Small Brook Fishing Pt.14 - Poachers and Potato Traps

I'm glad that working week is over, to be fair it started well as I was in the office Monday and I got to see other people other than ones own family. I had to attend as I needed to update a physical property, cannot do that working from home can I. A handful of fellow colleagues in too, some banter, good times again.

The work and meetings seemed to stack up after that however and it culminated in one of those job all us CAD engineers hate which I want bore you with the details but it's a ball ache. 

Luckily I'd manged to get the projector sound to work again and with YouTube fired up and Ibiza Sonica Radio providing the chill-out beats all was good in the world again.

The job was done and dusted and the working week concluded better than I thought. 

I'd not been out for a while with Sam and he'd be good with the home schooling (The Wife a Godsend) so a session was on the cards and he had the decision where we'd go, and to be fair I knew what his answer would be.

The 'brook, brook, BRook, BROOK"

Now with the 'bullhead swim' and subsequent stomping ground out of bounds due to me and the tangleator inadvertently treading on a fluff chucking fee payers toes we had to find some waters new.

Our local streams have offered some really decent fishing to be fair and it's always a surprise to find what ends of the line after the maggots have been given a seeing to. 

Minnows can be an issue but then out of the blue, those little plucks and tiny pulls of the tip all of a sudden can change dramatically and a proper decent bite can be forthcoming.

Ideally I'd use a float if the stream is clear but for this short session the rod of choice was the Derwant Valley 8ft Specialist Quiver. This pencil thin rod even with a relatively stiff 1oz carbon tip shows minnow bites quite clearly though.

A lockdown wellie walk with the Newey rabble came good you see and we'd stumbled upon a short section of stream , just off a public right of way and we really needed to fish it.

This short afternoon session was ideal to be fair as the local rivers are high at the minute and the Alne just down the road which would be my preference is dropping from being over its banks so probably not in ideal fettle.

It's not a millions mile away to be fair and from parking up it's a decent 10 minute walk to get there. Now with the water strong tea coloured fishing these diminutive water ways can be tough especially when the water still has some pace on it.

But to find places to fishing couldn't be simpler. You just look for any slack water, be it near or far bank. The winding nature of the stream can also offer wider bays where the water can often lose some of its pace, it's there you need to dangle the maggot.

After negotiating a 'huge stick forest' and an arse over t*t incident Sam settled in to the first swim. It was rather narrow here but we know from experience that is not an issue, in-fact some of our largest fish caught in these interesting waterways have been from swims you can jump across.

A rather simple set-up I've detailed before, but essentially a bead with a link ledger attached that can be fishing running or free-running as the diameter of the bead is an interference fit with the large grippa stop.

The hook is tied directly on the line and a small no 8 shot to nail the maggots to the bottom. As per the norm, the bites came quick but the small taps on the tip of t dictated the size of the quarry. 

Yeap these were minnow, after a couple dropped off, it was time to find another swim. Again after wading through the 'forest school but bigger' we found another fishable swim.

Another slack clearly visible away from the turbulence of the main river "there must be fish here Daddy".

Sam was right because after 5 minutes the motionless tip went in to meltdown and this wasn't a pull from a minnow this time, but a proper fish. And a proper fish it was a good 5 or 6 ounce roach succumbing to the maggots.

The problem was after Sam handed the fish after I did and returned it back to where it came from his little donnies remained cold in the rather bitterly cold day (1 degree) and he just wasn't enjoying it.

His gloves not helping either, so only one thing for it, time for the off. Still not a wasted effort and we will be back when the conditions are a little more favourable.