Up and Down

According to the EA river level site, the local river has been in the ‘flooding is possible’ zone four times in the last three weeks. In between these peaks, the same site has also shown several other smaller spikes which have taken the level to the very extreme (high) end of what the EA call ‘typical range’ but which to the angler is still a very high level.

UP

So by my reckoning we have had the level rising sharply something like 7 times in the last 3 weeks. I think from Monday to Friday this last week has seen it at its most steady for a while, however as I type it’s up the banks once again.

Anyway, the levels didn’t do me much good last weekend, when true to form I had 3 short sessions of about 3 hours apiece. Session 1 was on Saturday afternoon when I had 3 hours on the Weaver, which as described, was in a state of flood. I fished a backwater with worms in the hope of a perch or big roach. I didn’t catch a perch but I did nail one net roach.

Session 2 on Sunday afternoon, I went to the Llangollen Canal. Again the target was a decent perch or a decent roach with worms and bread as hook baits. The temperature gauge in the car said plus 7 degrees Celsius however I arrived to find a real cutting wind blowing down the canal which made it feel much colder. I was well wrapped up but it was very hard going, as such, said roach or perch did not show for me!

Session 3 was back on the Weaver. Monday morning, bright, frosty and a beautiful day to be out on the bank! I trotted worms along the margins hoping for perch, sadly I think the level was still a bit high and all I could muster was the obligatory 1 pound chub.

Work finishes for me this Thursday, and if conditions and commitments allow I shall be out on Friday. Lets hope for something approaching consistent where the levels are concerned prior to that.

Chasing Ghosts.

There is a stretch of river I fish for perch. I’ve had them to upper 2s in the past and had a few in the lower 2 range also. On this particular stretch there are a series of weirs and sluices that effectively trap the resident species. There are, to my knowledge no, or at least very few, pike present. I’ve fished the stretch for five years and never seen a single jack. So by my reckoning that makes the stripy top of the food chain on one particular stretch.

1.15 Sept 2011

Now I understand a little about predator prey relationships and that the pred numbers can and will fluctuate over the years and herein lies the main difficulty, knowing or even guessing how many fish I am aiming at in a stretch of river and estimating what size they can grow to?

On stillwaters approximate numbers and optimum size of most species can be ascertained, either from knowledge of stocking, netting or captures. This could be also true, albeit to a lesser extent, on some rivers where barbel, chub and pike may well be the main quarry. However fishing for river perch on less popular venues is an entirely different prospect I have found.

As a river species there are a relatively small number of anglers pursuing perch in comparison to the trendier barbel, chub and pike. In fact I’d go as far to say on many stretches of river, and certainly on the rivers I fish, there are often no anglers pursuing them whatsoever. For the perch fisher this is great as there is little in the way of competition however there is also little in the way of hard evidence to go on. Nice in that one can consider themselves a bit of a pioneer but not that great when the blanks start to pile up and the doubts begin to set in

More fruitful days. A birthday perch October 2009.

In my case, and on this particular stretch I do have a little bit to go on, largely my own captures, going back over 5 years. However when one considers these last few years, whereby numerous sessions have given me precious little, one then starts to have the odd self-doubt. Are the fish still there? Have the bigger fish died off? Is it one of those periods in any predator/prey relationship whereby the predator numbers are at a trough? Certainly the prey fish are there in numbers, I don’t call one area ‘Gudgeon Alley’ just for effect. So the food chain immediately below our intended quarry seems to be fine, but where are the bigger perch?

My methods typically involve very short sessions, up to 3 hours usually, using one rod with live bait under a sunken float rig whilst the second rod will normally be a float-fished worm presented in the margins over chopped worm and maggots. Using the worm is not as selective as it might be as ruffe, chub and crayfish will at some point come foraging. Many a time I’ve missed a bite to find a section of the lobworm missing, the bait then being whittled down in successive casts to a half-inch section with the guilty party, usually being a ruffe, eventually getting hooked using the last remaining segment.

So, I’m crying one in. With nothing even approaching 2lb from the local river this season so far  and with a few sessions planned over the next week or so, I’m bound to tempt fate by moaning how hard the fishing is. I’m gathering my thoughts getting inspiration thinking back to previous captures, as few as they were, and considering that those fish maybe even bigger now. Or perhaps they have  died off through old age and maybe this is just the wrong year for a big’un and it’ll be a few years before those fish of a pound or so get even bigger? 

One for a few years time.

One thing for certain, it'll be time for chub again soon so I need to get my act together.

Hot Chicks

The usual Saturday afternoon stint, out for 4pm home for 615pm...

Nature

I tried a few armchair swims and was gutted to bump a decent fish after about an hour on double dendrobaena trotted close in to the bank, however I saved the blank with a ruffe.

Impending thunderous doom saw me beat a hasty retreat to the comfort of crispy fried beef in sweet chilli sauce, sweet and sour chicken balls, Singapore vermicelli, fried rice, boiled rice and chips.

A Change

Child care duties meant that tench fishing was a little awkward this past fortnight, so I decided on a bit of a change and took my kids over to the local river for a couple of dawn sessions...

Worried. 

Monday 23rd July I took my daughter aged 7 (aka Pest) over to the river at 5am. A bit of a toe in the water and my first semi serious perch session of the river season, and I scored!  2 stripes on float fished dendra for a combined weight of about 7 ounces. Loads of colour in the water still. Back home for 815.

Two days later Wednesday 25th July and it was the eldest's turn, same deal as Monday. I started off in the same swim at 515, got a few raps from small fish but nothing concrete I let the boy have his first ever cast and he found the far bank nettles.

We moved swim and I got the float rod out and let him fish the leger. Like his sister he's a left hander so I altered the reel handle for him and dropped a piece of meat on the edge of the main flow whilst I sorted the float rod. After about a minute 'Daaaaaaaad' and he's holding onto something for dear life. Give him his due he's taken control and he's got the leviathan near some reeds to the right, so gillie no 1was on hand with the net and the boy's first chub of about a pound was in the in the onion bag.

I stuck with the worms and had a ruffe and small perch, so I didn't blank

Friday 3rd August I was woken up by Mrs C having a coughing fit at 3am, so, unable to go back to sleep I legged it over to the river at 5am.

I'd spoke to Hannibal about fishing some of the swims near to the various footpaths that I seldom fish during the day time due to the general public so decided to take advantage of the quiet and float fish some of these swims close in using the pin, with dendras on the hook.

Ten minutes or so in each swim was the order of the day and after about 30 minutes the obligatory mug chub of about 12oz showed up, a dabble in a few target swims produced a few bites from small fish but nothing of note so I headed back upstream and fished alongside some far bank overhanging trees.

3.12

After a dozen runs or so I've hooked a fish that has pulled back and then some, a dogged scrap, I thought I'd hooked one of the resident snotties which I've had to over 6lb, however a decent chubby chops broke the surface, into the pan it went, 3lb 12 oz, a good fish for my neck of the woods and not a beaten up old warrior either.

I stayed put and added a further 2 chub, one at 3ish and another of about 2. Home for  9 bells.

Struggle

Tonight I had a short afterwork session for perch in a relatively unfished (by me) area for the species.

Arriving at 4.20pm I decided to stay in one swim for the 2 hour duration, upstream of some marginal reeds with a relatively deep hole of 7feet plus close in. I fed some chopped worm with a dropper and dripped in red pinkies and broken worm pieces on the same line.

I trotted a float along the marginal area, and later held the float in the area where I'd dropped the worm, realistically I was looking just for that one bite, sadly it never came.

A Decent (local) Perch

With the river season coming to an end, I tried once again to catch a decent perch from the local river...

Decent

I chose a slightly different tactic today, a mobile approach, centre pin, chubber and dendra's as bait with 20 minutes in each swim before moving down to the next, like chubbing but without the bites!

I arrived at the river at 3.30pm and started at one end of a bunch of trees. The flow was really slow and didn't allow the pin to spin, however, with the pin I was able to inch the bait back and forth and manoeuvre it to precisely the place I wanted, close in amongst the near bank snags.

 In my second swim the tactic came up with the goods and the float dipped, bobbed and sailed away. A short scrap gave me a plump stripe of 1lb 9oz, not a monster but better than a poke in the eye  with a shi**y stick.

The tactic produced a few more fish, sadly just chub up to 12oz.

Try again for perch

With an afternoon free and bait left over I tried again for perch...

Bob

I arrived on the river at 2.30 pm, my chosen area was free so I started with a chubber float on the 'pin, running it along the edge of the main current (very low flow). I then allowed the float to swing round and then I inched it along some marginal snags to a tree 15 metres downstream, bait was dendra or lob presented on a size 8 B983.

I also fed a homemade 'perch' mixture tight into the bank, this is made up of mole hill soil, ground bait, chopped worm, pinkie and an additive I've been trying. I've found that this does not seem to attract the ruffe in the same numbers as baiting with chopped worm through a bait dropper.

It wasn't too long before I had my first fish in the shape of a 6oz chub from under the downstream snag.  Indeed that area was to give me several similar fish throughout the session. As the twilight approached I changed my tactic slightly and laid the bait on in my baited area, sadly other than one net roach at 6.30 no stripies came my way. Tuesday after work could be my next window!

Back to Perch

With just a few weeks of the river season left I felt the need to complete some unfinished business left over from Autumn...

Looks small, it's actually 3ft long!

Lobs, dendrobaenas and red pinkies purchased, I picked up the perch tackle and headed for the local river, arriving at 3.30pm. The area I wanted to fish had another angler 30 metres downstream so I headed further upstream for my jungle swim in an area known to me as gudgeon alley. I set up a chubber float and fished double dendra over a small bed of chopped dendra's and pinkies fed via a dropper.

After an hour the float sailed and a fish was on, a 5oz perch, right species but not the stamp I hoped for. Shortly after I changed the dendra for a half lobworm and topped up the bed of pinkie/chop. A short time later the float buried, fish on, fish off..gahhh, gutted!

The witching hour for perch came, fish were striking all over the swim and my float showed some signs of interest, a dip, a bob and it was away, strike, miss, half the worm gone that means one thing...

Rough

sure enough, next cast a ruffe comes to the net (net, as if).

One ruffe usually signals another and from then on the float was dipping and bobbing with bits of worm being pinched so I called it a day at 6.30pm.

A couple of beers to start, tagliatelle and mussels in a white wine sauce with flat garlic bread.