Let there be light

I'm a great believer in getting my money's worth out of stuff, but there comes a time when putting up with a failing headtorch gets too much for me. That time came last week when trying to unhook an eel in the dark and the constant flickering of the light did nothing to make the job easier. It isn't a case of old batteries either.  Looking back through this blog's archives it seems like it's eight years since I got the headtorch that was letting me down so a replacement was in order. The old one will do as a spare.

I would have taken a chance on a fancy new design, one of the Fox ones, but the tackle shop only had the cheaper model, with fewer features, that takes two batteries rather than three. So it was another Petzl ordered on-line for me. I remember my first LED headtorch being a revelation compared to the ones I'd had with a bulb. The light was more even and a better colour, the batteries lasted longer and the whole thing was tiny compared to the bulky light unit and battery pack.

Things moved on with number two which had a flip up red screen to keep insects away. The latest one has three power settings in white light and one in red plus a flashing red light, all arrived at by pressing a button. And it's still very little larger than the headtorch it's replacing. Naturally enough this new toy was a good excuse to have another short eel session on Sunday.

I'd got there before six on Friday and nothing happened. Nothing at all. I'd packed up without a sniff. A change of swim was called for this time, and a later start was made. It's the last hour of light that seems to be producing at the moment. The usual baits went out and I sat back to watch the sun set noticeably further south than last week. With the hawthorns red with berries and a late evening brown hawker zipping about it's starting to feel like Autumn.

Right on cue, at twenty to nine, the legered worm was taken. At first I thought I'd hooked  small skimmer until the tell-tale wriggling started. Just as I got the small eel close to the net, as it was spinning splashily on the surface the water boiled and the rod was pulled briefly to my left. A jack had shot out from the reeds and grabbed the eel. The eel didn't seem too concerned by this!

There was just time to put another worm out. This time I cast it further out, dropping the deadbait where I'd had the take. All that happened was that it got dark and I was able to try my new headtorch out as I packed up. It worked great. On the middle brightness setting I could see what I was doing, on red I could get to the rods without tripping over, and on the lowest it was fine for walking back to the car.

For these short sessions the Korum Multi Mat is proving good. I gave up on putting the banksticks in the bankstick pocket after very few trips. They were banging against my side, and it's quicker to throw them in the mat itself. Having a two piece landing net pole works well as that all rolls up in the net and also goes in the main mat part. Three rods get banded using the built in bands and away I go. Ruckbag on my back with worm bucket clipped on to a caribiner, deadbait/squid coolbag folded up in my low chair and I'm good to go. I might try the mat for piking this winter - when a brolly isn't required.

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Time flies

Amazingly it's ten years since I started this blog! I just jumped in to see what would happen. A bit like starting DLST when I took Geoff Parkinson's suggestion and put an advert for rods in Pikelines and took a stand at the PAC conference in Loughborough - 25 years ago next month. It's a year for anniversaries because I wrote and published Pike Fishing with Lures 20 years ago, and  www.dlst.co.uk went live fifteen years ago. I wrote the book for something to do and the website started when I found some free software on a computer and played around with it. I reckon if I've ever had a plan it's been to not have a plan!

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What day is it?

For some unaccountable reason I've been a day ahead all week. Monday felt like Tuesday and I'm still not convinced it isn't Saturday tomorrow! August continues to be warm, but not always sunny. Quite good for eel fishing to my mind. Except that the idea of eel-wrestling in the rain doesn't appeal to me. That's why I've picked dry evenings to carry on chasing Anguilla anguilla. A combination of rainy forecasts and work related restrictions on my time have prevented overnight sessions. So it's been just a couple of short evening sessions. Not requiring waterproofs or bunny suits makes grabbing a couple or three hours more of a pleasure than a chore too.

Last week I got sidetracked on a website that sells tape. I'd gone looking for masking tape and found bright orange (and Realtree) Gaffer tape. When all you have to do is click a mouse it's all too easy to buy more than you really need. My worm bucket is now so well camouflaged I might have to use some of the orange tape on it's lid to stop me leaving it behind. Which is what I've done to my landing net pole and some banksticks. There was a reason for buying the tape. Having almost forgotten my net a time or two recently I'm hoping it'll make these things stand out when I shine my headtorch around a swim as I pack up in the dark.

My approach to the eels has continued in the same manner as before. A couple of worms, on suspended one legered, and either a deadbait or piece of squid legered on the third rod. Two rods are back on braid with one fishing mono. Traces are wire for the fishy baits and Quicksilver or Amnesia for the worms. The Amnesia is a bit of an experiment. reading the old Pike and Predators magazines I saw someone recommend it, and catfish anglers use it to avoid tangles. In 25lb or heavier it should resist an eel's teeth.

The first session was one of those frustrating ones with dropped runs and pinched baits to both sorts of bait. One steady run to a roach head produced a small eel from close in. I've been packing up shortly after dark for a couple of reasons. If I stop any longer I'll be tempted to stay later still, and also because runs seem to become less frequent the further into dark it gets. It's as if there's a feeding window from half an hour or so before proper dark until an hour after. That's my excuse. Mostly I just want to get back home for a brew!

I arrived earlier for my second session for no good reason other than it was better sitting looking at water than a computer screen. I didn't expect anything to occur until the light faded, and I wasn't wrong. It was very nearly dark enough to put the headtorch on, with my hopes fading, when the legered lob was picked up by something that had no intention of stopping.

These fast runs are often missed in my experience. Not this one. Even on mono and a fair distance I connected immediately with the eel which promptly began to writhe on the surface. That was what it did all the way in to the net. I think that its writhing made it easier to net as it wasn't stretched out. This one looked worth a weigh.

Worms can often get swallowed by eels but this one was hooked neatly in the bottom lip. The Amnesia didn't get tested by the eel's teeth, but I did manage to mangle it with the forceps. After slipping the eel back I chopped the hooklink back and retied the hook, put on another worm behind the inner tube bait retainer and cast back out.

I'd hardly set the indicator and hadn't got sat down again when the sounder box was blaring again. This time it was the fishy bait that was steaming off in no uncertain manner. This time my strike failed to connect, but winding and winding I made contact with something that was staying deep and trying to pretend not to be an eel. At times I got the feeling I was connected to a pike. I wasn't. Again a writhing eel was easily netted. This one looked bigger than the first one. Certainly around the head and shoulders. The scales proved that it was bigger. By an ounce! This one was also neatly hooked. They say eels are enigmatic. They certainly are. One day they are impossible to hook, the next they swallow your baits out of sight, the next they are easy to hook tidily. Enigmatic or annoying? You decide. They're certainly a challenge.

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Tinkering

I've been messing about with my eel rigs these last few days. As ever when it comes to rigs my aim is to simplify them. For the last few years I've been using quick change swivels at the end of the mainline, with a rig sleeve on the trace covering the open eye of the swivel. Although the swivels are strong enough they are a bit long, and rig sleeves never seem as tangle proof as they should be. Is a swivel really necessary? I'm not sure that any other than ball bearing swivels actually snivel very much in use. As I wanted to retain the quick change facility (eels manage to trash traces!) I tried out a Q Link (other brands are available...). I swapped my previous rig sleeve for a stiffish tail rubber and covered the rest of the link with a buffer bead.

The lead link is made from 20lb Mason Hard Type Mono, which I've found is far more tangle free than standard mono. A large eye swivel has taken the place of a leger ring as braid grooves plastic and I've used these swivels on my barbel rigs for years. The tail rubber over this swivel is optional. Even without it the rig has proved tangle resistant. A small polyball or cork ball could also be used to cover the knot if weed is present.

The other end of the link has a paper clip for the lead as a weak link. One word of caution with paper clips. They can snag in micro-mesh landing nets. I'd never had this problem with my wide mesh barbel net, but my eel net has caused me problems. I'm concerned that sleeving the paper clip might prevent it opening out on a snag, so for the time being I'm putting up with the occasional net tangle.

Hard mono is more difficult to knot than ordinary nylon or copolymer, simply because it is so stiff. When using it as a hooklink or on a John Sidley rig (which I'm still unsure about the need for) I take the trouble to carefully tie a Uni Knot for strength, but for lead links I use a knot that I have recently stumbled upon on the web. The Davy Knot is untidy, and possibly not very strong, but it is simple and quick to tie. Ideal for weak links.

Back when my friends and I started using big jerkbaits the braided lines in use today weren't available, so we used mono of 25lb or more. Because of the repeated force of casting heavy lures the trace knot needed to be retied a few times each day to prevent unexpected crack-offs. I carried a pair of clippers for trimming the knots in this line as they made a better job of it than scissors. Scissors struggle a bit on hard mono too, and I worry that it could blunt them. You can buy line clippers, but they can cost a tenner. Nail clippers from the chemist's at under two quid do just as good a job. The ones I have also incorporate a file - so I can give myself a manicure between runs!

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Tailwalk of the unexpected

 A change of venue was in order yesterday. One guaranteed to provide action of some sort to worms. I arrived late, not having planned to set out at all until I could think of nothing better to do with my evening. The full moon rising made me wonder if eels fed best at this phase or if they'd prefer the darker nights. I didn't ponder on it for long though as having a bait or three in the water is a more reliable of finding out than watching the sky.

One reason for turning out had been the impending end of the dry season. Rain is on its way for the weekend. It was still t-shirt warm by the time I got two worms out, one legered out from the bank, the other suspended  by the right margin. The third rod fished a roach head close in on the bottom to my left. All was set. Sure enough I had a couple of single bleeps in no time at all. I'd only been sat down for ten miutes when the roach head was away. A quick strike and I was pulling back at an eel. That was promising. Not a big fish by anyone's standards, but a start.

 The tail section of the roach went out to the same spot just over the marginal weed and I settled back again. Something pinched half the worm that was fishing off bottom. I rehooked that bit and added another lob.

At nine o'clock that bunch of worms was away. I did the hand over the spool thing to strike and immediately whatever it was shot off taking line from the still disengaged spool. By the time I got the reel into gear I had a pretty good idea that what I'd hooked was lean, mean and green. When it tail waked I knew I was right!

The worm rigs I've been fishing with Quicksilver hooklinks so I was doubtful that the pike would be landed. However, the hook proved to be lodged in the corner of the fish's mouth and the braid was in the clear.

A skinny fish showing signs of either disease or previous poor handling it had the head and length to make double figures in a few months. Another success for my suspended worm rig, even if not the intended quarry.

I didn't realise it immediately but the pike had been landed using one of my ten foot Torrix stalkers. The more fish I catch on these rods the more I'm coming to like them. So much so that I think they might become my eel rods of choice for the rest of this season. With a 3500B baitrunner on they feel just right.

The light was going now, and as I rebaited the size ten hook a barn owl made a silent and ghostly fly by a few feet behind me. With the air still hot and the moon casting shadows it was an evocative sight in a mystical Paul Nash way.

Twitches and pinched baits carried on. Nothing positive, though, and I called it a night early.

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Unpredictable

Buoyed by my eeling success I've made three more evening trips to the same water. When I first cast a worm into the place a few years ago it was bootlace city. As darkness descended the bobbins were hardly still. When I did connect with a bite it was invariably an eel under a pound.

These three sessions, admittedly short but at the right time (I think) have resulted in one dropped take and two or three single bleeps. I've fished two worm rods, one off bottom, and a piece of squid each time. Elsewhere these two baits have always attracted eel attention. It's perplexing. But that's eels for you.

Has something changed? Well the lake has been successfully treated to reduce the weed. Perhaps that has reduced the invertebrate population and the small eels have skedaddled. Maybe I shouldn't have fished a different swim each time. Maybe it's the moon. The only thing keeping me going is that the one eel I have landed has been a decent one. But given my three blanks and out 'rule' it's time for a change of venue or species next time. There were plenty of fish bubbling in front of me yesterday evening. I could try for them, whatever they were. The problem is I'm in predator mode. I'm almost itching to do a bit of piking!

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