I tempted fate last time with my super blank avoiding perch so it was almost a given that I would achieve the notorious nothing this time, on the first of two trips this week, however it left me feeling flat and deflated like no other blank has done before.
The reason being I headed off to the upper Colne having only caught a couple of fish last time following a pollution a few years ago, I've tried each year a couple of times since and only caught five fish when fifty used to be the order of the day. Reports of restocking and recollections of how good it used to be left me full of optimism that I would catch a few more fish and there would be signs of recovery. To cut a long story short there wasn't and although I bumped off a couple of fish I really expected more bites given the warm weather.
To make things worse the river looked half the size it was, it was dirty and without the extra rain from a day ago would have been back to the sorry trickle it looks when viewed from the car. You know when you drive over a river and say to yourself " I really should give that a go again" Well I gave it a good go, had a good rove of a mile or so but the fishing was hard and I was up against it. Even my waders gained a massive crack in them, the resulting pain of a thorn was digging in my big toe as if to remind me of my folly of fishing here. At least I didn't get into the dirty water and get a boot full as well I suppose.
The only highlight of the day was watching a massive rat go back and forth opposite me no doubt delighted by man's neglect, this made me reflect of the irony of the council spending thousands to make a fancy footpath by the dirty river. As I walked past the workers portaloo I wondered if that would go straight into the river like the sewage works does sometimes, ratty would love that I thought.
I lost a couple of fish there today but it felt like I had lost a river.
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Having spent the day in between moping around remembering how good things used to be I next went to another local river, a healthier one, one where anything would do, so I popped out for a couple of hours just to get any fish with my glass back to half full.
I picked a sheltered spot where I would get a few bites even though I usually struggle a bit here, it's one of those swims where any given day the flow could be going in any direction and the fish are often transient or holed up out of sight, who knows as it's one of those rare spots where you cannot see bottom.
As I set up a small mouse accompanied me, it was quite bold so much to the extent that I had to shoo it away from my bag as my afternoon choccy treat was not going to end up nibbled, turns out it wasn't keen on maggots unlike the robin which never misses that opportunity. Meanwhile a woodpecker was hammering away at the tree opposite, when you watch them close up like that it almost gives you a headache in sympathy. I however was eager to fish and hammer away I did at the shoal of minnow and chublets in the main flow eager for a proper fish but content to be fishing a healthy river.
With my single maggot a magnet for all things small (except for the mouse) I tried away from the tiddlers out of necessity, desperate for something to put a bend in the rod and sure enough by holding it tight to the rushes in a boily eddy, the float went under and a crisp strike was met with crisp resistance (that mouse would have loved crisps I thought) and I was rewarded with a fine roach.
A long lean chub of around 3lb soon followed as both the woodpecker and mouse had disappeared leaving me to concentrate on keeping the float on course in the boils, it seemed like there was only one spot where a bite was possible and getting the float there at the mercy of the current was half the fun. I was actually trotting up the river in the eddy.
Once again my perseverance was rewarded with another cracking roach as a red kite came in low above, I looked out for the little mouse as I returned the roach and got stuck into my chocolate break accompanied by lukewarm coffee, 'that'll do' I thought.
Mr Mouse was gone but half a dozen more roach followed almost identical to each other and pretty much perfect, the stamp of roach was superb and every one was a netter, bites were few but the reward was there as more roach and even a decent perch got in on the act. It was almost time to pack up but there was time for one more roach, same size as all the others but I think this one had 'ate all the pies' as the saying goes.
