Having been given the morning off to wet a line, I nearly, very nearly went to one of the local river sections. But then, at the last minute I had a change of heart and headed off towards Oxford to try my luck on the River Cherwell - a newly acquired bit of club water.
At this point, I should state that I'd never seen the venue and searching the internet turned up very little, so this was a bit of a gamble. Still, a chance to try a virgin water awaited.
After a bit of a faff, I found the stretch concerned, but not the car park. It's clearly marked on the map, but neither of the two possible areas in real life were suitable, so it was the grass verge (albeit on a quiet country lane) that had to do.
I'm glad I was traveling light and doubly glad I brought the wellies - over two stiles, through the long grass and there was the river. It was a deep chocolate brown (no doubt from the heavy rain of the last few days), about ten yards wide and a bit pacey in places.
I walked down about 200 yards before I found a nice even looking swim on the bend - although I'd passed some other nice looking spots, access was a problem with most, this one allowed me to get close to the water's edge for a change.
A quick set up - a 1 gramme stick float, 0.10mm hooklength to a barbless 18 hook - plumbing up gave me 6 feet of water, a fair bit deeper than I expected.
One white maggot, a few loose feed and a gentle swing out. As simple as that. A few runs through produced nothing. Nada. And then on run three, a bite. And a 2 ounce chublet. Blank avoided (I could go home now without shame if needed).
Over the next few runs through I picked up a little roach, another chublet and then something that pulled back a bit. It wasn't huge, but steady pressure in the current prevailed and a chub of 1lb or so broke the service and the rather over-sized landing net was called into service.
I have to say at this point I was impressed. My local river is good, but not for fish like this - it's all small or enormous and not much in between, and to get into fish so quickly was also welcome.
A few more runs through the swim produced some more fish - roach and chub mostly, then another chub of about a pound, then another that felt similar but shed the hook. Then it seemed to slow down. A few more runs through the odd bite, and a nice perch of about 6oz before I decided to move on.
It was about 200 yards further down when I had another go, but the water here was pacey and the bank very steep, so after a few runs through it seemed that moving on was better.
Just on from here was a wider area just before a bend where there was just 3 feet of water, but I had to stand on the high bank - not ideal but worth a punt. A few runs down produced a roach. Then a couple of missed bites, then a couple of gudgeon, but it was hard work. I was just thinking of moving on when the float dipped and after a brief fight this little fellow appeared. Cool.
I don't care what anyone else says, but I could catch these all day. There's something magical about barbel and in a real natural venue, these are a great prize.
Next peg down looked absolutely perfect, slow, meandering river surrounded by trees (so good cover from cormorants), but no fish. Next swim, nothing.
Next swim, nothing on the main line at all, but as soon as the rig drifted over to the near side, the bites would come. Roach, perch and chublets again. If only I'd had my pole gear I think I'd have caught more in this peg, but you have to make the best of things.
With a little more than an hour's fishing left I decided to head back upstream to a bridge that looked quite interesting. It wasn't. Fast flowing and shallow, it didn't scream fish like it did at a distance. So 50 yards further upstream it was.
Several runs through in the main current produced nothing at all, so on a whim I tried the inside line (just a little past the rod tip where I still had some depth of water) bite - and a roach.
Next put in, another roach of a few ounces.
Next put in, a bigger roach (at least 3 ounces) when the rod tip was pulled down. I had a pretty good idea what was on the line, but I hoped for a big chub or perch. It was neither. Sat in the river with my roach across it's jaws sat a little jack pike. I wasn't hooked, it was just held on by greed. nervously I positioned the net downstream of the fish, and gently coaxed them into the net just as the pike gave up its prey. But they were both caught.
The roach was returned, a little battered for it's experience, but still alive, and then the pike. Quite a nice surprise.
After this I worked the inside line quite hard and a succession of 30 or so fish followed, mostly roach, but with dace, perch, chub and the odd bleak thrown in.
I did have a quick look at the bridge before I left, but two minnows were not a good enough return in what was shallow and fast-moving.
So all-in-all a cracking few hours. No monsters, but not a bad session for a first visit and the secret was clearly in finding the slacker areas where the fish were happy to settle.
I never saw another angler all morning - a few dog-walkers in the distance, but that was all. I guess this is what river fishing should be about - fish, bites, variety and a sense of achievement. So I rather this as a nice little stretch of quality water with plenty of scope for future visits. I can see me becoming a bit more of a regular at this rate.
Catch List:
Roach - 30
Barbel - 1
Chub - 15
Bleak - 5
Gudgeon - 2
Minnow - 2
Pike - 1
Dace - 12
Perch - 6
Total weight: 12 lb
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