Impromptu Lure Session

 It wasn't my intention to go fishing on Sunday, but I'd woken up early and It was lovely and cool out with a bit of drizzle so I decided to give it a couple of hours. Rod, reel, landing net, and a few jigs and shads stuffed into my pockets. It really was nice wandering about in the drizzle given the impending heatwave. Somewhere, out of sight, I could here a couple of buzzards squeaking. The lower hay meadows had been cut making it hard going as the hay was hiding the path.The previous day when we'd gone for an early wander by the river only the upper meadows had been cut.

A three gramme jig head with a Grass Minnow in Chartreuse Shiner (green and sparkly) had it's tail bitten off on the first cast. The replacement was hit very hard but no contact made. A couple of casts later and a lively jack was impaled on the hook. This was the first jack I'd caught down here, much to my surprise.

A couple of casts later and a perch shot up from the depths as I started to lift the lure from the water. Quickly dropping the rod tip the perch grab hold as the lure descended I put up a spirited fight despite the nasty wound to it's back and dorsal fin. It also had small hook in the corner of it's mouth. At 33cm and 1lb 3oz it was a bit on the light side.

The next couple of swims produced nothing.

The fourth swim is quite deep right off the bank at seven foot or so, before steeply shelving away. A couple of cast upstream and close to the bank showed there to be a lot of snags which I was luckily able to ping out of. It did, however produce a perch of 35cm and 1lb 10oz. I pushed my luck a bit to far and ended up losing a lure. The down stream direction only had a bit of weed in it and after a few casts produced a perch 33cm and 1lb 7oz.

The next swim produced a very hard fighting fish of  34cm and 1lb 7oz and 33cm 1lb 6oz that hit the lure on the drop in the middle of the river after several casts along the edge.

The final swim produced another couple of fish. One at 35cm and 1lb 8oz and one at 29cm and 1lb 1oz. Again both taken on the drop in the middle of the river after quite a few casts along the edge.

Not bad for a couple of hours or so fishing. All the perch seem to be from the same year group. I've taken smaller ones on maggot around here but they don't seem to be fans of chasing lures.