Third Session of the 2022 River Season

 Tuesday's session was to a stretch that I've regularly fished for pike but not done any maggot drowning in for years.  It didn't get of to a particularly good start though. I found a nice swim with a six foot shelf a rod length out, just beyond some weeds. A couple of rod lengths further out the depth doubled. I set up a stick and 'pin for the inside line as it was protected from the downstream breeze. The deep line I set up a waggler rig with an ABU 506 as waggler fishing with a 'pin is a pain. By now the hayfever had kicked in. My nose was streaming and sneezing so bad I thought I'd dislocate my head. Still I persevered.

Hayfever like that doesn't do much for your concentration. Three time I snagged a tree when casting forcing me to re rig. I developed a total inability to throw groundbait with any form of accuracy other than hitting the river. Just to ad insult to injury one wellie had developed a leak. The inside line produce nothing but bleak, not the perch I was expecting. The waggler line also produced bleak, but by bulking the shot well down the line I was able to bypass them more often them not. Despite scattering groundbait all over the place I was into bream pretty quickly. Between sneezing and a streaming nose I managed to bump off three of them and lost another three in the weeds. At this point I decided a cuppa and some medication may be the order of the day.

While partaking of a cuppa I chucked a feeder rod out. All this did was bounce about and I'd wind in some chewed maggots. Eventually a small perch hung itself on the hook. Admittedly I was far too busy trying to get a photo of an egret chasing fry on the far bank, I failed. I did manage a, poor, photo of some of the four dozen gooses that same past. A couple of lambs charged them as they arrived at the cattle drink. The lambs weren't as brave when a couple of gooses flew at them. A heron was also chased off by the gooses as well.

After forty five minutes or so the sneezing and streaming nose had stopped. After a few trots down the inside line only to find the bleak were still there. I chucked some more groundbait in, this time with a lot more accuracy. First up on the waggler line were roach and the occasional perch. Much to my surprise the odd, three to the pound, chub turned up. This was nice to see as chub have notable for their absence in recent years. Late on I started to pick up skimmers, most of which I managed to get to the net. I still managed to bump more than I should have done.

I think if I'd not scattered groundbait everywhere early on I could have put quite a nice bag of fish together. Still it wasn't a bad day in the end. It appeared I was on an Oyster Catcher's flight path as it came backwards and forwards across the river. Whistling just before it came over the flood bank it never really gave me enough notice to get a photo. There was also a surprising amount of salmon leaping about. Some coloured and some still a shiny silver. On the way back to the car I also saw a very large hare zig-zaging across the field. Not seen one that size for years. There was also a quite a few hedgepigs wandering about. I nearly stood on one as it came out of the long grass on to the path.