pole-fishing

June 2026 part 2 – Weather!

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I am going to stop mentioning the weather as the weather gods are not happy with me! Following the thunder and lightning at Viaduct we then get a period of red hot temperatures plus more thunderstorms! Basically June the 16th came, that magical day with the opening of the river season, so what did I do… I didn’t go fishing! Experience has told me the first day on the river is never great but allied to that we have a river that is very low with hardly any flow and bright sunlight – a blank waiting to happen so I opted out and then the real hot period struck!. Yes I could have gone but these days I don’t deal with the hot weather in this country very well – China and Thailand seem to be no issue????

So my latter part of June has been curtailed to just one short visit to High Penn on the 28th. I had decided to set out to fish every peg during the season and as such set up on the west bank second peg in. I took my pole and fished 9:30 to 11:10 but the day did not start well with my 10m and 11.5m sections being jammed inside one another so it was 9m or not at all. No photos for this session and I had left my keepnet at home due to the hot weather so aimed to put any fish back asap. So plumbing up at 9m was just as it got deeper, I needed another section at least to be comfortably in the deeper area but that was not going to happen!

Fishing with a 1g Paster on 0.12mm to 0.10mm to an 18 with the bulk set 18 inches from the hook and a dropper 6 inches away from the hook I began with two balls of groundbait mixed fairly firm to try and get down past the rudd laced with chopped worm. Hook bait was double maggot and predictably the first fish was a rudd, after a couple more some perch appeared, switching to worm I had a roach and a micro perch at which point I thought to myself -“lets try something different”. I had in the past bought a series of jars of what are essentially flavoured and coloured translucent jelly pellets.

I have been using the bright yellow honey flavoured ones off and on during different sessions and have caught on them so I decided to give them an hour to see how they went. Immediately first cast there were constant dips as small fish investigated. Now I have to explain that these jelly pellets are about the size of a 4mm pellet and are perfectly round but after being in water for some time expand top a 6mm size. Eventually the float buried and a rudd came to hand. Basically I ended up with 6 rudd, 6 perch and 3 roach for about 1-04. Half of the fish were caught on the jelly pellets- including the perch!

In the meantime Gareth had made one of his flying visits to Vietnam as he had some time off for the Dragon Boat Festival in China. He visited the same place as previously and between having a nap and fishing for part of the second day racked up 21 hours of fishing time and caught 21 fish.

The first session, another 6 were taken in the second shorter session.

Bait for the non-predators were either stale cake from a bakery molded around the hook or if fishing up in the water the cake was used on the float feeder and rice paper on the hook, predators were taken with fish chunks.

Must make more of my time in July!

October 2024 Part 2 -Back to Bowood.

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With my match commitments over until February my attention turns to Bowood. Tuesday 15th October, my late father’s birthday is a day I always try to go fishing if possible as it was he who started me on my fishing journey. Anyway peg 10 was available and I had the lake to myself so setting up the pike rod I realised I only had a few usable sardines left so a visit to Devizes to order some fresh was in order. First cast was 9:15 and I fished until 12, I just managed to get the pole set up and the depth plumbed when the pike float bobs and sets off resulting in a very feisty fish of 7-12 coming to the net eventually.

The pole line was eventually fed with a couple of balls of groundbait with some micros, corn and wheat which produced 16 rudd and 4 roach for 2-08 fishing my lighter set up as previously.After the first pike it was a forty minute wait until the float zipped under for a more sluggish fish of 7-02. A further twenty minutes later I miss a run!!! Recasting leads to another run after ten minutes but this time on striking all hell breaks loose, the clutch screams and a very big pike is on, playing it carefully it breaks surface and if looks a damn sight longer and thicker than the twenties I have had -then disaster, the hook inexplicably pulls!!! I have a coffee to steady myself before recasting and at five to twelve the float goes again with a fish if 8-06, at which point I call it a day with a 26-12 total as the sardines have been seriously depleted.

Next day I went to Devizes and ordered a kilo of sardines ready for my return the following week after a family commitment in Yorkshire. It was a full ten days before I was back on peg 10 – this time it was my birthday! Again fishing 9:15 to 12 with the usual set ups I was greeted after arriving at the peg with rain! The pike were not so active today with a solitary jack of 4-00 but the 28 rudd, 3 roach and 11 little skimmers/blades made the total an acceptable 8-02.

Sunday sees me back at Bowood but peg 10 was taken by someone not fishing for pike, so I decided to give him room and dropped in at peg 8 which is a good 35-40yards away. Setting up as usual but having to adjust the floats with 24 inches less depth it was a very slow start with an hour passing before my first bite, a rudd. I then had a run on the pike rod that resulted in a missed run, casting back to the same spot brought a run after five minutes from a jack of 5-06.

The pole line was slow but introduction of some chopped worm and a worm head as bait saw me end with 14 rudd and a single roach, I also missed a further run in the pike rod while chatting to the guy on peg 10 who had packed up and was on his way back to his car.

Wednesday 30 sees my last chance this month to go so 8:45 to 12:00 was the session – no pike runs whatsoever but I had 5 pike strikes around my pole float- easy to spot as a large plume of bubbles hit the surface as the pike clears its gills following the strike. In between the interruption of the pike I managed 13roach, 17 rudd, 3 skimmers and 3 perch for a level 3-00.

I should explain some of my approaches to pike fishing at Bowood, firstly I own 3 unhooking mats of various descriptions but will not use them at Bowood as I have found that the pike are far more amenable if placed on the soft, springy moss and tend not to thrash about which they seem to do on the unhooking mats so are less likely to damage themselves. My two single hook rigs are home made and are not always pretty to look at but they do work and I lose no more fish than I do with trebles. The bottom hook goes through the underside of the sardine’s mouth and out through the top, while the second goes through the back close to the dorsal fin.