Land of the Giants

One thing was clear. I'd hit the river at exactly the right time. It was time to make hay, so next morning,  as usual, I was out at dawn.

I'd decided to try a different spot, just to see if the roach were spread about, or just shoaled up in one place.

After just over an hour, all I'd had was three bluenose. No sign of roach.

Hmm. Shall I move ? Yes, I decided to move to where I'd been catching the previous day.

I was traveling light, so it only took a minute to pack up.

I was just about to wind in when the tip flickered. A bite ? Yes, the line when slack and I wound into a slabby, breamy weight. I cranked it in quickly and was going to hand land it, to save getting gallons of snot on the net, when I caught a glimpse of silver and red. A huge roach !

I immediately went to pieces. It felt like all the oomph went out of me. Don't come off. Don't come off. Don't come off, I kept saying.

It eventually went in to the net. I'd never seen anything like it. I thought it would go over three pounds and it did, 3lb 4.5oz to be precise.

What a creature. Scale and fin perfect after a life of evading predators, huge floods and all manner of threats.

After reluctantly slipping it back, I just sat there, stunned. Three pounds ? Three pounds ? Three fecking pounds !

During the time we were there I had ten roach over two pounds and that three pounder.

They were big "twos" too, with only two under 2lb 6oz.

The biggest four went 11lb 10oz. 

Unbelievable. 

To demonstrate just how important timing is on this river on the last day the river rose and went clear ( surprisingly). I had a morning and evening session and didn't have a bite.

You need a bit of luck to succeed.