Windy River…23/10/13

Windy River…23/10/13 Part two of field testing the Cuda 14 saw me heading off to Geldeston to meet up with Nick (to fetch his worms) Dan who happened to be around and Bruce who was coming out fishing. All nice and sociable. The sea was a no-go because of the 25-30mph winds, which caused enough havoc on the river, and the rain that morning had already put a dampener on things, notleast because my paddle kit wasn’t dry. Anyway, the boat test is for another thread, this is about the fishing. I launched while Bruce was getting parked and had a quick go by the footbridge where I often see a bunch of silvers. Nothing doing and I was getting blown all over. I paddled back up and joined bruce who was now afloat and chucked my waggler across towards the other bank, the size 16 taking a good few minutes to dip under – autumn is here – resulting in a small roach. I didn’t need roach, I was after a few more competition points and had decided to get dace, perch and gudgeon today. I gave it a whirl by the pump; nothing and I got blown in again. Time to troll up river then. Battling against the wind was the order of the day, lines were being blown into weed and the kayak would blow into the bank when I stopped to deal with the weeded lures. Every now and then I’d get ten minutes or so clear and after half a mile this gave me my first pike run; a baby taking my little fat blue and white plug. I love this plug! We carried on up and after a while I gave up on the trolling. Bruce persisted though and was rewarded with his first kayak pike, a similar size to mine. I stopped and cast a maggot or two every now and then but only managed more small roach. Ellingham would be the place, I knew I’d get gudgeon there for sure. I must admit I was fishing badly. Blamed purely on the loss of my lucky hat, I tangled my float rod many times, hooked myself in the hand with a lure treble, crossed trolling lines, caught trees, caught weeds, caught the bank, knocked rod and reels with my hand – pretty much every piece of incompetence was explored and I still had to contend with the wind which stopped me at times. bruce, still trolling, had a better pike at around 3lb about two miles upstream from the launch at least and with the wind battering him and me taking pictures we both ended up in a right muddle. Just short of the mill I stopped by a drainage pipe where ‘d had good perch in the summer. I couldn’t buy a bite here and my paddle decided to escape. Hand padlding against wind to retrieve it was interesting to say the least. I got up to my chub spot and settled down for a dabble. Roach first and then another point – number 16 – a small dace. I had a bunch of these quite easily on the line between weed and the drop off at the neck of the millrace/river junction. Up to the mill itself and over to the gravel bar. Clear water, not too deep and fry everywhere. I had a quick dabble for roach and then went looking for the gudgeon. There they were, a nice shoal and I dropped onto them, getting through the roach and traight into a gudgeon which fell of during landing. Second go and I landed point 17 for this leg. Now for a perch. Nope, perch not forthcoming. Then I spy a decent pike in the 6-8lb range about 20ft away, lurking. Bruce has a livebait rod set up so I fish out a gudgeon – supposed to be a brilliant pike bait – and hook it on. 6ft away from the pike I drop it in. it’s ignored. I start to pull it coser and snag. The pike moves a bit while I jerk it free but doesn’t make a dash so I try again. I get it a foot away and still it’s ignored; I snag again and lose the bait, spooking the pike and it’s gone. Lures don’t pick it, or another up so I go back to perching. I have ten minutes left. Roach, roach, roach. Bruce has had one though. Finally, with a minute or two to go and I strike as the float goes under and up comes point 18. A tiny point, but a point. Perch! I paddle back, leaving Bruce to fish some more; I have stuff to do at home. I troll for a bit in a clear area and drop two takes within 50 yards and then soon after stow the rods which are getting weeded out regularly. I’m still being blown about but that’s life. I get back to the Locks, the water has risen to a foot from the staging’s top and I have an easy out and head home. Hard going for 3 points and my back is aching. I want my summer back!