The Tiny River Alne - Mavericks and Mammothrepts

Where to go, what to do...?

A drink or two, that usually works, usually gives me better thinking time. 

Now the the Daring Duke is a cross-regional blend from Campo de Borja and Manchuela with each grape variety, chosen for their array of ripe fruit characteristics, adding an extra dimension to the wine, building the body of the blend layer by layer.

"The Daring Duke is here!" exclaimed a voice. There were gasps; then a hush descended in the hall. His appearance was even more splendid than they remembered, it was impossible not to be impressed by the Daring Duke's physical stature and opulent taste. And, yes...his power. Most definitely his power.

Then, a smile. A glint in those famous eyes. "Friends," The Daring Duke declared, in that soft, lustrous tone. "You are most welcome. Your pleasure is my privilege. Let us raise our glasses to fine companionship and all of life's sweet indulgences."

"Three cheers for The Daring Duke!" went up a cry. The company rose as one in honour of their host's generosity of spirit. But he was already riding away into the night. 

The grapes are hand-picked from the vines, crushed and de-stemmed before fermenting in stainless steel tanks to preserve the fresh fruit flavours. Oaked in American barrels for 8 months, adding depth, complexity and texture to the wine.

Enough of that guff, its £6 in Tesco at the minute, it's a decent drop, fill your boots

For this short morning session down at the walkable River Alne I fancied trying for a decent Dace. A session here recently they couldn't get enough of lobworms and in one swim in-particular it was a bite a chuck.

Some were proper clonkers too and despite a size 6 hook and half a lobworm meant for chub they didn't seem to mind at all. They spawn around this time of the year though where the move to the shallows but there Alne varies so much I'm sure I'll get a bite from a chub if the dace were preoccupied.

Small rivers like this fish show themselves rather quickly so when I got bankside where despite some rain the night before the river looked rather lifeless again.

I had fully expected to up-sticks and go somewhere else but no after having a much needed coffee the first bite came. I thought it was a dace at first but then another sharp pull developed in to a proper pull round and the first fish was on.

It was a chub, and quite a decent one too for this small river. I haven't caught huge ones here over the time I've been part of the small syndicate with my biggest probably not far off 4 pounds, but there are all school classes here and they all showed for this short session.

Chub soup, well ok one swim was, with 4 caught within fifteen minutes or so, all succumbing to half a lobworm on a size 10 hook.

You have to retain them in the Alne because put them back the bites tend to dry up but with the small landing net I use, I had to give them their freedom far sooner than I'd have liked.

I continued on though and managed one more fish from the same swim before the quivertip stopped quivering. I was using a small cage feeder with some pungent groundbait and I'm not sure if that made a difference to the frequency of the bites because I've never had so many in quick succession.

So with that swim done I went on the rove, in-fact walking the whole stretch to try and find a fish or two. The middle and upper reaches are much shallower and have more flow in but swim after swim I was biteless.

I'd thought I'd pick up a trout or at least a dace but no, oddly quiet. The water was clearing big time though so I would assume many of the fish might be in hiding.

So back to the lower swims again having already covered 8k steps where I managed to pick up another 2 fish and lost one to a hook pull that suspiciously felt like a trout.

The river felt rather lifeless again if I'm honest, but just goes to show find the right area you could be on to a winner. The swim again went quiet and with the wind picking up and blowing straight in my face I decided to call it a day, a memorable session for sure.