Moving Baits Only

Looking at the river gauges the only rivers to show any significant movement from Tuesday's rain were the Derwent and the Nidd. I decided to had to the Nidd, mainly because forthcoming roadworks would mean me having to go the long way round for any rivers in that direction over the next month. Not that there isn't enough road works to contend with already. Unlike last week, it was warm and sunny as I arrived in the car park. Surprisingly there were two cars already there. I have no idea where they were fishing as I didn't see anybody as I headed to one of the deeper but fastish flowing swims. The bright sunshine made me think the shallower swims wouldn't fish well, especially as the water was nearly back to normal level and with very little colour in it.

After an hour in the first swim either trotting or feeder fishing maggots over hemp I hadn't had so much as a chewed maggot so moved to a slightly shallower swim upstream. I got a small gudgeon first cast on float, but nothing else after that. I did manage a couple of chewed maggots on feeder. 

The next swim up was the swim I was in last week. I decided to give it a go despite the bright sunshine. A couple of trots down I was into gudgeon. Every one the same size. After half an hour or so a large perch followed one of the gudgeon in. I put the feeder rod out with a lob worm on and took the opportunity to have a cuppa as I was a tad thirsty. The rod sat there for half an hour with some much as a nod. I transferred the worm to the float rod, but still couldn't get a bite. A change back to maggots resulted in a feisty perch around the pound mark. The next trot down produced a slightly smaller one around twelve ounces or so. 

A few more trots and I started picking up dace around the 4-6oz mark. I'd had a couple of dozen dace by the time it got too dark to see the float.

I fished an hour and a half in the dark on the feeder rod. alternating between maggot and worm on the hook. This produced one missed bite to worm. I'd have thought the bit of rain would have encouraged the barbel to feed, but no. Not in this swim any way. During the darkness there was a lot of noise on the far bank, crunching undergrowth mainly. I assume it was badgers as they don't seem to worry about sneaking up on anything or keeping quiet so as not to attract predators.

 

As I walked back to the car a barn owl swooped through a gap in the trees not a yard from me causing me to start. Another one (the same one?) was perched on the gate as I drove down the lane and only took off when I got out of the car to open the gate.