Chasing Tales

My fishing has been a little hit and miss lately, mostly miss, I haven't been out for ages and the last trip, for Pike, ended in a blank for me and two fish for Barry. This has meant that the duck was still mine even though I didn't actually have it! Barry could not find the duck, I was on the verge of sending out a distress call to all bloggers in case they find the poor little yellow one on the bank somewhere but Barry intervened saying he had found it and would bring it along for the next session.

 

Who has more teeth?

The past two weekends have been spent at home trying to get a few jobs done around the house, the sort of job's that keep getting put off till later, only, 'later' was here and they needed doing. This weekend I managed to reserve a pass for a session on Sunday and true to his word, the duck accompanied us on a session on the canal. Pike was the quarry but a Zander would put points on the board as it's only a few weeks till the end of the year and I certainly don't want to be the holder of the duck when the bell tolls midnight at the start of the new year.

We were looking for a quick bite so settled on a spot of leap frogging to cover ground the thought being that if we plopped a dead bait on a fishes head it'll more than likely take it, much better than sitting behind motionless bobbins in one spot. 

A passer by told a tale of a large fish being caught at a feature a good half mile down the canal from where we started so the leap frogging became a hike and it wasn't long before we had four rods spread out around our new swim. it was a good move as within half an hour my right hand rod kicked into life the bobbin twitching up about half an inch so something was showing interest in the bait, the bobbin remained motionless for a while so decided to reposition but not before puncturing the now thawed bait in several places. It worked, as soon as I parked my arse on the seat after casting out, it was away pulling up tight at first then dropping slack, It was a Zander and a reasonably good one.

 

First fish from the new spot.

It was a real shame that no sooner than Barry had presented me with the duck, it had to be handed back, as soon as my rod was re-cast to the same spot the duck was repositioned on top of Barry's bag. The same rod was soon showing signs of something being interested in the bait and it was away again, another Zed.

 

Second Zed.

 

　

On the Thin and Narrow.

Ryton was still producing some very good fish but all has suddenly gone quiet, too much feed me thinks, less is more!! just wish I could get on there as often as I'd like to, roll on the spring. The last session was a break from the pool, I've been thinking about a stretch of canal I was told held a good head of Carp, Barry had a few out earlier this year and they were good looking fish but it's the tales about one of this stretches larger inhabitants that has me interested. This session was also a chance to try my Ryton 3.4 boilie mix on another water just to check that these baits really do work.

 

I overshot the first lob to a margin reed line but was bang on the second chuck, I was just hoping that the first attempt hadn't ruined the spot. The baits had been in the water for less than an hour when I got a strange take, the bobbin rose quickly and stopped then nothing happened, it was exactly the same as some of the Bream and Tench bites at Ryton. After a couple of minutes, off it went, a Carp, exactly what I was after to confirm that my bait works on other waters, it wasn't a big fish but at least I wasn't going to blank.

Canal Common.

After seeing the damage to its top lip I think these fish may have been caught several times before, maybe this stretch of water has been more heavily fished for Carp than I thought?

 

Another cast onto the same spot resulted in another fast take that pulled the bobbin up tight but whatever picked up the bait spooked off without feeling the point of the hook, I think these fish might be a bit 'cute' to being fished for with boilies. After this take I didn't get any more enquiries and as evening approached I was hovering around my rods expecting a take any second as everything was looking perfect for a bite but nothing developed and left having caught just the one common. Barry bagged up which resulted in the duck changing hands, quack quack!

More Bubbler's

Morris's was free for today's session and Barry fancied free-lining bread in this area so we headed for this corner of the pool. I had my eye on the tree line along the no fishing bank after seeing a fish crash whilst looking around the pool earlier on, I could see a few dark shapes milling around on the top in this area and several patches of bubbling fish.

First fish to take my donkey choker hook bait was a small bream which I seem to be catching a lot of lately, must be something in the new boilie mix, how it managed to pick up the bait I don’t know but it was well hooked. I use a long hair so it was probably nosing around the bag contents and picked up the hook that way.

 

Donkey!

It was late afternoon before I caught my first Carp. I’d been watching some fish bubbling in one area and one spot seemed to be very popular, there would be a few fish in the area, then it would go quiet, then they’d be back on the spot again. During a quiet period between bubbling I introduced a well placed cork ball pop up and laid the rod on the ground ready for the take, it took ages, bubbles started to appear in the area so I got up and went to the back of the peg to stand on a large tree trunk section to get a better view of the area but when I looked all I saw was a huge swirl in the vicinity of my hook bait and heard the fizz of my clutch as the Carp tore off, I’d missed the take and ran round to the rod to catch up with the fish, it kited over to the right catching up in my second line and it was all a bit of a mess but we got it in the net.

 

Nice mid double.

It was another long cast over towards the back of the trees with a cork ball pop up (my buoyant balls are working well!) that saw another take from what I thought was a good Tench or a stockie as there was no run and it was a bit of a lame fight, it turned out to be another mid double common.

 

Another mid double.

With regards to the Duck, I don't have it.

 

First Fish!

My pond has matured enough now to have it's first fish introduced. When I first built the pond Barry said I could have some fish from his as he had loads of all sorts. The date was set and we took Cerys for her first fishing trip, I fashioned an unused pole top section into a toddler sized fishing pole with a small barbless 16 hook on the end, It's barbless only on Barry's lake.

Fishing in the edge.

A nice Rudd.

Maggots were used to tempt the fish in and it wasn't long before we had a bucket full of all sorts and all sizes. A few of the fish that came out Barry had never seen before but he did say that they breed every year so there could be anything in there. Some of the buckets contents had to be returned as they were Barry's prized fish be we ended up with a lovely selection of Goldfish, brown Goldfish, a lovely Crucian (I think?) and some Rudd.

 

Crucian or not?

 

Cerys enjoyed it but I think I enjoyed fishing with my little girl more!

The First and Last.

Back on the pool again, the lake has been very busy with some good catches, both in quantities and size, with most from one particular area of the lake. There has been one fish out which I can't 100% guarantee it was Roxy but from the pictures I've seen and comparing side by side with mine, I'm calling it, it's good to know she's still with us but at a very out of shape weight, however, last winter did drag on for ages which I think has dented some of the bigger fish weights, I was told she still felt a little hollow after spawning so she probably wasn't at her best and could do with getting her head down, roll on spring.

 

I opted to fish the far corner of the pool due to the pressure the other end had been seeing and when I arrived at my peg I knew I'd made the right decision. In front of my swim the surface bubbled away and plumes of mud rose up from the lake bed, I was shaking as I got the first rod out of the bag and I couldn't get it out quick enough, I was all fingers and thumbs selecting which cork pop up to use but the cast was spot on, it went out beyond the fish and I wound down straight away to bring it over the cloudy area and dropped it right onto their dinner plate, there were loads of smaller effervescent bubbling in the area which were probably Tench but the spot I was on had clusters of much bigger bubbles, it was just a matter of sitting back and waiting for the take. I set about getting my PVA bags tied and second rod ready but before I could get this rod out I heard the clutch of my reel fizz as line tore off the spool, I was in and less than ten minutes from arriving at my swim I had my first fish in the bag.

 

First chuck mid double.

The rest of the session was rather non eventful, I chased a few more bubbler's even moving across the bay to get a better angle but nothing developed. I'd baited one spot off the island through the day and did cast to it a couple of times but I mostly left this area alone, it was approaching the end of the session so I put a rig 'bang on' this spot for the last hour and a bit, it was one of those casts that was so good you know it's going to go.

 

This cast sat there for a good hour and I was contemplating moving it as nothing had happened then I heard my alarm give a series of short bleeps, I was having a chat with Barry at the time and ran straight round to the rod to see the bobbin at the top and the line pulled up tight, I immediately though 'Tench', as there hadn’t been a blistering run off the spot, I lifted into the fish and felt a grating on the line, whatever it was had gone through the roots of the island tree I was fishing too, it was still there so I just kept the tension on and it pulled itself free of the roots, then it ran, it was a Carp. This fish fought like stink and just didn't want to give up, I thought it was going to be a good twenty the way it was going and when it did eventually come to the net I was a bit disappointed as it wasn't quite the size it was making out to be, still a good upper double common though.

 

Last cast upper double.

Back on!

The past few weeks has seen me back on the bank at Ryton, I haven't put the effort in for ages but the time seems right to try a small Autumn campaign and it's nice to to be back.
 

A reason to be on the bank.

I've winkled out at least one Carp a session, except for a couple of Sundays ago which meant I went home with the duck, I've also had a shed load of Tench and several small Bream, how a small Bream can get a donkey choker of a boilie in it's gob I don't know.

 

Sucker stockie

Up until this weekend all the Carp have been of the 'stockie' size, probably the recent immigrants from Kenilworth that have yet to learn the ways of the Ryton Carp. Even though they are small I know that my 'Ryton 3.4' boilie recipe is still working despite having an overhaul due to a discontinued flavour, I tried the same flavour from a different supplier and it didn't even smell the same but that's another story.

 

Not big but in mint condition.

The most recent incarnation of my smelly balls has seen my biggest Carp on the bank for a long time, certainly my biggest Ryton fish since last year and It was a popped up boilie made with cork dust kneaded into the dough that tricked this fish. The trap had been surrounded with a couple of dozen free offerings to entice the fish in and it worked as it was my first cast to one particular spot that saw this fish on the bank. It took an hour but a single bleep signaled the pick up, there was then a pause before the fish tore off across the pool on a one toner. It's a long time since I had a good fish from this place and I didn't want to loose it so I just took my time and let the fish do what it wanted to do whilst gaining line, it was a lovely common and Barry did a grand job of netting it for me and taking the pictures.

 

18lb and in good condition

Barry rolled up late for this session so todays fishing was not for the duck, should have kept my mouth shut, I still have it.

Passing it back!

Had a nice session at Ryton last week, just a float rod and a sleeper some bread, sweetcorn and a few borrowed, two week old, maggots. We were on the road bank, what used to be pegs one and two and fishing a rod length out, I was still setting up when Barry pulled in his first Perch and he had another two before I put a bait in the water. It didn't take too long to catch up and we were level pegging for a while, Barry had a good take on his sleeper which he said felt like a Tench but it shook the hook, not too long after I had a nice Tench on my sleeper followed by another one on the float which put me ahead, it's been a while since my float rod bent into a nice Tench.

 

Classic Ryton Tench

We kept experiencing quiet spells which was due to a Grebe swimming in close and scaring off the fish, he kept coming back, disturbing the swim and sending up plumes of bubbles making it look like a mass of Tench were feeding in front of us, at one point I had a lovely slide away take and struck into what I thought was a good fish but the Grebe had caught my line. Visions of being stabbed to death went through my mind as I wound the bird in but it broke free.

 

We both carried on catching and I had a couple of nice surprises, a skimmer Bream which I'd heard of a few coming out but I'd never seen myself, Bream at Ryton are a bit of a rarity. Then I had a lovely slow take on the float that left me puzzled, I didn't know what it was then a lovely Perch broke the surface, it was only around a pound but my favourite fish of the session.

Nice Perch.

Just as we started to pack up, Barry was joking whilst putting a jumper on over his head, "I'll just pull in this twenty pounder" he said at which point his reel went into melt down, It was quite funny seeing him pick up the rod with a jumper half on and scratching around looking for his glasses. It was a good Carp and it broke surface several times as it tore around in front of us, Barry still had his reels clutch locked up from a previous session so the fish pulled the rod into an alarming curve, I felt victory slip away until he shouted "it's off".

 

The duck is now on it's second camping holiday in north Wales, this time, with Barry! (Lucky Duck!!)