Final Day

As I couldn't get the 14th off today was the last day of the river season for me. With the river now carrying just 1m of extra water and a lot of the colour gone from it i decided to give it one last go with the lure rod. There was one more problem, though. Would the banks be accessible after weeks of floods depositing mud all over them.

On arrival at my chosen length it quickly became apparent that no angling activity had taken place for some time. Even the dog walkers appeared to have given the area a miss, as the only  footprints down the bank were from the wildlife, rats, dusk, heron, otter, and deer.

Deer Tracks

After a few hours of slipping around on the banks and chucking lures it into the eddies and slacks along the bank I eventually latched on to a nice hard fighting double. This would have done me, but nest cast produced a smaller fish grabbing the lure on the drop. sadly it wasn't the hot spot I'd hoped it would be and no more came out. As the next section is heavily tree lined with very few swims I returned to the car quite happy and headed of to another section.

10lb 5oz

This section, despite been easier to access, also showed no sign of angling activity nor did it produce any fish either. It did highlight another danger after floods. A collapsed undercut bank, that I would have stood on to fish as it would have made a large slack easily accessible.

I'll be back on the rivers in a couple of weeks when the trout season opens.