Today (Mon) was lovely, Fri was not!
I had hopped for a couple of trips to the river before the end of the season but last weeks rainfall knocked that on the head. river was 3-4M over depth.

So, despite a terrible forecast for Friday I decided on the Lake and chose a peg where the wind would be from behind me. The plan being to shelter from the rain under my brolly. The wind really picked up and was gusting from all directions so I had to take my brolly down and just put up with the rain and sever wind chill.

The fish were not interested. I managed to very small (hand-sized) Ide and a Bream of about 2lb.

Monday, let’s try again
There had been quite good reports from the pond over the past couple of weeks so I wondered what I had done wrong on Friday. Then, last night, I noticed a posting on Facebook that said that everyone had struggled on the Lake at the weekend due to the cool wind and rain - phew, it’s not just me!

So, I didn’t have great expectations today but the weather forecast was nice so I should at least have a pleasant day.

Sun glare forced me to the feeder
I had intended to float fish most of the day. However, the early sun was right in my face and made it very hard to see the float. I therefore decided to use the feeder until the sun moved around a bit. I did hit into a Bream on the feeder and got it half way in before I pulled out.

Now it’s float time
Nothing else showed on the feeder. However I had continued to feed my float line so was looking forward to fishing it once the sun had moved. I wasn’t long before I started getting little pulls and rises on the float. eventually I got two fish in two casts, the first being a Roach and the next being a skimmer. Not much happened for the next couple of hours.

Shallow up a bit
I decided to try off bottom for a while. This immediately resulted in several really small Roach and Ide. However, nothing bigger showed.

Back on the bottom
I went back on the bottom and managed a few bigger Roach and Ide. Then I hit into a lovely solid Bream. This was great on the light float gear and ended up being the following 5lb 8oz Bream. I really loved those gold coloured cheeks.

I tried the feeder several times on and off during the day but got nothing other than a few little knocks.

Level 9.8m
Two day roving
Weather had been reasonable for the past few days with no real rain. Therefore the level was normal and water clarity was good. I decided to go roaming on Ings Lane Bottom on Thu 4th. I fed 3 pegs with a mixture of liquidised bread, chopped worm and bread mash. I then fished them in turn, feeding another 2 pegs once I started in the last of the 3 pegs that I had already fed. I fished each for about 30 minutes, 10 on breadflake, 10 on cheesepaste and 10 on lobworm.

Thu - Ings Lane Bottom
I started in peg 5 and worked my way downstream. There was some unexpected rain today and it was breezy from time to time. At least the breeze dried out the effects of the rain. I had no indications until my 5th peg - just near the hawthorne bush. By the time I got there it was around 3pm. I had a few plucks on lobworm and then eventually got a hittable bite that resulted in a Perch of 2lb. No sooner had I returned it then I got another of 1lb 10oz. I decided to stay in that peg because I was getting lots of little plucks but didn’t manage to hit any other bites.

Fri - Cricket Field
I repeated the roving technique of yesterday with the same feeding pattern and 30 minutes per swim. I started in peg 2. The weather was much nicer today - no breeze and no need for gloves. However there were a lots of dogs about and I was just about to move to peg 3 when a dog launched itself in to the river at peg 3. So, I gave peg 2 an extra 10 minutes to give peg 3 a chance to settle. I had no bites in peg 2. I went to peg 3 and stared with bread, then tried cheesepaste. Finally the lobworm produced a bite that resulted in my personalm best Perch of 2lb 14oz - so close to my 3lb target. I ended up with 3 Perch from peg 3 before the bites slowed.

Peg 5 strikes again
I tried in peg 4, it’s the first time that I have been able to fish there because it is too overgrown in summer time. So, onto peg 5 which had produced a nice bag of Perch a couple of weeks ago.

Again I tried bread and cheesepaste first in case there were any Chub around but, once again, the lobworm was the bait because the Perch were definitely on the hunt. Apparently they breed before most of our coarse fish so were feeding up before their important business. That also explains why several of them had fat bellies.

I managed a further 14 Perch, 2 of them being over 2lb.

So, my total for the day was 17 Perch, 4 being over 2lb and one being a PB for an estimated total weight of 22lb - a really enjoyable day.

Level 9.8m
Ellenthorpe Middle - Peg 25
Lovely Day - eventually
The weather has been much nicer as of late. However, we have had a ground frost for the past couple of nights. There hasn’t been any rain for the past few days so the level is near normal and the clarity is improving. It was frosty when I awoke but there was no fog. By the time I had got my gear together and had breakfast, a thickish fog appeared. This fog was not forecast (until tomorrow) but hung around until about 11:30 so kept the temperature down. Once it started to clear, the sun came out and it felt very spring-like. The birds were singing and there was warmth in the sun. In fact, by mid-afternoon, I was sat without my coat or fleece and it was very pleasant.

Two lines
After the tentative Perch bites of last week, I decided to go down from a 4oz to a 2oz tip. I therefore fished that rod close into a downstream bush and the other rod out into mid-river. I intended to use a small blockend feeder on both rods putting a mixture of liquidised bread and chopped worm close in and a mixture of groundbait and chopped worm mid river.

Nothing in fog
I had no real bites until the fog had gone. Then, in mid-river, I started to get twitches on lobworm tail. I did not strike the first few but then decided to hit the next one and got a lovely fat Perch of 1lb 9oz. I ended up with two Perch and a Roach but these were all very shy bites in mid river.

On the close-in line I alternated between worm, punched bread, cheesepaste and lobworm. I did get a bite on bread but missed it. Other than that, nothing happened on that line.

Level 10.8m
Temperature Rising
The temperature has been rising over the past week. It was below zero all day when I fish one week ago but has been into double figures this week. Unfortunately there has been more rain so I have been watching the river level prediction like a hawk. At one point it looked like the level would be too high for today but it went down again and was just over a metre up from its normal level. I therefore decided to try Ings Lane Bottom again to see if the Chub were more active today. The forecast was for rain and gusty winds so had to take my brolly and probably have to stay in one peg - no roaming.

Best Made Plans!
I got a suprise as I arrived at the lane that goes to the river - it was closed! At this point I might have decided on the Corn Dryers but the strong winds would have been right in my face and not pleasant considering the expected rain. So I decided to go the the Cricket Field stretch.

I walked down to the river and was suprised by how much the bank had changed. There were lots of up-ended treed and bushes around the waterline. It also looked very different from my previous visit due to the fact that all of the Himalayan Balsam was gone leaving large clear areas of mud. Peg 5 looked fishable and had been good for me in the summer. I decided to also have a look further along but then noticed an earth-mover on its way to repair the banks. I decided to wait until it stopped to see where it would be working. They produce a fair amount of vibration so would not want to fish too near them. It stopped around peg 12/13 so looked like peg 5 was the place to be.

Early Indications
I fished toward the downstream bush. I had one rod close in with a size 16 hook and a couple of Dendra tips.The other rod was a bit further out and just on the inside of the crease with a size 6 and breadflake. It wasn’t long before I got light twitches on the breadflake. There was nothing hittable but showed there was something in the swim. Could be shy Chub or more likely Roach nipping at the bread. After a few more twitches I decided to try some cheesepaste. Yet again, quick taps but no real bites. After a while things settled down and there we no more twitches.

Lunchtime Lobbies
I had been throwing in small balls (smaller than a golf ball) of chopped worm mixed in with soil and liquidised bread. So, around 12:30 I started to use lobworm on the close in rod. I quickly saw very subtle taps on the tip eventually hitting into a nice sized Perch. The shy Perch bites continued throughout most of the afternoon resulting in this nice net of winter fish - the biggest was close to 2lb.

I decided to alternate between breadflake and luncheon meat on the further out rod. This was in the hope of a Chub turning up. I did get a few taps on meat but nothing I could strike at.

Cold Winter Day
It has been very cold for the past few days. It was -7 yesterday morning and -5 when I awoke this morning. I am glad that we have a local river as all of the ponds and canals are frozen solid.

As I headed out today I knew that there was only one species that might take a bait today - the wily old Chub! So I went armed with Dendrobaena, Lobworms, Cheesepaste, Bread and Luncheon Meat. I arrived about 9:45am.

I had only been using one rod with a roving approach on my recent trips but none of these resulted in a fish. So, I decided to take 2 rods to increase my chances. I had also been using a size 6 hook on these trips so decided to take some rigs made up with size 14 and 16 in case the 6s were too heavy and putting off shy biting fish. I fished peg 7 at Ings Lane Bottom. There are bushes to my left and right so I fished one rod to each bush.

I fished a size 16 with lobworm tail to my right and a size 6 with breadflake to my left. Within the first 90 minutes I got a few taps on breadflake but none were hittable. They could have been line bites or fish just nipping off bits of bread - either way it showed that were fish in the swim. I also got a tap on worm of the right hand rod but again, not hittable. At least my confidence was now quite high.

I then decided to try a smaller piece of breadflake on the size 16 to my right hand side. The hook wasn’t really big enough for the bread but I thought it was worth a try. At about 12:10, after the bread had been in for about 10 minutes, I got a proper bite and hit into a nice hard fighting Chub. I had to apply lots of side strain to stop it reaching the bush. It was great to see a decent sized fish as I brought it up to the surface. The end result was this lovely 4lb 2oz Chub. It felt quite hollow so could be much heavier if it filled out a bit.

This really got my hopes up. However, no matter what I tried I could not get another bite.

I decided to take out my keepnet with about 30 minutes to go. This would give it a chance to drip-dry. However it froze solid! It’s the first time I have had to collapse a frozen net (like a large spring). Also, when taking off my hook length, my pear-shaped lead had been on the ground for no more than 2 minutes - when I lifted my rod, the lead had frozen to the ground. It really was a chilly day.

Chilly Day
It was supposed to stay dry until lunchtime but the snow started about 9:30am and persisted on and off most of the day.

I was hoping for some Chub but tried lobworm, cheese paste and breadflake all to no avail.

Early afternoon I got one bite from this nice Perch on lobworm.

Nothing else happened and I decided to pack up before it got dark. However I lost my footing and slipped in the mud and, whilst trying to regain my grip, noticed that my tip shot around but, by the time I got to it, the fish had reached cover and snagged me up. I suspect it was a Chub and just typical that it waited (as they so often do) until I was pre-occupied!

Great Expectation
Having had a couple of nice Bream from peg 25, I decided on a pre-baiting session to see if I could get a shoal of Bream feeding. Therefore I went out at 7:30am and lunchtime for each day from Mon to Thu, intending to fish it on Friday. I really had no idea how much to feed at this time of year. I decided on 5 or 6 orange-sized balls, twice per day.

As I expected, someone did fish the peg on one of the days (Tue). He had a 10lb Barbel in his keepnet and hooked into what we suspect was a large Bream whilst I was there.

So, finally, Friday arrived. However, so did the 1st real frosts of the year. It was a lomg, cold day where I was receiving lots of single taps on the tip (nothing to strike at). When I had nothing by lunchtime I was doubting that there were any Bream about.

Late in the afternoon, just before the sun went down, I managed a nice Perch. But no Bream whatsoever.

Patience Required
I fished the middle lane at Ellenthorpe in the deeps (peg 25). It was a full day session with not much activity. However, the lobworm turned up trumps when I hooked into a very fit 5lb river Bream at 1pm.

Then around 2:40pm, I hooked into a hard fiting Barbel that was a real surprise. I wasn’t expecting Barbel in late November.

Chilly & Foggy Day
This was a fairly chilly day with fog rolling of the field and down into the river.

I presevered with worm (alternating between lobworm and dendras) then started to get afew taps. I ended up with a few medium sized Perch and a couple of nice Roach. One was exactly 1lb and was a bit battle-scarred but this one was 1lb 2oz and in prime condition.

Another Exploratory Bream Session
I fished the far lane at Ellenthorpe in the hope of locating a Bream shoal. I fished 2 rods with groundbait feeder on both rods. I fished lob worm on one rod and trout pellet on the other. I was surpised at how relatively shallow the water was in this area - much shallower that the mioddle lane stretch.

I fished all day for a single bite and was surprised that this 4.5lb Chub fell to lobworm when I was expecting Bream.