After extolling it's virtues on The Best Float Money Can Buy blog post I was back on a small shallow river that wasn't running too well so what else was there to do than dig out the matchstick again. This time I was hoping it's delicate approach would fool the big roach that always seemed to reside in this swim, a roach so wise it would get voted professor of wisdom at Roachford University, failing that I'd get a barbel or chub or maybe a mix of silvers if it's really hard and that would do me. So I rocked up at the river, saw one of my favourite swims was free, soaked up the wildlife as it flew overhead and rustled in the hedgerow and was so grateful I was here fishing.
The sun was out and everything was on view in the clear water in a swim which initially looked empty until a couple of barbel dashed out from the far bank overhang so I set up round the corner and snuck into the swim keeping a low profile until I was sat on the deck ready to lower a bait, all stealth ninja in my mind but a creaky noisy so and so to all the fauna present no doubt.
I had maggots, hemp and a mix of pellets as bait options and sure enough by now the big roach had drifted into view, it had grown since last season although it was still hard to tell how much it weighed, at one point it came close enough I could see the red of it's eyes and it looked huge, closer to 3lb but at other times it looked like a 2lb fish, the clear water playing tricks with my guestimates no doubt. I started feeding a few grains of hemp and this was the only time this fish took anything midwater, on the very first offering, this lead me to remember other big roach I have had on the very first put in, at the time you think they are flukes but there's something in it that's for sure as it's happened too often to be coincidence. Note in the photo below the large roach taking hemp off the deck but accompanied by one of the barbel just above.
Maybe I had fed too much to start with but it didn't seem so, nonetheless the fish were now feeding on the bottom. I had missed the chance of getting this fish today without using a static bait, but it was now content to pick up the odd grain of hemp off the deck and how delicate it was feeding, every now and then some barbel would come out from the shade and stir things up like Augustus Gloop in a chocolate factory, delicate they were not and after an hour of fishing for an increasingly picky and selective roach I gave into temptation and fed pellets for some of those barbel, I still had hope the roach would take pellet too but for some reason it was ignoring them today so I had to catch something and a few barbel or chub would do nicely.Lowering the matchstick whilst at the same time throwing a handful of pellets isn't as easy as it sounds as the timing has to be right especially when they are skitty in bright conditions, using a 6mm Robin Red pellet gave me extra visibility and it wasn't too long before I watched a big mouth engulf the tiny red dot and the first barbel was on..
After a couple of quick barbel they stopped taking on the drop but were now picking pellets off the bottom but much more freely than that finicky roach who just ghosted in and took the odd bit of hemp, meanwhile the chub weren't interested in pellet at all, instead choosing to take hemp just below the surface. It sounds like I was feeding too many different baits and maybe I was but It was more a case of studying their behaviour, even though I've fished here hundreds of times I still find it all so fascinating. Usually by now after a couple of fish the swim would be a bit slower but because I was sitting so low and not casting a float or lead they were still on the feed and I was enjoying watching, feeding, and thinking I'm far too old to be sitting like this.
After watching them in the sun I decided to try and fish on the deck but keep things spook free so put on a no1 shot six inches from the hook with the matchstick just below the surface. I suppose you could call it float legering but a sunken matchstick is hardly a float and one no1 shot is hardly a lead, to my surprise it worked and held bottom although only right under the rod tip pretty close in, slightly upstream, it goes to show how slow the river was today but I still expected the current to dislodge it but it didn't. The matchstick was to be the indicator here but even though the pellet was banded on each bite ripped the rod round before I could react and every fish was hooked in the bottom lip, they weren't huge fish but were a whole lot of fun.
By lunch I had 10 barbel which was a really good mornings fishing in such conditions and great for the swim this time of year, I know the fish would have gone a bit cagey using other tactics today, although that roach remained an enigma only taking the odd bit of hemp and giving me a few heart stopping moments when it brushed my line. One thing that spooks fish more than anything is brushing against line and the tighter and thicker the line is the more they dislike it, watching fish in clear water shows this so well. To show how wily the roach was it would come into view pretty close in each time I was returning a barbel in the net resting it in the water, it knew I was there and knew when there was a line in the water and when there wasn't, Here's that roach cruising midwater this time accompanied by a chub.
With the barbel fishing understandably slowing down I put a no8 back on and tried maggot and hemp just to experiment with the chub and to see if there was any big dace about but it was all chub as they had been feeding all the time right in front of me, those big white gobs opening up for the hemp all morning and now maggot, those dudes have had a buffet and it was almost too easy although they are surprisingly quick to eject a single maggot on an 18, I watched each time the maggot disappeared and picked them off with a quick strike as the chap from the swim below came to see the commotion, he soon asked for a matchstick as he had had chub in his swim all day feeding below the surface but only caught roach and perch on float, I obliged as he seemed a decent fellow mind you he owed me for that float, that has to be 1p.
After getting through the chub there was time to try a small 4mm banded pellet in one last hurrah for that roach even if I knew it was futile, this roach had clocked me and will probably only slip up when conditions are different and no doubt a different angler but fair play to whoever that is. The sensitive approach worked well not for the roach but for this monster barbel and I just love catching them this size.
I walked off thinking of ways to outwit that roach but not before chatting to my new matchstick convert in the swim below, he was still struggling as he wasn't feeding whilst casting, I hinted without trying to preach that it's so important to have that hookbait amongst the freebies or the other way round so I hope he caught a few by the time I got home. Despite being effective and heaps of fun I forgot how tiring this sort of fishing is, watching the bait, watching the fish, watching the fish leave the bait, watching the fish again, watching the pretty jogger with the pony tail, missing the fish take the bait, constant casting, feeding, striking, hitting, missing, laughing and I swear I could see dark shapes swimming about in my sleep that night.
