Another Session on Ten Mile Bank

I was in two minds where to fish this weekend as I really fancied a go on the Middle Level but something told me I should have another session on the Ouse. Well after another Saturday night out this was an even later start than last week and we didn't get out there until about 9.30am but this is not really a problem at this time of year with all this daylight available. As normal we had a drive along the length and look at a couple of section before deciding on a stretch known as the Owl Box which is a little way below Danby Drove, this area can often be hard to locate in the summer as the leaves on the trees hide the Owl Box that lends its name to the section. As with a lot of sections on Ten Mile Bank there are only a few swims cut out ready to go otherwise you can clear your own if you wish, generally the bank is flat at the bottom providing good sit-downs.
 I had almost decided before I got there that I was going to fish the feeder this weekend as I wanted to try out a modification I had made to an old Shakespeare President feeder rod.
This involved making it into a 12' 6" version with an even softer action primarily for fishing for Skimmers, anyway I will save the details of this for another post.
I started off with a Bomb on and had a few casts to satisfy myself i understood the bottom contours of the peg and then put a Drennan medium open ended feeder on a paternoster rig with a 3' 6" tail. I then had 6 casts in quick succession two thirds of the way across to introduce some bait into the swim before slipping 2 Red maggots onto a size 16 hook.
It wasn't long at all before my tip showed up the first bite of the day with it resulting in a 4oz Hybrid and this was followed by similar sized fish from the next 2 casts then I missed the next couple of bites before catching a small Perch on the drop. Graham had started at a similar time and had missed a couple of bite and had caught a Skimmer of about 12oz, well its always nice to get a few bites early on in the session but I was hoping I was not going to spend the day casting a feeder 30 yards into 18ft of water for small Skimmers.  It wasn't long though before the tip steadily pulled round and I struck into something more substantial which turned out to be a bigger Skimmer of  around 2lb.


One of the better skimmers

 Graham was now starting to get a steady run of fish in the 8 -14oz range but my swim went quiet for 20 minutes or so before my next fish of about 1lb. The afternoon carried on for me with a few fish a few missed bites and a few quiet spells but on the whole my fish were a better average size than Grahams.

The weather was very hot and again there was hardly a ripple on the water for most of the day so our expectations where not that high but we were pleasantly surprised that we had had steady sport throughout the session. For the second week in a row there was not another angler in sight and although we had passed a few anglers between Denver Sluice and Modney Bridge the section above the bridge was all ours. There was also a distinct lack of boat traffic as well and although this doesn't affect the fish it made for a very tranquil days fishing. 





The Roach are still a bit conspicuous by their absence at the momment but it is still a bit early in the season and hopefully they will start to show in the next few weeks. I am definitely looking forward to having a go on the seed as I know there are some good weights to be had but for now I will enjoy the Skimmers. We both ended the session with double figure catches although Graham had a smaller average size of fish he had definitely had more of them. One day I am sure we will catch the river just right and I just know that much bigger catches are on the cards.

12lb 8oz of Skimmers and Hybrids

By commercial standards this is a nothing to get excited about but for me I would pick a catch like this from a natural venue any day. That's not knocking commercials as they have a valuable place in our sport but for me the satisfaction of a catch from a natural venue far out-weigh the attraction of a large catch from a commercial but hey that's just me. Rivers still have a lot to offer and if you are prepared to put in the effort and be realistic in your expectations you could be pleasantly surprised, so if you have been away for a while come and give a river a go.

Cheers Mark