Fri evenings session saw me head for a stretch where I hoped I might be able to coax some fish into feeding on hemp and caster close in to the margin. On the way to the swim I stumbled across this Puffball in the middle of the field. At first I thought it was a football as I approached, until I got closer and realised what it was, strangely it now looked like something entirley different.
Life's Peachy !
The session was only short in the end and pretty uneventful with nothing in the first hour before sunset. Then the rain started and was soon hammering down. With no brolly, I just couldn't get into the fishing so packed up earlier than I'd planned to stay out.
Sunday turned out a bit better and arriving at about 6:30am, I had a little walk to get to my chosen swim. After the bait had been dropperd in I prepared the rig and waited to see if any fish would feed. It didn't take long as within ten minutes there was a thick shoal of Chub greedily burrowing into the gravel after the hemp and caster. Flashes of silvery flanks, some decent fish too, were clearly visible without the need for any polarised glasses. I had also baited another swim a couple of pegs downstream, so went to check if fish were present before making any casts.
This swim had fish feeding over a small patch of clear gravel the size of small round garden table just outside of a crease between the fast water in the calmer flow. I decided to head back to the first swim and start there however. The first cast was made with the feeder hitting the trailing branches of some overhanging trees, luckily I got away with it and the rig landed in the perfect spot. After a few tentative plucks however there was no pull round as I'd hoped. I recast but had the same results but after a while I could see the chub shoal were now a little further down stream.
I thought there might be Barbel down there in amongst them although I couldn't make any golden flanks out in the pack of Chub. I made a cast a rods length or so further down stream and within a minute I'd hooked a 2.5 lb chub. I followed up with this 3lber that ripped the rod almost out of the rest !
A tentative bite followed, the culprit a large Bream of maybe 6lb, I had it almost up to the net but found it really hard to move in the strong flow. The fish used its wide flank to broadside in the current so it was like trying to fight a canoe paddle working against you. The fish was nearly upstream enough for me position the net downstream of it, allowing it to sort of fall into the waiting net. Suddenly it flipped out and turned side on again into the current. The pressure pinged the hook free, the rig flying back into the hawthorn bush upstream (why are they always hawthorns !).
That was the last of the fish, I had a few more casts and tried a further few in the downstream swim, but had to leave shortly after when time ran out ending my morning session.
On the way back to the car I spotted a couple of Barbel holding station in a marginal swim about 2 feet deep. I reluctantly resisted the urge to set the rod back up as I was already a few 'last casts' over the time I'd promised to start heading home.
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