A Hint Of Spring

It was early and a decidedly mild late February morning.
I considered my options,my memory flicked back to my recent and very enjoyable trip,this was enough alone to help me decide what I would be doing,on checking the fridge I had enough maggots left for a trip down the river,excellent.

Mud filled puddles slurped and tugged at my boots with earnest as I wound my way to the river,it was early morning,in fact barely light,I spotted the silhouette of a deer in front of me,head perked up and fleet of foot it hopped into an adjacent field and vanished.The morning bird chorus was quite simply beautiful and very lively reminding me so much of Spring time.

The river looked fine,a touch more pacey than last time but with that nice tinge of colour that looked spot on.I settled and decided to stick to the same plan of action that had worked last time,Spam on one rod and cage feeder and maggot on the other.


It was not long before the Spam rod had received a few taps and eventually a kamikazeDace of around 6oz was unhooked and placed back,the river looked alive with small fry and soon the maggot and cage feeder rod was tapping away each cast resulting in a bite,it was not long before I had caught a mixed bag of small fish,ranging from Chublets and Dace,to Roach and Perch,as well as a few Gudgeon.It was nice to see so many small fish about,as I have seen a few cormorants in recent years on the river.

At just gone 2pm I started receiving some peculiar bites on the Maggot rod,which I swore to myself seemed like an attack of the brothers Cray,not quite sure I struck and received a reply from the other end of a dash backward and a flick of an armoured tail, sure enough a mini lobster appeared on the surface a right set of claws on it and 8 inches in length,it was none to happy about being hooked in the leg and took upon itself to go into battle position claws raised out upward,a size 8 boot was soon administered to it.



It seemed destined this trip for the Spam rod to remain very quiet,in fact apart from the one Dace on it,it remained still.I was in two minds to switch my maggot rod over to pellet,as I felt that the maggot was not getting long enough to settle down and get through to the larger fish,but part of me really didn't feel like using pellet,so I kept on with Maggot and as the light faded the bites from small fish steadily eased off.

I was feeling unusually sleepy and my head at one point actually rocked forward,sleep was trying to lure me under its veil,no thank you came my reply,Grabbing a quick cup of coffee and hobnob I perked up again.

An hour or two into darkness the maggot rod jerked into life and baitrunner clicked into action,I was into a lunging sprinting run from a fish that tried to go into the near bank margins and toward an undercut bank,eventually playing it back another lovely broad Chub of 5Lb13oz was sat in the net,I was rather happy.



Fish thanked and slipped back to its watery home,I re-cast and sat back down,giving a cursory glance to the spam rod,last knockings were not so far off either and I was wondering if it was not to be this time.

Time sped on,a rustle was heard on the far bank,and soon revealed itself as being a fox,out for his night time prowl,he stood staring at me before dashing off into the tree line.

The Maggot rod all of a sudden lurched round and stayed like it,I lifted in and to all intents and purposes thought I had hit a snag,as there was no moevement at all for the first few seconds, then the fish woke up and plodded into midstream gradually gathering pace and heading downstream,not so much of a problem as this particular spot fortunately only had dead reed beds,slowly the fish tired and eventually entered the waiting net.



A short dumpy Barbel of 9Lb6oz was laying on the landing mat,two trips and two very nice results.The weather looks like taking a turn for the worse during next week with high pressure returning,lets make the most of the last two weeks of the season and enjoy it as much as possible.

Till next time good luck and tight lines.

Mark