Now my season has not been good (catch wise) as you may have noticed from earlier posts but August was especially poor with blank after blank session.
However a few weeks ago things finally turned around. I had a session roving on the River Nidd on Saturday.
My first trip to the Kirk Hammerton stretch so didn't know what to expect. I was travelling light as I expected to do some walking. The weather was overcast with a slight breeze. Perfect conditions.
I walked to below the weir before trying my first swim. The banks of the Nidd are treacherous and after the rain of the night before it was more than a little hairy trying to get down to the swim. Not for the faint hearted.
One of the only benefits from the invasion of Himalyan Balsam is that it seems to be out competing the Stinging Nettle. The result was far less stings on my hands and arms than I usually end up with.
I had a single 12ft Barbel Rod which has a quiver tip and Avon tip so I can use it for float fishing just as easily as ledgering. I started with a light 3AA loafer and trotted caster down the edge of a area of slack water. This produced nothing and neither did running the float along the edge of some far bank overhanging Alder.
I had a couple of shy knocks in the slack water so I spread out the shot a bit, swapped my hook length and put on a juicy worm.
The slack water was right under the rod tip and only about 8ft square, I let the float move about the area and fist cast I was in with a typical Perch bite; A couple of aggressive quick knocks on the float before getting pulled slowly under. First fish was a nice size perch of about 1lb. For the next hour I was pulling out fish after fish. None under 10oz.
The best and last was a beast of a Perch. Every now and again if I twitched the float it would induce a bite and on this occasion it was the most tentative of bites but on striking I realised that I was in to something good. The way it headed for every snag and over hang had me believing it was a Chub. However when I got it to the surface I realised it was a big Perch. I got the net slipped under it and knew straight away it was probably a PB which was confirmed when it tipped the scales at 2lb 4oz. Outstanding!
I must have had 12 fish from an area about 10ft square and 3ft deep right under the rod. Just goes to show that those slack water areas can hold large numbers of fish. What is also interesting is that the fish were never prepared to go out in to the flow to pick up my bait. If I tried running the float along current seam it was ignored and they would only take it once it was in the slower water.
After that 2lber I really felt that spot was fished out so I moved down stream and found some more accessible swims than my first attempt. Again I started with Caster on the float but I had little interest. I did get a large pike follow my float all the way back on the retrieve though.
I switched tips and swapped over to a running ledger rig. I realised I had forgot my box full of swivels and ledger stops so had to do a bit of a bodge-it rig, threading the weight on to a large loop at the end of the mainline. Old Skool!!.
I started casting to likely areas under far bank trees etc and kept picking up Perch after Perch but no sign of the Chub I was hoping for. (wish I had brought some bread!) Not that I was complaining. I was using large lob worms and picking up good sized fish. The Perch hits on the Quivertip were almost identical to on the float, a couple of violent tweeks and then a steady pull round, fish on!
The Pike made another appearance, launching itself at a Perch I was bringing in. I saw it come in from a long way out moving upstream against the current like a bullet and it latched on with such determination that for a minute I thought I may be able to land it. As soon as he saw me however he realised that he had made other lunch arrangements and beat a retreat.
I had intended to pull some Chub out of this stretch as it looks perfect for that species but as it turns out I still had an excellent session of Stripeys which included a new PB.
The Perch are really putting on their best threads at this time of year two so their fins and markings are really standing out. All the fish were in excellent condition with only the big one having a couple of missing membranes on it's Dorsal.
However a few weeks ago things finally turned around. I had a session roving on the River Nidd on Saturday.
My first trip to the Kirk Hammerton stretch so didn't know what to expect. I was travelling light as I expected to do some walking. The weather was overcast with a slight breeze. Perfect conditions.
I walked to below the weir before trying my first swim. The banks of the Nidd are treacherous and after the rain of the night before it was more than a little hairy trying to get down to the swim. Not for the faint hearted.
One of the only benefits from the invasion of Himalyan Balsam is that it seems to be out competing the Stinging Nettle. The result was far less stings on my hands and arms than I usually end up with.
I had a single 12ft Barbel Rod which has a quiver tip and Avon tip so I can use it for float fishing just as easily as ledgering. I started with a light 3AA loafer and trotted caster down the edge of a area of slack water. This produced nothing and neither did running the float along the edge of some far bank overhanging Alder.
I had a couple of shy knocks in the slack water so I spread out the shot a bit, swapped my hook length and put on a juicy worm.
The slack water was right under the rod tip and only about 8ft square, I let the float move about the area and fist cast I was in with a typical Perch bite; A couple of aggressive quick knocks on the float before getting pulled slowly under. First fish was a nice size perch of about 1lb. For the next hour I was pulling out fish after fish. None under 10oz.
The best and last was a beast of a Perch. Every now and again if I twitched the float it would induce a bite and on this occasion it was the most tentative of bites but on striking I realised that I was in to something good. The way it headed for every snag and over hang had me believing it was a Chub. However when I got it to the surface I realised it was a big Perch. I got the net slipped under it and knew straight away it was probably a PB which was confirmed when it tipped the scales at 2lb 4oz. Outstanding!
I must have had 12 fish from an area about 10ft square and 3ft deep right under the rod. Just goes to show that those slack water areas can hold large numbers of fish. What is also interesting is that the fish were never prepared to go out in to the flow to pick up my bait. If I tried running the float along current seam it was ignored and they would only take it once it was in the slower water.
After that 2lber I really felt that spot was fished out so I moved down stream and found some more accessible swims than my first attempt. Again I started with Caster on the float but I had little interest. I did get a large pike follow my float all the way back on the retrieve though.
I switched tips and swapped over to a running ledger rig. I realised I had forgot my box full of swivels and ledger stops so had to do a bit of a bodge-it rig, threading the weight on to a large loop at the end of the mainline. Old Skool!!.
I started casting to likely areas under far bank trees etc and kept picking up Perch after Perch but no sign of the Chub I was hoping for. (wish I had brought some bread!) Not that I was complaining. I was using large lob worms and picking up good sized fish. The Perch hits on the Quivertip were almost identical to on the float, a couple of violent tweeks and then a steady pull round, fish on!
The Pike made another appearance, launching itself at a Perch I was bringing in. I saw it come in from a long way out moving upstream against the current like a bullet and it latched on with such determination that for a minute I thought I may be able to land it. As soon as he saw me however he realised that he had made other lunch arrangements and beat a retreat.
I had intended to pull some Chub out of this stretch as it looks perfect for that species but as it turns out I still had an excellent session of Stripeys which included a new PB.
The Perch are really putting on their best threads at this time of year two so their fins and markings are really standing out. All the fish were in excellent condition with only the big one having a couple of missing membranes on it's Dorsal.
posted from Bloggeroid
