Post by Deleted on Dec 2, 2012 23:07:54 GMT
Today the rivers were back to normal, at least the small tribs. of the Soar were.
Earlier I'd ran along a couple of miles of the GUC and that was mostly frozen over after the night time low of minus 5 deg C ..."canals out the rivers are in" proved right again.
The sun was out and it was turning into a really nice bright, crisp, perfect winters day but family delays meant I didn't actually make it onto the banks of the brook until after 2pm.
The particular brook runs pretty fast over a gravel bed, in the area I was going to try, more like a trout stream than a course fishery. I've walked it a few times and fished it on a couple of occasions but in summer so knew it held plenty of dace and chub. I'd not fished it in winter though. Would the silver fish still be in the area or did they have a cold weather hold up elsewhere?
It is only around 10 - 15ft wide on average with depths of between 6 inch and two & a half feet in this section.
It is also fairly open so a long tenkara can be used...a rarity on the little brooks I frequent.
I'd decided to properly christen my Diawa sagiri 3.9m today as the canal roach didn't do a proper job last week.
I soon settled down, low in the bank, just above a slightly slacker and deeper looking piece of water where I hoped there would be a shoal of dace waiting...couldn't see the "deck" as the water had a bit of colour to it but was perfect for coarse fish.
My sagiri when zoomed to 13ft could just about touch the far bank with an out stretched arm...perfect.
I rushed setting up knowing time was running out and I desperately didn't want to blank. Total line 15ft, about 2 ft longer than the extended rod, 7ft of which was tippet with 3 flies; two light weight pink shrimpish(#16 & 18) patterns with a heavier tungy bead HE grub on the top dropper.
The heavy fly up the line takes the lighter nymphs down to the bottom where the fish are going to be.
This is fished on the dangle...always!
In winter you WILL NOT catch roach and dace (very rarely any chub either) by casting flys upstream...believe me I'm an expert!
The top dropper fly may need to be changed regularly to get the right action for any given swim. Even a tiny bit too light or heavy and you'll struggle. It wants to just about get to the deck when held still on a tight line.
I wasn't feeling too confident so couldn't beleive it when the line drew forward after only being in the water for 20 seconds and my Sagiri was bent double with not one but 2 big dace, first cast!
Now those two had really chrisened her.
I love this rod already. I don't think fighting a dace (ok, 2 dace) has ever felt so good...roll on a chub!
Moving down the swim slightly threw up another 2 nice dace, not at once though.
The takes had dried there so a cautious move to the next promising swim downstream was due.
First cast here resulted in another fat dace but then nothing.
Top fly increased to a 4mm tungy HE grub and from under the far bank....
This little chub fought like a terrier in the flow...superb fun. It had taken the top dropper which was expected as the chub usually take the bigger offerings and the dace (& roach ifyou're lucky) take the smaller point flies.
Another two of these, almost identicle in size, and another dace soon sucumbed before the Sagiri got a better testing...
Not a huge chub but probably about as big as I'd want to connect with...I'm happy with hand sized fish in winter.
After each fish I had to move a few feet along the bank, to get another take, slowly fishing out the glide.
Just after the better chub my line tightened and a far bigger fish rolled & lunged a couple of times before the bug lost it's hold on those rubbery lips. That one was more like a 2 to 3 pounder.
The very tail of the pool weilded another nice dace and I decided to call it a day...well a couple of hours at most!
A superb short session for the time of year and considering the hard frost last night. Remember coarse fish are "hard" in winter, well until you know what you're doing they are.
Hope someone else is out having a few?
Dee
Earlier I'd ran along a couple of miles of the GUC and that was mostly frozen over after the night time low of minus 5 deg C ..."canals out the rivers are in" proved right again.
The sun was out and it was turning into a really nice bright, crisp, perfect winters day but family delays meant I didn't actually make it onto the banks of the brook until after 2pm.
The particular brook runs pretty fast over a gravel bed, in the area I was going to try, more like a trout stream than a course fishery. I've walked it a few times and fished it on a couple of occasions but in summer so knew it held plenty of dace and chub. I'd not fished it in winter though. Would the silver fish still be in the area or did they have a cold weather hold up elsewhere?
It is only around 10 - 15ft wide on average with depths of between 6 inch and two & a half feet in this section.
It is also fairly open so a long tenkara can be used...a rarity on the little brooks I frequent.
I'd decided to properly christen my Diawa sagiri 3.9m today as the canal roach didn't do a proper job last week.
I soon settled down, low in the bank, just above a slightly slacker and deeper looking piece of water where I hoped there would be a shoal of dace waiting...couldn't see the "deck" as the water had a bit of colour to it but was perfect for coarse fish.
My sagiri when zoomed to 13ft could just about touch the far bank with an out stretched arm...perfect.
I rushed setting up knowing time was running out and I desperately didn't want to blank. Total line 15ft, about 2 ft longer than the extended rod, 7ft of which was tippet with 3 flies; two light weight pink shrimpish(#16 & 18) patterns with a heavier tungy bead HE grub on the top dropper.
The heavy fly up the line takes the lighter nymphs down to the bottom where the fish are going to be.
This is fished on the dangle...always!
In winter you WILL NOT catch roach and dace (very rarely any chub either) by casting flys upstream...believe me I'm an expert!
The top dropper fly may need to be changed regularly to get the right action for any given swim. Even a tiny bit too light or heavy and you'll struggle. It wants to just about get to the deck when held still on a tight line.
I wasn't feeling too confident so couldn't beleive it when the line drew forward after only being in the water for 20 seconds and my Sagiri was bent double with not one but 2 big dace, first cast!
Now those two had really chrisened her.
I love this rod already. I don't think fighting a dace (ok, 2 dace) has ever felt so good...roll on a chub!
Moving down the swim slightly threw up another 2 nice dace, not at once though.
The takes had dried there so a cautious move to the next promising swim downstream was due.
First cast here resulted in another fat dace but then nothing.
Top fly increased to a 4mm tungy HE grub and from under the far bank....
This little chub fought like a terrier in the flow...superb fun. It had taken the top dropper which was expected as the chub usually take the bigger offerings and the dace (& roach ifyou're lucky) take the smaller point flies.
Another two of these, almost identicle in size, and another dace soon sucumbed before the Sagiri got a better testing...
Not a huge chub but probably about as big as I'd want to connect with...I'm happy with hand sized fish in winter.
After each fish I had to move a few feet along the bank, to get another take, slowly fishing out the glide.
Just after the better chub my line tightened and a far bigger fish rolled & lunged a couple of times before the bug lost it's hold on those rubbery lips. That one was more like a 2 to 3 pounder.
The very tail of the pool weilded another nice dace and I decided to call it a day...well a couple of hours at most!
A superb short session for the time of year and considering the hard frost last night. Remember coarse fish are "hard" in winter, well until you know what you're doing they are.
Hope someone else is out having a few?
Dee
