More Brolly Testing & A Few Fish

 I took the risk this morning and hoped it wouldn't be raining too much. As it was it remained as drizzle most of the time, but I had my nice new brolly so it was OK. The river was up as expected but a lot more coloured than I'd anticipated. Still I was on the bank. A simple running feeder setup was used. First cast and the tip rattled almost as soon as the feeder hit the bottom. Back came a couple of chewed maggots. This happened on the next few casts before I wound in to find a tiny minnow had impaled itself on the hook. Quite how such a tiny fish got three maggots in it's mouth I don't know. The next cast produced a good solid pull and something a bit bigger in the shape of a perch.

I was then back to the rattles and occasional minnow for a while. Before a very welcome little gudgeon. Half a dozen or so followed on consecutive casts before the minnow problem returned. The next change from the minnows was four twelve ounce chub which bent the rod rather than just the quiver tip.

The fifth chub I'd wound in four or five turns when it shot off across the river initially at high speed before slowing down and plodding downstream. It felt like it had been grabbed by a pike. The clutch clicking away steadily before everything went slack. The hook link was attacked so I assume the hook had been ripped out of the fishes mouth. It was then back to the minnows for a while before a roach put in an appearance. I then suffered for what looked like barbel bites. The tip would whack right over but I didn't contact with anything. The maggots were crushed or missing. After a dozen or so bites like this a good stamp dace came in. Half a dozen more followed all giving a good tug to the quiver.

The little run of dace came to a halt with another pike attack, but this time it bit me off. I was now three and half hours into the four hours I had available. The drizzle had halted for a while so I took the opportunity to pack up in the (nearly) dry. Not a bad three and a half hours fishing.