Hi all,
Fished the Dane yesterday, we decided on a roving approach and started on the Cotton Farm strech. The river was very low and clear so we knew from the off that it was likely to be a tough day. You could see the bottom on pretty much every peg bar the deeper regularly fished holes.
We decided to do a bit of exploring and find our way through to areas that aren't fished. So today i'm covered in scratches and spent most of the day with severe nettle rash after thrashing through to the river!! I tend to avoid the shallower runs to be honest, mainly bacause most of my success has been on the deeper swims, so given the conditions thought i'd experiment.
I found a secluded run that was very shallow with a gravel bed. There were tree snags with sunken branches in a little bit of deeper water on the far bank where I saw a few fish that I thought to be chub moving. So I baited tight to the far bank with a few pellets and hemp and cast a pellet bait tight to the overhanging branches. Nothing ... fish where still there but not feeding! [
]
Then i messed up some lose feeding with the majority landing mid stream in the shallows in less than a foot of water. Within a minute or two half a dozen chub and 3 or 4 barbel when spread across the gravel picking up my badly thrown loose feed. Once they had picked up the lose feed they would drift back to the far bank. So i fed mid stream again with the same result and more barbel, including a couple of bigger fish []!!!
By fishing in mid flow on bare gravel about 10ft out I ended up with a decent chub about 3lb and a barbel 4lb+ within 5 minutes. Very exciting to see fish pick up your bait. []
There were some really good fish in the shoal with a proper lump of a barbel hanging back in the snag. Despite the catches they were still confidently feeding and I was thinking i was in for a good day, until a mink swam straight through where they were holding and spooked the lot, which all shot off down stream. [V] Game over!!!!
Moved on and ended the day with another barbel 5lb 7oz and another chub from the Manor Farm strech. Not bad considering the conditions!!
I thought I'd try and get your thoughts as this was a 'thought provoking day' for me. There were an awful lot of fish in a swim that I would usually ignore.
[?] Firstly, considering the conditions I though the fish behaviour was interesting, in my experience most of us on the Dane seem to fish tight to far bank cover and snags. Why were the fish not interested in the bait in what I though was the ideal spot in the deeper, snaggier, 'safer' water? Why in this instance were they so confident mid flow in such shallow water? Is it that the fish associate food fished to far banks and snags with danger? [?]
[?]Secondly, on what is generally accepted to be a 'heavily pressured water' is it actually the case that we are all guilty of only fishing regularly fished spots or our favorite swims?? I know personally I have a habit of heading back to the same spots time and again that I think offer me the best chance of success. Yesterdays experience has shown me how much of our strech is never fished? I found some faboulous looking spots, admittedly difficult (and painful!) to get to. Would the river benefit from us all spreading out a bit more and opening up other areas by using them a bit more. You can generally predict which pegs will be occuppied on any visit, any time of the week [?]
[?] I would be interested to hear if any of you fish the shallower swims on the BM Dane streches and how you go about it with what results? I'll definately be doing more exploring and not discounting the shallower swims in future, but not very confident about how to approach it [?]
Cheers!
Nick
Fished the Dane yesterday, we decided on a roving approach and started on the Cotton Farm strech. The river was very low and clear so we knew from the off that it was likely to be a tough day. You could see the bottom on pretty much every peg bar the deeper regularly fished holes.
We decided to do a bit of exploring and find our way through to areas that aren't fished. So today i'm covered in scratches and spent most of the day with severe nettle rash after thrashing through to the river!! I tend to avoid the shallower runs to be honest, mainly bacause most of my success has been on the deeper swims, so given the conditions thought i'd experiment.
I found a secluded run that was very shallow with a gravel bed. There were tree snags with sunken branches in a little bit of deeper water on the far bank where I saw a few fish that I thought to be chub moving. So I baited tight to the far bank with a few pellets and hemp and cast a pellet bait tight to the overhanging branches. Nothing ... fish where still there but not feeding! [
] Then i messed up some lose feeding with the majority landing mid stream in the shallows in less than a foot of water. Within a minute or two half a dozen chub and 3 or 4 barbel when spread across the gravel picking up my badly thrown loose feed. Once they had picked up the lose feed they would drift back to the far bank. So i fed mid stream again with the same result and more barbel, including a couple of bigger fish [
]!!!By fishing in mid flow on bare gravel about 10ft out I ended up with a decent chub about 3lb and a barbel 4lb+ within 5 minutes. Very exciting to see fish pick up your bait. [
]There were some really good fish in the shoal with a proper lump of a barbel hanging back in the snag. Despite the catches they were still confidently feeding and I was thinking i was in for a good day, until a mink swam straight through where they were holding and spooked the lot, which all shot off down stream. [V] Game over!!!!
Moved on and ended the day with another barbel 5lb 7oz and another chub from the Manor Farm strech. Not bad considering the conditions!!
I thought I'd try and get your thoughts as this was a 'thought provoking day' for me. There were an awful lot of fish in a swim that I would usually ignore.
[?] Firstly, considering the conditions I though the fish behaviour was interesting, in my experience most of us on the Dane seem to fish tight to far bank cover and snags. Why were the fish not interested in the bait in what I though was the ideal spot in the deeper, snaggier, 'safer' water? Why in this instance were they so confident mid flow in such shallow water? Is it that the fish associate food fished to far banks and snags with danger? [?]
[?]Secondly, on what is generally accepted to be a 'heavily pressured water' is it actually the case that we are all guilty of only fishing regularly fished spots or our favorite swims?? I know personally I have a habit of heading back to the same spots time and again that I think offer me the best chance of success. Yesterdays experience has shown me how much of our strech is never fished? I found some faboulous looking spots, admittedly difficult (and painful!) to get to. Would the river benefit from us all spreading out a bit more and opening up other areas by using them a bit more. You can generally predict which pegs will be occuppied on any visit, any time of the week [?]
[?] I would be interested to hear if any of you fish the shallower swims on the BM Dane streches and how you go about it with what results? I'll definately be doing more exploring and not discounting the shallower swims in future, but not very confident about how to approach it [?]
Cheers!
Nick
