That feeling of connection where believe it or not those theatres' of dreams do exist outside of those periods of rapid eye movements, oneirology and the much needed consumption of the blue cheese ...
....you just need to find them.
Ok no footprints to be discovered from long-necked sauropods called Cetiosaurus and the smaller meat-eating Megalosaurus to appease those blog reading paleontologists, but for us anglers who like to target specific fish often there will be dace and sometimes roach of eyebrow raising proportions.
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Some rarely, if ever, see an angler on their banks-possibly because they are so small, insignificant, and overgrown that many anglers think they are unfishable.
Yet most of these streams will contain fish, and some fish of specimen size. I have seen a 3lb trout caught from a tiny rivulet only a foot across, and have caught roach over 2lb, and chub over 5lb, from streams which one could span with out-stretched legs.
At first it might seem difficult to judge what species of fish a stream is likely to contain, but once the angler has learned to recognise the obvious signs he can often assess quite accurately just how rich in fish life each stream is likely to be. In general, the best of these small waters are clear, and rich in plant and animal life.
The poorest are rocky and almost totally devoid of either plant or animal life. These differences are inevitably reflected in the number and size of the fish to be found in each water.
In the world of nature everything is interdependent: a water that is rich in natural organic foods often contains large fish of several different species, whereas a water of poor quality will rarely contain big fish. By comparison, the size of the water itself is unimportant. The smallest of streams may contain many fine fish, while larger rivers and streams may hold few, if any.
Dace are comfortable in a range of water sizes, including these small overgrown streams that see little or no angling pressure and where the black death is unlikely to tread its webbed feet, leaving those forgotten fish to thrive in their more often than not turbid environment.
Now dace seem to prefer faster flowing, well oxygenated streams, but can also be found in slower moving, deeper water, and in my own experience those bigger dace don't mind the coloured water at all either. In-fact my PB dace of 12 ounces came from this tributaries parent a short bike ride away when the water clarity didn't look inviting at all, but it just goes to show doesn't it.
My best dace on this small waterway is around 8oz's if I look back at my blog, which ain't bad really is it, especially when those that walk past it probably don't even realise there are even fish in it. Anyway I was back armed with a pint of maggots and a slice of bread and that was it. A small float set-up with a Guru QM1 hook, a landing net, oh and a bag of bits.
The canal was frozen over on-route with the odd ice free patch where the overflows were and the air was rather nippy I must admit. After disturbing a menacing looking Heron It took a while to find a swim that produced a few bites but then a few nice chunky dace came to the net that succumbed to the maggots.
To be honest I could have done with the Korda Maggot Winter Toasting Table because they were very lifeless maggots indeed, but then it was hovering above freezing it wasn't exactly warm. Sadly nothing of the size that I have caught on this stretch but then after walking to another stretch to fish which is in the middle of the wood, I was sharing the piscatorial pursuits with another couple of anglers....
....these were a couple of otters however that I spotted out the corner of my eye and after switching on my SAS stealth mode I managed to position myself behind a tree to try and capture the culprits in action. That was easier said than done because every broken branch underfoot was amplified in the wooded auditorium.
Now I've seen hundreds of otters of the years on all the waterways I fish, but this little stream meant I could get closer than any of my other encounters and one of them was obliging for a while with his gob full of a nice dace 😢 The other well he motored off downstream popped his head out of the water and started to hiss and growl at me. That wasn't very nice was it !!!
I decided to upsticks after trying a couple more swims for nada and venture to the Alne for the last hour where after walking across rock hard ground I trotted one swim with maggots without even a dip of the float. I think I need to consult Google maps to try and find another small stream to fish, this one could well be 💀 going forward. I'll give it another go for sure, I'm hoping the dace and the other species have found a good hiding place.
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