Friday 4 July 2014

Back in the flow

How I have missed your tranquil embrace, cabbage patches and gravel runs looking so sumptuous, but at last the hiatus has finally abated.

Despite enjoying still water fishing, I do feel more of an affinity for flowing water, the sound of  rivers as they makes their way through the landscape is almost a language of its own, plucking at an anglers heartstrings. The heady aroma as mist rises from the rivers on a June morning, deer picking their way through the fields, foxes and their offspring tumbling about together until they rest in a heap on top of mum and dad.


My first trip out of the new season found me heading to the Blackwater in the afternoon replete with feeder rod and link leger in hand, along with a small amount of bait in my bucket (maggots,lob worms, sweetcorn). I was stuck in two minds, fish a few swims or concentrate on one only, the latter was decided upon,I settled down in a rather snug Borneo-esque swim that was alive with the chatter of Dormice and they did take a liking to one of my rucksack straps leaving me with a souvenir in the shape of a tiny nibble hole.

With a reasonably deep margin in front of me I decided to start by lightly feeding a mixture of maggot and corn slightly upstream. Downstream of my near margin there was some perfect coverage that simply screamed chub and it was here that I intended to let the link leger trundle down to.


The first trundle resulted in the first fish of the new season in the shape of a brassy chub (4.4) which gave a good account of itself.


A little and often approach with the feeding and I was soon picking up chublets, gudgeon and perch at regular intervals and a smile was fully cemented on my face. Into the evening the bigger fish started to show and after a very agressive bite and scrap saw a rather short, but deep bodied chub try to ditch me in the marginal foliage, I slipped the net under the first 5lb+ chub of the season, this fish was rather hollow and looked like it would be a good 6 come winter time.
 
5.3


I can assure you I have not knelt in something nasty in this picture, unfortunately my landing net had decided to break, the metal thread coming away from the plastic spreader block, I was not amused to say the least and spent a good hour trying to repair it, in the end I had something that was sturdy enough yet looked akin to a sawn of shotgun meets the mummy from one of those hammer horror films, I was only too glad to get it repaired once home, but I guess that will teach me for buying a cheap net.

I fished on till late evening, switching to sweetcorn in hope of picking up one of the rivers bigger bream. At around 9pm the quiver tip pulled round steadily and I was into what looked a rather wide slab which gave a great account of itself, slipping it into the mummy of all landing nets I could see she was in very nice condition and my first Blackwater bream.


8.9 of healthy river Abramis


Metal thread into plastic what a great idea... not

This was to be my last fish before heading off home,it had been an excellent way to start the new season off on this fabulous little waterway, however back at home a healthy amount of glue was awaiting said spreader block...

6 comments:

  1. Thought you'd taken up golf Mark :o) Welcome back.

    A lovely day to start the season and that chub will fill out nicely over the summer and bring a smile to your face next time.

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    1. Thanks Dave and it's nice to be back on flowing water mate.

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  2. Lovely chub but as you say, they are lean this time of year, Mark. As for spreader blocks, why aren't they made of solid brass? A single casting and a stint in the screw-cutting lathe and we have a lifetime of service. My triangular net had a spreader block that broke, yes, metal into plastic, and the replacement broke after two sessions as well. Rubbish idea, rubbish product,

    I'd pay good money to anyone who would manufacture aftermarket versions for my nets.

    A tenner, even twenty quid, is not to much for reliability when it really matters, is it?

    Buy cheap — buy twice. As they say...

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    1. Cheers Jeff,

      I could not agree more! I think most of us anglers would gladly part with some cash for such a good quality spreader block, especially when something so integral to a days fishing malfunctions and it might mean the difference to having to curtail a fishing trip. This particular block has the metal thread sunk into plastic and attached to the metal thread was another ring of plastic, how they ever expected that to hold strong and fast is beyond me.

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  3. Hi Mark, Best of luck for your every sessions

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    1. Hello there Jaydon and thank you, the same to yourself.

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