The Tiny River Alne - Rafts and Redundancies

February is just round the corner thankfully after a rather lacklustre January for me, now it is not called fill-dyke for nothing. It's called that because for most of the month it's bucketing down and often with rain and melting snow filling the canals and rivers to overflowing.(Fingers crossed it doesn't, because we really have had our quota over the last couple of months)

It's often a month when the fish seek out the deep holes and bankside eddies to stay out of the current. They're often a bit grumpy and off their food because of the suspended silt which irritates their gills, but they can be tempted with the tail of a lob fished ledger on the bottom.

Now and again a river will overflow its banks, and the fish will follow the water up into the fields, feeding on the worms and grubs in the grass. They are pursued there by the hardier and dafter anglers with some degree of success. And a fish that was actually caught in a field makes a better story than one that was caught in the boring old river.

The trick is to study the river when it's not in flood and make notes of the topography of the bank, so that you'll know how far down the field you can walk in safety. When you have waded to the bottom of the field, however, you may find yourself a little disorientated or suffering from temporary amnesia. You may also find that a spur of bank you remember perfectly well is not there any more.

Now Insurance companies, as a matter of general policy, are not keen on anglers fishing flooded fields. Nor are employers, even if the angler struggles from his sickbed to work on Monday morning. He makes the place look so untidy as he sits huddled over the radiator, coughing and spluttering. Undertakers, on the whole, are quite glad of the extra business. 

There is still a week left of January mind you, and to be honest I'll be quite glad to see the back of it. Apart from one day when I went of the wagon for my mates 50th, I've been off the grog you see but that will change the 1st of February when I'm meeting a good friend Phippo for a curry and a couple of pints. It will make a change from the medicorce fishing I've been having and I'm hoping with January out the way, February will bring me some good fishy fortune. 

The Warwickshire Avon was dropping nicely and I fancied a dabble on Sunday morning to miss the traffic on a new area of river I'd been fishing that may well throw up some bigger chub, but with a WBAS syndicate match on the Saturday on the river Leam, today's session on the local  Alne had almost chose itself to try and maximise fishing time.  

A sunny afternoon to lift the gloom, because after surviving a cull of staff and redundancies back in June, there will now be another 15% reduction in staff it seems, where my job will be at risk again. There was a reason why I liked the contracting lark, a freespirit and decent dosh, going permi for the last 3 years hasn't exactly given the security I thought it would give.

I'm old and ugly enough now to not really bother on which way it goes because I'm one of the lucky ones that has got experience and skills that are still in demand, I feel sorry for the youngsters just starting out. 

So not a great start to the weekend but at least fishing means you don't think about a fat lot, well apart the task in hand and that was fishing for chub. Anyway after being biteless in the banker swim I got on the rove. I headed up to the middle of the stretch and on the way deposited some mashed bread in 5 or 6 swims and then would fish those when I retraced my steps. 

Probably not ideal fishing conditions to be honest but one bite would be nice !!!

Anyway I was using decent sized pieces of bread because the water was a weird dark grey colour which I've rarely seen here to be honest, so visibility was only a foot or so, so a large white bait would stand out. 3 or 4 swims down even the 'WORLDS BIGGEST RAFT SWIM' well ok, for a small river anyway I was still biteless.

I was gradually running out of swims but then a fairly open swim with some tree roots to my right came up trumps because a few minutes after carefully dropping in the bait, a few tentative pulls on the sensitive quiver it went round confidently and a fish was on. 

It gave a decent fight as well but not the biggest chub for the Alne, but most welcome indeed. It looked like it needed filling out as well, hopefully the bread mash I pre baited with is now residing in its belly. And that was my lot, I fished another couple of swims until I couldn't see the quiver tip but one bite one fish.