So the new Coarse river season Glorious arrived and I had taken two days off work to start it off properly, hoping for that first Barbel or 3lb+ Chub.
Now I am a strategic optimist but tactical pessimist. What this translates to in my fishing is; when I think about a fishing trip I am full of confidence that my plans are going to work and I am going to catch plenty of big fish. However once I get bank side that confidence melts away within minutes.
I did not get off to a good start which to be fair is traditional. I set my alarm for 3.30am but as I had a late night and early start on Saturday and not such an early night on Sunday I was struggling from the get-go. I accept that fishing is sedentary but it is important to be relatively fresh as if you are jaded then everything from choosing your swim to casting and more importantly patience can be affected.
I was at he riverbank for about 4.30am and then spent a good 40 minutes fighting my way through nettles and willowherb to find the riverbank and a suitable swim. I did my traditional lose-footing-and-slither-down-the-riverbank-on-backside early on so it was nice to get that out of the way.
I picked a swim which I never really felt comfortable with and spent a long time baiting up before giving up on it quite quickly. One reason was my casting was all over the place. I used a bait dropper to put a bed of hemp down but my under hand casting was atrocious and I ended up pinging the dropper all over the river and so never really achieved that focused bed of bait.
A move up stream to a good looking swim fishing off an exposed gravel bar. I had an easier time casting and picked what I felt was a fishy looking target; an eddy at the foot of a small weir on the far bank. After 3 hours without a knock, on maggot, bread or pellet, it was time to move and I dumped the majority of my kit in the car, tackled up a float rod and did some wandering up and down the river, trotting baits through likely looking swims. My confidence was gone by then however and trotting is not one of my strong points so by early afternoon and about 7 hours on the bank I gave it up.
I have to say that I didn't really enjoy myself on Monday but this was mostly down to the fact that I felt very tired all day. I had got up way too early with not enough kip which meant that I simply did not have the right mindset. I really did not fish well on Monday so didn't deserve to catch.
Tuesday however was a much better day. I had a sleep in as I had my little boy and needed to drop him off at Nursery first. I decided on the River Aire and got to the bank about 8.30am after a good nights sleep. The banks are well maintained here and it was nice not to have to slip and slide down to the peg or parang my way through prehistoric nettles, thistles and bindweed. I had a plan for the day, picked a bait and a target and feel I fished really well. A good groundbait with hemp,and pellets mixed with maggots into a feeder and either a halibut pellet or maggot on the hook. I had a nice roach on my first cast and cast to my mark repeatedly. Unfortunately that was the only fish I had all day. (I missed a few bites). I switched at lunchtime to luncheon meat on a ledger rig and placed the baits perfectly under overhanging trees on the far bank but still no luck.
I enjoyed myself much more however as I fished well which gave me confidence and it was just bad luck that meant no fish. I left mid afternoon confident that on any other day my methods would have caught fish . If I had to guess I would say that maybe the fish were in shallower faster running water than the peg I chose which was deep and slow. It may be a better cold weather spot.
One episode I do want to tell you about is Saturday when I was fishing the NewJunction Canal in Doncaster. I was visiting a friend who lives along side the canal and she had got me a book for the local angling club. (she lets anglers park on her land so she blagged me one). I had a good day pulling bags of perch, roach and bream out on a lovely stretch and saw Curlews, Barn Owls, Oyster Catchers and Mink. While fishing I saw the biggest Perch I have ever seen! It was oblivious to me and repeatedly chased the smaller fish I had on the hook as I brought them in. The water was very clear so with my polaroids on, I got to watch it dart and chase the fighting fish as I brought it in trying not to let it gobble up my hard won quarry. Twice it grabbed hold of my catch before letting go. However on the last occasion I had a reasonable sized Perch on and needed the net. As I put the net under the water, up came the big perch and it was so focused on the hooked fish, it swam straight in to my landing net!! Of course it then went completely mental. I obviously will not count it as a fish I have "caught" but it was nice to examine and admire this monster. I did not have my scales but I would guess the fish was at least 2.5 to 3lbs and fin perfect. An absolute beauty! A trip to that Canal with my predator gear will be following shortly!
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