Same Swim As Last Week

Wednesday evening I was looking at the river gauges to see what the rivers were doing after the recent rain. Some were on the way up, some already up. Most would probably be falling by Thursday afternoon. I asked the computer to select me a venue. It kindly picked the same venue as last week, one I'd selected myself. I could have asked for another one, but decided why not. The river would be about a foot up and falling, so a spot of trotting would be possible. Arriving at the parking spot OI wasn't surprised to see a few cars there. I suspected the barbel anglers may turn up. It wasn't my intention to fish the same swim as last week, but it did look good and I couldn't be bothered to wander about in the heat of the afternoon. The river wasn't as coloured as I expected it to be either.

In the past I've done quite well trotting sweetcorn for roach. Not only does it tend to pick out the bigger fish, it also keeps the bleak form being a nuisance.If the water is clear fishing it over hemp worked well, but in coloured water a dark groundbait seemed to work better. It was the later tactic I decided on. I had my 14' rod with me this time and the 'pin had new line on it so life should be a bit easier. I used a slightly heavier float this time. 4BB instead of 3BB, with the shot strung out over the bottom half to get the bait down quicker. I put half a dozen golf balls of my special blend of whatever odds 'n sods of groundbait I had leftover in. It took nearly and hour for the first bite which turned out to be a roach around the 6oz mark. Over the next two hours I managed 27 roach in the 6-10oz bracket before the swim died. I'd been adding another ball every 15mins or so, whether this was two much I don't know. I suspect it may have been as some of the groundbait I'd mixed in had quite a lot of feed in it. I had brought some worms with me as well, but they didn't attract any bites either.

A change to straight lead with either sweetcorn of worm didn't seem to make a difference until the tip whacked round barbel style. At first I thought I was into a chub, but once I'd tightened the clutch up a bream surfaced. A reasonably tidy fish around the 4lb mark. The bream from the Ouse can be a bit tatty. This proved to be the last fish of the evening. It's one of the strange things about the Ouse that you can catch a single bream. I don't know if they're loners or there is a shoal but it's on a mission to somewhere.

Things didn't go totally to plan on a slowly falling river, but a decent catch was had. I was surprised no perch chowed up to worm. Normally a worm would attract one in no time.

Having spent so much time fault finding the camera problems you'd think I'd make sure it was switched on. Having got it set up using the phone to get things framed. I forgot to set it to record. It wasn't until I checked it while having a cuppa when the roach stopped biting that I realised  what I'd done. Not only had I missed all the roach, but also  a red kite gliding up and down the far bank along with two kingfishers chasing each other back and forth across the river.