The Tiny River Alne - Weeds and Weatherometers

With weeds as big as car roofs it's a shame the river Alne doesn't hold fish to similar statue. Well I say that, there is the elusive big trout that reside on this stretch keeps me coming back, and now there are some decent dace to be had, it will always remain on ones radar. 

These fat frustrating feral trout are the top predator here, well unless you discount the otter and cormorants, you see I got speaking to 'Lord of the Manor', well, ok, he might not be a lord but he owns a huge property that backs on to the river, and he said many moons ago it held some pike. They seem to be long gone now as I've fished this river plenty of times and yet to hook one, an he said they don't show up anymore. 

Now I've mentioned many a time I've lost two BIG trout on the lure over the years with the biggest I have managed to land around 2lb in weight. These bigger trout are twice that size I reckon so I will keep plugging away (excuse the pun) till I catch one.

I did think about putting out a small deadbait, but 'that's not cricket' I suppose, but maybe I need to change tactics to buck the trend. 

For this short lure session I headed down to the Alne to fish a bright lure that I was hoping would show up a bit better in the coloured water. There is a couple of foot of visibility with this head turning colour where a more natural colour doesn't stand out at all well. 

This is a slow sinking lure so the thought was to fish a little deeper than I usually do and hopefully try and locate where these bigger trout are laying up. When I've hooked and lost them they seem to come from the depths out of nowhere to show the other fish in the stretch who is the boss.

3 swims down without a follow or a take I did wonder what the heck was going on. Usually the smaller trout are up for a snatch and grab even though most of the time they abort right at the last second. But no, cast after cast, after cast the fish were just not playing ball. 

Even the weir banker swim didn't produce a bite so I was on last chance salon especially when there was heavy rain on the way. I retraced my steps and when further up the stretch to the deepest swim where eventually I had two hits on the lure that sadly didn't result in a fish.

The swim above this though is much narrower and cover in abundance and the first chuck of the lure a fish grabbed he lure before I could count to 4 seconds. I thought it was a trout but when it surfaced after making a mess of the swim it turned out to be a chub.

A welcome fish but not what I was after, however nothing wrong with a blank avoider and it was a welcome sight in the gloom. Then the rain started and got heavier and heavier and another half an hour biteless I decided enough was enough and vowed to come back in better conditions.