The Tiny River Alne - Death Bridges and Deambulatories

A glimmer of flowing hope when I woke up on New Years Day, you see the Alne despite being over it's banks 24 hours before had dropped like a stone even faster like it usually does. 

The other local rivers as expected with yet MORE HEAVY RAIN OVERNIGHT !! meant that they were unfishable. 

The last day of holiday before I go back to work I was really disappointed just how bad the conditions were during my time off.  

Ok I got out plenty of times but because of the levels my options were limited like many anglers who fish flowing water like I do in the main. 

Now anything below 1.9 / 2 m's on the gauge the bridge of death can be negotiated and that's where the pegs are, that in spate conditions the fish tend to hold up.

Not only are the pegs deeper and sluggish which means that the fish can take some salvage away from the turbulent and past flowing water, but there are also some back eddies here as well which also seems to hold the fish.

I've found though that they are not always up for a feed, the theory is they gorge themselves when the river is on the rise and then put their feet up for a chill when the river starts to drop. 

If I look at my blog I've rarely fished it on the rise, but when I have done the results do seem to be better. The colour as well does seem to make some difference and even being chocolate brown as it was for the 2 hour short session there are bites to be had. 

The signs of the floodwater were plain to see when I got there with a rather large part of a tree blocking the bridge to access the lower end of the syndicate stretch. I removed it when I returned but hurdled it without issue en-route to the swims(s).

Simple tactics again with a groundbait feeder and half a dendrobaena tipped with a red maggot. A size 14 hook and a 1 ounce quivertip to amplify any bites.  

In the first swim I missed a couple of pull rounds of the tip where I struck in to nothing and then weirdly all went dead. I tried a bit of bread and that didn't make any difference so me, being me I went on the rove.

As soon as I dropped the rig in to a swim close in with cover to my left I got indications straight away on the tip. Even minnows register bites no problem on this set-up and that's exactly what the first fish was. Then I managed a few small dace and then back to minnows again all from the same swim.

 I returned to the main swim when that went quiet and managed a small dace first chuck but then out of the blue a proper powerful bite where the tip pull around a good foot and a half. The way it was fighting I knew it was a decent dace and once rested I weighed if where it registered 9.2 ounces 😎 

There is a cracking stamp of dace I've uncovered but it's hit and miss when they are there, and if you catch one sometime it's one on its own like it was for this morning, or bite after bite. And that was my lot, a self-imposed curfew to go and watch the darts and not exactly prolific, but a few bites in these conditions is all I could have asked for, and the first session of 2024 !!!