River condition - excellent
Following rain in recent days, the river had risen about 18 inches since I fished it two days ago. It was flowing quicker and also had some colour. I decided to fish the same peg 5 and the level now was perfect for this peg - the water was about 8 inches below the peg plateau. I had actually dropped my baiting needle on my previous visit and was hoping that it was still in the peg - hey presto, it was so that was a good start.
I immediately put out some loose feed and took my time setting everthing up. This would give any resident fish time to feed with confidence. Also, recent sessions had been very quiet until the last hour of daylight so didn’t think there was any need to rush.
Activity from the off
In stark contrast to the quiet starts of recent sessions, I was immediately getting good knocks on both rods. One was slightly downstream but out in/near the main flow and one was near the downstream bush. I decided to try sweetcorn for the first time on the Ure.
That’s a first
With the rod that was out in the main flow, I was just getting to grips with the right amount of lead. The flow was stronger so needed to experiment a bit. On the 3rd cast I got what I thought was a pluck on the bait but it could have been the lead resettling in the flow. After a few more minutes I reeled back in just in the case the bait had gone. To my surprise, my cube of meat had a definite bite out of it - must have been a Chub - just look how close it was to hooking itself: -
Exciting - but frustrating
I continued to get half-bites on both rods. I tried all of my baits just in case they would bite more positively on one particular bait. This made no difference - all baits, on both rods, kept getting bites that were not quite hittable. I was really enjoying it, I did not know which rod to concentrate on and felt on the verge of a good fish at any moment. I was pleased to be getting bites on sweetcorn and also on cheese paste mid-river, I had only fished it close to overhanging bushes before. There is no doubt that extra flow and colour turned on the fish - I just wish I could get my first fish.
Here goes
I decided to put a large cube of meat on both rods and just wait it out. Surely a positive bite would come eventually. At about 7:30, my rod bent over and I was into another fine Ure Barbel. This one fought really well in the stronger flow. I got it to the surface several times and each time off it went again. I was finally able to net this new personal best for the Ure at 10lb 11oz. My all time personal best is 11lb from the Swale - so close!
It felt great to get one in proper daylight and I was hopeful of more as the evening wore on. I baited up again and left the swim to recover for 20 minutes or so whilst I had some food/drink and recounted the battle and fish that had made this another memorable session.
The commotion caused by this fish clearly disturbed the swim. I struggled to get any more bites for a long time. As dusk approached I got a couple of half bites again but none of them delivered a fish.
Whilst packing up I heard a fish leap just downstream of me and out of view. A few minutes later a fish leapt in front of me. I think it was a Salmon and was probably the same fish.
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