First Day of the River Season 2022

 As is my wont, I started the new river season trotting maggots with the stick and pin. I've never found early morning o be particularly special., finding afternoon evening to fish better on this river, so arrived mid-afternoon. They car park was busy with three vehicles already there. I had a plumb around in a couple of swims. I wanted one shallow and one deeper one. My intention being if the shallow one didn't produce then maybe a deeper one would be better.

A 5 No 6 stick float was set up with a sixteen hook and double maggot. In the first dozen casts I had a roach, bleak, gudgeon, dace, perch, and chublet. Not a bad start. Feeding a few maggots each cast I was into a steady flow of fish, probably one every other cast. After two and a half hours of steady fishing the inevitable pike turned up attacking the keepnet. I gave it a poke with a bankstick but it just kept coming back. After fifteen minutes of this, and very few bites, I decided to get rid of the keepnet. Forty six fish were emptied into the river in the upstream swim.

After ten minutes or so the bites returned, but so did the pike. A rather small, foot long, little beastie grab a decent dace for a short while before releasing it.  Again the bites dried up. Tim to decamp to the other swim. Unfortunately somebody else had arrived and claimed it. Time for a cuppa.

Refreshed I had another trot down and contacted a decent sized something only for the hook to pull. A couple of trots later the same thing. The hook was plenty sharp. A couple of trots later and the same again, but this time I got a scale pinned to the hook. Next cast the float dipped and I was into a high velocity some thing that got straight into a snag. Time for the bug guns as I suspected the barbel had turned up. Heavy trotting rod and 8lb hook length. Apart from a couple of chublets Nothing. A change back to the lighter set up and I was into a barbel straight away. This time it kindly stayed away from the snags and after a protracted battle was in the landing net, all 4lb 6oz of it. I managed to loose two more on the light gear. I just couldn't get them to take on the heavy stuff even when I dropped to a 6lb hooklength.

Come nine o'clock and all bites had dried up, and as I had no torch I thought it time to go. Not a bad start, but I do wish the pike would stay away. More river fishing next week. Lets see what else we can catch on float.