Sticking it

The withering heat of last week seems so distant now it’s hard to believe it happened, since then we’ve had lots of rain and even a couple of storms.  I had to drive to Norwich on Friday so it would have made sense to take the boat out while I was in Norfolk but the weather forecast threatened strong winds, enough to make boat fishing uncomfortable bordering on reckless.  But with all the rain I figured the river should be in decent nick which would mean another opportunity to wander along dropping a stick float in here and there.  Of the two options this would be by far the most sensible.

So on Friday morning the princess dropped me off in a lay by a couple of miles out of town, my plan was to walk the river and make my way back home.  The harvest is in and I walked across fields of stubble to reach the river but what I found was a little disappointing, I expected a bit more pace and maybe even a little colour.  Also the wind was as strong as the forecasters had promised which would make it tricky controlling light tackle in tight swims.  The morning was mostly cloudy with the sun peering through every now and again. 

This area is unfamiliar from a fishing point of view.  I’ve walked it many times and have chucked lures around once or twice though not for many years.  I leant on a tree, chucked a handful of maggots in then dropped my float in at my feet.  My rig is simple, a wire stemmed stick with four no.4 shot bunched together six inches from an 18 hook.  Set like this I can easily adjust the depth and fish even the shallowest swims.  On the first trot the float plopped under but I was so surprised I struck when the float had popped up again.  On the next trot I hooked something but it fell off before I could swing it in, at least there were fish about and feeding.  Eventually I managed to swing a couple of small Dace to hand but missed several bites, it seemed the fish here were small.  I stuck it out a while hoping for an elusive Gudgeon as it looked a swim that would give me a chance but no such luck.

I moved on, first wandering downstream for a way but with no fishable water I turned and retraced my steps back upstream towards home.  There were stretches that looked good and I even saw a few fish through the Polaroids, most looked like Dace but there were a few Chub present too.   Unfortunately due to the undergrowth I couldn’t get near enough to the river to fish it sensibly.  I could have dropped a float in but would have struggled to extract any fish I hooked.  So I kept walking, past long stretches where you could hardly tell there was a river there at all.  Eventually I found a clear pool with a bit of flow, some thoughtful person had even left some cut tree trunks which made a nice seat so I sat and made a brew while feeding the swim with a few maggots every now and then.

After drinking my tea I commenced fishing again and managed to catch a couple of small Dace.  I could occasionally see some slightly bigger fish moving and soon hooked a Chub that was a far better size than the bits I’d been catching.  I probably should have used the net but managed to swing it to hand, a nice fish that would have made a river Piker of my acquaintance sharpen his trebles.  Shortly after this I hooked another fish with a bit of spirit and as I brought it upstream I could see it was a nice Perch but just as I brought it close the hook pulled.  This disappointed me as I haven’t caught a Perch from this river yet this year, once they were plentiful.  I wonder if their decline is linked to the disappearing Gudgeon?  The hope of a Perch kept me in this swim longer than necessary but bites were slow and eventually I wandered off again.

There was a spot I really fancied, here two streams converge and a deep pool has been scoured out.  I hoped to wade into the stream to fish but when I reached it was deeper than I thought and I realised I couldn’t cover it properly.  This has happened every time I’ve wandered the river this summer.   I have a swim in mind and a plan of how I intend to fish it but it never works out.  I tried but the areas my float could travel through didn’t seem to hold any fish so I was back on the move again.  I thought my fishing would be over for the morning as I knew the stretches I was approaching looked uninspiring at best.

I came to a small weir which water tumbling steadily over it.  Above the weir was a sheet of duck weed which I passed before coming to a little run that had a decent flow, the current was carrying leaves downstream past a couple of patches of weed.  I almost kept walking but something made me stop and throw the float upstream, it travelled a few feet then buried and I found myself attached to a small Roach, my first of the day.  After that it was virtually a bite a chuck and I stayed here for almost an hour.  To begin with I caught fish by casting slightly upstream but after a while the sun lit up the swim and I noticed some moving at my feet so dropped the float here caught a few.  As time passed they moved to the downstream end of the swim and I had to let the float travel further and further.  Most of the fish I caught here were lovely river Roach up to 4ozs but there were a few Dace and the best of all needed the landing net.  It must have been around half a pound and I’m sure was biggest Dace I’ve caught since I was a teenager.

The bites slowed up and the wind was making a long trot difficult so I moved on again.  I did try a couple of other spots, including a sweeping bend which produced a huge Roach for a friend back in the eighties.  Once again access to the water was the biggest problem but were I could fish I didn’t get a bite.  It occurred to me I hadn’t seen a soul all morning but this changed when the path took me past a busy carp fishery.  By the time I was walking through the Town Park I was surrounded by hundreds of humans.  I noticed that young children and social distancing don’t go together.  Also people look at you funny when you’re wearing wellies and carrying a net, I could almost feel the suspicious eyes on me.  By the time I walked through my back door my legs were tired and my stomach was growling but it had been an enjoyable morning.