Fifth Day Of The River Season 2024

 Fifth day of the river season and the fourth river. Two days since I got a new brolly and I've been lucky enough not to have to us it. The venue has steps cut in the bank and platforms at the bottom. All very nice but the steps could be smaller and the platforms bigger. Even so It'll do. I had a cast round with the Deeper. I found just under four foot by the side of the weeds on the nearside and eleven and a half foot a third of the way across. One rod with a 4xNo6 wire stemmed stick float and the fifteen footer with a 4g bolo float.

 

I started on the inside line flicking some maggots in and trotting the float as close as possible to the weeds with out snagging. I got plenty of chewed maggots before bringing in a little bleak. While I like to see the return of bleak to the river they can be a damned nuisance. Especially when small. After two or three of them I got a small perch then some tiny dace and chublets. The problem was most of the time I just ended up with chewed maggots. While this was going on I'd been firing hemp and maggots out to the far swim.

 

I gave the far swim a try and after a few trots down managed a decent perch before a couple of boats came past from opposite directions. Both swims went quiet, so I had a cuppa. When I lifted the long rod out, having finished my cuppa, a little perch had taken a liking to the chewed maggots. The inside line was still full of tiny little bleak and like, so back out on the Far line. It was a fish a chuck for half a dozen casts. All reasonable sized roach, before I bumped one off and everything going quiet.

Over the next half hour or so I picked up a couple more roach on the far line and a couple of tiny ones on the inside. The last two fish of the session came right at the bottom of the far run. A couple of silver bream. I couldn't fish any further down as the tree to my right blocked my view. Twenty seven fish for 3lb 7oz. Not a great catch, but fun none the less on the float. It wouldn't have won the match on the Sunday as that was won with 30lb+ of bream. In fact I don't think it would have got me a section prize.

A very enjoyable four hours in pleasant sunshine . The only downside was the very vocal lambs on the other side of the river They really were very loud and persistent.