Roving the rivers

Having got back from my last roach session last Friday I spent the weekend at home, a bit of diy and furniture shopping on Saturday to hopefully get the long running saga of the living room revamp close to its conclusion thankfully went well and on Sunday we spent a lovely sunny day in the garden giving it a good spring tidy. I've been a gardener to some degree since I was a kid, six years ago I took it up as a proffesion for two reasons, firstly because I enjoy it, I had spent the previous fourteen years of my life working in laboratories, quality control and research and development, simply because science was something I did well in at school, a means to an end, I didn't gain a thing from the experience other than financially. When I had the opportunity to arrange my finances in such a way so that I could become self employed I jumped at the chance, mainly because of the second reason, it allows me great flexibility in my fishing. They say that to be self employed you must be self disciplined, I'm not! I can't deny that sometimes work suffers at the expense of fishing but I mange and at the end of the day I've very much of the opinion that life is for living and you never know whats around the corner.

So what is that lot doing in my fishing blog? Well to be honest I really felt the need to take my mind off angling, over the course of the last two weeks I've caught fish beyond my wildest dreams, don't get me wrong here those fish were caught simply because I fished where they live and not by any great feat of angling on my part. The fact is it was all a bit too much, I feel very much overwhelmed and can't quite get a grasp on whats happened.

Monday the 12th to Wednesday the 14th of March

So with my confused state of mind still present and the end of the traditional season fast approaching I was being pulled in two directions. I was working on Monday morning and was thinking that I really should make the effort and get out on the river. I called into the supermarket on my way home and picked up a lump of Stilton and some pastry and combined with a good dollop from my ridiculously large stock of garlic powder soon had a big ball of honking chub grub ready to go. I got to the Derwent for about 4pm, starting at the top of the stretch I dropped into my banker swim but got restless after half an hour and moved on, I didn't give the swim the attention due at all.

I passed a two man bivvy on my way down to my next favoured area and stopped for a few moments to listen to one of the occupants woes, apparently their generator had flooded the previous day and disaster was only averted when they managed to borrow a spanner from another angler. Apparently it would have been terrible had they not got it up and running as they had a great collection of films to watch, in fact I could hear occupant number two watching one deep in the depths of the nylon cave as we spoke, on a glorious spring afternoon, I can't comprehend that.

Another half an hour's angling saw me feeling the need to move again for no logical reason and so I did, only to find myself shifting again not long after and when I found myself thinking similiar thoughts yet again I told myself to stop being so bloody daft and just go home. Under normal circumstances I would have been fuming at myself by now but I packed up quite happily and took a gentle stroll back to the van enjoying a cracking sunset in the process and stopping to chat to a couple of dog walkers on the way.

On Tuesday I had arranged to travel up to the Derwent with Leo for a last go at those perch. We arrived at dawn and carried out the standard routine, the fishing was very slow, Leo had a small perch early on and I followed up with yet another tench a while later. By 8am we knew something wasn't right, Leo moved a good way downstream and I gave it another half an hour before following. I dropped bait into my new swim, sat there for fifteen minutes and decided that I was an idiot and should have stayed where I was so moved straight back! Believe it or not Leo did the same shortly after, what a pair eh! No more action came our way and we were on the road and going our seperate ways by ten am.

Wednesday afternoon and I was still working at 3.30 but I had a last gasp attempt at a reservoir perch in mind. By 4.30 I was perched on the rocky bank, flinging a spoon out into the depths time after time as I worked my way towards the valve tower. It was as peaceful as ever down there and a lovely place to see the season off which is just as well as I didn't get a rap, truth is thats just what I expected anyway going on previous results. At dark I clambered over the gate and walked the full length of the dam back to the van, loaded the tackle into the back and leant on the wall gazing over the glassy surface for five minutes before pointing the motor in the direction of the chippy!

So as I write this I'm still not really what I would call revved up about my fishing, its a strange feeling, somehow it just doesn't matter to me at the moment if I catch or not, I'm just completely contented with my lot which I suppose is nothing to complain about. Next week I will hopefully get back down to Linch at some stage and give the roach another go, if I'm absolutely honest I don't feel like I need to catch anything bigger than I've already had but I know that I will enjoy myself, besides, this work game aint 'arf wearing me out!

Linch Hill roach fishing - The lucky 13th?

Friday the 13th to Sunday the 15th of January

What a difference a week had made to the weather, high winds and double figure temperatures had been replaced by the first frost for weeks and as I pulled into the Linch Hill car park at 6.30am I was greated by several deep frozen vehicles, obviously anglers that preffered the deep freeze to the wind tunnel as I was all alone last visit. Ten minutes later and I was on the banks of Willow expecting to find several anglers present, I passed one bivvy in the swim that I had started in last week and recognised the set up as belonging to Vince who I knew would be fishing, leaving the barrow a couple of swims further down my plan was to watch and listen for any signs of roach before settling on an area and so I slowly wandered around the lake in the half light, pausing now and then for a while at points offering a good view. By the time I was opposite Vince it was obvious that there were no other anglers on the lake which was a nice surprise, presumably the cars belonged to anglers fishing Christchurch. Several laps later and having established that Vince had neither caught or seen anything it was time to make a decision, my best guess was to start at the end where I had seen a show on Saturday and so I plumped for the only swim on the end bank which gave me a view of the vast majority of the lake.
 
An hours work with the marker rod showed a similiar picture to that found in the other swims I had fished, mostly weed and a very few small clear areas though I did find a slightly bigger spot that was perfectly clear and just happened to line up almost perfectly with where the fish had shown last week, probably not a coincidence I thought. That mark could accomodate two rods and while looking for something else suitable a fish rolled not too far out and down to my left, that put me in a bit of a catch 22 situation, I'm not keen on casting a noisy marker at showing fish but then again it would be a brave man that played the chuck and chance game on this water and so I bit the bullet and cast well past the show and drew the float back across the area, weed, not very thick but not good enough. With nothing tom,lose now I had to check out exacrtly what was around down there and a few more casts found some quite silty ground with odd bits of blanket weed, I even got the tap tap of gravel on one cast but only for a very short distance and I couldn't get back on to it again, with nothing else particularly interesting elsewhere in front of me I decided to plump for the silt. If you normally feature find by pulling the rod back to one side feeling for bottom texture try tightening down to the rig and then point the rod directly at it, take the braid in your left hand and slowly pull back, you'll be amazed at how much more you can feel by being in direct contact with the line, I'm making no claim on this one it's all down to my mate Neil, very simple but very useful, a bit like Neil!

A view of most of the lake

With the important bit sorted it was time to get the bank house set up, I'd had a bit of bother with my bivvy last week in that three of the four poles had split, not good seeing as it had only been used maybe four times, fortunately I had kept hold of my old one which funnily enough was the original version from the same manufacturer and had been good as gold for six years. Trouble is I'd managed to forget to pack the infil panel, the saving grace being I did have a winter skin though it left a bit of a gap around the front and within an hour of setting up and getting everything organised a brisk northerley wind sprung up straight into my face. I stuck that for half an hour before I came the conclusion that I had to move the bivvy, it was absolutely bitter. Its incredibly what a difference wind chill can make isn't it, I fished through the very worst of last winter in temperatures below minus ten and was fine, when it finally warmed up I made the mistake of not dressing so well and went out in two degrees with a breeze, I think I lasted an hour.


The day passed without event, I was recasting the feeders hourly and was interested in just how quickly they were emptying so dropped a spare one in the edge to check, surprisingly all of the maggots had worked their way out within five minutes though an hour later they hadn't spread out much further than eight inches which would leave a perfect little patch of bait around my rig, Even more surprising was the fact that there was still a good few grubs in the same area the next morning. The overnight forcast was for minus one but by 6pm it was obvious that it was around that already and it was going to be a good one, I filled the kettle up before I turned in expecting the water to be frozen by morning but it didn't quite get to that, it went down to minus five still and just to stick a cherry on top we had a lovely dose of freezing fog from dawn until 10.30. It really wasn't pleasant all all I was getting into the sleeping bag between casts and when the sun finally broke through it quickly dawned on me that I wasn't going to see a bit of it in my swim which soon persuaded me to have a look elsewhere, a poor show really! Another spot that I'd been told about was looking positively tropical and a few casts with the marker showed that it was fishable so it was back to my winter wonderland with the delightful prospect of packing up a load of icy kit.

Brrrrrrr!

 The new swim was a short cast towards the lakes island, not perfectly clear as there were odd bits of silk weed and it was a little bit silty, but it was lovely and sunny, I really am starting to become a bad angler! The rest of the afternoon passed in the now expected way and with dusk came another sharp drop in temperature, there isn't much light pollution in the area and the clear night sky was incredible, I can't remember seeing the stars so clearly since I was in Australia and so stood outside admiring the view for a phile before turning in for the night. I was recasting the frosty rods again from dawn after having a very brief spell of excitement during the night when one of the rods gave a sharp dropback, as soon as I was out of the bivvy I knew that it was down to a gang of tufties splashing right over the rod but for a split second it was action stations. The day passed with the usual routine of casting the feeders and watching the water without seeing a thing except a grebe catching a small fish which I suppose I could class as a positive! It was apparent that the grebes and occasionally a cormorant were spending a lot of time working on particular area and I thought I would earmark that one for my next visit.

Spare me a maggot Mr?

 Soon enough it was time to make a break and I was ready for home to be honest, the last afternoon had been pleasant sitting in the sun but there was nothing pleasant about the first day and a half of endurance angling, one day I'll take up a sensible pastime. Before I left I had a good look around in the swim where the birds had been active and found that the majority of it was very clear which was a first and made it a definate starting point for my next trip, incredibly even though there was cat ice in the margins there was a group of carp right in the edge and looking quite active, perhaps I should change species!

Linch Hill - in search of monster gravel pit roach

Thursday the 5th to Saturday the 7th of January
There can't be many anglers interested in specimen fish that don't know about Linch Hill's Willow lake, for the last decade or so the water has produced an incredible number of big roach up to a mind boggling 4lbs in weight, a true roach mecca. Last year I was offered a place on the syndicate but couldn't take it up but this time around I decided that I really couldn't say no, each winter the numbers of fish caught has been decreasing and nothing in angling lasts forever, the challenge was on. There has been quite a bit written about the water in various books and magazines over the years and I also count myself fortunate in knowing several people that have fished there in the past who have been good enough to share their experiences and so I had got some idea of what to expect which is always very useful. My last visit to the complex was almost fifteen years ago when I fished Christchurch for carp on a few occaisions but I had never set eyes on Willow.


The plan was to arrive at the water for first light but that didn't entirely go to plan, after the build up of getting everything ready, reading up, talking to mates and generally having roach on the brain I found myself looking at my phone clock at 1.48am, not quite what I had in mind when I planned an early start. I pulled the duvet over my head and did my best to nod back off but it wasn't happening and eventually I bit the bullet and got up well before three o'clock, made myself a brew and loaded up the van. The weather was rank to say the least, gale force winds were buffeting the country and bringing with them plenty of heavy showers leaving standing water on the motorway as I headed south towards Oxford. There was nothing pleasant about the drive whatsoever, the van was being pushed around by an invisible force and my tight grip on the wheel was all that kept my long awaited session from ending before it started, every now and then I would tell myself to stop being daft and relax but the next gust would send me heart into my mouth and whiten my knuckles once more. The sat nav was perfect throughout the trip until I got to within the last crucual ten miles when it decided to lose its signal, why does it always have to be the last leg when it all goes wrong? After a diversion into an industrial estate and back out the same way by some minor miracle I found myself arriving at the fishery and incredibly I was the only one there, I'd been panicking all week about getting a swim!

I was out of the van like a shot, desperate to get loaded up and away, the rain had eased off some time back in the journey and the car park looked like it hadn't seen a drop so instead of wasting time putting on the bib and brace and jacket they got stuffed into bags and thrown onto the barrow. The walk to Willow involves passing Stoneacres first, maybe three or four hundred yards, within 50 yards it had started spitting with rain and in another fifty it came down steadily as I shoved the barrow has quickly as possible towards where I thought the lake might be drawn from a distant memory, in fact I'd gone ten yards past the gate before I realised. I headed straight down the right hand bank to the second swim, I'd been told that this one and the one opposite were a good bet and with two hours of darkness left and in the pouring rain that was plenty good enough for me. With my kit and myself already wet I got the bivvy up sharpish and got under cover, no sooner had I sat down than would you believe it the rain stopped. With time to kill I decided that a lap of the lake was in order for no other reason than to say I'd walked the lake I think, it seemed a good idea at the time anyway. As I walked into a swim at the bottom end of the lake I looked to my right and saw two lights shining at me, I quickly flicked the torch off thinking that I was illuminating someone's rods, then it occured to me that would mean a swim about five yards from the one that I was in and that the car park was empty, I put it down to sleep deprivation! I stuck the torch back on and this time there's four lights in the bush which I really didn't expect, this was all getting too much too early! Walking down the path I got closer, lit them up. and it was a pair of Muntjac deer right! That was quite enough excitement for one far too early morning so I headed back to base camp and made some sense of my kit in preparation for dawn.

A friend had told me of a couple of clear areas out from this swim that had done roach last winter so thats where I started with the marker but after a good look about it was pretty obvious that things had changed quite a bit with most areas being thick with weed and even the one fairly clear spot having odd bits of weed that could easily mess up a maggot rig, with the wind still blowing a gale it was more than likely that some of it was drifting too. I could just about get two rods out onto the area at maybe fifty or so yards and in fact initially squeezed my third rod out there too though later in the day I gave up on that idea and dropped that rod short. The rigs were the pretty standard short helicopter bolt rigs that have become pretty standard for many species nowadays, a hooklink of about three inches tied to a swivel bead which is stopped between a pair of Drennan grippa stops and set about six to eight inches above a forty gram Black cap feeder, due to the amount of weed in the swim I decided to do away with the second hook which could cause problems with a hooked fish getting snagged up, getting a roach in on light tackle through the weed was enough of a concern without adding another factor.

Roaching carp style! So is that Rarping or croaching?

The wind was still blowing strongly though it was coming from behind me and the swim itself was relatively sheltered, the ivy clad tree just to my right did give me some cause for concern at times though I must admit, without the ivy the wind would have whistled straight though without a problem but the extra foliage was catching the wind and causing some creaking that I didn't really want to hear. Mid afternoon I was treated to the sight of a red kite wheeling over the lake, I've only previously seen these brids from the car while driving down the M40 and up close it was an impressive sight, a flock of long tailed tits kept flitting in and out of the tree's around me and a kingfisher made the occaisional trip across the water, there's certainly no shortage of wildlife around the lake.

Stay where you are please Mr tree

Dusk arrived with no sign of a bite, I had seen one roachy splash close in to my left but on investigating the area with the marker rod it was solid with weed, no chance whatsoever of getting a bait down there. From what I had been told the chances of a bite after dark at this time of year were slim and I decided that I would give it until 8pm before winding in and taking the marker rod around to the opposite bank for a feel around, I just wasn't totally happy about the amount of weed where I was. The house point swim was certainly far less weedy, not clear by a long way but an improvement on where I was and so I decided to bite the bullet and move there and then in preparation for a dawn start the next morning, for once the rain was on my side and started just as I had got my temporary home organised by 9.30pm. The rods were left in for the night and I set the alarm for 6.30 before turning in for some much needed kip having been awake for over twenty hours.

Dawn saw the marker rod back out and a couple of reasonably clear areas found, the problem I was finding is that with the marker an area might well feel ok but stick a size 18 hook out there and it was quite possible that it would become fouled with fine blanket weed, although generally there was less thick weed in the swim it still wasn't great, I decided to perservere for the day and if nothing positive occured than I would look at another move after dark. Late afternoon another angler arrived and set up in the swim that I had left the previous day, I had expected the lake to be busy but this was the first angler I had seen since I arrived, was someone telling me something? 

Once again dusk arrived without any sign of fish and by 7pm I was back on the bank that I had started on but a couple of swims further down the bank, this time I decided to fish through the night and by clipping up the marker rod to a clean spot was able to walk out my rods along the bank and mark them accordingly without too much difficulty, and this time I wasn't bringing back any debris on the rigs, result! Dawn saw me up and working the feeders again feeling much more confident without the worry of the rigs being weeded, between 8 and half past I saw maybe half a dozen fish down to my right which was a great improvement on the last two days, I started to feel that gradually things were coming together. Nevertheless by 3.30pm my time had run out without result and it was time to head for home, no fish on the bank which to be honest wasn't a great surprise to me but importantly I had covered some ground and made some headway into understanding the swims.