Fifth Day Third Session Of The 2023 River Season

 Tuesday morning it rained from breakfast to the middle of the afternoon. Although not particularly heavy the drains didn't cope with it well especially in the countryside where huge puddles had developed. This combined with multiple road closures, inaccurate council information and a myriad of diversion signs, meant it was nearly four before I got to the river. Nobody else had been down to this stretch as there was no sign of any of the swims, just shoulder high herbage. It was at this point I realised the thing that had been nagging me since the start of the season was that I'd forgotten to put the machete in the rod bag. Luckily a trample and a good thrashing with a storm pole created a bijou little swim.

Plumbing around it soon became apparent that  there was a good bit of weed and other snags on the inside. The centre seemed to give a good run, a seven foot or so, so I upped the float from a 6 № 4 to a 4BB alloy stick. That's what Drennan call it, but to me it's a slim bodied avon. Shotted with size six shot.The lighter float was OK but in the gusty downstream breeze I'd have better control. The rest of the setup was the same as Tuesday. Fortuitously a couple of reflections on the water were ideal targets for the loose feed. The downstream one for hemp and the one opposite for maggots.

The first half consisted of unmissable bites and chewed maggots. A lot of fiddling with the shotting pattern ensued before the bites became hittable. Basically I ended up with a bulk at half depth and the rest strung out below with a № 9  Stotz on the hook length. I also found the bites were better fishing six inches off bottom rather than on the bottom. For the next hour or so I caught small bleak, minnows, roach, and dace. It then went quite for a while, but increasing the depth so the bait was tripping bottom resulted in three hand size roach in among some large bleak.

Bites had generally slowed down by this point. I'd been feeding hemp every other cast and maggots every cast so up the hemp to every cast. This seemed to do the trick as the little dace turned up again. Then some large 6-8oz chub turned up. Unfortunately I lost several when they bolted in to the snags. I got the rig back each time, normally with a twig and not the fish attached to the hook. A perch then attached it's self to the hook only to be snatched inches from the landing net by a pike. I played it for a while before the pike let go. There was barely any damage to the perch due to it's really tough skin and scales.

I continued on but there seemed to be quite a few pike active as bait fish were scattering at various points in the river. I did manage a couple more chub before one was grabbed by a pike. Again I played it for a while before the pike let go. Chub aren't as tough as perch and this one had a nasty scar. My shiny new keepnet then suffered a couple of pike attacks. I was then bitten off by a little cucumber of a thing that grabbed the double maggots as I wound in. 

That was enough of a hint for me to pack up. I'd fished for four and half hours for fifty seven fish. Don't know what the weight was as I'd misplaced my scales. I found them on top of the car when I got back! Bait fish were still scattering as I packed up, so I think continuing would have been futile. I released the fish further upstream, the only other point I could easily reach the river. Up to that point it had been a nice session with out trying to hard. Just trotting a float and waiting for it to go under really is rather enjoyable.

Inspecting the new keepnet this morning it showed no sign of any damage. How long it will survive before  a pike rips a hole in it I don't know. One can live in hope as these things, like everything else, are not cheap. The machete has been loaded into the rod bag, although I probably won't need it again. 

Today's trip is still in the planning stages. I can't make my mind up where to go basically.