Exploring Old Haunts II

Friday's trip was to a section some sixteen miles upstream of Thursday's. It was on a section I'd fished a long time ago, but from the other bank. This bank, however, has a lot more swims even if they don't appear to have had a lot of use. After a bit of a wander up and down I selected a couple of swims I fancied. The first having a nice weed bed on the inside and a nice tree line across. A bit of plumbing about and a few trots through showed the near side swim to be around six foot and the far side a few inches deeper. A 7BB avon seemed to be about right, maybe a bit heavy for the inside line, but castable to the far side. The intention was to trot sweetcorn over hemp for chub, or the somewhat rarer barbel.

With the weed bed and tree roots providing an opportunity for sanctuary for any hooked fish an 6.6lb Matchline hook length and size 14 Animal hook finished the rig off. Quite a bit of hemp was put in on both lines along with a small amount of sweetcorn.  Third trip down and a bite from a little chublet. Just as I'd unhooked it there was a mighty splash just to my right which made me jump and drop the fish. A two foot section of bank had given way. The section I was stood on seemed to be quite solid, but I had a kneel down and checked for any undercut just in case. I had a few more trots down the inside with a few grains of hemp and a couple of sweetcorn going in each time on both lines, but no more bites. I moved across to the far bank line, casting slightly upstream to a gap in the trees which allowed me to fish as close as possible to the tree line.

Second trip down and I was in, this time to something with a bit of weight behind it. This was the first thing of any size I'd hooked on the 15' Greys and the rod turned form been a bit tippy to bending well down to the butt section. This allowed me to just put my thumb behind the handle of the 'pin and let the fish bounce about trying to reach the tree roots.  Nice chub of 3lb 8oz soon graced the net. Just as I released it another angler appeared. He'd been fishing upstream, but I hadn't seen him on my wanders. All he'd had were a few small chublets and seemed quite pleased I'd caught something larger as he'd not had anything of any size since the start of the season. He reckoned it had not fished well here at all recently., which is not what you want to hear. he also mentioned bits of bank falling away. The next cast down the inside produced another little chublet which was grabbed half way back by what I assumed to be a jack pike. As I bullied it away from the weeds a chub, about the size of the previous one, came splashing to the surface before spitting the chublet out.

It then started to rain, despite the weather app saying there was a 10% chance.  I hate trotting in the rain while sat under a brolly, but I now longer have any desire to get soaked for the sake of a fish or two. Out went the feeder rod with a couple of grains of sweetcorn on the hook and hemp in a small blocked feeder. Recasting every ten minutes, alternating between the nearside and far side swims for one bite. Which I missed as I was pouring a cuppa at the time.

Two and a half hours later when it stopped I thought I'd give it a  few minutes of trotting before packing up a the rain radar showed some more heading my way. Retrieving after the first trip down a bow wave appeared in the weeds and headed towards my float. Speeding the retrieve up it hit the hook instead. One of those pretty and acrobatic little summer jacks. Again it gave the new Grays rod a little bit of a workout and makes me think a decent barbel on it won't be a problem.

I think this stretch definitely warrants a bit more exploring and could fish quite well in flood conditions. There doesn't appear to be the chub that used haunt the place, but maybe as the other angler suggested they're moving back in.

Music while typing provided by: La Confiserie Sonore