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 ?