The time had come for me to try my whip out on the river, it was slightly overcast which would help as the fish wouldn’t sense my shadow and I was togged up in waterproof gear as I knew that I was going to have to do some crawling around. When I arrived I walked the stream looking for fish, the water level was still shallow and although I could see some fish there were nowhere near as many as on my last visit. I decided to fish in between the trees as there was a decent shoal of fish holed up there.
Not exactly an easy fishing spot!
I assembled my whip and crawling between the trunks of the trees I fed the stream with a handful of maggots then lowered my whip into the river. It was still not easy and I hadn’t put the float into the right place so I tried again and this time I hooked the rig into the overhanging tree opposite. I tried everything I knew to retrieve it until in the end the elastic snapped and I lost my only pole float and most of the elastic. That was a great start, tangled before I had even made a decent cast! Fortunately, the whip had come with two tips, one without elastic, and I was able to fashion a new rig, this time using just a hook and swan shot to keep it in place under the water. Being even more careful I lowered the hook onto the river and could see the fish coming up to the bait and one quickly took it. I brought the whip in and had my first fish on the whip from the river a small chub. I soon had the bait back in the water although the fish were a bit more cautious now and it took a few minutes before I got another bite.
After a while I looked for somewhere a bit easier to fish and managed to land another couple but I was getting fed up with crawling on my belly, I am not as young as I used to be, and decided to go to a spot by the bridge which used to be my “go to” place on the river. It used to be hidden amongst trees but like the rest of the area it has been cleared and so is much easier to fish. It is slightly deeper and so you can’t see the fish so you can sit down and be a bit more comfortable. Once again, I trickled some maggots in and lowered the hook into the water. In no time the rod end was twitching and I was into another fish, a chub. I carried on fishing like this for a while catching almost at every cast and apart from minnows all the fish were chub.
It was getting near lunch time and time to go and it had begun to rain lightly which was not in the forecast! I packed up my gear and walked back to the car feeling pleased with myself. I had made a plan to catch the very shy fish in the river and although I had lost my float rig and I had to use a swan shot, it had worked! I am not exactly hooked on the whip (see what I did there?) and still prefer trotting down the river using a rod and reel, but in some situations it is better. Maybe I will use it more in the future, only time will tell.
I said that it was a shallow river!
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