I had no idea what to expect when i got there as I had never seen the river before, roumours from people i know said that it was a very clean nice little river but still had the bad name that it used to have back in the 70's, I was very pleasently suprised when i got there, neat trimmed grass almost bowling green quality like banks. The pegs were wooden safe platforms almost commercial like.
Next job was to walk the stretch and pick a peg which was hard as they all looked decent!! Anyway I plonked myself on peg 19 which had a nice steady pace to it and a nice glide for the stick to trot through (I do own a few sticks!!! honest)
Tactics for the day was to learn how to use the stick float, A conversation with Mick the troll the night before told me how to shot the float using the shirt button style, So i picked a nice wire stemmed tommy pickering 6 x no4 stick out the old box and proceeded to tackle up, On went the float rubbers then the float attached, 0.16 mainline on the reel, attached to a 12" of0.08 hooklength shotted with 4 x no1 spread equally down the line with 2 no11 on the hooklength, this was soon to become a nighmare with tangles!!!
First chuck in and the float was sent on its way with a nice underarm swing to the centre of the river about 8 metres out, the rig flew through the air and landed in a heap, so i retreived and found a big birds nest, marvelous i thought, great start, after trying to untangle this for 5 minutes or so, i decided to re tackle up, 5 minutes later i was back in action, This time the rig landed in a straight line and it trotted down the river perfectly to be met my the float going under at the end of the run, Strike, the rod bent round to find something large and heavy on the end, Oh i was right it was a massive snag and i lost a hooklength to it. Oh well don't trott that far next time lad.
New hooklength on and cast back in which again resulted in a birds nest, So this made me think why was i getting in so many tangles, maybe it was my shotting,as when the rig was in mid air it was jerking all over the place where the shot were batting between each other, each wanting to go in different directions, So i altered all the shotting and reshotted with 10 x 6 all stringed out evenly down the rig, Instantly i could tell that this was going to be better and the rig flew out a dream and landed in the straightest line possibe, Result!!
Right time for some fish, First trot down on the new rig, it performed flawlessly, no bite though, so reeled back in and flicked back out again followed by 10 or so bronze maggots, second trot down and the float went under, I struck and fish on, excelent a small roach of about 2oz went into the waiting keepnet.
This was the only bite i had for the next 2 hours, I kept going at it as i know that a swim can suddenly turn itself on like a switch, but unfortunatly it didn't!
I decided to go for a walk to relieve the boredem and explore the stretch a little more, On my walk i didcovered a few other anglers who were also in the same boat and were struggling to catch, I also met one of the baliffs who was very helpful, he told me about the stretch, species etc, he did however happen to mention that pole was worth a shot!
On my way back i noticed a nice peg for the pole with some overhanging trees on the far bank, so i deceded to move pegs onto peg 17 two pegs down from my original peg, Pole out and a rig i used the previous day on a stillwater! 4 x 14 drennan roach shotted with 4 x no9 stotz together at half depth and then 3 no 11 droppers spaced out below the bulkshot to allow a slow drop and to allow the bait to rise up in the water if i held back against the flow.
It was a lot shallower across the far side at about 3 foot deep and the water clearish so i wasn't holding up much hope for this method, first trot though and the float disapeared, to which i struck at and missed, I thought it could of been the bottom so i ran through again and the float didn't budge so it must of been a bite, From then on every run through produced either a bite or a small roach or chub, I had about a hour left before it got dark, I was catching quite well be this point and kept putting a few fish in the net, 2nd to last chuck and i was struggling to see the float due to the dark drawing in and i connected with something a little better, this ended up being a perch of about 12oz, new pb perch, Didn't last for long though as the next chuck produced a perch of 1lb 6oz which finished my day off well, by the time i had finished weighing the net of fish and weighing the perch it was dark. So I packed up and headed back to the car after having a enjoyable few hours on a river.
Net of fish 5lb 3oz + 1lb 6oz perch, not bad for round about 2 hours fishing!
I will definatly be back, £2 a day.
Tight lines
Matt
