Three hours trotting red maggots over hemp, not a bite. Used a float that took 7 grams to cock, but still couldn’t hold back against the flow effectively.
Its difficult to fish this river in the winter as the fish seem to want the bait held back hard which is difficult when you consider the strength of the flow.
So i swallowed my pride and went on the tip.
First cast – missed bite.
Second cast – struck into fish, snapped hooklength.
Third cast – Played chub of between 2-3lbs, shed hook as i was reaching for landing net.
I didnt fish on, and packed up in disgust.
Pass me the nine iron!
Things Get Worse
Blank Blank Blank
Am having a torrid time on the river this February.
I went down to the river this afternoon for an hour after work to see if i could put into practice what i had learnt earlier in the week.
However overnight rain resulted in an extra 3 feet of water and the river was running through hard. I was ok with this extra flow as i thought that if i couldnt control the float i would go on the tip. It was the volume of debris being washed down the river that finished me off, the line became covered in c**p every run through the swim. I spent longer cleaning the line than i did with my float in the water. It was the same on the tip, as the quiver slowly hooped over as more and more debris collected on the line.
I packed up after half an hour, and just as i left was gutted by a lovely roach rolling in my swim. Grrrrr.
There’s only a couple of weeks left to fish the river before the season closes and i am determined to stick at it until then.
Can things get any worse???
Master Class On The River Dee
Rays net of Roach – about 20lb by lunchtime.
Dave was feeding loose feed (hemp and red maggots), whereas Ray introduced his feed-hemp, maggot and aniseed and sweetcorn bread crumb based- via a swim feeder (he told me about 5 feeders full at the start of the session and then 2 whenever the bites tail off).
Double Blank
Phillips Park
The lure of sun on my face in February made me leave the office early this afternoon and get in a couple of hours bit bashing in Phillips Park.
I am not at my best fishing then pole but wanted to catch some small fish to use as deadbaits this weekend.
I bumped off more fish than i caught, but still ended up with a good few roach to about 4oz. I also caught lots of greedy small perch and a suprise veil tail brown goldfish of about 3/4 lb.
I thought i was going to get some gudgeon but i think they must be on holiday as i havent caught one yet in two visits to this lake so far this year, when normally they are like a plague.