River looking good
I was not expecting to go fishing tonight but saw that the river came up last night and was still slightly up but falling. That would mean more flow and colour and hopefully encourage the fish to feed. So, I changed my plans around and headed off.
My river setup
The Cricket Field stretch is a bit of a walk from the car and then there can be a good walk along the river bank, depending on which peg you choose. I have spent the last few weeks honing down my kit so that I can walk with ease. This was difficult at first because I did not know the river so tended to take everything - just in case. Once I started catching and understanding the river I was able to focus and reduce my baggage. Here is what currently take to the Cricket Field stretch: -
Things to note: -
- No rod bag, I carry 2 rods that are ready made up except for terminal tackle. If heavy rain is expected then I take my rod bag and brolley but this adds a lot of weight. For light rain I have a cagoule in my rucksack and a brimmed waxed hat.
- Banksticks & landing net pole slot into the top of my rucksack
- My chair is folder up and holds my net bag and trench spade. The chair is attached to the rucksack
- I have a zip up bait bucket that contains bait, rod rest heads, ready made hooklengths (around foam winders) and weigh scales
- I also have a hunting style jacket with lots of pockets. This holds my scissors, disgorgers, forceps, weights, hook wallet etc.
You may wonder how I get my selfies with the fish. That is achieved with a camera that attaches to a bank stick and has a remote shutter release on a long lead: -
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In the camera photo you can see the adapter that fits a bank stick and you can also see the wire for the remote shutter release sticking out of the side of the camera. As for the remote shutter release, this is just a single button. If you look closely at my selfies, you will see the wire and remote in my hand that is usually at the back end of the fish.
On to the fishing
Following my thoughts from my previous (quiet) session, I decided to go a little farther down the river bank. As the level was slighty up I fancied another go at peg 14. This can be awkward when the level is low as the peg is a long way above the water line. Hopefully it would be more comfortable today. I got to peg 14 and it looked much better. The level was up so that the peg was only about 2 feet above the water line. The flow seemed quite strong so I would probably fish one rod to the downstream bush and one just this side of the main flow.
I baited up with my bait dropper before setting anything else up. This would give the fish time to get confident before I casted anything to them.
I decided to start off with the lighter Chub rod near the downstream bush and intended to swap rods around as it got later. Hopefully I would get Chub first and Barbel later - you can but hope!
Quick bite
Once I got fishing, I flicked a piece of meat on a 3 swan shot link out to the downstream bush. It had been in about 10 minutes when I got a really good strong bite. I have no idea how but I missed it. That gave me confidence that fish were feeding. I tried meat again and kept throwing balls of cheese paste and small cubes of meat in the vicinity of the bush (actually just upstream of the bush in the hope they came to rest near the bush). After 30 minutes I had no further bites so decided to try a lump of cheese paste. This was in about 10 minutes when I got a slow pull around on the tip. I struck into this lovely Chub of 4lb: -
Out went the keepnet so as not to spook other fish by releasing the Chub. I alternated between cheese paste and luncheon meat on the Chub rod but got no further bites.
Time to swap
I decided to swap rods and fish with luncheon meat near the bush with my Barbel rod. It had been about 45 minutes since the Chub and I hoped that it was approaching Barbel time. I tried lobworm on my Chub rod and fished it just this side of the main flow. When I retrieved the lobworm, half of it was gone. I suspect that was a Chub but I didn’t see any indication on the tip.
My Barbel rod started to twitch. I thought it was another Chub pecking at the meat but after a while it pulled around very gently and I struck into a Barbel that went straight into mid river. This was good because it would not spook other fish near the bush. The Barbel fought really well in the main flow and it took me a while before I was able to net this 7lb 14oz beauty: -
Once I had let the fish recover and got my photograph I continued to fish meat near the bush. I got another bite almost immediately but missed it - arghh! However this built up my confidence, there were definitely more feeding fish around.
One more experiment
I usually pack up once there is no more natural light. At the moment this is around 9:30 depending on the cloudiness of the sky. Tonight I decided to fish on for 45 minutes into darkness just to see if the Chub and Barbel would get their heads down in darkness. I did get one or two knocks but, to be honest, it wasn’t worth the hassle of packing up in darkness. Some rivers come alive at night, particularly for Barbel but that was not my experience on the Ure. Ah well, now I know and won’t bother trying again. Perhaps the fish feed at night when there are anglers throwing in bait at night. Who knows!
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