Sixth Day Fourth Session Of The 2023 River Season

 The most exciting part of yesterday's fishing expedition was finding the river. The Dunesfordes are dead end villages. I'd never fished this section before so wasn't quite sure where I was going The sat nav seemed to get confused as you're never sure whether you're on public or private roads. Eventually, after missing a turn hidden behind the apex of a bend and driving into the wrong field I spotted the club sign on a gate. The track through the fields down to the river wasn't as obvious as I'd hoped so I got out and had a wander. It was more obvious on foot than from the car. Eventually I got my way to the river bank despite the apathetic sheep that seemed to be in no hurry to get out of my way. Must be something to do with the solstice.

The river was much as expected. Some 40 yards wide and 2 to 3 fathoms deep. Even though it was some 6" up on normal summer levels there was still very little flow. A brief natter with the only other angler there made me wonder why I'd bothered. He was struggling for bites and had only a couple of small dace for a couple of hours fishing. He said that the all over the place gusty breeze made presentation hard work. There weren't a lot of swims that were easily accessible so I just plumped  for one near where I'd come to a halt in the car.

I set up two rigs.  A 3g slim bolo at 13' for 3 rod lengths out. and a 5g slider rig at 15' for the middle of the river. Hemp and maggots for the inside line and groundbait and maggots for the middle of the river. The middle line was the first to produce with a tiny roach on double maggot. Bites were hard to come by though. A bleak was next up from the middle of the river. I then changed to the inside and had a couple of dace. I then got my hopes up when I got a 6-8oz chub. No more bites were forthcoming so I went out to the middle again and had a slightly larger chub. For the rest of the session I just picked up the odd dace here and there. The other chap left before me and had had a dozen or so small roach and dace. I ended up with 15 fish, 1 roach, 1 bleak, 2 chub, and 11 dace.

Not the most productive day but I wasn't pestered by pike for a change. People tell me this is a winter venue but i know good bags can be had in summer.