In search of Pike and coming up Rudd

In search of Pike and coming up Rudd!
 
So I had free weekend and on Saturday there was a Wargames Show on in Sheffield which I wanted to go to (Wargames being my other passion).
 
The show was on a the English Institute for Sport and last time I went there I had noticed the Sheffield/Tinsley Canal was right next door.   A plan was hatched to have the ultimate day of fishing and wargaming.
 
A look on googlemaps and trawling the internet forums confirmed that taking my predator kit was a definite option..  Canals are always pretty good for pike and perch and travelling so light would be perfect for a quick fire fishing session and then pack up and get to the show.
 
I got there for 6am on a beautiful morning.  It was very still and there was evidence of plenty of fish moving close to the surface.  Over the next 4 hours I walked about a mile up the canal and back trying every possible hidey hole and lie, with everything from imitation swim baits, jig heads and poppers to bright noisy plugs.  No interest shown at all, no follows and just one brief take which if I am honest could have been the plug catching bottom.
 
Talking to the odd local they blamed the "eastern Europeans" for netting and eating all the pike.  It seems these immigrants ( that nobody has ever seen but has a mate who has) are destined to enter folk lore along with the Sinister Cormorant and the current Bond villain; the Otter as the bogeymen of fishermen.  Personally I take it all with a pinch of salt.
 
I would go so far as to say that judging by the huge shoals of roach which were in evidence on this canal (and they were huge!) that could be a sign that there are not large numbers of predators on this stretch.
 
It was still a lovely chance to spend 4 hours strolling up the tow path before going on to the wargames show.
 
Sunday came around and since it was such a lovely day I decided at the last minute to go back to an old haunt of mine.  A pair of  ponds next to a disused quarry in some beautiful woodland in Horsforth, Leeds.  These are not owned any more so are free to fish and this is where I used to come fishing regularly as a boy when I lived just on the edge of the woods.    The ponds have been there as long as I can remember and come with all the normal legends. 
"They are bottomless",
"They have giant Catfish and Eels lurking in the depths".  
"Someone's dog was swimming in there and got taken by a massive pike" etc etc. 

  The woodland in which they sit is truly magical with both ponds being surrounded by mature trees.  There is a mass of bird life including wrens, woodpeckers and Jays and the ponds themselves hold dragonflies, damselflies, frogs, toads and newts.
 
What is a shame is the lack of respect shown by the local population.   The woods sit next to a large estate.  This means that they attract the kind of visitor that thinks it acceptable to eat their MacDonald's and drink their tin of beer and leave the remains by the bank side for the woodland fairies to clean up.
 
I travelled light with just a seat box and rod quiver and set up on the bottom pond under a large oak tree.   There was just enough room to cast my 13ft rod though a 10ft one may have been better.
 
My problem was bait.  I had no fresh maggots but I did have sweetcorn, bread, pellets and a mash up of the above with some groundbait and dead maggots left over from a previous trip.
 
The was plenty of evidence of fish moving about so I felt confident.  However for the first hour I did not get a single bite.   There were so many fish feeding off the surface that I went shallower and shallower trying to get bites but with no interest.  Sweetcorn and Pellets had given me nothing so in desperation I switched to a double dead maggot picked out of  my groundbait mix.  First cast I had a small Rudd!
 
A fish a cast followed, all small Rudd, roach and skimmer bream.  All these fish were in perfect condition.  The Rudd especially were beautiful with golden flanks and bright red fins.    I switched to bread punch which got me less bites but bigger fish but sweetcorn produced nothing.  If I had to guess I would say that it was falling too fast through the water to tempt the fish.
 
What was impossible was to keep the fish in one area, there is so much fly life on these ponds that there is masses of food for the fish and so they just cruise around taking what they fancy, when they fancy it.   I ended up sight fishing,  casting to groups of showing fish.  My fly rod would have been ideal!   All in all it was great fun and I called it a day by lunchtime as the locals and their families were turning up and I felt it was time to turn the pond over to the kids who were enthusiastically netting tadpoles in the margins.
 
I always love going back to these ponds just for the memories of the days I spent here and in the surrounding woods as a boy.  These pond radiate a sense of peace and quite.  They are less than 100 yards from an industrial estate yet  sitting by them on your own in the quite of the early morning transports you to some magical oasis nestled in an ancient forest.  That is until a polystyrene box comes sailing across your field of vision....

An Introduction

It is a fine line between fishing and sitting on the river bank like an idiot.......
 
So says a picture  that hangs above my loo!
 
Such a statement certainly rings true when you are huddled under your brolly in the pouring rain debating as to whether to leave your haven and face the elements  to extract your swimfeeder from a tree for the 4th time that day.
 
By contrast, those still, lazy summer evenings float fishing on the edge of a patch of lillys is for me one of the best ways to spend one's time.
 
I am not an accomplished fisherman by any stretch of the imagination.  My patience is as fragile as my concentration and  my casting accuracy is more blunderbuss than sniper rifle.   However I do love fishing. 
 
As the title suggests I am not the Complete Angler, indeed I am barely a few spares and an Ikea-esk sheet of barely legible instructions but like so many of us what I lack in skills I more than make up for in enthusiasm.
 

The purpose of this blog is to document the adventures the common all garden pleasure angler.  That guy who gets a couple of weekends a month to get down the lake or river and catch what ever he can.
 
That is not to say that as a pleasure angler I lack ambition.  I certain do not and set myself targets every year.  Generally however  it is the act of angling itself that gives me pleasure as opposed to the content (or lack thereof) of my net.
 
I don't propose to go in to rigs and tactics in too much detail as there are better sources than me on the internet for this information.  Really this is to give you a guide to my sessions which on days when you have blanked, you can read and think. " well at least it isn't just me".
 
To give you an idea as to my experience thus far   -  I first went fishing when I was 9 or 10 loved it straight away.  I continued to fish until I was about 16 when I discovered girls and beer and that was it for the next 25 years.   I had always promised myself I would return to it but girlfriends and nights out turned to wife, child and house and the time never arrived.
 
Inevitably, my wife then traded me in for a far superior model and I found myself with every other weekend free when I did not have my 5 year old lad.     This I soon realised was a fantastic opportunity to take up that passtime that I had previously thought I would have to wait to retirement to return to.
 
So I have spent the last 2 or 3 years fishing every other weekend, I fly fish occasionally, float fish on lakes and ponds, ledger on rivers and I  have recently taken up predator fishing with lures and spinners.
 
Mr record fish is a 12lb Carp, I have yet to catch a Barbel, Chub of more than a few ounces and my favourite fish is probably the Perch.  I recently started lure fishing and my very first Pike was of around 8lb which was one of my most enjoyable experiences and which I will post about shortly.
 
I tend to avoid commercial fisheries and fish the rivers and lakes of Bradford City Angling Club and Leeds and District ASA to which I am a member.  I also fish the free stretches of the River Aire and the Leeds Liverpool Canal.
 
I hope you enjoy my posts which I will try and get up every couple of weeks, please follow me on twitter at @Roundhead1642 and on Roundhead1642 on Instagram where I will post pictures of my trips and hopefully the odd witticism.