Spring is Here

Couldn't face an hour long drive to the lake, so opted for a river session instead.

I arrived on the bank, but the sun was already rising. Grabbed a couple of rods and set off for a long romp to the first spot which also acts as the breakfast bar. The rods were soon out, a mackerel tail on the float ledger and a coloured smelt on a float trotting with the flow.

The morning was cloudy, dry but with a strong wind blowing across the land and into my face. This immediately posed a problem. Whilst there was a nice flow to the river, the wind was affecting the float and blowing it back across the current, not exactly as I had hoped. I decided to wind in and have a cuppa and the porridge pot. Second problem, the wind was that strong, that even with the rucksack as a wind break, the stove's flame was being buffeted and blow out. So I settled for a cup of cold squash and a snack bar, not ideal but better than nothing.

After "breakfast", I went back to the trotting and managed to cast further across the river to the far bank in the calmer water. This allowed the float to trot for a fair while before it got back into the wind lane.
After a hour and nothing showing, the mackerel tail got recast and the stop knot on the trotting rod slid up another foot.

This chance to the trotting depth had a near instance result and at the end of the trot the float started to dance and dip before sliding away under the surface.After a short fight, a long lean jack was gloved out and soon unhooked. It had a distinctive bottom jaw, which it couldn't close properly. I suspect it was born this way and there was no obvious reason for the gap, but I know it if I catch it again.
The pike was also covered in leaches, not quite what I was expecting to find with the warmer air temperatures, just goes to show that even after 2-3 days warming up the water is still icey cold.

After this capture, I upped sticks and moved upstream, this was repeated all day without a sniff of action. I even moved to into a less exposed area, but alas this was still unproductive.

One thing I have been trying during my river trips this season is Eddie Turners "pike cloud" .

 You can use the cloud either on its own, on the bait or in small pva bags attached to hook each time you cast out the bait. I prefer the latter and usually pre tie bags before I got and put the bags into a zip lock bag to ensure no leakage into the tackle bag. Not quite sure what Eddie puts into it, but as the bag dissolves the cloud is released and creates a trial for the pike to see and home in on.

I my mind, it is another attractor that can only increase you catch rates on pressured waters.

At £11.50 a 150ml bottle, its not cheap, but if you careful with you filling/use, it does stretch to a high number of bags or baits.