were going down the swanny.
Eventually the post office opened and i went to buy a ticket not really looking forward to having to make my hay fever worse. The guy at the counter was really helpful and said the banks had not been cut yet and he was a bit annoyed about it, he suggested i go elsewhere and gave me a map and talked about the spot in detail.
The story of today was pushing my way through pollen laden grass and lots of climbing into and out of swims often falling back into them and getting scratched and nettled. My arms, neck and face were a bit of a mess with stings and generally being puffy because of the hay fever, i felt pretty lousy but pushed on. It was a tiring day but i did OK, i had a handful of pike quite a few perch and a few chub to make it a Yorkshire treble.
I had a phone call of the Mrs to say her car was knackered and would need mine on Wednesday so that meant i wouldn't be able to fish. I decided to go check out a canal spot Ive not fished for a while and see if i could spend the evening catching perch on the fly that Ive been enjoying over the last month. It didn't go to plan and there seemed to be nothing about other than a few tiny perch. All of a sudden everything tightened up and i had a fish on, what a surprise i got when a trout surfaced! Not sure if it had been to sea or was on its way but given its location it was certainly migrating somewhere. It had some characteristics of a fish that had been in saltwater, apparently the fins of a river dweller are olive and migrated fish have no colour in there fins even when the body colour starts to come back. It also had star shaped spots, no red spots and was nearly white in colour. Its always difficult to tell where the trout have been and its something that interests me and would like to learn more about. i did a bit of reading and apparently when a fish decides its going to migrate to sea at a young age it starts to change its colour and characteristics before it travels, this is called a 'Smolt' Either way it was a surprise and capped the day off nicely.

 

 

 

You've gotta pick a pocket or two...

I finished for work Friday knowing i had 4 good days fishing in front of me, It will be great to get back on the rivers. Saturday was to be my first day and it had been planned for some time. I was going up in't dales to fish some pocket water with my mate Mart. He's been getting into Tenkara fly fishing which basically is a Japanese form of fly fishing using a long very light rod and a fixed line, no reel at all. The method is used to dibble the flies into pockets of water in bolder strewn rivers for little trout. Mart had come up with the idea to fish one particular area that was just like the Japanese would fish this style.
I decided on taking my longer #5 rod despite only fishing for tiny fish i thought the extra length would benefit reaching around on a short line into the pocket water similar to what Mart was going to be doing but no where near as accurate and delicate.
I'm writing this after being out all day so I'm thinking I'm going to keep it short as i have allot of planning to do tonight as i have a full 3 days solid fishing to come from Monday.
We caught quite a few fish but not as many as we would have hoped because every spot we came to looked fantastic and like it should be full of fish, but it wasn't the case we had to really search them out. All the fish caught were very small but it was all about the scenery and the type of water we was fishing, we couldn't stop snapping photos as every new corner revealed a stunning scene.
I caught a fish early on that looked different and we wondered if it was a salmon Parr, it had a forked tail and seemed longer with very pronounced Parr marks, i was about to take a photo but it flipped out of my hand, 5 minutes later i was trying to take another photo when my camera flipped out of my hand and went off downstream in the flow i had to grab it quick but it was water logged and didn't work so i had to switch to my phone, luckily later on my camera came back to life but it still needs drying out fully internally. After a few hours fishing Mart caught another of the fish id caught earlier and by now we had checked out the differences online and we knew they were indeed salmon Parr, funny really because they look exactly like brown trout but when you compare the differences they are allot different.
Anyway I'll let the photos do the rest of the talking, we didn't get many fish shots but the scenery and action shots make up for the lack of fish photos.

 

 

 

 

Favouring Fluff

Recently I've been doing more fly fishing than lure fishing, and really enjoying it. Even when your not catching, the casting is just so enjoyable and addictive, you could almost say it has a therapeutic effect.

I've managed to get out over the last three days when i was supposed to be only going out Tuesday which was a planned trip, but finishing work in time on Monday and Today meant I could get out for a few short session.

 

So on Monday i wanted to get the pike fly gear out as Ive not fished with it for ages. I had great fun with some small pike which at times were hard to get in because they would bury into the weed and then I'd have to drag them out or drag them in with the weed as well. When they didn't dive into the weed though it was brilliant fun. I even had a tiny pikelet take my 5-6" which totally engulfed it, you couldn't even see the pikes mouth for fluff!

 

On the Tuesday I had planned to get out with John and properly fish for trout, hopefully on the dry but with the recent weather it wasn't happening. The river wasn't full but it was pushing through and for a well known good fishery it was quite hard work. Not only was the fishing tough but at times it was tricky standing up and i nearly went in more than once tripping or dropping into deeper holes i couldn't see because of the colour in the water.

We fished Duo most of the session and picked the odd fish up here and there but nothing near the numbers that was expected, i had getting on for twenty brownies which doesn't sound bad but this river averages allot more than that when the conditions are right and the fish are playing ball.

We had a few changes to streamer and had some good takes but not many of the better fish connected, until i got the best of the session right at the end on a streamer.

 

Its been three days of change with today seeing me target perch, i started off catching tiny little perch before a few better ones made an appearance and then towards the end they disappeared and it was the little guys turn again!

I'm thoroughly enjoying my fishing at the minute and it seems every session is something different from the last. I have quite a few good plans coming up with the rivers opening and can't wait to get into some fit river fish!