Lessons from the river bank...

About two weeks ago I've rediscovered an old river stretch. I've forgot about it as I've didn't have enough time to reach some old places and because I've rarely had any catches there.

That day I've walked down the river, through water. It was a sunny autumn day, the water was pretty clear and had the chance for the water to be warm for that season.

At some point of time I've had the chance two different types of fish - colour wise. From what I know, when water's really clear, the fish colour tends to take the surrounding colours. For example, in clear water, the fish tend to take sand like colours.

Here's a fish that I've caught some years ago in the same river, but in another stretch, after few days of muddy waters:

There was a chub that had really dark colour, similar to those who can be caught in still water or in rivers that are really slow going. It was interesting to see it as it wasn't shy - I was in water and walking through it, while he was at almost 2-3 meters far from me. His other mates were swimming around him, but they were more 'normal' colour wise as they had the usual colour for that type of water - clarity and season wise.

I've coudn't take a better image as the sun was almost facing me and my hands were shaking; my camera's also a bit old and can't take photos as it should. In that image, are two fish. You can see the one that I'm talking about and the one who has the normal colour - it's in the right up corner, but it's hard to spot due to him taking/having the sand colour..

Yesterday I've wanted to give another try to the spot from the video, but I've arrived kinda late. I've missed the buss due to me waking a bit late and because I've coudn't find my slippers at time - my mother put them in a place where I've didn't think that they've could be..

I've arrived at the river at around 8 am, tried a random river stretch - was 'building up' my tackle, had few follows, almost caught a fish (small one) at a River2sea beetle and decided - after 10 minutes of fishing to go down river. I've tried to walk through the bushes and trees that but had the bad luck to slip and fall in water - I've half wet myself, my bag (I use a big school back to carry my tackle in it), my camera bag, but I was lucky and saved the camera and phone from water. The bad thing was that half of my body was wet and had to carry some wet clothes with me or on me. The water was cold, very clear and it was getting cloudy. I've caught few nice fish in that place, though. They were a bit tricky to catch as few of them were aggresive, most were taking the lure when it was hiting the water and.. I think that I've coudn't place it in a natural way. I think that they were liking the yellow, green and brown colour. Though, due to the water clarity they were more inclined to attack those lures who were imitating/having natural patters and shapes. I've didn't think at that moment, but, maybe, if I were using a chub/dace like lure I've could convince something bigger to attack.

At around 9 am I've arrived where I've wanted. Had one or two attack on the River2sea beetle like lure - that's one of my few lures that's as natural as it can be.  One of those attacks was really  nice as the fish struck the lure pretty hard and I've almost had it 'in the bag', but it unhooked himself. I've also had few follows where the fish were coming from the deepths, but they were giving up when the lure was too fast for them or when it was leaving their hunting area. I need to find a lure that's working at the smallest reeling, one's who'll move at the smallest twitch - when I've tried to make a Strike Pro Baby lure to imitate a drowning insect/hurt minnow - one who had problems to face the current and, with it's effort was trying to swim up, but the current was too fast or too strong for it, it was ending being 'caught' and brought downstream by the water. Sometimes, you can see some chub who like to 'play' like that, they see an insect in an exposed spot, one where they would also be exposed to predators and they 'jump' on it - they swim fast, take it and let themselves be brought down by the current as a way to arrive faster and with less effort at their hiding/covered/safe spot.

I've also had a pretty nice attack on a soft lure, but.. well, I was fishing with monofilament and the soft lure that I was using was light, it weighted around 1-2 grams.

Even if the water was really clear, I've cought catch fish on 'bright' colours, for example, had 2 or 3 fish (small ones; chub) at this lure - Strike Pro Baby Pro: 

That's one of my favorite colours combination, but I have a hard time finding different models from different producers - I want to find that colour in different combinations and at lures who have different ways of swimming.

At around 1 or 2 pm I've decided to return home and at a spot close to 'civilisation', I've change to a Owner C'ultiva Bug Eye, to my surprise I've had a shy take from a jack/small pike. I think that it was pike because it was long, thin and unchub wise - after 2 or 3 minutes, it changed places and made a big attack on something - the specific pike attack. As I've wanted to verify it's identity I've change to a Mepps 2 Aglia, the silver colour.. but, to my surpise, after almost 5-10  seconds of retrieving the lure, a chub came from the water depths. It wasn't really big, but it was aggresive - I've didn't expect that in a crystal clear water, in sometimes an almost cloudy, but sometimes sunny day, and in a 1, 1 and a half meter depth water to have an attack. I've saw it swimming fast to the water top and taking the spinner. It's companion was a bit slow, but it accompanied it for a bit before returning and hiding. After that I've tried some spoons, snagged them and had to go retrieve them. So.. I've had to change places and did that and after few other throws I've returned home.

Yesterday, I've learned, once again, that it's not up to the angler to decide what the fish likes, but up to the fish. I don't like to fish with spinners, but, sometimes, the situation demands them. If hard baits, if wobblers or spoons don't work, why not use something 'exotic', something that works differently? Also, I think that I was retrieving the lures too fast and that I wasn't fishing too much on the bottom - I've tried to avoid that as I've coudn't recover my lures due to the fact that the water was cold and it had an unknown depth. Had to enter it, though.. as I've had to recover some lures and.. I've even had to break the line for one spoon and one lure, but I've could find them and recover them.

At around 5-6 PM I've fished in a dam. Saw one angler catching a jack on a 3 size spinner. From what he told me, he was retrieving slow, close to the bottom, bettween weeds. The jack was caught after it's second attack, the first one was missed and it unhooked itself really fast, but, it was caught on the second attack. I've liked it's colours, they were wavy - the angler kept it.

Yesterday I've caught my first perch on spinners: 

The spinner was a Mepps Aglia, size 2, the silver one.. the treble, originally, had 3 hooks, but 1 of them broke some time ago and I've coudn't replace it. What I regret regarding this fish is the fact that one of his lips came a bit loose... due to my 'manipulation' of him. I think that it'll survive.

He was accompanied by another perch, a bit smaller. I've release him at the same spot in which I've caught it and I think that I've scared the shoal away.. but, well, I've did the same thing after I've caught my first perch on the drop shot metthod, it was also my first perch being caught at a soft lure:

It was a similar soft lure as this one: 

I've also 'caught'.. or more exactelly, a clam 'caught' my drop shotting weight..

Rainy days and chub fishing

This weekend I've had two fishing sessions.

While the yesterday one was held in the late afternoon, past 5 PM, the today one was held in the morning, from ~7 am to 3 PM.

The weather was contrasting, yesterday it was sunny, really hot and the water was cold, but today the water lever was higher than yesterday, the weather was cloudy for the first part of the day, and it rained a bit  (around half an hour) in the morning; the water was pretty cold, but it got hotter as the afternoon came.

Yesterday I've caught only one fish, at a River2Sea beetle like lure:

Today, when I've first arrived at the river, I've realized that the water level was higher that I've expected, the water was pretty cold and a bit murky. I've tried to test the margins and had an attack, that gave me confidence and I've begant to test new places and new lures. Unfortunatelly, I've caught fish only at one model, from Salmo even though I've tried few other brands.

This is how the water looked like in the first half an hour of fishing:

On the left side's a suspended branch, under it I've had something like a pretty nice follow up, but the fish wasn't convinced by the lure so it didn't attack at it should. On the right side I've caught few small chubs, almost close to the river bank. I think that that's because the water level was pretty high and due to that factor, the fish were forced to change their feeding areas and feedin patterns.

The fact that I've lost a pretty nice fish in the roots on the right side of this place made me persevere and try new places -

After I've saw that the fish were pretty active, at least, the small ones.. I've changed places and kept trying new areas. In the end, I've stopped at one where I've had bad results, one with deep water for this river (around 1 meter and, at most, 1,5 meter depth). In that area, but a bit down, I've caugh few jacks (one can be seen in a previous blog article).

In this area, along the right river bank I've caught my best fish on this river and, maybe, my biggest chub ever. I've wrote 'maybe' because I've didn't measure the fish, nor the others. I've choosed not to put the rod alongside the fish because the fish was on the bank for some time as I've coudn't 'fish out' the forceps out of my bag - I've didn't expect to catch something that needed the forceps.

The fish was caught at around 9 PM at a Salmo Tiny (wasp like) lure. I've didn't expect the fish to attack as I was hiding from the rain under a tree cover and I wasn't really 'fishing' - I've kept changing lures and testing the margins for small chub. The attack came out of the blue - the water was deep at that part and the lure was a floating&top water one so.. in a way, the attack was a surprise for me. In the past, that area gave me few small chubs even though, few years ago, when I was still trying to catch fish at natural small minnows (dace, bleak and so on) I've could catch few perch and small chub; once.. I've caugh a perch at a grasshopper - at that moment, I was fishing on the bottom.

After I've caught this one, I've tried few other places, but.. the fish didn't really like how I've kept retrieving the lure, they were following it, shy biting it and spitting it out really fast.

As I've had some 'dead time' on my hands - the best time for fishing passed and the sun appeared, I've gone to search for an old fishing place, a dear one for me as there I've caught my first big chub, at dead dace on the bottom.

As it can be seen, the water had a strange flow. In the middle was a sand island surrounded by areas with deep water. I've coudn't catch anything in that area at today's fishing session. 

Unfortunatelly, I've coudn't try different areas as the river bank's were 'swallowed' by old vegetation and I've had no acces through it. As afternoon came, the water became clearer.

What I've learned today is that the fish is the one to decide when and at what to bite, especially when as the biggest fish of today was caugh at a area with deep water, cold water, a bit murky and while it rained.

What I need to change/improve in the future is how I 'land' the lure on the water as the 'splash' can scare the fish, there were instances when they've 'jumped' at the lure exactelly when it touched the water, but, after I've began playing/retrieving it, they've became scarred and runed away. I should also be more patient while fishing as some lures need a slower retrieving and because not all fish are active all the time and they need to conserve their energy.

What I plan to do in the future is to test some soft lures and persevere until I'll catch something - there should be some perch out there, but I can't catch it on lures.

Today's tackel:

Rod - Cormoran Black Bull 1-12 grams (...it can hold up to 18 grams, in reality)

Reel - Ryobi Zauber 1000 (back drag)

Line - Trabucco 0.18 

Leader - Cralusso Fluorocarbon (0.25 mm?)

Snap - a duo lock 0 from Sert

Main lure - Salmo Tiny 

Hm, maybe I should mention that I've had to run in the water after that lure for at least two times as I've 'broke' the line in some branches and the lure fell in the water, fortunatelly, I've could arive at time and could see it when I've needed.

Tight lines!

(the fish were released as fast as I've could and they weren't hurt more than it was 'needed')