Week Ending 17th July

North Bank Of the River Nene
Well its been an interesting week on the fishing front as it saw me on the North bank of the river Nene for the first time in many years. I had been reading some very good reports in the local press and decided to have a look and see what all the fuss was about. So on Tuesday lunchtime I nipped out of work to see if anybody was fishing and I must admit to being surprised to see 6 anglers on the stretch. I stopped to have a chat with a couple of them and see how they were doing, the first had only had small Skimmers but was getting regular bite and he told me his mate on the next peg had caught some Bream. He had 3 Bream and some decent Skimmers from what was the old peg 350 and I watched him catch a Skimmer of about 1lb before heading off back to work.


An Angler nets a decent Skimmer

That afternoon I decided I would have a go on Wednesday evening after work with the plan to sit on the same peg that I knew had produced Bream the day before.

When I arrived I quickly set up a paternoster rig with a medium feeder and a 16 hook, I had 8 quick casts to get a little bait into the swim and then put 2 Red maggots on the hook. I had a few knocks before hooking my first fish which turned out to be  4 oz Skimmer anyway to cut a long story short I packed up 3 hours later with 12 small fish which although a little disappointing had been a pleasant short evening session. Anyway not deterred I plan a return trip later this week to see if I can find one or two of those Bream that have been giving themselves up  and in some cased in quite large numbers.

 

I was kind of hoping for something a little large

Ten Mile Bank

Sunday saw me back on the Great Ouse, this week I fished a few pegs below the Chapel, the weather was overcast with showers and a 18mph wind putting a ripple on the water.

I fished the normal feeder approach with either double Red maggot or double Caster on the hook with Dynamite Baits Bream X original groundbait in the feeder.

The conditions did look more favourable than the previous couple of weeks but It was very slow going with 14 fish all day. I did manage a couple of proper Bream of 4 1/2lb and 5 1/2lb and some Skimmers for 16lb and my mate having a Bream, a Tench and a lot more smaller skimmers for 17lb.



 Other Stuff

I have been starting to look for a new feeder rod for Bream fishing as I am finding my old President Quiver a little short on the ouse at 11ft. I have recently modified it to 12.5ft by making a new carrier section (that the tips go into). This has obviously given me the extra length I was looking for but has also softened the action which has made it even better for Skimmers and I have had Bream to 5 1/2lb on it. But this also has the downside that it now lacks the power to cast a medium Drennan feeder with any conviction and I would be buggered if fishing into a head wind. So at 11ft it is too short and at 12.5ft its great for skimmers but not at great range and or into 18ft of water. Anyway I will draw up a short list of prospective new feeder rods in the near future and share my thoughts with you in the next couple of weeks.

I have been receiving some work for Peterborough Pole Repairs and quite a lot of interest locally which is really my target market at least in the short term.

http://www.peterboroughpolerepairs.co.uk/

I have had a few new people join my facebook page in the last week which is always nice as its good to chat to other anglers and share advice and information.

Feel free to have  look and hit the LIKE button, it would be great to see you there.

http://www.facebook.com/river.angler?ref=ts#!/river.angler?sk=wall