I’ve been wanting to get back onto the river for ages, and finally I thought the level was ok to give it a go. I fancied a go for some chub which I hoped would be hungry after all the floods. I didn’t need to any preparation other than to pick up some maggots on Friday. Saturday I was busy watching Rovers, got to see a decent game and good result.
A leisurely start Sunday, and I parked up at 10:30. Carting my gear through the kissing gate I was then loading the trolley and realised I’d left my bag with reels and feeders in the shed (hope this doesn’t become a habit again 🙈😂). I really didn’t want to carry everything back to the van and drive home, so I rang Wendy and told her my predicament. She very kindly said she would drop the bag down to me and said I should double check if I’d forgotten anything else, I hadn’t. Ten to fifteen minutes later Wendy arrived and I could finally get going. The walk along the footpath was nice and easy, and I didn’t have to worry about the next kissing gate as there’s no fence on one side of it.
I stopped at peg 15 which is a peg I’ve always caught chub from. However, it’s got some overgrown willows that reduce your options. I had thought about fishing a big stick float or bolo, but decided the river was too fast. Instead I set up a maggot feeder to underarm cast out about a third of the way across. I needed 40g to hold here and a decent bow. A 16 XSH to 0.17 powerline was tied up for the hook length.
I was fishing by 11:30, and just before midday I had a bite but didn’t feel a fish, but the hook bait was gone. It took me until 12:50 to get another bite, no chub but a small roach that saved the blank. Not long after this Mark Jefferies came along walking his dog and in the next 40 mins I had two more bites but the bait was never touched hmmm. Just as Mark came past again and we were chatting, he told me I had a bite and I turned around and lifted the rod. Again it was a roach but probably 6oz. Mark went on his way and I had another big drop back bite and no fish and bait untouched again.
Nothing more happened, so I decided to move down to peg 17. Awkward to cast in because of more willow branches, but casting like a noddy allowed me to get 3/4 over, needed 60g and a very big bow to hold bottom. Well the move was not to prove successful as I never had a single bite. A couple of anglers came along and I told them that I had struggled. They were roving anglers and said the last 2 hours before sunset is when they fish for chub. They headed off further downstream and I wished them luck. I was feeling a bit cold and decided I was not going to stay any longer, probably leaving a chub behind then.
Well that’s a shocker, and just goes to prove there’s no such thing as a banker peg. Got to try again!
In other news Derek Coles had a bumper day up at Newbridge with 24 bream, the biggest estimated at 11lb as it bottomed the scales out that someone had. Wow.
No comments:
Post a Comment