Small Brook Fishing Pt.25 - Milk Bottle Tops and Microminiaturization

Its been a while since I've visited the little stream to do some fishing but with the local rivers banging through again I was hoping there would be some rebite here. I've caught all manner of fish from this diminutive waterway and it was the dace in particular that really surprised me because there are some really nice chunky ones to be had.

Tis the season to be jolly mind you and like the dace from this dirty stream there is also no hiding from my winter belly, lots of socialising of late and plenty still to come . To be honest it's the same as this year on year where the 1st of January brings abstinence and clean living to one's life order, where the willpower is certainly tested. 

.....Mussssssssssttttttttttttttttt Resist !!!!

Anyway a bizarre dream the other day post some lovely French Bleu d'Auvergne, a very lucid one this.... anyway an enterprising tackle dealer with a shop near the local lunatic asylum chatted up the psychiatrist in charge one day. 

'Look,' he said. 'Why don't you encourage your patients to take up fishing? It's very soothing, very therapeutic. Make the world of difference to their well being. You've got a big lake in the grounds, anyway, and I'll be happy to sell them all the tackle they want."

'Good idea,' said the psychiatrist. 'Just one thing, though. We can't trust the poor lads with money. They don't know the value of it. So if they offer to pay in milk tops, just accept them and I'll settle up with you at the end of the month.'

'You're on,' said the tackle dealer.

Every weekday for a month the shop was packed with patients from the asylum. They bought so much tackle and bait that the dealer was constantly phoning the wholesalers to order fresh supplies.

At the end of the month, in came the psychiatrist. 'How did you get on with my lads?' he asked.

'Marvellous,' said the dealer. 'No trouble at all. They bought no end of stuff and paid for it all, just as you said, in milk bottle tops.'

'Great,' said the psychiatrist. 'Well, I'd better settle up with you now. What's the damage?'

'Five thousand seven hundred and forty three pounds 11ap, including VAT,' said the dealer.

'Seems reasonable to me,' said the psychiatrist. "Can you give me change for this manhole cover?'

Anyway to the fishing, well I had a pint of maggots and a float rod and that was it. The stream was well up however despite that, there are small areas of the stream that I could fish. From small slacks to back eddies. It didn't take long to catch the first fish either, literally the first chuck of the float it shot straight under a fish was on.

The first fish was a brook brownie and a rather skinny looking fish and a fish that looked a bit sorry for itself. The next fish, well that turned out to be a decent roach, however stupidly and very cavalier of me I decided to swing it in because I hadn't extended the landing net handle. 

Well you can guess what happened, yeap it and the hook parted and gave me the two fins as it dropped back into the drink. 

....Oh FFS !!!

Lesson learnt and all that I got about fishing again...

Plenty of bites from roach, dace and also a hybrid ? but once the bites dried up and a I tried another couple of swims, I decided to knock it on the head when the rain started in anger.

So around an hour and a bits fishing, was actually pretty prolific really considering the colour of the water. Nothing big mind you apart from that roach that dropped off but all in all I satisfying box ticking exercise where I needed to get out drowning maggots because this seasonal affective disorder has kicked in bit time and I need to seize every opportunity I can.

I will hopefully get out the weekend though and next week it's Xmas but I will be working till the death sadly because I've burned up all my holidays up this year. I'm just hoping the river will be in better fettle than they have been recently. 

The River Arrow - Martians and Margaritomancy

The Martian reported back to his leader after a fact- finding mission on Earth.

"The Earthlings have a very strange custom, O Six- Headed One,' he said. "They call it fishing.

'Lots of them work very hard so that they can buy strange wands and sharp hooks. They also buy great quantities of the foods they call bread, cheese, sausages, and also the larvae of a blue flying insect.

"Then they go down to the waterside and, in a mass ritual, throw much of this food upon the water. Some of it, also, they stick on the sharp hooks which are attached by lines to the wands.

'In this manner they capture quantities of water-dwelling creatures called fish, which according to my information are nourishing as food."

'Interesting,' said the leader. 'And what do they do with these fish creatures?'

'When the ceremony is over,' said the Martian, 'they throw them all alive back into the water again." The 18 eyes in the Leader's six heads narrowed to slits and he quivered with rage.

'They told me!' he screamed. 'They told me before you set off for Earth and I should have listened. 

Next time I'll send somebody sober!'

Anyway to the fishing a short trip to the convenient Arrow to try and winkle out a chub went to plan for once. You see after being biteless in the weir I moved up to the next swim where the recent storm was showing its power. That didn't deter the chub though because...

...the bread had only been out for 5 minutes or so when after a couple of tentative pulls on the 1oz tip the rod went into meltdown an a hard fighting chub was on and it taking me all round the swim with me playing it on the drag.

A lovely fish indeed though, short and fat and went 4lb and 6 ounces on the scales. A good start indeed but as the session went on those bites dried up however I did manage another couple of chub and also lost a decent one and also missed a couple of unmissable bites. 

I seem to be getting the odd hook pull of late which rarely happened until recently which has got me questioning my set-up.

 It was mild at around 9 degrees and rather nice when the sun came out but the sun sadly put a kibosh on proceedings. The chub just didn't seem to be interested, even the small fish for that matter because even those didn't seem to be up for nibbling at the bread either, well apart from the odd swim.

Bread the king again though and big pieces too, it does seem to be my default chub bait these days and despite having cheesepaste with me, it was bread that did the business once again. 

Again the banks to myself again, where the heck are the other anglers ? 

Warwickshire Avon - Nickers and Nigroglobulate

The run-up to Christmas is a good time for free additives to the groundbait. All the stuff left over from office parties and works Outings. Sausages on sticks, vol-au-vents, crackers, cheese and what have you. No shame in sticking it in a doggy bag and taking it home.

I've even tried in pubs, at the end of a lunchtime session, asking if I could relieve them of the curling butties in the glass case. No luck there, though. The usual reply from a publican advertising fresh-cut sandwiches is: 'Get lost. Them's for tonight.'

At any function it's always best to make sure stuff is left over before you appropriate it. 

Many an angler's wedding has been ruined because his mates were discovered nicking great chunks of cake at the reception. (Currants, raisins, spices, marzipan and icing-sugar, apart from anything else. What fish could resist that lot?)

Opposition to the purloining seems to come mainly from the bride's mother. The bride's father is either very understanding, especially if he's an angler himself, or too far gone to care.

Whichever way you look at it, though, nicking wedding- cake is highly reprehensible and unworthy of the angling fraternity. It's usually the first-timers who are caught, because they sit there wrapping it in paper napkins and shoving it into their pockets. The more experienced nickers stick it swiftly behind a curtain and collect it later. So I'm told.

Maddocks and Baker recommend Paxo stuffings among the list of savoury additives for carp groundbait. That's OK, but as Christmas draws nearer it's best to check with the wife first. If she's hunting frantically around on Christmas morning, with the bread rubbed and the onions boiled, and not a packet of Paxo in sight, you may not be the most popular man in the world.

Glad I mentioned the bread. A couple of Christmases ago, I found two loaves going stale on top of the bread bin. Magic. Big bucket of groundbait in no time. But my reception when I got home that night was a bit on the frosty side. The loaves had been left to go stale to make the stuffing.

Best to check anyway before you use anything from the kitchen. I did a roundup of the goodies once. Sweetcorn, bread, sausages, tin of luncheon meat, couple of black puddings and some other odds and ends.

When I got home I gave the traditional greeting: 'Where's me tea?'

'I wouldn't swear to it,' said the Wife. 'But I think you've spent all day chucking it in the canal.'

Ho ho. Very droll...

Anyway with the Avon dropping nicely and the colour more suited to fishing I thought I'd go and have a dabble on one of my favorite stretches to try and winkle out a chub or two.

The fish had other ideas though because disappointedly only one swim produced any bites and sadly the biggest of the chub from that swim the hooked pulled when I had to bully the fish close in. It wasn't the traditional chub hideout either because it was boiling and swirling, still I managed a few smaller fish so I went away happy.

Another few days it will be cock on I reckon where hopefully next weekend I'll give some trotting ago on the syndicate stretch, something I've been meaning to do for a while. Oh and some pike  / zander fishing hopefully.

Talking of pike fishing, I'm sure Buffalo Si with catch a pike on his Buffalo Fly 😁, if you've not subscribed to his River Masters channel, make sure you do, it's a cracker !! A nice change from the usual fishing videos with his own unique style.

Btw, Si, don't forget I've still got your cap in the back of my car !!

The Tiny River Alne - Solitude and Solemnsides

The angler was fishing a lake deep in the heart of a safari park when a hippo emerged from the water, smashed his rods and trampled all over his gear.

The angler left his tackle and staggered back to his car, to find a troop of monkeys pulling off his windscreen wipers. 

He chased them away, got in the car, and had just moved off when a kangaroo leapt out of the undergrowth and crashed into the aerial, bending it very badly. 

By this time he was in a foul temper, so when elephant crossed the track in front of him, he screeched up to it, slammed on his brakes and hooted loudly. The elephant looked around calmly, kicked in the rear wing, then sat on the bonnet and caved it in.

The angler roared off to the park warden's hut and hammered on the door.

'Look at the mess your animals have made of my car!' he yelled when the warden answered the door. 'I demand compensation!'

'Oh, my dear sir,' said the warden. 'Do come in. How can I apologise? Here, drink this scotch for your nerves.' Down went the scotch in one and the warden poured out another tumblerful.

The angler was calming down by now, and he and the warden had quite a long chat about the hazards of the park. Every five minutes the warden filled up the tumbler, and before long the whole bottle of whisky had disappeared.

The angler was halfway home, his car weaving all over the road, when he was pulled up by a police patrol car. 'Been in the wars by the looks of things, sir,' said the officer. 'Like to tell me how it happened?'

"Yish,' said the angler. 'Windscreen wipers... bunch of monkeys pinched 'em. Aerial... flaming kangaroo bent it. Damn great elephrump kicked the side in then sat on the bonnet...' 

'Of course, sir,' said the officer. 'And do you mind telling me where you've been?'

'Fishing, of course,' said the angler. 'What does it look

like?'

'Where is your tackle, sir?"

'Smashed to smithereens. A bloody great huppo.. hitto... hittotopamus jumped all over it.'

'Silly me,' said the officer. 'I should have realised. Could you do just one more small thing for me, sir?' 'Shertainly,' said the angler. 'What is it?"

'Just blow into this little bag..."

Anyway to the fishing, with the works Xmas do last night I was slightly hung over I must admit so I didn't fancy a long drive so the Alne it was. I've said before the Alne is often boom or bust but those sessions when the fish are up for feeding it's a lovely little river to catch some fish, especially when out of the blue you can have a surprise or two. So liquidised bread in the feeder and a small thumbnail piece of bread flake on the hook.  

It was eerily quiet with no wind whatsoever and considering I was partying in to the early hours of the morning the situation I was in couldn't have been more different. 

Anyway to cut a long story short it wasn't a particularly productive session and the majority of the swims I fished didn't even produce any bites. I caught 2 chub with the best shown above and I also managed to lose one that tried to get under my feet and got caught up in some thick grass, where sadly the small hook pulled.

The water was a light olive colour which I was surprised it because the Alne is rarely this shade of green. It was clearing too with at least a foot of visibility so unsurprisingly the chub were in the deeper swims.  All in all a nice head clearing session and the solitude this little river can bring, is most welcoming I must admit. 

Transient Towpath Trudging - Pt.119 (Canal Zander)

A busy week this week 😠, I was in MIRA twice to sort out a squeak and rattle issue on one the prototypes being used for a management ride and drive event(s) and I've seemingly been here there and everywhere with family stuff too, fishing just ain't going to happen. On a positive note however I'd been out in the Polestar 5 on the track on all manner of road surfaces and the 'containment fix' seemed to do the job which got those finger pointers off our backs. 

Pheeewww and then a chance conversation around the coffee machine with good friends Cathy and Beth at work, they asked me if I wanted to join them on a lecture, so straight after work we are all off to 'The science of Magic Mushrooms' with Dr David Luke in Oxford. 🍄

All very interesting too and if you have been a reader of my blog over the years you will know my 'interest' in psychedelics but Dr David Luke is on another level. A associate professor of psychology at the University of Greenwich, London, UK, where he has been teaching an undergraduate course on the Psychology of Exceptional Human Experience since 2009. 

His research focuses on transpersonal experiences, anomalous phenomena and altered states of consciousness, especially via psychedelics, having published more than 100 academic papers in this area, including thirteen books, including Otherworlds: Psychedelics and Exceptional Human Experience. 

I'm certainly not academic in any way ☺ but such an engaging presentation and obviously a huge passion of his and plenty of humour during the talk, I'm glad they asked me to tag along. 

Now he has given over 500 invited public lectures and conference presentations, won teaching, research and writing awards, organised numerous festivals, conferences, seminars, retreats, expeditions and pilgrimages, and has studied techniques of consciousness alteration from South America to India, from the perspective of scientists, shamans and shaivites.

 

Some of his research and others show that psychedelics such as LSD and psilocybin can certainly can help with those with chronic depression and anxiety amongst others. 

Where often a single treatment of synthetic psilocybin, the mind-altering ingredient in magic mushrooms, improved mood in people with treatment-resistant depression within three weeks.

Not only that but one of the lasting changes of post treatment was to seek more of the outdoors because of its well-being improvements that us as anglers know all about. We don't know how lucky we are really with our pastime, but it's no secret I suppose, it never has been. There is a reason why we brave the elements isn't there, the pursuit of the angle is mind altering in a good way. 

Now the topic on LSD and brain activity was particularly interesting especially when its low toxicity means that there is no one better to get involved in the testing than Dr David himself. Designing parts for cars or psychedelic research, hmmmm shame my IQ isn't up there with the Doctor, maybe I'd be up for some work experience on a weekend, free of change of course. 

The beginnings of Storm Darragh had already brought some heavy rain and windy conditions and the wind and rain were going to amplify as the weekend went by. The local rivers were unfishable yet again so for this session I thought about trying for some canal Zander before having to batten down the hatches. 

So a roving session this to try and find those Zander which can be tricky as they tend to go in to a slumber when the temperature drop. You need to drop the bait on a Zanders head basically so leapfrogging sections of cover if often the best way to try and find them.

To cut a long story short nothing was doing whatsoever. I covered lots of different areas too that usually throw up a Zander but they were not interested whatsoever. No fish topping and the canal was much clearer than it usually is and that could be why the only splashes I saw were kingfishers on the hunt.

It's usually a nice brown colour which suits the Zander but it was an olive green with a foot of visibility. Oh well, plenty of steps covered and some much needed fresh air which was nice.  

Barbara the Barbel Update - Pt6

Sadly remaining as elusive as ever !! Conditions were perfect too 😬. So little action I’d forgotten to blog about it till now !! 3 swims fished as well, not even a chub pull 🤔

Warwickshire Stour - Redfins and Representationalisms

With the Avon still banging through I fancied a small river fix to hopefully catch a decent roach that the Leam holds or a few chub would do to be honest. The Stour had been over its banks recently like the other local river however I really was surprised of the colour of it when I got bankside for this short morning session.

It was that lovely green colour that the Stour is renowned for so the roach might not be up for a feed but the chub certainly would be.

I've found the bigger roach seem to only show when the river is strong tea coloured and also when the river is carrying lots of water like it was today. Still plenty of swims to go at to try and winkle out a fish or two.

The first swim I fished I caught 3 chub on the last trip so I had high hopes for a bite which came around 5 minutes of the thumbnail piece of bread being out. A rattly bite rather than a chub pull round and sure enough the culprit was a roach I thought it could be.

A minter too but I've caught them to well over 3 times the size of this previously but who doesn't like to catch roach like this ? I thought I was on for a few more bites but sadly no more bites in that swim so I went on the rove.

I'm an inpatient angler and certainly small rivers like this you need to try and find the fish rather than them try and find you.

As I made my way down the stretch the signs of the recent high water was all there to see. In the 3rd field the whole electric fence had been wiped out giving the farmer I right old headache I'd imagine because it was in the hundreds of yards rather than a small section of it.

Anyway the banker swim didn't produce apart from the odd tippy tappy bites which presumably were small fish nibbling at the bread. I swapped to worm from time to time throughout the session but not one bite, bread seemed to get the most interest.

Anyway the morning was ticking by fast and I was wondering where the chub were. I need not worry though because the swim I caught my biggest river roach from produced a tell-tale chub bite, and I struck in to a solid lump.

A dirty fighter too and at one point I thought I was going to lose it as is was trying to get right under my feet. A stroke of luck I managed to get it in to the landing net at full reach because it's quite an elevated swim this.

Only a 2lber but a welcome sight because if I'm honest it wasn't fishing well at all. A small dace got in on the act in the next swim but that was that. Three fish and that was it, and that was after a few hours and probably 6 or 7 swims.

Some of the swims were just not fishable because the river was still banging through and boiling so I was limited to the ones that were. So not that productive but I wasn't complaining, a nice bit of winter sun and roving this cracking little river. 

The Tiny River Alne - Dace & Discharges

8 minutes and 3.7 miles I can be bankside by the tiny river Alne which for someone who is struggling to get bankside of late, and needs to make use of those tiny windows of opportunity, it really is a perfect little piece of piscatorial plesentary especially when almost without question I've got the river to myself. 

The recent storms of late have boosted the local rivers beyond their banks and they haven't been fishable all this week and not even I fancy trudging the towpaths when the mercury has barely registered on the scale. 

Luckily the Alne goes up and down far faster than any of them so it was as a nice level to try and catch a fish in a couple of hours before I had to be back for the diary makers. I only had one swim in mind and that was the 2nd deepest on this stretch I fish and I fancied trying to catch a dace that seem to migrate here when the levels are up. 

It's a fish holding area and I've caught some of the biggest fish from the Alne from this usually productive swim. Chub to 4lb, dace to 12 ounces, trout to over 2lb and some decent sized gonks too. 

Now when it starts to get really cold dace often leave the currents entirely and move into slack, or very nearly slack water. Here is is generally best to fish a stationary bait and use laying-on or light ledger tactics.

 I've found the usual baits may bring results but at this time there is much to commend small pieces of bread or crust fished just an inch or so below the anchoring shot. 

This bait being buoyant, will rise clear of the bed and it seems that this fact is responsible for its success when the fish are somewhat eager to feed.  

Now at times of high water as I said expect the dace to have moved away from the main press of water. This move perhaps of no more than a few feet, will generally bring the dace bankwards so that they lie on the edge of the current, but where, as on a band, the main flow sweeps along the bank, the fish may have moved out towards the centre of the river.

There are not many occasions when one can confidently anticipate catching dace only, it is likely that they will come to the same baits and methods whatever other species are present and they will be considerably larger than the dace. 

One must therefore, decide beforehand whether to make any concession to this fact in the choice of tackle. 

It's made easier with the colour of the water however and when the river is as coloured as it was for this session then they certainly become less tackle shy. 

So for this session a 1oz tip to register some bites and a small cage feeder filled with liquidised bread and some small pieces of punched bread on a size 12 fine wire hook. 

A little crude for clear water, but this was like rivers in England after one of those frequent sewage discharges 😢

The Alen can be very moody indeed mind you because more often than not those fish just don't show and that's when it is beneficial to get on the move and get finding those fish. 

Now that's all very well but when you haven't much time anyway like this session I sadly was going to anchored to one spot. But you never know with the Alne, very much boom or bust !! 

The weather wasn't ideal with bright sun and clear skies but better than gale force winds and horizontal rain I suppose. A much needed vitamin D boost though and in the season of the S.A.D. that is most wecom

So anyway ? how did it go ?

Well errrrrrrrrrrrrr....

Despite wearing Buffalo Si's cap from River Masters (new Vlog coming soon) that I found and I'm keeping safe for him, it didn't bring me any of his luck. Don't get me wrong there were plenty of bites, but only nibbly twitchy bites that were non committal and certainly nothing you could strike at.

That was both on worm and bread. Minnows with eyes bigger than their bellies ? quite possibly but even when scaling down to a small piece of worm those fish had other ideas on seeing the world outside of theirs. Oh well hopefully next time, this is the Alne though, catch it on a rare good day it's great, catch it on an average day, it is pants ☺

The River Arrow - Maharajahs and Malversations

There is nothing more satisfying when the weather is cold than a good old curry. This one is a simple recipe that had ground pistachio nuts as one of the ingredients and me being a tight git, everyone of those pistachios that are eventually ground up were deshelled by your truly.

A labour of love most certainly but this is one of the richest tasting curries I have in my homemade curry armoury. I don't make it that often but the wife prefers mildier conconctions and this is right up her street. There is a small amount of Kashmiri chilli in there but I pep mine up with a couple of chopped up birds eye chillies and a sprinkling of coriander. 

Will it feature on the Newey's curry night we host a few days after Christmas ? probably not because it does take quite a long time to prep and make, but this rich and mildly spiced dish is fit for a maharajah. Now walking about Kings, the mighty chub is right up there for me out of all river fish.

A fish you can rely on when the conditions are tough and challenging, when many of the other species are just not up for feeding.

For this session at the river Arrow it was out with pungent cheesepaste on the balanced chub gear to try and winkle out a fish or two.

I started off in the weir where after missing 2 unmissable pull rounds of the 1oz quiver tip the 3rd bite I felt some resistance and the hook came back with a scale. Only a small scale at that so I can only assume using a large piece of paste on a hair set-up the fish was too small to get it in its gob and it was snatching at the bait. 

At least I knew the fish were up for a feed though so it gave me a bit of a spring in my step.

The beginnings of storm Bert could be felt throughout the session and the rod was being blown all over the shop which to be honest didn't really help in trying to register those bites.

Chub can be funny buggers from messing around with the bait to full on barbel'esk three foot twitches. 

The next swim I fished is pretty deep for a small river it being over 6 foot I know that and the next bite was no denying it was a chub.

The tip after a couple of plucks had a full on meltdown and I struck in to a solid lump that was putting up one hell of a fight.

I thought I was going to lose it at one point because it was trying to get right under the staging I was stood on and there was scaffolding and all manner of bad stuff under there.

Thankfully with the rod showing just how much of a battle this chub was putting up eventually I managed to tease it in the net.

Certainly a good fish and judging my the length of it when rested in the net I thought it would go bigger than the 4lb 4oz it weighed. 

It certainly didn't have its winter belly on it just yet but wow what a scrap that was. I rested it in the landing net to allow it to recover and fished for another bite in the same swim but sadly it never came.

 A battle scarred warrior this fish definitely has seen some action over its lifetime that's for sure. With a bite in the first two swims I was fully expecting to catch some more but swim after swim apart from the odd rattle it was oddly quiet.

I returned to the weir but again nothing doing there and also a swim above which is much slower and deeper. There wasn't any other anglers on the opposite side of the river which is on another club book, so I had the river to myself again so I'm not complaining. 

As I type this Storm Bert is in full force with rain lashing against the window and the wind making a right racket. The local rivers are motoring up with I suspect a few of those going to be over their banks. I watching the Avon though because with that milder rain and temperatures I'm hoping to try for a barbel possibly if I can get to the river that is. 

I'm just hoping Barbara got the memo this time !!

The Tiny River Alne - Bert and Bedswervers

I must admit it was quite a surprise when on Tuesday we woke up to a decent amount of snow on the ground. I was all for working from home but stupidly I'd left my laptop's power supply in the office so I had to go in, not before dropping Sam at the bus stop mind you. Sadly that warm bed had to be vacated because of my own stupidity !!

The roads to be honest were not that bad so the Jimny which is excellent in the snow didn't really get a decent workout. Only the road out of the estate was snow covered the main roads apart from being slushy were pretty clear.

I did have plans to go fishing after work for an hour or two but I just didn't get round to it. It had been proper barassic and with the snow melt going in I doubt the fish would be in a feeding mood anyway.

Well that was the excuse anyway, I just wasn't feeling it to be honest so fish at the end of the week would have to do. I finish early on a Friday so I had 2 and a bit hours to try and winkle out a fish or two from the Alne which is just down the road.

Simple tactics this one with a small cage feeder full of liquidised bread and the either a thumbnail piece of bread on the size 12 hook or a few maggots. I did have some worm for backup but it did look a bread colour to be honest. 

A quick check of the water temperature the water was rather chilly, but even though I fancied a big dace with my best on this river and my overall PB is 12 ounces, I'm sure the chub would be biting. 

I wasn't wrong because the first cast I literally got a bite as it was falling through the water, sadly I missed that bite and the next one after that, when the hook came back with a fish scale. It didn't take long mind you when the 3rd bite was a classic chub bite and I struck in to a decent chub.

It was giving me the run around too and I was surprised it was a fish of just under 3lb because it gave a right good scrap, and I thought it would go much bigger.

These fish don't see much anglers bait but this one had a right old belly on it. A lovely chub indeed and only fifteen or so minutes in to the session, I enjoyed that !!

Now what I didn't expect was two more chub from the same swim within the space of around 20 minutes or so. They were certainly up for a feed. !!

Anyway that swim went dead so I went on the rove. I fished another few swims and managed a chub on maggots and then another one when I went back to the first swim. Only the chub showed for this session the dace were suspicious in their absence. 

It was a nice colour and maybe a foot of visibility which may have been the issue. Some of the bigger dace I've caught here have been when the river has been chocolate brown believe it or not. 

Oh well 5 chub in around 2 hours I wasn't complaining and you know how much I love to catch chub as they are up there with my favorite species. Once the sun started to set it was rather nippy I must admit and my hands after making some mash bread to bait up a couple of sadly unproductive swims were as cold as some of the pensioners under Keir Starmer.

I fished until I couldn't see the quiver tip and vowed to come back again to try for the dace. There is storm Bert on the way apparently with some rain on the way so that will no doubt turn to the river to chocolate again, lets just hope it isn't too much.