Having my usual few hours spare on a Sunday morning (only after extensive negotiation :-) ) I headed down to the local stretch of the river Colne for a few hours.
My plan was to do the usual - rove the river with a pint of maggot and a stick float rig and see what would appear. I didn't have high hopes, but since the previous trip had thrown up a barbel, then anything was possible.
First swim was my usual trotting swim. Wade out to the gravel bar (trying not to fill the wellies too much) and trot down to the bend.
This produced a few small fish, and one better chub of about 3lb (result). However, the roach were awol - some bleak and lots of minnows were showing, but not much else. So, after an hour or so I headed upstream.
Next peg up was the weirpool. Normally I don't bother with this peg, it's shallow, wide, fast moving and best fished with the feeder. But what the heck I thought, why not give it a go?
After a couple of casts to get the depth right (somewhere around 18 inches seemed to be ok) I found an easy run through just behind the main flow on the near side.
And a bite. 4oz roach.
Next cast, bite, 3oz roach.
And so on.
Over the next 90 minutes I bagged nearly 70 fish. Lots of roach, a few chublets, dace, couple of perch, gudgeon, bleak and minnows. All-in-all, for a river with very few small fish, a complete revelation. A peg that I've walked past and ignored for years, turned out to be probably the best trotting swim on the river.
Lesson learned I think.
Fish caught:
Chub 8
Roach 40
Perch 3
Gudgeon 5
Bleak 10
Minnow 30
Dace 3
Total weight: 15lb
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