Wet and cold
I decided to give the Cricket Field stretch a go. However, we have had lots of rain and it is much cooler today. The river was also running very low and slow. With that in mind, I had to try peg 14 as it’s usually a good bet. The weather forecast for the evening was a 20% chance of rain. I therefore decided to forego the brolly and rely on the waterproof pack-a-mac that I keep in my rucksack.
Trying the main flow
Considering the river was quite slow, I wondered if the fish (particularly Barbel) might prefer the main flow (slow though it was). I decided to try using a cage feeder and a groundbait mix made up of a sticky fishmeal and crushed hemp mixed with my usual cocktail of hemp, micro halibut pellets and micro luncheon meat cubes. I hoped to build up a bed of feed in the hope that the Barbel would move onto it as the light levels diminished. I would, of course, fish another rod near the downstream bush with a cube of lunchoen meat as that usually produces a fish.
Best laid plans
I was getting lots of tiny knocks on the cage feeder rod but nothing turned into a proper bite. I suspect it was lots of very small fish attacking the feed in the cage. On almost every cast I started to get these knocks within 10 seconds of it hitting the water.
As for the rod near the downstream bush - I got one or two very shy knocks but nothing I would call a bite. After one of these, I waited for a minute or so and then started to reel in. I felt a small amount of resistance and thought that maybe a little Chub had managed to take the meat. Shortly after, there was a sudden pull on the line and more resistance - guess what, another bloody Pike. This was a small one, perhaps a foot long. Eventually it let go and I reeled in a small Perch that was foul hooked. An hour or so later I was reeling in my meat when I felt a bang on the line. I felt resistance for a couple of seconds then it went slack. When I reeled in I had lost my hook - the line was cleanly cut around an inch or so from where the hook had been. I reckon this was another Pike that attacked the meat as I started to retrieve it.
The end result was that I didn’t catch anything. It could have been down to the earlier heavy rain - it can lower the temperature of the river and put the fish off. It could also have been down to the Pike - maybe there were a few around and it kept the Chub and Barbel away. I just hope that the rain injects a bit of depth, flow and colour into the river over the next few days - if so, I’ll be back to try again.
Epilogue
There were a couple of sharp showers and my waterproof worked a treat. I also took a few minutes to photograph some Himalayan Balsam that surrounded me. Whilst very attractive and very popular with the Bees that buzzed around me all evening, this is an invasive species and not good for our river banks. The problem is that it dies away completely in Winter and leaves the banks prone to more erosion than would be the case with endemic plants.
 |
 |
| Fishing Targets | Fishing Log |