Pest Control of The Highest Order

[rennie]

Fished Yorkshires River Nidd the past two days until the next "Salmon Fix" and yesterday walked a mile to the bottom of the stretch and had seclusion and peace and quiet all day.The only things to shatter that illusion were mink that kept swimming across the river from bush to bush at regular intervals.
At one point a delightful little "collar sized"mink in a fetching sandy hue risked swimming through the narrow funnel of current between two big willow bushes that were the feature of the swim I was fishing,it got half way across leaving a lovely wake when from no-where a Pike in the upper teens of pounds poked its head up grabbed the mink,gave a lovely head, back,tail roll and sank back into the stream with its lunch.
Didn't see any more mink after that,wonder how to tie a "mink fly"looks like that would be fun on a single hander! Pedro.

[salmonfisher]

search on google for - the verminator - This is a fly/lure that is meant to represent a water rat and is cast with either a fly or a spinning rod. Otherwise you could spin a big deerhair lure with a zonker strip tied in as a tail. That does the trick ive had pike upto 22lbs on one of these imitations and believe me they do put up an awsome battle on a 9ft 8wt

[jsbbroady]

Rennie,

Which part of the Nidd were you fishing? I fished a lot of the Nidd as I lived on the banks of it for 20 years. I caught pike on all sorts of tackle. I have a soft spot for the river! Some amazing fishing but as you have said the Mink are a problem.

JB

[rennie]

Eh up jsbbroady,fish the tasty Cowthorpe stretch on the Bradford No.1 book,its one of my favorite places to be.Seen a few Salmon run the weir usually just after Xmas if we get big water,don't see or hear of them again tho.Spoke to a guy there this year who was claiming to have caught red kipper of a fish from the gas pipe swim as the river came back to its normal level after the big floods early season,once caught a Sea Trout kelt of about 5lb on the last day of the season a few years ago,so there is some statistical hope.Tight lines,Pedro.

[jsbbroady]

Hi Pedro,

I lived on the outskirts of Knaresborough, I used to fish at Ripley, Killinghall and all around Knaresborough. There are two big wears stopping any migratory fish travelling up past what they call the Lydo Caravan park in Knaresborough. My Bro works for British Waterways and there have apperently been a lot of Salmon reported all over Yorkshire rivers. Fingers crossed they are left well a lone to bring the numbers up.