Level 10.8m
Temperature Rising
The temperature has been rising over the past week. It was below zero all day when I fished one week ago but has been into double figures this week. Unfortunately there has been more rain so I have been watching the river level prediction like a hawk. At one point it looked like the level would be too high for today but it went down again and was just over a metre up from its normal level. I therefore decided to try Ings Lane Bottom again to see if the Chub were more active today. The forecast was for rain and gusty winds so had to take my brolly and probably have to stay in one peg – no roaming.
Best Made Plans!
I got a suprise as I arrived at the lane that goes to the river – it was closed! At this point I might have decided on the Corn Dryers but the strong winds would have been right in my face and not pleasant considering the expected rain. So I decided to go the the Cricket Field stretch.
I walked down to the river and was surprised by how much the bank had changed. There were lots of up-ended treed and bushes around the waterline. It also looked very different from my previous visit due to the fact that all of the Himalayan Balsam was gone leaving large clear areas of mud. Peg 5 looked fishable and had been good for me in the summer. I decided to also have a look further along but then noticed an earth-mover on its way to repair the banks. I decided to wait until it stopped to see where it would be working. They produce a fair amount of vibration so would not want to fish too near them. It stopped around peg 12/13 so looked like peg 5 was the place to be.
Early Indications
I fished toward the downstream bush. I had one rod close in with a size 16 hook and a couple of Dendra tips. The other rod was a bit further out and just on the inside of the crease with a size 6 and bread flake. It wasn’t long before I got light twitches on the bread flake. There was nothing hittable but showed there was something in the swim. Could be shy Chub or more likely Roach nipping at the bread. After a few more twitches I decided to try some cheese paste. Yet again, quick taps but no real bites. After a while things settled down and there we no more twitches.
Lunchtime Lobbies
I had been throwing in small balls (smaller than a golf ball) of chopped worm mixed in with soil and liquidised bread. So, around 12:30 I started to use lobworm on the close in rod. I quickly saw very subtle taps on the tip eventually hitting into a nice sized Perch. The shy Perch bites continued throughout most of the afternoon resulting in this nice net of winter fish – the biggest was close to 2lb.
I decided to alternate between bread flake and luncheon meat on the further out rod. This was in the hope of a Chub turning up. I did get a few taps on meat but nothing I could strike at.
