I must admit I love it when the rivers are high so as soon as the rains stopped at lunchtime I was out to spend a few hours fishing, following taking my niece to the local hospital. I've been on more hospital trips than I have fishing this year, even so the fishing has been excellent and today would turn out to be no exception.
The river was high and possibly still rising when I got there, a stark contrast to the sorry trickle of summer, where was all this rain back then? I made my way past a feisty cow that had some serious horns, making sure I closed the gate behind me and looked at the water going through, it was just touching the top of the platforms, the river looked swirly and angry - She looked perfect.
I set up the usual stick this time to 3,2lb mainline and 3lb bottom, the lighter line helping me navigate those boils and swirls even if I could have used a heavier float. It worked though and it wasn't long before the first good roach showed, running the float upstream in a slack eddy under the rod tip, it was a nice start and I hoped more would follow.
More roach did follow, who says you need a dropping river? Although I was lucky as the extra water had a touch of clarity which was surprising. The river did indeed rise further and was soon three inches above the platform I was sitting behind, watching the water appear gradually between the gaps in the wood was mesmerizing.
The higher levels made the roach move further out into the main flow, perhaps the nearside eddy was now too turbulent, either way it made for a cracking spell of fishing and boy did these roach pull in the current.
Then a dark cloud parked itself overhead and unleashed it's worst, it was a good time to hunker down under the poncho and have a bite to eat, luckily the rain didn't last long and after a run of gudgeon I was soon into more pristine roach.
I paused for a cast to net a good football but refrained from rescuing the three tennis balls that came down, If I had fallen in for a tennis ball it would serve me right, not to mention make a racket.
Concentrating on the fishing again rather than bad tennis themed puns I was once more into a few more good roach and gudgeon, before a clonking dace showed up, much like the one last week this one was packing on weight for the winter and was perfection.
It then started to brighten up and a surprise barbel showed in a swim noted for chub, which were absent today. The fight was a bit crazy in the fast water with all the rubbish coming down, I was also conscious of the alder trees opposite that were submerged but my little size 18 Kamazan B510 just held ( I had to bend it back into shape after) to land a beautiful barbel.
It went a bit dead after so I went off for a walk to warm up a bit as the bright skies bought a drop in temperature and a sharp feel to the afternoon as the sun got lower to the horizon. It felt like a beautiful late evening even though it was not even 4 o'clock.
I pitched up at another spot for the last hour where the river was flooding the meadow opposite, the water boiled through flickering in the low sun and seemed to slow at the bottom of the swim somehow, defying logic like water does sometimes. It didn't take my little float long to reach this spot and sure enough every time it got there it went under.
It was a dream to fish, my float was dotted down to the last millimetre and even though it was hard to see at times, it trotted down the river like a dream and was held back with ease, the line lay and the bites were just spot on every time, the rod had a good bend as each roach went solid in the flow, before each roach jagged and glided upstream with the rod low, how the sun reflected of them on the surface before the net was slid underneath, it was all just perfect.
Even a couple of chub finally got in the act as the light faded, bringing the rushes into play and testing my bent into shape hook, which it passed - A tip if you are lazy like me and bend a hook back bend it slightly further than it's original curve, for some reason it's usually just as strong.
Just as I was about to pack up a couple of kingfishers zoomed by, they had been going up and down all day, I'm pretty sure it wasn't just me who had a fantastic afternoon's fishing.
