My first session coincided with the river rising very rapidly and was near bank high , after roaming up and down the stretch it became obvious it was going to be a real struggle and so it proved . I started off with cheesepaste but the rising water and rubbish coming down meant a chub was unlikely , I switched to maggot feeder and fished on the edge of the crease after a few small indications I finally connected with the culprit and it turned out to be a tiny gudgeon which I put on the scales that I had bought especially for smaller species and it only registered 3/8oz .
I continued to get indications that were very tentative , I somehow connected again with a fish that went from been small to something bigger , it became apparent that whatever I had hooked originally had been grabbed by either a small pike or a big perch , which ever it was I will never know as the hooklink gave out . I tried fishing on for another hour but no more bites came .
3 days later and I was back to a falling river with just a small amount of colour . I settled in to the swim that had been producing chub for me since I started on bread and so it proved again as after an hour I finally got a couple of small plucks before the tip pulled slowly round and was in , the bend in the rod and the thump told me I had another chub on its way to the net and in she went first time , not massive but a pleasing 3lb 12oz .
Hoping for more action I wandered downstream 4 swims and released her . I settled back in to my swim and recast . the wind which had been quite light suddenly got quite strong and also swung into the east and the temperature plummeted , not good and my hands started turning blue , then the sleet started and despite sitting in it for an hour nothing show any interested in the bread a switch to maggot feeder for a further hour brought no response and with the weather getting worse I called it a day .
My next session was to be at another stretch as the road to my normal one was been dug up and would be closed to access for 10 days .My alternative stretch is one I normally fish for chub from october onwards and that had produced to great sessions but the last 2 winters with all the rain had meant it hadnt fished particularly well . On arriving I noticed a sign on the fence notifying us that a horse box had broken down and 3 horses were in the field . As we had just had 4 nights of frosts and the river was down to normal level and clear , as well as bread and maggots I had also brought my favourite winter bait of steak and mince .
I started on bread but after an hour and no sign I switched over to steak and mince within a few minutes I had a couple of taps and things looked good but almost immediately the indications stopped . I gave it half an hour more and switched to maggot feeder and scaled down my hooklink . The inevitable happened I received a couple of small taps and a gentle pull and connected with seemed like a nice fish ,mind full of the lighter hooklink I played it gingerly and suddenly had a bumped on the end of the line that felt like the line flicking off a fin but as I got the fish in front of me it gave a thump and the line fell slack , on reeling in the hooklink had gone half way along and think the bump must have the line hitting a snag . Gutted I sat and had a think and opted to change the hooklink to something heavier but used a fluorocarbon . No indications came so decided to go back to steak as the time was getting on , in 3 consecutive casts I had bites and hooked and landed 3 fish but not the chub I expected but 3 roach , 2 were around 6oz and the other was this 12oz one
As quick as the bites came they stopped and off home I went .but was back a few days later to find the river up a little but the colour wasnt too bad . I chose a different swim and the session followed the same pattern as the last but with no indications . It seemed to be going to a blank until just as I was gonna call it a day I had a slight tap and a good pull resulted and I was in again , good old steak and mince again . It wasnt a particularly big fish but was welcome as it came over the rim , at only 1lb 14oz it was the smallest I had had on steak and mince .
I decided to put the rod back out while I packed my stuff away , everything was in the van and when I turned to get my rod the tip was banging like crazy , I lifted into a very heavy feeling fish that was thumping and actually made a couple of runs , everything went through my head small barbel or decent chub the last thing I expected after a decent fight was this 6lb 2oz bream !!!!
My next session is totally depressing and I will sum it up as quickly as possible , I arrived to find the gate shut a lovely new sign screwed to it saying " please close the gate as horses keep getting out " , now the field they are in actually belongs to the club and no one other than anglers are in theory allowed on . Oh well would see what happens , settled in a swim and due to the weather I decided to set the rod up and sit in the back of the van til I got an indication . Half hour in and chairman of club turns up and fills me in on the horse situation , they belong to gypsies , who it seems are doing this all over the area but claim the owner is in hospital and no where for the horses to go , the police dont wanna know . Anyway off he goes and closes the gate .4 hours later and no sign of a bite the bailiff turns up , now Lee is a great bloke but is very bloody minded and left the gate open after about 10 mins some dog walkers appeared from the opposite end of the field and allowed their dogs to bark at the horses causing them to run down to the gate end and despite there been cattle grid they managed to jump it and legged it down the lane . The bailiff buggered off and then things really went down hill when an old guy turned up asking if someone called Kevin was down there , I told him only me here and when he asked about the gate I repeated the above but left out the bit about Lee leaving the gate open . Off he disappeared in his car , some 20 mins later he was back but he just sat in the car suddenly someone came down the other side of the van and a young bloke walked to the back of the van where I was sat and just bluntly said " how much longer are you staying " my reply was about another 2 hours " well you better put your van outside the gate coz I'm locking it !!! " now I know not to tangle with gypsies but anyone who knows me I dont like taking shit either so I stood up and took a couple of steps towards him and told no he wasnt . To my surprise he backed off but that told me to tell anyone fishing down there that if the gate was left open and the horse got out again he would put 50 gypsy caravans on the field and no one would want to fish there . I took a couple more steps towards him and he got in the car and left . I gave them 10 minutes and went and check gate hadnt been locked and to my relief it wasnt . I got the rod back in a few minutes later had a couple of taps that lifted my spirits , the taps continued and I tried hitting a couple but failed to contact so decided to sit and wait , at this point a mate rang and while talking to him I saw a car drive up to the gate and stop for a few seconds then drive off , as it was getting dark I speculated to my mate that it might be the gyspies watching for me leaving and took the decision to leave . I felt cheated as I felt sure I could have avoided a blank .
My last session again didnt go as planned , I took the decision not to go back to the horse stretch for now and headed to the other stretch where I had been told the road works were done but on arriving they hadnt , also the other day ticket stretch that end was a no no as couldnt get to the track so reluctantly I headed to the gypsy stretch . All seemed ok as the gate was shut but not locked so gambled but in the interest of my sanity decided to fish the nearest swim to the gate , now this swim used to be one of my favourite ones and in the past has given me more chub including my 3 biggest and my pb than any other but over the last 2 winters the floods have changed the swim beyond recognition , the topography was totally different plus there was weed growing where before it was gravel meeting silt . I have also christened it the dead dog swim , I have got a picture of the reason but as I am a dog lover and know some would find it upsetting I have decided against using it .
The river was now at its proper level and very clear , so steak and mince was the starting bait .
3 hours and surprisingly no sign of life , I had spent the first half hour releading the swim as I have done in every swim since the bad floods and was happy with where my baits were.
I had some competition on the other bank but I didnt see him catch anything either .
. I took the decision to switch to maggots in the hope of something been out there . 2 hours and finally the tip goes bang bang and I gingerly played a small chub in to the net only a baby of 1lb 4oz but very welcome . I sent the feeder out again and while I was talking to Lee who had arrived just as I put the chub back I had a single bang on the tip again that didnt develop , Lee stayed for another 10 minutes before going down to check the bottom end of the fishery . I went to reel the rod in to check the bait and discovered the fish was one but must have just sat there , very soon a lovely looking roach of 1lb 2oz was in the net .
No further indications happened and on dark I took my leave . I have managed to speak to the bailiff at the other venue and he has confirmed the road works will be complete before my next session and so may go back there .
