Doesn't time fly...
and in't it easy to let
a blog slip... mind you, its not like I've been too busy fishing to
write about it. In fact I've fished less this year then practically
any other year this century, about half a dozen times if my reckoning
is right. But as the year draws to a close it seems like I should
document my adventures, if for no other reason than to explain the
gap in the record when I look back at my tribulations in years to
come.
So the year started
badly... My dads cancer had returned, this time with no prospect of
treatment, so fishing took a back seat as we ferried back and forth
across the Midlands at weekends to see him as much as possible. His
season drew to a sudden close on March 18th. ... 69 is no
age these days, and though the speed of his demise took us by
somewhat by surprise, He was at least very well cared for by the St
Michaels hospice, and after all, once your time is definitely up
there is little to be gained by hanging around.
He was never an angler,
my dad, He didn't even like the smell of fish...though he did his
best to support my fishy interests during my formative years. I
recall a trip in the caravan to somewhere in North Wales when I was
about 11, dad had taken the two “rods” that I played with in the
garden to Hattons tackle shop in Hereford to get some replacement
eyes whipped on, and that weekend, despite the limitations of the
centrepin reel (yes even though it was 1986 I started with a 'pin)
the remnants of his childhood knowledge showed me how a well timed
strike would turn a nodding rod tip into a silvery wriggling
gudgeon... From that point on I was entirely self taught, but
logistically supported... There were the trips to “The Southern
Leisure Centre” near Chichester with a memorable eel from the
gravel pits qualifying as my first “Proper” fish and a pouting
caught from Bognor pier my first sea capture. There ware lifts and
ticket money to fish the pool at “the Royal Oak” for its stunted
micro carp and even the day that we bobbed around on the vast
expanse of Llangorse lake failing to catch a thing. I don't actually
ever remember him complaining about doing any of this for us...
though he must have done... he was nicknamed “whinger”.... Anyway
dad, if somehow you are reading this thanks... for everything.
31 March 2012 – River
Dore
So as March became
April, the day after the funeral, Marie and I, along with my brother,
sister in law and niece took ourselves off for a couple of nights
camping in Herefordshire. The site is nestled in the golden valley,
just outside Peterchurch and is bordered by the tiny river Dore. Its
such a small stream that last year it dried up entirely along this
stretch, so I wasn't too optimistic, but I had a small box of flies
and a much too heavy #7 outfit with me, & anyway just having a go
would be enough.
The river here is
actually one of the Wye and Usk passport waters, the upper section
alongside the site is straightened canalised, swift and shallow, the
lower part retains its natural meandering form, generally shallow
riffles punctuated by the odd deeper pool that might put 2ft of water
over a fishes head. I stalked and watched the water several times
during the first day to get a feel for what might be present. There
was a touch of colour in the water, enough to conceal the depths of
the pools, but the riffles were clear enough. In total I spotted
about 8 fish, none rising & every one of them spooked, regardless
of how carefully I approached the water. They were only small wild
trout, but at least we had a quarry & it was clear that they were
going to be hard to catch.
The River Dore here
is too small a stream to even need a cast, a little flick or even
just a nymph dabbled beneath the rod top could cover the handful of
spots in which the trout were likely to reside. My Brother and I
leapfrogged our way along the water, one rod could cover it in an
hour or so, so we were tending to linger more than I usually would
when fly fishing. Eventually I got a take on the GRHE nymph dead
drifted along some slightly deeper and quicker water on the outside
of a bend. The little brown trout was brought safely to hand before
being released. My brother remained fishless... which makes a nice
change as he has had a habit of outfishing me in recent years. Of
course, with 4 year old Frankie in tow, he will claim his odds were
diminished, I'm not entirely sure what she made of of her dad &
uncles fluff flinging attempts... though it has to be said, the River
Dore is not exactly a beginners water in any respect, other than you
wouldnt come to any harm if you fell in.
June 16th
2012
My fishing club had
taken on a new stretch of river this season, and a couple of days had
been spent during the close season helping to get it fishable. On
opening day I took the opportunity to steal a few hours and find out
if this new field was living up to expectations. The river was
chocolate brown, high but dropping. John was settled in and had had
decent barbel and a very big chub as the season kicked off, In the
end I spent most of the time having a natter, with him, Then the pair
of us spent an hour or so with the fishfinder to get a good feel for
the bottom contours.
I did fish for a couple of hours as the sun set.
The mosquitoes enjoyed the meal that I had laid on for them, but the
chub and barbel seemed singularly unimpressed with the luncheon meat
offering that I presented, biteless but bitten I returned home before
it got properly dark. Weather, conditions and work never really
aligned in a way that led me to the bank throughout June, and as the
end of July approached I had still not really been out for a proper
fishing session. Even the odd evening that I really had no good
excuse to not be out passed without me taking the opportunity.
Looking back on it now it seems inexplicable, that the urge to fish
which can sometimes manifest as a virtual obsession can just
disappear. I think it was the overdue recognition that June and July
had passed me by and the summer would soon be over that bumped me out
of my lackadasical mindset and I set out for my first proper session
of the season.
28th July –
River Trent
I dont know if it was
force of habit, checking out a hunch or what, but I actually drove
down to The Pads to begin with. The hay had already been cut, as if I
needed reminding of how many weeks of potential fishy joy I had
already foregone, but the river was still stubbornly well above its
normal summer level. Gazing out over the undulating surface, and
knowing that I was blind to what the lillies and vegetation
underneath were like this year, it seemed obvious I was in the wrong
place. Trundling back up the track it wasn't long before I was
spinning the combination into the padlock of the ferry field and
surprised to find that I had the choice of swims. I had arrived late,
and I had barely enough time to get a bit of bait out, rods up,
rigged and baited and the bivvy sorted before the fading light, and
inevitable mosquito onslaught saw me settled down for the evening.
Checking the baits after half an hour, then again at about midnight
showed that despite the flow debris wasn't going to mask the bait,
though the fine blanketweed strung out like washing on the line
played havoc by gathering on the tip ring into an inpenetrable mass
that would then need to be picked apart a little at a time before I
could recast. Apart from this it was a pleasant evening, “nice to
be back on the bank” I thought to myself as I caught the occasional
glimpse of stars through the nightime cloud. “now if a decent fish
were to show up that would really be grand”...
Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee........
that sound from the alarms really only means one thing, I amaze
myself with how quickly I can get out of a bivvy in response to it...
even at 5.45 in the morning. Lifting the rod and slowing the
baitrunner in one action, freespool was disengaged and the fish was
on. Not rushing anything I played it gently on a lightish clutch, but
even so it decided that it wanted to charge around and misbehave once
close to the bank & on a short line... I'd already got a glimpse
of the capture though and I was delighted, not a specimen by any
traditional account...but...
The 2010 & 2011
seasons were dominated by my attempts to snare a carp from the river,
a task in which I had utterly failed, I guess at least 300 hours were
devoted to this enterprise without so much as a carpy run... so there
I was, on my first carping session of this season, and not even up to
double figures on the hours totaliser and there, in the net, is the
thing I have worked so hard for. John came and joined me for a cuppa
before I packed up, it was good to see him, and he was happy that the
clubs new stretch had finally produced a carp, Though his tongue in
cheek comment as I showed him the pictorial evidence rather summed it
up. “I didn't know they still made them in that size”... a whole 6lb 8oz... brill
18th & 19 August - River Trent
for my next session I
moved downriver, joining John on a drizzly friday afternoon I spent most of the afternoon tapping away at finishing off a book chapter I had been working on. The afternoon gave way to a warm and muggy evening, and fancying my chances of picking up a decent eel. I put a bunch of maggots onto a size 12 connected to a quicksilver trace and dropped it just beyond a dropoff to the right hand margin. It was only a few minutes before a steady run resulted in a decent eel of 2lb 4oz.
this was followed half an hour later by another, this time a few ozs short of the 2lb mark before the 3rd eel, this time about 1 lb twisted itself around the rig to the extent that scissors were needed to extricate it. Content with my slimy haul I switched back to bolt rigged boilies but the alarms were to remain silent until morning, when a bream turned up at 6am to make sure that I could enjoy the dawn with a hot brew...
Next day was brighter, I spent a couple of hours in the morning on peg improvements, sawing back some overhanging branches which had been troublesome in the dark, Spent an hour or two with a maggot feeder but only managed a single perch.
Johns wife Luce joined us for a Barbie in the evening, great company & great grub watching the dragonflies hunting mozzies in the evening sunshine. Decent fish however remained elusive, and well after dark I turned in for the night pessimistic that anything much was likely to happen...
at about 3am the rod fished out towards a mid-river went howling off, and I was into a slow moving, but seemingly reasonable fish. My sleepy head resulted in me plunging one trainer clad foot into the muddy depths as i moved onto the old jetty that would more easily facilitate landing the fish, and from this vantage point the light from my headtorch confirmed that the adversary at the end of the line was my second carp of the season. Frustratingly, this fish wallowed around on a short line, stubbornly refusing to let me get its head up, and making some scary dives towards the rocks which were 8ft below the surface. However eventually it succumbed to the landing net. This one at least managed double figures at 10lb 11oz
That was it for the night, and the next morning. I scraped together a makeshift breakfast for John (which was a poor shadow of the previous evenings grub) and at about 11 am we went our seperate ways, In my case, a quick nip home to drop the heavy gear off and pick up a fly rod for a quick roam of the Erewash
19 July PM River Erewash - Toton
I had popped down here with some bushy flies hoping that I'd be able to stalk a chub, Unfortunately that wasn't to be. It was one of those hot sunny days and the few chub I saw were very skittish and wary. The perch on the other hand were most obliging, and I took about half a dozen, with a black woolly worm being the fly that did the business. Eventually I found a chub... all 3oz of it.
23rd Aug - River Trent
I got back on the river the following weekend, spending a couple of hours trotting maggots through a shoal of roach and bleak It was nearly a fish a chuck, with one small silver bream a surprise capture to break the pattern. I had a joey mackerel paternostered a foot off the bottom at the upstream end of the swim to see if the bits were escorted by any decent predators, but that bait stayed untouched.
I had euthanased a couple of bleak which were bleeding when unhooked, and as the sun dropped below the horizon I prepped them by removing the head and tail, cutting a strip of skin off one side and stabbing the other several times. The rig was simple, just a size 2 single hook to 30lb quicksilver as the trace and a free running 1oz bomb. This was dropped into the margin, the rod was positioned with the baitrunner on its slackest setting and as darkness fell i got the kettle on...
I was on my last sip of hot chocolate as the alarm made a solitary bleep, I began to stealthily approach the bankside, but only began, as within a second or two later the line began to peel steadily from the reel and i took two quick steps to pick up the rod and strike. I had a feeling it was a zander rather than a pike, and as it broke the surface in the deep twilight the suspicion grew. After a pretty spirited fight the idea was confirmed, as there in the net was my biggest zander. Not a monster at 8lb 4oz but a respectable fish nevertheless.
After that success I split the rods, fishing a legered mackerel on one and boilie on the other. I didn't get a peep out of the alarms all night, though oddly the prawn boilie and hook were both gone when I reeled in to check the baits at 3AM...
1st Sept - River Trent.
I left it a bit late before heading out on Saturday evening, the light was fading fast, the first evening of the year that made me realise that autumn was basically here. I was left with only half an hour of fading light to pick up some deadbaits and failed miserably, watching until the tip of the float was more imagination than reality in the gloaming. Instead of the predator session i had planned I therefore turned my attention to carbelling, tackling up in the light of the headtorch before retiring to the camper. Not only did I see no action that night, but in the morning as I tried to depart the van refused to start. One of those days I guess. If you had told me on that morning that that would be my last session of the year I'd have never believed it, yet.. as things turned out it was...
The river had been fining down for a week or more, and the water was relatively clear, I could see a large shoal of bleak in midriver, dimpling the surface as they supped wave after wave of hatching insects. But the sun would set over silent alarms, and the unexpectedly chilly night under clear skies showed I had been woefully complacent in my selection of bedding & warm clothes. At first light I was up to get a brew on, and enjoy the solstice sunrise over the wooded hill with a conforting cup of tea in hand. I had considered waking the babe so he could see his first sunrise, but when it came to it I just didnt have the heart! He slept blissfully on until about 8am.
