Big Coat, Little Coat, T-shirt Weather

It's reached that time of year when you don't know what clothing to take with you. Thursday afternoon I set off was lovely warm sunshine, but I knew once the sun was behind the trees the temp would drop rapidly. So it was I set off along the river bank assault course in a T-shirt with the big coat and light fleece strapped the the ruckbag. The first part of the assault course involved navigating a new kissing gate that is so narrow even I, a streak of piss, had to breathe in to get through having chucked the bags over the fence first. Next up was the belly crawl under a partially fallen Blackthorn. Yesterday I tried with the ruckbag on and got it snagged, so this time I just shoved things ahead of me. This probably accounts for the fact there isn't much in the way of signs that anybody has been fishing beyond here.

My target for the day was more of the the roach, but this time on float. I also had a feeder rod with me in case they didn't want a moving bait. The baits were going to be both bread and pellet. After a bit of plumbing about I found about 11½' over water. This was to be fished with a 7bb Avon float with the bulk of the shot about 4' from the hook. A № 6 shot and a quick change swivel as droppers, with a size 12 hook at the business end. I'd also brought some groundbait with me - brown crumb mashed bread and a bit of hemp and pellet mixed to a stiff consistency so as too get to the bottom. Half a dozen balls went in to start with and a lump of flake on the hook. After half an hour of nothing I changed over to a banded pellet which was equally unproductive. Suspecting they didn't like a moving bait I tried pellet on the feeder for a while, which resulted in a small chub.

 

Two hours in and the sun had dropped behind the trees, so on with the fleece.  A couple more balls of groundbait then back out with the float rod and a bit of flake. The float buried and a 6oz roach was quickly on the bank followed by a few more in the 6-8oz bracket. for about an hour and a half it was nearly a fish a chuck. There appeared to be two shoals in the swim, as some bites came not long after the float settled and the other s some 20 yards downstream. Both shoals produced a few fish with fish lice, argulus,  on them. They only seemed to have one on them and seemed none the worse for it, even so I removed  the louse from the fish. Despite constant feeding with a ball of ground bait very few fish the nearer shoal disappear, but the downstream shoal moved closer. For another hour or so the bites kept coming but not as often before it all went quiet. The average size of fishwas smaller than the previous day, but I think I'd had more.

 

When the bites dried up I went back to the feeder for a while, but this did nothing. With half an hour, or so of light left I put on the big coat and chucked the remaining groundbait in and went back to the float. After a little while the float went under and up came a larger roach, which I some how bumped off. Next trot down and another that this time I got to the net. A fish of 1lb 2oz, even though it looked a bit smaller than yesterday's pounder. No more roach graced the net, but just as it was getting too dark to see the float I managed a 2lb chub, which I should have lost as I made a right mess of netting it in the dark. I did carry on for a while in the dark with the feeder rod, but apart from one slight rattle on banded pellet nothing much happened.

 

One problem I, along with many other anglers I've talked to, have always had on the Derwent is getting a shoal of fish to stop put. They seem to feed for an hour or two then move away. Many of us have always suspected that the shoals are quite small and soon notice when a few of it's members have disappeared.