Local River 27-7-14

A few hours and a pint of maggots. This is how all good short sessions on the river usually start.

I should be targeting barbel (I fancy a pb this year), but today I wanted a few bites and see what came along.

So, first peg was 'the bend'. The water level was a little lower than my last visit, so wading across in my wellies was easier as I started running the stick float down. It's a pleasant way to spend half an hour or so - small chub and dace followed along with one better lump, a chub of about two and a half pounds.

After the bend I tried the weir pool. I still couldn't get this to trot properly despite going for a heavier float. I'm going to have to have a think about this. Still a few more fish appeared.

Next up, the dog dip swim. Normally this fished well tight under a tree on the inside as the flow swings in close. But not this time - the fish were out in the middle of the flow and readily taking my loose fed maggots. A few chub and small dace followed with one small roach for good measure.

Then I bypassed my usual swims to head up to the confluence where the stream flows in from the far side. This is a desperate swim - it looks full of fish, but normally a few bleak would be a good result. I fish it on the basis that one day I might pick up a bonus fish. But not today. No, today it was a roach a chuck, not huge fish, but a steady stream of fish to 6oz were easily swung to hand. I lost one fish due to a pike attack - I saw the jack concerned, it was no more than a foot long - but other than that it was uneventful.

So last up was a go at the post swim. Normally this is devoid of bites (although the barbel anglers head for it every time). It was hard work - the flow is well over and that meant an awkward cast and the need for the catapult. I thought I'd feed heavy to see if I could trick a chub. I couldn't. But I did bag a fair few quality roach as well. Not as fast as the previous swim. But very encouraging.

So it looks like there a silver fish all the way through where previous there were none. Happy days.

Catch List:
Roach: 30
Chub: 15
Minnow: 1
Bleak: 5
Dace: 10
Perch: 6

Total weight: 8lb