After all the effort that I put in during November I must admit to feeling pretty drained throughout December. The short days do seem to lead to increasing levels of lethargy, but what really put paid to my plans was the weather.
To cut a long story short all of the venues that I wanted to fish were out: Rivers? Flooded to almost record levels and filled with cold water. Reservoirs? Boat fishing stopped on all but the odd day owing to high winds. Thoughts of targeting a big grayling, pike, zander or chub had to be shelved. It would be scratching time with short local trips just to get me out of the house. Even so, in reflection I managed to get on the bank more often than it had felt at the time; I guess when plans are frustrated it always looks more grim than it actually is.
Missed the Boat?
I have a feeling that I have missed the boat on the river that I had ear-marked this winter for a really big grayling. Although I have only managed two trips so far this year, totalling three days’ fishing, the fishing has been hard to say the least.
I have caught just one decent fish, a two-pounder that I returned confident that much bigger were to come, how wrong could I be! With the river exceptionally low and clear I have spent another five days just walking mile upon mile of river and have yet to see a big fish in the flesh, hardly a confidence booster.
The trouble is that grayling are relatively short lived fish and a year class that grows big probably only has another year left before it naturally dies out, even on a cold river such as this where they grow slower but live longer. This is especially true when the cormorants and goosanders are on patrol. I might be a year too late on this one, a few more trips in the new year will still be put in before I move on though.
Fortunately as one door closes another opens, with reports of big fish from other rivers starting to filter through. A big grayling of more than 3lb has been on my bucket list for a long time now, but so often it has been a case of ‘should of been here last year mate’.
Despite being on its bones, the river has been a wonderful place to be this autumn.When fishing fairly remote spots like this I like to leave a few ‘tell-tales’ that will alert me to anyone else fishing when I am not there. Things like a bit of stick strategically placed across the front of a swim, or a muddy patch where a footprint will stand out. Certainly on this river there have been very few people about. The lack of disturbance has made the wildlife just that little bit bolder and whilst the fishing has been poor I have had a few close encounters with the locals. When I am tucked away unmoving under a tree bough often the dippers will feed right in front of me putting on a diving display that few people will ever see.
The stocks of any fish in the river are certainly low, and despite the environment appearing almost pristine have certainly changed massively over the years. I was sat in the pub one evening talking to the only other customer; his head to toe garb of Realtree giving away his love of fishing, and especially shooting.
Twenty or more years ago the river was teeming with fish he reckoned. Lots of trout, big grayling that most anglers just ignored and chub fishing so good that coach loads of anglers would make the long trip up from the cities. “I just shoot now” he said, “the river is not worth the bother” he opined. He is probably right, as other anglers seem to be about as rare as the fish now, how times have changed!
Confidence is a Preference
Confidence is a funny thing; I’ve caught a lot of good zander over the years on deadbaits, but given the choice I would pick lures to fish for this enigmatic species every time. Have deadbaits suddenly become less effective? Of course not, it is just that I prefer to fish with lures, so fish harder and for longer than I do with baits, so catch more fish using bits of plastic than real baits. It is a vicious circle that costs me fish at times as there is no doubt that baits are well worth using some of the time.
The reason for this preamble is to explain why I happened to be out on Grafham Water on a rare calm day with a couple of half-sardines float-legered in deep water. The first hour or so had been spent vertical fishing with lures with just one good hit to my boat partner Andy Black that he managed to miss. To be honest, I would have been happy concentrating on lure fishing for the short time we had, but Andy wanted to fish baits, so that is what we did.
After a while it seemed like we had made a decent enough decision as Andy missed two runs in fairly short order. This is one of the things I don’t like about deadbaiting in deep water. Even when using the finest braid you can sensibly get away with and small floats there is still enough resistance created to mean a lot of runs result in the bait being dropped. This is exacerbated if you use largish baits, as there is more chance of the zander moving off without getting the bait right into its mouth. I pointed this out to Andy and, as if to prove the point, wound in both rods, snipped the BaitBox sardines right down so they were no more than a couple of inches long, and lobbed them back out.
Nothing further happened, so we moved spots and lowered the baits back down into the abyss. My mind had clicked into gear as I thought about ways of reducing the amount of resistance and improving the bite indication. Andy must have been getting sick of me theorizing and spouting on about bite indication and zander behaviour!
When I did get a bite there was no mucking about. The float slowly started moving towards the boat, which as it was up-wind just had to mean that a fish was responsible.
I wound down until the line went tight and tried to strike, only the bow in the line below the float meant that I struck into thin air. Winding down fast I just kept winding until the rod top nodded and then lent into it again. Despite doing my best to knock the fish off, it was obviously hooked and after a ponderous fight that had me convinced it was actually a pike, a nice zander appeared out of the gloom and was expertly scooped up. It wasn’t a giant, but a just over 9lb it was a nice reward and a bit of a confidence booster. The small bait had done the trick as it was hooked well back in the mouth and there was no way that it was going to eject the bait.
Andy and I did manage one further morning out on the lower Severn in search of zander, but unfortunately the conditions were pretty horrendous. The river was high, with a lot of chunky debris coming down, including the odd whole tree! Not ideal, but I am sure it was the falling water temperature, rather than the extra water per se that put paid to any action.
Since then the river has been in constant flood, so further trips have been out. This is looking like the second winter in a row where high river levels are going to make opportunities for a big fish from the river few and far between.
That Friday Feeling
A phone call one evening from my old mate Wayne Adcock saw a hastily arranged trip to a different river in search of a pike pencilled in for the Friday before Christmas. As usual the forecast was for high winds and rain, but with a dryish 36 hours forecast leading up to the trip we hoped that the river would be falling fast and fishable.
Over a pre-dawn cup of tea we loaded the four-wheel drive and umm-ed and ahhh-ed about where to go. For once we had too much choice, but eventually decided to try a new stretch first and if that didn’t produce the goods to up-sticks and move to a couple of tried and tested swims for the afternoon.
As it turned out we made a couple of good decisions that morning. Taking the old mud-plugger was certainly a wise move, otherwise we would have been in for a long and very muddy walk. When we did arrive at the new stretch though it did look good for a fish or two.
The river level was just about spot-on, but strangely it was still carrying a lot of colour, which didn’t fill us with confidence. With a couple of big slacks and several small cuttings along the margins there were plenty of spots to explore so we set about leap-frogging up the stretch, giving each swim an hour or so.
No footprints above the recent high-water mark meant that the banks had been deserted for at least a fortnight. The only accessible swims were in the fast, shallow water, cut out by summer barbel anglers. The deeper slacks were bordered by typically steep banks where netting a decent fish becomes a two-man operation. The steep banks do have a nice benefit when the weather is bad though as it is possible to sit on the unhooking mat sheltered by the bank as the rain whips almost horizontally across the top. Normally I would have a golf umbrella with me to keep my top-half dry, but even this had been dispensed with as a long walk might of been on the cards, so I was glad of any shelter I could find.
As usual when the river is falling, one bait was positioned right in the edge and the other was fished on a float-paternoster along the crease. The first swim inexplicably drew a blank, but we were quickly in action in the second as a couple of small fish came to the crease rods. Moving on we continued to pick up the fish with top honours falling to Wayne with a mid-double as the light began to fade.
We left as darkness fell, excited about the prospects of a return visit in the new year, when hopefully the big girls might be on the feed.
Bite-a-chuck
With the year rapidly drawing to a close and with no break in the weather on the horizon there was just time to squeeze in a short dawn until lunchtime trip to a local reservoir. The ressie is absolutely stuffed with roach at the moment that are fin-perfect as they are rarely fished for and ravenous. The average fish is only a few ounces, but on the pole of waggler they are great sport with a ‘bite-a-chuck’ on the cards in all but the worst weather. I didn’t break any records that’s for sure, but it was just nice to be out after the Christmas break and getting plenty of bites.
I shall probably start the new year in exactly the same way. With the weather we are having at the moment the cobwebs will certainly be blown away that’s for sure!
