10.5M and falling
The river flooded Friday night and most of Saturday. I wasn’t feeling well on Friday so wasn’t too disappointed to see the river rising. So I decided to have Friday and Saturday to stay home, look after myself and get a few jobs done in the hope that I was up to an outing on Sunday. Luckily the level had continued to drop so off I set at around 7:30am.
Plan of attack
I had intended to fish peg 14 as it is well above the normal water level and much easier to access, especially after a flood. I would then move onto peg 6 of nothing showed in peg 14 and then peg 5 (for some Perch) is nothing showed in peg 6.
Peg 14
The fishing plateau in peg 14 is usually a few feet above the water level necessitating a long landing net handle. When I arrived the plateau was only just above the water. Interestingly the water visibility was quite good which is surprising considering it had been up two days earlier. Thankfully I got down to the peg without having to dig in steps. I was fishing by 8am using cheesepaste near the downstream bush and a lobworm out to the crease just before the white water.
Despite alternating between cheesepaste, bread and lobworm on both rods, I hadn’t got a bit by 10am so decided on a move.
Peg 6
Before going down to peg 6, I took a look at peg 5. The river was still above the main fishing plateau of peg 5. It was still fishable but might prove tricky getting bigger fish through submerged vegetation.
So, back to peg 6. There were already several steps leading down the steep bank to the peg. However, they now had a layer of soft mud on them so would need re-digging. I carefully made my way down, digging as I went and cleared out a makeshift plateau to fish from.
Just above me (to my left), a fallen tree had become trapped against the tree to the side of the peg. It was rather precarious and I wonder if strong winds or another flood might break the healthy tree that is supporting the fallen one. Here is how it looked: –
I fished one rod to my downstream bush with cheesepaste on a small bomb. The other rod, also on cheesepaste with an open end feeder with liquidised bread, hemp and chopped worm was fished out into the river as there is quite a large slack area before the crease near the main flow.
Near misses
It wasn’t long before I got some interest on the rod out near the crease. The bite did not develop but was a definite twitch. After about 40 min I got a big pull round on the rod near the bush. Unfortunately the fish snagged me up instantly.
I tackled up that rod again and cast back in. After an hour or so it shot round again. This time I made some progress and though that I had got it clear of the bush but, yet again it snagged me up and I lost it.
I then decided to swap the rods around because the one that I was using near the bush was a softer rod and tip combination and I hoped to do better with a stronger rod.
Small Chub
Within minutes of me casting the lighter rod out to the crease, I got a bit and landed a Chub of about 2.5lb.
I continued to get interest, taps and twitches out near the crease. There were definitely fish around. I also tried lobworm to see if the bites would be more positive but I failed to get any bites on worm. A little later I got a good bite on the light crease rod but the hooklink snapped as I hit into the fish. Considering the water near the crease seems free of snags, I decided to fish the main line of 6lb straight through.
Another 2 misses
I twice more hit into fish near the bush but they dart into cover straight away leaving little chance of getting them out. I think that, next time, I will fish a little farther out from the bush and try to temp them out.
Late arrival
With about 20 minutes of light left (around 5:45), I hit into a fish on my softer rod near the crease. It gave a great fight and ended up weighing 4lb 5oz
Summary
I really enjoyed today despite catching only 2 fish. I was getting bites consistently and I really like getting bites in the open river. I have decided that I can fish until 6:15 so am hoping to get two short evening sessions in this week by starting work early and finishing at 3pm. I would love to catch a large Chub and I know there are some to be had.
