Sunday 26 June 2011

A bertie from the river dee........

  The question I get asked more than any other from people who don't fish for a hobby is "what do you see in it?? sitting at the side of a river all day??" well in this weeks blog update I have my answer.  For me personally catching fish is the bonus to being on the bank, I love being out on the river before the rest of the world is awake, working a nine to five office job in the week the escapism a days fishing gives you is a big part of why I go fishing.
  The other thing you get if you are quiet on the bank is a whole wealth of wildlife and from a young age I have always loved my wildlife and if people in this hectic world we live in only stopped for a moment they would realise the vast amount of wildlife on their doorstep that you don't have to pay an admission fee to see.


  I took the picture above on Saturday morning whilst fishing and I think it sums my point up well,  swans are very protective and even more so with young but if you are quiet and not intrusive you can get really close to them and I was privileged to have got so close to this family on Saturday.

  To the fishing at this weekend I was determined to spend some time trying to catch one of the rare barbel that live in the river Dee but we are a two man team and with my dad wanting to fish for silvers on the feeder the plan for Saturday was to split the day in two fishing in the morning on the feeder for silvers and then moving venue to spend the afternoon waiting it out for a barbel.

  We arrived at the river alyn confluence nice and early and was treated to the sight of a pair of bats grabbing a last meal before the sun came up, truly amazing to see.  We set up on the river alyn confluence both on the maggot feeder and from the off we started to get interest from really small dace and chublets but the bites where really fast and we both missed alot of bites which we had a good chuckle about.

  Eventually some better fish moved in and bullied the smaller fish out of the swim and we were rewarded with a surprise capture for summer from this venue, the lady of the stream a grayling.

missing its head of course lol (really need to check my pics are OK before I leave!!)

  Not long after this capture we were visited by the family of swans moving upstream I had seen them on their nest the previous week when wandering the other field at Almere Farm, was it their first adventure away form the nest?? I'd like to think so.

video of swans:

  We fish the confluence alot and if other years are anything to go on the family of swans usually stick around the area and it would be lovely to update the blog with their progress as they grown up.

  The fishing was really segmented with a flurry of bites being mirrored with a periods of slow sport but around 10am my dad struck into a bite that had his drennan puddle chucker bent over double and the fish kept really deep, the sign of a better fish, slowly but surly my dad made ground on the fish and managed to get it closer in and just as I thought we were getting to a stage where we were about to see the fish the hook pulled but does show there is a few lumps lurking in this area.  The morning went in a flurry, why work doesn't go so fast I don't know lol but my dad did manage to pick up a nice roach as were were packing away.

Roach:

  It was also a pleasure to bump into gordon ashton on the river dee as we were packing away and he now has the title of being the first person I have bumped into on the bank that reads my blog and I would like to thank you again mate for the time spent in helping me out and the tips you gave me, thank you.
  We quickly packed the gear away in the car and looked back to see some really dark clouds in the distance which had rain written all over them, a bit of extra flow it would bring wouldn't do the barbel fishing any harm.



  The car loaded and a short drive and I found myself sat in a swim I had singled out after some time spent looking on google maps for water that looked like it could hold them and from the look of the banks it looked like I was the only one who had fished there this year.  In went my chosen bait and after around 20 minutes I started to get some small knocks on the tip, small chub I thought picking at the bait, this continued for the next 10 to 15 minutes when all of a sudden the tip on my 1.75lb test curve rod whacked round I struck and I instantly knew I was into a good fish that was keeping deep and using the flow to its advantage, slowly but surly I began to make ground on the fish and managed to be it under the rod tip where the fish made a hard dash for a sunken tree  in the margin to my left, the drag tightened and the fish turned and came to the top and I got my first glimpse of a river dee barbel one final dart and the fish was mine.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!





  Needless to say I was head over heals with this capture and in hindsight I could have played the fish harder but I didn't want to risk a hook pull.  We continued to fish the rest of the afternoon I did get a few more knocks on the tip but nothing that developed into a bite and I left a very happy angler and needless to say this wont be my last session for these beautiful fish with this fish weighing around 1.5 to 2lbs I have got something to work on

  Sunday saw me and me and my uncle fishing eccleston ferry and to be honest the fishing was very poor although my uncle had a few nice roach fishing the pole close in.  To be honest the fishing was enjoyable till around 8.30am when the place turned into a canoe, boat, jogger, dog walking heaven and it just isn't my idea of river fishing.  The river is very deep here close in so it will hold fish in winter and I think I will be leaving this venue till then for another visit.

From 8.30 it was one after the other!!!! not exactly what you want when trotting lol



Till next week

tight lines

Danny



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