Positive thinking..?

We're well into January now and the fishing so far this year has been crap to say the least. I have been out four times and blanked on each occasion.  It's starting to feel like anyone who can catch a fish of any kind or any size must have some superior knowledge over me !

The weather has played its part of course but I think it's my watercraft that is letting me down. I have walked away from a couple of venues recently realising too late that I should have tried a better area or swim - the deeper water where the fish would probably be lying up perhaps?, or nearer to where the grebes are diving where the pike will be waiting to attack the roach ?

I'm also guilty of trying too hard possibly, which often only leads to inaccurate decision making and frustration.   In contrast to this how many times have you just turned up without a care and landed on the fish instantly or gone with a simple gut instinct that has paid off.  It can be very demoralising when you are in a run of blanks and you are convinced you've adopted the best tactics to suit the conditions and species etc.  The thing to keep reminding yourself of is that a run of blanks will often be followed by a 'purple patch' of success.

I must admit though, I got so desperate today I even tried two venues, first was an uneventful lake piking session, then secondly onto the river for last light where I'd recently caught a 4lb chub on New Years Eve.
When an otter swam through the swim fifteen minutes in, I realised there wasn't going to be any points on the board for me again today!

Despite this realisation I felt quite privileged to have witnessed the otter swimming on the surface less than 10 feet from me, it was unaware of my presence until I switched on my head torch to get a better look. The creature gazed up at me for a moment, eyes glowing amber in my torchlight, before making a swimmers dive underneath the water on its way downstream towards my presented bait.

There were other pleasures whilst out today despite the lack of sport, I saw a male Bullfinch in a tree a few feet away ( first one I've ever seen in the flesh).  It was also a beautiful sunny winters afternoon, and then there was a spectacular golden moon rise to complete my evening, something I don't get to witness too often.

Things keeping me occupied whilst I've been blanking.....
I've been testing some functions on my camera whilst waiting for a bite over the last couple of sessions, I'm no photographer by any stretch, but I do like to have a dabble with the functions on my jazzed up point n' click, here's some of the results.



close encounter !

Rush





Moonstreak



How Constable would have seen it ?

Could be a line from a song...?

 Taken with manual functions on my canon powershot A650 IS ( Tv mode 15")

A reflection on 2010

Now I just need to shake of my current run of blanks to get 2011 kickstarted !!

Starting slowly

We’re already approaching half way into January and I haven’t caught a fish as yet, mind you I’ve only had two little sessions so far, 3 hours out for pike and 2 hours for chub and roach.

The pike session was on the River Anker during the morning it had decided to snow again. I arrived before the snow, but once it had started, decided that I would stick it out for an hour or two in the hope of a nice’ pike in the snow’ shot. It wasn’t to be though, and despite my best efforts, a margin rod out sporting a sardine and a roach or perch wobbled on the other, it just never really happened.

The only slight chance came and went without me even noticing it. A wobbled 5” roach had been side swiped by something on the first cast into a new swim. I didn’t feel a thing, the roach however came back nearly disembowelled, obviously something had had a go, the teeth marks missing both the hooks – typical.

There were plenty of predators to be seen while I was on the river; unfortunately they were of the avian kind. Over the three hours and in less than one mile of small river I spotted 4 cormorants, 2 pairs of goosander (one a male - green head), 1 white breasted juvenile cormorant, 1 great crested grebe, 1 kingfisher and a flock of tuffties. It’s little wonder that the fish were a bit edgy even the pike I don't doubt. Hopefully the lids will stay off the still waters for a while now to give the rivers a respite.

A quick session on another smaller river after chub and roach a few days later also drew a blank. Was this purely down to the river not being in the mood I pondered to my self during the session?

I’ve been trying to keep an eye on pressure systems lately and what affect they have on my results. On this occasion, checking Weather Undergrounds site, the pressure was rising steadily coupled with falling temperatures, was this the reason the fish were not interested this time- who knows?
I find I’m more bothered about the effects of sudden high pressure changes on the fish, than whether the moons in its first quarter or whatever (that’s just witchcraft to me !)

The only pressure I can feel at the moment is getting some points on the board in the Bloggers Record Weight Challenge.

Jeff’s already sprinting ahead leaving most of us standing, but I’m sure some of our blank cells will get filled in soon, especially with the milder weather due to set in from this week.  I think it will certainly become interesting quite quickly once we all get going.