Making Hay....

We headed to the upper reaches of the local river. It was painfully low and clear.

In many places just a few inches deep, with the very occasional deeper pool, harbouring gudgeon, perch and a few dace and roach. Nothing of the quality we've had in better conditions though.

The highlight was when two kids on the way home from school saw us catch fish, and then sprinted off, only to return a few minutes later with their tackle and set up a few yards downstream.

One of them was lure fishing and immediately got snagged up. I showed him how to pull for a break , wrapping the braid around sizeable branch and slowly tightening the line. Under pressure, the lure catapulted out the snag, landing at the kids feet.

"Thank you, Sir" he said. I checked the date, just to confirm it wasn't 1895 and I wasn't a character in a Dickens novel.

Nope, 2025, just a polite little chap. Good lad.

As the light started to fade, we jumped in the van and went a bit further downstream, to a short stretch also suffering from low water levels. Not through lack of rain, because of a broken sluice.

A handful of maggots chucked in at the head of the glide, two maggots on a 16 hook and the float gently swung out into the ( hopefully) kill zone.

It travelled a couple of feet and disappeared, as a cracking roach flashed silver in the flow. 

For next hour and a bit I had a bite almost every cast, mostly roach, a few dace and three clonking perch. Brilliant fishing.

TCG wandered downstream to some ultra shallow water in search of dace and was rewarded with a couple of real crackers and unfortunately lost two others, both very good fish.

It's still really cold, with daytime temperatures not exceeding three or four degrees and that combined with the fact that I've still got a poxy cold means I've been a bit of a grumpy git.

I was therefore well pleased when the forecast promised ( yes, I'm holding them to it )  double figure temperatures by the middle of next week. The bstards better be right.

Plans have been made, oh yes.

Roll on spring.

Icy Success

A break in the damp, dank weather was forecast, with a bit of sun too, despite very low temperatures. 

Me and The Chubmeister General headed to a little river on the edge of a town in pursuit of roach ( him ) and dace ( me ).

Actually, TCG wanted to get some underwater camera shots of the roach and with the river being pretty clear it seemed a good opportunity.

Leaning over what remained of the bankside vegetation, we peered into the shallow water and sure enough saw the roach. All sizes with a few well over a pound.

I left TGC to his camera work, donned the chest waders and made my way upstream with the little eight footer.

The water here is probably eighteen inches deep maximum, the main flow pushes through very quickly and there is an inviting crease where slacker water gathers.

With it being so cold I thought the crease might produce but no, first run down in the fast water and the float shot under, and a dace, darting and twisting, was bought to hand.

The next hour or two resulted in a bite most casts, with the best couple pushing double figures. Real clonkers for round here.

The water was up to my thighs and I was getting colder by the minute, but I kept saying "one last cast" and by the time I climbed out I was frozen.

TCG failed to get his roach shots, the fish drifted off as the camera gear was lowered into their territory. 

On hearing about my success he eased himself into the river and walked upstream in search of dace. Unfortunately, he immediately discovered a large hole in his waders and aborted the mission with one leg full of freezing water.

I went back to the car for another coat, which helped a bit, but not much. A few roach and dace followed from a another swim, but it was time to get on the road with the heater turned up to max.

Another enjoyable day.

Searching

Today I had a proper poke about on a three smallish rivers, looking for dace.

The first one looked great, plenty of flow,  lovely colour and almost too many good looking glides.

What it didn't have was much cover and that, combined with it being in quiet countryside meant it was ideal territory for the dreaded cormorants.  I marked it down as a "maybe".

The second was a very shallow, snaggy stream on the edge of a town. The deeper areas were rare and obvious.  I was sure it would be good for a few fish.  After an hour or so I had nothing except endless minnows, so I sacked it off and headed a few miles north to a narrow, pacy bit of river I knew held fish.

I rigged up an ultra light eight foot rod, due to the overhanging branches that make it difficult for conventional float rods.

Sure enough I started catching decent dace straight away, with the occasional roach and chub for good measure.

Oh yes, several wild brown trout too, they never fail to wreck the swim by thrashing about relentlessly. 

In the last swim, a pacy glide on a bend I had a succession of fish when the rod bent round just a bit further and a chunky dace twisted in the current.  Too big to swing in, I netted it and it went 10 oz on the scales. An absolutely lovely fish.

Still a small fish, but a big dace for round here.

On the way back home I dropped in to the bream swim on the Stour for an hour and quickly had one just shy of 6lb.

I was surprised to see the fish was starting to show spawning tubercles. In February !

I didn't hang around after that, it had been a good day and food was calling, so I grabbed the gear and slid back and forth on the muddy banks back to the car.

A Place I Know

Name that band ?

I only know of this place because of The Chubmeister General's generosity.  It's one of his back end of the season dace hotshots, where the fish gather on the gravels before spawning. 

It's a small stream and you have to hit it right, a bit of colour, flow, ideally with the river falling. Yesterday it was spot on and I knew I'd catch well.

First run down at the junction swim and the float buried. A good dace.

More, dace, chublets, some small perch and lots of lovely gudgeon followed until it was time to move downstream. 

Beautiful eh ?

There's really no point in me giving you a blow by blow account, as every swim gave up clonking dace. I even changed to a lighter float with several droppers, a bit more refined than normal my bulk and a single tell tale shot.

I know every old school angler will say it, but it's true nevertheless, trotting on a winter river is unbeatable. With a fixed spool though, life is too short to wind in with a centre pin. I can hear the gasps of shock from the purists already. 

I fished about half a dozen swims and while some were better than others, all produced.

To add to the pleasure, there was no wind which made float control easy. No other anglers either.

This place is so good visits need to be rationed to one or two a season. Treats wear off if they're too frequent. And of course, it's not "my" venue.

I'll wait until March until I return. 

Tale of Three Rivers

I hate the winter, but I love winter fishing.

If it's not freezing, flooded or peeing down, then it's a great time to be out on the fishing.

Last week I managed to fish three different rivers, two of which were small streams. It's dace time again.

The Chubmeister General is a big dace fan and on a still, dull day we headed to a grubby Essex town where we fished two different rivers.

The first was on parkland. Shallow and snaggy for the most part and barely two or three yards wide, there was the occasional bit where you lost sight of the bottom and by running a small float down we managed to find wild brown trout, roach, chublets and some nice dace. 

Moving venues and into the town, we watched people feeding bread to ducks and fish taking bread off the top. Obviously we had to give it a go.

We had maybe half a dozen fish each, roach, dace and gudgeon, before they just disappeared. 

Despite it being clear and almost devoid of cover we totally lost sight of them and bites dried up.

A few days later we headed north to a lovely section of river where TCG told me he'd been catching big roach and dace. All the fish were crammed in to a thirty yard stretch he said.

I wasted an hour confirming what he told me was true. Couldn't help myself, it all looked so good.

Meanwhile the TCG was getting a fish a chuck in a little swim fifteen inches deep. We took it in turns, three fish each before the other had a go.

It was incredible fishing in such a tiny, shallow bit of river, with several roach well over the pound mark and decent dace.

I waded upstream to a beautiful glide and immediately started catching some clonking dace. No photos, as I was too keen on catching the next one. Plus I was standing in the river which makes it very difficult. 

I really don't know how many I had, but it was a bite a chuck for over an hour before dusk encroached and I went back to see TCG, only to find him still catching.

One more trot through his swim and I was rewarded with nice roach, a great way end another cracking day.

So far, we've been lucky this winter, not too much rain and just the occasional very cold snap.

Let's hope it continues. 

Keeping it Local

Back down "The Forbidden" for a very quick dusk session.

Four modest chub and several others bites in the clear, bottle green water. Certainly not perfect colour, but not gin clear.

It was cold, maybe three or four degrees, but no wind, ideal for watching the quiver.

After those chub, I baited the bream swim with a few feeder fulls of chopped worm and left it for half hour. I expected a bite straight away but the tip remained motionless for probably twenty minutes, when, out of the blue, it gently pulled round.

A very good sized bream did its best to reinforce the stereotype of the species being useless fighters.

A cracking fish though, in pristine winter condition, weighing a respectable 6lb 10oz.

By this time it was properly dark and I was freezing, so I headed back home for food and football on the radio, with the warm glow that comes from a successful session.

Stour Surprise

I almost didn't bother fishing, it was dull, dank and cold, but I grabbed the gear and thought I'd just give it a quick go at "The Forbidden" around dusk.

I missed several roach bites, despite fairly light tackle....well not chub gear anyway, I had a 4lb hooklink and no 10 fine wire hook. Just before moving swim I had an average sized chub, then upped sticks and walked down river.

I decided to move in to the "bream swim" just before dusk. It's at the end of a long straight with a depth of maybe 7 foot, before it narrows and deepens, falling away to 10-11 feet on the bend. Oddly enough I've always done best in the area before it really drops away into the deep water.

It was probably only two or three degrees, so just four tiny cage feeder fulls of chopped worm and bread were deposited into the swim and I sat back and waited.

After no more than ten minutes I started getting liners and bangs on the rod tip. Then a fish rolled, perhaps fifteen yards upstream. It was looking promising. 

The tip eased back gently and as I struck, a heavy winter bream hooped the rod over.  As is usual with bream, it was unspectacular, but at over 5lb and in immaculate condition it was well worth catching for a change, especially as I'm constantly told there's none left in the river.

Next cast a smaller sample, again in good nick.

The next bite was slow but firm and at first I thought I'd foul hooked a big bream. After the fish had taken several yards of line in an unstoppable fashion it was obvious that this was no snotty.

It turned out to be a 13lb 5oz carp in absolutely pristine condition and the first Ive caught from river in many years.

No marks anywhere, including the mouth. I very, very much doubt it had been caught before. A "bonus fish" indeed !

Didn't hang around after that, being well pleased with four decent fish in a couple of hours. I might have to try that spot again very soon