Back to the River

Before I start writing about fishing I would just like to say, “Thanks,” to those of you who encouraged me to continue and made suggestions on how to get over my current lean spell. One of the ideas was to have a change of venue, which I had been meaning to do, especially now that the river season is open again, so it was back to the river for me.

The river is only small and very overgrown with no real public access so I have fished in a spot by a road bridge with room to sit down and put my tackle together but this swim wasn’t producing much last year so I thought that I would go for a walk along the bank and see where else I could find. I have walked it before and know that it is covered with nettles and other tall plants so I took my shorts off and put on jeans, wellies and a long-sleeved top, not much fun on what was going to be the hottest day of the year so far but I wasn’t going to be long.

I climbed over the gate and made my way through the field on a shorter piece of grass until it got near the river then had to wade through the undergrowth. I could see that one or two people had been this way before me as some of the plants were bent but there was nothing like a path or even a trail. I picked up a fallen branch to help me beat back the tallest nettles and soon found myself on the bank. To say that there was a swim would be an exaggeration, rather a space where you could actually see the water with a screen of plants in front of you to keep you hidden. I stayed and watched for a while and could actually see fish rising which showed me that there were still some here! I then moved up the river and found a few more places where I could fish although all very shallow and with plenty of weed. Then I came to a swiftly flowing section where the reeds had grown across and the stream had narrowed and was flowing quickly. The water was clear and I could see fish of all sizes from minnow to a couple of pounds, I couldn’t wait to fish it although I knew it would be difficult.

A couple of days later on a grey day when the temperature had become more bearable I spent some time in my shed sorting out my tackle and setting up my rods, replacing the waggler float on my match rod and putting a plain ledger weight on my quiver tip rod, a quick trip into town for maggots and I was ready. I had cut down my tackle to the bare minimum, rods, landing neat and one tackle bag but when I picked it up I could hardly believe how heavy it was! Still, I could manage and it wasn’t far to walk once I had parked the car. They say that time spent on reconnaissance is never wasted and because I had been there before I was soon able to make my way to the nearest swim and start fishing. I had to put my rods together and get my bait out a little way from the stream where there was a flat patch and then creep through the jungle towards the water. I quickly found that this style of wild fishing needs a great deal of care with your rod as there are plenty of things to snare your hook but I gently lowered the line in and was fishing. I threw a handful of maggots in, and set the float to about eighteen inches as I could see the bottom in places and had to guide it between clumps of flowing weed. A couple of casts and I was in, a small dace was soon on the bank. This was followed by several more and I was having fun but wanted to explore the other swims, especially the one with the larger fish and so I moved upstream.

The next swim was just as difficult to fish but again I had some dace then it was off to see if the bigger fish were there. I crept towards the bank and looked down, the fish were in the same place as before and trying not to spook them I dropped the float in, once again being careful to avoid the weed banks. The current took the float rapidly downstream away from the fish and I tried again without any luck. I soon realised that this wasn’t any good and that I needed to use the ledger to keep the bait on the bottom near the fish so I swopped rods and soon had the bait in exactly the right spot. I then experienced one of the most frustrating half hours of fishing as I could see the maggots on the hook and the fish swimming right past them taking not the blindest bit of notice! I was soon running out of time and decided that I would have to have a think about how to catch these fish and I just had time to go to the spot near the bridge on my way back to the car and give it a try. Again, this place was more overgrown than I had seen it before but I got my match rod out and after a few casts was into a very small dace proving that there were fish here as well! I noticed that the river was higher than in previous years, which was a good thing as it has been too shallow to fish in the past but couldn’t really work out why as we haven’t really had that much rain after quite a dry spell.

After that one dace it was time to go. I had had a successful morning catching wild fish in overgrown places and to my surprise although I had got snagged several times I was able to free my gear and didn’t lose anything. So, I had failed with the larger fish but the important thing is that I got my mojo back and went home happy! There is aways another day!