A Welcome Occurrence

It was wet,windy and mild and compared to how cold the weather had been previously,it was quite a stark contrast and very weclome.The night before I had got my cheesepaste ready,the hemp was cooked and the spam fried up and flavoured.I was eager to get down the river in the hope of a fish or two,my blanking had to end sometime,surely?

With the mild southwesterly wind buffeting my face I made my way to my first swim,I had decided to rove about again and try a few other areas of the river,opting to give each swim two hours.One rod out on maggot and feeder,with my other rod rotated between garlic cheesepaste and fried Spam.

the rain was coming down steady by the time I had my first touch on the feeder and maggot rod.A Gudgeon was warmly welcomed into my waiting hand,I don't seem to see as many of these as I once used to. I placed the rod back out,twenty minutes later the rod hooped round not once but 3 times,I struck but was met by thin air,judging by how the maggots looked,I would have said I missed a decent Chub bite,"damn it" I muttered to myself.

Even though I had missed this fish,I was happy to finally be getting some fish feeding.The two hours was up and I moved upstream into an area with a nice glide,I placed the cheesepaste rod out to underneath some tangled tree roots,the maggot feeder was placed to the middle of the river.Although the day was cloudy and squally,there was as ever no denying the beauty of my surroundings,woodpecker's sat on fence posts,Red Kite's hovered about above me,gliding effortlessly,Blue Tit's chasing each other in and out of the hawthorn,my thoughts were prematurely drawn to Spring-time.

The spot remained quiet so I decided to up sticks and move further upstream to another old haunt,a swim with a large slack,I took note of a large vicious crash close in,which I felt could have been a nice Pike.

Whilst I was having a cup of coffee,sods law dictated something would happen,the tip of my cheesepaste rod rattled and shook violently,the tip bent round,I lifted in and was met by a nice solid resistance,thud thud thud,came the reply from the other end,the fish took off for a nearby tree with a surging run,it felt a rather odd fight,I had seen a flash of silver and was thinking that it was perhaps a nice Chub,but no,eventually bringing the fish closer to the bank I saw a silver flank with dappled spots,it was a Trout and on cheesepaste of all baits.





It weighed 2lb 10oz and despite not being my sought after quarry I was nonetheless rather happy,as my fishing trips lately have been rather slow going to say the very least,a quick photo for memories sake and back she was slipped.By now late afternoon was rapidly changing to evening,the sky had cleared and the moon was showing its face,I moved again to another spot with a large bush hanging into the river,"a likely spot for a Chub" I thought to myself.

One hour on and the spot was trying to tell me otherwise,I decided to give it another half hour before packing up and heading home,ten minutes before packing up I was nibbling on the last of my remaining hob nobs,when the rod out on spam,wrapped round,I struck and felt a solid resistance,followed by an instant hook pull,"damn and blast!" I mumbled.


As I packed,up my mind was filled with thoughts that I may have just had a hook pull on a Barbel,but it was nice to have had a more active fishing trip,things were looking up and regardless of not being what I was expecting to catch,the Trout was more than welcome to grace my rod.


With more cold weather forecast for next week,maybe the rivers will switch off again,even if they do,you certainly won't catch anything sat at home,however you might catch a large lump of apathy, not really something I would advise,so keep at it and keep enjoying your fishing,until next time good luck wherever your fishing and whatever your fishing for.