More Roach Fishing, Less Roach

It was back to the Derwent on Tuesday In search of roach. The weather in the afternoon as I set of was lovely, nearly needed the air-con on in the car. With the recent chilly nights and in some cases frost further up the valley I expected the river to be clear. I was really surprised to find it rather coloured and slightly up. Not the best conditions for fishing bread flake, but I did have some worms with me as well. Rather than wander down towards the bottom end I decided to fish nearer the top as I'd seen plenty of anglers there on the last two visits. It did cross my mind that it could be laziness rather fish catches that caused anglers to be there, but I'd had some nice catches here in the past.

 I set up a feeder rod to fish worm upstream with a bit of brown crumb in the feeder and a float rod. The float rod was rigged with a 4g bolo to a size 12 hook for fishing flake or worm. After putting in a few balls of brown crumb I then feed a small ball of liquidised bread every few casts. The first few trots down just seemed to pick up bits of weed that weren't evident when I was plumbing the  depth. It then cleared and I could trot the full length of the swim.  The first bite felt like weed when I struck, but as it kited across the river It gave the rod a nice bend. A nice dace around the 8oz mark. I'd brought a keepnet with me, so in it went. It was followed a few minutes later by a couple more around the 6oz mark. Then everything went quiet.

The feeder rod rattled and produced a minnow. Not hooked, but stuck on the end of the worm. It dropped off as I swung it over the keepnet. A change to worm on the float Produced a gudgeon and a tommy before things went quiet again. A change back to flake produced a little jack pike that had me thinking I was into a decent chub at first. A the sun dropped behind the trees I hoped things would pick up. They didn't Once it was too dark to see the float I moved the feeder rod onto the float line where it sat motionless.

If I don't take a keepnet I get a nice catch of fish that would make a nice photo. Take one and the fish don't want to cooperate. Same with the action cam. As I hadn't taken a spare battery I only switched it on for short periods, but not the periods when I caught fish. One of the strange things of the session was all my fish came to float fished baits, but talking to another angler his fish all came to feeder.

 

Music while typing and video editing provided by: Sequences Podcast