River Colne 11-11-12

After a couple of disappointing weekends when the world conspired against me, finally I was able to slip away for a few hours to drown a maggot or two.

So with 1 degree above freezing showing on the car, I was wondering down the banks of the River Colne at 7am on a Sunday morning with a pint of maggots for company, I must be mad.

Plan for today – catch something. Anything. And enjoy.

I decided to have a go on my banker pegs, where I’ve done ok this season, and then see how the mood took me.

First stop was ‘the weir pool’ – scene of some good roach and barbel a few months ago. However, it was tanking through a fair bit more now. Although we’d only had one proper day’s rain in the last few weeks, it appeared that that was sufficient to raise the water levels. 

The weir pool - casting over by the yellow sign was the only way to get bites

I set up a heavy stick float with an alloy stem with a single maggot on an 18 hook and started some runs through. Apart from snagging the bottom from time-to-time nothing was showing. I tried the deeper slack that was 2/3rds of the way across (nothing). As a final gambit I launched the stick float to the far side, it’s shallow, but stable, so maybe the fish would be sheltering there out of the flow. No sooner had the float settled than it went under – missed bite. A few more casts and the culprits started to appear – some of the tiniest minnows I’ve ever caught.

Giant minnows. Not.

A few more casts, a few tangles and a few minnows later, I decided to move on down the river. I could always come back if it was worse further down.

Next peg down was ‘the bend’, again the additional water was pushing through and I was not overly hopeful. I ran through on the main line (nothing), but if I was able to bring the rig back a little I could pick up the slower line where the mid-stream gravel bar drops off. This started to produce the odd bite. More minnows. Then a roach and a dace and more minnows. It was hard work, but it was cold and November – I’ll take anything that bites in those sort of conditions. 

A rare out-of-focus River Colne dace

The third of the banker pegs is the ‘disabled swim’ which features a nice wooden platform to fish from. Here the trick is to fish the far slack and try to avoid the nearside flow taking the float offline. I keep meaning to give it a go on the pole – but I’ve never summoned up the effort to cart all my gear that far. Anyhow, the far slack didn’t produce, but if I edged the rig onto the very edge of the flow I started to pick up the odd minnow. Bites soon dried up and a swan in the swim wasn’t ideal, so back to ‘the bend’ for a few bites. Some minnows, bleak and roach followed.

Working my way back upstream I tried ‘the inside’ swim. In previous years this produced chublets and dace on the inside of a bend, but this year I’ve caught nothing at all. Today was to be no different.

Next swim was opposite the pub. I’ve struggled here in the past, but I have had the odd fish (and lost a big lump) out in the last few visits, so I gave it a go or two. As the float neared an overhanging tree I’d get the odd bite, and the first of three minnows appeared. But nothing else.

Last peg was by the ski hut. This has a reputation as a really good area, but I don’t recall ever getting a bite here. It used to have lots of fallen trees on the far side which produced large fish, if you could get them out, but the trees have been cleared and it’s fairly anonymous now. Second run through and the float dipped as it approached a snag a good 15 metres downstream. I struck and all was solid. I was just about to call it quits when the tip of the rod started to vibrate and the snag started coming towards me. Being on a 0.10mm bottom and a size 20 hook, I decided to take it easy so I just kept on the pressure and wound in whatever line my underwater foe would let me have.  It was not long before the fish was under the rod tip and I was wondering what I had on the line and where it might go next, when without warning, it surfaced. Surprisingly, it was a chub – somehow I thought it was going to be a barbel – and in seconds it was in the landing net.

Monster chub

At that point I realised what a superb fish it was – very heavy set and with a real bulging belly. Almost certainly heavier than my previous best of 4lb 12oz. But how heavy was it?

Needless to say I didn’t have my scales with me and there was no practical way I could get my hands on a set. So a couple of photos had to suffice. Very pleased with myself (and slightly annoyed) I set off home. Time to buy another pair of scales (one for the seatbox and one of the roving outfit).

Catch List:

Roach 2

Dace 2

Bleak 2

Chub 1

Minnow 25

Total weight: 7lb