After 3 miles I went back home and got my camera.
Launching just after 11am I stuck a couple of lures out and trolled down the 1 mile to my mark, along the length of the town. The river was flowing slowly, the wind was mild and the sun was shining. I expected a pike to hit the lures but was sadly mistaken. Stupid Boy!
I anchored up just below the old iron bridge and put two rods out with swim feeders containing breadcrumb and maggots with a few maggots on a size 16 hook. These would be my tactics for the day, ones I am just starting to explore. Putting lines out into the bay where I had my chub last week and where I had my PB roach a few weeks back I sat and waited for half an hour or so without so much as a tap.
I weighed anchor (I’m getting all nautical now) and drifted down a couple of hundred metres to a hole I’d found on the finder the other day and tried there for another half an hour but still had no bites. I was starting to think it was going to be a blanking day.
Third time lucky I drifted down to a kind of crossroads – a boatyard off the port bow and a dyke off to the right 50 yards behind my stern on the starboard side. The water wasn’t particularly deep but I was aware that it was a reasonably popular spot from the bank so tied off to a moored cruiser and stuck a couple of lines down off my bow.
There still wasn’t much happening but then someone on the bank 100 yards away had a fish on the pole. Encouraged, I stayed.
I had to wait a bit longer but then got my first bite, at 1:40pm.
That was a nice looking bream, a new species for the year and my second ever
I missed another bite or two and then half an hour later a smaller one came in
I missed a few more rattles and knocks until after another 40 minutes had passed the rod flicked down and up came
Yup, another bream. A nice one this, and a PB.
They weren’t coming thick and fast, and some just gave the slightest bite and then went still being a surprise when they did come up – but not this one, a feisty bream
He soon tired
And in came my second PB of the day
I re baited and cast out again. An immediate bite resulted in nothing so out it went again and then, five minute s later I had a hell of a rattle on the rod tip. Bringing it in I was surprised to see an old friend, one I haven’t seen in 15 years or more, a pretty but much ignored fish which never attains much of a size. Although this one was a PB as well!!
Ruffe they’re called, or Pope, or Blacktails, or Stone Perch. Around here they are known as Snotties. They were once regarded as a delicacy although I imagine they’re a bugger to fillet.
I had another bream which I forgot to snap and then had another come up in a bad mood
Not a PB this time!
I figured enough bream had come aboard for now and I ought to do some trolling and find another position to maybe get a perch or roach onto the list. The pike still weren’t playing and so I carried on upstream as the sun started to drop
I anchored up again near my launch point with a good view of the church.
It’s got the tower separate to the rest of the building but that’s not relevant. The water was pretty calm and the shadows were lengthening as I dropped the lines down.
Within a few minutes I got a very solid bite and the rod tip swung down. Pulling into it I felt a really solid fish battling away on the other end. This was a good fish, better than the rest – I figured it for something different to what it turned out to be
Yep, another bream. But this time an even better PB! I had to weigh it and it tipped the scales at 1lb 7oz.
Chuffed to bits I sent it back down and although I stayed a while longer I had no more bites.
I went ashore and by the time I’d loaded up it was dark. A cracking afternoon of slow bites but two good species and two personal bests.
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