First Day of the River Season 2020

The glorious 16th didn't quite live up to expectations, despite the rain flushing the river through and freshening it up. Still a few inches up and carrying a bit of colour the fish weren't as cooperative as they could have been. The intention was a bit of stick and pin with maggots over hemp for anything that turned up. While fish did turn up there wasn't the numbers there had been in previous years. To add to the woes of the day the action cam decided  to disown the memory card part way through and the phone stated to play silly beggars by claiming to be out of battery and shutting down at random. I've managed to rescue a few bits from the action cam, including the first fish of the season and the phone battery is currently been recalibrated.

While some people are out at the crack of dawn, or earlier, I've never found rivers to fish well early morning so afternoon to evening it was. I was quite shocked to get a bite first run through with a bait. Not only that, but a got a fish as well. A little chub was the first of the season. This was quickly followed by a couple more chublets. Then a couple of dace, a roach and a perch. Things then slowed down considerably. Over the next hour I only got the odd fish every now and then.

A change of swim was no better as it only produced the odd chublet. A third swim was called for and again produced only a couple of fish over an hour. Back to the first swim and after a couple of small roach it again went quiet. A little while later a small jack made a lunge at the float as I was retrieving, before turning and grabbing the maggots. At least it put a bit of a bend in the rod.

One strange thing was the fish only seemed to want moving baits. When I stopped for a cuppa I'd put a feeder rod out and not once did I have so much as a chewed maggot. Back in the first swim I had a couple more little roach before a rather nice grayling showed up. With it now down to the last hour before dark I stayed put. I've said it before, but the 'magic hour' before dusk has never really happened for me and so it was this time.

Nice to be back watching a float trundle down the river, but there wasn't the steady stream of fish I was expecting. It was more like later in the season when the fish seem to be scattered about. Still a pleasant day was had. It could have been like last year with the rivers full to overflowing.

Lets see what tomorrow brings.