Best days fishing I've had in ages

[UKPoacher]

The phone rang at 0800 on Saturday and I just knew what was coming. My mate who runs the shoot would be suggesting a fishing trip and I was right. Initially I was a bit ****** off as I'd got the day planned with shooting in mind and I had promised to look after the dog all day as we had a decorator coming later on. Anyway, we agreed to meet on the shoot and try the little river, no more than stream really, that runs through it, and have a go at the unfished and unstocked flight ponds to see what if anything lurked in them.

 

I got around a dozen worms from the wormery and these were supplemented by a few maggots found on a fox carcase that we knew was in the hedgerow. Bill had a 6' spinning rod and fixed spool reel. I had my brand new 7' whip purchased from the Pound Shop and slightly modified to leave a loop of braid rather than the oversized metal rod ring that came with it. I'd put 6' of dacron floss dapping line tipped with a couple of feet of 2.5lb mono and a 12 hook also from the Pound Shop. The float was a fly-fishing strike indicator.

 

Starting at the flight ponds I dropped a worm right in amongst the bullrushes, and I mean right in the middle not the edge, and was promptly in action when a carp of around a pound took off with the bait and snagged me in the rushes. Second drop in resulted in a small pike of around the same weight biting the line through as I lifted it out. Bill came over from the other pond where he'd been plagued with sticklebacks and that was the end of my fishing. I was in stealth mode. Bill wades like a playful hippo! A quarter acre pond with a playfull hippo in it does not equate to luring shy fish.

 

Off to the river just a few yards away and using polaroids I could see several decent trout here and there, but none moved to the bait. I was flicking the bait out upstream and letting it drift past them without a take. They weren't even moving to intercept other natural feed coming down. We took it in turns to be ignored by fish after fish. The river is horribly overgrown and totally unfished. In another week or two most of the pools will be surrounded by chest high nettles and the edges will be plagued with overhanging grass. This is about the latest that some pools can be fished especially when the flow shrinks in summer.

 

We made our way upstream in the glorious sunshine spotting trout to insult with our worms and maggots until someone threw a switch, the clouds covered the sun and the trout began to feed. From that point on we took fish after fish from a weirpool barely 10' wide and nearly as long, near to the top of our length of water.

 

Brown trout as beautiful as you could imagine with butter golden bellies, green flanks and heraldic vivid red spots queued up to compensate us for the ignomy of previous disappointments. Bill, Ruby the spaniel and myself sat side by side like three children at the top of the weir, Bill and I taking it in turns to drift out floats down the current and briefly remove one of the pool's occupants before lobbing it gently back to grow bigger. They ranged from around 4oz up to around 12oz and were as perfect as you could ever imagine. The bigger ones really tested my Pound Shop special as the careered around the pool bending the slender wand double.

 

Sudden heavy rain ended our sport otherwise we might still be there now.

[Cranfield]

Nice story, thats fishing.

[UKPoacher]

Cheers!

 

Last week I got two nice rainbow trout from a reservoir using two hundred quids worth of rod and reel, but they didn't give me as much enjoyment as those little brownies on my Pound Shop wand from the unfished stream .

[Cranfield]

Someone will point out that its the close season on running water.

[magman]

Someone will point out that its the close season on running water.

 

Roll on june

[Tam]

Someone will point out that its the close season on running water.

 

Not in God's Country :good: roll on tomorrow :good:

[UKPoacher]

Someone will point out that its the close season on running water.

 

I was fishing for trite on the river, not those nasty, common coarse fish. They were in the pond.

 

Trout season starts mid March to 1st April depending where you are in the country.

[holly]

Someone will point out that its the close season on running water.

trout rivers are open in yorkshire i am just setting off to the wharfe in 10 mins (not so sure about the maggots though ) its fly worm minnow or artificial lure where ime off to

[SSS]

Nice story, you have got to love the unmolested, un fished parts of our wonderful country!

[MM]

That sounds like a really nice day

 

My borther and I are taking our boys 'maggot drowning' this afternoon on his own pond. He thinks it will do my blood pressure good to sit there for hours, with nowt going on, just staring at still water. What is it with course fishing that i just dont get? I used to enjoy it when i was a boy, but it dawned on me, its shooting fish in a barrel. I hope i can recount the tale of today with such romance. I may even take some pics cant believe im going maggot drowning!!!!

[UKPoacher]

Some coarse fishing like some trout fishing is like shooting fish in a barrel. Not all though. For the last three or four years I have shunned day ticket waters and other than the previous weekend when I went to a commercial several hundred acre trout reservoir, have exclusively fished free and usually unspoilt rivers and ponds predominantly using fly for trout, chub, dace, perch and bait for chub and barbel. These urban gems are out there and well worth the effort to find them. In the last three years I've had barbel over 10lb, chub over 6lb (on the fly), perch over 2lb (on the fly) as well as several big brown trout all from a river that no one else fishes.

[MM]

Im fishing in a stocked lake, owned by his father in law on private land, so its pretty unspoilt. Its not that i mind the sitting in the sun bit, its just that i cant get excited about the fishing. I might feel different once im there.